USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The term Puritan is commonly applied to a reform movement that strove to purify the practices and structure of the Church of England in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. As dissidents, they sought religious freedom and economic opportunities in distant lands.

Detailed explanation-2: -Puritans were English Protestants who were committed to “purifying” the Church of England by eliminating all aspects of Catholicism from religious practices. English Puritans founded the colony of Plymouth to practice their own brand of Protestantism without interference.

Detailed explanation-3: -They called themselves “nonseparating congregationalists, ” by which they meant that they had not repudiated the Church of England as a false church. But in practice they acted–from the point of view of Episcopalians and even Presbyterians at home–exactly as the separatists were acting.

Detailed explanation-4: -A Protestant group called the Puritans wanted to purify, or reform, the Anglican Church. The Puritans thought that the bishops and priests had too much power over church members. The most extreme Protestants wanted to separate from the Church of England.

Detailed explanation-5: -Like the Pilgrims, the Puritans were English Protestants who believed that the reforms of the Church of England did not go far enough. In their view, the liturgy was still too Catholic. Bishops lived like princes. Ecclesiastical courts were corrupt.