The Puritans
Brad Hutchinson
Academic English 11
Who were the Puritans?
Puritanism was a movement that attempted
to “purify” the Church of England by
eliminating all influences of the Catholic
Church.
Puritans and Calvinism
Puritanism was an outgrowth of the
teachings of John Calvin—Calvinism.
Separatists and Congregationalists
There were two main groups of Puritans—
the Separatists, who believed that the
church could not be reformed, and the
Congregationalists, who believed that
the church could be reformed.
The Puritans and the Bible
The Puritans believed that only the Bible
had any authority at all, that the Pope had
no religious authority. Since the Bible was
the only authority, a Christian would have
to be able to read. Thus, education
became important to them.
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Typology—the belief that a people are
reliving events from the Old Testament
and these events prefigure the return of
Christ.
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Election—God chooses people as the elect
(people who are saved) or as the damned.
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Original depravity—everyone is born a
sinner and is disgusting in the eyes of
God.
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Limited atonement—there really isn’t any
way to work toward being saved—no
salvation through good works
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Irresistible Grace—While there was a rumor
that a woman named Grace roamed the
Puritan settlements luring men from their
families to live in the wilderness, this is not
what “Irresistible Grace” means.
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Irresistible grace—God’s decision to make
someone of the elect cannot be
changed—once of the elect, always of the
elect.
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Predestination—God has chosen the elect
and the damned prior to the birth of a
person. Despite predestination, people
had to act as good people because of the
idea that God would only choose those
who were good so only people who acted
as if they were good would be of the elect.
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Doubt—since one could never really know if
one was of the elect, Puritans lived in
doubt—looking for signs from God in
everything. This led to meditation
poetry/writing.
Basic Puritan Beliefs
Puritan ethic—only hard work can show
that a person is of the elect, thus hard
work is important
Puritan Ideas on the Structure of
Communities
The individual must accept his or her place
in society.
God set up a hierarchy—men above
women, whites above all other races,
Protestant English above all other cultures
Puritan Writing
Conversion narrative/personal
narrative—to be a member of the church,
one had to give an account of how one
knew that he or she was one of the elect.
In the New World, a man could not own
land unless he was a church member.
Thus, these accounts, personal narratives,
became an important element of literature
at the time.
Puritan Writing
Sermons—Ministers of the Puritan church
would give sermons on Sundays to help
the members of their community
understand passages in the Bible. One of
the main types of writing we have from the
Puritans are sermons.
Puritan Writings
Biography—the Puritans wrote biographies to
show the workings of God in the lives of the
elect. They believed that His will was evident in
the workings of the world. They were tales
meant to teach about how the elect behaved. If
someone was writing a biography, he (or she, I
guess) could change events so that the workings
of God were more prominent. The lessons of
biography were much more important than the
truth. For the Puritans, biography was an
allegorical tool for the learning of God’s will.
Puritan Writings
Plain style—the Puritans believed that
ornate creations were like the workings of
the Catholic Church and thus they should
only make plain, unadorned things; thus,
their writing was also plain and unadorned.
Pilgrims
The ascension of James Stuart, a Catholic,
to the throne of England led a group of
Puritans to move to Holland where they
had to learn trades to support themselves.
They were separatists.
Pilgrims
Eventually, they decided to leave Holland
because they were afraid that their
children were growing up “too Dutch.”
Because of John Smith’s book about the
New World as a place of great riches, they
settled on the New World as their
destination. Not all the Puritans in Holland
went along. Many families left members
behind with the idea that they would send
for them once the colony was established.
Pilgrims
William Bradford led the Pilgrims.
Pilgrims
Mayflower Compact—a document created
by the Pilgrims on the voyage to the New
World to keep the peace amongst the
colonists. Here we see the idea that these
people thought of themselves as elected
in a secular sense as well as in a
religious sense.
Pilgrims
The Mayflower Compact stated that the
Pilgrims were to govern over a world of
“strangers” (people who were not Puritan).
By writing down this document and signing
it, they were showing the seriousness of
their secular belief. Written words were
akin to the written word of God. They
believed this document as something
written to handle problems not discussed
in the Bible.
Winthrop’s Group
1629—A group of Puritans—
Congregationalists—decided they had to
leave England so that the government
would not take their money. These folks
were wealthy and feared the loss of their
riches. So, they decided to go to the New
World where their wealth would be safe.
Winthrop’s Group
Winthrop was their leader. During the trip
over the sea on the Arabella, he gave the
famous sermon “A Model of
Christian Charity.”
Winthrop’s Group
Winthrop’s Puritans believed that the Church
of England could be reformed. Thus, their
colony would be an example of how a
Christian community should be. This
would give the world a model of a
Christian community to follow. They felt
they were a model for the Christian
nations of the world.
Winthrop’s Group
The type of government set up by these
colonists is a theocracy—a government
under the guidance of God.