Z
zeez
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......their asses would be in the stocks or burned at the stake. 
(no drinking, no dancing, no football on TV, no giant SUV...........)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan
A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking
"purity" of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected
the Laudian reform of the Church of England. Those who sought further
reform of liturgy and theology away from that of the Roman Catholic
Church and those who justified separation from the Church of England
following the Elizabethan Religious Settlement are commonly called
"Puritans" by historians and critics. Later groups are called
"puritan," not necessarily favorably, by comparison to these low
church Anglicans and Calvinistic Non-conformists.
Contents
[hide]
1 Terminology
2 History
o 2.1 1559 to 1625
o 2.2 1625 to 1660
o 2.3 From 1660 to present day
3 Beliefs
4 Family Life
5 Education
6 Controversy
7 Orthography
8 See also
9 Further reading
10 External links
[edit] Terminology
Originally used to describe a third-century sect of strictly
legalistic heretics, the word "Puritan" is now applied unevenly to a
number of Protestant churches from the late 16th century to the
present. Puritans did not originally use the term for themselves. It
was a term of abuse that first surfaced in the 1560s. "Precisemen" and
"Precisions" were other early antagonistic terms for Puritans who
preferred to call themselves "the godly." The word "Puritan" thus
always referred to a type of religious belief, rather than a
particular religious sect. To reflect that the term encompasses a
variety of ecclesiastical bodies and theological positions, scholars
today increasingly prefer to use the term as a common noun or
adjective: "puritan" rather than "Puritan."[citation needed]
The single theological momentum most consistently self-centered by the
term "Puritan" was Reformed or Calvinist and led to the founding of
the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Congregationalist churches;[citation
needed] In the United States, the church and religious culture of the
Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony formed the basis of post-
colonial American Congregationalism, specifically the Congregational
Church proper. The term Puritan was used by the group itself mainly in
the 16th century, though it seems to have been used often and, in its
earliest recorded instances, as a term of abuse. By the middle of the
17th century, the group had become so divided that "Puritan" was most
often used by opponents and detractors of the group, rather than by
the practitioners themselves. As Patrick Collinson has noted, well
before the founding of the New England settlement "Puritanism had no
content beyond what was attributed to it by its opponents." The
practitioners knew themselves as members of particular churches or
movements, and not by the simple term.
[edit] History
[edit] 1559 to 1625
Puritanism seems to have risen out of discontent with the Elizabethan
Religious Settlement, which was felt by the more radical Protestants
to be giving in to "Popery" (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church). While
Protestant movements in Europe were driven by issues of theology and
had broken radically with Catholic models of church organization, the
English Reformation had brought the Church under control of the
monarchy while leaving many of its religious practices intact. In the
eyes of the Puritans, doctrine had been made unacceptably subservient
to politics. Persecuted under Mary I of England ("Bloody Mary"),
Protestants like Thomas Cartwright, Walter Travers, and Andrew
Melville had gone into exile as Puritans in Europe, where they came
into close contact with the magisterial reformers in Calvinist Geneva
and Lutheran Germany. These contacts shaped their position towards
Elizabeth's religious via media (middle way).
Although all influenced by Calvinism, Puritans were not united on
every issue. This reflects the origins of the movement, which
developed through several phases. They shared a belief that all
existing churches had become corrupted by practice, by contact with
pagan civilizations (particularly that of Rome), and by the
impositions of kings and popes. They all argued for a restructuring
and "purifying" of church practice through biblical supremacy and
shared, to one degree or another, a belief in the priesthood of all
believers. However, they differed from one another on issues of church
polity (organization of church power).
Because the puritans were simply the informed, committed and
relatively radical Protestants, they wanted the Church of England to
resemble more closely the Protestant churches of Europe, especially
the church of Geneva. Puritans objected to ornaments and ritual in
churches (vestments, musical organs, genuflection) as idolatrous,
denouncing them as "popish pomp and rags." (See Vestments
controversy.) They also objected to ecclesiastical courts. They
refused to endorse completely all of the ritual directions and
formulas of the Book of Common Prayer; the imposition of its
liturgical order by legal force and inspection sharpened Puritanism
into a definite opposition movement.
By the 1570s, Puritans were arguing for a Presbyterian model or a
Congregationalist model, but all were outspoken in their criticism of
the structure and liturgy that the monarchy required. Attempts by the
bishops of the Church of England to enforce uniformity of usage in the
Book of Common Prayer turned the episcopal hierarchy into a specific
target of their grievances. Tracts such as the Martin Marprelate
series lampooned the government and the church hierarchs.
The issue of church hierarchy was difficult, and Elizabeth sponsored
Richard Hooker to write Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity to
counter Presbyterian arguments. Hooker writes in direct refutation of
the "brothers of the Geneva Church," outlining a via media for the
English church that, rather than eliminating doctrine, offered a set
of specifically ordained rules. His thinking on the matter became the
backbone of the Anglican Church and would later be put to use by
Archbishop William Laud.
These radicals were looked down on by the dominant faction in the
Church of England and were given the name "Puritan", in mockery of the
radicals' apparent obsession with "purifying" the Church.
Contemporarily with the English Reformation, the Church of Scotland
had been reformed on a Calvinist Presbyterian model which many
Puritans hoped to extend to England. When James VI of Scotland became
James I of England, he appointed several known Puritans to powerful
positions within the Church of England and checked the rise in power
of William Laud. Nevertheless, he was not a Puritan and regarded them
with great suspicion, viewing the Puritan movement as potentially
dangerous to the royal control of the Church. He authorized the King
James Bible in part to reinforce Anglican orthodoxy against the Geneva
Bible. Popular among Puritans, the Geneva Bible had anti-royalist
translations and interpolated revolutionary notes. Luther had called
for vernacular Bible translations and church services; for the
Puritans, who believed in biblical supremacy, having an English-
language Bible was of paramount importance.
Each new round of political disappointments during this period faced
each individual Puritan and the Puritan congregations with a new
crisis. The question was whether they should continue in outward
conformity with a distasteful religious regime, or should they take
the separatist and illegal step of withdrawal from the state church?
Each fresh controversy led to a new round of schisms, and, as such,
the groundwork was set for the eventual heirs of Puritanism, from the
"low-church" Protestant and Evangelical wing of the Church of England,
to the various dissenting sects.
[edit] 1625 to 1660
During the reign of Charles I, a committed High Churchman, relations
soured and it is generally held among historians that religious
tensions created by the dominance of the Laudian faction during the
Personal Rule were a major factor in the outbreak of the English Civil
War. Puritans certainly agitated against the King, and reform of the
religion was a rallying cry for the Parliamentary forces. However,
Puritanism by this point had become not merely a religion, but a
cultural entity.
