Puritans

Sources

Covenant Theology. Covenants were important in the religious communities of the Puritans in early New England. These were solemn and binding agreements which were patterned after the covenants they believed God had made with man. In the Covenant of Works, Adam and Eve agreed to obey God’s will and obtain salvation by their own good works. They broke this covenant and lost God’s favor. Through the Covenant of Redemption, Jesus agreed to take upon himself the guilt of the sins of men and save them from their fate. In the Covenant of Grace, God’s spirit entered those predestined for salvation. God also made covenants with groups of people, such as Abraham and his descendants, to look on them with special favor if they strove to obey his will. The Puritans believed that they were one of these groups and employed covenants throughout their society in entering marriage, creating churches, forming towns, and establishing governments. All of these specific covenants added up to the society’s covenant with God, who was quick to punish any infraction.

Congregational Organization. Churches were at the center of Puritan society. Believers settled close together in towns so that they could attend church at least twice a week and gather for prayers and theological discussions in private homes. Living in close proximity also allowed them to scrutinize each other’s behavior and help everyone to lead the moral lives that would please God. Privacy was a luxury that striving Christians could ill afford. The first order of business in the town was to form a congregation. A few men were selected as pillars because of their probable conversion and virtuous conduct. They agreed to a church covenant and examined other applicants for membership in that covenant. Soon after they arrived the Puritans adopted the practice of admitting to church membership only those who could convince the pillars and the rest of the congregation that they had been saved. They followed a congregational form of government in which the congregation had absolute autonomy in admitting members, governing itself, selecting its leaders, and calling its minister, whose ordination was only valid in that congregation. The minister was the key in any church. He had to be a highly educated person so that he could provide the most accurate explanation of the Bible and how it related to all aspects of life. Humans could only be saved by hearing and understanding the word of God. But the minister also counseled his flock, leading them toward the saving faith that brought conversion and to the good works that characterized both a saved individual and a moral society. Because God spoke to humans only through the Bible, which the minister understood so well, people turned to him for advice on all sorts of matters, even economic and political. Faced with these awesome responsibilities, neighboring ministers met in informal support groups to discuss common problems of doctrine and governance. The decisions of these clerical consociations were not binding on individual congregation, but their suggestions usually were taken. In 1646 ministers and laymen from each church in Massachusetts met in a colonywide synod and issued the Cambridge Platform, which adopted the general tenets of the Westminster Confession of Faith and recommended that synods or consociations continue to meet and advise local churches. It was such a synod in 1662 that officially sanctioned a Half-Way Covenant whereby congregations could choose to baptize the children of non-church members and allow them to be “half-way” members of the church.

Worship. Puritan churches were simple, plain, square buildings. There were no steeples, stained-glass windows, or ornaments of any kind. Worshipers sat on hard, wooden benches facing the minister, who often stood on a raised platform. Later these benches were sectioned off into squares of family pews with partitions around them. This was designed to cut down on the cold drafts and retain the heat from warm bricks that the family wrapped in cloths and placed on the floor. Pews were assigned by the family’s rank in society. Worship services went on all week, but the major services were on Sunday and were lengthy and formal affairs. In each the main feature was the sermon, which usually lasted about two hours and was bracketed by long prayers. The worshipers stood during the prayers and throughout much of the service. Sometimes the congregation would take a lunch break after the morning service and return for another in the afternoon. The singing or chanting of psalms was allowed but with no musical accompaniment. A “liner” would sing the line, and the congregation would repeat it in whatever tunes individuals chose to follow. Only those who had been saved and were members could take the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. There were no formal religious holidays, not even Christmas or Easter. The Bible provided no dates for the birth, death, or resurrection of Christ, and the Puritans believed that the Catholic Church had simply made them up to coincide with the celebrations of pagans whom the church was attempting to draw into the fold. To Puritans this was simply a whitewashing of heathen partying with a Christian hue. There were special days of Thanksgiving when things went well and fast days when they did not. These were called by a minister for local matters or by the ministerial meetings for colonywide concerns.

