Puritans are what are called in England the partisans of a sect of the Protestant religion that made a profession of a greater purity than others in doctrine and morality, and who on this pretext gave themselves over to all the fury and excess that fanaticism can inspire. Henry VIII, by separating form the Roman Church, had kept almost all the dogma that this church teaches, as well as most of the rites and ceremonies that its worship prescribes. Under Edward VI, his son, the ministers who governed during this prince’s minority, favoring the opinions of reform, made the Anglican religion distance itself more from the Catholic faith. Under the reign of Mary, who while keeping the old religion had adopted the bloody maxims of Philip II, her husband, tried to reestablish by iron and fire the primitive religion of England, which had been considerably altered under the preceding reigns. The violent persecutions of Mary obliged a large number of those who had embraced the new opinions to seek asylum in foreign countries. There they had occasion to frequent the sectarians of Calvin and his reform. Queen Elisabeth, ascending the throne, changed all the measures taken by her sister for the re-establishment of the Catholic religion. This princess granted her whole protection to Protestants; she persecuted the Catholics, although without ceasing to conserve a great number of their ceremonies, as well as the hierarchy of bishops, the clothing of priests, etc. Then the Protestants who during Mary’s reign had withdrawn to France, Geneva, and the Low Countries, returned to their country and brought back with them the sentiments of Calvin and the zeal that novelty inspires in the partisans of a sect. Some Scotsmen also came back to their country and brought their opinions and their fanaticism. The most turbulent of these Scots zealots was called John Knox . This insolent preacher rose with incredible fury against the famous queen Mary Stuart, who professed the Catholic religion, calling her no less than Jezebel. He tired to rouse the people against this princess’s government and this fiery apostle, full of reading the Old testament, form which he had drawn only i the ndocility and intolerance of the Jewish people, reminded his auditors only of the examples of Aga, King of the Amalekites, killed by Samuel, the priests of Baal, killed by the Prophet Elias, etc. Seconded by other fanatics as perverse as he and by enthusiasts who adopted the tone of prophets, John Knox managed to ignite the ferocious zeal of his compatriots. He caused all the misery of the Queen of Scotland, which ended only in the bloody catastrophe that made him lose his head on the scaffold.

In England the Puritans had no less fanaticism than their brothers in Scotland, but the rigorous government of Queen Elizabeth, jealous of its prerogatives, did not permit them to exercise it. This princess was alarmed by the audacious enterprises of the new sectarians, whose opinions were becoming dangerous to her throne, and thought she should repress them. Perhaps she would have done so effectively if these fanatics had not found among her ministers some covert protectors, who parried the blows that authority tried to give them. The animosity of these new sectarians against the Catholic religion meant that did not find the established religion in England, to be distant enough from that of the Pope, which they called the religion of the Anti-Christ, the Whore of Babylon , etc. The order of bishops was odious to them, being only in their eyes the remains of Papism; they condemned the use of the surplice among ecclesiastics, the confirmation of children, the sign of the cross in baptism, the custom of using a ring in marriage, the custom of kneeling when receiving communion, the sign of the cross in pronouncing Jesus’ name, etc. Such were what the Puritans hated — enabling us to see to what point the smallest ceremonies can kindle the minds of people when they give matter for the disputes of Theologians.

To persecute a sect is to make it interesting. If Mary had not tormented the Protestants, there would never have been Puritans in England. When they came back under Elisabeth, they were regarded as the confessors of the faith; they were not tardy in making proselytes, and their number increased daily. Finally under the following reigns they made themselves formidable to the sovereign and became the established religion in the kingdom. Charles I as supreme head of the Anglican Church had wanted to establish uniformity of worship in Scotland as in England, but he met in the Puritans an invincible obstacle to his purpose. These sectarians, blinded by their fiery zeal, excited in Great Britain civil wars that inundated it with the blood of its citizens. Ambitious persons profited from the estrangement in which fanaticism had thrown the people; they raised these disorders to a pinnacle in the agony of the King, whom Cromwell and his adherents executed on the scaffold. Such were the effects of persecution and fanaticism; such are the results of the importance that sovereigns place on theological disputes. They almost always entail such cruel animosities that they threaten the ruin of the most powerful states. The death of Charles I made the English fall under the tyranny of Cromwell. This usurper took the smug title of Protector of the nation. After the reestablishment of Charles II, the power of the Puritans , which had caused so many evils to this country, was entirely abolished. They are known today under the name Presbyterians, and although they accept neither episcopal hierarchy nor surplice, they are now peaceful subjects of a state that their predecessors had undermined.