THE PURITANS AND ENGLAND
Ever since Henry VIII founded the Church of England (or Anglican Church), the Catholic minority who had remained faithful to the Church of Rome often found themselves looked upon with suspicion and denied many civil rights, including that of serving in Parliament, owning certain kinds of property, and attending Oxford, Cambridge, and other major universities, which existed in large part to train Church of England clergy.
The Puritan movement was a broad trend toward a militant, biblically based Calvinistic Protestantism -- with emphasis upon the "purification" of church and society of the remnants of "corrupt" and "unscriptural" "papist" ritual and dogma -- which developed within the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Church of England. Puritanism first emerged as an organized force in England among elements -- Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, for example -- dissatisfied with the compromises inherent in the religious settlement carried out under Queen Elizabeth in 1559. They sought a complete reformation both of religious and of secular life, and advocated, in consequence, the attacks upon the Anglican establishment, the emphasis upon a disciplined, godly life, and the energetic evangelical activities which characterized their movement. The Presbyterian wing of the Puritan party was eventually defeated in Parliament, and after the suppression in 1583 of Nonconformist ministers, a minority moved to separate from the church and sought refuge first in the Netherlands and later in New England .
According to Thomas Babington Lord Macaulay's History of England from the Accession of James II, which points out many otherwise impressive qualities of the Puritans, their ideology left no room for many forms of inmocent pleasure: "It was a sin to hang garlands on a Maypole, to drink a friend's health, to fly a hawk, hunt a stag, to play at chess, to wear lovelocks, to put starch into a ruff, to touch the virginals [a predecessor of the piano], to read the Fairy Queen.--Rules such as these, rules which would have appeared insupportable to the free and joyous spirit of Luther, and coutemptible to the serene and philosophical intellect of Zwingle, threw over all life a more than monastic gloom. The learning and eloqueuce by which the great reformers had been eminently distinguished, and to which they had been, in no small measure, indebted for their success, were regarded by the new school of Protestants with suspicion, if not with aversion. Some precisians had scruples about teaching the Latin grammar because the names of Mars, Bacchus, and Apollo occurred in it. The fine arts were all but proscribed. The solemn peal of the organ was superstitious. The light music of Ben Jonson's masques was dissolute. Half the fine paintings in England were idolatrous, and the other half indecent."
By the 1660s Puritanism was firmly established amongst the gentry and the emerging middle classes of southern and eastern England, and during the Civil Wars the Puritan "Roundheads" fought for the parliamentary cause and formed the backbone of Cromwell's forces during the Commonwealth period. After 1646, however, the Puritan emphasis upon individualism and the individual conscience made it impossible for the movement to form a national Presbyterian church, and by 1662, when the Anglican church was re-established, Puritanism had become a loose confederation of various Dissenting sects. The growing pressure for religious toleration within Britain itself was to a considerable degree a legacy of Puritanism, and its emphasis on self-discipline, individualism, responsibility, work, and asceticism was also an important influence upon the values and attitudes of the emerging middle classes.
From the time of the Elizabethan settlement on, the Church of England (the Anglican Church) attempted, with varying degrees of success, to consolidate its position both as a distinctive middle way between Catholicism and Puritanism and as the national religion of England. Under Charles I, the "popish" High-Church policies of the Arminian William Laud alienated the Puritan wing of the Church, and after the victory of Cromwell's (frequently Puritan) parliamentarians over Charles's (frequently Catholic) Royalists in the Civil Wars of 1642-1651, the Anglican Church, by now the Church of England, was largely dismantled
THE PURITANS IN NEW ENGLAND
Puritans, Separatist and non-separating :
Massachusetts Bay Colony: Lead by John Winthrop (Settled by non-separating Puritans)
Plymouth Colony: Lead by William Bradford (Settled by separating Puritans)
All Puritans dreamed of creating a purified religious community, free from the hierarchies and worldly rituals they felt contaminated the established Church of England. While non-separating Puritans hoped that they could reform the church from within, the Separatists believed that they needed to break from the Church of England entirely. The Separatists represented a minority among Puritans, and they experienced even greater persecution in England than non-separating Puritans did. In America, the Plymouth colony led by William Bradford was Separatist while the Massachusetts Bay colony led by John Winthrop was non-separating.
