T H E S I S

Chapter II
PURITANISM DEFINED
Historically the term "Puritan*1 was first used during the
late 1560fs as a label for those Englishmen who urged that the
English Church go further in the rejection of papal practices and
beliefs. “Puritanism” really began with the formal separation of
the English Church from Rome* under Kenry VIII, in 153*+, with the
Act of Supremacy*5
Some thirty years later, the most ardent reformers who were
still attempting to complete, as they saw it, the work of “purifying"
the English Church came to be designated, and to designate
themselves, as "Puritans*1* Elizabeth I (1558-1603) was somewhat
against .that big conflict about religious matters and under James I,
who came to the throne in 1603, things got worse* For the Puritans
and the repression drove many of them to exile, and it is
well known how a Puritan colony settled in New England in 1620,
because of that repression*
Theologically Puritanism is based on the Calvinist doctrine
which advocates the ultimate and complete authority of the Scriptures,
the necessity of uniformity, the evil of toleration, and
the responsibility and authority of the magistrates in matters
of religion. Puritanism is further associated with the dogma of
original sin, and a strict determinism which places salvation in