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THE PURITAN MIND
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Puritanism can still be found today in some features of the English lifestyle.
Puritans movement found adherents among the clergy and the nobles, but also in the middle class and the Members of Parliament.
It had also several effects on English history: in fact, the political events led the Parliament as a guarantee that Royal absolutism should never be established in England and the hard-working attitude profited the nation.
Poverty was regarded as a sin by the Puritans, because their duty was to choose a profession and improve their social status.
Leisure was considered a waste of time and theatre was described as "the very poison and corruption of men's minds and manners".
RELIGIONS
THE CALVINIST THEORY
Religion dominated national and personal life in the 17th century: all the ranks of society had an interest on religious topics.
The church had a political and religious significance, but there were differences between Catholicism, Anglicanism and the Puritans.
Anglicanism emphasised the beauty of the churches, their altars and supported the traditional hierarchy within the Church, instead Puritans
- Wanted no scholarly interpretations of the Scriptures
- Claimed the right for a person to grasp God's will from the reading of the Bible.
Moreover, Priests should be free to choose how to dress and should be distinguished by their behaviour and not by special clothing. They also objected practices like kneeling down, making the sign of the cross, using a ring in the marriage and music during the services.
John Calvin (1509-64) was a protestant reformer who created a new doctrine.
According to the theory of predestination, all men were born sinners and bound to damnation: only God's grace could save Men, requiring him a holy life full of discipline and hard work.