The Puritans I. The history of the Puritans The Puritans didn't give themself this name. At first it was used to humiliate the Puritans. But after a while they adopt the name for themselves. The name comes from the word pure and has the meaning "clean", "unspoiled", "proper". The Puritans origins are in England during the early 16th Century. The Puritanism was a form of protestantism in England. The Puritans are people, who believes in predestination, because of their religious conflict with the church of England and as a result of the persecution they were forced to leave England. Puritans are discontented with the Church of England. The Puritans are people, who stand in for the pure doctrin of the bible. They reject all forms of religious practise. Every written word in the bible must be believed from them. Who follows God's moral codes will be blessed with eternal life. The conflict between the King, the Church of England and the Puritans had reached the climax when William Laud became the new Archbishop of Canterbury. He brought new beliefs in the Church, but this was unacceptable for the Puritans. This new beliefs included emphasise on individual acceptance or rejection of God's grace, toleration for a varity of religious beliefs, and the incoporation of "high church" symbols. For the Puritans is this not true belief. So they wished to get rid of all catholics influence in their religion. Thats the reason why they split from the Church of England in 1633. So they travelled by ship to New England in the early 17th century. The New England region became the center for Puritanism. To controll most of the colonies' activity they held a strong connection between church and state. This strong controll could be hold up until the end of the 17th century. II. Puritans beliefs & values The Puritans had five basic beliefs, which were very similar to Calvins' doctrins. Johannes Calvin was a french Protestant reformer, who lived in Geneva. A. Total Depravity that means because of the original sin of Adam everyone is a siner by birth and no one has the right to salvation. Every person is absolutly bad and doomed. B. Unconditional Election God has chosen some for salvation and some to be condemned. Whether or not one is predestinated for salvation can not be affectet by oneself. Its not because of what one has done or not done, there is no reason for the predestination and no possibility to change the own status.
The puritans traveled from England on the Arabella in January of 1630 to escape to a place where they could instill their own religious and political values into their society; Stephen Foster writes about the puritans in the narrative entitled Puritanism and Democracy: A mixed Legacy. Stephen grants the puritans with creating a society based off of religious freedom and reformation of the English church. Their social constructs consisted of hierarchies and accepted inequality. The puritans are credited with laying the foundation to the democratic system of America along with early aspects of political and social constructs found in current day America.
8.Puritans— ‘Followers' of Puritanism, a movement for reform in the Church of England that had a profound influence on the social, political, ethical, and theological ideas in England and America. In America the early New England settlements were Puritan in origin and theocratic in nature. The spirit of Puritanism long persisted there, and the idea of congregational democratic government was carried into the political life of the state as one source of modern democracy.
While residing in England, the Puritans and faithful Catholics faced prosecution, which led to their immigration to the New World. Most left England to avoid further harassment. Many groups and parishes applied for charters to America and, led by faithful ministers, the Pilgrims and Puritans made the long voyage to North America. Their religion became a unique element in the New England colonies by 1700. Before landing, the groups settled on agreements, signing laws and compacts to ensure a community effort towards survival when they came to shore, settling in New England. Their strong sense of community and faith in God led them to develop a hardworking society by year 1700, which Documents A and D express through the explanation of how the Pilgrims and Puritans plan to develop...
The Puritans were "Christians," in that they believed in Jesus Christ yet some may argue that they did not lead "Christian" lives. These fanatics seemed to obssess over a major tenet of their religion, that being "Pre Destination." That is, God Himself chose those destined for eternal salvation in the beginning of time, long before our conception and birth. This pre-ordained number is considerably miniscule, which, at times, the Puritans seemed to ignore.
In England, the Puritans were a group of Protestants, who during the 1600 wanted to continue to purify the Church of England of the practices that were not found in scripture . They wanted to leave from being persecuted for not being protestants. The Separatists were people who advocated complete separation from the Church of England and make their own churches. Both the Puritans and the Separatists wanted to and did leave Europe in hope to be able to have religious freedom in North America. While they were in North America the Puritans were in charge. They kept a very controlled and disciplined lifestyle. They slept in tents and dug out then later learned how to make huts from the Swedish.
