Puritanism And The Puritan Movement

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

Puritans and reformers of seventeenth century England have been given a bad name for their part in history. This is primarily because they were working against the grain and trying to create change in world that saw change as a threat. The time period was turbulent and there was bound to be resistance in a world that was dominated by Catholics and those that had reformed to abide by their King’s law. The puritans of the time were considered extreme and rubbed people the wrong way because they wanted a world that abided by their morals and ethical codes. For this, they took the blame for the misery that many suffered during this age, but as we see in Fire from Heaven, this is not a fair assessment. The Puritans of this time wanted to improve the lives of the people and society as a whole through morality and purity.

In early 1600's, Puritans followed the Pilgrims to America then they landed in Massachusetts bay. The Puritans started the colony because they wanted to escape religious persecution. The only religion was the Puritans.In the early 1600's of, Massachusetts there was only one Indian tribe,and that was the Wampanoag. Puritans tried to purify the Anglican church because they wanted to make services simpler and taking ranks of authority

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

The Puritans greatly impacted the political development of the New England colonies. Firstly, the idea of a representative government was derived from Puritan ritual. Much as the Puritans believed the congregation should elect the reverend, the Puritans also believed that the government should get its power from the people. This experiment in democracy was one of the hallmarks of Puritan influence on the New England colonies. Extending that idea was the idea of unity, politically speaking. As said by John Winthrop, “Wee must delight in eache other, make other’s conditions our own…” [Document A]. The concept of unity and

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.

Seventeenth century Puritans had several aspirations, successes, and failures when it came to creating a model society. They had many successes in their society, some examples are their education system, their advancements in equality for women, and the way they created a tight knit close society. Although they had many achievements, the Puritans also did fall short in many aspects of their society. They ultimately did fail at their perfect society, and that is a very important aspect since that was their main goal. They also were very strict about their policies regarding the church. Once the generations progressed, they had to create new rules to allow people basic religious rights such as baptism. They also fused church and state, which was necessary in a society such as this, but it ultimately hindered progression such as allowing non church members to vote. As the years progressed more and more non Puritans entered the Puritan society, this hindered society because eventually the small majority was making the most riveting decisions. Ultimately the Puritans had both failures and successes when attempting a model society, but the weight of the failures simply outweighed the successes.

The Puritans were a diverse group of religious people that sought to purify the Church of England in the 16th, 17th, and 18th Century. Most of the Puritans believed that the church was corrupted and that true Christians should be separated from it. The rise of Puritans started as people began learning how to read and write and as Bibles started becoming more available to commoners, several people started reading the Bible for themselves. Reading the Bible was actually discouraged in the established church.

From 1630 to the 1660s, The Puritans established and shaped the New England colonies, ultimately making the outline for what those societies would be like today. The Puritan ideology held great influence over the New England colonies as it prioritized religious values in order to create a political order with a unified government. These values also assisted in the formation of a social identity based on patriarchal ideals and a stress on the importance of a diligent work ethic to prevent materialism. Throughout New England, the Puritan concept of unity greatly influenced the political development of the colonies.

The 17th century Puritans were known to represent a religious group migrating from England to America in order to practice religious freedom. These groups were determined to “purify” churches of England from Catholic practices. Puritans are known for their religious, social, and political influences on early America. Edmund S. Morgan’s novel The Puritan Family highlights a part of history that many would tend to look over upon- that is, the complex structural life of Puritan Families in the 17th century.

It is obvious to anyone who has a true understanding of the Puritans, to come to

The Puritans differed from other nonconformist groups, they wanted to reform the church, after this venture also failed, the Puritans ventured off on their own, to practice their own beliefs. The basis for the Puritan’s beliefs was an emphasis on the righteousness and sovereignty of God,

The puritan mind is the motivation that led a group of people to take a chance to find freedom of persecution in America to live their lives in the ways they believed were correct in God’s judgement and in themselves. However, in such a gamble moving into an unknown world, they faced the beginning of a new society, atrocities, and personal difficulties, which would make the humanistic mind question: Why would God allow this to happen? One thing to understand is how the Puritan mind works. As Perry Miller would explain, God and the spirit within are real for Puritans. However, the challenge for a Puritan is to defend their faith in God and overcome any doubt. In order to do this, Perry Miller would say, “The search for inward meaning relies upon the power of creative imagination.” Without creative imagination, how could one explain a death of a love one or catastrophic event that left them in pain. Of course, another idea that is real to the Puritans, which at times seems like an escape-goat, is that “there is fallibility in material existence and infallibility in spiritual existence.” Life on Earth is temporary and imperfect; the goal is Heaven, eternal life. For the Puritan, the pleasures of the world weren’t their goal in life but to better improve themselves to reach eternal life. The motivation and creative energy behind this idea is regeneration and piety. If a Puritan is going through a hard time, it would be his or her job to interpret why is God

Critics often paint the Puritans as a miserable people, whose only concern was protecting themselves from the outside world. This, however, is not the only supposed offense the Puritans committed. These critics then protest that the Puritans, fixated on their desire of creating a skewed reality, eagerly stripped away any right one had that might contradict this delusional existence! Contrary to this opinion, the Massachusetts colony proved to be a community knitted together in their longing to serve God and desire to know their God-given liberties on these controversial issues of their day: marriages and families; physical labors and charitable activities; and finally, education and government.

The 1630s marked a period of large migration to the New England region, particularly the Massachusetts Bay colony of people mostly of English background. By taking a look at and trying to understand who these people were, why they came to North America, and what they did when they arrived, T. H. Breen and Stephen Foster look at the Puritans analytically. They base their assertions on hard numbers and sources, speculating only about the few migrants who may have slipped through the records. By tracing the lives of this group, we gain insights into what the immigrants actually had to contend with once they left England and made their lives in America.