Who Were the Puritans? (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

Who were the Puritans?

The Elizabethan Church settlement offended hardline Catholics whilst simultaneously facing rejection from some Protestants. By establishing a Church that incorporated elements from both traditions, the settlement contained features that certain Protestants found unacceptable. Although the restored Church of England remained Protestant in theology, its traditional structure and rituals proved problematic. Puritans were Protestants who sought to cleanse the Church of its papal elements.

The term 'Puritan' has frequently been employed as an expression of abuse or at minimum with unfavourable associations, depicting Puritans as opponents of all forms of pleasure. It remains necessary to understand why some Protestants genuinely felt dissatisfied with the 1559 settlement, expecting this would represent a stepping-stone towards further Protestant reforms.

Puritan opposition to the Elizabethan settlement

These Protestants particularly opposed the continuation of bishops within the new order, contending that they represented an invention of the Pope designed to maintain his authority rather than a creation of the early Christian Church. These Protestants also scrutinised the Bible for alternative evidence regarding the form of the English Church. They were not ordained by God and determined that, amongst other matters, making the sign of the cross during baptisms and the wearing of clerical vestments lacked any scriptural authority.

This hardline position against Catholicism within the English Church, combined with a desire to establish a simpler, more biblical form of worship, characterised the Puritan tendency. From the beginning, we must exercise caution not to conceive of the Puritans as a 'group' because no genuine organisation existed among them. They held varying degrees of opinion about what they would and would not accept regarding the Elizabethan settlement and how far they desired further religious reform to proceed.

Three strands of Puritan thought

In practice, three main strands of Puritan thought existed in Elizabeth's reign:

Moderate Puritans reluctantly accepted the structure of the Church and pressed for reform of beliefs and religious practices along the lines of the European churches.

Presbyterians called for a thorough reform of the structure of the Church and the simplifying of faith and ritual, especially as Presbyterianism was well established in Scotland.

Separatists broke away from the national Church to pursue their own radical Protestant reformation, on a parish-by-parish basis.

Early stages of Puritanism in Elizabeth's reign

Puritanism pre-dated the Elizabethan settlement. The educated elite of merchants, lawyers and craftsmen had been influenced in the 1520s by the teachings of Luther and other continental reformers who had criticised the state of the Catholic Church. They had used arguments that would have been recognised by their grandchildren in the 1560s. Since then, in the last years of Henry VIII's reign and Edward VI's reign, Calvin's influence had been keenly felt in England, especially with its emphasis on predestination and the notion of the godly elect.

Accordingly, the Puritan element in society began to voice its concerns at the nature of the Church settlement devised in 1559 before the ink was even dry on the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. Complaints that the settlement was too Catholic came to a head during the discussions in Convocation (the Church parliament) about the Thirty Nine Articles of faith in 1563 (which were passed by only one vote) and in the Vestiarian Controversy of 1566.

Vestiarian Controversy

Vestments were the special clothes worn by the clergy during services. As part of the drive towards uniformity, Elizabeth wrote to Archbishop Parker (Archbishop of Canterbury) in 1565, reminding him of the need to ensure that all clergy were following the religious practices set out in the Injunctions of 1559. In 1566 Parker issued a Book of Advertisements which set out what was expected, such as those receiving communion kneeling, not standing. In particular, in terms of dress code he insisted on the surplice and cope (long cloak) as standard apparel.

Parker wanted to compromise – indeed, he had watered down the requirements in his Book of Advertisements. He recognised that the Bible did not prescribe particular clothing, and was forced to fall back on the requirements being the Queen's wishes as Supreme Governor of the Church. The controversy rumbled on with no conclusion and no explicit support from the Queen who had no wish to provoke enemies at a time when the threat from Catholicism was growing. Archbishop Parker remained, working as a scholar, as Archbishop of Canterbury until his death in 1575.

Presbyterian demands in the 1570s

It was a series of lectures by the Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, Thomas Cartwright, in the spring of 1570 which brought the radical dimension of Puritanism to national, and royal, attention. In his lectures Cartwright argued for the abolition of bishops and called for a form of Church government based on that developed by the reformer John Calvin in Geneva.

Calvin had established a structure in which control was exercised by the minister of each church, helped by respected elders of the community. This model, argued Cartwright, could be adapted to fit the parish system in England and could be given national cohesion through Calvin's other idea of having regional committees and a national assembly of the whole Church. Such a system, known as a Presbyterian model of the Church, was said to be closer to the form of organisation justified in the Bible.

In practice, Cartwright had little practical influence, but the matter was debated in the House of Commons in 1571 when Thomas Strickland tried to suggest changes to the structure of the Church of England, but most of the bishops were horrified, as was Elizabeth. As a result, the Thirty Nine Articles of 1563 were formally approved by Parliament and this meant that clergy had to accept those articles as a condition of gaining any appointment in the Church.

In 1572 another writer, John Field, published Admonitions to the Parliament. The book argued that a Presbyterian Church structure was the only one sanctioned by the Bible: that the terms ministers, elders and deacons come from scripture; there is no mention of bishops. In an additional pamphlet Field denounced the Book of Common Prayer as 'Popish'. He was imprisoned for a year as a result.

Archbishop Grindal and the 'prophesyings'

However, other events meant that disputes between the Church of England and Puritan groups quietened down for a while. In particular, in 1572 the massacre of thousands of Huguenots (French Protestants) in Paris on St. Bartholomew Day horrified all Protestants in England. The continuing threats from Spain and from Catholic priests beginning to appear in England meant that all Protestant groups had a common cause. The Queen herself did not want religious change. In 1576 she gave explicit instructions that Parliament was not to debate religious matters without her permission, and imprisoned Peter Wentworth in the Tower when he challenged her.

