Why did the puritans leave Europe and come to America
..., his nine-year-old son Edward officially assumed the throne, ruling primarily through regents, both of whom (first the Duke of Somerset and then the Duke of Northumberland) had more sympathy for the vision which had illuminated those White Horse discussions. The push for the purification of the church and the state gained great momentum in England between 1547 and Edward's death in 1553. (Samuel T. Logan. Jr) But the next successor on the throne was Mary. With her and her mother’s experience, she tried her best to destroy the purification. Her purpose was to return to under the control of the Roman Catholic, no matter the cost. She was also better known to later generations as "Bloody Mary." Six years ago, Mary died and her sister Elizabeth I became the Queen of England. Elizabeth I took the midst policy so that she could not offend the Protestant and the Roman Catholicism. A group of people, however, were not satisfied with the reforms held by those kings and queens. What they wanted is to absolutely “purify” the Anglican Church, so people called them “puritans”. The Puritans desired a simpler Church ritual and doctrine more in line with Calvinism --a return to what they conceived as the "pure" form of the early Christian Church. (The Puritans) Gradually, they divided themselves into two groups, one of which felt it was possible to live under the rules of the Church of England (they believed they could continue to push for reform from within the system), and the other of which felt they could not. The latter were called “Separatists”. (Henry J. Sage) The puritans were Protestants who followed the doctrine preached by John Calvin. The Separatists believed that the Church of England was an impure church and it is not meaningful to associate with the tainted church for it would be dangerous to their pure souls. Hence they separated from the Church of England and tried to establish a simplicity and 'purity' church in their mind. They wanted to delete those surviving features of Catholicism--the rituals which continued through into the Anglican Church and were epitomized in its statement, "'I believe in...the holy Catholick Church'" (Gill, 19) The Pilgrims fled to Holland where there was religious freedom. But as foreigners, they were not allowed to join “the Dutch guilds of craftsmen” (Zhu Yongtao: 7), so they could not find a comfortable and well-paid work, even more, their children began to speak Dutch, marry into Dutch family and lose their Englishness and religion. This made them decide to take themselves to North America where they could build “new Bible commonwealth” In 1620, 35 Pilgrims and 67 strangers took the ship Mayflower and left Holland for North America. They settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. (Sam Blumenfeld). The other group of Puritans discovered that under the reign of Elizabeth I, they still have the chance to purify the church of England, but they could not do well under James I, and during the reign of King Charles I, the policy was much more terrified, they found that the only way to fin...