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PURITANISM A PEOPLE
'UPON A HILL'
By: Michael C.
Metzger
Plymouth Rock,
the Mayflower, and Thanksgiving, are some of the most lasting images of a people
who founded the “American ideal” nearly four hundred years ago. Who though
were those people who set foot on that rock in
Plymouth
, stepping from the Mayflower, it seems right into the pages of history to be
forever immortalized when they celebrated that first “Thanksgiving?” To
better understand who these people were in this country one must first look to
their roots in
England
around the late sixteenth century.
During this time period Queen Elizabeth I was upon the throne and had
come up with a settlement to an issue, which had been gripping her country for
nearly one hundred years before her. This problem started in 1534 during King
Henry VIII's rule. Henry had strong dynastic motivations, desiring a son to
serve as an heir. Yet, his wife was unable to produce a son. Henry therefore,
wished a divorce, which the Catholic Church did not grant. Thus, he issued the
Act of Supremacy, which separated the
English
Church
from
Rome
. He then established the Church of England, lead by the monarch. This allowed
him to get a divorce and in turn a son. After Henry’s rule ended in 1547, his
son Edward VI would take the throne. Edward used this opportunity to move the
church in the direction of the relatively new ideas of Protestantism.
Protestants advocated a return to the scripture of the Christian religion and
desired a simplification of Catholic practices. Edward’s reign was short and
his sister Mary would come to the throne. She pushed the country in the exact
opposite religious direction. Mary restored
England
’s ties with the Catholic Church and she would even earn the nickname
“Bloody Mary” for the executions of many Protestants. This is the situation
which
Elizabeth
I inherited when she ascended to the throne in 1558. Her solution, today termed
the Elizabethan Settlement, created a religious institution of compromise. Known
as the Anglican Church it became the official Church of England, with no ties to
Rome
. It combined Catholic elements with Protestants ones as well. The bulk of
society came to accept this compromise and
Elizabeth
would become known over her reign as Elizabeth “The Great.” Nonetheless,
there was a small section of the population, which was unhappy. This small
movement wished to push the church further in the Protestant direction. This
group wanted to purify the church under the Protestant ideal of purification.
These Puritans as they became known began to work within the church attempting
to change what they wanted.
Overtime, there comes to be a very small division of this small unhappy
segment, which felt that, no longer could they exist under this Anglican
umbrella. This small group in 1609 from Scrooby left
England
to pursue their purer ideas in the
Netherlands
. Here though they became unhappy with the materialism of the society and
dissatisfied with the influence that this was having upon their children. To
remedy this they negotiated with the English Virginia Company for land in the
New World
, which the company granted to them. In addition this group acquired a loan from
English businessmen to finance their voyage. This group of Puritans sailed
aboard the Mayflower for the New World, intending to land in the modern day
Pennsylvania
,
New Jersey
region. Instead, they landed at what is today
Plymouth
,
Massachusetts
. Relieved to have arrived they set up their community as they saw fit, and
practiced their pure religion.
A few years later, another group of Puritans in
England
began to run into difficulties reforming the Anglican Church. The cause was the
ascension of Charles I who greatly opposed such reforms. This group of Puritans
felt the need to show the value of Puritanism. Unlike the
Plymouth
group this one had no intent to split from the Anglican Church. With this
premise in hand John Winthrop and nearly one thousand others sailed for the new
world.
Winthrop
on his passage to the
New World
wrote “A Model of Christian Charity.” This work made clear that this group
of settlers was coming to the
New World
with a distinctive ideal, a Puritan theory. He wrote that this group was to
create a “City upon a Hill,” which would be a model of the purest society.
In that manner the world having all “the eyes of all the people upon us”
would see the value of this model and in the case of
England
cause the reforms of the English church which this group so desired. This group
with this idea in hand would land in
Boston
,
Massachusetts
in 1630.
In
Massachusetts
these two very different societies with drastically different founding ideals
would take shape. The Puritans of Plymouth stayed true to their separatist
notion, desiring to keep their distance from all, and to practice their religion
for themselves. The non-conformists of
Boston
developed quite differently than their southern neighbors, thanks to bringing
with them the largest single migratory population of the seventh century aboard
their seventeen ships. This society would grow and spread to other areas and
created new towns such as
Charlestown
, Ipswich, and
Concord
among others. Nonetheless, in these early stages of settlement, the backbone of
this society remained the same; develop a model to which the value of their
practices could be seen.
