Answer to Question #297889 in History for Ren

Question

What problems did Puritans have with the Church of England (or the Anglican Church)? Be sure to list Puritan religious beliefs that caused them to seek to reform the Church of England. What were the three groups within the Puritan faith and how did each seek to reform the Church of England? What was the Puritan dilemma and how did they solve it? List one significant lasting contribution the Puritans made to America.

Answer 1

The basic problem that the Puritans had with the Church of England was that it was, in their minds, too much like the Catholic Church. The Puritans thought that the Church of England had not done enough to purify itself of Catholic influences. The Church of England was, to them, too hierarchical.

They believed the Church of England was too similar to the Roman Catholic Church and should eliminate ceremonies and practices not rooted in the Bible. Puritans felt that they had a direct covenant with God to enact these reforms.

The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. The Puritans were English Protestants who believed that the reforms of the Church of England did not go far enough. In their view, the liturgy was still too Catholic. Bishops lived like princes.

The Puritan dilemma itself was the problem of how much loyalty a moral person owes to a society, or church, that may be considered corrupt. Winthrop's purified church will set an example of how the Church of England should be and prove to the separatists that the Church of England can be reformed and purified, which makes Winthrop and his followers puritans, so they travel to the New World to embark on their mission of a city on a hill.

The Puritans as a political entity largely disappeared, but Puritan attitudes and ethics continued to exert an influence on American society. They made a virtue of qualities that made for economic success self-reliance, frugality, industry, and energy and through them influenced modern social and economic life.