Puritan New England

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Puritan New England

• The World of the Puritans

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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

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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
  govt and obey the laws
• William Bradford
• First governor of Plymouth
• Author of history Of Plymouth Plantation

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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

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The Puritan Worldview

• Goals of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
• A City Upon a Hill
• A holy commonwealth
• Goal is a Puritan colonytherefore 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.

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The Puritan Way of Life

• Democracy
• All adult male church members may vote
• 40 of the colonylarger 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

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The Puritan Way of Life

• Theocracy
• Church and state are heavily intertwined
• Laws enforced morality Blue Laws
• Laws against idleness
• Puritan Work Ethic

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The Puritan Worldview

• Both the Separatists and the Puritans were
  steeped in Calvinist theology. In specific, they
  believed
• God is omniscient and omnipresent, and Divine
  Providence directly intervenes in the affairs of
  everyday life.
• Death is inevitable and is Gods punishment for
  original sin.
• Some (the elect) will receive eternal salvation
  as a gift from God, but all deserve eternal
  damnation and most will receive it.
• Evil spirits and evil men occupy the earth and
  are seeking to interfere with the Puritans godly
  community.
• The invisible world is real.