In the Context of the Years 1558-1660, to What Extent Was Puritanism Only a Force to Further the English Reformation"?

In studies of Puritanism as a movement from 1558-1660, historians have debated over the definition of the word ‘puritan’ because of the changing nature of the movement as it responded to various political, social and religious developments. The conventional historical interpretation shared by historians Christianson and Wrightson is that ‘Puritan’ more narrowly referred to the ‘hotter sort of protestants’ who, although theologically indistinguishable from their Anglican counter-parts, actively sought reform of the established church from within whilst maintaining some doctrinal reservations. This definition encompasses the understanding that Puritanism was a distinct movement to further the English reformation, yet does not account for the greater circle of puritanical separatists who wished to leave the church altogether. Therefore it is best to adopt the widest description offered by Kearney in defining Puritanism as the “circle of discontent both within and without the Established Church from the 1560s onwards...What was common to all [the critics]...was a vision of what the Church of Christ ought to be if it were stripped of externals and inessentials. Where they differed...was in their view of what was external and inessential”. This interpretation more accurately allows for Puritanism to be understood in light of its constantly evolving ‘vision’ and ‘set of values’ through the years, which manifested in forms such as Presbyterianism in the 1580s and the political backbone of the Parliamentary force during the Civil War as interpreted by many a historian, including revisionist and Marxist historians.
Wrightson argues that in 1558, to the Puritans, the church was “…half reformed. They were anxious to push ahead… to move urgently towards ‘further reformation’” of the Elizabethan settlement. Whilst relieved by the succession of a protestant monarch, many Puritans were urgent to pursue moderate reform of the settlement, to purge it of the ‘rags of Rome’,