This unique model idea created many positive as well as negative
influences upon American attitudes and intuitions. For this group of Puritans
their routes like the other group lied in Protestantism. One of the most
important concepts for this religion was that God “elected” some people for
salvation while the rest were to be damned. In addition, before birth this
selection was done. Therefore, no worldly action could alter this. One would
think this would lead to a very lazy society because nothing done on earth could
change their chances for salvation. This though is a picture of the exact
opposite of the Puritan society, which formed. Worldly actions Puritans thought,
could be seen as hints to what lied beyond, salvation or not. This is why
Puritans developed a strong work ethic. The Puritans saw a person, who was able
to work hard, remain religious devoted, and live up to other elements of a
strong moral code as a sign of God’s grace which would mean salvation. That is
why this group developed into a hard working people. Another important Puritan
element was, return to scripture. To make sure that their model society was able
to achieve this goal, literacy among the colonists was an important issue. They
felt a strong need therefore to provide a broad social response. Therefore, each
community according to Puritan doctrine was to maintain a school. This school
educated their young in the ways of reading so that they were able to read the
bible. There also was a need for educated men to lead the society. The
establishment of
Harvard
College
in 1638 met this need for educated ministers. There in lies some of the most
promising influence and achievements of these early settlers, a strong work
ethic, education, literary, and training in leadership.
The negative side can be traced back to the route of their society, the
model concept. This model was truly very important to this group. Their entire
society revolved around it, it was to be protected at all costs. If anyone or
anything came to endanger it, this was a threat, which was to be dealt with. A
prime example of this would be Anne Hutchinson of
Boston
.
Hutchinson
claimed to have received direct revelations from God, which caused her to
question the Puritan system of salvation. Colonial leadership was not happy with
Hutchinson
. For they took the stance that, the period of direct revelation from God to
people was over; people should rather look to the word of God in the bible for
revelations.
Hutchinson
was therefore viewed as an antinomian, a person who was against the word of
God. She was seen as a threat to the Puritan model. For if
Hutchinson
’s revelation was accepted, by the leadership it would open the door to other
possible revelations which could fragment the entire society. This would in turn
move the society further and further away from the Puritan model. This was a
danger, which the Puritan leadership could not tolerate; expulsion from the
Boston Puritan society in 1638 was the price
Hutchinson
paid.
What
happed to
Hutchinson
is a clear demonstration of the Puritan idea and how it could manifest itself
in a negative way. This group was looking to form a society based on what they
already believed and knew to be true. They were not looking for new ideas, on
how to achieve their model society. New ideas meant changes to the model. This
would invalidate the reason for coming to the
New World
, to show the value of Puritan ideals. Therefore, other ideas, and religions
were something the Puritans of the
Boston
ideal were not willing to entertain. A very closed minded society came to be.
One so much so that this group often treated people like Anne Hutchinson much
like they had been treated in England.
The Puritans a group, which had their ideas firmly, routed in the
Protestant movement. There though were several ways in which this group desired
to change the religious system in
England
, which presided over them. This group started by trying to work the problem
from within. This lead way to one group becoming dissatisfied, splitting from
the church and to head for
America
where the could live their lives separate of anything which was a danger to
their pure society. The other group, which emerged, decided rather than to
separate to show the value of their ideals so that the English church would
reform. They left for
America
to establish as John Winthrop wrote a “City upon a Hill.” This model
society did create several benefits such as a hardworking society as well as an
interest in education, leadership, and literacy. In addition, it crated a closed
minded society, which saw people who thought differently such as Anne Hutchinson
as a danger. The removal of these dangers was paramount to preserve the sanctity
of their model. Puritanism a building block that created the foundation for the
America
of today. It was clearly more than a rock, a boat, and a meal. It was a way of
life, and sometimes of death, all in the name of following what they believed
in.
Selected
Bibliography:
Brinkley, Alan. American
History. New York: McGraw Hill, 2003.
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