By this time, Puritans were more often referred to as Dissenters.
Since English Dissenters were barred from any profession that required
official religious conformity, Puritans became instrumental in a
number of new industries. They dominated the export/import business
and were eager to colonize the New World. With the flourishing of the
trans-Atlantic trade with America, Puritans in England were growing
quite wealthy. Similarly, the artisan classes had become increasingly
Puritan. Therefore, the economic issues of the English Civil War (tax
levies, liberalization of royal charters), the political issues of the
English Civil War (purchasing of peerages, increasing discontent
between the House of Lords and the people, rebellion over the attempt
to introduce a Divine right of kings by Charles I), and the religious
tensions were all bound together into a general dispute that pitted
Church of England Cavaliers against Puritan Roundheads.
Puritan factions played a key role in the Parliamentarian victory and
became a majority in Parliament, after the withdrawal of royalists and
the forcible exclusion of those who wished to continue negotiation
with the King. In due course, the Puritan military leader Oliver
Cromwell became head of the English Commonwealth. In the Commonwealth
period, the Church of England was removed from royal control and
reorganized to grant greater authority to local congregations, most of
which developed in a Puritan and semi-Calvinist direction. There was
never an official Puritan denomination; the Commonwealth government
tolerated a somewhat broader debate on doctrinal issues than had
previously been possible, and considerable theological and political
conflict between Puritan factions continued throughout this period.
The label "Puritan" fell out of use when their movement became the
status quo; it was replaced by the broader term Nonconformist, which
was used after the English Restoration to refer to all Protestant
denominations outside of the official Church. The pejorative name
"Dissenter" (for non-Conforming Anglicans, as opposed to Roman
Catholics) was also used.
Many Puritans emigrated to North America in the 1620-1640s because
they believed that the Church of England was beyond reform. However,
most Puritans in both England and New England were non-separatists.
They continued to profess their allegiance to the Church of England
despite their dissent from Church leadership and practices.
Most of the Puritans who emigrated settled in the New England area.
However, the Great Migration of Puritans was relatively short-lived
and not as large as is often believed.[1] It began in earnest in 1629
with the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and ended in 1642
with the start of the English Civil War when King Charles I
effectively shut off emigration to the colonies. From 1629 through
1643 approximately 21,000 Puritans emigrated to New England,[2]. This
is actually far less than the number of British subjects who emigrated
to Ireland, Canada, and the Caribbean during this time. (see Great
Migration)
The Great Migration of Puritans to New England was primarily an exodus
of families. Between 1630 and 1640 over 13,000 men, women, and
children sailed to Massachusetts. The religious and political factors
behind the Great Migration influenced the demographics of the
emigrants. Rather than groups of young men seeking economic success
(as predominated Virginia colonies), Puritan ships were laden with
"ordinary" people, old and young, families as well as individuals.
Just a quarter of the emigrants were in their twenties when they
boarded ship in the 1630s, making young adults not predominant in New
England settlements. The New World Puritan population can be seen as
more of a cross section in age of English population than those of
other colonies. This meant that the Massachusetts Bay Colony retained
a relatively "normal" population composition. In contrast to the
Chesapeake colony in Virginia, where the ratio of men to women was 4:1
in early decades and at least 2:1 in later decades, nearly half of the
Puritan emigrants to the New World were women. The majority of
families who traveled to Massachusetts Bay were families in progress,
with parents who were at not through with their reproductive years and
whose continued fertility would make New England's population growth
possible. The women who emigrated were critical agents in the success
of the establishment and maintenance of the Puritan colonies in North
America. Success in the early colonial economy depended largely on
labor, which was conducted by members of Puritan families. It was
through this labor that Puritans endeavored to create their "city on a
hill", a productive, morally exemplary colony far from the corruption
of the Church of England.
New England society rested on the rock of the Puritan family,
economically and religiously. Women were thus entrusted with the
responsibility of ensuring that children grew into virtuous Puritan
adults. This new moral and religious significance given to everyday
life, marriage, and family brought women's activities into the
spotlight. Although the patriarch directed work and devotion within
the family, the proof of success in the New World was in a harmonious
marriage and godly children- both of which fell under the jurisdiction
of the Puritan female. The success of The Great Migration and
establishment of successful Puritan colonies in the New World thus
depended heavily on the role of women within the settlement. (For more
on the religious roles of women in Puritan colonies see beliefs
section below)
In the 1660s the Puritan settlements in the New World were confronted
with the challenge posed by an aging first generation. Those who
created the colonies were the most fervent in their religious beliefs,
and as their numbers began to decline, so did the membership of
churches. The demographics of the churches changed because fewer men
were joining. The resulting decrease in male religious participation
was a problem for the established church (that is, the colony's
official church for which people were taxed and which they were
expected to attend), since men were the ones with secular power. If
the men who wielded secular power in the colony were absent from the
church, its legitimacy would be undermined. As early as 1660, women
constituted the great majority of church members. However, since Anne
Hutchinson's banishment, they were not allowed to talk in church (for
more information, see below under beliefs). Puritan ministers,
concerned for the continued existence and power of their churches in
the colonies, pushed for a solution to declining church membership.
This push led to the creation of the Halfway Covenant, in order to
boost participation in the Puritan church.
Emigration resumed under the rule of Cromwell, but not in large
numbers as there was no longer any need to "escape persecution" in
England. In fact, many Puritans returned to England during the war.
"In 1641, when the English Civil War began, some immigrants returned
to fight on the Puritan side, and when the Puritans won, many resumed
English life under Oliver Cromwell's more congenial Puritan sway."[3]
[edit] From 1660 to present day
The influence of the Puritan movement persisted in England in various
forms. All official discrimination against Puritans in England ended
in the 1640s when Puritan forces under Oliver Cromwell overthrew the
monarchy in the English Civil War. With the Restoration of the
monarchy in the 1660s the Church of England attempted to re-assert its
authority as the official English church. However, respect for the
Puritan Church's separatism and freedom of conscience won by them and
other English Dissenters under Cromwell, continued despite the
Restoration and the 1662 Act of Uniformity.
Puritan experience also motivated the later Latitudinarian and
Evangelical trends in the Church of England. Meanwhile, in Europe, in
the 17th and 18th century, a movement within Lutheranism based on
puritan ideology became a strong religious force known as pietism. In
the USA, the Puritan settlement of New England was a major influence
on American Protestantism.
