The Puritan Awakening (1621-1649) began with the English Parliament's Great Protestation. Upon the accession of James's son, the reformist urge turned radical and gained popular momentum. Seeking religious exile, John Winthrop led a saving remnant of true believers to America. In England, this Puritan enthusiasm led to the Long Parliament in 1640, civil war, and the execution of Charles I of England in 1649. In the new wilderness colonies, the experimental fervor receded, leaving isolated settlements seeking an enforceable moral orthodoxy. Events February 9 - Gregory XV is elected pope. ... // Events January 30 - King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is beheaded. ... John Winthrop was the name of several prominent figures in colonial New England. ... The Long Parliament is the name of the English Parliament called by Charles I, in 1640, following the Bishops Wars. ... A civil war is a war in which the competing parties are segments of the same country or empire. ... Charles I (19 November 1600–30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625, until his execution. ...
Age Location in History:
The Elizabethan Generation was entering elderhood.
The Parliamentarian Generation was entering midlife.
The Puritans have very much a sense of being an oppressed people, that they are being driven out by King James and the Anglicans who are refusing to reform the church the way they wish it reformed.
And so when the Puritans arrived on the shores of New England, even though they were in one sense oppressed and persecuted, in their own eyes, at the encouragement of people like Winthrop, they viewed themselves as a shining example to the rest of the world.
One of the leading lights of the Great Awakening is Jonathan Edwards, a preacher who is in little-known Northampton, Massachusetts, a country place, in a sense, and yet whose mind was one of the sharpest and most brilliant probably in American history.
Puritans believed that belief in Jesus and participation in the sacraments could not alone effect one's salvation; one cannot choose salvation, for that is the privilege of God alone.
When William Laud, an avowed Arminian, became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633, the Church of England began to embrace beliefs abhorrent to Puritans: a focus on the individual's acceptance or rejection of grace; a toleration of diverse religious beliefs; and an acceptance of "high church" rituals and symbols.
In choosing the plain style, Puritan writers eschewed features common to the rhetoric of the day; they declined to stuff their sermons with the rhetorical flourishes and learned quotations of the metaphysical style of sermon, believing that to be the province of Archbishop Laud and his followers.
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