Puritanism

Wording taken from my textbook

The American Tradition in Literature Vol. 1  4^th ed.  By Bradley, Beatty, Long, Perkins, 1974.

The earliest English Puritans were devout members of the Church of England wishing to simplify the creeds and rituals of the bishops, but still no official break was intended.  But in 1633, Archbishop Laud became the tyrant determined to root out “Calvinist” dissenters, both Presbyterians and Puritans.  The Puritans carried the tenets of John Calvin (1509-1564) most closely, but were unwilling to submit to the abusive and cruel laws.  The ideas of Martin Luther (1483-1546) the earlier reformer, later became a permanent influence on American democracy.  However, Luther’s authority was shattered wherever his words were received.  The Calvin doctrine believed, like the Catholics, that the church should be independent.  The state should be its servant.  So in early New England the leading clergymen, powerful and well-trained were for a time the dominating authority, but by 1700 their civil powers were crumbling under new secular influence.  Calvin and the Puritans put emphasis on man’s original sin, with Adam’s fall from grace, and nothing could mitigate the original sinfulness of his nature.  This gave the Puritan stereotype the dour, prudish standards for which they are known.  Yet the Puritans in general were lovers of life, their clergy were well educated scholars, they did not forbid gaily colored clothes (they were just not available), they developed pleasing architecture and good arts and crafts, they like the drink even if they despised the drunkard, and they made religious thought a rigorous intellectual discipline.  They were the colonists to insist on common schools, they had the first college (Harvard 1636), the first printing press (Cambridge 1638), and they were responsible for the abundant literature created in the colonies before 1740.   In their influence on American life, there is more to bless them for than to condemn.  They DID have extreme zealots among them, over-interpreting their dogmas and despising this mortal life in contrast to the next.  The same zealots, during an outbreak of hysterical superstition, persecuted the “witches.”