Puritan Case

During the early to mid-1600s, when King Henry VIII of England founded the Church of England (also called Anglican Church) after the Catholic Church pope refused to accept his request for a divorce from his second wife, the Puritans, who wanted to reform or “purify” the new church, began to be persecuted for going against the new Anglican Church. This growing religious persecution forced many of them to migrate to the Americas, specifically to the New England area, where they would eventually settle down and establish their own prosperous colony. As a result of their settlement into the area, the Puritans formed Massachusetts Bay Colony, which possessed a unified, theocratic political structure enforced by moral codes, had a productive economy driven by the motivation from God instead of wealth, and kept their society connected under the Puritan faith. Thus, the Puritan ideas and values greatly influenced the development of the political, economic, and social aspects of the New England colonies from 1630 to the 1660s.

Politically, the Puritans established a unified government based on their religious beliefs and moral principles. In his “A Modell of Christian Charity”, John Winthrop, the leader of the Puritan movement, described the Puritan colony as “a city upon a hill,” meaning it must serve as the exemplar colony for the rest of the New England colonies, since they believed they were chosen by God and “the [eyes] of all people are upon [them]” (Doc. A). To become this ideal model for all the other colonies, the Puritans needed the elects to enforce state affairs “in matters of religion [and moral laws]” (Doc. E). According to Puritan beliefs, God predestined these people called the elects to be saved to go to heaven, symbolizing that they were the “chosen ones” among the “chosen people” and making them qualified to rule the people. The elects used God to justify their theocratic rule, ensuring that “in public or private, [no one would] willingly do [anything] to [offend] the church” and that everyone, even non-Puritans, would practice “lawful obedience to those that [ruled them], in Church or Commonwealth [or the government serving the common good]” (Doc. B). Having everyone be faithful to God kept them faithful to the ruling churches and elects. However not all the power lied in the hands of the elects, each of the colonies also had its own governor, council, and assembly to settle local taxes and disputes, hold town meetings, and appoint citizens to minor office positions, forming the foundation for a democracy. The balance and unified of power between local authorities and the elects assured that no one person would abuse their power, because they believed all power fundamentally lied in the hands of the people (Doc. F). Ultimately, the church and state became one, thus ruling under a theocracy.

Economically, the Puritans built an agricultural and trading economy that was, again like their