The Puritans

Many people associate the Puritans with the Pilgrims, the Mayflower, and Thanksgiving turkeys. The Pilgrims who came ashore at Plymouth in 1620 did hold Puritan convictions, but the movement's roots reach much further back in time.

The Puritans grew out of a backlash against the English Reformation of the 1500s, a break that began less from religious conviction than from the personal ambitions of Henry VIII. Henry wanted a new wife, and when the pope refused to let the Church's machinery dissolve his marriage, Henry separated from Rome and named himself head of the Church of England. That church kept much of Catholic ritual and tradition, so many Protestant-leaning clergy, drawing on the teachings of John Calvin, pressed for deeper change. The most determined of them, who wanted every trace of Catholic practice removed from English worship, came to be called Puritans.

The book traces these reformers from their origins in England to their eventual journey to America. It centers on the Pilgrims, a Puritan sect who aimed to build a community that would serve as a visible example to the rest of the world. It is an introduction to the history of the Puritans.