Puritan Experience Research Paper

Faith was central to the Puritan experience, for it was the source from which all other aspects of their society and values emerged. The word "Puritan" was actually a term of ridicule devised by opponents of the late-sixteenth-century movement that arose in England. The Puritans remained unsatisfied with the progress and extent of the Protestant Reformation that began in 1517. They resented the persistence of Catholic influence on Anglican doctrine and rituals, but beyond that the movement split into a number of factions that disagreed over doctrine and strategy. The Pilgrims who settled Plymouth Colony were part of a faction known as Separatists; they had left the Church of England to create their own denominations. Separatists were a minority,
and most Puritans, including the ones who later settled Massachusetts Bay Colony, sought to reform the Church from within.