Immigrants to America came for many reasons but foremost
among those was probably to escape 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 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.
Lutheran:
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.
Mennonites:
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.
Methodist:
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.
Moravians:
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 Granvilles 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
Presbyterians:
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.
French Huguenots:
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
Quakers:
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.
Protestant Reformation:
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 credit for the birth of the Protestent 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 Protestent
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:
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 was 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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