Radicals in the Wilderness - Pilgrims, Puritans and a City on a Hill
The desire to create a godly community revolutionized settlement patterns in the New England colonies.
KEY POINT:While the Southern colonies were being established mostly for the sake of profit, a group of Northern colonies was founded mostly for the sake of ideas.The New England Settlement was purposely founded for English radical Protestant refugees.
Pre-Settlement Developments
Protestant Reformation and the rise of Puritanism. In 1517, Martin Luther begins break from Catholic church; birth of Protestantism John Calvin elaborated on Luther's ideas and founded Calvinism in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536); King Henry VIII broke ties with Roman Catholic Church in 1530's and became head of the newly formed Church of England or Anglican Church.
Extreme group of Protestants who wanted to break from the Anglican Church altogether. The first wave of Separatists left Britain for Holland for freedom to practice Calvinism. the group secured rights with Virginia Company to settle within its jurisdiction in Virginia.
Puritans were radical Protestants seeking to reform the Anglican Church by removing its Catholic elements and excluding people who were not committed. They became refugees from the English government’s demands for conformity to a single mainstream, state-established church. They left England of deliberate dissent = treason
Ideological Problems and Developments
Communal organizations broke down over the need for more land New England grew into six separately organized settlements. Puritans had difficulty maintaining a consensus
Quakers (the Society of Friends) Followers believed in an inner light and not in theology,flouted the authority of the Puritan clergy and were persecuted. CASE STUDY: Mary Dyer
Anne Hutchinson (antinomianism - Christian theology that faith alone, not obedience to religious law, is necessary for salvation) and the "elect" didn’t need to obey God's or man's law because they were predestined for salvation. Antinomianism is the polar opposite of legalism, the notion that obedience to a code of religious law is necessary for salvation.
Roger Williams("liberty of conscience") used "wall of separation" metaphor for church and state separation. Williams settles Rhode Island (1644) Complete freedom of religion, even for Jews, Catholics and Quakers. No oaths required regarding one's religious beliefs, no compulsory attendance at worship, no taxes to support a state church!
Thomas Hooker believed MBC gov't was too arbitrary and oppressive. His congregation also wanted more lands that MBC was unwilling grant. Connecticut (founded in 1636)
The evolution of representative democracy
1619 (House of Burgesses)
1620 (Mayflower Compact)
1639 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Fundamental Orders drafted in 1639 by new Connecticut River colony (First modern constitution in American history) 1. Established a democracy controlled by "substantial" citizens 2. Gov’t should be based on consent of the people. 3. Patterned Massachusetts’ gov’t. 4. Foundation for Connecticut’s colonial charter and later, its state constitution.
How did the Puritans deal with these waves of dissention?
"My Fathers and Brethren, this is never to be forgotten that New England is originally a plantation of Religion, not a Plantation of Trade.
Let merchants and such as are increasing Cent per Cent remember this. . . . that worldly gain was not the end and designe of the people of New England, but Religion."
Source: John Higginson, "The Cause of God and His People in New England," 1662
Context: The pressure of a growing population was gradually dispersing the Puritans onto outlying farms, far from the control of church and neighbors. And although the core of Puritan belief still burned brightly, the passage of time was dampening the first generation’s flaming religious zeal.
Problem: After the wave of dissention in the 1630s and 1640s (e.g. Hutchinson and Williams) conversions decreased dramatically. The enthusiasm for undergoing church membership diminished the eagerness of second and third generation Puritans, forcing the churches to move back toward English patterns.
Solution: "Halfway Covenant" sought to attract more members by giving partial membership to the unconverted(those who had not been baptized as children). The children of these Half-Way members were allowed to be baptized.
Case Study: The Salem Witch Trials( Symbolized the decline of Puritan clergy Massachusetts suffered political, religious, and military upheaval that led to widespread paranoia and unrest)
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. Despite being generally known as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in a variety of towns across the province: Salem Village (now Danvers), Ipswich, Andover and Salem Town.
NOTES The Salem witch trials were a series of false accusations and executions of people deemed to be practicing witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693, resulting in the deaths of 25 people and the imprisonment of over 160 others
Massachusetts Bay (1629) founded by non-Separatist Puritans out of fear for their faith and England's future. Maine absorbed by MBC in 1677 after purchase from the heirs of its founders remained part of Massachusetts for nearly 150 years until Compromise of 1820.
Connecticut (1636) Founded by Thomas Hooker
Rhode Island (1644) Founded by Roger Williams on freedom of religion, even for Jews and Catholics. Also Quakers
New Haven(1638) - Founded by Puritans wanting stricter and closer church-gov't alliance than Massachusetts (in contrast to Hooker’s ideas)
New Hampshire (1679) -- absorbed in 1641 by Massachusetts Bay colony
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