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Puritans and Separatists

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Difference between Puritan and Separatist A puritan is a person who believes that the church has fallen out of its way and continuously seeks better ways of worship. On the other hand, a separatist seeks to break away from the conventional church practice and establish new ways of worship. A common characteristic of the Puritans and the separatists is that they were protestant groups from the Church of England. However, there exist some differences between the two (Mackenal 22). The puritans came into being in the 1560s with the dissenting view that even though the English Church had reformed, it still had a lot of Catholicism. Therefore, the puritans wanted to move away from the severe forms of Catholicism and re-energize their faith and religion. On their part, the separatists also found fault with the Church of England in that it was too much of the Catholic Church, all in terms of worship and governance. Both the puritans and the separatists wanted to reform the Church of England but differed in the mode of doing the reforms. Whereas the puritans wanted to change the church from within, the separatists wanted to change the church from outside of it (Adair 67). The puritans believed that a clean heart was necessary in order to execute the will of God. They believed in the sin of recreation and they considered that it was their duty to dedicate time to God. As well, they stressed that the person to head the church should be a spiritual leader as opposed to a king. On their part, the separatists believed that God loved His people and that He created them in order for them to find the everlasting kingdom. As well, the people should represent the will of God at all times (Mackenal 24). After breaking away from the Church of England, the separatist and the puritans fled England as many feared religious persecution. The maximum penalty for anyone who disobeyed the church was death by beheading. Most people escaped to America where they established the “New England Area”. The Separatists found solace in the Plymouth Rock area, whereas the Puritans formed a colony far from Plymouth known as the Massachusetts Bay colony. While here in the New England, the puritans worked to clean out the Church of God. They adopted the form of governance where each church was a congregation, making each local church entirely independent. The separatists believed in a gathered church, in sharp contrast to the clustered Church of England, where each church was under a parish. The underlying logic was that the church found its foundation on the spirit of God as rather than on any being or state. All Christian believers had to seek up to each other (Adair 13). Puritans continuously engaged themselves into searching their lives for evil and good. This in turn developed creative writing and imagery. Among the puritan writers are Anne Bradstreet, who wrote poetry, Edward Taylor, Michael Wigglesworth, and Cotton Mather. Other writers included John Calins, Thomas Shepard and Charles Downey. All these writers shifted from questioning the daily spiritual symbols and adopted European poetry for their writings (Adair 100). Among the separatist writers is John Harvard, whose apart of his writings helped establish Harvard College. He was among the separatists who fled into the New England. Anne Hibbens is another separatist writer hang in 1656 due to her stand on the church. Another writer is Francis Higginson who was among the New England’s colonists. Others include John Hingham, Leonard Hoar, Thomas Hill, and Peter Hobart (Mackenal 47).

Works Cited
Adair, J. Puritans: Religion and Politics in the Seventeenth Century-England and America. Detroit: Michigan University Press, 1998. Print. Mackenal, A. The Story of English Separatists. Ohio: Nabu Press, 2012. Print.

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