ipl-logo

Puritan Life In Massachusetts Bay Colony

536 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Religion in american colonies

The Plymouth Colony heard rumors that things in England were not good. Under Charles I, things were even worse for the religious nonconformists or "Puritans." They hoped to purify the Church of England but the king was adamantly against it. From 1630 to 1640 a large number Puritans sailed for a new life in Massachusetts. They wanted the freedom to practice their religion in peace and without fear of retribution. They wanted to build a Christian community where the citizens would be governed and live by the laws laid out in the Bible. They expected their Massachusetts Bay Colony to be an example to the rest of the world on how to live right. John Winthrop proclaimed: "We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." The Puritans were seeking freedom for themselves, but they didn't grasp the concept of acceptance. They came to America to find religious freedom but only for likeminded people. They …show more content…

Those who did would be siding with the devil. It was strongly believed that they followed the only true religion and in doing so should be able to force everyone to worship as the Puritans did. However, some didn't believe forcing others to believe as they did was the right path. They thought that punishment or killing in the name of Christianity was in fact siding with the devil. They respected the beliefs of others, including those who were native to this land. One Reverend, Roger Williams argued that church members should pay for their church and not take expenses out of the general tax fund. He started preaching that land belonging to the Indians shouldn’t be taken from them by force but rather in an equitable manner. He said, “It is against the testimony of Christ Jesus for the civil state to impose upon the souls of the people a religion. Jesus never called for the sword of steel to help the sword of

Show More
Related
842 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the seventeenth century, religious freedom was essentially a key to the new forming colonies. Many pursued the “New World” looking to gain individual rights for their own personal beliefs- which we understand today as religious freedom. The main group seeking this freedom was the Puritans who came to the New World from England. When the Puritans had reached the land where they wished to settle they called it the Massachusetts’s Bay Colony. The colony was said to be a place where one could express their beliefs freely.

Read More
200 Words | 1 Pages

The Puritans in Massachusetts were very intolerant of other religious beliefs, regardless of the fact that they had been persecuted in England for what they believed. Puritans insisted that regular church attendance was mandatory in order to receive voting privileges. This meant that in order to have a say in anything you had to be a devout Puritan. They often argued about discrepancies within their own religion, such as whether or not sainthood was passed down from generation to generation. Puritans even went as far as to exile other Puritans the did not conform to the standard version of Puritanism.

Read More
274 Words | 2 Pages

The Puritans were one branch of people who chose that the Church of England was beyond them. Most of the Puritans settled in New England. They also moved and created separated colonies, the numbers had risen from 17,800 in 1640 to 106,000 in 1700. The spiritual beliefs that they had were very strong.

Read More
820 Words | 4 Pages

So, they chose to work towards religious, moral and societal reforms. They believed that The Church of England had become a product of governmental struggles and man-made doctrines. The Puritans were one branch of dissidents who decided that the Church of England was beyond reform. Fleeing torment from church leadership and the King, they came to America. They arrived almost a decade later than the pilgrims and settled in Massachusetts Bay.

Read More
583 Words | 3 Pages

The society believed that whoever wasn't following the Puritan way of life were sinners and they should be punished. The

Read More
829 Words | 4 Pages

Their purpose coming to America was to flee, and “purify,” the Anglican Church and develop a colony that would be a model to the world. The Puritan colonies were based on Calvinist doctrine, which was the belief that no actions taken during a person’s life would affect their salvation. There became a difference from the Pilgrims and the Puritans, the Pilgrims were against the Anglican Church and Puritans weren’t. The Pilgrims wanted total separation from the church which is why they fled from England. Separatists were a group of Puritans that advised the removal from the Church of England and wanted the freedom to worship by

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

The Puritans based their lives on the covenants they made when they came to New England. The covenant was agreeing to base their life around God or face the consequences. When the Puritans broke the covenants they were punished by public humiliation, exile from the community, and even death ("Puritans (1600-1754)."). The Puritans were hellbent on keeping sin out of the colonies because many people watched their loved ones die on the journey to New England. They also suffered through a harsh winter and battled starvation so they took it upon themselves to do anything to “purify” the colonies ("Puritans (1600-1754).").

Read More
1203 Words | 5 Pages

The puritans believed in predestination and also believed that the church needed to be purified. Among many famous leaders that came to this country in early America, there was one that believed we should all have freedom of religion. Roger Williams, was a puritan and believed in the same ideas, he himself was a minister,

Read More
418 Words | 2 Pages

They believed that Church should follow their beliefs which were often very strict and left no room for leeway. Many Puritans came to the Americas to form communities where they were free to practice

Read More
693 Words | 3 Pages

The Puritans were brave individuals who set out to alter the way their religion should be. Expanding to America was the way to escape the ills of the Catholic Church. Puritans felt that expanding was their right, and it was the only way to uphold God's word. The Roman Catholic Church was headed towards a path of destruction, and this was not what God wanted for his people. In Matthew 5:14, we find one of the major basis of the Puritan belief system.

Read More
1162 Words | 5 Pages

The Puritans did not want to destroy the church of England or even separate from it for that matter. They simply wanted reform. It was the Puritans who caused a Biblical movement based on the principals of the matter. Having political and

Read More
890 Words | 4 Pages

They also believed that anyone who didn't agree with there religion that it was satan's work. They also valued education which was the bible. If you were a puritan how could read then you read the bible. They believed in predestination because they thought that god would save the choose ones ors the sanctification ones and the rest would be damned to hell, and they also believed in ethnocentric. Ethnocentric is when people are evaluating other people and cultures according to their standards of their own culture.

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

In the mid-1600s, the New England Puritans had a vision: they were to create the perfect Christian church and settlement, one that was made according to their interpretation of the original church Jesus had visualized. They were a very religious group and wanted to build a place of refuge for themselves. Unlike the colonist of the Chesapeake Bay colonies, they did not immigrate to make a fortune. The main reason the Puritans traveled to America was because they wanted to build a “City Upon a Hill”, since they were persecuted in England for their beliefs. From the 1630s to the 1660s, the Puritan’s beliefs greatly influenced the political, economical, and social development of the New England colonies.

Read More
367 Words | 2 Pages

Even though everyone was trying to be saint and stay by the religion, it did not stay that way. Puritans lived by God and his words only; this I can relate to. Although I do not necessarily live by what the bible says, I still do believe. Like the Puritans I believe that everyone has a purpose in life and are born pure. Also, I believe that Satan is always lurking among people.

Read More
110 Words | 1 Pages

Still tensions grew back in England as King James died and his son Charles I became the new king. King Charles was much worse than his father had been and treated the Puritans much worse. This influence more colonist to migrate to America where they could practice their religion freely. The colonist that were already in America wanted to make create a colony that was safe for Puritans in New England. So, they created the Massachusetts Bay Company which made it so no colonist was responsible to company officials in England.

Read More

More about Puritan Life In Massachusetts Bay Colony

Open Document