ABSTRACT
Puritanism is not necessarily connected with any specific religious creed, but is rather the attitude of mind towards problems of life based on the moral responsibility of the individual. There were not only Puritans within the Church of England, but it is conceivable to speak of some Roman Catholics as Puritans. In the historical development of post-Reformation Europe and America, however, Puritanism was usually a common feature of those religious communities which were connected with Calvinism or derived their origin from a Calvinist stem. In our sketch of the Puritan tradition in education we have to limit ourselves to the original Church of Calvin and its Continental branches, the French Huguenots and the Dutch Reformed Church, and in the English-speaking countries to the original Dissenters—the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists and the Baptists and the two smaller bodies of Quakers and Unitarians which have developed from them. In spite of their different local colour and divergent policies in education, and at times an embittered struggle and mutual persecution, all these Protestant Churches have a common outlook and a Puritan tradition which sharply distinguishes them from both the Roman Catholics and the Anglicans. It is more difficult to point out the dividing line between the Calvinists and the Lutherans, as their attitude towards education was almost identical, but whereas in Lutheran countries the supremacy of the State has always been tacitly recognised, in Calvinist communities the supremacy of the Church was openly postulated in their claims for theocracy. In contrast to the educational conservatism of Catholics and Anglicans, the Puritans were innovators and reformers, and in this respect in more recent times were often allied with the secular traditions in education. In those countries where Calvinism was accepted as the form of religious revival it played a similar rôle to Lutheranism in Germany and Scandinavia.
