Editing Puritans (section)

== Terminology ==

{{main|Definitions of Puritanism}}

[[File:PuritanGallery.jpg|thumb|Gallery of famous 17th-century Puritan theologians: [[Thomas Gouge]], [[William Bridge]], [[Thomas Manton]], [[John Flavel]], [[Richard Sibbes]], [[Stephen Charnock]], [[William Bates (minister)|William Bates]], [[John Owen (theologian)|John Owen]], [[John Howe (theologian)|John Howe]] and [[Richard Baxter]]]]

In the 17th century, the word ''Puritan'' was a term applied not to just one group but to many. Historians still debate a precise definition of Puritanism.{{Sfn | Spurr | 1998 | p = 3}} Originally, ''Puritan'' was a pejorative term characterizing certain Protestant groups as extremist. [[Thomas Fuller]], in his ''Church History'', dates the first use of the word to 1564. Archbishop [[Matthew Parker]] of that time used it and ''precisian'' with a sense similar to the modern ''[[wikt:stickler|stickler]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The A to Z of the Puritans |date=2008 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=250}}</ref> Puritans, then, were distinguished for being "more intensely protestant than their protestant neighbors or even the Church of England".{{sfn|Spurr|1998|p=4}} As a term of abuse, ''Puritan'' was not used by Puritans themselves. Those referred to as ''Puritan'' called themselves terms such as "the godly", "saints", "professors", or "God's children".{{sfn|Spurr|1998|p=18}}

"Non-separating Puritans" were dissatisfied with the [[English Reformation|Reformation of the Church of England]] but remained within it, advocating for further reform; they disagreed among themselves about how much further reformation was possible or even necessary. Others, who were later termed "[[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformists]]", "[[English Dissenters|Separatists]]", or "separating Puritans", thought the [[Church of England]] was so corrupt that true Christians should separate from it altogether. In its widest historical sense, the term ''Puritan'' includes both groups.<ref>{{cite book |first=C. Jack |last=Trickler |title=A Layman's Guide To: Why Are There So Many Christian Denominations?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K4lEy7A8fnYC&pg=PA146 |access-date=4 November 2012 |year=2010 |publisher=Author House |isbn=978-1-4490-4578-4 |page=146 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718094750/http://books.google.com/books?id=K4lEy7A8fnYC&pg=PA146 |archive-date=18 July 2013 |df=dmy-all |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>{{sfn|Nuttall|1992|p=9}}

Puritans should not be confused with other radical Protestant groups of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as [[Quakers]], [[Seekers]], and [[Familia Caritatis|Familists]], who believed that individuals could be directly guided by the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]]. The latter denominations give precedence to [[direct revelation]] over the [[Bible]].{{sfn|Spurr|1998|p=7}}

In current English, ''puritan'' often means "against pleasure". In such usage, ''[[hedonism]]'' and ''puritanism'' are [[Opposite (semantics)|antonyms]].<ref name="Puritanism 1916">{{cite book |author-link=H. L. Mencken |first=H. L. |last=Mencken |quote=Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy |title=A Book of Burlesques |date=1916}}</ref> [[William Shakespeare]] described the vain, pompous killjoy [[Malvolio]] in ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' as "a kind of Puritan".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hagberg |first1=Garry L. |title=Stanley Cavell on Aesthetic Understanding |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |page=125}}</ref> [[H. L. Mencken]] defined Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."<ref name="Fitzpatrick">{{cite book |last1=Fitzpatrick |first1=Vincent |title=H. L. Mencken |date=2004 |publisher=[[Mercer University Press]] |page=37}}</ref> Puritans embraced sexuality but placed it in the context of marriage. [[Peter Gay]] writes that the Puritans' standard reputation for "dour prudery" was a "misreading that went unquestioned in the nineteenth century". He said they were in favour of married sexuality, and opposed the Catholic veneration of [[virginity]] (associated with the Virgin Mary), citing [[Edward Taylor]] and [[John Cotton (minister)|John Cotton]].{{sfn|Gay|1984|p=49}} One Puritan settlement in western Massachusetts banished a husband because he refused to fulfill his sexual duties to his wife.{{sfn|Coffin|1987}}