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The Puritans were also dismayed when the Laudians revived the custom of keeping Lent, which had fallen into disfavor in England after the Reformation. The Puritans preferred fast days specifically called by the church or the government in response to the problems of the day, rather than on days chosen by the ecclesiastical calendar.
The major Whig historian, S. R. Gardiner, popularised the idea that the English Civil War was a "Puritan Revolution" [193] that challenged the repressive Stuart Church and prepared the way for religious toleration. Thus, Puritanism was seen as the natural ally of a people preserving their traditional rights against arbitrary monarchical power.
In the United States, the Puritan settlement of New England was a major influence on American Protestantism. With the start of the English Civil War in 1642, fewer settlers to New England were Puritans. The period of 1642 to 1659 represented a period of peaceful dominance in English life by the formerly discriminated Puritan population.
The Puritan influence on slavery was still strong at the time of the American Revolution and beyond. In the decades leading up to the American Civil War , abolitionists such as Theodore Parker , Ralph Waldo Emerson , Henry David Thoreau and Frederick Douglass repeatedly used the Puritan heritage of the country to bolster their cause.
It is not typically summarised as a whole, since the political events of the 1640s, sometimes called the Puritan Revolution, have complex roots, not any more than the term "Puritan" can be given a useful and precise definition outside the particular historical context. The Puritan's main purpose was to purify the Church of England and to make ...
The Puritan faction objected loudly and appealed to the continental reformers to support their cause. Many of the continental reformers felt that the Puritans were just making trouble – for example, in a letter to Bishop Grindal, Bullinger accused the Puritans of displaying "a contentious spirit under the name of conscience".
Puritans believed it was the government's responsibility to enforce moral standards and ensure true religious worship was established and maintained. [98] Education was essential to every person, male and female, so that they could read the Bible for themselves.
The first colony in New England was Plymouth Colony, established in 1620 by the Puritan Pilgrims who were fleeing religious persecution in England. A large influx of Puritans populated the New England region during the Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640), largely in the Boston and Salem area. Farming, fishing, and lumbering prospered ...