Puritanism, Religion, and Colonial Massachusetts

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, and theological concepts from the lecture on religion in early colonial America and the Massachusetts Puritans.

Indulgences

Payments made by wealthy individuals to Catholic church officials in exchange for the forgiveness of sins.

Protestant Reformation

A 16th-century movement based in Northern and Western Europe in which Christians broke away from the Catholic Church to reform Christianity and protest church power.

Printing Press

A machine using movable metal type developed in the 15th century that allowed for the rapid mass reproduction of printed literature in vernacular languages.

Anglican Church

The Church of England established in the 1530s when England broke away from Roman Catholicism under King Henry VIII to join the Protestant Reformation.

Puritans

A religious minority group in England who sought further reform of the Anglican Church and migrated in large numbers to Massachusetts in the 1630s.

Middling Sorts

A term used to describe the middle class in England, such as the small-scale landowning farmers who made up the majority of the Puritan population.

John Winthrop

A leader of the Puritan migration and early governor of the Massachusetts colony who advocated building a model Christian community.

City upon a Hill

A phrase popularized by John Winthrop in 1630 describing the Puritan mission to build a model Christian community in Massachusetts as an example for Europe.

Congregationalists

The self-designated term preferred by Puritans, emphasizing that the local, independent church congregation should be the center of religious and community life.

Secular

A term meaning worldly or pertaining to matters of this world rather than an afterlife.

Roger Williams

A dissenter banished from Massachusetts in 1635 for criticizing the exploitation of Native Americans and calling for the separation of church and state.

Anne Hutchinson

A brilliant theologian banished from Massachusetts after hosting home meetings that criticized ministers for preaching a covenant of works rather than a covenant of grace.

Covenant of Works

A theological belief that human beings can earn salvation through their own work and free will.

Covenant of Grace

The theological belief that salvation is granted solely through God's grace rather than human effort or free will.

Predestination

The doctrine that God predetermined at the dawn of time who would be saved and who would perish.

Salem Witch Trials

A 1692 episode in Salem, Massachusetts, where approximately 150 people were accused and 20 were executed for practicing witchcraft, reflecting deep social, economic, and religious tensions.

American Exceptionalism

The belief that America is unique from and potentially better than the rest of the world, early roots of which are seen in the Puritan concept of a 'city upon a hill'.