Puritan

The Puritans were members of a group of English Protestants seeking further reforms or even separation from the established church during the Reformation.

Terminology

The word Puritan is now applied unevenly to a number of Protestant churches from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. However, Puritans did not, by and large, use the term for themselves. It was a term of abuse that first surfaced in the 1560s. "Recusants", "Precisemen", and "Precisions" were other early antagonistic terms for Puritans who preferred to call themselves "the godly." The word "Puritan" was thus always a descriptor of a type of religious belief, rather than a particular form of church order.

Related Topics:
Protestant - 16th century - 18th century

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

That said, the single theological movement most consistently self-described by the term "Puritan" was Reformed or Calvinist and led to the establishment of the Presbyterian Church. The term was used by the group itself mainly in the sixteenth century, though it seems to have been used often and in its earliest recorded instances as a term of abuse. By the middle of the 17th century the group had become so divided that "Puritan" was most often used by opponents and detractors of the group, rather than by the practitioners themselves. The practitioners knew themselves as members of particular churches or movements, and not by the simple and nebulous term "Puritan."

Related Topics:
Theological - Reformed - Calvinist - Presbyterian Church - 17th century

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~