This is an IHeart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,

the show where America is the star and the American people. Here to share

another story is Robert Morgan, who's the author of 100 Bible verses that made America defining

moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith. Let's take a listen. After King Henry

the 8th severed ties with Rome and appointed himself

the head of the Church of England in 1553, three groups of Protestants emerged. First, the Anglicans

who continued within the traditions of their church. Secondly, the Puritans who wanted to work within Anglicanism

to reform and to purify it, and third, separatists and dissenters who were determined to establish

their own independent congregations. Over the next hundred years or so, the Puritans and the

separatists faced extreme pressure from the

English crown, and this compel many of them to flee their country. One of these men was named John

Robinson. Born in 1576, he had gotten his education at Cambridge, which was a hotbed of Puritanism. It was the intellectual

center of the Puritan movement. And during his studies there, John Robinson adopted the belief

system of the Puritans. After graduation, he became the pastor of St. Edward's Church in

Norwich, England. But King James I put so much pressure on the

Puritans that Robinson found it impossible to continue being a pastor. As a result, he began meeting

with other separatists in the home of William Brewster in the village of Scrooby. There was also a 16-year-old

who worshipped with the same small congregation,

and his name was William Bradford.

John Robinson became the spiritual leader of this group and the pastor of this informal church.

But it was the church that met in this house,

...