Puritanism was a Protestant reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the 16th century. The Puritans believed that the English Reformation had not gone far enough in reforming the church and that too many Catholic practices remained. The name “Puritan” came from their desire to purify the church and their zeal for what they believed was correct worship and doctrine.
Some of the key beliefs of the Puritans included:
- A desire to purify the Church of England and create a church based solely on biblical principles
- Emphasis on preaching, studying Scripture, and the importance of individual piety and a holy life
- Rejection of any practices in worship or church governance that were not explicitly laid out in Scripture
- Belief in the sovereignty of God over all of life
- Emphasis on God’s grace and living a life of thankfulness and obedience to God’s law as an appropriate response to grace
- Importance of covenants between God and man, both individually and collectively in the church
- Stress on having a conversion experience and being able to demonstrate regeneration in one’s life
- Importance of preaching, as opposed to ritual, ceremony, or vestments, as the central focus of worship services
- Rejection of any secular interference in church affairs
- Desire for a church membership of visible saints, meaning those who could demonstrate evidence of conversion and salvation
- Stress on education so that all could read the Bible for themselves
- Belief that society as a whole should be governed by God’s laws and biblical principles
The Puritans believed that the Church of England retained too many practices similar to the Roman Catholic Church that were not rooted in Scripture, such as the use of vestments, the sign of the cross, bowing at the name of Jesus, and the use of wedding rings. They sought to eliminate any practice, ceremony, or office not explicitly laid out in the New Testament. This desire was fueled by their belief in sola scriptura, the authority of Scripture alone as the rule for faith and practice.
One of the earliest Puritan documents was the Admonition to Parliament in 1572, which called for a Presbyterian form of church government, discipline for clergy, and eliminating the role of bishops. It stirred significant controversy and led to renewed persecution of nonconformists.
As they were persecuted and unable to remake the Church of England to match their convictions, many Puritans chose to separate from the established church altogether. By the early 1600s, the term “Puritan” was increasingly being applied to this separatist group, rather than the reformers still within the Church of England.
The Puritans had a number of distinctive beliefs that developed over time:
Views on salvation and conversion
The Puritans believed salvation came through grace alone. But a key part of their theology focused on regeneration, the belief that salvation must yield a visible change in a believer’s life. They stressed that believers needed to examine their lives for evidence of salvation. This involved introspection and keeping diaries or journals to track one’s spiritual growth. The Puritans looked for signs that they were one of God’s elect, such as living a righteous life and having victory over sin.
Large numbers of Puritans experienced conversion, giving testimony to the working of God in their lives. These conversion experiences often happened to individuals reflecting alone, particularly as they encountered Scripture. The Puritans placed great emphasis on hearing and reading God’s Word.
The Puritan conversion experience was usually a gradual process, rather than a dramatic event. An awareness of their sinfulness produced despair followed by the hope of God’s forgiveness to those who confessed and resolved to lead godly lives. Over time, the Puritans increasingly emphasized a personal religious experience over church membership or participation in the sacraments.
Importance of covenants
Covenants shaped Puritan ecclesiology, or doctrine of the church. They emphasized the covenant between God and his elect as a theological framework. The covenant was an agreement between two parties that bestowed benefits and imposed obligations. Well-known Puritan preacher John Cotton wrote:
“Covenant is nothing else but a promised made of communicating good upon condition of doing or forbearing to do a reasonable thing propounded and accepted.” (Cotton, The New Covenant, 1654)
For the Puritans, righteous living was the proper human response to the covenant they believed God established with the church. Their church covenants aimed to codify righteous behavior based on God’s law. Churches utilized covenants to determine standards for admissions, carrying out discipline, and other aspects of congregational life.
At the individual level, personal covenants drove the Puritan approach to piety and righteous living. Many Puritans wrote out formal covenants dedicating themselves and their lives to serve God.
Emphasis on God’s sovereignty
The Puritans had a strong belief in God’s sovereignty. They believed God ruled over creation down to the smallest details, a doctrine known as providence. They believed that God’s providence governed the universe and their lives. According to Puritan theology, humanity’s primary duty was to accept God’s sovereignty and submit their lives to God’s will.