Their isolation in the New World, their introversion, the harshness and dangers of their new existence, their sense that they were a new Chosen People of God destined to found a New Jerusalem -- a New City of God in the midst of the wilderness -- insured that American Puritanism would remain more severe (and, frequently, more intellectually subtle and rigorous) than that which they had left behind. The American Puritan tended to interpret the Bible, which had supreme literary value because it was the perfect word of God, even more literally than did his British counterparts. Though many of the original American Puritans -- many of whom were both preachers and authors -- had attended English Universities, they tended to form religious oligarchies and sought to establish a purified church -- which meant the frequently harsh imposition of religious uniformity upon an unwilling populace.
Oliver Cromwell, Religion, and the New England Puritans
After Cromwell's rise to power in England and the resulting reformation of the religious heirarchy, the separatists and non-separatist Puritans in New England eventually formed one group.
Cromwell's life and actions had a radical edge springing from his strong religious faith. A conversion experience some time before the civil war, strengthened by his belief that during the war he and his troops had been chosen by God to perform His will, gave a religious tinge to many of his political policies as Lord Protector in the 1650s. Cromwell sought 'Godly reformation', a broad programme involving reform of the most inhumane elements of the legal, judicial and social systems and clamped down on drunkenness, immorality and other sinful activities. He also believed passionately in what he called 'liberty of conscience', that is freedom for a range of Protestant groups and faiths to practise their beliefs undisturbed and without disturbing others. Several times he referred to this religious liberty as the principal achievement of the wars, to be strengthened and cherished now that peace had returned. Others, however, viewed these religious policies as futile, unnecessarily divisive or a breeding ground for heresy.
Oliver Cromwell: Cromwell's military standing gave him enhanced political power, just as his military victories gave him the confidence and motivation to intervene in and to shape political events. An obscure and inexperienced MP for Cambridge in 1640, by the late 1640s he was one of the power-brokers in parliament and he played a decisive role in the 'revolution' of winter 1648-9 which saw the trial and execution of the King and the abolition of monarchy and the House of Lords. As head of the army, he intervened several times to support or remove the republican regimes of the early 1650s.
Eventually, in December 1653, he became head of state as Lord Protector, though he held that office under a written constitution which ensured that he would share political power with parliaments and a council. As Lord Protector for almost five years, until his death on 3 September 1658, Cromwell was able to mould policies and to fulfill some of his goals. He headed a tolerant, inclusive and largely civilian regime, which sought to restore order and stability at home and thus to win over much of the traditional political and social elite. Abroad, the army and navy were employed to promote England's interests in an expansive and largely successful foreign policy.
William Bradford and Plymouth Colony
Bradford wrote Book I of Of Plymouth Plantation in 1630 and Book II from about 1644 to 1650. The dates of composition are significant because they mark periods of crisis in the Plymouth settlement's sense of its own purpose and worth. In 1630, the non-separating Puritans led by John Winthrop arrived in nearby Massachusetts Bay. Not only did this group represent a competing strain of Puritanism, but it also was better funded than the Plymouth colony and in possession of a more legitimate charter to the New England territory (in fact, it would absorb the Plymouth group in 1691). In the late 1640s, Puritans led by Oliver Cromwell transformed the political and religious situation in Old England, making the American Puritans' project seem somewhat redundant and certainly less novel.
plain style - A mode of expression characterized by its clarity, accessibility, straightforwardness, simplicity, and lack of ornamentation. In early America, the plain-style aesthetic had broad cultural relevance, shaping the language of prose and poetry, the design of furniture and buildings, and the style of painting and other visual arts. Rejecting ornamental flourishes and superfluous decoration as sinful vanity, plain stylists worked to glorify God in their productions rather than to show off their own artistry or claim any renown for themselves. This aesthetic appealed to both Quakers and Puritans.