With the start of the English Civil War in the 1640s, fewer and fewer
immigrants to New England were Puritans. Very few immigrants to
Virginia and other early colonies were Puritans. Most immigrants to
Virginia and other colonies in the 1600s came to America for economic
reasons. By 1660 Puritan migration to the New World had ended and was
officially discouraged.[4] Puritan populations in New England,
however, continued to grow rapidly - owing to the prosperity of many
large Puritan families. (See Estimated Population 1620-1780:
Immigration to the USA.)
Many immigrants to New England, who were motivated by a desire for
greater religious freedom, actually soon found repression under the
Puritan theocracy to be far more repressive than any "oppression" of
their faith that they had experienced back in Britain. (For example
see: Roger Williams, Stephen Bachiller, Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer,
etc.)
Puritan oppression, including torture and imprisonment of many leaders
of non-Puritan Christian sects, led to the (voluntary or involuntary)
"banishment" of many Christian leaders and their followers from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. This negative impact of Puritanism on many
new colonists had a positive result on American history in that it led
to the founding of many new colonies - including: Rhode Island,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New Hampshire, and others - as
religious havens that were created for devout Christians who wanted to
live outside the oppressive reach of Puritan theocracy.
The power and influence of Puritan leaders in New England declined
further after the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts in the
1690s. Although they began as a trial of one or several self-avowed
witches who admitted to practicing voodoo-type rituals with malicious
intent, the trials got out of hand and ended with a number of innocent
people being falsely accused, found guilty, and executed by Puritan
leaders. Although most of the magistrates never admitted fault in the
matter, at least one publicly apologized in later life.[citation
needed] Many other witch trials wrongly accused others of supernatural
crimes elsewhere in New England and in various parts of Europe of the
time. Because most people of that era believed in the existence and
efficacy of witchcraft, the witch trials can be seen as a very
unfortunate miscarriage of justice in the face of public hysteria, and
less as the result of a prejudice specific to the Puritan leaders.
In addition to rival Christian clergy members and suspected witches,
the Puritan leaders' strict governing of their own people - as
depicted in Nathaniel Hawthorne's fictional novel The Scarlet Letter -
led to their ouster from direct political control in Massachusetts by
1700 and the decline of the influence of Puritanism as a religious
sect in many areas by the mid-1700s.
Some modern Presbyterian denominations are descended, at least in
part, from the Puritans, for example the Presbyterian Church (USA),
though others pre-date the English influence.
Congregational Churches also trace their lineage back to the Puritans.
One example is the Congregational Christian Churches (CCC)
denomination in the United States (which merged with the Evangelical
and Reformed Church in 1957 to form the United Church of Christ.) The
CCC is the direct descendant of New England Puritan congregations,
although in the early 19th century a few of these old congregations
adopted Unitarianism.
Another example is the United Reformed Church in England and Wales.
(The modern URC also has congregations in Scotland, but its southern
components-the Congregational Church in England and Wales and the
Presbyterian Church in England-partly descend from Restoration
Dissenters.)
A number of contemporary Unitarian congregations such as The First
Parish in Cambridge also trace their roots back to English and New
England Puritan congregations.
Various Baptist denominations also grew in strength in England during
the Commonwealth. During this period, the Religious Society of Friends
(popularly known as "Quakers") was founded and grew remarkably in
strength, though the theology of the Society of Friends is radically
different from that of Puritanism (for example, they rejected the
doctrine of predestination), and can be seen as a reaction against
Calvinist belief in a period of religious upheaval. This period of
religious upheaval also saw the appearance of more radical sects, such
as the Diggers and the allegedly antinomian Ranters.
[edit] Beliefs
The central tenet of Puritanism was God's supreme authority over human
affairs, particularly in the church, and especially as expressed in
the Bible. This view led them to seek both individual and corporate
conformance to the teaching of the Bible, and it led them to pursue
both moral purity down to the smallest detail as well as
ecclesiastical purity to the highest level.
The words of the Bible were the origin of many Puritan cultural
ideals, especially regarding the roles of men and women in the
community. While both sexes carried the stain of original sin, for a
girl, original sin suggested more than the roster of Puritan character
flaws. Eve's corruption, in Puritan eyes, extended to all women, and
justified marginalizing them within churches' hierarchical structures.
An example is the different ways that men and women were made to
express their conversion experiences. For full membership, the Puritan
church insisted not only that its congregants lead godly lives and
exhibit a clear understanding of the main tenets of their Christian
faith, but they also must demonstrate that they had experienced true
evidence of the workings of God's grace in their souls. Only those who
gave a convincing account of such a conversion could be admitted to
full church membership. Women were not permitted to speak in church
after 1636 (although they were allowed to engage in religious
discussions outside of it, in various women-only meetings), thus could
not narrate their conversions.
On the individual level, the Puritans emphasized that each person
should be continually reformed by the grace of God to fight against
indwelling sin and do what is right before God. A humble and obedient
life would arise for every Christian. Puritan culture emphasized the
need for self examination and the strict accounting for one's feelings
as well as one's deeds. This was the center of evangelical experience,
which women in turn placed at the heart of their work to sustain
family life.
The Puritans tended to admire the early church fathers and quoted them
liberally in their works. In addition to arming the Puritans to fight
against later developments of the Roman Catholic tradition, these
studies also led to the rediscovery of some ancient scruples.
Chrysostom, a favorite of the Puritans, spoke eloquently against drama
and other worldly endeavors, and the Puritans adopted his view when
decrying what they saw as the decadent culture of England, famous at
that time for its plays and bawdy London. The Pilgrims (the
separatist, congregationalist Puritans who went to North America) are
likewise famous for banning from their New England colonies many
secular entertainments, such as games of chance, maypoles, and drama,
all of which were perceived as kinds of immorality.
At the level of the church body, the Puritans believed that the
worship in the church ought to be strictly regulated by what is
commanded in the Bible (known as the regulative principle of worship).
The Puritans condemned as idolatry many worship practices regardless
of the practices' antiquity or widespread adoption among Christians,
which their opponents defended with tradition. Like some of Reformed
churches on the European continent, Puritan reforms were typified by a
minimum of ritual and decoration and by an unambiguous emphasis on
preaching. Like the early church fathers, they eliminated the use of
musical instruments in their worship services, for various theological
and practical reasons. Outside of church, however, Puritans were quite
fond of music and encouraged it in certain ways.
