Spencer, Ivor Debenham (December 1935). "Christmas, the Upstart". The New England Quarterly. The New England Quarterly, Inc. 8 (4): 498–517. doi: 10.2307/360356. JSTOR 360356. Williams Levy, Leonard (1995). Blasphemy: Verbal Offense Against the Sacred, from Moses to Salman Rushdie. UNC Press Books. p.242. Bremer, Francis J., ed. (1981). Anne Hutchinson: Troubler of the Puritan Zion. R.E. Krieger Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0898740639. The Puritans in the Colonies wanted their children to be able to read and interpret the Bible themselves, rather than have to rely on the clergy for interpretation. [39] [40] [41] [42] In 1635, they established the Boston Latin School to educate their sons, the first and oldest formal education institution in the English speaking New World. They also set up what were called dame schools for their daughters, and in other cases taught their daughters at home how to read. As a result, Puritans were among the most literate societies in the world. By the time of the American Revolution there were 40 newspapers in the United States (at a time when there were only two cities—New York and Philadelphia—with as many as 20,000 people in them). [42] [43] [44] [45] The Puritans also set up a college ( Harvard University) only six years after arriving in Boston. [42] [46] Beliefs [ edit ] Calvinism [ edit ] Part of a series on

The accession of James I to the English throne brought the Millenary Petition, a Puritan manifesto of 1603 for reform of the English church, but James wanted a religious settlement along different lines. He called the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, and heard the teachings of four prominent Puritan leaders, including Laurence Chaderton, but largely sided with his bishops. He was well informed on theological matters by his education and Scottish upbringing, and he dealt shortly with the peevish legacy of Elizabethan Puritanism, pursuing an eirenic religious policy, in which he was arbiter. Aurangzeb’s orthodoxy can be explained in part by his upbringings and complex rise to power. During Shah Jahan’s reign, there was a protracted struggle for power between Aurangzeb and his three brothers, most notably Dara Shikoh. Dara, who advocated publicly for harmony between Muslims and Hindus, was the heir apparent, favoured by his father to accede to the throne. Equestrian Portrait of Aurangzeb (Met Museum) Bremer, Francis J.; Webster, Tom, eds. (2006). "Savoy Assembly". Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp.533–534. ISBN 978-1576076781. That congregations could organise themselves and a Church hierarchy was not needed, especially bishops.Puritans rejected both Roman Catholic ( transubstantiation) and Lutheran ( sacramental union) teachings that Christ is physically present in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. Instead, Puritans embraced the Reformed doctrine of real spiritual presence, believing that in the Lord's Supper the faithful receive Christ spiritually. In agreement with Thomas Cranmer, the Puritans stressed "that Christ comes down to us in the sacrament by His Word and Spirit, offering Himself as our spiritual food and drink". [67] They criticised the prayer book service for being too similar to the Catholic mass. For example, the requirement that people kneel to receive communion implied adoration of the Eucharist, a practice linked to transubstantiation. Puritans also criticised the Church of England for allowing unrepentant sinners to receive communion. Puritans wanted better spiritual preparation (such as clergy home visits and testing people on their knowledge of the catechism) for communion and better church discipline to ensure that the unworthy were kept from the sacrament. [66] Harrison, Peter (2001). The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521000963. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023 . Retrieved 5 September 2016. Puritans began smuggling themselves out of England to the Netherlands where there was greater religious tolerance and a number of congregations established themselves in Amsterdam. One such congregation, in the Village of Scrooby, England, was discovered by the Anglican Archbishop Tobias Matthew (l. 1546-1628 CE) in 1607 CE, and its members were arrested and fined. The group was led by the pastor John Robinson (l. 1576-1625 CE) who afterwards resolved to go the same route others had and leave for the Netherlands. They first moved to Amsterdam but, finding dissent among the Puritan congregations too rife there, moved on to Leiden.

Bremer, Francis J. (2009). Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199740871.Notestein, Wallace (1911). A History of Witchcraft In England from 1558 to 1718. American Historical Association 1911 (reissued 1965) New York Russell & Russell. p.195. Coffey, John; Lim, Paul C. H., eds. (2008). The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-67800-1. In Indian textbooks and popular imagination, Akbar is often framed as a just and tolerant leader, a Muslim who put the country and people over faith. Meanwhile, his great grandson Aurangzeb is portrayed as the catalyst for the demise of the Mughal empire. Akbar with a Lion, painted by Govardhan (Wikimedia Commons)