Family and Society. The family was the cornerstone of the society where the closest scrutiny and continuous religious instruction occurred. Thus people with no family were placed in one. The townsfolk carefully monitored activities within the households to insure that the family maintained the harmony that characterized God’s original creation. If trouble arose, the church elders would intervene, removing children, apprentices, and servants. Government officials were empowered to grant a divorce so that a contentious husband and wife might enter more-pleasing matrimonial covenants, although it rarely happened. A hierarchy existed within a family so that all would know their places, thus avoiding competition and arguments. The husband was at the head and represented the family unit in all public and church affairs; the wife deferred to him and supervised the private household affairs. The husband also was responsible for raising the children in a strict fashion that would suppress their naturally sinful instincts. If any stepped out of their prescribed roles, it was believed that they would be vulnerable to the temptations of Satan. Similar hierarchies in the larger society were expected to promote the same harmony. The most important was the religious hierarchy, with the minister at the top and the church elders below him, followed by the church members; at the bottom were the non-church members. By law everyone had to pay taxes to support the minister, attend church regularly, and conform to Puritan practices and precepts.

Church and State. All government was in the hands of the saints because they alone could understand and follow God’s will. Church membership was required of all adult men who wished to vote and hold political office. Female saints were excluded because they had men to represent their families. Local governance was most important in the lives of the townsfolk and was almost indistinguishable from the town church. Decisions were made in town meetings which adopted the consensus of the community, which they hoped was close to God’s will. The state was formally separated from the church even though they shared the same mission. The colony government was to pass laws to insure that all would walk in the path of righteousness and to punish those who strayed. If the government failed to maintain proper standards, God would punish the whole society. For instance, wage and price controls were established so that one individual could not profit at the expense of others. All of these regulations were based on biblical directives. There was not even a written code of laws until 1641 because it was assumed that the Bible contained all the laws that were necessary. Government officials also directed the establishment of schools. Education was crucial for all Puritans because God revealed himself in the Scriptures, nature, and history, all of which they needed to learn. At the least everyone had to be able to read the Bible. In 1647 the colony government passed the “Old Deluder Satan” law, instructing towns to establish schools for this purpose. Harvard College was founded in 1636 to educate aspiring ministers.

Variations. Not everyone conformed to the New England orthodoxy. Some could not justify infant baptism, believing that this sacrament should be a seal of the conversion of adults. These Baptists, as they later came to be called, also demanded a complete separation of church and state, and some even suggested that humans had the freedom of will to choose whether or not they would sin. Others advocated the presbyterian position that church membership should be open to all who agreed to live according to God’s commandments rather than only to those who were already saved and that congregations should relinquish some of their authority to higher councils of ministers and elders. In the interests of harmony, such deviants were counseled in love so that they might see the error of their disagreements, and if that failed they were banished from the colony. Roger Williams left Massachusetts Bay in 1636 and founded Rhode Island, where he established the first Baptist church. His colony welcomed people of all religious beliefs and allowed them to follow their consciences without fear of government interference. Such an environment attracted other exiles, such as Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from Massachusetts Bay in 1637 for adhering to a more mystical interpretation of Calvinism. The Society of Friends (Quakers), a more radical offshoot of puritanism, also settled on Rhode Island as a base from which they could fan out to proselytize through New England. The Puritan establishment considered the Friends to be the greatest threat, for they challenged not only its theology but also its society and government.

Decline. The challenges to Puritan control of New England increased after 1660 and exacerbated the internal threats to the cohesion of the society that accompanied a growth in population and economic prosperity. More people settled on isolated farms, away from churches and guardians of morality; merchants and wage workers put their individual needs above the community good; and non-Puritans arrived in greater force, seeking economic opportunity rather than religious cohesion. Fewer people believed they had been saved, and so smaller numbers were joining the church, thus denying their children the chance to be baptized. In desperation, some churches adopted the Half-Way Covenant, in which children of any baptized person could be baptized regardless of whether their parents were church members or not; others adopted the presbyterian position that anyone who led a moral life could become a church member and seek conversion within its fold. Meanwhile, Puritan officials were fighting to retain control of their colonies in the face of English threats to place them all under royal control. James II finally did so, revoking their charters and, in 1686, gathering Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New York into the Dominion of New England, ruled by a royal governor who was an Anglican. The Glorious Revolution ended this, but William and Mary did not restore their old charters. Instead Massachusetts Bay received a royal charter, which included Plymouth as well. Connecticut retained her self-government, but it too had to conform to the laws of England. The Puritans had become New Englanders, and their churches became known as Congregational.

