Pastor Smith and the Halloween Bells

The New England Puritans would have condemned the ancient folk religions and Catholic traditions that merged to become “Hallowed Evening” (Halloween). Their attitudes may be illustrated by the militant Puritan pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Hull of East Yorkshire, England. 

When Melchior Smith heard the church bells ring on October 31, 1563, he sent a messenger to demand silence. It was not just a matter of disturbing the peace but proper church practices. Puritan leaders sought to erase the customs of Catholicism, such as Halloween bell-ringing. The practice was meant to remind people to pray for their dead loved ones and was said to comfort those souls suffering in the cleansing fires of purgatory. Such Catholic traditions were reinvigorated under the late Queen Mary, whose religious policies led to the frightful deaths of many Protestants. 

When two more messages failed to stop the clanging, pastor Smith gathered the mayor and several officers into the night to arrest those who rang bells in sympathy for the dead. (Mayor John Smith was uncle to the young William Brewster, future leader of Plymouth Colony.) 

The pastor and his party chased down the noisy culprits in the darkened church. After the scuffle, one captured man dripped blood from his nose and mouth. Some claimed the pastor himself inflicted the injury when he grabbed the man by the beard and slugged him, but Pastor Smith denied responsibility to church officials. However, he said if he did cause the injuries, it only was accidental.  

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“An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.”

(Proverbs 29:22; 1599 Geneva Bible)

“Wherefore my dear brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. For the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousness of God.”

(James 1:19-20; 1599 Geneva Bible)

The Fiery Fate of William Tyndale

William Tyndale was an English theologian who challenged the authority of the Catholic Church and the newly created Church of England. 

Tyndale denounced King Henry VIII for immorality in marital affairs, and he went on to denounce the practice of praying to the Virgin Mary and the saints, and challenged other core church teachings as well. But the act that most angered the authorities was his unauthorized work of translating the Bible into common English. As copies of his New Testament were smuggled into England, the King was all the more determined to hunt him down. 

While carrying out his translation work in Belgium, Tyndale was befriended by Henry Phillips. Phillips was from a wealthy and influential English family, but he had gambled his way into poverty and considered taking his own life. When he learned there was money to be made by kidnapping Tyndale, that was just the financial break he needed. 

While imprisoned, Tyndale continued his work of writing and translation. Despite the efforts of supporters, he was tried and condemned for heresy. On October 6, 1536, he was bound to a wooden stake in Vilvorde, Belgium, strangled, and burned before the public. Prior to his execution he was heard to say, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” 

Shortly after Tyndale’s death, various English translations of the Bible began to surface based largely upon his work, including the Geneva Bible taken by the Mayflower Pilgrims during their voyage to settle in New England. 

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“I will speak also of thy testimonies before Kings, and will not be ashamed. And my delight shall be in thy Commandments, which I have loved.” 

(Psalms 119:46-47; 1599 Geneva Bible)

“The beginning of thy word is truth, and all the judgments of thy righteousness endure forever. Princes have persecuted me without cause: but mine heart stood in awe of thy words.” 

(Psalms 119:160-161; 1599 Geneva Bible)

A Coroner’s Inquest for Mr. Waymouth

Titus Waymouth died in Plymouth, so Governor William Bradford appointed a jury of twelve men to conduct a coroner’s inquest on October 5, 1656. Those investigating the incident found no bruises, no wounds, nor any other indication as to what may have taken his life. We know little of Mr. Waymouth today, nor apparently did the people of Plymouth Colony centuries ago. Aside from a chest that Waymouth owned back in Boston (with unknown contents), the entirety of his known estate amounted to a suit, hat, shirt, compass, and back wages of four pounds, sixteen shillings that were owed to him by Boston shipmaster, Samuel Mayo. 

When the jury finally concluded their investigation about two weeks later, their best guess as to the cause of Mr. Waymouth’s death, according to the Plymouth Colony records, was that he succumbed to deadly case of chronic constipation (“stoppings,” they called it) and too much hard cider. 

Perhaps it was an indication of Mr. Waymouth’s financial status and solitary existence that the colony at Plymouth made the financial arrangements for the funeral of this out-of-towner. His burial expenses included a coffin, burial cloth, and the services of the court clerk and gravediggers. Lastly, twelve shillings of Mr. Waymouth’s meager estate were to be paid out to the local tavern for a customary post-funeral toast; after all, no heirs were nearby who could object to the charges. 

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"Look not thou upon the wine, when it is red, and when it showeth his color in the cup, or goeth down pleasantly. In the end thereof it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrice."

(Proverbs 23:31-32; 1599 Geneva Bible)

No Beer on the Sabbath

Before sailing to America on the Mayflower, Stephen Hopkins (1581 - 1644) already had a colorful life. He was a minister's assistant at sea, narrowly escaped unjust execution, shipwrecked in Bermuda, stranded months on an island, was an early settler of Jamestown, and was portrayed in one of William Shakespeare’s plays. None of that earned him any legal immunity in the Plymouth courts.

Before his scrapes with the law, Hopkins was an important village leader. He was a colony representative to Native Americans, and served several years on the governor’s council, settling colony disputes and criminal cases. Additionally, he was also a land surveyor, tax assessor, and trade adviser.

But then Hopkins’ relationship with the community began a downward spiral around the time he opened his tavern. While in his mid-fifties, he was charged for assault after fighting a man less than half his age. He was later taken to court for price-gouging, withholding wages, and even serving alcohol on Sundays. 

Attendance at church services was expected for everyone in early New England, and laws were created to protect the reverence of the day. But on October 2, 1637 Hopkins was charged with selling alcohol on the Sabbath, and allowing his customers to play shuffleboard when they should’ve been at church. For this he was ordered to pay forty shillings. Months earlier, Hopkins was also fined for allowing people to drink to excess in his tavern. This infraction broke a law that he himself helped pass just a few years before. 

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"Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee."

(Deuteronomy 5:12; 1599 Geneva Bible)

“Woe unto them, that rise up early to follow drunkenness, and to them that continue until night, till the wine do inflame them.”

(Proverbs 5:11; 1599 Geneva Bible)

"Bloody Mary" Takes the Throne

Queen Mary of England, daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, detested her father’s break with the Catholic Church and quickly returned the kingdom to the Roman faith after she was crowned. Growing up sickly and depressed, her childhood was made more miserable by her father's harsh treatment and his refusal to allow Mary to see her mother. It is no surprise that during her youth she refused to recognize her father as the rightful leader of the English Church. 

After the death of her Protestant brother, King Edward VI, and a controversial nine-day reign of her cousin, Lady Jane Grey, Mary ascended the throne at age 37. Though her father executed numerous people for their religious leanings, Mary far surpassed him in number and cruelty, earning her the nickname “Bloody Mary.” The executions began less than two years after she took the throne, and before she died at age 42, nearly 300 more were killed for their Protestant faith and hundreds more fled the kingdom. 

John Foxe’s book recounting Mary’s persecutions was a major influence on the Pilgrims of Plymouth. William Bradford, in the first pages of his journal, spoke of Foxe’s account of “those worthy martyrs and confessors which were burned in Queen Mary’s days and otherwise tormented.” 

Though she ruled as queen since the previous July, it was on this day, October 1, 1553, that Mary was crowned the Queen of England, ushering in the horrors that would last throughout her reign. 

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“These things have I said unto you, that ye should not be offended.  They shall excommunicate you, yea, the time shall come, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service.” 

(John 16:1-2; 1599 Geneva Bible)

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great marvel.” 

(Revelation 17:6; 1599 Geneva Bible)