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A Puritan of 16th- and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of Protestant groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant of practices which they associated with Catholicism. One group of Puritans emigrated to North America and became the Pilgrim Fathers of Massachusetts.

The playwright William Shakespeare appears to have had a negative view of Puritanism, as its doctrine included pressure to close down all theatrical enterprises in England. The character Malvolio in Twelfth Night is an unflattering caricature of a Puritan.

General Oliver Cromwell, who controlled the English government for much of the 1650s, ruled by a form of Puritan doctrine.

Puritanism in Ruled Britannia[]

Puritans opposed the rule of Queen Elizabeth as being insufficiently reformist, and were in turn persecuted under her reign.

They were persecuted even more ruthlessly when the Spanish-backed Queen Isabella and King Albert ruled England.

In 1597, William Shakespeare was impressed by the courage of Philip Stubbes, a Puritan about to be executed by the English Inquisition at an auto da fé. Shakespeare began to consider writing a character who displayed similar qualities in the face of death, for his next play.

In 1598, after fleeing London for his life, Christopher Marlowe returned to the city disguised as a Puritan.

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