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Article: Puritans and Puritanism
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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PURITANS AND PURITANISM
PURITANS AND PURITANISM.
The terms "Puritans" and "Puritanism" originated in England in the 1560s, when they were used to describe the people who wished to reform the Church of England beyond the limits established by Queen Elizabeth I in order to "purify" it of what they considered the remnants of Roman Catholicism. Puritanism was first formulated as an ecclesiastical protest and was at the beginning devoted to attacking clerical vestments, the use of medieval ceremony, and the structure of the official hierarchy; Puritans wished to substitute a church government modeled upon the example of the apostles in the New Testament. However, this preoccupation with ...