PURITANISM NOTES
(To be completed as you watch/listen to PP on my webpage)
I. Where does the term Puritan come from?( A) First used in ________________ to
_________________a group of people that wanted to __________ the Church of England.
B) 1641 Satirical Cartoon – What about Puritan worship is the artist mocking in the cartoon?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
II. Why did the Puritans want to break away from the Church of England?
A) The Church of England was too similar to which denomination? _______________________________
1) Issue of Disagreement: They felt the Anglican/Catholic form of worship strayed too far from the
________________________ of worship dictated by the New Testament of the Bible.
2) Issue of Disagreement: They didn’t believe there needed to be a _______________________ that
controlled churches.
According to Daniel Neale’s quote, for the Puritans, what are their criteria for worship?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3) Issue of Disagreement: In the Church of England _______________ appointed ministers. They felt
ministers should be elected by members of _____________________________________________.
4) Issue of Disagreement: They believed religion to be a
_______________________________________--that one did not need a priest or bishop or the
government to be a “middle man” to God.
III. Consequences of their disagreement with the Church of England
A) They suffered _________________________________________
B) As a result…they came to America in ____________________
IV. Puritan Beliefs
A) Certainties:
1) Adam and Eve ____________; therefore, most of humanity would be ___________ for eternity.
2) God decides who will be going to heaven ________________________.
B) Puritan Doubts:
1) Am I one of the “_____________” (the Puritan term for saved) or one of the damned?
2) How do you know if you’re ______________ or ________________?
C) The State of the Soul
There were two ways to uncover the state of your soul:
1) You were saved by the ____________ of God, and you could feel this grace arriving in an intensely
_____________________ fashion.
2) After receiving grace, you were “___________,” and you behaved like a _____________.
3) Because of this uncertainty, American Puritans attempted to live __________________ lives.
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What does the account of the mother in John Winthrop’s journal reveal about the difficulty of the
Puritan state of mind?__________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
V. What Puritans valued…
A) ________________--pulling yourself up by your bootstraps
B) ________________--hard work
Look at this excerpt from a Puritan sermon. What is idleness? (look it up)______________________
In the metaphor being idle is compared to what? ______________________________________
C) Self-restraint—from ____________ and _____________. List three behaviors from the chart
considered to be sins of the flesh: ______________________________________________________
D) Dress, worship, and architecture were… _______________________________________________
E) Education: _______________________________________________________________________
VI. Puritan Politics
A) Signed and wrote the _____________________--one of America’s first democratic documents….
B) Yet, they also lived under a ________________--a government ruled by God and religious leaders.
Believed the saintly “_______________” should be in charge
C) __________were not allowed to participate in _______ _____________ or decision making for the
church.
D) Believed the ___________ had the right to control its members for the sake of _________________.
VII. Puritan Writing
A) Main forms of writing during time period:_______________________________________________
B) Type of writing or reading NOT occurring yet in America:
_________________________________________________________________________________
VIII. The Difficult Side of Puritan Life (Go to PP: Puritan Notes Part II)
A) Many activities such as _____________ or games were considered sinful, not because they were
evil, but because they wasted time that should be devoted to __________________ _________.
B) Holidays such as _____________ were considered too _______________.
C) Two-man ________________ monitored church _________________ and town meetings
D) Minding other people’s ________________________ was common and encouraged.
E) The role of children: ___________________________________________________________
Why was the average Puritan family large? _________________________________________
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IX. Though They Have a Reputation for Being Strict:
A) The Puritans were a community that supported one another—gathering to “_______ ___ _________”
when building new farms and homes
C) There were ___________ with “potent cider”—mostly “ne’er-do-wells” hung out there. And the
Puritans did drink ___________.
D) It’s a myth that they wore only _________. They often dressed in __________ colors.
E) They were _________________ people who did enjoy celebrations.
F) And they ________________, while other new communities in America did not.
X. Native Americans and the Wilderness
A) Native Americans did _______________ once Puritans began taking
over their _____________.
B) _______________ and the desire for _______________ meant the
Puritans _______________ very few Native Americans.
C) The wilderness was feared and thought to be the
“______________________________.”
XI. The Salem Witch Trials
A) Salem’s name comes from _______________________.
B) In ________________ two girls began having fits and were diagnosed as victims of
__________________.
C) Urged to name those responsible for their condition, the girls accused two _____________________
women.
D) One could survive by __________________ to being a witch…and…by _________________ more
alleged witches.
E) Zealous ________________ and leaders made it their mission to rid Salem and all of Massachusetts
of witchcraft.
F) Within ten months, ____________________ people were accused of witchcraft in Salem.
G) _______________________innocent people were hanged and one was “pressed” to death.
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