Religion in the Thirteen Colonies

The difference between the Puritans and the Separatists is actually implied in their respective names. The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England while the Separatists (aka, the Pilgrims)...

The Puritans gained most of their power following the first English Civil War, and most of the Puritan ministers renounced the Church of England following the English Restoration of 1660 and the...

There were many challenges the Puritan colonists faced. One of the challenges dealt with getting to North America. There were severe storms which they faced along the way. Because of the storms,...

The Puritans and Quakers were similar in that both religious groups faced persecution in England and sought religious freedom in the American colonies; however, the religions differ widely in their...

Puritans were unrelentingly harsh when it came to sin, guilt, crime, and adultery. Theirs was an especially rigid brand of Calvinism which held that humankind is completely mired in depravity....

Religion was an essential element in the foundation and development of the New England colonies. Many of the early colonists were "Dissenters," a term used to describe people in England who were...

Religion shaped colonial society in a number of significant ways. This varied from colony to colony, so it is important to look at different regions in turn. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New...

Puritans were a movement within Protestantism that attempted to "purify" the church, stripping away the accretions of Roman Catholicism, especially as they had developed in the Middle Ages and...

The Puritans were one of the first group of people to settle in the New World. They were a group of religious separatists from England. As a group in England, they held true to their beliefs and...

The Puritans didn't think that the Church of England was sufficiently Protestant in its doctrines and practices. Puritans were Calvinists and looked to Calvin's Geneva as the model for the kind of...

The term Puritan came as a term of abuse for Anabaptists; this term is slightly more accurate for those who came to America as they had the strictest views on sexual morality, disapproval of...

The stereotypical image of the Puritans is of a colorless, bland people who considered anything remotely similar to "fun" as sinful. This image is quite wrong. The Puritans engaged in any number of...

There were a few reasons why the Puritans were able to successfully establish permanent settlements in North America. One reason is that they were able to focus on the growth of their settlements...

In some ways there was religius freedom in the colonies. Each colony had its own religion. The colonists left their homeland in order to go somewhere where they could exercise their religions...

The Puritans fled religious persecution in England. They endured a dangerous journey across the Atlantic and the high risks of trying to establish a settlement in a new place full of Native...

Religion played a significant role in the American colonies. Though the thirteen colonies were business ventures for many of the English who settled in North America, religious freedom was also a...

John Winthrop was the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, serving for twenty years between 1629 and 1649. He was a pious man with a deep faith in God. He speaks of unequal relationships...

Here is another perspective. Puritan theology and way of life did not die out at all. One can make a strong case that many conservative presbyterians, baptists and congregationalists are all direct...

The Puritans immigrated to America in response to the conflict between their religious beliefs and the doctrinal positions of the Church of England. Puritans, unlike the Pilgrims with whom they are...

The Puritans were Calvinists. They believed in predestination—that God pre-ordained some people to go to Heaven. God showed his favor on the Elect, the Puritans believed, by blessing them with good...

Puritans believed that the Anglican church needed reformation—or as some referred to the idea, "purification"—hence the term Puritan. Though the Anglicans had made progress in separating from the...

The Puritans who left England, first to seek religious freedom in Holland (most lived in Leyden) and then to America, defined sin in general as rebellion against God and, by extension, God's...

A theocracy is a form of government in which priests of one religion or another rule in the name of God. Colonial Massachusetts is traditionally regarded as a Puritan theocracy because the men in...

The Puritans were a group of Protestants who were important to the history of both England and the English colonies in America. The Puritans were followers of John Calvin, the Protestant leader....

Let's put it this way. All Puritans were Calvinists, but not all Calvinists were Puritans. What this means is that the term Puritan only really has meaning in the context of English—and therefore,...

In order to understand this controversy, it's important first to give some background. In England, Anne Hutchinson and her husband William became followers of the Puritan preacher John Cotton. Anne...

Both Pilgrims and Puritans were concerned with reforming the Church of England. Both organized groups of colonists to settle in the New World, and they established their new homes in New England...

From our perspective as Americans today, there was not as much religious freedom in the colonies as there should have been. There was some religious freedom. For the most part, people were free to...

There was very little in the way of similarities between the Puritans and the Quakers in Colonial America. In fact, the Puritans were sufficiently opposed to the Quakers that there were instances...

The Puritans were a Protestant sect that wanted to simplify the Anglican Church. They followed the teachings of John Calvin (1509–1564). The Puritans emerged during the 1560s in England. The...

I think we have a picture of Puritans dressed in formal dark clothing, white starched shirts, tall hats, and silver buckle shoes. All of the females with bonnets and long dresses. Very prim,...

Like other groups that sought sanctuary in North America in the seventeenth century, the Puritans desired religious freedom to practice their own faith, but they saw no hypocrisy in not extending...

As an Episcopal minister, Jonathan Boucher opposed the American Revolution based on the grounds that insubordinate behavior was unbiblical. Hence, in his twelfth discourse, he argues that...

Our first observation should probably deal with regional differences in religion during the colonial period in North America. New England was the area primarily settled by Calvinists—that is, the...

While still in England, the Puritans were typically treated very poorly. Puritans believed that the Church of England was the true church; however, they felt that it was in need of major reforms....

The Puritans has strong religious beliefs. The main reason they didn't last long is that no young person in his or her right mind would blindly follow a religion like that once an adult. All...

When we talk about the Puritans who came and settled in New England, we typically say that they came in search of religious freedom. But this is not true, or at least not in our modern sense of...

Like other groups of Protestant dissenters, the Quakers came to America primarily to escape religious persecution. In the 17th century, when the Quakers first set foot in the "New World," religion...

Historians generally explain the perceived decline in religious fervor among Puritans to a few key factors. For one thing, many Puritan families, especially those whose presence in New England...

In the early days the British colonies of New England, the Puritan churches and the local governments were essentially one and the same thing. There was no separation of church and state....

The Pilgrims were indeed Puritans. This means that they wanted to reform the Church of England radically from within, removing any lingering traces of Roman Catholicism. Put simply, Puritans...

We must begin with two important reminders. First, religion was not uniform throughout colonial society. Puritanism, with its Congregational church, was prominent in the New England colonies, and...

The Danbury Baptists, a religious minority living in Danbury, Connecticut, helped to clarify the separation of church and state afforded by the First Amendment of the US Constitution through their...

The Puritans came to America primarily because they wanted to practice their religion in peace. At that time in England the Puritans were persecuted because they wanted to purify—which is where the...

The impact of the Pilgrims on America is likely not as substantial as most America History textbooks make it. The pilgrims were not the first settlers from Britain in North America. Virginia was...

In order to become a full member of a Puritan congregation, a candidate had to give a convincing account of a conversion experience. They were also required to live their lives in a way that...

Puritans represented an English variant on Calvinism, which was a particularly rigorous form of Protestantism derived from the teachings of sixteenth century theologian John Calvin. Puritans got...

The American colonies settled by the British were overwhelmingly founded on the premise that they would be Christian territories. The United States, however, was founded with the idea of protecting...

There are actually two different branches under this umbrella of theology in Calvinism, but both align in their beliefs that the "elect" are chosen by God for salvation. This contrasts with other...

Of the choices given here, the best is B. However, it would be more accurate if B read "should be full members of the church." There were Puritans who believed that they should separate from the...