Edmund Harmer Bradbent was born in Lancashire, England, in 1861. Through his personal study of the New Testament while still in his teens, he was convinced of the need to follow the pattern for the church found there. In his early twenties, business took him to Berlin, where he began a long and fruitful ministry to believers all across Europe and into Asia. His travels and research made him aware that since apostolic times there had always been movements to formn loval churches after the apostolic pattern, and he felt it would be useful to collect what could be known about them in an orderly sequence. This resulted in the publication of The Pilgrim Church. Broadbent was active in ministry until shortly before his death in 1945.