Puritan

Chinese characters :徒
English: Puritans

One of the Protestant denominations. Today, the Reformation of the English Church, the predecessor of the Anglican Church , is somewhat insufficient, and it refers to the Protestant Protestants who wanted to reform Protestant, especially in Calvinism.

Puritanism is a somewhat comprehensive concept, encompassing those who originally belonged to the Church of England and accepted the national church but sought to reform the Church of England into a church more faithful to Calvinist and Protestant principles, as well as Independent Protestants with strong reformist and Congregationalist tendencies.

The Church of England had the purpose of uniting the entire nation around the king. It is a neutral line that is based on Protestantism but mixes Catholic and Reformed doctrines.[1]

The name Puritans was not a name they called themselves, but a 'derogatory name' called by their opponents , and they called themselves Godly. (coward and gaunt, 2017) So the Puritans who immigrated to America did not call themselves Puritans either.

Puritanism is a concept that encompasses not only non-conformist Protestants, but also members of the Church of England who pursue a national church but want the Church of England to reduce its Catholic traditions and become closer to the Reformed Church. Nonconformist Protestants are so-called independents, and include minority sects that still exist today, such as the Congregationalists , Baptists, and Quakers that split from the Reformed Church during the reign of Elizabeth I , as well as minority sects of the time that do not exist today, such as the Brownists. They initially pursued reform within the Anglican Church, but gradually separated from the Anglican Church during the reign of James I , and during the reign of Charles I , they insisted on religious freedom for minority Protestant denominations other than the Anglican Church.

On the other hand, the Presbyterian Church , another branch that broke away from the Reformed Church , remained within the state church until the end, and argued that a thoroughly Protestant reformed state church should be established by reforming Catholic elements within the state church and oppressing Catholicism.

It is not an accurate explanation to say, “Due to the oppression of the Anglican Church, some Puritans immigrated to North America in search of religious freedom and established the United States .” Among the Puritans, there were quite a few people who were members of the Church of England and nationalists who wanted the Church of England to change into a reformed church. These are not the people who wanted to leave Britain.

Those who left for North America were the non-conformists who denied the state church and the minority group who advocated for a free church among the Puritans. They argued for the separation of state and religion and were persecuted in England. Some of the separatists decided that reform was impossible in England and immigrated to a new land, which was the beginning of the United States. The first generation of Americans were ascetics because the Separatists had the same doctrines as the Puritans, with the only difference being the National Church and the Free Church. His children also tried to become a nation of asceticism and a non-conformist free church and Puritan spirit. The Congregational Church and the Baptist Church emerged from the Puritan Separatists . So, in the early days of America, Congregational churches had the largest number of members, but after many Congregational churches were absorbed into Baptist churches, Baptist churches currently have the largest number of members.

The Puritan Separatists had been in Leiden, Netherlands, for about 11 years before moving to the Americas. And in the village of Delfshaven near Rotterdam , the church where they stayed just before they left still remains. Of course, the Dutch Reformed Church was also influenced by them, and in particular, the Dutch Pietism movement, which was stimulated by Puritan theology, is called 'Nadere Reformatie' (Nadere Reformachi, the 2nd Reformation).

Henry VIII, who separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church with a decree of supremacy based on the theory of divine right to the throne (written by Mark Chapman, translated by Nak-Hyeon Joo, <Anglican Church: History and Future>, Future, Via), denied the primacy of the Pope and made the Church of England independent, allowing the King to have the right to appoint or dismiss clergy from the list of clergy submitted by the National Assembly (1534)), but moved to the Protestant camp. He had no intention of irritating the people who had previously been Catholics by making major revisions to Catholic doctrine and traditions. Therefore, within the national church, there are members with strong Catholic leanings and people with strong Reformed leanings mixed together.

Hardliners within the Anglican Church sought to revise the Catholic Mass, liturgical vestments, and the seven sacraments within the Anglican Church. They insisted that worship times, which can take several hours, be shortened and that Catholic-style ceremonial clothing should not be worn.

These hard-liners within the Anglican Church experienced both respect and persecution under Edward VI and Mary I after the death of Henry VIII . Unlike Henry VIII, who only changed his appearance, Edward VI actively tried to reflect Protestant doctrine and brutally suppressed Catholics, while Mary I did the exact opposite and tried to cancel the Edict of Supremacy itself and return Catholicism as the state religion. During this process, people were burned at the stake for possessing William Tyndale's English Bible , which was influenced by Lutheranism , and Thomas More, a professor of theology at Oxford University who denied the Catholic doctrine of transsexualism, was appointed as a Supreme Court judge and tortured 40 people and burned 6 at the stake. However, contrary to the traditional belief of 'Bloody Mary', Mary I did not suppress the opposition particularly cruelly, and the majority of England at the time were either Catholic or Catholic. Because she was pro-Catholic, Mary I's policies were somewhat responsive to the tastes of the majority of English people (Doran and Freeman, 2011).

