The Puritans the Political Scene in England

• Henry VIII and the new Anglican Church.

• Queen Elizabeth I wanted to unify England under one church through the Act of
Uniformity that was finalized in 1558, which required that:
- Each person had to go to church once a week or he should be fined.
- The obligatory use of The Book of Common Prayers.
• The Puritans refused to conform to the Queen and some of them ‘separated’
themselves from the sinful national church and organised ‘separatist’ churches of
their own
• The connotations of the word ‘puritan’ are: to purify, the elect & survivors.
• It was a degrading term and did not use it themselves.
• The Puritans wanted to complete the reform of the Anglican Church.
• They were distinguished as two major groups: Separatists, who boycott the Church of England &
Non-Conformists, who did not conform to all orders of the Church.
• The Puritans preached against sin using the ‘sermon’.
• The central Puritan experience was that of ‘Conversion’, which was the moment when God’s
grace entered the soul and began the work of its redemption. It was a moment predestined form
creation.
• Predestination, is the doctrine of John Calvin the French theologian who believed that people are
predestined either to be saved by grace or incurably dwell in sin.
• Calvin believed in the independence of the church from state, and that it should be governed by
‘Presbyters’ or elders.
• The ‘Thirty-Nine’ Articles (finalised in 1571), enabled members of the church of England to
believe in either predestination or free will.
• The Puritans believed that:
• The Church should not have any rituals or ceremonies not found in the Bible.
• They believed that the government should enforce morals and punish bad behaviour, like drunkness.
• Priests should not wear vestments (clerical clothes).
• Everybody should be educated in order to read and interpret the Bible without a priest.
• Oliver Cromwell believed that replacing the Spaniards in the colonies was a holy task.
• Puritans faced persecution in England and in 1607 and 1608 escaped in groups to
Holland, Leyden. They remained there for about 10 years.
• With the danger of Spanish conquest (Catholics) and living in poverty, they sought
religious refuge.
• They were tempted by propagandist literature, like that of John Smith.
 The Scientific Revolution and the
Philosophy of Rene Descartes
• Poetry was under attack during 17 th century due to the Scientific Revolution and the philosophy of Rene Descartes.
• The preferred mode of writing was prose since poetry seemed to be giving illusions about reality.
• The method of Descartes is called ‘Scepticism’, which uses ‘doubt’ as its principle way of finding Truth.
• Descartes doubted everything except for that he was the person who doubted.
• His most famous motto is ‘I think, therefore I am’.
• The study of physical nature was not prohibited anymore, and a compromise between religion and science was reached in
what’s called ‘Scientific Deism’.
• Scientific Deism is clear in the Laws of Motion, discovered by Sir Isaac Newton.
• He called God ‘The Unmoved Mover’
• Sir Frances Bacon was another important figure who believed that ‘Knowledge is Power’.
 Metaphysical Poetry
• The word ‘Metaphysical’ Poets was coined by Samuel Johnson as a derogatory term.
• They mainly used the ‘conceit’, which means the combination of strange images together in order to convince the reader of
something.
• Their poetry was very witty and used the techniques of prose in order to fulfil two aims: create strong arguments, and
elevate the status of poetry to that of prose.
• Their poetry was mainly religious and erotic, and showed the religious arguments of that time.
• Their poetry also revealed the conflict between science and religion.