John Winthrop and "A Model of Christian Charity" and the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Winthrop and “Model” notes
covenant theology - The Puritans believed that they had formed a "covenant," or contract with God. Like the Old Testament Hebrews, they felt themselves to be a "chosen nation," the people through whom God would fulfill his divine plan on earth. Their covenant, however, was not the same as the Old Testament covenant God had formed with the Israelites. The coming of Christ had changed the terms of the contract, enabling them to live under a "covenant of grace." Right behavior would follow from their acceptance of and faith in the covenant. On an individual level, Puritans agonized over the status of their covenant with God, but as a group they were more confident. Having entered into voluntary church covenants, and thus into a kind of national covenant with God, they were assured of the centrality of their role in God's cosmic plan.
election - The Puritan belief that some individuals were predestined by God to be saved and taken to heaven while other individuals were doomed to hell. One's status as a member of the elect did not necessarily correlate with good works or moral behavior on earth, for God had extended a "covenant of grace" to his chosen people that did not have to be earned, only accepted with faith. Despite the apparent ease with which a believer could attain everlasting salvation, Puritans in practice agonized over the state of their souls, living in constant fear of damnation and scrutinizing their own feelings and behavior for indications of whether or not God had judged them worthy.
Apocalypse - The end of the world as it is prophesied in the Bible, especially in the Book of Revelation. Viewing their experiences through the lens of biblical history, the Puritans understood themselves to be living in the "end time," with Christ's Second Coming at hand. They believed that their purity as a nation would actually bring about the Apocalypse, at which time Christ would return and reign for a millennium. Then, the earth would be destroyed, the elect would be ushered into heaven, and all others would be cast into hell. Puritan ministers performed complex analyses of scriptural predictions in order to pinpoint the exact day the Apocalypse would occur.
In 1629, uneasy about the English government's hostility toward Puritanism and disgusted by what he perceived as the corruption of English society, Winthrop helped negotiate a charter forming the Massachusetts Bay Company and establishing the Puritans' right to found a colony in New England. The stockholders of the Company elected Winthrop governor, and, in 1630, he and nearly four hundred other Puritans set sail for the New World aboard the Arbella. In "A Model of Christian Charity," the lay sermon he delivered on the ship, Winthrop presented his vision of the ideal Christian community he hoped the Puritans would form when they arrived in Massachusetts. Premised on the belief that the Puritans were party to a covenant, or contract, with God, Winthrop's sermon uses this legal term to remind his followers of their spiritual and earthly duties as the "chosen people" of God.Winthrop's famous proclamation that the new colony must be "as a City on a Hill"—truly a "model" society, unassailable in its virtue so that its enemies would have nothing to criticize and its admirers would have something to emulate—continues to resonate as an enduring myth of America.
Anne Bradstreet: Struggle with orthodox Puritan Theology
Bradstreet received acclaim in her own time for her long meditative poems on classical themes, but the poems that have interested modern readers are the more personal and intimate ones, reflecting her experiences with marriage, motherhood, childbirth, and housekeeping. This personal poetry is notable for the tensions it reveals between Bradstreet's affection for the things of this world—home, family, natural beauty—and her Puritan commitment to shunning earthly concerns in order to focus on the spiritual. Her evocations of the passion she felt for her husband and her children are poignantly balanced by her reminders to herself that such attachments should remain secondary to her love for Christ. Bradstreet's reflections on the issue of women's status within the Puritan community and on her own role as a female writer also create tensions within her poetry. Her self-conscious musings about her claims to literary authority and intellectual equality in "The Author to her Book" and "Prologue" provide rare insight into the pressures inherent in being both a woman and a writer in Puritan New England.
weaned affections - This Puritan theological doctrine held that individuals must learn to wean themselves from earthly attachments and make spiritual matters their priority. Inappropriate earthly attachments included material possessions such as one's home, furniture, clothing, or valuables. The doctrine of weaned affections could also proscribe things that we do not usually think of as incompatible with spirituality, such as a love of natural beauty, or a dedication to secular learning, or even an intense devotion to one's spouse, children, or grandchildren. According to orthodox Puritan theology, anything tied to this world—even relationships with family members—should be secondary to God
Edward Taylor: a commitment to orthodox puritan theology
Much of Taylor's other poetry is characterized by its plain-style aesthetic and its homely metaphors of farming and housekeeping. Taylor's work is not easily categorized because his poetic experiments are so varied, employing forms ranging from common meter to heroic couplets and imagery ranging from the traditionally typological to the metaphysical. Still, all of Taylor's work reflects his commitment to orthodox Puritan theology and his concern with ascertaining and sustaining a belief in his place among God's elect. His poems enact, in literary critic Sacvan Bercovitch's words, the "endless ritual celebration-exorcism of the Puritan self."
