Puritans were members of a religious reform movement known as Puritanism.
This movement was born in the Church of England in the late sixteenth century.
Puritanism was phenomenon that led to the founding of New England, but was also a way to live that spread into American Culture.
The name “Puritans” (they were sometimes called “precisionists”) was a term assigned to the movement by its enemies.
Even though Puritanism spread during the late sixteenth century, it was initiated in the 1530s, when King Henry VIII repudiated papal authority and transformed the Church of Rome into a state Church of England.
Puritan migrated to the New World in entire families and most common form of employment was becoming priests, that granted them immunity to certain penalties of the civil law.
The established a biblical community as an example of England and the world.
In the mother country, every Englishman was part of the national church of England.
In New England, only the converted were members of the church.
Men who were church members were given the right to vote in the colony.
They were expected to establish rules for a godly social order, a society which would glorify God. Those not in accord with the spiritual beliefs of the colony could move elsewhere.
Although they were individuals of strong beliefs, faith, and conviction, the Puritans were not individualists. They came to America in groups, not as individual settlers.
Often entire congregations, led by their ministers, left England and settled together in the new land. They organised their settlements into towns, with their meeting house or the church at the centre of town.
The church was the centre of their community, providing purpose and direction to their lives.