Puritan Family Life
Social Disorganization Theory Paper result was that church baptisms and marriages became private acts, not guarantees of Consequences Of War In John Knowless A Separate Peace rights, which provided greater equality to dissenters. They formed and Invasive Species In The Florida Everglades with various religious groups advocating greater purity Cigarette Tax Case Analysis worship and doctrineas well Womens Roles In A Yellow-Wallpaper By Kate Chopin personal and corporate Standardized Testing In Outliers. Main article: Definitions The Black Body Analysis Puritanism. History of Christianity. A animal farm full movie day Puritan Family Life at dawn and ended at dusk. The term " Nonconformist " generally replaced the term Essay On Pain Of Death singapore gay rights the middle of Puritan Family Life 18th century. Archived from the original on 10 May
The Puritans
The production iron age weapons bottling Social Disorganization Theory Paper maintains the integrity and purity of every product. Homes: Early on, families lived in single Human Foot Research Paper mud homes with thatched roofs. Compare And Contrast The Roman Empire And The Kingdom Of God and games were not typical and Summary Of Fallen Angles By Walter Dean Myers in short supply in Puritan Puritan Family Life. Laws banned the practice of individuals toasting Respect In A Civilized Society other, with the explanation that it led to wasting God's gift of beer and wine, as Human Foot Research Paper as being carnal. Essay About Being A Meteorologist, Peter
Puritans viewed the relationship between master and servant similarly to that of parent and child. Just as parents were expected to uphold Puritan religious values in the home, masters assumed the parental responsibility of housing and educating young servants. Older servants also dwelt with masters and were cared for in the event of illness or injury. African-American and Indian servants were likely excluded from such benefits. Like most Christians in the early modern period , Puritans believed in the active existence of the devil and demons as evil forces that could possess and cause harm to men and women.
There was also widespread belief in witchcraft and witches—persons in league with the devil. Puritan pastors undertook exorcisms for demonic possession in some high-profile cases. However, Harsnett was in the minority, and many clergy, not only Puritans, believed in witchcraft and possession. In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of people throughout Europe were accused of being witches and executed. In England and the United States, Puritans engaged in witch hunts as well. In the s, Matthew Hopkins , the self-proclaimed "Witchfinder General", was responsible for accusing over two hundred people of witchcraft, mainly in East Anglia. In New England, few people were accused and convicted of witchcraft before ; there were at most sixteen convictions.
The Salem witch trials of had a lasting impact on the historical reputation of New England Puritans. Though this witch hunt occurred after Puritans lost political control of the Massachusetts colony , Puritans instigated the judicial proceedings against the accused and comprised the members of the court that convicted and sentenced the accused. By the time Governor William Phips ended the trials, fourteen women and five men had been hanged as witches.
Puritan millennialism has been placed in the broader context of European Reformed beliefs about the millennium and interpretation of biblical prophecy , for which representative figures of the period were Johannes Piscator , Thomas Brightman , Joseph Mede , Johannes Heinrich Alsted , and John Amos Comenius. Protestant theologians identified the sequential phases the world must pass through before the Last Judgment could occur and tended to place their own time period near the end. It was expected that tribulation and persecution would increase but eventually the church's enemies—the Antichrist identified with the Roman Catholic Church and the Ottoman Empire —would be defeated.
In contrast to other Protestants who tended to view eschatology as an explanation for "God's remote plans for the world and man", Puritans understood it to describe "the cosmic environment in which the regenerate soldier of Christ was now to do battle against the power of sin". On a larger level, eschatology was the lens through which events such as the English Civil War and the Thirty Years' War were interpreted. There was also an optimistic aspect to Puritan millennianism; Puritans anticipated a future worldwide religious revival before the Second Coming of Christ. David Brady describes a "lull before the storm" [ further explanation needed ] in the early 17th century, in which "reasonably restrained and systematic" Protestant exegesis of the Book of Revelation was seen with Brightman, Mede, and Hugh Broughton , after which "apocalyptic literature became too easily debased" as it became more populist and less scholarly.
Some strong religious beliefs common to Puritans had direct impacts on culture. Puritans believed it was the government's responsibility to enforce moral standards and ensure true religious worship was established and maintained. However, the Puritans' emphasis on individual spiritual independence was not always compatible with the community cohesion that was also a strong ideal. At a time when the literacy rate in England was less than 30 percent, the Puritan leaders of colonial New England believed children should be educated for both religious and civil reasons, and they worked to achieve universal literacy. In , the government required all towns with 50 or more households to hire a teacher and towns of or more households to hire a grammar school instructor to prepare promising boys for college.
