Puritan's View Of The Puritan Society

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

Erikson explains that to most English people of the 16th century, Puritans became an annoying sect of rebels. Overbearing and unrelenting, many detested the exaggeration of conventional values that the Puritans displayed. Feeling restricted by the formalities of the Church, Puritans quickly became deviant in the eyes of society. By moving to Massachusetts Bay, Puritans hoped to create their own ideas of what is “right” and “wrong”, much like any community attempting to set boundaries. However, problems arose when laws were to be mandated in a Biblical sense. God could not sit at a pulpit in a courtroom, so then how would a strictly religious group maintain itself? As Erikson states, “one of the surest ways to confirm an identity, for communities as well as individuals, is to find some way of measuring what one is not”. From this, they developed a keen sense of Devil distinction – that is, ways in which the Devil presented himself through the behaviors of individuals.

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.

The Puritans arrived in the New World in the hopes of “purifying” the Church of England. They practiced certain principles that they believed in and that centered around the idea of God. The main purpose of their journey to New England was to set an example to others how the Church should be, and so their motive for settlement was solely related to religion. The Puritans positively influenced the political, economic, and social development of the New England colonies from 1630 through the 1660s because they were a “city upon a hill” that served as an example to other parts of the world as a result of their strong belief in God.

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 the Puritans first came to America, they settled in Salem, Massachusetts. In Salem there was a village and a town. The richer would live in the town, as the less fortunate would live in the village. In the village … in the town… Since the Puritans governed themselves, they chose the laws and how to run the government. In the village and town going to church was one of the most important things to Puritans. It was so important, that they would go to Church every single day. Anybody that would not attend church was frowned upon and was in fact illegal. Having a church membership, however did have its benefits. The citizens of Salem that did attend church were able to vote. This caused for church members to have a considerable amount of power and influence, they would practically run the church and decide everything. Since the Puritans established Salem they decide all the rules, because they saw it as their “responsibility toward God” (Marlowe 29). This explains why they were so strict with their lives and church. The government the Puritans ran had no religious freedom,

Their government was in the form of a republic, which later became a model for the United State’s future government. They came up with the idea of two houses of representatives that could pass bills and as we can see in the U.S. government today, their idea stuck (Chamber, ). Even though their government was a republic, the Puritans pushed the principles of democracy. Their ideals, such as freedom, liberty, and religion, became a base for our society today. The Puritans also left a legacy of conservatism which remains an important factor in North American government today (The Social Studies Help Center). What’s more, Puritan influence helped shape North American constitutional and common laws, such as “Congress shall make no laws establishing religion…” (McGowan et al. v. Maryland).

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.

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.

They attempted to create a society based around god and the feeling of grace. Grace, according to the puritans, was when “God grants some people the ability to love truly, as Jesus did”(Puritism Notes). One of the puritans main goal in life was to try to find this grace and to be added to god's “very special VIP list” of the people whose souls are saved when they die. In order to get on this list, you would need to clear your sins. This idea of a theocratic government used in Massachusetts was also heavily used in the Crucible with the witch trials.

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, English Protestants established a group referred to as the Puritans. The Puritans were resistant to bold flavors and intense ingredients, such as garlic, for these had “Catholic Continental political references”. This led to a distinguishable description of English cooking. (Amelia Meyers) Puritan meals and mealtimes are different from what we know today.

They want of a pure life which meant that the Puritans had to think wrong about all the little things that give people pleasure. Devotion to god was a must in Puritan society. They believed that the English Reformation had not gone far enough and that the Church of England was

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.