Historical Dictionary of the Puritans

It is difficult to define the word “Puritan”. This dictionary does not actually include a formal definition of its subject – jumping straight from William Prynne to the Putney Debates. I would consider Puritanism an attitude of mind rather than an aspect of any particular religion: an earnest desire to return to some previous, probably mythical, time of religious uniformity, an inbuilt assumption of superior knowledge entitling the holder to over‐ride his neighbours' opinions, and, most especially, an active dislike of earthly enjoyments. Macaulay defined the puritan as “one who hated bear‐baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear,...