Puritans

Overview

The Puritans were Protestants active in England from the late sixteenth century through the seventeenth century. They believed that the reformation of the established church (today's Church of England) had stopped halfway. They therefore sought to "purify" its worship, church polity, and daily life more thoroughly in accordance with Scripture. The name is said to have originated as a taunt directed at people thought to be excessively preoccupied with purity. Puritanism was not a single denomination but a movement that encompassed several streams. Theologically, the Puritans generally followed Calvinism.

Background

Under the religious settlement of Elizabeth I in 1559, the Church of England was established as a Protestant church. Many clergy who had gone into exile under Mary I and later returned, however, regarded this settlement as merely a first step toward reform. They viewed practices such as the wearing of clerical vestments and making the sign of the cross at baptism as remnants of Roman Catholicism and wished to abolish them. They also called for more preaching and for strict observance of the Lord's Day.

Development

• The Elizabethan era: Puritan preachers who did not conform to the discipline of the established church were suspended from their ministry. Some secretly built up an organization governed by elders rather than bishops. However, the controversy surrounding anonymous pamphlets attacking the bishops in 1588 led to the exposure of this organization, and its leaders were arrested.
• 1603–1611: When James I came to the throne in 1603, the Puritans presented the Millenary Petition, a petition for reform said to have been signed by about one thousand ministers. The king convened the Hampton Court Conference in January 1604 but largely sided with the bishops. The conference did, however, resolve to produce a new translation of the Bible, and the King James Version appeared in 1611.
• The Civil War period: After the English Civil War in the mid-seventeenth century, Puritan factions gained political power. During this time Archbishop William Laud and King Charles I were tried and executed. In the same period, the Westminster Assembly drew up the Westminster Confession of Faith.
• 1660–1689: After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the Act of Uniformity was enacted in 1662. Under this act, every minister was required by August 24 to assent to the revised Book of Common Prayer (the service book of the established church) and to receive episcopal ordination. Some two thousand Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist ministers who refused were ejected from the established church, an event known as the Great Ejection. They became Nonconformists outside the established church. With the Toleration Act of 1689, the penalties of the Act of Uniformity effectively ceased to apply to Nonconformists.

Results and Influence

• The Great Ejection brought about a complete separation between the established church and the Puritans. Thereafter, Nonconformist traditions such as Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, and the Baptists became distinct streams.
• The Westminster Confession of Faith became the principal doctrinal standard of Presbyterian churches, and many Korean Presbyterian denominations also adhere to it. Reformed Baptists regard the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith as part of the Puritan heritage.
• Some Puritans emigrated to New England in North America and founded communities there.
• The Puritans emphasized diligence and shunned luxury. This ethic is sometimes linked to the formation of the English middle class.
• In the Korean church, keeping the Lord's Day holy, preaching-centered worship, and an emphasis on a life of piety are often associated with the Puritan tradition.

Assessment

The Reformed tradition holds the Puritans in high esteem as exemplars who upheld the authority of Scripture, preaching, and godly living. By contrast, some within the established church defended episcopacy as a divinely ordained order and opposed the Puritans. Over time, moves toward reconciliation also emerged; in 2012 the Church of England and the United Reformed Church held a service for the healing of memories and reconciliation at Westminster Abbey. In popular perception, the Puritans are widely seen as austere ascetics who regarded pleasure as sinful. It has also been pointed out, however, that the name in fact refers collectively to a number of groups with diverse outlooks.