Influence Of Religion On The Puritans

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The Puritans And Sex The Puritans were a group of 16th and 17th century English Protestants who thought that the Reformation had not gone far enough in its rejection of the Catholic Church. They wanted a simpler, purer kind of worship and advocated a strict form of religious discipline. They were intolerant of any form of sexual activity outside marriage, and yet warmly encouraged it in the marital bed. Puritans considered sexual intercourse was a human exigency and according to the Puritans religion, marriage was the only proper supply for it. In fact, the Puritans saw it as a man’s duty to provide pleasure for his wife, and they also considered it as a godly behavior. Sex within marriage was a gift from God and as much a rightful expression of love as it was a means to reproduction. The Puritans approved of the stabilizing influence of married life and believed it established conditions conducive to the worship of God. However, there was one limitation which the Puritans placed upon sexual relations in marriage: sex must not interfere with religion. Sexual pleasures were treated liked other kinds of pleasure. That means, on the religious day, not only tasty food and drink were abandoned, but also sexual intercourse. On…show more content…
There were laws to punish adultery with death, and people with unmarried sexual relations were whipped. Even though adultery cases occurred every year, the death penalty was not known to have been utilized more than three times. One reason there was so much sexual tension was that there were many men in the colonies who were unable to indulge their sexual desires in marriage. Many of the first settlers left wives in England, in order to hit it rich and then return. Although the Puritan men might have left their wives they did not leave their sexual "appetites" with them. Many men continued to stay, and more and more began to
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