Puritanism

Puritanism becomes a reality in England at the end of the 16th century under the reign of Elizabeth I who establishes the English Anglican Church. This Church, considered the “middle way” between Calvinism and Catholicism, satisfies the majority of the English people, but is not to the taste of the most militant Protestants.
Indeed, for their part, they wish to “purify it” of these minor compromises with the Catholic Church and to conclude properly the work of the Reformation in England. They thus take the name of “Puritans”. A minority that nevertheless cannot to be disregarded, this movement comprises many scholars and members of the nobility as much in London as throughout the whole kingdom. These Puritans bring very precise charges against the Anglican Church that they oppose by creating a nonconformist organisation. Thus, they reproach it for having adopted a Catholic liturgy with vestments resembling too closely those of Rome, and therefore they themselves adopt dark and strict clothing. In their opinion this church is incapable of correctly instilling the reformed ideas. They therefore create new parallel educational institutions, to which they invite lecturers to give authoritative classes of theology in the manner of those given by Calvin. They consider that the discipline exercised is not sufficiently strict and they recommend the creation of new institutions, on the model of those in Geneva, that permit a rigorous and unbending surveillance of the religious community.
Yet all those in the reformed community who find that it strangely resembles the practices of the Catholic Inquisition do not appreciate this system. Finally the last reproach concerns the very administration of the church, as the Puritans do not accept that it should rest in the hands of the bishops. Elizabeth's government reacts quite vigorously against all these initiatives, considering the educational institutions to be hives of conspiracy and the disciplinary institutions subversive and in direct competition with the existing courts.
In fact, although counting some Puritans among her friends and close collaborators, she wages a real war against them. She sees in these protestant dissidents, often characterised by their sectarianism and extreme bigotry, a danger for royal absolutism especially since this movement now spreads among the bourgeois trades and the gentry represented at Parliament. The persecutions that she inflicts on them are of a rare violence. The arrival on the throne of James I in 1603, the first Stuart after a lineage of Tudors, is no more favourable to them. He saw the work of the Puritans in his native Scotland and he is anxious to maintain an Anglican church, dealing ruthlessly with the nonconformists.
Under his reign, the Puritans begin their immigration to America.
His son Charles I follows him in 1625 and the persecutions of the puritans resume with greater force, orchestrated by William Laud, the new archbishop of Canterbury.
The religious tensions allied to political conflicts lead to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, at the end of which Parliament triumphs over the monarchy.
This new government, led by Oliver Cromwell, reverses all tendencies and institutes Puritanism as the official religion of England. However, even organised as the state religion, Puritanism only imposes itself for about twenty years.
In the end, it cannot replace the Anglican Church that still remains a fundamental element of the English constitution. But these puritanical years bequeath England a specific inheritance: a political and economic activity built on efficiency and persistence, welfare reforms and new educational methods that are to serve England well in years to come.