English Puritanism was not an inherently revolutionary movement. At no time prior to 1640 did Puritans develop any coherent doctrine of revolution. And Puritanism was not simply a ‘class’ ideology, carried by some ‘rising class’ seeking to attain more power for itself. Puritans were those ardent Protestant members of the Church of England who wished, in a variety of ways, to further the process of reformation and purge the church of Catholic survivals. At certain periods, some Puritans were politically active and organised; at other times, many Puritans represented a more passive piety, earnestly going about their local business seeking to live according to the Word of the Lord as revealed in the scriptures. But by the 1630s, Puritanism had become politically salient; and by the early 1640s it played a key role in the opposition to attempted Stuart absolutism. This chapter will seek to reinterpret the development of Puritanism, from a movement for religious reform to one of revolution, in terms of the peculiar configuration of state, church, and society in late Tudor and early Stuart England.

Puritanism and the Elizabethan Reformation

The Elizabethan religious settlement of 1559 was less the reflection of a positive set of religious policies than the ambiguous result of political compromise. For committed Protestants, returning from the heady days of religious experiment while exiled on the continent, such a settlement could hardly be considered as final.