23-A Fruitful Development at Southwark

We must now retrace our steps a little. Reader, you will be well aware that
although a history is written in chapters, events do not move in isolation.
They develop in parallel, not in compartments neatly packaged for the
convenience of succeeding generations, authors in particular!
In 1610, John Robinson came into contact with an Englishman by the
name of Henry Jacob who, it is possible, became a member of the Leyden
church. This Henry Jacob was destined to have a great influence on
Robinson’s view of church order. So much so, he turned Robinson from a
Separatist into an Independent; this change in Robinson’s opinion I
mentioned in the previous chapter. It is now time to deal with it more
thoroughly. Independency itself came into existence some time between
1605 and 1609 through this man Henry Jacob. What is Independency?