Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/639

* PURITAN. 557 PURITANS. lish cutter. Her dimensions were: length over all, 93 feet; on water line, 81 feet 11 inches; beam, 22 feet 7 inclics; drauglit, 8 feet 10 inches. After winning in the trial races, she defended the America's Cup in 1885 against the English vacht Genesta, winning in two races on Septem- ber 14th and 16th. PURITANS (from Lat. puritas, purity, from piiriis, pure). A party title, originally a nick- name which came into use about 1564, to desig- nate that section of the Church of England which desired a more tliorough reformation of the Church than was eli'ected under Elizabeth, as such reformation was understood by Continental Protestantism, especially of the Calvinistie school. From the beginning of the Reformation age there had been three parties in the Church of England : a Romanizing element which desired to continue the connection with the Pope, wliom it regarded as the vicar of Christ: a Protestant party which desired the full modification of the Church of England, at least in doctrine, into con- formity with Continental Protestantism; and an intermediate party that, for want of a better designation, may be called Anglican, which wished to see all foreign ecclesiastical authority rejected, disliked monasticisni, and welcomed the use of English in the services of the Church, but did not desire such thorough-going modification of its doctrine or organization as the Protestant section sought. This Anglican party looked to the sovereign as the source of ecclesiastical gov- ernment, and was that which was represented by Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. To the thinking of these energetic monarchs the desirable system of Church government for England was one in which the ruler should be supreme in ecclesiastical no less than in civil affairs. The political condition of England, also, at the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth was such as largely to justify the compromising attitude of the Queen regard- ing doctrine and ceremony. A minority only of the population was heartily in sympathy with the Reformation. The gi-eat bulk of the clergj' had been swept almost without ijuestion from the Roman obedience of Queen JIary's time into Eliz- abeth's Establishment ; and the Queen's political policy, no less than her personal preferences, counseled her to make the ecclesiastical transi- tion as easy as possible by retaining not a little of the ceremonies and vestments of the older worship and by insisting upon uniformitj' of cere- monial without very strenuous investigation into the belief or even the conduct of the ministry. This compromise policy, however, was dista.ste- ful to the thoroughly Protestant party in the Church of England. ]Many of their leaders had fled to the Continent to escape the Marian perse- cution, and had there come into intimate associa- tion with Calvin and the Swiss reformers gen- erally. It was natural, therefore, that the model into accordance with which they desired to modify the doctrine and worship of the English Churcli was that of Continental Calvinism. Yet at first few of the Puritan leaders desired any- thing more than the disuse of the vestments which seemed to them to symbolize too great a distinc- tion between clergj' and laity, and the abandon- ment of certain ceremonies which appeared to them to countenance what they deemed Roman sacramental misconceptions. Strongly conscious of the spiritual needs of England, they desired. furthermore, the establishment everywhere of an earnest preaching ministry and of vigorous discipline. These aims conflicted, however, with the Queen's policy of inclusion, and she set her- self vigorously to enforce conformity in cere- mony by the aid of the bishops, who. under the Elizabethan policy, were regarded primarily as royal agents. The result of this policy was a further evo- lution in Puritanism itself. While a great por- tion of the Puritans continued to represent the desires of the earlier period of the party which have just been described, a considerable section now went further and questioned the rightfulness of that form of Church government 'bj' law es- tablished' which prevented the reforms that they wished. The typical leader of this second stage of Puritanism was Thomas Cartwright (1535- 1603). In his opinion the only biblical system of Church government was one essentiallj- Pres- byterian ; and, while Jie was willing to tolerate the existence of an extremely modified episcopacj', he would introduce into each parish the discipli- nary and elective features of Presbyterian gov- ernment. From thence onward until the Restora- tion, a large portion of the Puritan party walked in Cartwright's footsteps, and sought the modifi- cation of the Church of England essentially along Presbyterian lines. A small wing of extreme Puritanism went yet further, and under the lead- ership of Robert Browne, Henry Barrowe (qq.v.), and others, insisted that the only proper organi- zation of the Church was in separate self-gov- erning congregations, and that it was the duty of Christian men to leave the Churcli of England and establish such congregations; hence this ex- treme radical wing of Puritanism was known as the 'Separatists.' These Separatists were vig- orously opposed by the more moderate Puritans of Queen Elizabeth's time ; but their spiritual sympathizers were to be the founders of Phm- outh in Xew England, and their conception of Church government was ultimately to dominate the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts and Con- necticut. I Throughout the reign of Elizabeth the repres- sive policj' of the Government continued, but the Puritan party grew, and on the death of the Queen, in 1603, entertained strong hoj)es of favor from the new sovereign, James I. Those hopes were disappointed, notably at the Hampton Court Conference (q.v.) in 1004. The Puritan party, however, continued to gain adherents throughout James's reign and that of his son Charles I. Under the latter repeated clashes occurred between the Puritans and the Anglican Court party; and when the Civil War broke out in 1642 as a re- sult of the many points of difference between Charles and the Parliament, the Puritans identi- fied themselves strongly with the latter, while the Anglicans cast in their lot with the former. In the struggle that followed, the Presbyterian wing of Puritanism was at first dominant, especially when reenforced by the military and political aid of the Scotch. Episcopacy was done away with, so far as an act of Parliament could abolish it. The acceptance of the 'Solemn League and Cove- nant' bound the English Parliament to practical Presbvterianism, and Parliament responded to the desire for a modification of the Church of England, always characteristic of Puritanism, by calling an 'Assembly of Divines,' which met at Westminster from July, 1643, onward, to