The persecution of a religious sect led to the permanent planting of New England. The English Protestants under Elizabeth may be roughly divided into several groups: (1) The great majority of the people, including most of the rich and titled, adhered to the Church of England; as the "establishment," or State religion, it retained much of the Catholic ritual and creed, but with many important omissions and modifications. (2) Besides the Catholics, few and oppressed, there was a distinct class who wished to stay the progress of the Reformation and more closely to follow Rome. (3) The Puritans sought to alter the forms of the church in the other direction, but they were themselves divided into two camps: (_a_) the conformists, who would go further than the establishment in purifying the State religion and in rejecting Romish forms, yet were content to remain and attempt their reforms within the folds of the Church; and (_b_) the dissenters, who had withdrawn from the Church of England and would have no communion with it. The dissenters were themselves divided: (1) there were those who wished to be ruled by elders, on the Presbyterian plan, such as had been introduced by Calvin and his followers in Switzerland and France, by Zwingli in Switzerland and Germany, and by John Knox in Scotland; then there were (2) the Independents, or Separatists, who would have each congregation self-governing in religious affairs,--a system in vogue in some parts of Germany. "Seeing they could not have the Word freely preached, and the sacraments administered without idolatrous gear, they concluded to break off from public churches, and _separate_ in private houses." Sometimes the Separatists were called Brownists, after one of their prominent teachers, Robert Browne. The Presbyterians and Independents were alike few in number in Elizabeth's time; but as the result of persecution under James I., and the impossibility of obtaining concessions to the demand for reform, these sects steadily gained strength. The Independents in particular were harshly treated, so that many fled to Holland, where there was religious toleration for all; and from this branch of the Separatists came the Pilgrims, who first colonized New England. 49. Plymouth colonized (1620-1621). Sidenotes: The Scrooby congregation. The Independents in Holland. Among those who thus departed to a strange land, to dwell among a people with habits and speech foreign to theirs, were about one hundred yeomen and artisans, members of the Independent congregation at Scrooby, a village on the border between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Headed by their wise and excellent minister, John Robinson, and the ruling elder of the church, William Brewster, the party first settled at Amsterdam (1608), but early the following year moved to Leyden. Here, joined by many other refugees, they lived for ten years, laboring in whatever capacities they could obtain employment.