Puritans : A View Of Marriage And Divorce In Seventeenth-Century England

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

During the 1630’s, there was a group known as, the Puritans. The Puritans immigrated from England to America, for the sole purpose of religious freedom and their belief that the church of England needed reform. Puritan author’s, Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards, conveyed their messages and beliefs in their writing . For these two authors, they were working around the same foundation, Puritanism, for the intended messages. Admittedly, there is a disconnection in belief between the two. Edward’s writings take Puritanism to the extreme whilst Bradstreet’s works show a more traditional view in the religion while staying true to it.

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.

The church and Christian beliefs had a very large impact on the Puritan religion and lifestyle. According to discovery education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.” Puritan laws were intensively rigid and people in society were expected to follow a moral strict code. And because of Puritans and their strict moral codes, any act that was

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.

This article was created to inform its readers about the ideological conflict between the Puritans and Quakers. Pestana defends her assertion that, “The reaction of the Puritan

Morgan organizes The Puritan Family into six different main topics. “Puritanism and Society” begins with insight on the behavior, thought processes, and ideals of a “good” Puritan, in addition to how they functioned within their own society. “The Education of a Saint” details the beliefs and morals a Puritan is surrounded by as a child. Lastly, “Puritan Tribalism” introduces claims involving the cause of the Puritan downfall. The remaining chapters “Husband and Wife”, ”Masters and Servants”, and “The Family in the Social Order” are all self-explanatory to their respective titles.

Marriage in Puritan society was more of a contract than a religious sacrament. Daughters were married at a very young age in order

Correspondingly, since both Puritan writers describe their individual Gods in a certain light, it results in an unmistakable discrepancy among the audiences each type of writing is intended to be delivered to. To Edward Taylor, writing is purely for the glory of God and for the expression of feelings towards Him. Generally, Edward Taylor’s works are considered too bright and too jaunty for the Puritan conservatives at the time and do not serve for moral instruction as most literature should. In Taylor’s work “Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children” he describes,

In a communist society, the laws of one's sexual life are under strict control; consequently, a person's life is not private, and the decision he makes will eventually be detectable. Today's culture may not understand why the Puritans thought of the misbehavior as dishonorable now that we live in societies which there are not draconian laws on a human's intimate wrongdoings. "Most crimes committed in New England were sex crimes," was stated in the Pennsylvania: The Primer. The magistrates put in place laws to follow their moral beliefs. The Puritan laws abided around the quality of their environment; for this reason, colonists considered sex crimes as a threat the social order. The colonists did not desire for people to spread confabulation about sin committed in their colony, so the attempted to present an immaculate society. The Puritans' perspective on divorce caused animosity between the people of the camaraderie. Fornication before marriage was not typical in the Puritan society. A person's gender, a couple's separation, and the choice of fornication were actively discouraged by Puritan ordinance.

The striking Christian concept of marriage theology, in which God is understood as having an allegorical and spiritual marriage with His people, showed both great change and great constancy in the face of the challenges of the Protestant Reformation. Some concepts, such as the importance of unity in conceptualizing mystical marriage, were constant characteristics of marriage theology, although varying in emphasis. Other concepts, such as mystical marriage as sacramental, were distinctly Catholic and rejected by later Protestants. By comparing the ideas of Bernard of Clairvaux and Gertrude of Helfta, monastic theologians preceding the Reformation, with the ideas of Francis Rous and Cotton Mather, Puritan theologians following the Reformation, the impact of early Protestant concerns on marriage theology will be observed.

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.

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.

This is the standard level of devotion expected in Puritan couples and if it is not met, surrounding people figure that something must not be right, and they investigate, often uncovering sin. Although adultery is preached against in the Ten Commandments, Puritans are still often discovered committing this sin.