Puritan History :: essays research papers

in the 17th century some puritan groups separated from the Church of England. Among these were the Pilgrims, who in 1620 founded Plymouth Colony. Ten years later, under the egis of the Massachusetts Bay Company, the first major Puritan migration to in the rawborn England took place. The Puritans brought voiceless spectral impulses to bear in all colonies north of Virginia, but New England was their stronghold, and the Congregationalist church servicees established there were equal to(p) to perpetuate their view rate roughly a Christian society for more than 200 years. Richard Mather and John like provided clerical lead in the dominant Puritan colony place on Massachusetts Bay. Thomas Hooker was an example of those who settled new areas farther west according to traditional Puritan standards. Even though he broke with the authorities of the Massachusetts colony over questions of religious freedom, Roger Williams was also a true Puritan in his zeal for own(prenominal) god liness and doctrinal correctness. Most of these men held ideas in the mainstream of Calvinistic thought. In addition to believing in the absolute sovereignty of God, the total delinquency of man, and the complete dependence of human beings on divine grace for salvation, they emphasise the importance of personal religious experience. These Puritans insisted that they, as Gods elect, had the duty to direct subject affairs according to Gods will as revealed in the Bible. This union of church and state to form a holy commonwealth gave Puritanism direct and scoop shovel control over most colonial activity until commercial and political changes forced them to relinquish it at the end of the 17th century. Because of its diffuse nature, when Puritanism began to exacerbate in America is difficult to say. Some would hold that it lost its tempt in New England by the early 18th century, but Jonathan Edwards and his able disciple Samuel Hopkins revived Puritan thought and kept it alive unt il 1800. Others would point to the gradual decline in power of Congregationalism, but Presbyterians under the leadership of Jonathan Dickinson and Baptists led by the example of Isaac Backus (1724 - 1806) revitalized Puritan ideals in several(prenominal) denominational forms through the 18th century.