Definitions of Puritanism

To the 1620s

Historians now generally reject the idea that before the 1620s and the influence of Arminianism in the Church of England there were significant differences in doctrine between English Puritans in general, and other English Protestants. Puritans were in practice known as "zealous Calvinists" fond of preaching. For this reason a term sometimes preferred is "Hot Protestantism": i.e. one approach to Puritanism is to regard it simply as Protestant belief, intensely held.

Separatist groups

Numerous, generally small, Calvinist dissenting groups and sects are classified as broad-sense Puritans. These separating Puritans fit more comfortably into the history of denominations than do the bulk of Puritans who remained within the Church of England (non-separating Puritans).

Scripture alone

William Ames provided a self-definition of Puritans via three points, in 1610. Point 3 is sola scriptura.

It has been argued that Puritans adopted the Calvinist regulative principle of worship. The laxer normative principle of worship was characteristic of the Church of England. The Puritans took the side of Calvin and the Zwinglians, against Philip Melanchthon, in this early contentious debate of the Protestant Reformation.

Elizabethan Puritanism

Patrick Collinson states that "puritan" and "papist" were not "taxonomic definitions" in the Elizabethan period.

Jacobean Puritanism and conforming Puritans

The approach taken by King James I led to the absorption of many conforming Puritans into the Church of England of the time. Collinson has discussed a moderate Puritanism, as contrasted to an extreme Puritanism that demanded presbyterianism in church polity. Ferrell argues that conforming Puritanism was at the same time part of a theological consensus, and in terms of church polity a target of the sustained and divisive Jacobean polemical campaign against further reform. These definitions contrast with others, less precise in period, that on the one hand identified Puritans closely with presbyterians, as in Perry Miller, or with the whole gamut of presbyterian and Independent believers.

Francis Bacon criticised Puritans for their over-strict judgements on adiaphora. On the other hand, Hill gives examples of conforming Puritans who did not object to set forms of worship. Towards the end of King James's reign Marco Antonio de Dominis analysed the views of the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church, concluding that, excepting the views of the Puritans, they were at root compatible. He did make a further qualification, about the extreme Calvinism of some of the bishops.

Semi-separatism

The enforcement of a degree of religious uniformity also led to the formation of "semi-separated" clergy. This kind of semi-separatism relied on niches where Puritan clergy could find employment. These niches, however, are not easily classified.

Lay Puritanism

Lay patrons of Puritanism were prominent in the middle years of the reign of Elizabeth I. Godly gentlemen, the so-called Puritan gentry, then became a significant factor in English life and politics. Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon was a renowned member of the godly nobility.