English Puritanism During the Revolution

Abstract This chapter reexamines the Puritan Revolution from an English ecclesiastical perspective, taking English Puritanism on its own terms—not as a belated or incoherent movement, but as a distinct, well-formed tradition within Reformed Protestantism. Long before the Revolution, English Puritans had developed a coherent, adaptable, and principled vision for church governance, independent of Scottish Presbyterian influence. While factionalism shaped the period, Puritan divines pursued a uniquely English balance—upholding Calvinistic orthodoxy while resisting both rigid Presbyterianism and unchecked congregationalism. The chapter highlights the often-overlooked Articles of Religion (1647) and Articles of Christian Religion (1648) as evidence of English Puritanism’s stability and continuity, demonstrating Parliament’s evolving role in religious settlement amid war, with themes that extended into the Protectorate. It also situates England’s ecclesiastical debates within transatlantic and continental Reformed discourse, showing that English Puritanism was not an offshoot of external forces but a theological and political power in its own right—pragmatic yet principled, adaptive yet unwavering in its commitment to a national church settlement that endured beyond the Interregnum.