Elizabeth I reversed this trend and established a Protestant state church, but she did not take as hard a stance as Edward VI and showed a tendency to compromise in response to the concerns of Catholic powers such as Spain and France. The Settlement and Unification Act of 1559 established the structure of the state church that extends to the modern Anglican Church, with Catholicism in liturgy and Protestantism in theology, and introduced the Book of Common Prayer for this purpose, expelling Catholic theology professors from Oxford and Cambridge, and appointing reformist theologians.

This was a compromise and most English people accepted it. However, a minority of Catholics were strongly dissatisfied with this, and on the contrary, zealous Reformed Anglicans were also dissatisfied, saying that the king had abandoned reform and oppressed Catholicism. From this, it can be said that Puritanism was formed.

However, Elizabeth I suddenly became religiously strong in the last decade or so after the Battle of Calais . Most of the repression of Catholics during her reign was concentrated in the last decade or so, and at the same time, she attempted to repress hard-line Anglican Christians who called for radical reform. Until the time of Elizabeth I, the Puritans were not an independent religious group but were closer to those with more fervent Protestant beliefs within the state church (Coward and Gaunt, 2017). From this, secret religious associations independent of the existing state church, such as the Brownists, were born, which became the origin of the independence faction in the 17th century.

It was during the reign of James I that had a decisive influence on the formation of Puritan power. When James I became King of England, the Puritans, who had previously simply had a more fervent Protestant faith and did not openly demand reform or engage in group movements, saw the Scottish Reformed Presbyterian Church, which had been thoroughly reformed according to Calvinist doctrine , and came to think that they should use it as a model to reform the state church. From this point on, Puritans emerged as a religious group demanding Protestant reform of the state church .

James I received education and supported Calvinism, which became the state religion of Scotland during his time as King of Scotland. However, as he became the King of England, his position became a bit more delicate. Most English people were not Puritans and supported the status quo established by Elizabeth I, which was Protestant in doctrine and Catholic in form. Because James I had to consider public opinion not only in Scotland but also in England, he could not easily accept the Puritans' arguments for the abolition of the bishopric.

In April 1603, James I received the Millenary Petition signed by 1,000 Presbyterian ministers. The Puritans emphasized loyalty to the king and the kingdom, expressed that they were never a force seeking separation from the Church of England, and at the same time called for reform of the practices of the Church of England. King James I partially accepted this argument, slightly revised the Book of Common Prayer, and ordered the compilation of the famous King James Bible , an English Bible that conforms to Calvinist doctrine.

However, because James I was not willing to scrape by with drastic reforms, he refused any more radical reforms. This is because it was difficult for a foreign king to reform the Church of England, which had considerable power, as soon as he ascended the throne.[2]

At that time, as the position of Catholicism in England was jeopardized by the Gunpowder Plot of the British Houses of Parliament, committed by Catholic extremist Guy Fawkes and others, the Puritans hoped to use this opportunity to eradicate Catholicism and the influence of the Pope in England through large-scale suppression of Catholicism. However, James I realistically judged that there would be no good in repeating the atrocities of the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I in his generation, so he tried to end it by punishing those who directly participated in the conspiracy and seeking to expand the position of the Anglican Church. From James's point of view, even if he had defeated Catholicism, there was already not much Catholic power left politically, and if he only represented the position of the radicalized Puritans, there was a possibility that the king would be reduced to a mere bastard.

However, contrary to the Puritans' claim that James I should actively help Protestant countries in the 30 Years' War on the Continent, along with dissatisfaction with the king's lukewarm attitude , he refused to actively participate and instead presented himself as a mediator between the two camps, and even had the crown prince marry a French princess. As such, the Puritans began to gradually advance into the political realm. The reason James I did not enter the Thirty Years' War was because of financial problems and the skill level of the English army, but the Puritans thought it was because the king was in cahoots with Catholicism.

From then on, the suppression of Puritan worship began. Of course, James I did not only oppress the Puritans. He declared that he maintained a moderation between Catholics and Puritans, and adopted the theory of both sides, admonishing and rejecting "Pope followers and fanatical Puritans as idiots of two extremes." However, due to this dualism, relations with parliament became difficult and the king clashed more and more with parliament.

During the reign of James I, the majority faction of the Presbyterian Church, which wanted to reform the state church in the Protestant style, separated from the Puritans, and minority sects such as the Brownists, Quakers , and Baptists , who sought religious separation from the state church , were born, and these came to be called independents during the era of Charles I. However, it was not until the English Civil War that the differences between these two camps surfaced .

