Immigrants to America came for many reasons but foremost among those
was probably to escape the aftermath of wars and to
find freedom from religious persecution. These worshipers came from
Germany, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland as well as other
countries. Some came as missionaries to the Indians but most came seeking
a place where they could be free to practice their faith without
persecution. The immigrants who formed branches on the Kinser family tree
came from a number of these various groups seeking religious freedom.
Leaders of several of these religious groups were very influential in
producing a nation where freedom of religion is written into the
constitution. The following paragraphs give a brief history of some of the
groups and individuals that influenced the lives and actions of the Kinser
family immigrants
Martin Luther is considered the leader in the Protestant reformation in
Europe. He is also considered the founder of the Lutheran Church. Born
in Eisle, Saxony, Germany on November 11, 1483. Luther first studied
law, then changed to the priesthood. Ordained as a Catholic priest in
1507 he became disenchanted with the corruption within the church. Pope
Leo X was selling indulgences to help build St. Peter's Church in Rome
and to pay off the debt of Prince of Brandenburg who had purchased his
position as Bishop.
An Indulgence was a purchased forgiveness for sin which could be bought
before or after the fact. Luther nailed his 95 Theses, primarily
opposing these sales and advocating reforms, to the church door at
Wittenburg to emphasize his belief that "the just shall live by
faith." His original intent was not to start a new faith but to
reform the Catholic Church.
Luther's refusal to recant his criticism of the Church led to his
expulsion from the church, after which his followers provided the
beginnings of the Lutheran Church. Luther perhaps would have met the
same fate as John Huss, another reformer who was burned at the stake, if
he had not been protected by a German Ruler. The doctrines and beliefs
of the Lutherans are contained in the Augsburg Confession of Faith. They
are primarily based on the terms of a treaty of peace between the
Protestants and the Catholic Church, arranged by Charles V at Augsburg,
Germany in 1530. The Catholic Church never signed the treaty and a
cleavage resulted in the church. This cleavage was a major factor in the
Protestant reformation. Continuing persecution of these German
Protestants resulted in the emigration of many to England and to
America. This exodus reached a peak in the late 1600's and early 1700's.
The several branches of this group, associated with the Anabaptist
Movement, derive their name form Menno Simons, a Dutch Roman Catholic
Priest who took part in the Reformation in Northern Germany. The
Mennonites appear to have formally organized in Zurich, Switzerland in
1525.
Deprived of personal rights, religious freedom, and property, persecuted
by the Roman Catholics and other Protestants, and opposed to bearing
arms they sought refuge in several other countries. William Penn offered
them land and religious freedom in his Pennsylvania Colony. The first
group settled in Germantown in 1663. The best known Mennonite group is
probably the Amish named after a Swiss named Jacob Amman.
The origin of the Methodist Church lies with John and Charles Wesley.
Children of a High Church priest of the Church of England, they never
intended to form a new religion but rather to remain a part of the
Church of England. When General James Edward Oglethorpe was given a
charter to found a colony in Georgia he asked John Wesley to become
chaplain. Their mother urged both John and Charles to accompany the
General. aboard the ship taking the settlers to Georgia were several
Moravians whose religious beliefs had a profound effect upon John
Wesley. John's concept of methodical orderly study led to the founding
of a United Society stressing Bible study and a strict moral and ethical
conduct in the life of the members and thence came the name Methodist.
During the 15th century Moravia and Bohemia produced a reform group
first known as Unitas Fratrum, the Latin name for Unity of Brethren. In
following the teachings of John Huss, the martyred Roman Catholic priest
of Prague University, they became a persecuted reform group. They first
found refuge in Germany where Count Nicholas Zenzindorf allowed them to
settle on his estate in Saxony. The Count was responsible for sending
the Moravian missionaries who had such a profound effect on John and
Charles Wesley to the colony of Georgia .
Some Moravians left Georgia to settle in Pennsylvania establishing the
town of Bethlehem. Later, Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb purchased
100,000 acres of land from Lord Granville's tract in the Carolina
Colony. In 1756 some 500 Moravians walked overland from the town of
Bethlehem to the center of this tract to establish the settlement called
Betharba, the "Old Town" later called "Wachau" which
Anglicized to "Wachovia." Bishop Spangenberg gave it that name
because it reminded him of Count Zenzindorf's estate in the Wauchau
valley of Austria.
This settlement became the town of Salem, part of present day
Winston-Salem, in 1766. When the League of Nations partitioned Europe
after World War I, Moravia, Bohemia and part of Hungary, Slovakia,
became Czechoslovakia
John Calvin, a French lawyer turned reformer who established a theocracy
in Switzerland, wrote "Institutes of the Christian Religion"
which has had its impact on every Protestant denomination. His greatest
disciple was John Knox of Scotland, an ordained Roman Catholic priest.
Knox was captured by the French and made a galley slave for nineteen
months. When freed he returned to England an became chaplain to Edward
VI, a leader in the Reformation.
Calvin carried on a running battle with Queen Mary, a devout Roman
Catholic, who eventually forced him to flee to Switzerland. Returning to
Scotland he began preaching reform. when Mary was involved in a scandal,
he aroused the Scots to such a degree that Mary was forced off her
throne and the Protestant religion was made the official state church.
As a member of a committee of Parliament he wrote the First Scottish
Confession of Faith.
This Westminster Confession of Faith became a statement of the basic
beliefs of the Scottish Church.
