History
Puritan Period
(General
Characteristics of The Age)
1.
Civil War: The
entire period was dominated by the civil war, which divided the people into two
fractions, one loyal to the King and the others opposed him. English people had
remained one and united and loyal to sovereign. The crisis began when James I,
who had recoined the right of royalty from an Act of Parliament, gave too much
premium to the Divine Right and began to ignore Parliament which had created
him. The Puritans, who had become a potent force in the social life of the age,
heralded the movement for constitutional reforms. The hostilities which began
in 1642 lasted till the execution of Charles I in 1649. There was a little
political stability during the interregnum of eleven years which followed.
These turbulent years saw the establishment of Commonwealth, the rise of Oliver
Cromwell, the confusion which followed upon his death, and finally, the restoration
of monarchy in 1660.
2.
The Puritan movement: The
Renaissance, which exercised immense influence on Elizabethan literature, was
essentially pagan and sensuous. It did not concern the moral nature of man; it
brought little from the despotism of rulers. The Puritans were the members of
that party of English Protestants who regarded the reformation of the church
under Elizabeth as incomplete, and called for further purification. Puritanism had
two main aims: the first was individual and civil liberty and the second was personal
righteousness. The Puritan Movement may be regarded a second and greater
Renaissance, a rebirth of the moral nature of man following the intellectual
awakening of Europe in the 15th and the sixteenth centuries.
3.
Changing Ideals: The
political upheaval of the period is summed up in the terrible struggle between
the king and parliament, which resulted in the death of Charles at the block
and the establishment of the common wealth under Cromwell. For centuries the
English people had been wonderfully loyal to their sovereigns but deeper than their
loyalty to kings was the Old Saxon love for personal liberty. At times, as in
the day of Alfred and Elizabeth, the two ideals went hand in hand but more
often they were in open strife, and a final struggle for supremacy was
inevitable. The crisis came when James I, who had received the right of royalty
from an act of Parliament, began, by the assumption of “divine right”, to
ignore the Parliament which had created him. The blasphemy of a man’s divine
right to rule his fellow men was ended.
4.
Religious Ideal:
Religiously the age was one of even greater ferment than that which marked the
beginning of the Reformation. A great ideal, the ideal of a national church,
was pounding to pieces, like a ship in the breakers, and in the confusion of such
an hour action of the various sects was like that of frantic passengers, each striving
to save his possessions from the wreck. It is intensely interesting to note
that Charles called Irish rebels and Scotch Highlanders to his aid by promising
to restore their national religions and that the English Puritans, turning to
Scotland for help, entered into the solemn Covenant of 1643, establishing a
national Presbyterianism.
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