Exactly who were the Puritans? (from Leland Ryken's "Worldy Saints")

Puritanism was part of the Protestant Reformation in England. No specific date or event marks its inception. It first assumed the form of an organized movement in the 1560s under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but when we identify the traits of that movement we can see that its roots reach back into the first half of the century. Its intellectual and spiritual forebears include figures like the Bible translator William Tyndale, the popular preacher-evangelist Hugh Latimer, and Thomas Becon. And surely the roots of Puritanism include the Protestant exiles who fled to the Continent during the persecution under the Catholic Queen Mary (1553-1558).

Puritanism began as a specifically church movement. Queen Elizabeth established "the Elizabethan Settlement" (also know as "the Elizabethan Compromise") within the Church of England early during her reign. That compromise drew together Reformed or Calvinistic doctrine, the continuation of a liturgical and (in the eyes of the Puritans) Catholic form of worship, and an episcopal church government.

The Puritans were impatient with this halting of the Reformation. In their view, the English Church remained "but halfly reformed." They wished to "purify" the church of the remaining vestiges of Catholic ceremony, ritual, and hierarchy. This early quarrel with the state church quickly broadened to include other areas of personal and national life.

Puritanism was thus partly a distinctly English phenomenon, consisting of discontent with the Church of England. But from the beginning it was also part of European Protestantism. Horton Davies says that "puritanism began as a liturgical reform, but it developed into a distinct attitude towards life.

As the movement progressed, more and more Puritans were unable to "conform" sufficiently to the state church to remain as good members within it. Puritan pastors frequently found themselves ejected from their positions. For purposes of this book, I have generally tried to keep the Puritans distinct from "separatists" and "nonconformists," but as the seventeenth century wore on, Puritans were in fact increasingly, and against their will, nonconforming separatists.

Just as Puritanism had no specific birth date, it had no precise termination."

While there isn't a specific individual who is universally considered the "last Puritan," there were prominent Puritan figures who emerged during that time period. One such figure is Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), an American theologian and preacher known for his role in the Great Awakening, a religious revival movement in colonial America.