PUR 
P. nana, dwarf pomegranate tree; with 
several varieties, which are cultivated ra- 
ther for the beauty of their scarlet-coloured 
flowers tiian for the fruit, which seldom ar- 
rives to any perfection in this country, so 
as to render it valuable. 
PUR autesi- vie, where lands, «&c. are held 
by another's life. See Estate. 
PURCHASE, signifies the buying or ac- 
quisition of lands or tenements with money,' 
or by deed or agreement; and not obtain- 
ing it by descent, or hereditary right. 
PURITANS, a name given to the Pro- 
testant exiles who returned to England upon 
the accession of Queen Elizabeth. These 
exiles were no sooner come to their native 
country, than they set about to carry on the 
work of reformation, even further than it 
had beeii done by the ecclesiastical laws of 
Elizabeth. This princess, with those that 
had weathered the storm at home, were 
only for restoring King Edward’s liturgy ; 
but the majority of the exiles were for 
the worship and discipline of the foreign 
churches, and refused to conform to the, 
usages of the old establishment, declaiming 
louilly against the popish habits and cere- 
monies. For a time the Queen connived at 
their non- conformity ; but no sooner did 
she find herself firmly established on the 
throne, than she gave the Puritans, as the 
reforming exiles were reproachfully called, 
a specimen of her proud spirit, and the na- 
tion a proof of her secret attachment to the 
principles and many of the ceremonies of the 
Romish faith. A Puritan, at that time, 
was a man of severe morals, a Calvinist in 
doctrine, and a non-conformist to the cere- 
monies and discipline of the church. As 
they did not avowedly separate from the 
church, they seem to have acted, in this 
particular, somewhat like the Wesleyan 
Methodists of the present day. 
The aversion which Queen Elizabeth con- 
ceived against the Puritans induced her to 
act against them in the most cruel and rigid 
manner. “ For,’’ says Neal, “ besides the 
ordinary courts of the bishops, her Majesty 
erected a new tribunal, called the High 
Commission, which suspended and deprived 
men of their livings, not by the verdict of 
twelve men upon oath, but by the sovereign 
determination of three commissioners of her 
Majesty’s own nomination, founded not 
upon the statute laws of the realm, but upon 
the bottomless deep of the canon law ; and 
instead of producing witnesses in open 
court to prove the charge, they assumed a 
power lOf administering an oath ex officio, 
PUR 
whereby the prisoner was obliged to answer 
all questions the court should put to him, 
though never so prejudicial to his own de- 
fence ; if he refused to swear, he was im- 
prisoned for contempt ; and if he took the 
oath, he was convicted upon his own con- 
fession.” Such are the ingenious intricacies 
which a spirit of intolerance can invent to 
puzzle and embarrass its victims 1 
Having already, in some degree, antici- 
pated the history of the Puritans, in the 
article Presbyterians, it is almost unne- 
cessary to enlarge in this place. 
Mr. Hume, whom no one will accuse of 
an unwarrantable prejudice for the princi- 
ples of civil and religious liberty, observes, 
when speaking of the conduct of Elizabeth, 
“ so absolute was the authority of the 
crown, that the precious spark of liberty 
had been kindled, and was preserved by 
the Puritans alone, and it was to this sect, 
whose principles appear so frivolous, and 
habits so ridiculous, that the English owe 
the whole freedom of their constitution.” 
When it is considered who it is that thus 
speaks of the Puritans, and when it is also 
considered what is meant by “ the whole 
freedom of the English constitution,” it will 
be'thought that we, of the present day, are 
debtors, of no small magnitude, to the zeal 
and perseverance of the ancient Puritans. 
It must, however, be, granted, that when 
the persecutions, carriqd on against the 
Puritans, during the reign of Elizabeth and 
the Stuarts, had driven the Puritans once 
more to seek refuge abroad, they now, in 
their turn, persecuted others who dissented 
from them. Those who formed the colony 
of Massachusett’s Bay, having never relin- 
quished the principle of a national church 
establishment, were less tolerant than those 
who settled at Plymouth, at Rhode Island, 
and at Providence plantations. The conse- 
quence was, they did not fail to discover that 
their sufferings and trials had not 'fully taught 
them the lessons of Christian forbearance 
and universal toleration. Happily for the 
peace and security of mankind, those les- 
sons are now better understood ; and little 
remains of the offensive parts of Puritanism, 
besides what is to be found in the genius 
of high Calvinism, still unhappily possessing 
the minds of some of the sectaries of our 
own time. We may, however, fairly hope, 
that the time is fast approaching, when the 
true principles of liberty shall be not only 
acknowledged, but fully acted upon ; and 
the spirit of enthusiasm and bigotry known 
only to be execrated, and remembered 
