The predominantly Protestant aspect of the American colonies, and their vast distance from Europe, in the light of travel time then required, saved them from the penetrations of the Roman Catholic counter interpretations of prophecy which soon began to be noticeable among the compromisers in Old World Protestantism. New England Catholicism was so much in the minority that it was virtually silent, fearing to speak, and exerting little influence. While there was ample acquaintance with the expositional literature of the Old World, America’s religious views were independently formed and were fully as advanced as any to be found in England or Continental Europe, whether compared for the seventeenth, eighteenth, or early nineteenth century. PFF3 78.1