Another important distinction was the Puritan approach to church-state
relations. They opposed the Anglican idea of the supremacy of the
monarch in the church (Erastianism), and, following Calvin, they
argued that the only head of the Church in heaven or earth is Christ
(not the Pope or Archbishop of Canterbury). However, they believed
that secular governors are accountable to God (not through the church,
but alongside it) to protect and reward virtue, including "true
religion", and to punish wrongdoers - a policy that is best described
as non-interference rather than separation of church and state. The
separating Congregationalists, a segment of the Puritan movement more
radical than the Anglican Puritans, believed the Divine Right of Kings
was heresy, a belief that became more pronounced during the reign of
Charles I of England.
Other notable beliefs include:
An emphasis on private study of the Bible
A desire to see education and enlightenment for the masses
(especially so they could read the Bible for themselves)
The priesthood of all believers
Simplicity in worship, the exclusion of vestments, images,
candles, etc.
Did not celebrate traditional holidays that they believed to be
in violation of the regulative principle of worship.
Believed the Sabbath was still obligatory for Christians,
although they believe the Sabbath had been changed to Sunday.
Some approved of the church hierarchy, but others sought to
reform the episcopal churches on the presbyterian model. Some
separatist Puritans were presbyterian, but most were
congregationalists.
In addition to promoting lay education, it was important to the
Puritans to have knowledgeable, educated pastors, who could read the
Bible in its original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, as well as ancient
and modern church tradition and scholarly works, which were most
commonly written in Latin, and so most of their divines undertook
rigorous studies at the University of Oxford or the University of
Cambridge before seeking ordination. Diversions for the educated
included discussing the Bible and its practical applications as well
as reading the classics such as Cicero, Virgil, and Ovid. They also
encouraged the composition of poetry that was of a religious nature,
though they eschewed religious-erotic poetry except for the Song of
Solomon, which they considered magnificent poetry, without error,
regulative for their sexual pleasure, and, especially, as an allegory
of Christ and the Church.
In modern usage, the word puritan is often used as an informal
pejorative for someone who has strict views on sexual morality,
disapproves of recreation, and wishes to impose these beliefs on
others. None of these qualities were unique to Puritanism or
universally characteristic of the Puritans themselves, whose moral
views and ascetic tendencies were no more extreme than many other
Protestant reformers of their time, and who were relatively tolerant
of other faiths - at least in England. The popular image is slightly
more accurate as a description of Puritans in colonial America, who
were among the most radical Puritans and whose social experiment took
the form of a Calvinist theocracy.
[edit] Family Life
According to Puritan belief, the order of creation was simple: the
world was created for man, and man was created for God. If God had
created the world with some beings subordinate to others, he applied
the same principle to his construction of human society. Thus the
Puritans honored hierarchy among men as divine order; this order
presupposed God's "appointment of mankind to live in Societies, first,
of Family, Secondly Church, Thirdly, Common-wealth." Order in the
family, then, fundamentally structured Puritan belief. Puritans
usually migrated to New England as a family unit, a pattern different
from other colonies where young, single men often came on their own.
Puritan men of the generation of the Great Migration (1630-1640)
believed that a good Puritan wife did not linger in Britain but
encouraged her husband in his great service to God.
The essence of social order lay in the superiority of husband over
wife, parents over children, and masters over servants in the family.
Puritan marriage choices were influenced by young people's
inclination, parents, and by the social rank of the persons involved.
Upon finding a suitable match, husband and wife in America followed
the necessary steps to legitimize their marriage under, including: 1)
a contract, comparable to today's practice of engagement; 2) the
announcement of this contract; 3) execution of the contract at a
church; 4) a celebration of the event at the home of the groom and 5)
sexual intercourse. Problems with consummation could terminate a
marriage: if a groom proved impotent, the contract between him and his
bride dissolved, an act enforced by the courts. The courts could also
enforce the duty of a husband to support his wife, as English Common
Law provided that when a woman married, she gave all her property to
her husband and became a femme couvert, losing her separate civil
identity in his. In so doing, she legally accepted her role as
managing her husband's household, fulfilling her duty of "keep[ing] at
home, educating her children, keeping and improving what is got by the
industry of man."
Although without property in New England, a wife in some ways had real
authority in the family, although hers derived from different sources
from her husband's, and she exercised it in different ways. Because
the laws of God explicitly informed the earliest laws of the
Massachusetts civil code, a husband could not legally command his wife
anything contrary to God's word. Indeed, God's word often prescribed
important roles of authority for women; the Complete Body of Divinity
stated that "...as to Servants, the Metaphorical and Synecdochial usage
of the words Father and Mother, heretofore observed, implys it; for
tho' the Husband be the Head of the Wife, yet she is an Head of the
Family." Adhering to this ideology, Samuel Sewall, a magistrate,
advised his son's servant that "he could not obey his Master without
obedience to his Mistress; and vice versa." For the Puritans, ideas of
proper order both sharply defined and confined a woman's authority.
In Puritan New England, the family was the fundamental unit of
society, the place where Puritans rehearsed and perfected religious,
ethical, and social values and expectations of the community at large.
The English Puritan William Gouge wrote: ...a familie is a little
Church, and a little common-wealth, at least a lively representation
thereof, whereby triall may be made of such as are fit for any place
of authoritie, or of subjection in Church or commonwealth. Or rather
it is as a schoole wherein the first principles and grounds of
government and subjection are learned: whereby men are fitted to
greater matters in Church or common-wealth. The relationships within
the nuclear family, along with interactions between the family and the
larger community, distinguished Puritans from other early settlers.
Authority and obedience characterized the relationship between Puritan
parents and their children. Proper love meant proper discipline; in a
society essentially without police, the family was the basic unit of
supervision. Disciplining disobedient children mostly derived from a
spiritual concern: a breakdown in family rule indicated a disregard of
God's order. "Fathers and mothers have 'disordered and disobedient
children,'" said the Puritan Richard Greenham, "because they have been
disobedient children to the Lord and disordered to their parents when
they were young." Thus disobedient parents meant disobedient children.
Because the duty of early childcare fell almost exclusively on women,
a woman's salvation necessarily depended upon the observable goodness
of her child.
Puritans connected the discipline of a child to later readiness for
conversion. Accordingly, parents attempted to check their affectionate
feelings toward a disobedient child, at least after the child was
about two years old, in order to break his or her will. This
suspicious regard of "fondness" and heavy emphasis on obedience placed
complex pressures on the Puritan mother. While Puritans expected
mothers to care for their young children tenderly, a mother who doted
could be accused of failing to keep God present. Furthermore, Puritan
belief prescribed that a father's more distant governance check the
mother's tenderness once a male child reached the age of 6 or 7 so
that he could bring the child to God's authority.
