First Founders: American Puritans and Puritanism in an Atlantic World

Abstract

First Founders: American Puritans and Puritanism in an Atlantic World. Francis J. Bremer. Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire Press, 2012. 291 pages. $27.95 (hardcover).Francis Bremer's First Founders serves as a trenchant reminder of the religious and political diversity of New England Puritans. Bremer traces the lives of many prominent Puritans in early Massachusetts. In its totality, his collection of biographical sketches offers students and the public a themed portrait of Puritanism that confronts and complicates themes in Massachusetts historiography. Bremer's book is not intended for scholars of early America, but is a comprehensive study of Puritanism in seventeenth-century Massachusetts. New England Puritans were settlers, merchants, tradesmen, politicians, and clerics who espoused different opinions about the organization of government and religion in early Massachusetts. Although Puritans remained united in their fervency of faith, they were not guided by a rigid religious hierarchy. Instead, they embraced the autonomy of Congregationalism. Congregations were small communities centered on the Puritan meetinghouse and closely governed by full church members and their elected clerics. Bremer argues that this autonomy fostered ideological differences between Puritans and allowed a wide range of religious ideas to circulate throughout Massachusetts. As a result, Puritans never could achieve uniformity and were besieged by religious controversies. Indeed, only the Puritans' search for and preservation of the godly life united them.Relations among Puritan leaders represented larger religious conflicts in Massachusetts society. Bremer uses differences between contemporaries such as John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley to reveal unique disparities among New England Puritans. While Winthrop, the most affluent Puritan in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, tolerated slight differences in religious thought, Dudley was a strict Puritan who cherished orthodoxy. Both Winthrop and Dudley served as governor of Massachusetts and implemented laws that reflected their religious differences. Dudley proved a driving force behind the trial and subsequent excommunication of Roger Williams, a man who Winthrop held in high esteem. Bremer argues that Winthrop would have preferred to allow Williams to practice his faith with restraint. Winthrop later informed Williams of Dudley's intention to banish him to England, which allowed Williams to flee from Massachusetts. Bremer's analysis of the relationship between Winthrop and Dudley reveals the range of thought that existed in Puritan New England and exemplifies Puritans' constant struggle to define and enact a stable religious orthodoxy.Bremer confronts a more recent development in early New England scholarship: Puritan involvement in an Atlantic World. New England Puritans remained linked to their English counterparts through the exchange of goods, ideas, and people. Many prominent New England Puritans such as John Davenport and Hugh Peter held influential religious posts in Europe. …