LICEO SCIENTIFICO STATALE “G. RUMMO”

A.S. 2012-2013

ESSAY: PURITANISM

After the end of the “Wars of the Roses”, the defeat of the Yorkists and the reign of the first Tudor Henry VII, under king Henry VIII the Church of England was separated from the Roman Catholic Church with the “Act of Supremacy”(1534) and the cause of Protestantism advanced rapidly in the nation. Anglican Church was born; a protestant church was created. The Protestantism was fought only by “Bloody” Mary I, who killed lot of them and forced in exile the others, and with Elizabeth I they began a big development, that will put them in the middle of the English history.

This development continued till the early 17th century, a historical period where religion dominated all the aspects of life and all religious matters and topics were common problems of all social classes. In this frame was born Puritanism, a religious reform movement, separated from Anglicanism and more extreme than it, that sought to “purify” the Church of England of remnants of the Roman Catholic “popery” that the Puritans claimed had been retained after the religious settlement reached early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

Puritanism may be defined primarily by the intensity of the religious experience, that characterized it. First of all, according to John Calvin’s theory of predestination, the believed that each man was born sinner and so inclined to dirty life and damnation. God has written Men’s destiny before their creation, but God’s grace could save Men, requiring of them a holy life of work, discipline and sacrifice. That’s why Puritans regarded poverty with contempt and they chose only profitable and “rich “ professions to improve their social status and become deserving of God’s good grace. In this extreme way of thinking they despised theatre, that was considered “hearth” of passions and special sensations, which corrupted soul. At last they argued against the distinction of clergy-men by their special clothing and not by their behavior and their faith and they claimed the individual interpretation of the “Scriptures”, because each man will extract his message of grace or damnation on his own.

As well as the strict religious and daily doctrine, the Puritanism influenced all the main events of the English history of these years. And as a matter of facts the puritan movement found adherents among the clergy and the nobles, but especially among the middle and professional class and the MPs. So Puritanism had a deep influence in the Civil war between Cromwell and king Charles I and most of all it makes the first step, that will guide England.to the birth of capitalism and the beginning of the “Industrial Revolution”.

Carmine Catalano, IV A