Lecture 10C: Puritan Declension

Declension in Puritan New England

The Classic Narrative of Puritan New England

The classic narrative posits a sharp decline in religious piety following an initial explosion of faith and zeal.
This model of declension is supported by three developments:
- Slowing Puritan migration after the initial Great Migration.
- The second generation's reluctance to join the church, leading to the Halfway Covenant of 1662.
- The persistent presence of dissent within Puritan culture.
Recent scholars have challenged the declension model, but the potential sources of decline require investigation.

Slowing Puritan Migration

The Great Migration saw as many as 12,000 people migrate to New England.
After the mid-1640s, migration slowed as Puritans gained control in England.
From this point, the region's growth relied primarily on natural reproduction rather than continued migration.
A significant difference existed between the first generation migrants and the second generation born in the New World.

Second Generation and Church Membership

Most first-generation Puritan migrants chose to join the church; membership was a voluntary choice.
Joining the church required relating a personal testimony of conversion.
Church membership conferred privileges:
- Participation in the sacrament of Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper).
- The right to have children baptized.
- Voting rights on church matters, including hiring and firing ministers.
- In many parts of New England until the late 17th century, secular political rights were limited to male church members.
The second generation showed less interest in joining the church, with many finding the public testimony process too daunting.
By 1660, a significant portion of the second generation had not joined the church.
This created problems for Puritan leaders, as their children were ineligible for baptism.

The Halfway Covenant of 1662

To re-establish the church's authority, the Halfway Covenant was drafted in 1662.
It allowed the grandchildren of church members to receive baptism, regardless of their parents' status.
Not all churches in Massachusetts accepted the Halfway Covenant.
Over time, professions of faith become more scripted and standardized.

The Omnipresence of Dissent

Division and dissension emerged soon after the Puritans' arrival.
John Winthrop, on the deck of the Arabella, urged his fellow Puritans to be "knit together, in this work, as one man."
Not all migrants were Puritans, and even those forced to attend church did not necessarily join.
Diversity of thought existed from the beginning; religious conformity was not complete.

Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson, the wife of a Boston merchant, began holding religious meetings in her home.
Her meetings grew to include men and focused on discussing the weekly sermon.
Hutchinson's group accused most ministers in Massachusetts of preaching a covenant of works (salvation through human action) rather than a covenant of grace (salvation as a divine gift).
In 1636, her group elected a supporter as governor of Massachusetts Bay.
Winthrop put her on trial for "having troubled the peace of the commonwealth."
Winthrop accused Hutchinson of violating the 5th commandment, Honor thy father and mother.
Hutchinson claimed she received knowledge directly from God.
Winthrop found this unacceptable, declaring her a dangerous antinomian (one outside the power of religious authorities).
She was banished from the colony and moved to Rhode Island, then New York, where she and five of her children died in a Native American attack in 1643.

Roger Williams

Roger Williams, a Cambridge-educated minister, was also banished.
He turned down a ministerial offer from the Boston church because he was an extreme separatist; the Boston church was non-Separatist.
He questioned the legitimacy of the colony's charter because it was issued by a corrupt king and the land had not been purchased from Native Americans.
He questioned the legitimacy of these charters because they had been issued by a corrupt and unregenerate king.
He argued that the state had no authority in church matters, including punishing religious offenses or compelling religious conformity, based on the power of individual conscience and religious freedom.
In 1644, he wrote that “[T]he civil magistrate’s power extends only to the bodies and goods and outward state of men”.
In 1636, Williams established a new colony, named Providence, outside the boundaries of both Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay.
Williams purchased the land for his settlement from the local Narragansett leader.
He implemented separation of church and state and broad religious toleration.
Williams believed that “A false religion will not hurt the church . . . and a false religion will not hurt the civil state [as long as] the worshipper break[s] no civil law.”
In the fall of 1635, the Massachusetts General Court summoned Williams to answer for his ideas.
The Massachusetts General Court deemed his beliefs "new and dangerous" and ordered his deportation to England for treason, but he fled to the Wampanoags with his pregnant wife after being warned by John Winthrop.

Samuel Gorton

Samuel Gorton, another religious dissident, was described as “lively, spiteful, generous, nasty, and impossible to ignore” and “a sect unto himself.”
Gorton’s religious ideas combined Puritanism with elements resembling key Quaker beliefs, including the idea of an inner divinity – or inner light – within each person.
The colony became home to Baptists, Quakers, Jews and in the words of one historian “a collection of exiles and malcontents fleeing Massachsetts’ authority.”

The Quakers

The Quakers, a radical religious group from the English Civil War, caused significant consternation among the Puritans.
They practiced pacifism, rejected social distinctions, allowed women to preach, rejected sacraments, and practiced silent worship.
Quakers believed that all people possessed the spirt of God – or inner light within them.
Although now seen as a peaceful religious group, the earliest Quakers were viewed as social radicals intent on drastically changing society.
Massachusetts authorities saw Quakers as a threat; Governor Endecott called them “open and capital blasphemers, open seducers from the glorious trinity, . . . and . . . open enemies to the government itself.”
Massachusetts routinely “warned out” Quakers, arresting and banishing them, but some returned.
In 1660, Mary Dyer and three other Quakers were hanged on Boston Common after returning.

Other New England Colonies

Puritan migrants, led by Thomas Hooker, settled in Connecticut in 1635.
In 1639, the Connecticut towns adopted the Fundamental Orders establishing a separate colonial government.
The king recognized Connecticut by charter in 1662.
Hooker’s was more liberal than that of his Massachusetts colleagues.
In 1638, Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport established a short- lived colony at New Haven.
New Haven was far more strict than Massachusetts Bay.
New Haven became a part of Connecticut in 1662.
Puritans settled in New Hampshire, which received a charter in 1677, and in coastal Maine, which remained a district of Massachusetts throughout the colonial period (until 1820).

Declension or Adaptation?

Based on decreased migration, second-generation reluctance to join the church, and dissent, many 17th-century Puritans believed they were in a time of religious decline.
New England's embrace of commerce and wealth further suggested a weakening of doctrine.
Ministers delivered jeremiads, sermons lamenting the departure from godly practices.
Recent scholarship suggests that declension was more a feature of Puritan ministerial discourse than a reality; ministers talked about a decline that may not have been really happening.
Recent scholars have reminded us that, like all belief systems, Puritanism mutated and changed – but nevertheless remained culturally relevant.
New England culture remained saturated by religious messages well into the 18th century.
Popular reading materials, including "penny godlies,” concentrated on religious themes.
The New England Primer (first published in 1691 presented the alphabet through biblical references. For example:
- The letter A was designated by a poem that taught the basics of original sin, $In Adam’s fall, we sinned all$ .
- The letter B was designated by a woodcut of the Bible and the words, $Thy Life to Mend, This Book Attend$ .
Even more convincing evidence of the pervasive power of religion on the New England imagination can be found in the Salem Witchcraft hysteria of 1692.