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Massachusetts Bay Religious Intolerance Research Paper

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Massachusetts Bay Religious Intolerance Research Paper
Massachusetts Bay and Religious Intolerance
When Puritans arrived in America in 1620, they had experienced religious intolerance in the Old world, yet they still supported Europe’s theory that in order to have unity within a state, everyone must be of the same faith. Puritans believed in predestination, which meant that God had already decided which of his children would receive the privilege of going to heaven and which would not, and one could not persuade His judgment. This belief, along with the strict Puritan lifestyle, intertwined closely with the government and its laws. This led to persecution, exile, and even capital punishment for those who did not agree with Puritan ideals.
The laws of the Massachusetts Bay Colony came straight out of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. The most common crimes against the Puritan church involved attendance at church services. In1648, for example, authorities penalized a group of men for not attending the morning worship services and another man for sailing on the Sabbath, which was disrespectful because of the money-making he did. Also, four servants had to pay a fine for killing a raccoon during a church meeting. Other penalties involved skipping church meetings to go drink in a local tavern, sleeping in church meetings, stealing on …show more content…
The colony usually banished any Quaker who publicly expressed defiance against Puritan beliefs and then executed them if they ever returned. In the time between 1659 and 1661, four Quakers received capital punishment because of such defiance. As for Roger Williams, a Salem Minister who believed the colony owed compensation to Native Americans for the land taken away from them by new settlers, authorities found him guilty of “new authority of magistrates” and disseminating dangerous information. They banished him from the colony in 1635
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