15601770 What is a Puritan The Puritans were singleminded visionaries convinced of the rightness of their beliefs but they were also practical and businesslike They felt that Christian worship and church organization should be simplified in order to more closely resemble Biblical models ID: 376812
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Slide1
Puritanism
1560-1770Slide2
What is a Puritan?
The Puritans were single-minded visionaries convinced of the rightness of their beliefs, but they were also practical and businesslike.
They felt that Christian worship and church organization should be simplified in order to more closely resemble Biblical models.
Many Puritans were persecuted for their beliefs and fled England for Holland and, ultimately, for North America.Slide3
“Purifying” the church
“Puritan” is a broad term, referring to a number of Protestant groups that , beginning about 1560, sought to “purify” the church of England which since the time of Henry VIII had been inseparable from the government.
Puritans wished to return to simpler forms of worship.
Puritans believed worship was personal and did not believe that clergy or the government should act as intermediaries between the individual and God.Slide4
Persecution
Many Puritans suffered persecution in England.
Some were put in jail and whipped, their noses slit and their ears lopped off.
Some fled England for Holland.
Fearing that in Holland they would lose their English identity, they left with William Bradford for North America, advertised as the “New World.”Slide5
Early Arrivals
The first and most famous group of the English Puritans landed in 1620, on the tip of Cape Cod, just before Christmas
By 1640, more than twenty thousand English Puritans had sailed to what they called, New EnglandSlide6
Puritan Beliefs
Because of Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience, most humanity would be damned for all eternity
God in his mercy had sent Jesus Christ to save
particular
people
Two principal indications of the state of your soul; the inner arrival of God’s grace was demonstrated by the individual’s outward behavior and; after receiving grace, the individual was reborn and behaved like a saint
People looked for signs of grace and so tried to live exemplary lives
The Bible is the literal word of GodSlide7
Puritan Values
Self-reliance
Industriousness
Temperance
SimplicitySlide8
Characteristics of Puritan Writing
The Bible provided a model for Puritan writing; Puritans saw direct connections between Biblical events and their own lives.
Puritans used writing to explore their inner and outer lives for signs of the workings of God.
Diaries and histories were the most common forms of writing.
Puritans favored a plain style, similar to that of the Geneva Bible; stressed clarity of expression and avoided complicated figures of speech. Slide9
Emphasis on Education
Puritans placed great emphasis on education
Harvard College, originally intended to train Puritan ministers for the rapidly expanding colony, was founded in 1636
The first printing press was established in the colonies in 1639Slide10
The Witch Trials of the 1690’s
During the winter of 1691-92, the daughter and the niece of Rev. Samuel Parris began to dabble in magic
By February, the girls started having fits and lesions appeared on their skin.
A doctor diagnosed the girls as victims of malicious witchcraft.
Urged to name those responsible for the “witchcraft,” the girls named Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good, two unpopular women from the village, and Tituba, a slave whom Samuel Parris brought back from Barbados.Slide11
The Accusations begin
During the trial, the girls writhed and moaned and behaved as though they were being chocked.
Based on this “evidence,” Sarah Good was condemned.
Tituba confessed to being a witch and claimed that a coven of witches existed in Massachusetts.
She claimed that she had seen several names written in blood in the Devil’s book.Slide12
The Witch hunt begins
Zealous ministers like Cotton Mather argued that the epidemic of witchcraft proved that new England was a holy place, since the devil was so interested in it.
Hundreds of people from all over Eastern Massachusetts came to Salem claiming to be victims of witchcraft.
Soon the prisons were overcrowded with people accused of being witches (over 150 people).
A special court was established. Between June and September, 19 people were hanged and one man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death.Slide13
So what happened in Salem?
Some historians believe that Salem experienced mass hysteria; a shared delusion.
Some suggest that new economic pressures from a strict government
cuased
bitterness, aggression and outright paranoia among neighbors.
A recent theory proposes a fear of unusual or powerful “nonconformists” – particularly women – may have led to restrict behavior.Slide14
Women were targeted
Statistics show that the majority of the “witches” were unmarried women between the ages of forty and sixty; eccentric and independent loners with abrasive personalities.
Some may have been midwives or people with unusual healing abilities and knowledge of herbal remedies.
Most significant,
the accused were often women who could potentially come into their father’s inheritances and become independent property owners – something patriarchal Puritans would have seen as a threat to male power.