Political power and religion in Puritanism: the American colony of Massachusetts Bay

Authors

  • REBECA VÁZQUEZ GÓMEZ

Keywords:

Puritanism. Congregationalists. Politic power and religion. Massachusetts Bay colony. North American colonial Law.

Abstract

Since the end of the 16th century, several protestant communities called «puritans» that pursue a reformation of the Anglican Church, «purifying» it from catholic elements, emerge. Faced with the rejection of their proposals, some of them settled in North America and, with the approval of the English monarch, found the Massachusetts Bay colony. Taking in advance the wide margin of autonomy from the metropolis underlying in the royal document that serves as a Constitution, they establish a political system suitable for putting into practice their postulates. Vesting executive, legislative, and judicial powers in Church members, they will promote the creation of an organization marked by the primacy of the biblical text as source of Law and by the duty of the civil authority to guarantee its observance that will lead to the excesses with which this colony is identified still at present.

Published

2009-09-04

Issue

Section

STUDIES