PURITANISM. The• Puritans were those who thought that the English Reformation had not gone far enoug in its sepayation from the Roman Catholic urch, but that there were many ceremonies and forms still retained in the worship which were too suggestive of papacy. They held that it was not expedient or right to retain the use of the cross in baptism, the clerical vestments, the custom of kneeling at the altar and other forms which had been rejected by the Reformed Churches on the Continent. They believed that the worship should in this be purified and that only those who lived upright lives should be the ministers of the Church. To them the Church was a means of advancing religious truth, and it could not do this to the best advantage while hampered, as they thought, by useless, misleading and un, scnptural forms and ceremonies, especially when these forms and ceremonies were obliga tory for all and the observance of them en forced by the civil authority. During the perse cution of the Protestants in the reign of Mary, hundreds of the English reformers went to the Continent and were in the company of the lead ers of the Reformed Church. When Elizabeth came to the throne, these men returned and became the leaders of English Protestantism. Some of them regarded the wearing of the vestments prescribed by the Church authorities as a matter of indifference, others refused to wear them. They did not object to the govern ment of the Church of Etigland or the close connection between Church and State or the doctrinal system, but objected to what they regarded as the remnants of popery.
Whether they would be allowed to do as they wished or not depended largely on the attitude of the queen. Elizabeth was a woman whose religious tastes were stronger than her religious convictions and the simplicity and bareness of the worship of the Reformed Church offended her. She disliked Puritanism because the teachings of men like John Knox opposed her idea of the royal power. She op posed any puritanical modification of the Prayer Book or of the ceremonies of the Church. That there was to be no room for nonconformity was shown when her first Parliament passed the Act , of Uniformity.
which made unlawful any form of public wor ship but that of the Prayer Book, and the Act of Supremacy, by which the queen was ac knowledged supreme governor of the realm in spiritual and ecclesiastical affairs. She re solved to retain in the worship as much show and form as possible, and ordered uniformity in vestments. If refused they were forbidden to pi each and deprived of their office. This law was not strictly enforced at first, but with greater rigor as the time went on. Large num bers were ejected from their churches, but con tinued to hold private meetings. Many were imprisoned and treated with severity. But non conformity continued to grow notwithstanding the efforts to suppress it.
In early Puritanism the objection is mainly to the forms and ceremonies in the worship of the Church, In the later years of the reign of Elizabeth, attention is given to the govern ment of the Church and the relation between Church and State. Elizabeth claimed that in this her will was supreme. Some of the Puri tans, above all others, Thomas Cartwright, taught that the only right form of Church government was that laid down in the New Testament and that it was Presbyterianism.
He taught that the civil authorities are not to interfere in Church affairs, but they are bound to protect it. There is still to be a state church but with a Presbyterian rather than an Epis copal form of government. This was directly opposed to the queen's supremacy, and her ef forts to suppress this form of Puritanism were vigorous. These Puritan movements were within the Established Church, but there were some who believed that a church having connection with the state was unscriptural and so there arose the party called Independents or Separatists. They ,taught that the local church was independent and should manage its own affairs. These were also called Brownists from Robert Browne, who was their first leader. The Separatists were severely per secuted and many left the country. Thus, at the close of the reign of Elizabeth, there are three kinds of Puritans: those who desire a purified worship and still remain in the Church, those who would have a state church under the Presbyterian form of government and those who believed that an established church was wrong. Hopes were entertained that James VI, educated in Presbyterian Scotland, would be more favorable to Puritanism. The clergy petitioned him for freedom from the burden of human rites and ceremonies and the matter was considered at the Hampton Court Conference. But James' motto was 'no bishop, no king,* so they could look for little tolera tion. Uniformity was enforced with great vigor and many Puritans deprived of all hopes of redress left the country. This condition continued with even greater severity in the reign of his son, Charles I, and there seemed in the early part of his reign no check on his tyranny in Church and State. Despairing of freedom in Old England, Puritan and Sepa ratist turned to America to create there a New England. In 1620 a little company of Separa tists after a sojourn in Holland came to America and settled at Plymouth. In the course of the next 20 years thousands of Puri tans settled in Massachusetts. This Puritan emigration stopped in 1640, when there seemed a better prospect of liberty in England. The Puritan emigrants came as members of the Church of England with no desire to separate. The Pilgrims were already separated from the English communion and were independent in their church government. But the Puritans because of their distance from the home coun try and because of the influence of the Pil grims very quickly adopted the Congregational or Independent form of church government Modern American descendants of the Puritan settlers regard them as having been far too strict. Their so-called °blues laws are spoken of as indicating religious bigotry and intoler ance.
Bibliography.— Byington, 'The Puritan in England and New England> (1897) ; Campbell, t The Puritan in Holland, England and Amer ica> (1892) ; Neal, (History of the the English histories of this period; works on Congregationalism.
Gums MANNING GEER, Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford, Conn.