PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: Puritanism
English author
John Bunyan was a celebrated English minister and preacher, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), the book that was the most characteristic expression of the Puritan religious outlook. His other works...
American theologian
Jonathan Edwards was the greatest theologian and philosopher of British American Puritanism, stimulator of the religious revival known as the “Great Awakening,” and one of the forerunners of the age of...
archbishop of Canterbury
William Laud was the archbishop of Canterbury (1633–45) and religious adviser to King Charles I of Great Britain. His persecution of Puritans and other religious dissidents resulted in his trial and execution...
English Puritan preacher and author
John Foxe was an English Puritan preacher and author of The Book of Martyrs, a graphic and polemic account of those who suffered for the cause of Protestantism. Widely read, often the most valued book...
English minister
John Robinson was an English Puritan minister called the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers for his guidance of their religious life before their journey to North America aboard the “Mayflower” in 1620. In...
archbishop of Canterbury
Edmund Grindal was an English archbishop of Canterbury whose Puritan sympathies brought him into serious conflict with Queen Elizabeth I. Educated at Magdalene and Christ’s colleges, Cambridge, he became...
English pamphleteer
William Prynne was an English Puritan pamphleteer whose persecution by the government of King Charles I (reigned 1625–49) intensified the antagonisms between the king and Parliament in the years preceding...
British missionary
John Eliot was a Puritan missionary to the Native Americans of Massachusetts Bay Colony whose translation of the Bible in the Algonquian language was the first Bible printed in North America. Educated...
English administrator
Sir Henry Vane, the Younger was an English Puritan, one of the most capable administrators in Parliament during the Civil Wars between the Parliamentarians and Royalists. His father, Sir Henry Vane the...
English minister
Richard Baxter was a Puritan minister who influenced 17th-century English Protestantism. Known as a peacemaker who sought unity among the clashing Protestant denominations, he was the centre of nearly...
English minister
Hugh Peter was an English Independent minister, army preacher, and propagandist during the Civil War and Commonwealth. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church...
English theologian
William Ames was an English Puritan theologian remembered for his writings on ethics and for debating and writing in favour of strict Calvinism in opposition to Arminianism. (Read Peter Singer’s Britannica...
English Monarchist leader
John Rogers was a Fifth Monarchist leader in Cromwellian England. The second son of an Anglican vicar, Rogers studied at King’s College, Cambridge. From 1643 to 1647 he taught and preached in Huntingdonshire...
Welsh preacher
Vavasor Powell was a Welsh preacher and Fifth Monarchist during the English Civil Wars and Commonwealth. Educated at Jesus College, Oxford, he came under the influence of Walter Cradock and adopted radical...
English minister
John Owen was an English Puritan minister, prolific writer, and controversialist. He was an advocate of Congregationalism and an aide to Oliver Cromwell, the lord protector of England (1653–58). Appointed...
bishop of London
John Aylmer was an Anglican bishop of London in the reign of Elizabeth I, known for his vigorous enforcement of the Act of Uniformity (1559) within his Church of England diocese. His harsh treatment of...
English politician
William Strode was a leader of the Puritan opposition to England’s King Charles I and one of the five members of the House of Commons whom the king tried to impeach in January 1642. The incident enraged...
American colonial leader
John Cotton was an influential New England Puritan leader who served principally as “teacher” of the First Church of Boston (1633–52) after escaping the persecution of Nonconformists by the Church of England....
English colonial administrator
Robert Rich, 2nd earl of Warwick was an English colonial administrator and advocate of religious toleration in the North American Colonies. As admiral of the fleet in 1642, he secured the adherence of...
bishop of Exeter
Miles Coverdale was the bishop of Exeter, Eng., who translated (rather freely; he was inexpert in Latin and Greek) the first printed English Bible. Ordained a priest (1514) at Norwich, Coverdale became...
English religious leader
Lodowick Muggleton was an English Puritan religious leader and anti-Trinitarian heretic whose followers, known as Muggletonians, believed he was a prophet. After claiming to have had spiritual revelations,...
English politician
Peter Wentworth was a prominent Puritan member of the English Parliament in the reign of Elizabeth I, whom he challenged on questions of religion and the succession. The son of Sir Nicholas Wentworth (d....
English clergyman
Stephen Marshall was a Presbyterian minister and popular Puritan leader. He was an influential preacher to the English Parliament and a participant in the formulation of his church’s creed. By 1629 Marshall...
English social reformer
Robert Crowley was an English Puritan, social reformer, and Christian Socialist prominent in the vestiarian disputes (over the alleged “Romishness” of the vestments worn by Anglican clergy) of Elizabeth...
English soldier
Sir Thomas Pride was a Parliamentary soldier during the English Civil Wars (1642–51), remembered chiefly for his expulsion of the Presbyterians and other members who opposed the Parliamentary army from...
English minister
Thomas Goodwin was an English Puritan clergyman and a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell who helped draft a confession of faith for Congregationalism. He graduated in 1616 from Christ’s College, Cambridge, where...
English pamphleteer
Philip Stubbs was a vigorous Puritan pamphleteer and propagandist for a purer life and straiter devotion whose Anatomie of Abuses (1583), his most popular work, consisted of a devastating attack on English...
English church leader
Robert Browne was a Puritan Congregationalist church leader, one of the original proponents of the Separatist, or Free Church, movement among Nonconformists that demanded separation from the Church of...
English Puritan
Thomas Helwys was an English Puritan leader, member of a Separatist group that emigrated to Amsterdam (1608), where he helped organize the first Baptist church. Returning to England (1611/12) to witness...
English poet
John Milton was an English poet, pamphleteer, and historian, considered the most significant English author after William Shakespeare. Milton is best known for Paradise Lost, widely regarded as the greatest...
American colonial clergyman
Thomas Hooker was a prominent British American colonial clergyman known as “the father of Connecticut.” Seeking independence from other Puritan sects in Massachusetts, Thomas Hooker and his followers established...
English theologian
John Goodwin was a prominent English Puritan theologian and leader of the “New Arminians.” Educated at Queen’s College, Cambridge, Goodwin served successively as rector of East Rainham, Norfolk (1625–33),...
- apologetics
- astrology
- Buddhism
- Ch'ondogyo
- Christianity
- Confucianism
- Daoism
- ecumenism
- hagiography
- Hinduism
- humanism
- Islam
- Jainism
- Judaism
- logic
- meditation
- mission
- monasticism
- mysticism
- patristic literature
- philosophy
- political philosophy
- Protestantism
- Puritanism
- religious literature
- Roman Catholicism
- scripture
- Shinto
- Sikhism
- Sufism
- televangelism
- theology
- Unitarianism
- Zoroastrianism