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III. ROGER WILLIAMS: THE BEGINNINGS OF RELIGIOUS

CONTROVERSY IN NEW ENGLAND.

IV. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND
V. RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF NEW ENGLAND
-VI. THE GROWTH OF INTOLERANCE IN NEW ENGLAND.

VII. TOLERATION AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: GENERAL

CONCLUSIONS

CONCLUSION

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INTRODUCTION

THE genius of Puritanism has been transmitted, and is capable of being expressed, in manifold forms. The name is not much more than three hundred years old, but that which it describes is older than Christianity itself. As there were reformers before the Reformation, so there were Puritans before that which we call Puritanism had sprung into existence. To their influence in the Jewish Church must be traced all that was noblest, all that was best worth preserving. Samuel was a Puritan, so was Ezra, so was Nehemiah, so was John the Baptist. It was the zeal of Puritanism that moved the Divine Son to expel the traffickers from the Temple, and so vindicate the honour of His Father's house. The Prophets of Israel, in their insistence upon righteousness, in their exaltation of the moral above the legal and ceremonial, were anticipating the very gist of the Puritan contention.

It was the spirit of Puritanism that flamed up in the breast of Ambrose when he required the Emperor Theodosius, before entering the church at Milan, to make reparation for the slaughter of the citizens of Thessalonica. When Savona ola made the proud citizens of Florence to cower under his invective, and unsparingly assailed their

sins and their corruptions, the weapon which he wielded was of the true Puritan temper. Nor is this using the word Puritan in a loose, inexact sense. All that is originally connoted by it is zeal for purity-purity of faith, worship, and manners.1

Puritanism simply represents the spirit of revolt against the corruptions of the Church and of the State. True, it has become identified with certain sharply defined doctrines and peculiar practices, but these adhere to it as separable accidents rather than as part of its real contents and substance. As against Pope, Council, and Church, the Puritans contended for the authority of what they called the "pure word of God." The Reformers called them Precisianists, from their alleged habit of magnifying mere punctilios, or things "indifferent," into matters of prime importance.

In the following pages we shall endeavour to show that Puritanism was pre-eminently a moral and religious force, and that it allied itself with certain forms of faith and practice, only that it might thereby more effectually promote the ends and righteousness of the kingdom of God. That is to say, the significance of Puritanism is not doctrinal but ethical. It was not necessary that it should be permanently identified with the system of Calvinism. There was no necessity why a Puritan should be a Roundhead and go about with his hair

1 "This name Puritan is very aptly given to these men, not because they be pure, no more than were the heretics Cathari, but because they think themselves to be more pure than others, as Cathari did, and separate themselves."-Archbishop Whitgift.

2 "It is a paradox to say that old Calvinism was not doctrinal in the face of the Institute; but it is astonishing to find how little in

cropped, or speak with a nasal twang, or affect a preternaturally solemn and sanctimonious expression, any more than it was necessary for the old Hebrew prophet to appear in the bravery of unkempt hair, and wear a rough garment to deceive. We shall try to show that this was the mere outward skin intended to be sloughed, and that underneath was the permanent and imperishable force and virtue to which, by common consent, the name Puritanism is given.

ordinary life they talked or wrote about doctrine. The doctrine was never more than the dress. The living creature was wholly moral and political,-so, at least, I think myself.”—J. A. Fronde, "Reminiscences," Blackwood's Magazine, Dec. 1894.

NOTES

The Spanish ambassador De Silva, writing to his sovereign Philip in 1568, says: "Those who call themselves of the religio purissima go on increasing. They are the same as Calvinists, and they are styled Puritans, because they allow no ceremonies nor any forms save those which are authorised by the bare letter of the gospel."-Froude's History, ix. 327.

"It is difficult to describe the party which about this time or soon after got the name of Puritans. The name was generic, and included men of widely different views. Tyndale, Hooper, and Coverdale might be called Puritans, and, indeed, many of Elizabeth's first bishops. Historically the word came to mean those who never entirely conformed, or those who suffered for nonconformity."Hunt's Religious Thought in England, vol. i. p. 48.

Fuller dates the use of the term Puritan as a nickname for the English Nonconformists generally, from the year 1564, shortly after Elizabeth ascended the throne.

"The name Puritan got a new meaning in the time of the Commonwealth. All who were not Royalists were called Puritans. This comprehended those who opposed the arbitrary measures of the King, and the innovations of Archbishop Laud, as well as the Presbyterians and the sectaries of all kinds. Another use of the word Puritan was to designate all clergymen who held the views of Calvin. In this sense Whitgift and Hooper came to be called Puritans. After the restoration of Charles II., many of the moderate Puritans conformed. Those who did not were called Nonconformists."-Hunt, vol. iii. pp. 368, 369.

"The number of Puritans increased prodigiously in his reign (that of James I.), which was owing to one or other of these causes1.

"First, to their standing firm by the constitution and laws of the country, which brought over to them all those gentlemen in the House of Commons, and in the several counties of England, who found it necessary for the preservation of their properties to oppose the Court, and to insist upon being governed according to law; these were called State Puritans.

"Secondly, to their steady adherence to the doctrine of Calvin and the Synod of Dort in the points of predestination and grace, against the modern interpretation of Arminius and his followers. The Court divines fell in with the latter, and were thought not only

1 Preface to Neal's History of the Puritans. See note on Neal, p. 6.

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