Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 2, Number 24, DeMotte, Jasper County, 5 January 1933 — ALL PURITANS NOT ALIKE IN THOUGHT [ARTICLE]

ALL PURITANS NOT ALIKE IN THOUGHT

Worked in Various Ways for Church Reform.

During the Sixteenth century rhe name Puritan was applied in England to all persons who urged a reform in the ritual of the established church. There were different degrees of Puritanism. There were those who wished only to bring about a reform of the church liturgy; others desired to abolish the episcopacy, while some declared against all church authority. The pilgrims, as they styled themselves, who first formed a colony in Holland and subsequently emigrated to America, were “Separatists,” so called because they had separated themselves from the Church of England and wished to maintain a distinct organization. These formed the Plymouth colony, which settled in New England in 1620. In 1628 another company of Puritans came out and formed the Massachusetts Bay colony. These claimed to be members of the Church of England, and to have no desire to separate from that body, but to be unable conscientiously to conform to the established ritual. They sought in America liberty to hold their connection with the church, and yet to adopt a simpler ritual. “We will not say.” said Francis Higginson, “as the Separatists were wont to say at their leaving England, ‘Farewell, Babylon! Farewell, Rome!’ but we will say. ‘Farewell, dear England; farewell the church of God in England, and all the Christian friends there.’ We go to practice the positive part of church reformation, and to propagate the gospel in America.” Nevertheless, when once established in America, the Puritans claimed and practiced quite as much religious independence as the others. —Cleveland Plain Dealer.