The Puritans in the Early 1600s, Illuminated Religious Convictions, Essential, Interconnected.
“The public upsurge of piety that became known as the Evangelical Revival in Britain and the Great Awakening in America did not arise out of thin air. Besides the direct influence on continental Pietism, it also benefitted from two movements closer to home. First was a powerful international network of dedicated Calvinists who read each other’s devotional works and eagerly followed news about Calvinist reforms elsewhere in Europe. This network enjoyed two strongholds in the English-speaking world. The Puritans in England, who had mobilized during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) in order to push the Protestant Reformation further, were joined by the Calvinists of Scotland, who were led by the indomitable John Knox, in their pursuit of personal godliness combined with national reform. When monarchs James I (1603-1625) and Charles (1625-1649) frustrated these efforts in England, several thousands of Puritans migrated to the wilderness of New England in order to set up a “godly Commonwealth” of the sort that English circumstances prevented. Scottish Puritans and the Puritans of Old and New England retained a great deal of medievalism, especially an understanding of Christianity as always corporate or even national, as well as personal. But they also promoted innovations (like the personal conversion) and underscored specific teachings of the general Protestant inheritance (like the need for saving grace) that fed directly into later evangelical movements.”
~ McDermott, Gerald R., ed. (2010). “The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology”, ‘’Oxford University Press’’. ISBN 9780195369441, Eighteenth-Century Britain and America, p.25-26
Addendum: For Supplemental reading, J Morill examines The Puritan Revolution (& its sundry consequences). This is excerpted from The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism (published in 2008), an excellent, extended supplement!
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Intermission — 1620 to 1656