PURITANS (from Lat. puritas, purity, from gurus, pure). A party title, originally a nick name which came into use about 1564, to desig nate that section of the Church of England which desired a more thorough reformation of the Church than was effected under Elizabeth, as such reformation was understood by Continental Protestantism, especially of the Calvinistic school. From the beginning of the Reformation age there had been three parties in the Church of England: a Romanizing element which desired to continue the connection with the Pope, whom it regarded as the vicar of Christ: a Protestant party which desired the full modification of the Church of England, at least in doctrine, into con formity with Continental Protestantism; and an intermediate party that, for want of a better designation, may be called Anglican, which wished to see all foreign ecclesiastical authority rejected, disliked monasticism, and welcomed the use of English in the services of the Church. but did not desire such thorough-going modification of its doctrine or organization as the Protestant section sought. This Anglican party looked to the sovereign as the source of ecclesiastical gov ernment, and was that which was represented by Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. To the thinking of these energetic monarchs the desirable system of Church government for England was one in which the ruler should be supreme in ecclesiastical no less than in civil affairs. The political condition of England, also, at the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth was such as largely to justify the compromising attitude of the Queen regard ing doctrine and ceremony. A minority only of the population was heartily in sympathy with the Reformation. The great bulk of the clergy had been swept almost without question from the Roman obedience of Queen ,Mary's time into Eliz abeth's Establishment; and the Queen's political policy, no less than her personal preferences, counseled her to make the ecclesiastical transi tion as easy a-s possible by retaining not a little of the ceremonies and vestments of the older worship and by insisting upon uniformity of cere monial without very strenuous investigation into the belief or even the conduct of the ministry.
This compromise policy, however, was distaste ful to the thoroughly Protestant party in the Church of England. :Many of their leaders had fled to the Continent to escape the Alarian perse cution, and had there come into intimate associa tion with Calvin and the Swiss reformers gen erally. It was natural, therefore, that the model into accordance with which they desired to modify the doctrine and worship of the English Church was that of Continental Calvinism. Yet
at first few of the Puritan leaders desired any thing more than the disuse of the vestments which seemed to them to symbolize too great a distinc tion between clergy and laity. and the abandon ment of certain ceremonies which appeared to them to countenance what they deemed Roman sacramental misconceptions. Strongly conscious of the spiritual needs of England, they desired, furthermore, the establishment everywhere of an earnest preaching ministry and of vigorous discipline. These aims conflicted, however, with the Queen's policy of inclusion, and she set her self vigorously to enforce conformity in cere mony by the aid of the bishops, who, under the Elizabethan policy, were regarded primarily as royal agents.
The result of this policy was a further evo lution in Puritanism itself. While a great por tion of the Puritans continued to represent the desires of the earlier period of the party which have just been described, a considerable section now went further and questioned the rightfulness of that form of Church government by law es tablished' which prevented the reforms that they wished. The typical leader of this second stage of Puritanism was Thomas Cartwright (1a35 1603). In his opinion the only biblical system of Church government was one essentially Pres byterian; and, while he was willing to tolerate the existence of an extremely modified episcopacy, he would introduce into each parish the discipli nary and elective features of Presbyterian gov ernment. From thence onward until the Restora tion, a large portion of the Puritan party walked in Cartwright's footsteps, and sought the modifi cation of the Church of England essentially along Presbyterian lines. A small wing of extreme Puritanism went yet further, and under the lead ership of Robert l;rowne, Henry Ilarrowe (qq.v.), and others, insisted that the only proper organi zation of the Church was in separate self-gov erning congregations, and that it was the duty of Christian men to leave the Church of England and establish such congregations; hence this ex treme radical wing of Puritanism was known as the 'Separatists.' These Separatists were vig orously opposed by the more moderate Puritans of Queen Elizabeth's time; but their spiritual sympathizers were to be the founders of Plym outh in New England, and their conception of Church government was ultimately to dominate the Puritan settlers of Alassachusetts and Con necticut.