PURITANS

The name by which the di enters from the church of England were generally known in the reign of Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts. The term was a umed, as the word implies, from the superior purity of doctrine and discipline which the more violent reformers claimed as theii own; maintaining that they followed the word of God alone, purified from all human inventions and superstitions, of which they believed the English church to retain a considerable share, notwithstanding its alleged reformation. According to Fuller, the use of the name commenced about 1564. (See Neale's History of the Puritans.) See Di enters. [s. 1013]