Outside Parliament, the government became alarmed at the spread of 'prophesying'. Prophesyings were generally well-organised gatherings of clergymen at which young or unlicensed preachers could practise their art and receive advice from their more experienced colleagues. Many of the gatherings had the full support of the local bishop, although these meetings did not always show the influence of Presbyterian views on the structure of the Church. Their main emphasis was on encouraging the clergy and laity. However, those opposing the meetings could argue that the Puritan clergy were able to increase the number of competent preachers at their disposal and get around the tight licensing laws.

In 1576 news reached Elizabeth of some unorthodox preaching at a prophesying in Southam, in Warwickshire. She ordered her new Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Grindal, to suppress prophesyings, but he consulted other bishops and came to the conclusion that the meetings were not dangerous. He therefore refused to accept the Queen's instructions and, for good measure, lectured her about the importance of this sort of work in spreading the word of God and ensuring the well-being of souls.

Elizabeth did not respond well to this godly instruction. She had Grindal placed under virtual house arrest in his residence at Lambeth Palace and for the remaining seven years of his life he was unable to function as leader of the Church. Meanwhile, Elizabeth issued direct orders to her bishops that prophesyings were to stop.

Whitgift's attack on Presbyterianism in the 1580s

The 1580s saw the purging from the national Church of its Presbyterian elements. In 1583 Edmund Grindal died and Elizabeth appointed a devout Anglican, John Whitgift, to replace him. Whitgift, who was known affectionately by Elizabeth as 'my little black husband' because of his sombre clothing, shared many of Elizabeth's views and prejudices (he was unmarried, for example). He had no sympathy with the Puritans and was determined to enforce uniformity.

He immediately issued Three Articles that would have forced all ministers to swear an absolute acceptance of bishops and of all that was contained in the Prayer Book and the Thirty Nine Articles. The result was uproar, and within weeks about 300 ministers had been suspended in the south of England alone. Letters of complaint from local gentry enabled many of these men to be reinstated, but the tone of the new Church administration had been set. Over the next few years strict controls were enforced to end prophesyings and suppress any other developments of Presbyterian practices.

Development of 'classes' in the 1580s

The word 'classes' is the plural of 'classis' which was the term used for regional meetings to which congregations sent representatives for discussion on issues. There is evidence that these developed in some areas of the country in the 1580s. It would be tempting to believe that the development was in response to Whitgift's hard line on Prophesyings and Presbyterianism, as the informal organisation suggested a structure that resembled that of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.

The evidence suggests that many of these meetings were broadly 'Puritan' in nature and were genuine attempts to discuss and to educate clergy and lay people. Most clergy accepted Whitgift's Three Articles, having no desire to upset the established social structure of society in which the Church of England had a central role.

This was reflected in the country as a whole, and where some areas, such as large parts of the south-east, showed Puritan sympathies, other parts tended to be close to Catholicism. Nowhere was there widespread support for a Presbyterian Church structure.

Separatist movement

Because Protestantism insisted that the Bible was the only source of religious teaching and that it should be made available to all in their own language, the separate development of individual churches was always a possibility. In England, some congregations did follow that path, using isolated, voluntary gatherings to explore the Bible and to reach their own conclusions about the direction their faith should take them.

Evidence of early Separatists is notoriously difficult to gather since their activities were illegal and therefore secret. The experience of persecution under Mary had certainly created some Separatist groups, but hope of real reformation under Elizabeth meant that the vast majority of Elizabethan Puritans were, and remained, members of the national Church. By 1583, however, it was clear that they were not going to bring about reform by remaining within the Anglican Church, so small groups of Separatists began to emerge.

Brownists

The Brownists are one of the best documented of the Separatist groups. In 1580 an impatient reformer named Robert Browne had established a Separatist congregation in Norwich. After a brief period of imprisonment he left England and settled in Holland where he wrote A Treatise of Reformation Without Tarrying For Any. In it, Browne argued that the Church of England was corrupted by its Catholic traces and lack of moral discipline. He said that true Christians should leave it in favour of separate, voluntary gatherings of 'saints' who would exercise proper discipline. In 1583 John Copping and Elias Thacker were hanged for distributing Brownist pamphlets.

Marprelate Tracts, 1588–89

The Separatist movement reappeared in 1588–89 in the form of the scurrilous Martin Marprelate Tracts, a bitter written attack on the Church and the bishops that used foul language and abuse to make its case. The pamphlets were anonymous and printed in London. Although Puritans like Thomas Cartwright were horrified by the tracts and hurriedly disassociated themselves from them, the reaction of both the authorities and public opinion allowed the Privy Council to bring about the final destruction of organised Puritanism.

The emergence of Separatists and the publication of the Marprelate Tracts had provided the ammunition the government needed for an all-out attack on Puritanism. However, it was more difficult to eradicate it as a force in English religious thought, as is seen in the early years of Stuart rule. Hence it is possible to argue that, although the Puritans were seen as a nuisance to Elizabeth's government, their main importance was to be in the Stuart period.

Timeline of Puritanism

Year	Event
1566	Vestiarian Controversy under Archbishop Parker
1570	Cartwright's lectures at Cambridge
1571	Strickland failed to get Parliament to consider changing the structure of the Church of England
1575	Appointment of Grindal as Archbishop of Canterbury
1576	Elizabeth ordered Parliament not to discuss religious matters without permission; suppression of prophesyings and suspension of Grindal; Peter Wentworth imprisoned for defending them
1580	Brownist congregation established in Norwich
1583	Appointment of Whitgift as Archbishop of Canterbury heralded renewed attacks on Puritanism
1587	Cope and others sent to Tower because they argued in Parliament for a Presbyterian Church structure
1588–89	Publication of Marprelate Tracts
1593	Act against Seditious Sectaries