Puritan Essay

Puritanism as a religion declined, both by diluting its core beliefs and by losing its members. This phenomenon was at work even in colonial days, at the religion’s height, because it contained destructive characteristics. It devolved into something barely recognizable in the course of a few generations. We can observe that the decline of Puritanism occurred because it bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction.

Puritans are generally viewed as religious extremists. Their religious beliefs were extended to all areas of life, and were zealously enforced. This is true for the most part, especially the way they conducted themselves publicly. They believed in public piety to the extent that once, “a young married couple was fined twenty shillings for the crime of kissing in public” (Kennedy, 45). This couple was already married, so one can imagine the people would come to feel that rules like this served no purpose. As Albion’s Seed reads, Puritans “believed that costume should not be a form of sensual display” (140). Their finickiness even included their refrain from wearing the color black because it was too stylish for anyone but the elect. It would be difficult to see how this relates to any scriptural laws of God, therefore, one can imagine how people would grow tired of such pointless restrictions on every trivial choice and action.

Their standards required for businessmen were also known for being unusually harsh. According to Albion’s Seed, “When angry customers complained of being overcharged for a bridle and a bag of nails, [Robert] Keayne was formally charged in General Court with oppression, for having taken ‘above six-pence in the shilling profit; in some above eight-pence and in small things above two for one...

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...y from the Church of England. Puritanism was weakened at its core because of this strict and finicky hierarchy within its church. It drove people away, leaving it in great need of loyal members. “In effect, strict religious purity was sacrificed somewhat to the cause of wider religious participation” (Kennedy, 73).

There are many reasons why Puritanism was not stable or enduring as a religion or even as a community. Their radical beliefs on how they should govern themselves within the church and as members of the society, their determination to eradicate the evil they so easily saw in everything and everyone around them are the main reasons why real Puritanism did not survive. Because these traits were developed along with the religion, it could not be saved from itself. Therefore, from the beginning of it all, it bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction.