Puritans In New England During The Great Migration

The New England Puritans left England to seek freedom from religious persecution. They pursued this with The Massachusetts Bay Company during The Great Migration. They set up their colony on the basis of religious freedom, but they still answered to The Church Of England. They gained a sense of independence with the new world. The Puritans were able to create a type of church that coincided with government, keeping the two closely related. This didn’t necessarily succeed for long. The Puritans experienced a decline in church membership and several controversies.

Those who left England for New England during the Great Migration had a variety of reasons, but the Puritans focused mainly on one. The Puritans main focus of pilgrimage was the pursuit

They felt that the priests were too power-hungry and controlling over the congregation. Their motivation to leave stemmed from King Charles I preventing Puritan leaders from working in Parliament by extinguishing it. King Charles I also raised taxes and created a political calamity. The Puritans were left defenseless. Puritans experienced political punishment described as, “At the same time, the Church of England began to punish Puritans because they were dissenters, or people who disagree with official opinions. King Charles refused to allow Puritans to criticize church actions” (Holt 46-47). The Puritans chartered the Massachusetts Bay Company to begin a sanctuary. The Puritans, led by John Winthrop set off in search of creating a devout christian community that they could govern and control to fit their practices. The new Puritan colonists were aware that they weren’t facing significant economic achievement by migrating to North America, as a matter of fact it would probably be less economic status than they previously had. Leaving allowed them more freedom to make decisions and govern in their own respect to their Puritan ideals. As they were motivated by religious concerns, they arrived in

Most church members displaying their “elected-ness” were much older than the previous normal display age. Church membership was declining because of this intense public practice. Fewer men were joining the church, which decreased the number of men involved in the governing system. By 1660, women made up most of the church community. To solve this membership decline, they created the Halfway Covenant. This increased the church membership. It allowed children of non-church members to become church members and be baptised as church members. It offered a sort of compromise in the way the church accepted members. Assessing the success of the Puritan settlement also requires assessment of significant controversies within the colony. Roger Williams was invited to be a Puritan minister, but declined because of his distaste for the English ties. He denounced the connection to The Church Of England. He proclaimed that King Charles I was not even a Christian. His actions angered the Puritan leaders so greatly that he was banned from the colony. He later established his own church and advocated for a separation of church and government. Another controversy comes from the banishment of Anne Hutchinson. Anne Hutchinson became a prominent role in the church while she hosted worship groups that grew in size. She became a target of the church leaders when they realized how her popularity was growing. Her amount of popularity was