Mary Rowlandson and the captivity narrative
The attack on Lancaster and on Rowlandson's home was part of a series of raids in the conflict that has become known as King Philip's War, named for the Indian leader Metacom (called "Philip" by the English). Although the war was immediately provoked by the Plymouth colony's decision to execute three members of the Wampanoag tribe, it should also be understood as the culmination of long-standing tensions between Native Americans and European settlers over land rights and colonial expansion. By the late seventeenth century, many Native Americans in the New England region were suffering the devastating effects of disease and starvation as European settlers encroached upon their homes and hunting grounds.
During her captivity, Rowlandson experienced the same physical hardships the Indians faced: she never had enough to eat and constantly relocated from one camp to another in a series of what she termed "removes." Her traumatic experience was made all the more harrowing by her Puritan conviction that all Native Americans were agents of Satan, sent to punish and torment her and her community.
captivity narrative - A uniquely American literary genre, the captivity narrative recounts the experience of a white European or, later, an American, during his or (more usually) her captivity and eventual release from hostile enemy captors (generally Native Americans). Enormously popular since their inception in the seventeenth century, captivity narratives
jeremiad - A form usually associated with second generation Puritan sermons but which is also relevant to many other kinds of Puritan writing (Mary Rowlandson's Narrative is often cited as an example of a jeremiad). Drawing from the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Isaiah, jeremiads lament the spiritual and moral decline of a community and interpret recent misfortunes as God's just punishment for that decline. But at the same time that jeremiads bemoan their communities' fall from grace, they also read the misfortunes and punishments that result from that fall as paradoxical proofs of God's love and of the group's status as his "chosen people." According to jeremidic logic, God would not bother chastising or testing people he did not view as special or important to his divine plan.
John Woolman and Samson Occom: The Spritual Autobiography & Contrasting Religious Views
Both Woolman's Journal and Occom's Short Narrative function as spiritual autobiographies, narrating their authors' conversion to and acceptance of Christianity. While Woolman's Quakerism was quite different from Occom's evangelical Christianity, both men experienced a profound conversion in early youth, and both found their calling as missionaries. Both wrote their pieces to persuade Woolman's to serve as a guide for those seeking "inner light," and Occom's to plead for Indian rights and to salvage his reputation after his sincerity and commitment were attacked. Most importantly, Occom and Woolman share a concern with social justice and a desire to abolish racism, intolerance, and poverty. Though Occom's commitment to exposing and eradicating these social problems was the result of personal, first-hand experience while Woolman's was more a sympathetic response, both wrote movingly on these subjects. Many of the problems Woolman and Occom identified and worked to end continue to haunt American culture, giving their work enduring relevance.
Two important things to keep in mind:
Occum was a Native American that was converted to Christianity and became a missionary to other Natives. He was a Presbyterian.
Woolman was a Quaker.
Here are some basic beliefs of Quakerism:
The belief that there is "that of God in every one" is the fundamental basis of Quakerism which has led to the following tenets and practice of this religion:
•the elimination of the need for a "hireling minister"
or other intermediary between the individual and God
•the opportunity and obligation for each to seek God's leading, both individually and corporately in worship
•as the writers of the Bible were inspired, the manifestation of the Inner Light also allows us to experience the continuing revelation of God
•the accordance of equality and respect to all
•the leading to respond to the needs of all peoples
•the refusal to take oaths, for there is but a single standard of truth
•the commitment to live simply so that others can simply live
•the "living" of the sacraments rather than the observation of them outwardly
•the conviction that peace can best be attained by striving to trust tolove rather than by reacting to fear
Note: This belief that God was in everyone was termed the "inner light."
Keep this in mind. It is very similar to the Transcendentalist idea of the oversoul that we will discuss when we discuss Emerson and Thoreau.
Jonathan Edwards & The Great Awakening
