Mayflower Compact
Mayflower Compact
In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-written, the Loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia, Do by these Presents solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil Body Politic, for our better Ordering and Preservation and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: and by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod, the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, of France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fifth-fourth, Anno Domini, 1620.
According to Richard L. Perry, editor of Sources of Our Liberty, the significance of the compact as a “political product” lies in the role it played in the “great religious struggles” of the 16th and 17th centuries:
The Pilgrim Fathers were among the Separatists, who had long suffered persecution for their religious beliefs . . . In order to improve their circumstances and preserve their identity as a religious body, they decided to emigrate to Virginia . . .The compact’s simplicity in form and language is deceptive . . . The document represents the application to the affairs of civil government of the philosophy of the church covenant which was the basis of Puritan theology. This theology found in the Scriptures the right of men to associate and covenant to form a church and civil government and to choose their own officers to administer both religious and civil affairs . . . not subject to the authority of any centralized church hierarchy.
Wikipedia Entry: Mayflower Compact
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