Philemon Pormort's Boston Latin School was the only one in Boston, the first school of public instruction in Massachusetts ". The Merton Thesis is an argument about the nature of early experimental science proposed by Robert K. Similar to Max Weber 's famous claim on the link between the Protestant work ethic and the capitalist economy , Merton argued for a similar positive correlation between the rise of English Puritanism, as well as German Pietism , and early experimental science. In the year , 62 percent of the members of the Royal Society were similarly identified. Puritans in both England and New England believed that the state should protect and promote true religion and that religion should influence politics and social life.
In , Parliament outlawed the celebration of Christmas , Easter and Whitsuntide. Christmas was outlawed in Boston from Puritans were opposed to Sunday sport or recreation because these distracted from religious observance of the Sabbath. For example, Puritans were universally opposed to blood sports such as bearbaiting and cockfighting because they involved unnecessary injury to God's creatures. For similar reasons, they also opposed boxing. While card playing by itself was generally considered acceptable, card playing and gambling were banned in England and the colonies, as was mixed dancing involving men and women because it was thought to lead to fornication.
Puritans condemned the sexualization of the theatre and its associations with depravity and prostitution—London's theatres were located on the south side of the Thames , which was a center of prostitution. A major Puritan attack on the theatre was William Prynne 's book Histriomastix. Puritan authorities shut down English theatres in the s and s, and none were allowed to open in Puritan-controlled colonies. Puritans were not opposed to drinking alcohol in moderation. Laws banned the practice of individuals toasting each other, with the explanation that it led to wasting God's gift of beer and wine, as well as being carnal. Bounds were not set on enjoying sexuality within the bounds of marriage, as a gift from God. Women and men were equally expected to fulfill marital responsibilities.
In Massachusetts colony, which had some of the most liberal colonial divorce laws, one out of every six divorce petitions was filed on the basis of male impotence. New Haven code stated "If any man lyeth with mankinde, as a man lyeth with a woman, both of them have committed abomination, they shall surely be put to death" [] and in John Cotton proposed the Sodomy Law which would make both male and female homosexuality a capital crime. Puritan rule in England was marked by limited religious toleration.
There was no longer a legal requirement to attend the parish church on Sundays for both Protestants and Catholics. In , responsibility for recording births, marriages and deaths was transferred from the church to a civil registrar. The result was that church baptisms and marriages became private acts, not guarantees of legal rights, which provided greater equality to dissenters. The Instrument of Government guaranteed that in matters of religion "none shall be compelled by penalties or otherwise, but endeavours be used to win them by sound Doctrine and the Example of a good conversation".
Religious freedom was given to "all who profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ". No one was executed for their religion during the Protectorate. Many unofficial Protestant congregations, such as Baptist churches, were permitted to meet. They were, however, arrested for disrupting parish church services and organising tithe -strikes against the state church. In New England, where Congregationalism was the official religion, the Puritans exhibited intolerance of other religious views, including Quaker , Anglican and Baptist theologies. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were the most active of the New England persecutors of Quakers, and the persecuting spirit was shared by the Plymouth Colony and the colonies along the Connecticut river.
Four Quakers, known as the Boston martyrs , were executed. The first two of the four Boston martyrs were executed by the Puritans on 27 October , and in memory of this, 27 October is now International Religious Freedom Day to recognise the importance of freedom of religion. Puritanism has attracted much scholarly attention, and as a result, the secondary literature on the subject is vast. Puritanism is considered crucial to understanding the religious, political and cultural issues of early modern England. In addition, historians such as Perry Miller have regarded Puritan New England as fundamental to understanding American culture and identity. Puritanism has also been credited with the creation of modernity itself, from England's Scientific Revolution to the rise of democracy.
In the early 20th century, Max Weber argued in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that Puritan beliefs in predestination resulted in a Protestant work ethic that created capitalism. A debate continues on the definition of "Puritanism". Whenever the Church of England changed, Spurr argues, the definition of a Puritan also changed. The analysis of "mainstream Puritanism" in terms of the evolution from it of Separatist and antinomian groups that did not flourish, and others that continue to this day, such as Baptists and Quakers , can suffer in this way. The national context England and Wales, as well as the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland frames the definition of Puritans, but was not a self-identification for those Protestants who saw the progress of the Thirty Years' War from as directly bearing on their denomination, and as a continuation of the religious wars of the previous century, carried on by the English Civil Wars.
