The Decline of Puritanism Essay Example

households were to teach all children to read.

If the number of households Increased to 100, a school teacher was required to help In preparing the children for acceptance Into a university. New England became quite an attractive place to live, causing communities to continue to grow.

As with most societies, when the number if inhabitants grows, so does the amount of problems. With the influx of people beginning to spread throughout the land, control and enforcement of rules became increasingly difficult with less supervision able to be place upon the citizens. Children who had been baptized as infants were not reaching full riotousness.

Individuals such as Roger Williams wanting to break completely away from the Church of England or Ann Hutchison pushing the limits of authority, proved to be precursors to the fall of the Puritans. With problems becoming uncontrollable, the colonies leaders put themselves on offense.

Rumors started to spread that nearby catastrophes such as Indian attacks, town fires, and sickness were all cause by the wrath of God, showing the towns were falling from his grace. Stories of witchcraft and supporting books from England started to run rampant, causing several executions throughout the land.

These executions came to a short cease and assist once a prominent town lady was accused was settled, second wave started. With the father and son of the Matter family releasing books about the supernatural, witchery and other hearsay began to spread once again.

Executions for any act considered outside of religion to be witchery were met with more executions. This took place until New England realized it was an attempt to get the churn back together and

put a stop to it.

During this time, psychological warfare style sermons were beginning to broadcast from the pulpits. On one occasion a message was preached that individuals could have a direct line of communication to God. This went against all former teachings and caused the ultimate fall of the Puritans. Through the real life events to those that were spread wrought falsehood, the Puritan way of life did not completely disintegrate.

The Puritanism way of life left several emotions and thoughts through history that continue to rear their heads in America.

The Puritan thought that mankind will never be good enough tends to fly in the face of American ideology. Through severe hardships in American history such as war or natural disasters, Puritanism thought process can sometime return. Ideas such as we are not going to make it through this, or this is punishment bestowed upon us by God tend to lock themselves back into play, if only for a short time.