John Milton's Sonnet 'To The Lord General Cromwell, May 1652'

Puritanism was a major belief during the 1500s-1700s, Puritans believed that you are required to devote your whole life to the Lord. In order to be a Puritan you had to glorify God by attending church, report sinners, and show God’s grace through your own actions. In

The Puritans impacted the New England region. They believed that the people should elect a reverend and the government’s power should lay in the hands of the people. The idea of a democracy was a huge step forward in improving the colonists lives and allowing the people to feel as though they had more control. As John Winthrop states “we [the people] must be knit together, in this work as one man.” (Document 1), the Puritans wanted to unite the people in the New England colonies to become one. The Puritans also incorporated their religion into their government, something that is not seen today. The Puritans valued religion over nearly everything and wanted to show its importance to the rest of the world. They voted on a reverend to be their leader and allowed the Lord to set boundaries in which the Puritans

The Puritans were a religious group in the New England colonies who wanted to purify the Church of England. The Puritans centered everything on God, even their judicial system. They had a theocratic system, which means they thought God had the overall authority. Their laws, court system, and punishments were all based on the Bible. The puritan era judicial system was a theocratic, unjust, and harsh system that enforced absurd laws; they practiced an unfair way of prosecution, and gave cruel punishments to the peccant.

In the 1630's and the 1640's, the Puritans traveled to the colonies to detach from their opinion of a convoluted Church of England. They set up towns and started new lives that were all based on their idea of a pure religion. The Puritan's definition of a pure religion did not include many of the ideas of the Church of England. They built the colonies and made a system based upon the idea that God was the most important aspect of life. Puritan ideas and values influenced the political, economic, and social development of the New England colonies from 1630 through the 1660’s by spreading their beliefs into every facet of daily life. Politically their ideas regarding what was considered sinful behavior and how power was separated among the

With religious reforms causing controversy in England came the Puritans, known for their simplicity in their way of life. They wore basic clothing and were against consumption of alcohol and sex (unless married). With the disagreements of the religious conflicts happening in England, the puritans “wanted to purify the Church of England from within.” The sole reason the idea sparked to settle a colony in America was in search of a Puritan lifestyle and the freedom to do so. On March 4, 1629 King Charles gave the Massachusetts Bay Company a charter while not knowing the true nature of what this colony was to become and for the reasons behind it. Still, the Puritans left for America in March 1630. In contrast to the type of people who immigrated to Virginia, the Massachusetts population was mostly nuclear families, meaning husband, wife, and kids. Also differing from the colonists in Virginia, the settlers in Massachusetts Bay worked together for the common good of the colony. Along with their lives and beliefs, their government and politics were religiously based as well and soon they decided upon a Congregationalism form of church government. Their churches were a matter of choice but in order to become a member they had a strict regulation “In order to join one (a church) a man or woman had to provide testimony–a confession of faith–before neighbors who already had been admitted as full members.” Because religion was the bases behind Massachusetts being colonization crimes and religious disagreements called for serious

The puritans go create the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They didn’t have strict rules like England, people were not forced to go to church, it all seems great. However, there were many issues. Puritans believed in Calvinism, or predestination. This was the idea that everything is preset by God and nothing you do can change your fate. “Nothing a person did in his or her lifetime could alter God’s choice or provide assurance that the person was predestined for salvation with the elect or damned to hell with the doomed multitude.” (The American

A Puritan defined is “a member of a group of English Protestants of the late 16th and 17th centuries who regarded the Reformation of the Church of England under Elizabeth as incomplete and sought to simplify and regulate forms of worship.” Puritan society in America depended on the belief that all members were working for the glory of God. The Puritans did not allow deviations from the strict code of behavior which would not allow any member to have individuality. They restricted any type of entertainment, except that which was endorsed by the church. They worked and worshipped.

The Puritans were a group of people who grew discontent in the Church of England that had a profound influence on the social, political, ethical, and theological ideas of England and America. Puritans immigrated to the New World, where they sought to found a holy commonwealth in New England. Although the Puritans wanted to reform the world to conform to God's law, they did not set up a church-run state. Even though they believed that the primary purpose of

To begin with, Puritans were colonists who wanted to seek religious strength. It was a sin and against the law to not attend a church mass. It was also against the law to pursue any type of witchcraft because the was known to correlate

It was an attempt to start a new life and to practice their religion without any worries. One of the religious group that came over to the Americas and would help establish the foundations for the United States in the future was the Puritans. They were a religious group that believed in strictness, hard work, diligence, discipline, and humility. There disagreement with how the Church of England operated created tensions and prosecutions. As a result, the area where the Puritans settled known as New England would be completely different from the middle and south colonies. One of the reasons there was decline in deference towards religion in New England was the strict rules to obtain membership. Only a minority of the population in New England had full memberships. Taylor stated that the “declining proportion of full members threatened to restrict baptism to a minority of the infants, because churches customarily limited that sacraments to offspring of full members.” As a result, people became less involved in church which created problems for the Puritans. Puritans believed that their religious practice was the only way and to become a minority would create problems. A decline of Puritans may lead to the total dissolution of the group and also the colonist decline in deference toward the practices of Puritans. The Puritan

The Puritans were a group of "congregationalists" that didn't support the Anglican church because the church was too "catholic".They also believed reformation was needed and an egalitarian environment was necessary.

The Puritans goal in New England was to create the perfect pure society where nobody sinned and God ruled completely. They attempted this by making laws about and regulating every aspect of life in the colony. To achieve this, the church needed to rule the colony. And if the church ruled the colony, only the real Puritans could be part of the church. They believed only a minority of the population pure enough to be a part of the church. In reality very few people were ever able to give enough evidence that they had completed their part. As a result, two-thirds of the population failed to qualify as church members. The Puritans enacted many laws to keep the non-Puritans living religious lives. They created an official whose only job was to check up on ten families daily to see if anything out of the ordinary was happening and to make sure everyone who was able went to church. Their idea was that everybody, even if they weren’t part of the church, should be very religious. Therefore they created their laws with principles based on the Old Testament. They dreamed of a society where everybody followed the laws and lived a peaceful, god-fearing existence. To make this dream realizable, the Puritans created severe penalties for breaking the laws. These ranged from whipping and being thrown in the stocks for minor offenses, to banishment and death by hanging for serious ones. To be a good Puritan one had to work hard all

The Puritans believed that God instituted society and expected to see Christian principles prevail within (173). The goal of the Puritans was not to be legalistic but to please the God who sent His Son to save them from their sins. As a result, they sought to establish laws that aligned with Christian principles. One Puritan, Thomas Cartwright, even said that “the commonwealth must be made to agree with the church [that is Christian principles].” Laws were not instituted to force action of the citizens but sought to ensure that the citizens of the colony followed the commands of God laid out in the Bible. While this motivation to obey the Word of God in all portions does substantiate the claim towards legalism, a deeper study of the term legalism shows that the Puritans were not legalistic.

The puritans believed in the doctrine of a “calling” to do God’s work on Earth. One could only be a part of the church clergy if they had experienced a conversion and followed the doctrine of the “calling”. However, Puritans were not tolerant to others that did not share the same religion or beliefs as them.

In “Holy Sonnet 14” by John Donne, dramatizes the conflict between contradictions and a relationship with God.