The Puritans 3: The Half-Way Covenant

Early Puritan Church/Photo Ponahou School

Continuing on with the Puritan subject, an interesting thing happened in the mid 1600's as the Puritan churches in New England began to suffer declining membership, part of the problem was that to become an actual member of the Puritan Church you had to have a "Conversion Experience", the requirement was that someone who was not a member had to publicly stand in front of the congregation and declare that they had a religious conversion, if the leaders of the church were convinced that this conversion was authentic then the person received membership.

The problem started when second generation family members did not experience this "Conversion Experience" and the first generation church members began to die so church membership began to seriously decline. At the time church attendance was expected from all townspeople, hoping this would increase membership however conflicts inevitably arose over the requirement of an "Conversion Experience".

In 1662 an agreement was reached, known as the Half-Way Covenant, offered a practical solution: members children who had not experience the conversion themselves could join the church as a "half-way" member, restricted only from participation in communion. In the end this agreement ensured that the church still had money coming in and kept it's power over the colony's government.

This was one of the few times you will find that the puritan church showed religious tolerance, but as you can see though it was toward there only family members and it kept the church in power.

For now this will be the end of the post's on the Puritans unless someone wants more, thank you for stopping by.

Puritans Part II

Hello all, honestly I don't know yet if I have anyone actually following my history blog but if you are first let me say I'm sorry that it takes me a long time in between posts, I love blogging and trying get the writing to be habitual just like brushing your teeth. So here is part two on the Puritans.

As I discussed before the Puritans left England because of persecution from the throne and the Church Of England, however that did not mean once they arrived in North America they automatically set up a colony that was tolerant of other protestant sects, on the contrary the puritans became a very intolerant persecuting church.

New Spain and New France which was the other colony's belonging of course to Spain and France at this time also had their own state sponsored religions. In New Spain which included Mexico and much of Central and South America were officially Catholic territories as was areas belonging to France such as the New Orleans are.

In the New England colonies, the government there was run by Puritan congregations, except Rhode Island which was actually formed by people who were exiled by the Puritans. I Massachusetts, the local church of a town, or city was free to run its own affairs, directed by the General Court that was composed of the governor and representatives elected by the town. Each congregation was allotted plots of land which was divided amongst themselves and laying out villages and churches that the Puritans called meetinghouses.

Unlike today were the government can't raise money for religious causes, the Puritan Churches were supported by taxes levied by the local governments. Adult males of the church made up the freemen of the town or city, and because of this there was virtually no secular authority in the New England colonies.

Contrary to what may be taught today in the schools of America, Puritan tradition was actually a mix of freedom and persecution, and even though each community had "autonomy", they were closely bound by Puritan tradition and restrictions. In no way did the Puritans have the goal of establishing a society were religion could be freely practiced; they placed severe restraints against individual religious rights and exiled many people, including Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson who questioned the religions orthodoxy of Massachusetts. Roger Williams was first exiled to Rhode Island were he eventually set up a government that was very much tolerant of other christian sects, as well as other religions including Muslims, who's population was very small in the colonies but needed someplace where they could practice their religion in peace.

Eventually the Puritan governments became so intolerant they banned Anglicans and Baptists from entering and establishing churches in Massachusetts. When they began to actually execute members of the Society of Friends who began to preach the tenets of the Quaker faith King Charles II finally stepped in and ordered a stop to religious persecution in Massachusetts, Parliament responded by passing The Toleration Act in 1689,after eleven years of Puritan resistance, in 1700 other christian sects were safe to openly practice their form of Christianity.

Picture of Roger Williams courtesy of The Ambassador John L. Loes Jr. visitors center.

Puritans Part I

Who were the Puritans in American history? I know many of you remember them from your Jr. High and High school days. They were a Christian sect in England at the time when England declared themselves independent of the Catholic Church and the Pope, in the process it was almost a requirement for all people living in England must be members of the new Church Of England the official church of the King.

There were many groups of Christians who did not follow the Church of England were often persecuted, a group of English Christian who followed John Calvin were know as Puritans. They were know as Puritans because they wished to purify and reform the English church from within. These Puritans became very influential during the last years of Queen Elizabeth's reign toward the end of the sixteenth century.

When Queen Elizabeth died, King James I assumed the throne, this is were problems began for the Puritans, Queen Elizabeth had been very tolerant of religious differences. King James I was not! Almost immediately he began persecuting the Puritans, however his persecution only made the Puritans stronger and they turned to open political opposition. During King James I rule they had a strong voice in Parliament,.

The Puritans were still a minority in Parliament when King Charles I, King James I son took over the throne in 1625 and began supporting the Church of England or the "High Church" and married a Roman Catholic princess, these caused the Puritans in Parliament to heavily criticize King Charles I. In response to the criticism the king dismissed Parliament and began a policy of repression against the Puritans.

King Charles I campaign against the Puritans and other protestant groups in England is what set off a mass migration of English Protestants to New England. The first group of Protestants to leave for the New World were the group we affectionately know as the Pilgrims, however by the English government and crown they were know as the Separatists because rather than reform the English church which they believed was terribly corrupt they had to leave England to protect there congregations. There Mayflower Compact was the first document of self-government in North America.

In 1629 the "Great Migration" began, when a royal charter was granted to the Massachusetts Baby Company, this was an advance group of Puritans who left England to begin colonizing New England, as time went by there group formed the eventual colony and state of Massachusetts.

The interesting note I wanted to comment on the Puritans was that they left England for the purpose of setting up a colony that was tolerant to there beliefs, however it turns out when other protestant groups arrived in Massachusetts the Puritans became very In-Tolerant of there beliefs and greatly restricted their rights in there colony, these groups eventually broke away from Massachusetts and formed the colony of Rhode Island which is another subject I will cover later.

I hope you enjoyed this little post, there will be more on the subject of the Puritans soon, this is just part one.