Up to the point of departure from England to the American continent the soon to be named Puritans struggled to persuade others that the English religions had become too self-serving and caught up in the things of the world. With each change in the throne, they experienced a different view of religion,

Deciding just exactly what their “errand” was became the next problem both these groups had to face and conquer. They set up the churches in the manners they believed to be true. The separatists set up a religion where each congregation constituted an independent church with no need of bishops (Williams p.97). The non-separatists would not denounce completely the authority of the Church of England, obviously in hopes to one day return. These Puritans set up four holy commonwealths that had different organizational terms, but were unified in their purpose. Both thought of their errand as creating the sort of Christianity that God wanted to thrive on earth.

The “non separatists” had a similar event aboard their ship, the Arbella, with John Winthrop who formed and preached his vision of what they were to accomplish in America. These people wanted to set up a perfect religion and way of life that England would look to and invite them back to change all of England. Winthrop preached a sermon much like biblical times where he spoke of this group as the promised souls, that God would be with them while on their errand, that theirs would be a city on a hill for all to see and learn from. He spoke with passion and conviction that these things were going to happen, that they needed to stay humble, and more that they needed to come up with ways to keep their children humble. This would ultimately end in the changing of the view of grace within the church as the second and third generations come about. He even ends his sermon with verses from Moses last farewell to the people of Israel.

depending upon their leader. With Henry VIII it was Catholicism, then when the Pope would not annul his marriage to Catherine, he turned to the Academics who made him the “Supreme Head of the Church”, not the Catholic Church but the Anglican. This allowed him to divorce and remarry as he pleased until one woman would finally bare a son, Edward VI. Until Henry’s death, the reformation was more of a political movement than theological. Henry had suppressed the monasteries creating an abundant of wealth to reward the king’s followers, which obviously did not do much for the spiritual feelings of the nation. Edward VI brought on strong Protestantism and moved away from Catholicism, but he was only in rule for six years. Under Edward reform ideas that were suppressed during Henry’s reign were receiving more of a receptive ear. In particular Thomas Cranmer followed Luther in setting an order of worship that all could understand. Mary I tried to turn England back to Roman control, but her life was cut short in 1558. However she was successful in exiling many of the leaders of the Church of England to the European continent who did not want to return t

Some topics in this essay:
Max Weber, America Indians, Charles Puritans, Church England, America Natives, England Winthrop, Sermons England’s, Contact Indians, Israel Deciding, Edward VI, church england, grace god, third generations, idea grace, edward vi, god grace, found america, european continent, puritans found, god’s grace,