The Evolution of the Puritan Movement (1550–1625)

Abstract

Puritans were from their beginning an international movement. English protestants seeking further reform of the newly protestant Church of England, which was established during Edward VI’s brief reign, came into their own in the decades of exile that followed. Persecution by Edward’s Catholic successor, Mary I, drove hundreds to flee to continental towns where various forms of protestantism had prevailed. Catholic queens in Scotland also brought pressure to bear on their most extreme protestant subjects, some of whom also fled. In the Reformed towns of the Low Countries, in Huguenot congregations in France, and in cities like Zurich, Basel, Emden, Strasbourg, and Geneva, the exiles found refuge and inspiration for the changes they sought in their own national churches. Many adopted Calvinist theology, strict church discipline, and in some cases a presbyterian ecclesiastical polity. This international movement would continue to resist protestant monarchs’ restraint, enduring further exiles, and ultimately fleeing to North America.