Puritans and Pilgrims: early Protestants in the Americas
Related derivations from England & Holland; considered political agitators b/c religious conviction set them against religious rule of the monarch & Anglican hierarchy
Pilgrims arrive in Plymouth, 1620
- thought Church of England (CoE) authoritarian, utterly corrupt, immoral, and irredeemable
- Thought of selves as “Pilgrims” to the New Eden
- Absorbed in 1691by --
Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony (Boston)
- Thought CoE corrupt but redeemable; retained CoE membership and identification
- called "Puritans" pejoratively by others b/c they wanted to purge the CoE of all semblance of corruption
- Enjoyed food, colored clothing, and occasional drink; but their piety & all-pervasive devotion to the Bible as ultimate guide made them appear gloomy