Tensions and expectations, particularly about gender roles, existed
within the Puritan family unit, underscoring the now clich
(no drinking, no dancing, no football on TV, no giant SUV...........)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan
A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking
"purity" of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected
the Laudian reform of the Church of England. Those who sought further
reform of liturgy and theology away from that of the Roman Catholic
Church and those who justified separation from the Church of England
following the Elizabethan Religious Settlement are commonly called
"Puritans" by historians and critics. Later groups are called
"puritan," not necessarily favorably, by comparison to these low
church Anglicans and Calvinistic Non-conformists.
Contents
[hide]
1 Terminology
2 History
o 2.1 1559 to 1625
o 2.2 1625 to 1660
o 2.3 From 1660 to present day
3 Beliefs
4 Family Life
5 Education
6 Controversy
7 Orthography
8 See also
9 Further reading
10 External links
[edit] Terminology
Originally used to describe a third-century sect of strictly
legalistic heretics, the word "Puritan" is now applied unevenly to a
number of Protestant churches from the late 16th century to the
present. Puritans did not originally use the term for themselves. It
was a term of abuse that first surfaced in the 1560s. "Precisemen" and
"Precisions" were other early antagonistic terms for Puritans who
preferred to call themselves "the godly." The word "Puritan" thus
always referred to a type of religious belief, rather than a
particular religious sect. To reflect that the term encompasses a
variety of ecclesiastical bodies and theological positions, scholars
today increasingly prefer to use the term as a common noun or
adjective: "puritan" rather than "Puritan."[citation needed]
The single theological momentum most consistently self-centered by the
term "Puritan" was Reformed or Calvinist and led to the founding of
the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Congregationalist churches;[citation
needed] In the United States, the church and religious culture of the
Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony formed the basis of post-
colonial American Congregationalism, specifically the Congregational
Church proper. The term Puritan was used by the group itself mainly in
the 16th century, though it seems to have been used often and, in its
earliest recorded instances, as a term of abuse. By the middle of the
17th century, the group had become so divided that "Puritan" was most
often used by opponents and detractors of the group, rather than by
the practitioners themselves. As Patrick Collinson has noted, well
before the founding of the New England settlement "Puritanism had no
content beyond what was attributed to it by its opponents." The
practitioners knew themselves as members of particular churches or
movements, and not by the simple term.
[edit] History
[edit] 1559 to 1625
Puritanism seems to have risen out of discontent with the Elizabethan
Religious Settlement, which was felt by the more radical Protestants
to be giving in to "Popery" (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church). While
Protestant movements in Europe were driven by issues of theology and
had broken radically with Catholic models of church organization, the
English Reformation had brought the Church under control of the
monarchy while leaving many of its religious practices intact. In the
eyes of the Puritans, doctrine had been made unacceptably subservient
to politics. Persecuted under Mary I of England ("Bloody Mary"),
Protestants like Thomas Cartwright, Walter Travers, and Andrew
Melville had gone into exile as Puritans in Europe, where they came
into close contact with the magisterial reformers in Calvinist Geneva
and Lutheran Germany. These contacts shaped their position towards
Elizabeth's religious via media (middle way).
Although all influenced by Calvinism, Puritans were not united on
every issue. This reflects the origins of the movement, which
developed through several phases. They shared a belief that all
existing churches had become corrupted by practice, by contact with
pagan civilizations (particularly that of Rome), and by the
impositions of kings and popes. They all argued for a restructuring
and "purifying" of church practice through biblical supremacy and
shared, to one degree or another, a belief in the priesthood of all
believers. However, they differed from one another on issues of church
polity (organization of church power).
Because the puritans were simply the informed, committed and
relatively radical Protestants, they wanted the Church of England to
resemble more closely the Protestant churches of Europe, especially
the church of Geneva. Puritans objected to ornaments and ritual in
churches (vestments, musical organs, genuflection) as idolatrous,
denouncing them as "popish pomp and rags." (See Vestments
controversy.) They also objected to ecclesiastical courts. They
refused to endorse completely all of the ritual directions and
formulas of the Book of Common Prayer; the imposition of its
liturgical order by legal force and inspection sharpened Puritanism
into a definite opposition movement.
By the 1570s, Puritans were arguing for a Presbyterian model or a
Congregationalist model, but all were outspoken in their criticism of
the structure and liturgy that the monarchy required. Attempts by the
bishops of the Church of England to enforce uniformity of usage in the
Book of Common Prayer turned the episcopal hierarchy into a specific
target of their grievances. Tracts such as the Martin Marprelate
series lampooned the government and the church hierarchs.
The issue of church hierarchy was difficult, and Elizabeth sponsored
Richard Hooker to write Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity to
counter Presbyterian arguments. Hooker writes in direct refutation of
the "brothers of the Geneva Church," outlining a via media for the
English church that, rather than eliminating doctrine, offered a set
of specifically ordained rules. His thinking on the matter became the
backbone of the Anglican Church and would later be put to use by
Archbishop William Laud.
These radicals were looked down on by the dominant faction in the
Church of England and were given the name "Puritan", in mockery of the
radicals' apparent obsession with "purifying" the Church.
Contemporarily with the English Reformation, the Church of Scotland
had been reformed on a Calvinist Presbyterian model which many
Puritans hoped to extend to England. When James VI of Scotland became
James I of England, he appointed several known Puritans to powerful
positions within the Church of England and checked the rise in power
of William Laud. Nevertheless, he was not a Puritan and regarded them
with great suspicion, viewing the Puritan movement as potentially
dangerous to the royal control of the Church. He authorized the King
James Bible in part to reinforce Anglican orthodoxy against the Geneva
Bible. Popular among Puritans, the Geneva Bible had anti-royalist
translations and interpolated revolutionary notes. Luther had called
for vernacular Bible translations and church services; for the
Puritans, who believed in biblical supremacy, having an English-
language Bible was of paramount importance.
Each new round of political disappointments during this period faced
each individual Puritan and the Puritan congregations with a new
crisis. The question was whether they should continue in outward
conformity with a distasteful religious regime, or should they take
the separatist and illegal step of withdrawal from the state church?
Each fresh controversy led to a new round of schisms, and, as such,
the groundwork was set for the eventual heirs of Puritanism, from the
"low-church" Protestant and Evangelical wing of the Church of England,
to the various dissenting sects.
[edit] 1625 to 1660
During the reign of Charles I, a committed High Churchman, relations
soured and it is generally held among historians that religious
tensions created by the dominance of the Laudian faction during the
Personal Rule were a major factor in the outbreak of the English Civil
War. Puritans certainly agitated against the King, and reform of the
religion was a rallying cry for the Parliamentary forces. However,
Puritanism by this point had become not merely a religion, but a
cultural entity.
