Conversion, or spiritual liberty, was the origin and root of why the Pilgrims came to the shores of New England.  Conversion is an act of God whereby He regenerates the heart and puts His Spirit into the believer.  It is an act of surrender on our part, choosing to follow the risen Lord Jesus Christ and His revealed will through His Word.  That is conversion.  But it came with a price in the late 16^th century.

As William Bradford put it -“When as by the travail and diligence of some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessing on their labors, as in other places of the land, so in the North parts, many became enlightened by the Word of God and had their ignorance and sins discovered unto them, and began by His grace to reform their lives and make conscience of their ways…. the work of God was no sooner manifest in them but presently they were both scoffed and scorned by the profane multitude; and the ministers urged with the yoke of subscription, or else must be silenced.”