America confronted the colonists with unforeseen problems. Contact with the Indians, the demands of subsistence, the need to educate their own clergy, and the catastrophic civil wars back in England all contributed to changing the settlers" view of their purpose and destiny. Economic opportunities enabled some settlers to get rich and to divert their thoughts slightly, away from heaven and towards the things of this world. Sermons by New England's highly educated and eloquent clergy show that they were dismayed at the declension of their godly experiment, and most saw it as a fall from an earlier state of grace. Historians today, however, recognize that changes were inevitable. The preachers" jeremiads, sermons full of gloom and threats of God's wrath, were not so much an accurate account of a deteriorating situation as ritualized reminders of the colonies" religious purpose(Patrick Allitt).
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, 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.