By this time, Puritans were more often referred to as Dissenters.
Since English Dissenters were barred from any profession that required
official religious conformity, Puritans became instrumental in a
number of new industries. They dominated the export/import business
and were eager to colonize the New World. With the flourishing of the
trans-Atlantic trade with America, Puritans in England were growing
quite wealthy. Similarly, the artisan classes had become increasingly
Puritan. Therefore, the economic issues of the English Civil War (tax
levies, liberalization of royal charters), the political issues of the
English Civil War (purchasing of peerages, increasing discontent
between the House of Lords and the people, rebellion over the attempt
to introduce a Divine right of kings by Charles I), and the religious
tensions were all bound together into a general dispute that pitted
Church of England Cavaliers against Puritan Roundheads.
Puritan factions played a key role in the Parliamentarian victory and
became a majority in Parliament, after the withdrawal of royalists and
the forcible exclusion of those who wished to continue negotiation
with the King. In due course, the Puritan military leader Oliver
Cromwell became head of the English Commonwealth. In the Commonwealth
period, the Church of England was removed from royal control and
reorganized to grant greater authority to local congregations, most of
which developed in a Puritan and semi-Calvinist direction. There was
never an official Puritan denomination; the Commonwealth government
tolerated a somewhat broader debate on doctrinal issues than had
previously been possible, and considerable theological and political
conflict between Puritan factions continued throughout this period.
The label "Puritan" fell out of use when their movement became the
status quo; it was replaced by the broader term Nonconformist, which
was used after the English Restoration to refer to all Protestant
denominations outside of the official Church. The pejorative name
"Dissenter" (for non-Conforming Anglicans, as opposed to Roman
Catholics) was also used.
Many Puritans emigrated to North America in the 1620-1640s because
they believed that the Church of England was beyond reform. However,
most Puritans in both England and New England were non-separatists.
They continued to profess their allegiance to the Church of England
despite their dissent from Church leadership and practices.
Most of the Puritans who emigrated settled in the New England area.
However, the Great Migration of Puritans was relatively short-lived
and not as large as is often believed.[1] It began in earnest in 1629
with the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and ended in 1642
with the start of the English Civil War when King Charles I
effectively shut off emigration to the colonies. From 1629 through
1643 approximately 21,000 Puritans emigrated to New England,[2]. This
is actually far less than the number of British subjects who emigrated
to Ireland, Canada, and the Caribbean during this time. (see Great
Migration)
The Great Migration of Puritans to New England was primarily an exodus
of families. Between 1630 and 1640 over 13,000 men, women, and
children sailed to Massachusetts. The religious and political factors
behind the Great Migration influenced the demographics of the
emigrants. Rather than groups of young men seeking economic success
(as predominated Virginia colonies), Puritan ships were laden with
"ordinary" people, old and young, families as well as individuals.
Just a quarter of the emigrants were in their twenties when they
boarded ship in the 1630s, making young adults not predominant in New
England settlements. The New World Puritan population can be seen as
more of a cross section in age of English population than those of
other colonies. This meant that the Massachusetts Bay Colony retained
a relatively "normal" population composition. In contrast to the
Chesapeake colony in Virginia, where the ratio of men to women was 4:1
in early decades and at least 2:1 in later decades, nearly half of the
Puritan emigrants to the New World were women. The majority of
families who traveled to Massachusetts Bay were families in progress,
with parents who were at not through with their reproductive years and
whose continued fertility would make New England's population growth
possible. The women who emigrated were critical agents in the success
of the establishment and maintenance of the Puritan colonies in North
America. Success in the early colonial economy depended largely on
labor, which was conducted by members of Puritan families. It was
through this labor that Puritans endeavored to create their "city on a
hill", a productive, morally exemplary colony far from the corruption
of the Church of England.
New England society rested on the rock of the Puritan family,
economically and religiously. Women were thus entrusted with the
responsibility of ensuring that children grew into virtuous Puritan
adults. This new moral and religious significance given to everyday
life, marriage, and family brought women's activities into the
spotlight. Although the patriarch directed work and devotion within
the family, the proof of success in the New World was in a harmonious
marriage and godly children- both of which fell under the jurisdiction
of the Puritan female. The success of The Great Migration and
establishment of successful Puritan colonies in the New World thus
depended heavily on the role of women within the settlement. (For more
on the religious roles of women in Puritan colonies see beliefs
section below)
In the 1660s the Puritan settlements in the New World were confronted
with the challenge posed by an aging first generation. Those who
created the colonies were the most fervent in their religious beliefs,
and as their numbers began to decline, so did the membership of
churches. The demographics of the churches changed because fewer men
were joining. The resulting decrease in male religious participation
was a problem for the established church (that is, the colony's
official church for which people were taxed and which they were
expected to attend), since men were the ones with secular power. If
the men who wielded secular power in the colony were absent from the
church, its legitimacy would be undermined. As early as 1660, women
constituted the great majority of church members. However, since Anne
Hutchinson's banishment, they were not allowed to talk in church (for
more information, see below under beliefs). Puritan ministers,
concerned for the continued existence and power of their churches in
the colonies, pushed for a solution to declining church membership.
This push led to the creation of the Halfway Covenant, in order to
boost participation in the Puritan church.
Emigration resumed under the rule of Cromwell, but not in large
numbers as there was no longer any need to "escape persecution" in
England. In fact, many Puritans returned to England during the war.
"In 1641, when the English Civil War began, some immigrants returned
to fight on the Puritan side, and when the Puritans won, many resumed
English life under Oliver Cromwell's more congenial Puritan sway."[3]
[edit] From 1660 to present day
The influence of the Puritan movement persisted in England in various
forms. All official discrimination against Puritans in England ended
in the 1640s when Puritan forces under Oliver Cromwell overthrew the
monarchy in the English Civil War. With the Restoration of the
monarchy in the 1660s the Church of England attempted to re-assert its
authority as the official English church. However, respect for the
Puritan Church's separatism and freedom of conscience won by them and
other English Dissenters under Cromwell, continued despite the
Restoration and the 1662 Act of Uniformity.
Puritan experience also motivated the later Latitudinarian and
Evangelical trends in the Church of England. Meanwhile, in Europe, in
the 17th and 18th century, a movement within Lutheranism based on
puritan ideology became a strong religious force known as pietism. In
the USA, the Puritan settlement of New England was a major influence
on American Protestantism.
