PURITANS 



B74 



PURPLE 



The Church of England had broken with the 

 Church of Rome, but all parties within the 

 Church were not satisfied, and a certain body 

 of reformers, by their insistence on "purifying" 

 the ritual and doctrines of the Church and on 

 accepting as authority only the "pure word of 

 God," won for themselves the derisive title of 

 Puritans. They did not wish, as did the Sepa- 

 ratists, to leave the Church of England, but as 

 they lost, little by little, all hope of the longed- 

 for reforms, they broke more and more with 



The Puritan did not stop to think; he recog- 

 nized God in his soul, and acted. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 



The illustration is that of the famous statue, 

 The Puritan, representing Deacon Chapin, foun- 

 der of Springfield, Mass. It is the work of Saint 

 Gaudens. 



the parent body. In time small groups, dis- 

 satisfied with civil and religious conditions in 

 England, and encouraged by the example of 

 the Pilgrims who had founded Plymouth Col- 

 ony, emigrated to America and began to make 

 settlements on the shores of Massachusetts 

 Bay. The settlements at Boston, Charlestown, 

 Dorchester, Roxbury and Watertown were all 

 Puritan enterprises. It is a disappointment 

 to the student of colonial history to learn that 

 these lovers of religious freedom were not will- 

 ing to allow that same blessing to every one, 

 but treated with harshness those who dared to 

 differ from their principles. 



In England the Puritans played for a time 

 an important part in politics. The bitter strug- 

 gle between Charles I and his Parliament over 

 the question of the divine right of kings; the 

 death of Charles I; the establishment of the 

 Commonwealth under the leadership of Crom- 

 well; the raising of England to a position of 

 power and respect among the nations all of 

 this the Puritans brought to pass. Their politi- 

 cal power was lost with the restoration of the 

 Stuart dynasty in 1660, but the spirit of Puri- 

 tanism at its best was a permanent force for 

 good in England. Macaulay, none too friendly 

 a critic, who declared that the "Puritan hated 

 bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the 

 bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spec- 

 tators," thus sums up their place in history : 



We would speak first of the Puritans, the most 

 remarkable body of men, perhaps, which the world 

 has ever produced. The odious and ridiculous 

 parts of their character lie on the surface .... 

 the ostentatious simplicity of their dress, their 

 sour aspect, their nasal twang, their stiff posture, 



their long graces The Puritans were 



men whose minds had derived a peculiar charac- 

 ter from the daily contemplation of superior be- 

 ings and eternal interests The Puritan 



prostrated himself in the dust before 



his Maker ; but he set his foot on the neck of 

 his king. 



Consult Brown's The English Puritans; Bying- 

 ton's The Puritan as Colonist and Reformer. 



Related Subjects. 



these volumes may be 

 Barebones Parliament 

 Commonwealth of 



England 

 Cromwell, Oliver 

 Endicott, John 

 Grand Remonstrance 

 Hampton Court 



Conference 

 Long Parliament 

 Marston Moor 



The following articles in 

 read in this connection : 



Massachusetts, subhead 

 History 



Massachusetts Bay 

 Colony 



Naseby, Battle of 



Pilgrims 



Plymouth Colony 



Roundheads 



Self-Denying Ordinance 



Winthrop, John 



PURPLE, pur'p'l, a color produced by mix- 

 ing red and blue pigments. Different shades 

 are produced by varying the proportions of 

 red and blue. Tyrian purple, which is a deep 

 crimson, was the only purple known to the an- 

 cients. The dye was obtained from a shellfish 

 found in the Mediterranean Sea, and called by 

 the Romans purpura murex, hence the name 

 purple. Since each shellfish yielded only a 

 small quantity of the dye, the color was very 

 expensive. In the time of Cicero (which see) 

 a pound of wool dyed with Tyrian purple cost 

 $175. Because of this cost purple was the 

 symbol of rulers and of wealth. Jesus describes 

 a "certain rich man which was clothed in purple 

 and fine linen." The Roman Emperor wore a 