Although at first glance the arrival of the Puritans in America seemed solely for religious freedom, it actually was deeply embedded in economic trading opportunities. In 1629, the English crown authorized the colonization of a large area of New England by the Massachusetts Bay Company, which was a joint stock trading company. The company was taken over by a group of wealthy Puritans, and they successfully established the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the leadership of John Winthrop in the New World. The
The puritans were very religious. They wanted to show everyone what happens if you are good and believe in god and the heavens. If you do bad things you would be punished or be killed. If you do good things you can be hand chosen to go to heaven.
Puritans believed in strict religious dedications, by trying to follow the holy commandment. “The discipline of the family, in those days, was of a far more rigid kind than now.”(Hawthorne 9). They wanted to be considered the holiest of all people because they try to reflect a world of perfection in the sight of God. While they where trying to portray a holy life; however, they where also living a sinful life because they have been judgmental, slandering, uncompassionate, resentment, and forbearing, which are all sinful acts of the bible.
In 1534, King Henry VIII formally instigated the English Reformation. He therefore passed the Act of Supremacy, which outlawed the Catholic Church and made him “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England” (Roark, 68). Puritans were looking for a more Protestant church and received what they wanted. Along with it, came the King’s total control over the Church. This is what the Puritans didn’t want. Puritans believed that ordinary Christians, not a church hierarchy, should control religious life. They wanted a distinct line between government and the Church of England. Puritans also wanted to eliminate the customs of Catholic worship and instead focus on an individual’s relationship with God developed through Bible study, prayer, and introspection (Roark, 68).
Puritans felt only other Puritans were saints and all other were damned; since the Church of England had everyone in England at Church, the Puritans became Separatists, since they did not want to sit with the damned.
The Puritans were Englishmen who chose to separate from the Church of England. Puritans believed that the Anglican Church or Church of England resembled the Roman Catholic Church too closely and was in dire need of reform. Furthermore, they were not free to follow their own religious beliefs without punishment. In the sixteenth century the Puritans settled in the New England area with the idea of regaining their principles of the Christi...
Holiness. It means, for the puritans, that you are one of the chosen by god. Although it does not guarantee you entrance into God’s holy kingdom, it does mean that at least while you are on Earth, God has chosen you to be one of his people. This is one of the burdens that fell upon Winthrop. Who was holy enough to become part of society? He knew that he was holy because, he had come this far by living a completely Puritan life, and he had already become part of the church, which meant that he had passed all of the tests required to prove your holiness. But this did not apply to Massachusetts that was supposed to be a new land governed completely under the laws of God. In this case certain new tests had to be made in order to prove your holiness, but who really had the authority to, and who would decide when someone was worthy. This trouble Winthrop because the only reference he had for this task was the Bible. And although that was the law of the land, it did not specify who was wholly and who wasn’t. Therefore Winthrop decided to let participate, in government, those who their individual churches had deemed as a part of Puritan society.
The formation of the New England lifestyle in the sixteenth century was influenced by the Puritans’ disapproval of the Church of England and the reality of a new world. When the Puritans were still in England, the Church of England issued harsh punishments, such as fines and confinement, to individuals who chose not to support the church’s views. Some Puritans wanted to change the church from within. Another group of Puritans called Separatists wanted to separate themselves from the church entirely and form independent churches in England. However, constant complaints about the Puritans by other members of the Church as well as the Church of England’s rules forced the Puritans to migrate to America to pursue their beliefs concerning how they should worship and view God.
The Puritans are a group of individuals who were looking for religious freedom in Britain. Studying the Author's work from a single time period helps readers understanding their way of life and beliefs . Although Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards were both puritans , their writing and persuasive tactics differ in many ways .
The Puritan Dilemma is the story of John Winthrop growing up in the Puritan colonization of America. This book tells the reader of the events that Puritans had to go through during that time period. The book also talks about the attempts, both by John Winthrop and the Puritans, to establish a new type of society in the New World, something they couldn’t do in England. This story is told by the theology of the Puritan ideas, and focuses a lot on how their beliefs intervene in their daily lives, churches, and political ideologies. Puritanism was the belief that the Church of England should remove traditions that inherited from the Catholic Church, and make the Church of England more pure in Christ.