| | by admin | | posted on 4th May 2023 in The English Revolution | | views 2407 | |
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, who sought to 'purify' the Church of England.
The word 'Puritan' came into general use in England during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I (1553 – 1558), usually as a term of derision. Today the word 'puritanical' has come to mean having or displaying a very strict or censorious moral attitude towards self indulgence or sex. However, the early Puritans were reformers and dissenters within the Church of England.
The early Puritans wanted to purge or 'purify' the Church of England of any traces of Catholic influence. English Puritans were known at first for their extremely critical attitude towards the religious compromises made during the reign of Elizabeth I.
Many were graduates of Cambridge University and became Church of England priests so they could reform their local churches. They encouraged direct personal religious experience, sincere moral conduct, and simple services of worship.
The movement drew its support from two principal groups of lay adherents. The first was a minority of nobles and gentry. The second was a much larger number of the “middling sort of people”, such as merchants, yeomen, and artisans, especially in London and the cloth working towns and villages across England.
The following were common values for most Puritans:
After James I (1566 – 1625) became king of England in 1603, Puritan leaders asked him to grant several reforms. That year they presented him with a manifesto of their demands.
In 1604, James I rejected most of their proposals, which included the abolition of bishops. In general, his religious policy aimed to maintain conformity and state control over the Church through the episcopacy.
James I did, however, in 1611 approve a new version of the Bible known today as the King James Version (KJV), which the Puritans favoured. Although the KJV went some way towards keeping the peace, continued persecution led many Puritans to separate from the Church of England and some left the country altogether.
Puritans went to Holland and Germany as well as the American colonies, most notably the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620.
Beginning early in the reign of Charles I (1600 – 1649), a close knit network of influential Puritans sponsored further colonial ventures, including Saybrook and Massachusetts Bay in New England and Providence Island in the Caribbean.
Puritans suspected Charles I of Catholic sympathies from the beginning of his reign. Both his marriage to the Catholic princess Henrietta Maria of France and Archbishop Laud’s attempts to impose tighter control on the Church of England were regarded with deep mistrust.
Laud himself regarded Puritanism as a greater threat to the Church of England than Roman Catholicism because of Puritan opposition to the existing church hierarchy.
Despite this opposition, during Charles I’s reign the Puritans persevered and became a political as well as a religious force. Several rose to prominent positions in society, including many Members of Parliament.
After the English Civil War Period broke out in 1642, most members of the Long Parliament who remained at Westminster were Puritan in outlook. After the defeat of the Royalists in the first civil war, religion began to dominate proceedings in Parliament.
Many Puritan demands were implemented, including the abolition of bishops from the Church of England. During the conflict, however, Puritan opinion became increasingly radicalised and sects such as the Fifth Monarchists emerged.
After the civil war years, the Commonwealth of England was established and ruled by the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, who attempted to create a broadly based national Church with toleration for law abiding Protestant sects.
Cromwell’s effort to reform public morals under the Rule of the Major Generals (1655 - 1657) proved unpopular, and the emergence of the Quakers during the 1650s, who opposed all organised churches, caused further alarm.
In general, however, Cromwell’s religious policy made steady progress towards reconciliation among the Puritan sects.
The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 also restored the Church of England and episcopal rule. Puritan clergy were expelled under the Act of Uniformity of 1662.
Thereafter, English Puritans were classed as Nonconformists and gradually lost the influence they once held. As a movement they declined, and those who remained joined other Protestant sects or emigrated to the American colonies.
The Puritans who sailed for the American colonies in 1620 aboard the Mayflower are generally regarded as separatists who sought religious freedom rather than 'puritanical' rule. However, many more Puritans emigrated from the 1630s onwards and attempted to impose strict religious discipline.
Most notably, they helped establish the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island. Enforcing their religious codes, many non Puritan settlers faced persecution, including the Boston Martyrs.
As the number of non Puritan settlers increased from across Europe, religious freedom gradually displaced Puritan dominance and the movement faded away.
