This is the Puritan Ethic: Strict self-discipline and devotion to God and church, accompanied by contempt for sinful pleasures and luxuries. The focus of the Puritan doctrine was not only the belief in the sovereignty of God and the dependence of man entirely on God for salvation, but the importance of the individual’s personal religious experience through purification of self and society. The four main convictions of Puritanism were that personal salvation was completely dependent upon God, that the Bible was the final authority and guide to good Christian life, that the church was to be organized from the scripture and that society was a single, unified entity (Bowden). This act was viewed as treasonous in the eyes of the English government (Belasco, Johnson 96-97). They wished to further “purify” the practices and rituals of the Church of England, but eventually severed ties with the Church, forming a church of their own. Their feeling was that even after the initial reformation of the church, there still existed unacceptable traces of Roman Catholicism. Part of Calvin’s theology was the idea of “godly industry,” or working diligently under the eye of God to create a civilized landscape in which to pursue their beliefs (Finch 1314).Ī return to the “.ancient purity and simplicity of the church as established by Christ,” was what the Puritans sought. They believed themselves to be God’s “divinely chosen” people. These Puritans were dedicated to the teachings of John Calvin, a Swiss Protestant reformer. Puritans were so named because of their desire to “purify” the Church of England above and beyond the perceived inadequacy of the initial reformation of the sixteenth century (Bowden). The Puritan Ethic of that time, as well as the concepts forged by the Mayflower Compact, and its eventual development into a somewhat democratic form of representative government, laid the foundation for later American government and made an influential impact that can be seen even today. He went on to guide the settlement as governor or assistant governor for upwards of 30 years. Bradford played a role in the drafting of the Mayflower Compact, contributing to the first truly independent form of civil government in America.

This devotion to their religious practices and beliefs, along with escalated repression by the English government and church, ultimately led to the Puritans emigration to Holland and subsequently to the new world, where they established a colony in New England (Bowden).īorn of this repression and emigration, a leader and American literary figure emerged in the personage of William Bradford. Dissatisfied with the results of the reformation of the Church of England, a group of extreme separatists known as the Puritans desired nothing less than the total elimination of any trace of Roman Catholicism in their church.

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