New England Puritanism: Religious Movement In Seventeenth Century

New England Puritanism was a religious movement in Seventeenth century which was mainly based upon building a purer Church but it also had political, economic and cultural implications. In early sixteenth century, King Henry VIII decided to move away from Roman Catholic church and created the Church of England. He declared himself the supreme head of the church. The Puritans were Englishmen and women who overtime became dissatisfied with the direction taken by the Church of England. They perceived that the Church was highly affected by the political struggle in England at the time and it was beyond repair. Eventually, the Puritans (in fear of being persecuted for their views) started to migrate to America. These Puritans came to New England in order to create a purer church and practice their beliefs without opposition. They formed colonies where religion and religious beliefs were major principals in the society. One such colony was Massachusetts Bay Colony which was founded by John Winthrop who was a wealthy English puritan lawyer. Winthrop also became the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and served for over a decade. Winthrop set out to create a holy society that would be a model for mankind and he had a big role to play in some of the most prominent Puritanism view that made the Puritanism experiment a success.
One of the strongest religious beliefs of Puritanism was predestination.
Puritanism was largely based upon a belief that God has a record of what every human being has done and he already knows who is worthy of his blessing. Puritans believed that only God has the power to forgive. From a Puritan perspective, all things happen by the God 's will and everyone is predestined to live out their lives based on God 's plan. The other Puritan belief was that the God created Puritans to clean up the cultural acts such as drunkenness, sex outside of marriage, swearing, etc. These acts were perceived to be morally wrong in Puritan
society. Puritans believed that God would not appoint the Pope therefore puritans shouldn 't follow Roman Catholic hierarchy. To the contrary, Puritans believed that their leaders were ordinary people who were chosen amongst themselves. Puritans created their own church which was unlike the Church of England where the monarch appointed the archbishops who appointed other bishop who in turn selected ministers for perishes. The Puritan church was created by having each congregation elect its minister. Membership to churches were only given to people who can recount some kind of contact experience with
God however only few membership were denied since leaving church of England was considered a proof of religious purity. During this time, religious leaders played a big role in society. The religious leaders of Puritan New England were involved in governmental duties while the colonies formed a government in tune with Puritan beliefs. Political and religious authority were often the same. Puritans were committed to working hard because of their belief that hard work serves God and the God in-turn provided prosperity. Accumulating wealth was encouraged in Puritan society as the wealth could then be used to serve God. Many of the Puritan settlers were also well educated. Their skill in various occupation helped the colonies become economically stable. In fact, Massachusetts Colony was considered the most economically successful settlement of the 17th century. Since the land in New England was not ideal for farming, alternate industries thrived, particularly; Fishing and lumber industries. Fishing was one of the major industries in Puritan New England and fishing equipment was considered very valuable. Other professions such as blacksmithing, ship building prospered as well. Farming was not as profitable as it was in Virginia since Puritans didn 't usually farm for staple cash crop such as tobacco which was very labor intensive. Wealthy farmers also had the more productive and desirable land than poor ones. Slavery was allowed during this time but there were far less slaves compared to Virginia since farming wasn 't a big profession in New England. Economic stability and population expansion led to founding of more colonies throughout New England. These settlers continued to spread inland which inevitably led to conflicts with native Indians who initially helped the settlers. In 1637, the Pequot war was fought where most of the Pequot tribe was eliminated. Remaining Indian forces allied with each other to confront the English but the English had a far superior fire power and they wiped out the natives. In Puritan New England, social life played a major part in people 's lives. The puritans believed in close-knit community where a lot of decisions were made by these smaller communities instead of the government. A lot of trade was also occurring within communities and borrowing/landing was very common during this time. Puritans highly regarded family values where the head of the household was responsible for insuring that the family follows God. They encouraged reading the Bible as they believe that Bible was God 's law and reading it was an important facet of life. This enabled high literacy rate in Puritans New England which helped the economy to grow. With economic prosperity and freedom to practice their religious views, Puritans lived their lives as fully as they could. They often wore colorful clothes (the stereotype that Puritans were dark clothes is incorrect) and jewelry. Puritans even allowed drinking as long as they stay within confines of social tolerance. The leaders of Puritans New England made sure insured some of these freedom didn 't go out of hand and that differences in opinion did not stray too far from established ideals. With all the prosperity and governance ideas of Puritan New England, it can be said that many characteristics of present day America such as sovereignty, determination, literacy had their roots in New England Puritanism. In a way, New England Puritanism gave birth to present day America.

Bibliography

Morgan, Edmund S. The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop. 3rd ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007.