Puritan New England
The World of the Puritans
Who were the Puritans?
•
Religious “dissenters”
–
–
–
Protestant Reformation spreads to England in the 1530s
Church of England (Anglican Church) formed
Puritans want Church of England to eliminate all traces of
Catholicism
•
•
•
–
–
Hierarchy (priests, bishops, etc).
Vestments
Incense, statuary, etc.
Individual “congregations” should be able to hire/fire
ministers.
Two groups:
•
•
Puritans  stay within Church of England and want to reform it
Separatists  form separate congregations
New England Colonies
•
Plymouth Colony
–
–
Founded 1620 by a group of Separatists fleeing England
Mayflower Compact –
•
–
Agreement in which all males agree to form a gov’t and obey the
laws
William Bradford
•
•
First governor of Plymouth
Author of history
“Of Plymouth Plantation”
The New England Colonies
• Massachusetts Bay Colony
–
–
–
Founded 1630
John Winthrop
Self-Government
• Massachusetts Bay Company headquarters are in
Massachusetts, making it virtually independent of ties
to England
–
Great Puritan Migration
• 1630-1640: 20,000 English emigrate to New England
The Puritan Worldview
•
Goals of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
–
“A City Upon a Hill”
•
•
•
A holy commonwealth
Goal is a Puritan colony…therefore not tolerant of other religious
expressions
Roger Williams
–
–
•
exiled for questioning “forced religion” & taking of native American
lands.
Founds Providence, Rhode Island.
Anne Hutchinson
–
–
–
–
began preaching that Puritans did not need the church or its
ministers.
Real crime? A woman challenging authority…
“You have rather bine a Husband than a Wife, a Preacher than a
Hearer, and a Magistrate than a Subject” – John Winthrop to Anne
Hutchinson.
Banished and goes to Rhode Island.
The Puritan Way of Life
•
Democracy
–
–
–
–
•
All adult male church members may vote
40% of the colony…larger percentage of voters than
anywhere in the world
“Freemen” elect members to a General Court, which then
elected the Governor.
Town Meetings…
Education
–
–
Literacy was critical
“Old Deluder Law” 1647 –
•
•
–
Required all towns to provide for a public school
Purpose?
Harvard College 1636
The Puritan Way of Life
• Theocracy
–
–
–
Church and state are heavily intertwined
Laws enforced morality – Blue Laws
Laws against idleness…
• “Puritan Work Ethic”
The Puritan Worldview
•
Both the Separatists and the Puritans were steeped
in Calvinist theology. In specific, they believed:
1. God is omniscient and omnipresent, and “Divine
Providence” directly intervenes in the affairs of
everyday life.
2. Death is inevitable and is God’s punishment for
original sin.
3. Some (“the elect”) will receive eternal salvation as a gift
from God, but all deserve eternal damnation and most
will receive it.
4. Evil spirits and evil men occupy the earth and are
seeking to interfere with the Puritan’s godly
community.
5. The invisible world is real.