1 pendent or Congregational party in the Assembly, how- ever, though few in point of number, yet had sufficient influence to prevent presbytery from being established in England. Throughout the days of the Common- wealth Puritanism existed in the form chiefly of Inde- pendency. On Dec. 25, L655, Cromwell issued a proc- lamation that thenceforth no minister of the Church of England should dare to preach, administer the sac- raments, or teach schools, on pain of imprisonment or exile. After the Restoration ol < lharlea II. in 1662, the
j name of Puritan was changed into thai ol Noncon- formist, which comprehended all who refused to ob- serve the riles and subscribe to the doctrines of the Church of England in obedience to the Act of Uniform- ity. By this act nearly 2000 ministers of the Church ol England wen- ejected from their charges and thrown into the ranks of the Nonconformists (q. \ . I.
It may he proper to mention, in conclusion, the doc- trinal Puritans. These formed, in fact, the moderate Church party during the reign of Charles I. Their leaders were bishops Havenant. Hall. Williams, and Carleton. The title ol doctrinal Puritans was fastened upon them by the Laudian party. They held and taught the doctrines of the Reformation, in opposition to the sacramental system which Laud had recently introduced. They entertained no scruples as to the forms and ceremonies of the Church of England, to which they willingly conformed. Hut they rejected with in- dignation the innovations of the Laudian party, who, in return, branded them with the name of Puritans. It was an entirely new application of the word, and one against which they did not fail to protest It seems to have been first used about 1625 by bishop Montague in a controversy with Carleton. and the lat- ter exclaims, "This is the first time that I ever heard of a Puritan doctrine in points dogmatical, and I have lived longer in the Church than he hath done. I thought that Puritans were only such as were factious against the bishops, in the point of pretended disci- pline: and so I am sure it hath been understood in our Church." The controversies which have ever since i x- isted within the bosom of the Church of England now for the first time appeared. The construction of the baptismal offices became a subject of contention, and the whole question of baptismal and sacramental grace. The doctrinal Puritans adhered to the ancient forms of worship, and tor doing so were severely harassed. I he Laudian party maintained ••that whatever rites were practiced in the Church of Rome, and not expressly
abolished at the Reformation, nor disclaimed by any
doctrine, law. or canon, were consistent with the Church
of England." Under this general maxim they intro- duced a multitude of ceremonies such, for instance, a- bowing to the east and placing candles on the altar, now gorgeously decorated once more -which had long I. ecu dismissed as badges of popery. Thus in a short lime a difference was apparent between the two par- lies both in doctrinal teaching and in visible forms. To complete the quarrel, the Laudiana were of the Ar- minian school, while the doctrinal Puritans wire mod- erate CalvinistS. For twenty years the doctrinal Pu- ritans were Subjected to all manner of annoyance; hut
thej remained Bteadfasl in their attachment to the
Church, and when (he storm hurst upon it they were exposed to all its fury. They took no share in Laud's convocation of 1640, and greatly disapproved of its ar- bitrary measures. Hut the popular rage made no dis- tinctions, and the Church Puritans Buffered just as much as their old opponents of the high prelatic party. The Church itself was overthrown; and in the dark- ness and confusion that ensued they disappear from
sight during the civil war.
The literature of the Puritans, as a religious party, consists chieflj ol controversial and practical theology, and in both its ability is confessed by friend and foe. As Whitgifl and his disciple Hooker exhausted the ar- gument in favor of episcopacy and a liturgical Church,
PURITY
811
PURNER
so did Cartwright and Travers that in behalf of Presby- terian discipline. The student, after a wide search among the combatants of later times, rinds, to his sur- prise, how insignificant are all their additions to a con- troversy opened, and, as far as learning and argument can go, finally closed, by the earliest champions on either side. Of the practical divinity of Elizabeth's reign, a large proportion was contributed by the Puritans. The party embraced men of high rank and general educa- tion as well as men of theological learning ; and the lit- erature of the age bears many tokens of tlieir influence. If we descend to the next age, the names of the great- est men of the reigns of James, Charles I, and the Com- monwealth present themselves as in a greater or less degree connected with the Puritans. Selden, White- lock, Milton, with their pens; Eudyard, Hampden, Vane, in Parliament; Owen, Marshall, Calamy, Baxter, and a host of others, in the pulpit ; Cromwell, Essex, and Fairfax, in the field — all ranged themselves under the Puritan cause. Never was a party more distin- guished in its advocates; never was a cause lost amid more hopeful prospects, or when to human eyes its tri- umph was more secure. In 1G50 it was at the summit of its pride and power, with the Church of England at its feet. Ten years afterwards its influence had passed away; and, in the persons of the Presbyterians who crossed over to propitiate the young king at Breda, it was submissively pleading for its life. See Zurich Let- ters; Strype, Life of Cranmer; Paull, Life of Whit- gift- ; Brook, Memoir of Thomas Cartwright ; Hall, Hard Measure and Shaking of the Olive Tree; White- lock, Memorials ; Speeches in this Great and Happy Parliament, 1615; History of the Westminster Assem- bly; Clarendon, History of the Great Rebellion; Neal, History if the Puritans; Heylin, History of the Refor- mation, and Life of Laud; Gardiner, History of the English Revolution (republished in the excellent series of history manuals by Scribner & Co., New York); Marsden, Dictionary of Sects and Heresies; and the ex- haustive articles in Gardner. Dictionary of Faiths, and Blunt, Dictionary of Historical 'Theology, both of which we have freely used.