Period in The Netherlands
The congregation initially settled at Amsterdam. The local congregation of Separatists, called the "Ancient Church," soon became strife-ridden, and in February 1609 Robinson and about 100 followers petitioned the City of Leiden for permission to resettle there by May 1, 1609, the latter date being the Dutch "moving day."
Leyden was a bustling city in 1609. It contained a number of imposing buildings, and was one of Europe’s most important centers of learning. Some of the most important scholars of the day were on the faculty of the University of Leiden, and it attracted students from all over western Europe as well as England.
Soon after the congregation resettled at Leiden, John Robinson became the Leiden Separatist's sole pastor with William Brewster as ruling elder. Under the leadership of Robinson and Brewster, the congregation grew steadily, and in time the congregation came to number several hundred.
In January 1611, Robinson, William Jepson, Henry Wood, and Robinson's sister-in-law Jane White, signed a contract to purchase for 8,000 guilders property called the "Groene Poort" or Green Gate near the Pieterskerk and within short walking distance of the University of Leiden. The purchase was completed on May 12, 1611 with a 2,000 guilder downpayment and mortgage for the balance to be paid annually at the rate of 500 guilders, the first payment due in May 1612. In the meantime, in April 1611 at Leiden, Jane White married Randulph (i.e., Ralph) Thickens, with Thickens replacing wife Jane as the fourth named party to the purchase mortgage. Unlike other non-Dutch Reformed Church congregations at Leiden whose religious facilities were owned, funded and their ministers compensated by the Dutch state, no church structure or funding was ever requested or provided to the Leiden Separatists. Thus, the property that Robinson and his associates purchased served both as the Robinson home and a church. Over the next several years, twenty-one apartments were constructed in the rear garden for less affluent members of the congregation.
Read more about this topic: John Robinson (pastor)
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