This belief carried over into secular life and government. Many Puritan colonists believed in a nation’s covenant with God. They emphasized Old Testament principles for ordering a godly society ruled by God’s laws. While they did not envision a theocracy, the Puritans aimed for a tight overlap between church and state in society and governance.
Importance of Scripture and preaching
Central to Puritan belief was the authority of Scripture over church traditions or hierarchies. The Bible was the ultimate authority and rule for all matters of faith and practice. To understand God’s will, believers needed to study Scripture diligently. This led to a high degree of biblical literacy and piety in Puritanism.
The sermon was the focal point of Puritan worship services. Elaborate ceremonies, rituals, and decorations were rejected in favor of preaching and hearing God’s Word. Sermons aimed to expound the plain meaning of Scripture and draw out principles for righteous living.
Many Puritans kept written accounts of sermons they heard, reflecting on the biblical truths. These sermon notes nurtured their growth in spiritual disciplines and doctrine. The Puritans’ emphasis on preaching and sermon-hearing promoted learning and shaped their society.
Importance of education
In order to read and understand Scripture for themselves, the Puritans placed a strong emphasis on education. This was unusual for the time period. The Puritans believed that Satan kept men in ignorance in order to better deceive them. Education was viewed as a means to overcome ignorance and resist Satan.
Massachusetts Law of 1647 known as the “Old Deluder Satan Act” mandated that towns with over 50 families hire a schoolmaster to teach reading and writing. Larger towns were required to have Latin grammar schools to prepare students for college, so they could become ministers.
New England became one of the most literate societies in the world, with between 60-70 percent of men in Puritan colonies able to read and write. This compared to 48 percent literacy among men in England at the time.
Leading Puritan ministers like John Cotton, Richard Mather, John Davenport and Thomas Hooker were all graduates of Cambridge University in England. The Puritan emphasis on preaching and Bible reading necessitated a learned ministry. This motivated them to establish colleges like Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Princeton to train new ministers.
Rejection of religious holidays
The Puritans eliminated feast days, religious holidays and saints’ days from the liturgical calendar because they believed they had no biblical basis. They rejected Christmas, Easter and feast days like All Saint’s Day, which they associated with Catholicism. Instead, they emphasized weekly and monthly days of fasting, humiliation and thanksgiving.
Some Puritans objected to Christmas specifically because they associated it with paganism and Roman Catholicism. During the Interregnum period when England was under Puritan rule, Christmas was banned by Parliament in 1647. The ban was revoked after the Restoration in 1660.
While the Puritans eliminated festivals and holidays, they still supported regularly keeping the Sabbath holy. Puritan Sabbath observance was strict, banning recreations and requiring attendance at Sunday services and private devotions.
Plain dress and living
In their early days in England, Puritans were identified by their plain dress that rejected extravagant fashions of the day. As Puritans emigrated to America, this was relaxed somewhat but they still emphasized plain dress, especially among clergy. They avoided bright colors and forbidden adornments, like lace and hoods.
Likewise, Puritan living focused on necessity and rejected excess and indulgence. Houses were plain and furniture was functional. Meals were simple but abundant. The emphasis was on living simply with moderation in all things.
The Puritans’ plain style of living was driven by their spiritual values rather than economic circumstances. They believed in living by what was needed rather than excess and extravagance.
Importance of family and marriage
Puritan theology elevated the importance of family and healthy marriages. From the earliest days of settlement in America, Puritans viewed marriage and childrearing as central to community life and godliness.
Marriages were religious covenants made before God. The purpose of marriage was to rear godly children and build godly homes. Large families were common. The Puritan view of marriage expected lifelong commitment from both partners.
While divorce existed, it was rare in Puritan colonies. However, the death of a spouse was frequent. Remarriage was common and considered acceptable for younger widows and widowers. Overall, the Puritans placed a high value on marriage and family responsibilities.
Church membership
The Puritans believed that church membership should consist of visible saints, or those who could prove they were among God’s elect. This differed significantly from the Church of England’s practice of territorial membership – if you lived in a parish, you belonged to the parish church whether you were a believer or not.
Puritan church membership was voluntary. It required a public testimony of conversion and sound doctrine before the congregation. The clergy and congregation jointly decided whether the person gave suitable evidence of God’s grace in their lives to be admitted into church membership.
Full membership allowed participation in communion and baptism. Those not yet admitted to full membership were known as “partial members” and attended services but could not partake in the ordinances.
