Puritans wanted the English Protestant Reformation to go further. They wished to rid the Church of England of “popish” – that is, Catholic – elements like bishops and kneeling at services.

They felt their only option was to leave the church and create new, separate churches. Known as "separatists," these Puritans left their homeland and in 1609 moved to Leiden, Holland, where they ...

New England Puritans were hard-pressed by Native American warriors who knew how to fight in forests—and now had flintlock ...

THE MEETING houses of the First Church in Cambridge, founded by Puritans, have been around for 400 years. George Washington worshipped in one; the Massachusetts Constitution was debated in another.

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1588-89 Some Puritans published anonymous pamphlets called the Marprelate Tracts, complaining about the Church and bishops. The authors were never identified, although John Penry was believed to ...

The word Puritan comes from ‘purity’ or ‘purify’. These were extreme Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of England by returning to the simple and uncomplicated worship and way of ...

They felt their only option was to leave the church and create new, separate churches. Known as "separatists," these Puritans left their homeland and in 1609 moved to Leiden, Holland, where they ...

The black-clad, steeple-hatted Puritan, walking warily to church with Bible in hand and musket on shoulder, is an enduring image of New England’s formative colonial era. In “The Wars of the ...