Welcome to another bonus episode of Calm History, an extra treat for my Silk Plus members.

The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony

This story of the Pilgrims begins in England, around 1605. They were basically a group of people who were not happy with the Church

of England. They didn't want to practice religion in the same way that most of those in England

they didn't believe in building a lot of fancy churches and cathedrals,

or in having so much chanting and singing in the service.

They didn't like to see the priests dressed in rich robes, standing before magnificent altars,

whereon candles blazed and incense burned.

They believed that too much money was spent on fancy churches, fancy robes, fancy altars, fancy music, and fancy candles.

In their eyes, God would want things more simple and more pure.

Hence, their beliefs were similar to others who were called Puritans and practiced Puritanism

because of their preference for this more simple and pure religion.

But they did have a major difference from many other Puritan groups at that time.

They wanted to separate from the Church of England. This resulted in them being called

separatist Puritans, or simply separatists.

Now, for a fun fact, they were not commonly called pilgrims at this time, even though that

term did exist.

This specific term, Pil was in use several hundreds of years before 1605

to refer to any traveler for any purpose.

So yes, you can make a pilgrimage to America,

a pilgrimage to Mecca,

or a pilgrimage to Walmart.

...