A previous version of this document portrayed the Puritans as if they had radical political ideas opposing the divine right of kings from the beginning, which is a huge error. Although there were some among the Puritans who had radical political ideas, these claims were not 'common sense' but dangerous claims made by 'some heretics'. Before Charles I seriously punished the gentry across the country over tax issues, the vast majority of Puritans accepted the theory of divine right to the king as common sense. In fact, even when Charles I was in danger of being executed during the English Civil War, many Puritans thought that they could not kill a king who had been given authority by God.

As explained above, Puritans did not refer to a group that followed a specific sect or doctrine, but rather people who wanted to reform the Church of England more thoroughly according to Protestant doctrine. Therefore, their arguments did not sit well with the Stuart dynasty monarchs, such as James I and Charles I, who had to resolve religious issues as peacefully as possible.

It was during the reign of Charles I that the Puritans began to gather together as a political force in earnest. Charles I followed his father's wishes and pursued religious unification under the name of the existing Church of England, but the problem was that in the process, he supported doctrines that the Puritans considered heretical. When the king sponsored Arminianism, which claimed that humans have free will, the Puritans, who mostly believed in Calvin's theory of predestination, were quite shaken by this. In addition, Archbishop William Lord, appointed by Charles I, adopted a policy hostile to the Puritans, so they took a more critical stance against the king. In fact, it was around this time that the Puritan migration to America reached its peak.

Then, in order to raise funds to participate in the Thirty Years' War, Charles I levied various taxes without the consent of Parliament, causing gentry across the country to be severely punished by the king. The gentry, enraged by the indiscriminate tax bomb, demanded a convening of parliament, and accordingly, short-term and long-term parliaments were convened in succession. Here, the Puritans, who had been at odds with the king on religious issues, gained support from the gentry and strengthened their criticism of the king. However, as various corrective measures were taken against Charles I's 'misrepresentation' through the long-term parliament, the Puritans felt a sense of crisis as the number of gentry who felt there was no longer any point in confronting the king and left the ranks of critics increased.

The means they chose here was to spread anti-Catholic propaganda. When a revolt broke out in Ireland against the exploitation of a small number of Protestant English landowners, rumors were widely spread in England that the Irish were trying to enter England to eliminate Protestantism and spread Catholicism. In addition, as rumors continued to spread that underground Catholics were seeking to overthrow the country, the number of people sympathizing with their claims gradually increased. They criticized the king's arbitrary rule and formed the Parliamentary faction, arguing that England's traditional constitution and the Protestant Anglican Church, ruled by the king and Parliament together, should be protected from absolutism and Catholic conspiracies. Conversely, those who argued that the actions of the Puritans were actually a threat to England's constitution formed the Royalist faction. As they clashed, the English Civil War broke out, and this civil war spread to Scotland and Ireland, expanding into the English Civil War.

As a result of the English Civil War, the Parliamentarians won, but not everyone agreed to abolish the monarchy and execute Charles I. Non-conformist independence factions, including Oliver Cromwell, supported this, but the Presbyterian faction, which made up the mainstream Puritans, still believed in the divine right of kings and opposed it. Then, the New Model Army led by Cromwell staged a coup, forcibly detained members of parliament who opposed the execution of Charles I, quickly executed Charles I without a proper trial, and declared the Commonwealth of England.

As the Commonwealth of England was proclaimed and Cromwell's regime was established, conflict within the Puritans began to surface in earnest. The independence faction, including Cromwell, wanted to grant tolerance to non-conformists, but the conformist faction, on the other hand, strongly opposed this. Couple this with Cromwell's self-righteous attitude, and many people felt annoyed.[3] , the Anglican faction within the Puritans ultimately favored the coronation of Charles II and the restoration of the monarchy after the death of Oliver Cromwell.

One of the ways to fulfill God's orders to cultivate the world before the fall of the Fall of Fall is to explore the essence of culture and science. This is in conflict with the Catholic Catholic Catholic Culture and Baptism . This view has made an important contribution to the 17th -century scientific revolution and the 18th -century industrial revolution .

In order to emphasize “only the Bible,” everyone had to learn to read, and in order to be critical of the dull precedents and customs of the Middle Ages, humanistic knowledge had to be supported by reason.

The Puritan education center emphasized the importance of reason and logic. That's why it is said that they were attacked like this at the time. "I'd rather hear the sermons of a man speaking by the workings of the Holy Spirit, without any study, than by some learned scholar, who may be fuller of Scripture."[4] Rather than a dichotomous approach between reason and faith, he emphasized that faith takes precedence over reason, but nothing can be seen without reason.

