The religious environment in England in the middle of the seventeenth century was complicated. From an institutional perspective, there was the Church of England (the Anglican Church), which everybody, nominally, was part of, and Roman Catholicism, which still had some power over traditional communities and some of the nobility. Then there was the Presbyterians (in Scotland at the beginning of the Civil War but with more adherents in the late 1640s English Parliament). They were Christians, believing very similar things to the Church of England, but with committees (presbyteries) of ministers overseeing churches rather than having bishops ‘ruling’ large numbers of churches. It sounds like a very minor difference, these days, but it caused a hell of a conflict back then.
Illustration courtesy of History.com
Most people have heard of the ‘Puritans’ from this period. This was a spiteful nickname for anyone within the Church of England who was too serious about their Protestant religion.
The name, however, stuck and during the period between 1570 and 1630 other groups arose who identified as ‘Separatists’; people who felt that the Church of England was compromised, and the only reasonable action was to step away from it. This they did, forming their own churches and 'gathered communities'.
These groups obviously fitted the nickname 'Puritan', but weren't working from within the Anglican church. Inside Anglicanism, there were plenty of conscientious Christians who wanted the Church of England to reform itself. They stayed within it but agitated for change. The different groups often disagreed with each other vociferously and even violently. This was an age of deeply held beliefs and polarised opinions.
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