Puritans

A group of radical English Protestants that arose in the late sixteenth century and became a major force in England during the seventeenth century. Puritans wanted to “purify” the Church of England by eliminating traces of its origins in the Roman Catholic Church. In addition, they urged a strict moral code and placed a high value on hard work (see work ethic). After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, they controlled the new government, the Commonwealth. Oliver Cromwell, who became leader of the Commonwealth, is the best-known Puritan.

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The words puritan and puritanical have come to suggest a zeal for keeping people from enjoying themselves.

Many Puritans, persecuted in their homeland, came to America in the 1620s and 1630s, settling colonies that eventually became Massachusetts. (See Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony.)

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Example Sentences

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That anti-intellectual tradition is still with us, of course, and traces back to the Puritans' culture of the simple.

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"It's kind of funny. It's almost as if the old American Puritans and their craziness is resurfacing."

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The philosophical descendants of the Puritans believed the call to freedom that was embedded in the founding was meant for white Christians.

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Puritans were religious fanatics — the Christian nationalists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

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Their detractors often used their opposition to excess as evidence of their hatred for all things merry, even though Puritans drank alcohol in moderation and hardly abstained from marital sex.

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Puritanism Puritan spoon

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