1630 - Founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony

Elect

In Calvinist doctrine, those who have been chosen by God for salvation.

Calling

In Protestantism, the belief that saved individuals have a religious obligation to engage in worldly work.

A model of Christian Charity

"For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world." - John Winthrop

John Calvin

1509-1564. religious reformer who believed in predestination and a strict sense of morality for society Attracted Protestant followers with his teachings.

Dissenters

English Protestants who differed with the Church of England; "Devil worshippers"

Town meetings

A purely democratic form of government common in the colonies, and the most prevalent form of local government in New England. In general, the town's voting population would meet once a year to elect officers, levy taxes, and pass laws.

Puritans

A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled Massachusetts Bay. English Protestant dissenters who believed that God predestined souls to heaven or hell before birth. They founded Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629.

Calvinism

Emphasized a strong moral code and believed in predestination (the idea that God decided whether or not a person would be saved as soon as they were born). Calvinists supported constitutional representative government and the separation of church and state.

John Winthrop

Puritan leader who became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Non-Separatists

Puritans who wanted to reform the church from within instead of splitting from the Anglican Church.

Protestant ethic

Sociological term used to define the Calvinist belief in hard work to illustrate selection in elite group

Selectmen

men chosen to manage the affairs of New England towns; a member of the local government board of a New England town.

suffrage

the legal right to vote

Predestination

Calvin's religious theory that God has already planned out a person's life.

Boston

Capital of Massachusetts

Congregationalism

Church system set up by the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony wherein each local church served as the center of its own community

City Upon a Hill

City of a model/perfect society Said by Winthrop; refers to the idea that Puritan colonists emigrating to the New World were part of a special pact with God to create a holy community: a model society to the world/moral commonwealth

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Colony founded in 1630 by John Winthrop, part of the Great Puritan Migration, founded by puritans. Had a theocratic republic. "City upon a hill"

Congregationalist Church

The Calvinist Church as known as in New England; Puritans ran their own churches under this branch, and democracy in church led logically to democracy in political government

Freemen

colonial period; term used to describe indentured servants who had finished their terms of indenture and could live freely on their own land.

Damned

condemned by God to suffer eternal punishment in hell; Being without predetermined purpose

Protestant Christians

form of Christianity originating in the 16th-century Reformation, a movement against what was perceived to be errors in the Catholic Church. They believe that both good deeds and faith in God are needed to get into heaven; Protestants believe that faith in God alone is needed to get into heaven.