Puritan theocracy

THE PURITAN THEOCRACY
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(January 24, 2012)
The Puritan Theocracy
Introduction
The Puritan theocracy refers to a period when the puritans believed that both the state and the church were a single entity. Around 1629, the New England Company was restructured into the Massachusetts Bay Company. This was after it received a very secure patent from the crown. John Winthrop in 1630 spearheaded the first large migration by the Puritans from England. Boston acted as the colony capital for the Puritans. Within the theocracy, many adjustments were made to allow popular representation and participation of settlements in the General Court. It consisted of a governor, deputy governor, deputies and assistants (Davidson, et al. 2008). The colony was called the “Bay Colony”. It continued to be administered as a personal company for fifty years. During the theocracy, clergymen like John Cotton enjoyed a lot of political power and influence. The freeman status was restricted to the members of the church until the year 1664. The state was taken as an agency of the will of God on earth. As a result of the continuous flow of newcomers from England, the South of Boston, the interior and the North Shore were populated by strongly rooted communities.
The initial Puritans were mostly agricultural people. On the contrary, a merchant group also emerged. Most of them lived in villages around their own fields. A typical village was made up of houses owned by individuals grouped around a similar plot of land held commonly by the community. The most common structure was the meeting house. In this house, the pastor, who was the most significant element in the community, held extended services during Sabbath day. The meeting house belonging to the village chief of a place corresponded to a township in America.
The meeting place was also a place for holding town meetings. Traditionally, this was the...