His preaching was based on John Calvin's theology: God is absolute
sovereign in his creation. God foreordains and foreknows all things. Man
was created pure in God's image, and fell into sin by his own acts. Man
is saved through the unmerited favor of God in Jesus Christ and cannot,
through works, bring about his own salvation. Some are predestined to be
saved, others lost. The predestined never fall from the Grace of God.
These Scottish Presbyterians made up a large portion of the Scots-Irish
when they moved to Northern Ireland seeking religious freedom. Later
events caused large numbers to flee Ireland for the American colonies.
The French Huguenots were French Protestant followers of John Calvin
whose beliefs are very similar to the Scottish Presbyterians. Hounded
and persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church many fled to the British
Isles and to the American Colonies
The Society of Friends, or Friends church, a Christian group that
stresses the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Friends reject ritual or
an ordained ministry. The Society of Friends has a long tradition of
working actively for peace and opposing war. Founder of the society in
England, George Fox, asserted that "Justice Bennet of Derby first
called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God."
Originally derisive, likely the name Quaker was also used because many
early Friends trembled in their religious meetings and showed other
physical manifestations of religious emotions themselves. Despite early
derisive use, Friends used the term themselves in such phrases as
"the people of God in scorn called Quakers." No embarrassment
is caused by using the term today.
In the 16th century a religious revolution took place in the Roman
Catholic Church. By the 16th century the Roman Catholic Church was
deeply involved in Western European political life. As the church became
more deeply involved in politics and intrigues it grew in wealth and
political power but was bankrupt as a spiritual force. The spiritual
authority of the Church diminished by the corruption of the clergy
combined with abuses such as the sale of indulgences and relics.
Several reformers including John Huss and John Wycliffe spoke out
against these abuses of power by the church but Martin Luther is usually
given major for the birth credit of the Protestant Reformation.
On October 31, 1517 Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the Castle
Church in Wittenburg. Luther viewed his attack on the perversion of the
church's doctrine rather than preaching against corruption in the
church. Luther based his message on the scripture that states, "The
just shall live by faith."
His ninety-five thesis sought to reform the doctrines of the church but
offended the Church hierarchy. They demanded he recant his assertions
that the church had departed from biblical teachings. Luther refused to
recant and was eventually excommunicated.
Luther began to preach his "gospel of living by faith." The
seeds of Luther's message fell on fertile ground among the common people
and the message from several sources quickly grew into the Protestant
Revolution. Over the next century Protestantism supplanted the Catholic
church as the majority religious faith in Western Europe.
A resurgence in the power of the Roman Catholic Church led by the
militant Society of Jesus (Jesuits) produced a new era of harsh
persecution of Protestants, a major factor in the decision of many to
emigrate to the American colonies.
William Penn, son of Admiral Sir William Penn, first came under the
influence of the Quakers as a child when his father invited a Quaker,
Thomas Loe, to preach to his family.
William was later expelled from Oxford University for his religious non
conformity. In 1666 Admiral Penn sent William to Ireland to manage the
family estates. There he crossed paths again with Thomas Loe and, after
hearing him preach, decided to join the Quakers (the Society of
Friends), a sect of religious radicals who were reviled by respectable
society and subject to official persecution. Penn became a Quaker and
was eventually imprisoned four times for publicly stating his beliefs.
While imprisoned in the Tower of London Penn authored his most famous
book, No Cross, No Crown
When a Quaker meetinghouse Penn attended was padlocked he preached on
the London streets. Imprisoned for inciting a riot Penn's defense
skillfully exposed the illegality of the charges against him and the
jury refused to convict establishing an important precedent, the
complete independence of the jury. Penn earned his right to a place in
English history as a protagonist of Religious liberty
In 1681 Penn and along with other Quakers bought the proprietary rights
to East New Jersey. Penn became discouraged by the turn of political
events in England where, under Charles II, prospects for religious
freedom seemed dark.
Penn's father was owed a large debt by King Charles II. To cancel the
debt Penn sought and received a vast province on the west bank of the
Delaware River which he named Pennsylvania. A few months later the Duke
of York granted him the three "lower counties" (later
Delaware). In Pennsylvania Penn hoped to provide a refuge for Quakers
and other persecuted people built along ideal Christian ideals.
"There may be room there, though not here" he wrote to a
friend in America. Penn first become involved in American colonization
as a trustee for Edward Byllynge, one of the two Quaker proprietors of
West New Jersey.
As proprietor, Penn seized the opportunity to create a government that
would embody his Quaker-Whig ideas. In 1682 he drew up a Frame of
Government for the colony that would, he said, leave himself and his
successors "no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man
may not hinder the good of a whole country." Freedom of worship in
the colony was to be absolute, and all the traditional rights of
Englishmen were carefully safeguarded. The actual machinery of
government outlined in the Frame proved in some respects to be clumsy
and unworkable, but Penn wisely included in the Frame an amending
clause--the first in any written constitution--so that it could be
amended if necessary.
When Penn himself arrived in Pennsylvania he found his experiment
already well under way. The city of Philadelphia was already laid out on
a grid pattern as he had instructed and settlers were pouring in to take
up the fertile lands. Later while affairs were going badly in
Pennsylvania and Penn was under suspicion the government of the colony
had been taken from him and given to the governor of New York for a
period of two years. When Penn returned to the province he resolved many
of the outstanding problems but, in 1701 in a revised constitution known
as the Charter of Privileges, he was forced to grant the Pennsylvania
Assembly greater authority in governing the colony. Less than two years
later Penn's affairs in England demanded his presence, and he left the
province in 1701, never to see it again.
Penn's heritage in the colony of Pennsylvania was a guarantee of
universal personal and religious liberty, the first in any of the
American colonies.
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