Sources

Francis J. Bremer, The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards, revised edition (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1995);

Stephen Foster, Their Solitary Way: The Puritan Social Ethic in the First Century of Settlement in New England (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971);

David D. Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement: Popular Religious Beliefs in Early New England (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990);

Carla Pestana, Quakers and Baptists in Colonial Massachusetts (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

puritans. During the reign of the catholic Mary Tudor (1553–8) many hundreds of English protestants went into exile on the continent, where they experienced forms of worship which were ‘purer’ than those prescribed in the 1552 Prayer Book because they contained virtually no trace of catholicism. Returning to England at the beginning of Elizabeth I's reign, they hoped to create an established church closer to continental models, but the queen insisted on a comprehensive settlement. The Elizabethan church therefore retained a number of ‘impure’ ceremonial practices, which a minority of hard-line clergy refused to accept. They were harried by the government, under the name of ‘puritans’. The conforming majority, both clerical and lay, shared many of their reservations but were willing, albeit reluctantly, to obey the orders of their royal governor. They were helped by the fact that in its theology, if not its practice, the established church was calvinist. This remained the case under James I, despite the failure of the Hampton Court conference, but the accession of Charles I in 1625 brought the high-church arminians to power. By insisting that they alone constituted the true Church of England, and by calling all its low-church adherents puritans, the arminians drove the conforming majority into opposition. This opened the way to the destruction of the established church after the collapse of Charles's rule, but the victorious puritans were divided about how to replace it. The presbyterians wanted a state church similar but not identical to that in Scotland, whereas the independents insisted on autonomy for individual congregations. Matters were complicated by the proliferation of sects demanding freedom to worship as they pleased. Continuing puritan divisions throughout the Interregnum created a backlash which found expression in the re-establishment of the Church of England after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The legislation known as the Clarendon code imposed severe penalties upon nonconformists, and sporadic persecution of puritans continued until the Glorious Revolution. Only in 1689 did the Toleration Act permit protestant nonconformists to worship freely, but even so they remained officially barred from public life.

Roger Lockyer

puritans During the reign of the catholic Mary Tudor (1553–8) many English protestants went into exile on the continent, where they experienced forms of worship which were ‘purer’ than those prescribed in the 1552 Prayer Book because they contained virtually no trace of catholicism. Returning to England at the beginning of Elizabeth I's reign, they hoped to create an established church closer to continental models, but the queen insisted on a comprehensive settlement. They were harried by the government, under the name of ‘puritans’. The conforming majority, both clerical and lay, shared many of their reservations but were willing, albeit reluctantly, to obey the orders of their royal governor. They were helped by the fact that in its theology, if not its practice, the established church was Calvinist. This remained the case under James I, despite the failure of the Hampton Court conference, but the accession of Charles I in 1625 brought the high‐church Arminians to power. By calling all its low‐church opponents puritans, the Arminians drove the conforming majority into opposition. This opened the way to the destruction of the established church after the collapse of Charles's rule. Matters were complicated by the proliferation of sects demanding freedom to worship as they pleased. Continuing puritan divisions throughout the Interregnum created a backlash which found expression in the re‐establishment of the Church of England after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The legislation known as the Clarendon code imposed severe penalties upon nonconformists, and sporadic persecution of puritans continued until the Glorious Revolution.

