The Puritan Movement was based on many ideals and beliefs, not to mention the fact that it was quite literally a movement of people to America from Europe. The Movement emerged from The Church of England and was greatly led by John Calvin and his strong beliefs. Seeking refuge and religious freedom to believe what they want without persecution, the Puritans set up a whole system of ideals in the new America. One of the largest beliefs of this culture was the idea of predestination. They thought that people were born into “original sin”, meaning from birth people were already damned with sins. The whole purpose of that person’s life from birth would then be to lead the perfect life and possibly earn the right to be redeemed (“saved”). The Puritan Movement which publicly criticized the Catholic Church tried to build a culture void of corrupt sinful actions such

as drinking, gambling, swearing and so on. It was a culture where religion was the entire meaning of life and those who did not believe this were ostracized. In this kind of community if religion is this important, the people that are higher up in the church are going to have more power naturally. These people were honored and respected, and over time the priests, pastors and so on became quite powerful. The Puritan church was set up so that in order to fill the ranks of a pew in the church, a person had to first be considered “noticeably godly” or be part of the “elect”. These were people that were believed to be “saved” and led perfect lives completely void of sin. So the only people allowed into church were the “elect” and the religious leaders, which would eventually lead to being a member of church giving you an authoritarian position. The church members were the only ones allowed to vote on town issues and they were believed to be spared from damnation by God. Being able to attend church was considered a privilege, but attending Puritan church was hours of tedious praying and singing. The services were strict and disciplined, almost as if it was a punishment. Everyone is attendance had to be able to read obviously, so education was a staple of early American Puritan life. The Puritans formed schools and colleges to teach religion and reading. The entire existence of life for them was to be the perfect Puritan. The unrelenting pressure of Puritan life did provide for quite a few challenges in its first 100 years.

I believe that Increase Mather would have definitely considered the Puritan movement to be successful. To start off with the pure notion of moving across an ocean to create a new society seems crazy even by today’s standards. The incredible excitement and fear the Puritans must have felt coming over, had to have been intense. They came and they immediately took care of what needed to be done. Understanding that their reason for leaving is religion based they began to set up their religious system the way they wanted it to be. They built their churches and realizing the importance of education, they build their schools. They eventually formed a primitive government of religious leaders which in itself is a daunting task

Some topics in this essay:
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