With the start of the English Civil War in the 1640s, fewer and fewer
immigrants to New England were Puritans. Very few immigrants to
Virginia and other early colonies were Puritans. Most immigrants to
Virginia and other colonies in the 1600s came to America for economic
reasons. By 1660 Puritan migration to the New World had ended and was
officially discouraged.[4] Puritan populations in New England,
however, continued to grow rapidly - owing to the prosperity of many
large Puritan families. (See Estimated Population 1620-1780:
Immigration to the USA.)
Many immigrants to New England, who were motivated by a desire for
greater religious freedom, actually soon found repression under the
Puritan theocracy to be far more repressive than any "oppression" of
their faith that they had experienced back in Britain. (For example
see: Roger Williams, Stephen Bachiller, Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer,
etc.)
Puritan oppression, including torture and imprisonment of many leaders
of non-Puritan Christian sects, led to the (voluntary or involuntary)
"banishment" of many Christian leaders and their followers from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. This negative impact of Puritanism on many
new colonists had a positive result on American history in that it led
to the founding of many new colonies - including: Rhode Island,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New Hampshire, and others - as
religious havens that were created for devout Christians who wanted to
live outside the oppressive reach of Puritan theocracy.
The power and influence of Puritan leaders in New England declined
further after the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts in the
1690s. Although they began as a trial of one or several self-avowed
witches who admitted to practicing voodoo-type rituals with malicious
intent, the trials got out of hand and ended with a number of innocent
people being falsely accused, found guilty, and executed by Puritan
leaders. Although most of the magistrates never admitted fault in the
matter, at least one publicly apologized in later life.[citation
needed] Many other witch trials wrongly accused others of supernatural
crimes elsewhere in New England and in various parts of Europe of the
time. Because most people of that era believed in the existence and
efficacy of witchcraft, the witch trials can be seen as a very
unfortunate miscarriage of justice in the face of public hysteria, and
less as the result of a prejudice specific to the Puritan leaders.
In addition to rival Christian clergy members and suspected witches,
the Puritan leaders' strict governing of their own people - as
depicted in Nathaniel Hawthorne's fictional novel The Scarlet Letter -
led to their ouster from direct political control in Massachusetts by
1700 and the decline of the influence of Puritanism as a religious
sect in many areas by the mid-1700s.
Some modern Presbyterian denominations are descended, at least in
part, from the Puritans, for example the Presbyterian Church (USA),
though others pre-date the English influence.
Congregational Churches also trace their lineage back to the Puritans.
One example is the Congregational Christian Churches (CCC)
denomination in the United States (which merged with the Evangelical
and Reformed Church in 1957 to form the United Church of Christ.) The
CCC is the direct descendant of New England Puritan congregations,
although in the early 19th century a few of these old congregations
adopted Unitarianism.
Another example is the United Reformed Church in England and Wales.
(The modern URC also has congregations in Scotland, but its southern
components-the Congregational Church in England and Wales and the
Presbyterian Church in England-partly descend from Restoration
Dissenters.)
A number of contemporary Unitarian congregations such as The First
Parish in Cambridge also trace their roots back to English and New
England Puritan congregations.
Various Baptist denominations also grew in strength in England during
the Commonwealth. During this period, the Religious Society of Friends
(popularly known as "Quakers") was founded and grew remarkably in
strength, though the theology of the Society of Friends is radically
different from that of Puritanism (for example, they rejected the
doctrine of predestination), and can be seen as a reaction against
Calvinist belief in a period of religious upheaval. This period of
religious upheaval also saw the appearance of more radical sects, such
as the Diggers and the allegedly antinomian Ranters.
[edit] Beliefs
The central tenet of Puritanism was God's supreme authority over human
affairs, particularly in the church, and especially as expressed in
the Bible. This view led them to seek both individual and corporate
conformance to the teaching of the Bible, and it led them to pursue
both moral purity down to the smallest detail as well as
ecclesiastical purity to the highest level.
The words of the Bible were the origin of many Puritan cultural
ideals, especially regarding the roles of men and women in the
community. While both sexes carried the stain of original sin, for a
girl, original sin suggested more than the roster of Puritan character
flaws. Eve's corruption, in Puritan eyes, extended to all women, and
justified marginalizing them within churches' hierarchical structures.
An example is the different ways that men and women were made to
express their conversion experiences. For full membership, the Puritan
church insisted not only that its congregants lead godly lives and
exhibit a clear understanding of the main tenets of their Christian
faith, but they also must demonstrate that they had experienced true
evidence of the workings of God's grace in their souls. Only those who
gave a convincing account of such a conversion could be admitted to
full church membership. Women were not permitted to speak in church
after 1636 (although they were allowed to engage in religious
discussions outside of it, in various women-only meetings), thus could
not narrate their conversions.
On the individual level, the Puritans emphasized that each person
should be continually reformed by the grace of God to fight against
indwelling sin and do what is right before God. A humble and obedient
life would arise for every Christian. Puritan culture emphasized the
need for self examination and the strict accounting for one's feelings
as well as one's deeds. This was the center of evangelical experience,
which women in turn placed at the heart of their work to sustain
family life.
The Puritans tended to admire the early church fathers and quoted them
liberally in their works. In addition to arming the Puritans to fight
against later developments of the Roman Catholic tradition, these
studies also led to the rediscovery of some ancient scruples.
Chrysostom, a favorite of the Puritans, spoke eloquently against drama
and other worldly endeavors, and the Puritans adopted his view when
decrying what they saw as the decadent culture of England, famous at
that time for its plays and bawdy London. The Pilgrims (the
separatist, congregationalist Puritans who went to North America) are
likewise famous for banning from their New England colonies many
secular entertainments, such as games of chance, maypoles, and drama,
all of which were perceived as kinds of immorality.
At the level of the church body, the Puritans believed that the
worship in the church ought to be strictly regulated by what is
commanded in the Bible (known as the regulative principle of worship).
The Puritans condemned as idolatry many worship practices regardless
of the practices' antiquity or widespread adoption among Christians,
which their opponents defended with tradition. Like some of Reformed
churches on the European continent, Puritan reforms were typified by a
minimum of ritual and decoration and by an unambiguous emphasis on
preaching. Like the early church fathers, they eliminated the use of
musical instruments in their worship services, for various theological
and practical reasons. Outside of church, however, Puritans were quite
fond of music and encouraged it in certain ways.
