The Merwin family originated from Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles northwest of Central London and now part of its commuter belt. In the early 1300s-1500s, there was a movement known as the Lollards, a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation in England. One of the prominent leaders was John Wycliffe, who translated parts of the Bible into Middle English. They opposed many of the teachings of the Catholic Church, such as purgatory, clerical celibacy, infant baptism, mandatory confessionals, and worship of saints. They wanted to base their doctrinal beliefs on the Bible alone. Many of these beliefs would take hold a couple of centuries later when the Reformation fully engulfed Europe. The Catholic Church declared the Lollard teachings as heresy, and in 1521, six Lollard men and one woman from Amersham were burned at the stake for their Christian beliefs. When King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church a few years later, in 1534, England would become a Protestant nation, and things began to change. Most Lollards would become Puritans and Pilgrims.
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