Puritans Influence

The Puritans were one of the first people to travel and move to America in 1650 (“People & Ideas: The Puritans”). The Puritans had a large influence in the making of America. At first, the Puritans were misconstrued as the Pilgrims known for beginning the holiday of Thanksgiving because similar to the Pilgrims, the Puritans were Protestants from England and Calvinists believed that the reforms and decisions of the Church of England did not do enough (“People & Ideas: The Puritans”). However, unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans did not break away from the Church of England, but wanted to reform it (“People & Ideas: The Puritans”). In their efforts for reformation, however, this religious group was misled about some of the core Biblical concepts …show more content…
At the age of 27, John Calvin published his first book Institutions of the Christian Religion and was written for people to standardize, or adopt, his Protestant theories (Biography.com Editors). Due to his Protestant beliefs and his leadership, “Geneva became the center of Protestantism, and sent out pastors to the rest of Europe, creating Presbyterianism in Scotland, the Puritan Movement in England and the Reformed Church in the Netherlands” (Biography.com Editors). During his rule, John Calvin did not allow Christianity, art, and music with instruments (Biography.com Editors). His ideas of worship were plain and focused on God, which means no stained glass windows, instruments, or art (Feldmeth). He also believed in religious ideas such as free will and predestination (“Puritanism and Providence”). “Christians generally accept the position that God predestines, or elects the good to salvation, the fate of sinners, regarding salvation and damnation, but the Puritans, however, accepted Calvin's belief in double predestination” (“Puritanism and …show more content…
An example for the grace misconception is when John Proctor commits adultery and his wife, Elizabeth, wonders, throughout the book, if she should give him her forgiveness (Miller). The main example is found throughout the entire book. The judges in the witch trial allow the ones who confess to being witches to live, but the ones who are telling the truth (who don’t confess to being witches) are forced to die. The ones who confess, such as Tituba and Sarah Good, are shown mercy, but the ones who don’t, such as John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey, are shown nothing, no mercy and no grace. These actions are what causes misconceptions about the Puritans lacking