The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily.

If you're an American, you probably grew up hearing the story of Thanksgiving, how the pilgrims came to America to escape religious persecution to establish a new life.

But who actually were these pilgrims? Were they really persecuted? Why did they decide to cross an ocean? And how did

they end up where they did? Learn more about the pilgrims and everything that happened before

the first Thanksgiving on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Betway Casino, receive a free daily spin on our prize wheel and join our amazing rewards club. Download the Betway Casino app today. 18 plus T's and C's Apply. Be gamble aware.org.

To understand the events leading up to the pilgrims crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower,

we have to back up to understand the religious situation in England in the early 17th century.

As I've touched on in previous episodes, Henry VIII wants a divorce,

the Pope doesn't agree to an annulment, so he outlaws a Catholic church and establishes the

Protestant Church of England with himself at the head. Over time, the Church of England

sort of adopted many of the forms and traditions of the Catholic Church, and participation

in the Church of England became mandatory. In my episode on the gunpowder plot,

I talked about the Catholic response to this and how they weren't too thrilled. However, they

weren't the only ones who were unhappy with this arrangement. There were Protestant groups as

well who didn't like the mandatory participation in the Church of England. There were many of

these groups, and they were generally called separatists or dissenters.

There was also religious groups known as Puritans, who wished to purify the Church of England of its Catholic elements. Not all Puritans were necessarily separatists.

Some remained in the church trying to enact change, and others left.

There was one such group known as Brownists, who were both Puritans and separatists.

The rest of this story is all about the Browness. The Browness got their name from Robert Brown,

with an E, who was a leading dissenter to the Anglican church. The Browness were Calvinists

and Congregationalists. As for the Calvinist part, I'll leave that to a future episode about the Protestant

...