How Did Puritans Bring Change?

Puritan settlement brought change. Or so they thought. In some ways, they did bring change. In other ways, Puritans just recreated their lives back in England. The Puritans left England with the idea of creating a new form of Government, a democracy, but the legacy they left behind proves otherwise.

In the early 1500s, the 95 Thesis was posted on a church door, and the Protestant Reformation began. New religions were created, and the numerous new religions sprouted from the old. John Calvin created Calvinism, and from that, Puritanism emerged. Their goal was to “purify” the Catholic Church In England, Puritanism faced a rocky beginning; Puritans were attacked, imprisoned, or even killed. The persecutions continued. The Puritans needed a way out. In response, the Puritans, along with the Pilgrims (Separatists) crossed the Ocean in hope of finding peace in the New World. As said by Stephen Foster, “A new land, separated from king and bishops by three thousand miles of Atlantic Ocean, offered Winthrop’s company their only chance of creating the world they wanted.” Their intention was to build a colony centered on religion, which they succeeded in doing. Puritans also wanted to create a government, and a lifestyle different from that of their persecutors.

The

Puritans had a dream of a democracy. Yet, their democracy had issues. The first being their democracy was lacking leadership. There was no disciplinary authority, and no structure whatsoever. Stephen Foster describes it as, “Lacking most of the traditional means through which Europeans ordinarily established social cohesion and maintained order, the New England colonies should, in theory, have quickly disintegrated from internal disunion or collapsed at the first blow from a foreign or savage army.” Once they decided they needed more leadership, John Winthrop stepped in. Winthrop claimed to have spoken to God. Therefore, he became viewed as a King because he was privileged enough to speak to God. Their democracy was beginning to become a monarchy. Winthrop was reelected every year for the rest of his life. Just like a King. The Puritans didn’t give up on the idea of a democracy yet. They held town meetings to discuss issues. The problem with these town meetings is that they were held in the church. As more and more people began coming to the colony, the less people got to participate in the government, because you had to be a member of the church in order to be acknowledged. If the colony had remained strictly Puritan, with no new ideas challenging the church, the colony would have had a successful government. In reality, this was not the case. People came for “cod not God”, and this was not what the Puritans wanted. In the end, when democracy didn’t seem to work, the easiest solution was to let the church take command once again.

The Puritans tried democracy, yet returned to what they knew best.

From their mistakes, people have learned. In order to have a functioning democracy, it is obvious that the church and the government must be clearly separated. Without separation, the only way to succeed is with a homogenous society. That is impossible. With separation, there can be majority rule and all people will have a say. Things can be fair. Laws cannot be predetermined. The people must create them. Those things all will happen with the separation of church and state. That is where the Puritans were lacking, if they would have fully separated the church, maybe they would have created the first successful democracy in the New

World.

Puritans left England to find a place where they can escape religious persecution. They planned on creating a democratic government, but keep the church involved. Keeping ties with the church cost the Puritans their idea of democracy. Luckily, we’ve learned from the past and fixed the mistakes. The Puritans had the right idea when leaving England, and through trial and error began to help shape democracy in the New World.