[responsivevoice_button]
I think the Puritans get a bad rap. In our modern times, which are marked with a quest for individual rights and sexual freedom, Puritan has come to mean a religious snob who does his best to keep people from having fun. H.L. Mencken was an American Journalist around the turn of the last century and he summed up this popular image of Puritanism as “the haunting fear the someone, somewhere may be happy.”
I’d like to do away with this notion of Puritans, and remind you that the original Puritans were pushing for change and a new way in England. They had little confidence in traditional religion, and they sought to shape society according to biblical principles. This zeal to purify the church of England was burning because of their eager reading of the popular English versions of the Bible.
From John Wycliffe’s first translation of the New Testament in 1382, there would not be another translation of the New Testament until William Tyndale in 1525. The New Testament was joined with the Old Testament in future versions after Tyndale was killed. The Tyndale Bible would be the standard translation that inspired others until the King James Authorized version of 1611. The most notable other Bible in this gap was the Geneva Bible. It is called “Geneva” because it was the work of many of the exiles who left Britain during the reign of Queen Mary and took refuge in Geneva.
More than the Bible, Puritans also enjoyed other books like John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs that was written just after Elizabeth I came to the throne replacing Mary I and restoring Protestantism. It catalogs the stories of Christians and their persecution especially at the hands of the Catholic church with a particular focus on England and Scotland.
In fact, the book wasn’t originally titled Book of Martyrs, that was just a nickname that stuck. The actual full title is “Acts and Monuments of these latter and perilous days, touching matters of the Church, wherein are comprehended and described the great persecutions and horrible troubles that have been wrought and practiced by the Romish prelates, especially in this realm of England and Scotland, from the year of our Lord 1000 unto the time now present; gathered and collected according to the true copies and writings certificatory, as well of the parties themselves that suffered, as also out of the bishops’ registers, which were the doers thereof.” Catchy right?
Watch the video below and take some notes. I’ve included some summary thoughts below as well.
How did we get to James VI and I?
Elizabeth I is sometimes known as the Virgin Queen because she never married or had kids. Since she left no heir, the line jumped up to Henry VIII’s older sister Margaret Tudor who had married the King of Scotland and even ruled for a short time herself.
Their daughter Mary, Queen of Scots had a son who came to the Scottish throne after Mary. He was James VI of Scotland, and the English crown passed to him joining Scotland and England for the first time under one crown. This was the end of the Tudor dynasty and the beginning of the Stuart Kings. The picture below should help if you are confused.
Separatists
James VI and I, as he is often listed, was Catholic like his mother, but not in an extreme way. He will continue many of the same policies as Elizabeth I towards religion. He will encourage conformity to the official teachings of the Church of England and anyone who is pushing for further reform will be mostly ignored for advancement. James even conceded to the creation of a new Bible, which pleased the Puritans. This Bible would come to be known as the Authorized Version or King James Version.
James was tolerant and his reign was peaceful. There wasn’t any real persecution of the Puritans under James. The distinction should be made here between Puritans who were willing to conform to the church, but pushed for reform from within, and the Separatists who held the same views as the Puritans but decided to leave and do their own thing. Some of these Separatists take this opportunity and break loose of the Church of England and form their own congregations. They weren’t hunted down and forced to rejoin the Anglican church.
For instance, a group of Separatists founded by a man named John Smyth studied the Bible and did not see the practice of baptizing infants present at all. Smyth and 40 members of his congregation all voted that the church should be made up of those who have made a confession of faith in Jesus Christ and that baptism should be reserved for those alone. It was 1609 and this was the first English Baptist Church.
Another group of these Separatists heard of an English colony that had been planted in the New World in 1607. It was risky, but a number thought that perhaps this new continent was the answer to their prayers. In 1620, a company of about a hundred set sail on a ship called The Mayflower. After the two-month-long journey, the Pilgrim Fathers stepped forth in what we call Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Civil War and Puritanism
This would all change when James’ son, Charles I comes to the throne. Charles I would seek to be a king with absolute authority. This didn’t go over well in England where the monarchy had limitations to their power going all the way back to the Magna Carta. This would turn violent in a civil war.
The Parliament was heavily influenced by Puritans, but Charles would almost spitefully support anti-Puritan theology. This was seen as an affront and a failure in his role as the Supreme Head of the Church in England. For about a decade, they do away with the monarchy and establish a Protectorate under a figure named Oliver Cromwell. This protectorate condemns the king to execution.
During this Civil War, we see the Westminster Assembly where Puritan theologians were called together and were charged with the task of creating a new form of worship and church government for the Church of England. They met from 1643-1649 and produced the Westminster Confession of Faith as well as a Catechism to be used in the churches. Many orthodox Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches still use these documents to this day.
After this period, Charles II would be invited back to the throne and he would quickly move to push those Puritans and Separatists seen as a threat to either forget their objections and conform, leave as many did filling the Colonies with all sorts of religious diversity. In 1662, over two-thousand ministers were ejected from the Church of England by the Act of Uniformity. This is where the idea of the Pilgrims coming to the New World to flee religious persecution comes from. This is not the way it started, but during and after the Civil War, many left to find space for their various religious beliefs.
We live in a country that highly values the kind of religious diversity and tolerance that the Puritans and Separatists were fighting for. How would things be different today if they had not stood up for their beliefs and just followed the status quo? Please put your questions or comments down in the discussion board below.
Pingback: Conquest and Conversion – Mr. Mauldin's Class
Pingback: Church History Quiz 1 – Mr. Mauldin's Class
i find it ironic how every time a group of people take down a leader and then reinstate a the same leader, the leader starts tearing down any kind of revolt that could come up. then by tearing down everything they end up making a BIGGER revolt. Also, do we put our comments here or on the class discustion board on lms?
Comments go on here.
i didnt know that the parlimaent was hevily bases off of the putritans
if charles the first knew that it was a monarchy then why would he ask for full power did he know it was gonna make a civil war?
He didn’t ask for full power, he just took it because he felt like that is what kings deserve. Well, the people had a different idea about what kings deserve.
I learned that Mary queen of Scots had a son named James VI who made the King James Version Bible.
Golly, there are a ton of Anne’s and Henry’s and Catherine’s and Elizabeth’s and James’ and Mary’s! I did not know that there was a change in dynasty.
I learned that Puritans didn’t start with the Pilgrims and they came way before. Like Kyra said, I also didn’t know there was a change in dynasty
If the puritans get a bad rap, why are they known as “the haunting fear that someone somewhere might be good”? Is Oliver Cromwell related to Thomas Cromwell or is it a completely different family? I learned that people have mixed views about puritans, and I thought that puritans were influential and important figures in history.
People later on made that quote to say that Puritans were only known for being kill joys, as if they were afraid of anyone anywhere having any fun. And that’s just not true.
As far as the Cromwell family goes, Oliver’s great-great-grandfather, Morgan Williams, married Thomas Cromwell’s sister Katherine in 1497.
I didn’t know that Mary’s son James created the King James Bible. He was kind of like the calm reign in between Queen Mary and Elizabeth and Charles l
Did any people back then think about how beheading wasn’t really the best way to kill someone
It’s probably more humane than a lot of the ways that we have thought up killing people in the past (burning at the stake, impalement, drawn and quartered, disemboweling, crucifixion, etc.)
Pingback: What is Religious Freedom? – Mr. Mauldin's Class
It’s so weird how they came up with names in Rome