Puritanical Error
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In the short period of their existence, the Puritans had a significant impact on the history of America. To this day, the diaries, sermons, and essays of these people are taught, studied, and learned from. The reason for this is twofold: the Puritans are among the first English inhabitants of the country, and Americans often learn from their mistakes. The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay came to America to practice their religion without being persecuted. They came with fresh ideas and the motivation to succeed in their search for faith, but the Puritan society did not even last one hundred years before self-destructing. There are several key events that led to the downfall of the Puritan society of Massachusetts Bay, among them the "Antinomian Crisis", Roger Williams and the argument of toleration, the Halfway Covenant, and the Salem Witchcraft trials.
Led by William Bradford, the first Puritan settlers of Massachusetts were a group of "seekers." They were searching for the true doctrine and a place where they were free to look for it. They had nothing to reference as to what the true doctrine was; they only knew what it was not. By the1630's, the Puritans felt they had grasped the true doctrine, but it was still very new and mostly unchallenged...