Another important distinction was the Puritan approach to church-state
relations. They opposed the Anglican idea of the supremacy of the
monarch in the church (Erastianism), and, following Calvin, they
argued that the only head of the Church in heaven or earth is Christ
(not the Pope or Archbishop of Canterbury). However, they believed
that secular governors are accountable to God (not through the church,
but alongside it) to protect and reward virtue, including "true
religion", and to punish wrongdoers - a policy that is best described
as non-interference rather than separation of church and state. The
separating Congregationalists, a segment of the Puritan movement more
radical than the Anglican Puritans, believed the Divine Right of Kings
was heresy, a belief that became more pronounced during the reign of
Charles I of England.
Other notable beliefs include:
An emphasis on private study of the Bible
A desire to see education and enlightenment for the masses
(especially so they could read the Bible for themselves)
The priesthood of all believers
Simplicity in worship, the exclusion of vestments, images,
candles, etc.
Did not celebrate traditional holidays that they believed to be
in violation of the regulative principle of worship.
Believed the Sabbath was still obligatory for Christians,
although they believe the Sabbath had been changed to Sunday.
Some approved of the church hierarchy, but others sought to
reform the episcopal churches on the presbyterian model. Some
separatist Puritans were presbyterian, but most were
congregationalists.
In addition to promoting lay education, it was important to the
Puritans to have knowledgeable, educated pastors, who could read the
Bible in its original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, as well as ancient
and modern church tradition and scholarly works, which were most
commonly written in Latin, and so most of their divines undertook
rigorous studies at the University of Oxford or the University of
Cambridge before seeking ordination. Diversions for the educated
included discussing the Bible and its practical applications as well
as reading the classics such as Cicero, Virgil, and Ovid. They also
encouraged the composition of poetry that was of a religious nature,
though they eschewed religious-erotic poetry except for the Song of
Solomon, which they considered magnificent poetry, without error,
regulative for their sexual pleasure, and, especially, as an allegory
of Christ and the Church.
In modern usage, the word puritan is often used as an informal
pejorative for someone who has strict views on sexual morality,
disapproves of recreation, and wishes to impose these beliefs on
others. None of these qualities were unique to Puritanism or
universally characteristic of the Puritans themselves, whose moral
views and ascetic tendencies were no more extreme than many other
Protestant reformers of their time, and who were relatively tolerant
of other faiths - at least in England. The popular image is slightly
more accurate as a description of Puritans in colonial America, who
were among the most radical Puritans and whose social experiment took
the form of a Calvinist theocracy.
[edit] Family Life
According to Puritan belief, the order of creation was simple: the
world was created for man, and man was created for God. If God had
created the world with some beings subordinate to others, he applied
the same principle to his construction of human society. Thus the
Puritans honored hierarchy among men as divine order; this order
presupposed God's "appointment of mankind to live in Societies, first,
of Family, Secondly Church, Thirdly, Common-wealth." Order in the
family, then, fundamentally structured Puritan belief. Puritans
usually migrated to New England as a family unit, a pattern different
from other colonies where young, single men often came on their own.
Puritan men of the generation of the Great Migration (1630-1640)
believed that a good Puritan wife did not linger in Britain but
encouraged her husband in his great service to God.
The essence of social order lay in the superiority of husband over
wife, parents over children, and masters over servants in the family.
Puritan marriage choices were influenced by young people's
inclination, parents, and by the social rank of the persons involved.
Upon finding a suitable match, husband and wife in America followed
the necessary steps to legitimize their marriage under, including: 1)
a contract, comparable to today's practice of engagement; 2) the
announcement of this contract; 3) execution of the contract at a
church; 4) a celebration of the event at the home of the groom and 5)
sexual intercourse. Problems with consummation could terminate a
marriage: if a groom proved impotent, the contract between him and his
bride dissolved, an act enforced by the courts. The courts could also
enforce the duty of a husband to support his wife, as English Common
Law provided that when a woman married, she gave all her property to
her husband and became a femme couvert, losing her separate civil
identity in his. In so doing, she legally accepted her role as
managing her husband's household, fulfilling her duty of "keep[ing] at
home, educating her children, keeping and improving what is got by the
industry of man."
Although without property in New England, a wife in some ways had real
authority in the family, although hers derived from different sources
from her husband's, and she exercised it in different ways. Because
the laws of God explicitly informed the earliest laws of the
Massachusetts civil code, a husband could not legally command his wife
anything contrary to God's word. Indeed, God's word often prescribed
important roles of authority for women; the Complete Body of Divinity
stated that "...as to Servants, the Metaphorical and Synecdochial usage
of the words Father and Mother, heretofore observed, implys it; for
tho' the Husband be the Head of the Wife, yet she is an Head of the
Family." Adhering to this ideology, Samuel Sewall, a magistrate,
advised his son's servant that "he could not obey his Master without
obedience to his Mistress; and vice versa." For the Puritans, ideas of
proper order both sharply defined and confined a woman's authority.
In Puritan New England, the family was the fundamental unit of
society, the place where Puritans rehearsed and perfected religious,
ethical, and social values and expectations of the community at large.
The English Puritan William Gouge wrote: ...a familie is a little
Church, and a little common-wealth, at least a lively representation
thereof, whereby triall may be made of such as are fit for any place
of authoritie, or of subjection in Church or commonwealth. Or rather
it is as a schoole wherein the first principles and grounds of
government and subjection are learned: whereby men are fitted to
greater matters in Church or common-wealth. The relationships within
the nuclear family, along with interactions between the family and the
larger community, distinguished Puritans from other early settlers.
Authority and obedience characterized the relationship between Puritan
parents and their children. Proper love meant proper discipline; in a
society essentially without police, the family was the basic unit of
supervision. Disciplining disobedient children mostly derived from a
spiritual concern: a breakdown in family rule indicated a disregard of
God's order. "Fathers and mothers have 'disordered and disobedient
children,'" said the Puritan Richard Greenham, "because they have been
disobedient children to the Lord and disordered to their parents when
they were young." Thus disobedient parents meant disobedient children.
Because the duty of early childcare fell almost exclusively on women,
a woman's salvation necessarily depended upon the observable goodness
of her child.
Puritans connected the discipline of a child to later readiness for
conversion. Accordingly, parents attempted to check their affectionate
feelings toward a disobedient child, at least after the child was
about two years old, in order to break his or her will. This
suspicious regard of "fondness" and heavy emphasis on obedience placed
complex pressures on the Puritan mother. While Puritans expected
mothers to care for their young children tenderly, a mother who doted
could be accused of failing to keep God present. Furthermore, Puritan
belief prescribed that a father's more distant governance check the
mother's tenderness once a male child reached the age of 6 or 7 so
that he could bring the child to God's authority.
Tensions and expectations, particularly about gender roles, existed
within the Puritan family unit, underscoring the now clich