Martin Luther : The Religious Beliefs Of John Calvin

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 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.

Puritans live in a life with a life of rules. They live by religious beliefs and literature purposes. The puritans believed in God being all powerful, Bible is God’s true law, success is a sign of improvement, and how education was written to glorify God and for education only not for entertainment.

When looking into the history of the puritans one can find many things, however while reading “City Upon a Hill” and “The Divine Right to Occupy the land” one may then come up with the idea of the puritans being selfish.

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

The Protestant Reformation began during the Renaissance time period, it was the attempt to reform the Roman Catholic church. It led to the creation of Protestant churches. This reformation began after multiple church leaders started demanding individuals to supply them with such large quantities of goods, food, and money that individuals did not have much left to provide to their own family. Several believed if they did not contribute and present the church with what they asked, they would be denied entrance to heaven once they passed away. People saw how the church thrived while those who contributed were ravenous and penniless. Martin Luther, a monk, noticed several inaccuracies between what the Roman Catholic Church practiced and the Bible as he studied the Bible. He decided to speak out by creating the 95 Theses, and nailing it on the entrance of a catholic church. Protestants who had similar view as Luther’s began Luther-ism. John Calvin, had very similar views as Luther and was even inspired by him to reform the Catholic Church as well. I most admire Martin Luther because of how he spoke up and protested against the Roman Catholic church when he knew it could put him in danger, but I am most similar to John Calvin because of how he believes in predestination and how faith is revealed by living a righteous life.

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.

In Puritan belief, life was planned according to God, and a society worked to live out that plan. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was a closely integrated group that worked together to fulfill the wishes of a larger community. Puritans religious beliefs produced ideas that God’s will was to lead a community based on peace. God had set high expectations for a happy and trustworthy community. However, if a community did not live up to the expectations, God would destroy the community. Therefore, Puritan leaders felt the need to enforce strict rules so Puritans could not disobey the ideals. If anyone did not conform, they were called an “impostor” who did not belong in the community. If Puritans allowed freedom of worship, dissenters would not be banished from the community because all ideologies could potentially exist peacefully. The only time dissenters existed were in communities that limited freedom of rights.

The Puritan way of life completely centered around the Bible, and they believed in God's supreme authority over everything as conveyed in the scriptures. They believed that whatever happened to them, good or bad, was God’s will. The Puritans’ faith and religious beliefs made it possible for them to endure and survive the hardships they faced in life. “Puritanism was not only a religious creed, it was a philosophy and metaphysic; it was an organization of man's whole life, emotional and

In the seventeenth century, Puritans made a break with the Church of England and went to America. The strong religious values of the Puritans developed a new culture, therefore led New England to an estimable society which is better than Chesapeake. The first doctrine of Puritans is industrious and frugalness, another doctrine is that equality and freedom.

In their society the Puritans based their lives, beliefs, and communities on what they deemed as God's law and true word, the bible (Barger). Reading the bible was expected for the members of society, this included women and children, which was often unheard of (Foner 66) at that time. With their lives being restricted to the word of the bible this left very little leeway for anything other than what was deemed acceptable, and this rigid way of life was another straw that led to the eventual troubles and fervor that took over.

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

Over the years, people broadcast the Puritans as a group of people who were extremely legalistic and against anything that would be considered fun in the modern world. This incorrect broadcast of the Puritans has led to many misconceptions about how they lived when they came to the New World and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans were not legalistic, but rather sought to please God by creating a society that focused on fulfilling their calling through the institutions of family, work, education, and government in a positive environment. This led to a fruitful society when it followed in its original intentions.

Puritan believers are taught to live a strict lifestyle and to adhere to the word of God. This is why the ramifications of sinful behavior are punished by God.

John Calvin was born on July 10th, 1509 in Noyon, Picardy, France. He studied at the universities of Paris, Bourges, and Orleans. He was a key leader of the Protestant Reformation. He wrote many protestant works like Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin was also a revolutionary theologian and leader, developing the religion of Calvinism and doctrine of predestination. In addition, Calvin reorganized the city of Geneva, Switzerland and made it into an example theocracy. John Calvin died on May 27th, 1564 in Geneva, Switzerland, but his ideas and achievements have lived on. In fact, the average citizen should care about him because of the contributions he has made to the world, however positive or negative they may be. John Calvin’s three main contributions that make him historically significant are his development of the doctrine of predestination, his revolutionary reform of the education system, and his emphasis on the protestant work ethic.