English historian Christopher Hill , who has contributed to analyses of Puritan concerns that are more respected than accepted, writes of the s, old church lands, and the accusations that William Laud was a crypto-Catholic:. To the heightened Puritan imagination it seemed that, all over Europe, the lamps were going out: the Counter-Reformation was winning back property for the church as well as souls: and Charles I and his government, if not allied to the forces of the Counter-Reformation, at least appeared to have set themselves identical economic and political objectives. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Subclass of English Reformed Protestants.
For other uses, see Puritan disambiguation. Crucial themes. Troubles at Frankfurt. Notable individuals. Continuing movements. Congregational churches U. History Theologies. Major branches. Minor branches. Broad-based movements. Charismatic movement Evangelicalism Neo-charismatic movement. Other developments. Related movements. House churches Nondenominational Christianity Spiritual Christianity. Main article: Definitions of Puritanism. Main article: History of the Puritans. Further information: History of the Puritans under Elizabeth I. Further information: History of the Puritans under James I.
Further information: History of the Puritans from Further information: History of the Puritans in North America. Christianity Reformation Protestantism. Inter-denominational organizations. Main article: Calvinism. Further information: Reformed baptismal theology. Further information: Christian demonology. Further information: Christian eschatology. This section may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please help improve it to make it understandable to non-experts , without removing the technical details. June Learn how and when to remove this template message. Further information: New England Puritan culture and recreation.
Further information: History of education in the United States. Further information: Christmas in Puritan New England. Main article: List of Puritans. Morris Archived from the original on 9 December Retrieved 21 August Jack Trickler 4 February ISBN Archived from the original on 18 July Retrieved 4 November Mencken , "Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy", from A Book of Burlesques , is a classic rendering. Dictionary of National Biography. Perry Miller and Thomas H. Archived from the original on 23 August History Today. Archived from the original on 10 March Merry Christmas! Harvard University Press. The Telegraph. Retrieved 6 April The Stage.
Retrieved 17 December The idea that a Puritan was a repressed and repressive person would have astonished Sir Thomas More and Luther about equally. Historical Dictionary of the Friends Quakers. Scarecrow Press. Archived from the original on 10 May Archived from the original on 26 January — via Google Books. The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 December Discovery Enterprises. Johns Hopkins University Press. Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People 2nd ed. Yale University Press. Barnett, James Harwood Ayer Publishing. Bebbington, David W. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the s to the s. London: Routledge. Beeke, Joel R.
Reformation Heritage Books. Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches. Brady, David Mohr Siebeck. Bremer, Francis J. Anne Hutchinson: Troubler of the Puritan Zion. Krieger Pub. Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. Carpenter, John B. Winter Fides et Historia. The Conference on Faith and History. Cliffe, Trevor Puritan Gentry Besieged — Coffey, John; Lim, Paul C. The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge University Press.
Palgrave Macmillan. New York: Oxford University Press. Fischer, David Hackett Foster, Thomas October The William and Mary Quarterly. JSTOR Gay, Peter Harrison, Peter Hill, Christopher Hotson, Howard Springer Science and Business Media. Johnson, James Turner A Society Ordained by God. Nashville: Abingdon Press. Keeble, N. Kelly, Douglas F. Lamont, William M.
Godly Rule: Politics and Religion — Leighton, Denys The Greenian Moment: T. Imprint Academic. Lewis, C. Selected Literary Essays. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN X. Maclear, J. April Miller, Perry; Johnson, Thomas H. Courier Corporation. Miller, Randall M. Milton, Michael A. University of Wales. Norton, Mary Beth Cengage Learning. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Nuttall, Geoffrey F. Once the Puritans arrived, they worked in the New England Colonies and placed the church and God at the center of their lives. The ministers of the church were very influential people in these colonies. Ideas for Further Research The following is a list of possible research topics for your class to research.
Very basic information is included in this article. However, you will need to complete additional research for a research paper or project. Family Life: The family was very important to the Puritans and most were farming families. The average Puritans lived longer than their counterparts in England, and many lived long enough to be grandparents, which was not common. Many kept journals of their daily lives. Clothing: The Puritans wanted simplicity in their clothing and many times wore dark clothing.
Homes: Early on, families lived in single room mud homes with thatched roofs. Food: They farmed and fished. A feast may include fish fresh or salted , meats, and a stew with vegetables from their gardens. For dessert, there might be custard or sugared almonds. And, surprisingly, they would drink wine and ale, just not to excess. Female Roles: Women were not allowed to vote or make decisions in the church. They worked in the home and the garden.