Puritan A member of the more extreme English Protestants who were dissatisfied with the Anglican Church settlement and sought a further purification of the English Church from ROMAN CATHOLIC elements. Their theology was basically that of John CALVIN. At first they limited themselves to attacking ‘popish’ (Roman Catholic) practices - church ornaments, vestments, and organ music - but from 1570 extremists attacked the authority (episcopacy) of bishops and government notably in the Martin Marprelate tracts. However, James I resisted their attempts to change Anglican dogma, ritual, and organization, voiced at the HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE. In the 1620s some emigrated to North America, but it was the policies of LAUD and Charles I in the 1630s that resurrected the Puritan opposition of the 1580s. The doctrine of Predestination (that God ordains in advance those who shall receive salvation) became a major source of contention between the Puritans, for whom it was a fundamental article of faith, and the Arminians who rejected it. Religion was a key factor leading to the outbreak of civil war in 1642. Puritanism was strong among the troops of the NEW MODEL ARMY and in the 1640s and 1650s, with the encouragement of Cromwell, Puritan objectives were realized. After the Restoration they were mostly absorbed into the Anglican Church or into larger NONCONFORMISTS groups and lost their distinctive identity.

Puritans British Protestants who were particularly influential during the 16th and 17th centuries. They originated in the reign of Elizabeth I as a faction within the Church of England; their chief aim was to make it a truly Protestant Church, rather than an Anglo-Catholic one. Following the teachings of Calvin, they were initially opposed to Anglicanism because of its preoccupation with what they considered to be ‘Popish’ practice. However, they later demanded the establishment of Presbyterianism. In the 17th century, many of the parliamentary opponents of James I and Charles I were Puritans. Among them were the Pilgrims who emigrated to America. The English Civil War (1642–51) resulted from attempts by Puritan parliamentarians to block Charles I's policies on religious grounds. After the war, the Puritans' reached their in 1653, when Oliver Cromwell established the Protectorate. In 1660, the authority of the Church of England as an Anglican institution was re-established, although 30 years later Presbyterianism was accepted as the state-supported form of Christianity in Scotland. In England, the Puritans lived on as Dissenters. See also Nonconformism

Puritans. The more extreme English Protestants who, dissatisfied with the religious settlement of Elizabeth I, sought a further purification of the Church from supposedly unscriptural and corrupt forms along the Genevan model. Although never in the majority, they were powerful and influential. At first they attacked church ornaments, vestments, surplices, rochets, organs, the sign of the Cross, and ecclesiastical courts, and emphasized preaching, Sunday observance, and the ‘tablewise’ position of the altar. From the early 1570s the more extreme Puritans attacked episcopacy itself and advocated Presbyterianism. Elizabeth I bitterly opposed all Puritan attempts to change the C of E. On James I's accession they presented the Millenary Petition (1603), which led to the unsuccessful Hampton Court Conference (1604). By 1600 some Puritans had come to advocate Congregationalism. The Great Rebellion (sometimes called the ‘Puritan Revolution’) in and after 1642 led to the temporary triumph of Presbyterianism, but also to the proliferation of sects, and the term ‘Puritan’ ceased to be applicable after 1660.

Pu·ri·tan / ˈpyoŏritn/ • n. 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) a person with censorious moral beliefs, esp. about pleasure and sex. • adj. of or relating to the Puritans. ∎  (puritan) having or displaying censorious moral beliefs, esp. about pleasure and sex. DERIVATIVES: Pu·ri·tan·ism (also pu·ri·tan·ism) n.

Puritan a member of a group of English Protestants of the late 16th and 17th centuries who regarded the Reformation of the Church under Elizabeth as incomplete and sought to simplify and regulate forms of worship.

Oppressed under James I and Charles I, in particular by Archbishop Laud, many (such as the Pilgrim Fathers) emigrated to the Netherlands and America. The Civil War of the 1640s led to the temporary pre-eminence of Puritanism. Soon, however, the movement fragmented into sects, and the term Puritan began to be less used; after the Restoration such people tended to be called Dissenters or Nonconformists.

Puritan Protestant who aimed at further purification of Reformed doctrine and practice. XVI. f. late L. pūritās purity (cf. PURE) + AN.
Hence puritanic, puritanical XVII.