Puritans are meaningful in that they have embraced Christian studies, unlike the Baptism , which avoided studies outside Christianity in knowledge education. The basic educational policy was to educate the Bible -based believers, but it did not neglect the disciplines outside the Bible. In fact, there are still many education universities in the United States. The representative examples are Harvard University and Yale University . The two universities were founded by the Puritan Congress Church, which was an exiled separatist in the Netherlands . In the beginning, Harvard University was a pastor's benign school, but over time, the form changed secularly. In New England's first fruit, the testimonies of Harvard University are vivid.[5]

Previously, the Puritans in England suffered severe conflict for over 100 years due to differences in political ideology with the Stuart royal family. They rejected the theory of divine right of kings and advocated limiting the power of rulers based on Calvinism, which was also continued by the Puritans who immigrated to the United States via England and the Netherlands. Thus, America 's demographic characteristics were created by the immigration of Puritans even before the founding of the country, and these residents formed a nation escaping from the colonial oppression of the British government, and the theoretical basis of the Revolution was republicanism influenced by Calvinism and John Locke's society. I was greatly influenced by the contract theory. Therefore, the Independence Charter declared, “All people are equal and therefore free.”

If the French Revolution showed a lot of antipathy against the national church, the American Independence Revolution was heavily influenced by Puritan ethics. As the current secularism claims, the claim that the founding ideology of the United States is irrelevant to religion is that they do not know the situation during the founding and independence war.[6] If the concept of freedom of religion is 'freedom to believe or religion in a secular country,' the freedom of religion at that time is the intention that the freedom of religion does not leave the same state religion as the British Church , as stated in Article 1 of the amendment , and will not recognize a specific sectarian in the same status of status as state religion. At that time, Europe was a Christian world, not a matter of religion or not, but because it was the main aspect of political conflict. The mainstream of the American Puritans was the center of the congregation or baptism that received the most severe oppression of James I , Charles I , and Charles II, who received the most severe oppression.

The characteristics of the American Puritans are rather the origin of Right-Libertarianism, Right-Libertarianism .

This tradition is inherited and claims individualism , limited power, and small governments .

In many cases, the Puritan is clearly distinguished from the English church, which is also a concept of people who stayed in the Korean church and fought the king. At present, the Anglican Church has a sect that has been influenced by the Puritan (Reformed Church) faith.

The denomination created by the separatists recognized infant baptism while conducting congregational politics, and adopted an independent confession of faith that was incompatible with other reformist denominations called the ‘Savoy Declaration.’ Such churches are called ‘congregational churches’. However, by the 19th century, the theological tendencies of the denomination had shifted significantly toward liberal theology . Later, the American Congregational Christian Church merged with another liberal-oriented denomination called the Evangelical Reformed Church (E&R Church) and changed its name to the United Christian Church of America, which remains in existence to this day.

Some of the separatists formed a Baptist church . It is currently the largest denomination in the United States.

Representative Puritan literature includes < Paradise Lost> by John Milton and < The Pilgrim's Progress > by John Bunyan.

Some people criticize it as one of the reasons why British cuisine is at its worst. The Puritans advocated strict asceticism , and because cooking delicious food itself was treated as a taboo, the types of dishes and recipes that could be eaten became very monotonous. But this is half right and half wrong. Northern Europe, including the UK, has a similar food culture of roughly prepared food, and the climate is not favorable for agricultural production, so various ingredients cannot be grown. This is closely related to the fact that modern British cuisine is often criticized for having seemingly plausible recipes but lacking in overall taste due to low-quality or strange ingredients. Moreover, as Britain became the world's richest country, the upper class and gentry hired foreigners, especially French chefs, to prepare well-cooked meals. And this problem is not only a problem in the UK, but also in the Netherlands , northern Germany , and Northern Europe , where the climate is cold and Protestantism is the cultural trend . Dutch cuisine is also evaluated as simple compared to Belgian cuisine due to the influence of Calvinism . The reason why British cuisine is so simple that it seems particularly insincere is the result of not only Puritanism but also a combination of factors such as climate, culture, international relations, the industrial revolution, and successive wars. See British Cuisine/Causal Analysis . The Korean Presbyterian Church also has a strong conservative tendency, but considering that Korean Protestantism has virtually no regulations on cooking and that chefs who believe in the Presbyterian Church have quite diverse tendencies, it is also important to keep in mind that Puritan tendencies are also strong in each country.

In the English-speaking subculture/doujin world, people who impose strict standards on creative works and try to arbitrarily censor them are sometimes called Puritans. It feels similar to Korea's Confucian Taliban, Chewseonbi.