The Origins of Puritanism in England II

When Edward VI died childless, his thoroughly Roman Catholic sister Mary ascended to the throne (after a brief interregnum involving a most unfortunate young woman named Jane Gray). Along with her Spanish husband Philip she sought to return England to the Roman fold and used some rather drastic means to accomplish this. Over three hundred Protestant leaders, mostly Calvinists, were killed. Those whom she did not kill, some eight hundred strong, were driven out of England, often finding a safe and inviting haven in Calvin's Geneva, where they were exposed to a higher form of Christian teaching than they had previously known. Many of these refugees, such as John Knox, later returned to England and Scotland after Mary's death. They formed the core of a Calvinistic reforming force that sought to duplicate Geneva on their home soil. As it happened, the Scots took to this more quickly and enthusiastically than the English.

Tomorrow: The rise of Puritanism under Elizabeth I.