Church governance
The Puritans rejected centralized church hierarchy, believing instead in local church autonomy. This was based on their view that the Bible did not establish bishops or ecclesiastical superstructures over local congregations.
Each independent Puritan church was congregationally governed, with final authority vested in the lay members. Male church members elected their ministers and officers. There were no bishops or superintendents over groups of churches.
While autonomous, churches often looked to ministers or synods to provide counsel on disputed matters of doctrine and practice. The Cambridge Platform of 1648 outlined a system of checks and balances between congregational independence and the needs of voluntary associations of churches at the synod level.
Church discipline
An important aspect of Puritan ecclesiology was the use of church discipline to correct wayward members. Church covenants outlined standards of appropriate conduct based on Scripture. Members who broke covenant were subject to admonition and possible excommunication.
The goals of church discipline were to correct sin, protect the church’s purity as separated from the world, and promote repentance and restoration of the wayward member. Excommunication was used as a last resort for those unrepentant.
This system of discipline aimed to nurture holiness and righteous conduct among members. It also protected the church’s witness and distinguished it from the profane world by holding members to a high standard of godliness.
Role of civil authorities
While Puritan churches were independent in governing themselves, they accepted the authority of civil magistrates in the broader society. With some exceptions, the Puritans affirmed that civil authorities were ordained by God to promote lawful order and punish wrongdoing (Romans 13:1-7).
However, Puritan ministers and magistrates came into conflict at times over the extent of civil authority versus spiritual authority. Issues like vestments or church governance might put these two sources of authority at odds.
For the most part, New England Puritan churches and magistrates had an amicable relationship supporting each other during the early decades of settlement. This tension emerged later in disputes like the Anne Hutchinson controversy or over baptism and church membership requirements for citizenship.
Relationship to the Church of England
The question of separation from the established church was a defining issue for Puritans. Puritans never completely separated from the Church of England before emigrating to America. The founders of Massachusetts Bay colony were nonseparating Puritans who sought to reform the church from within.
However, the early Massachusetts colonists functioned independently once in New England. Other Puritans like the Pilgrims did formally separate and break all ties with the Church of England.
Congregationalist theology became dominant in New England and a separatist impulse fueled later colonization efforts. While there was diversity among Puritan groups, a separatist leaning became predominant during the Great Migration of Puritans to America in the 1630s.
Relationship to Church of Rome
The Puritans were strongly opposed to the Roman Catholic Church. They rejected its ecclesiastical hierarchy, rituals and liturgy as unbiblical and corrupt. In many ways, Puritan theology defined itself in opposition to Catholicism.
During the reign of Queen Mary Tudor in England, hundreds of English Protestants were executed under the effort to restore Catholicism as the state church. This planted a deep animosity toward Catholicism among Puritans and other Protestants.
The Pope was seen as Antichrist by most Puritans. Fears of Jesuit conspiracies and Catholic threats were common during the early decades of Puritan settlement in America.
While intensely anti-Catholic in theology, Puritan New England did not experience much direct Catholic threat or presence. However, animosity toward Catholicism remained strong among Puritans on both sides of the Atlantic.
Decline of Puritanism
After their heyday of influence in the 1600s, Puritanism began to decline in the late 17th century and into the 18th century for several reasons:
- As colonial populations grew and diversified, the Puritan vision for tightly knit religious societies was diluted.
- The half-way covenant allowed partial membership for those not converted, watering down membership standards.
- transmission from one generation to the next tended to make faith dry, formal and less experiential.
- Enlightenment rationality began elevating reason about faith and empiricism over Scripture.
- laxer standards for clergy lowered qualifications and preaching quality.
- revival movements like Pietism and Methodism overtook Puritanism.
By the time of the American Revolution, Puritanism had faded from prominence and wider intellectual movements had shifted America’s religious and philosophical landscape.
Remnants of Puritan thought continued to influence American Protestantism. Puritan writings have remained influential among modern evangelicals. But as a dominant social and religious force, Puritanism essentially ended by 1750.
Nevertheless, Puritanism made a significant stamp on history that shaped early America. Their emphasis on covenant theology, conversion and holiness left a mark on colonial culture. The Puritans’ wide influence and clash with England made an impact that still echoes today.