Puritans Vs Pilgrims Research Paper

Puritans and Pilgrims were members of the Church of England who in the 16th century began to protest against what they perceived as serious abuses by religious authorities. Both groups are part of Puritanism, an activist movement after the English Reformation which wanted to purify the Church of England by eradicating both corruption and remaining traces of Catholicism. Each group looked to Scriptures as their authority on religion. Although, the Puritans and the Pilgrims shared a common history, and beliefs there are differences that separated them, such as why they left England, their aspirations of the New World and how they governed their colonies. The Puritans had no intentions of breaking ties with the Church of England nor did they

They left England in 1630, roughly ten years after the Pilgrims, and significantly out numbered the Pilgrims, eleven ships of Puritans from a higher social and economic status than the Pilgrims, many of them were related to Dukes and Duchesses. They wanted to remain as part of the English establishment, working for biblical reform from within. They saw the purpose in the New World as being that of a biblical witness which was to set an example of biblical righteousness in church and state for England and the entire world to see. When the Puritans arrive in to the Massachusetts Bay, now Boston, they had an abundance of supplies that guaranteed their first year survival through their first winter on the new land. Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans were extremely intolerant of anyone and everyone who did not share their beliefs. Although, they left England because of the intolerance they experienced at the hands of the Church of England they too become extremely intolerant. Lastly, the Puritans government in the Massachusetts was a Theocracy, retaining the English system wherein leaders had a divine right to rule and where the authorities. The Puritan Theocracy consisted of a government ran by religious authorities. Church and state were one and the laws of God were the laws of the