What were the beliefs and characteristics of the the puritans?

Answer 1

Did an A level history module on these guys...

Basically there are two main strands of historical interpretation on these guys: the traditional view, and then the more revisionist view.

The Puritans arose as a movement after the Elizabethan Church Settlement of 1559, which established England as a Protestant nation after Queen Mary's Catholic restoration. However, it was very different to the Protestant Church of her younger brother Edward V. She followed more the lead of Luther, whilst her brother followed that of Calvin. Elizabeth, to appease her nation who was mostly catholic (the revisionists argue), established a Church with Protestant theology, but maintaining many of the Catholic rituals and traditions. In brief, it "looked Catholic, but sounded Protestant".

The Puritans were a (minority) group, that rebelled against this, seeking to be stricter like the times under Edward. Whilst the traditional argument was that this was a huge group of people, revisionist argue that they were but a small sect. Many of them illegally abstained from Anglican Church services, and instead formed isolated communities. They believed that they were the elect, chosen by God to enter heaven, and that all others not in their communities were the 'reprobate' (that is, those damned to hell), and as such, they wanted little to do with them.

Anything that wasn't strictly biblical they banned. Bright clothing was outlawed as worldish. Maypoles were cut down, as there routes were in pagan tradition. They had names for themselves like 'the Godly'.

Defining exactly what a Puritan was, is difficult (I remember having to write essays on it!), simply because there were many different types, from those who simply didn't like wearing Catholic vestments, to those who wanted to overhaul Elizabeth as head of the Church. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, the Puritan threat came from those protesting the vestments, and as that died away, it was replaced by the Puritan shadow Church, which rivalled the Anglican Church.

Indeed, the very term 'Puritan', was never actually used by Puritans to describe themselves. It was in fact an insult used for them by the rest of the Christian folk.

But in the words of a modern historian, a Puritan was a 'hotter Protestant'