The theocratic experiment.

11.4.1. In the 1630's many Puritans immigrated to Boston. Although most of these Puritans were Presbyterians, they found the system well adapted to frontier conditions. They therefore followed the Plymouth pattern, setting up Independent churches supported by public funds and excluding all rivals. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Puritanism remained the dominant religious force in New England. With the exception of Rhode Island, all the colonies in that area established Independent churches.

11.4.2. The Puritans left England because of religious persecution, but they, too, were intolerant. In Massachusetts they established laws derived from the Bible, and they punished or expelled those who did not share their beliefs. The Puritans established a governor and a general court (an assembly elected by adult male church members) and governed themselves. Although they refused to secede from the Church of England, they did away with bishops and church hierarchy and invented congregationalism. In this type of Protestantism, each congregation selected its own minister and governed its own religious life.

11.4.3. This order of life was supported and promoted by active religious propaganda. One of those instrumental in this was John Harvard who immigrated to New England and settled in Boston. He was active as a minister for a short time. Upon his death he left the college at New Towne (later Cambridge), half his fortune and his library of some 300 books. The Massachusetts General Court named the institution Harvard College (now Harvard University) in his honor. It was there that the first printing press in America began to operate.

11.4.4. Government officials were expected to enforce godly authority, which often meant punishing religious heresy. Roger Williams was a Separatist who refused to worship with anyone who—like nearly all Puritans—remained part of the Church of England. Massachusetts banished him, and he and a few followers founded Providence in what is now Rhode Island. Anne Hutchinson was a merchant’s wife and a devout Puritan, but she claimed that she received messages directly from God and was beyond earthly authority. This belief was a heresy, a belief contrary to church teachings, known as Antinomianism. She, too, was banished and she moved to Rhode Island.

Puritan magistrates continued to enforce religious laws. They persecuted Quakers, and in the 1690s they executed people accused of witchcraft. Some of the problems related to that frustrating way of life are described in the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn. It's a novel about the adulterous Puritan Hester Prynne, who loyally refuses to reveal the name of her partner. Regarded as his masterpiece and as one of the classics of American literature, The Scarlet Letter reveals both Hawthorne's superb craftsmanship and the powerful psychological insight with which he probed guilt and anxiety in the human soul. It's highly recommended you should read the book.

LECTURE 12

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