What were the laws of the Puritans in the 1600s?

Question

like wat did they ban, allow, let free this, that etc.

Answer 1

Here the civil law laid its hand upon the citizen in his business and social relations; it regulated his religious affairs, it dictated his dress, and even invaded the home circle and directed his family relations. One law forbade the wearing of lace, another of "slashed cloaths other than one slash in each sleeve and another in the back." The length and width of a lady's sleeve was solemnly decided by law. It was a penal offense for a man to wear long hair, or to smoke in the street, or for a youth to court a maid without the consent of her parents. A man was not permitted to kiss his wife in public. Captain Kimble, returning from a three-years' ocean voyage, kissed his wife on his own doorstep and spent two hours in the stocks for his "lewed and unseemly behavior." excerpt from http://www.usahistory.info/NewEngland/Puritans.html

http://www.apuritansmind.com/PuritanEra.htm try this primary source as well

Answer 2

You could not work, travel, laugh, hold meetings, open your business, on Sunday. This was not just a day of rest, but a day of solemn reflection. Dancing, music, parties, were frowned upon. You were to dress in the fashion that was appropriate for your station in life. Example: a poor person must dress as a pauper, could not where nice clothes. Easter and Christmas were not celebrations. Easter was acknowledged but solemnly. Christmas was not acknowledged at all because no one really knew when Jesus was born and the Christmas holiday had it's origins in Pagan practices in early Europe. You paid taxes to the church, not the town. Puritanism was the official religion. Later, as other religions came in, you were only released from attending a Puritan (Congregationalist) church if you had a note from the minister from your new church (usually Methodist, Lutheran or Anglican) stating that you attended that church.

There was an irony here: The Puritans came here to escape religious persecution and once here became the purveyors of persecution.

Answer 3

Sounds simmilar to our current democrisies, telling people what they can and cant do beyond the point or whats right and wrong to tell people what to do or how to behave. Have experienced this in australia where it is against the law to sleep in a caravan overnight if your not in a caravan park or have lots of money and a pile of bricks to build a house on what was once aborigional land. Anyway i dont know about the puritans so sorry to hijac the space of an answer but I a had a sh*t education at school and didnt learn this in our hiostory lessons, where our teachers were more concerned with impressing there authority on us rather than spreading the wealth of knowlege which is what teaching should be about. Love and peace :)

Answer 4

They certainly banned bestiality - even if they had to find the law after the event.
It came to light that a farm boy had been buggering his animals, so they looked in the relevant section of the Book of Leviticus and then dug a trench, killed all the animals, chucked them in, and then did the same to the boy.

Answer 5

Here I got International Cricket Captain for free: http://bitly.com/1ohfh8k

it's a perfectly working link, no scam !
It's a must have game.
Cheers ;)

Answer 6

They banned everything except work and worship. Fortunately their philosophy did not hold out permanently.

Answer 7

Posted on the Pacific Publishing Company website, RE: Christmas laws in Puritan England.

12/06/2006
More mince pie, anyone?
The Anglo File/Linda Greenwald

For many years I've been sharing British Christmas customs and traditions, both on my radio programs and in print. Fortunately, the traditions are long and the customs varied, starting as far back as the Druids and the Romans and including many conquerors and invaders who brought their customs and traditions to the British Isles. In the process they have supplied me with plenty of interesting material to share with you.


So in this electronic Year of our Lord 2006, let me offer you a mince pie - not a slice, but a miniature,3-inch, covered pie which, like Christmas pudding, is a truly British tradition.

If you accepted and were living in Cromwell's England of the mid-1600s, you would have been breaking the law. When the Puritans gained a majority in Parliament, they seized the chance to enforce their strict views on the British people. Many innocent traditions enjoyed by ordinary men and women were denounced as forms of paganism or falling short of a proper observance of Christianity.

The laws laid down by the Long Parliament in the 1640s remain on the books today but happily are widely ignored. But the puritanical foot was put firmly down on 3 June 1647, when Christmas and other holidays were banned completely. Christmas Day was no longer celebrated, either in a secular or religious fashion; it was to be regarded as just another working day.

Parliament itself sat each Christmas Day from 1644 to 1656, although one member noted wryly, "The House is thin, much I believe occasioned by the observation of this day." At the suggested banning of exchanging New Year's gifts, a common behavior then, another member asked plaintively, "Why can't those who do not wish to receive gifts simply say so, and leave the rest of us to get on with it."

Parliament had badly underestimated the Englishman's love of Christmas, and riots broke out up and down the country. Ten thousand men of Kent and Canterbury went so far as to pass the ominous resolution that if they could not have their Christmas Day, then they "would have the King back on the throne."

Even the seemingly innocent mince pie ruffled puritanical feathers. At the time, these were called Christmas pies (as in the nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner") and were concoctions of various minced meats and fruits, baked in the shape of a crib. This was too much for the Puritans, who pronounced them "abominable and idolatrous confections to be avoided by Christians." Furthermore, the pies were declared "an invention of the scarlet whore of Babylon," and it was decreed that "the making and eating of them should henceforth be illegal."

The resourceful British people got round this decree by simply changing the shape and calling them "minc'd pies" instead, and it is this name that has been passed down through the ages.

The legality of mince pies would be the least of your worries, however, since eating at all on Christmas Day was a serious offense. The Long Parliament declared it a fast day, during which a strict abstinence from food was to be maintained from sunrise to sundown. Special constables throughout the country were empowered to search ovens without warrant and confiscate any foods being prepared. An article published by a Royalist broadsheet claimed that Puritans "assumed the power and authority to plunder pottage-pots, ransack ovens and to strip spits stark naked."

So if you may not eat, what may you do? Sing a few verses of your favorite carol, perhaps? Certainly not! Carols were banned as "diabolical." Snowballing? Banned as a "profane pastime." Indeed, the Unlawful Games Act of 1541 - during the reign of the usually convivial Henry VIII --banned every type of sporting activity on the 25th, with the curious exceptions of "leaping and vaulting," which appear to be legal. You may also practice your archery skills, though you must be careful when choosing your target: it is still an offence to kill game of any sort on Christmas Day. Nor may you invoke the law which allows any Englishman within the precincts of York to shoot arrows at Scotsmen, because that activity is illegal on Sundays and Holy Days, of which Christmas is one.

If you sit back to admire your Christmas decorations, you will sink deeper into the quagmire of criminal activity. The Long Parliament declared that evergreens were tainted with pagan connections and had no place in a Christian household. One of the Lord Mayor's duties was to ride around London removing any such decoration that had been put up.

Going to church is, of course, a decent Christian activity and one very much encouraged, but you cannot leap in the car and drive there. The Holy Days and Fasting Days Act of 1551 decreed that every British citizen had to go to church, but using any kind of transport was prohibited. If you transgressed, the constabulary were entitled to confiscate your transport, sell it and distribute the proceeds to the poor.

Bizarrely enough, you could not even stand at your door and watch the world go by. That ungodly pastime was banned under Sunday laws. One member of the Long Parliament felt that this did not go far enough; people could escape the heavy hand of the law by sitting, or even leaning against the doorpost. He proposed tightening the law, but the motion was defeated by a mere two votes.

On the bright side, there were also laws that prohibited any "worldly labours or work of ordinary calling" on Sundays or fast days. This means, in theory, that any officer of the law coming to arrest you for celebrating Christmas Day would be acting illegally.

All this fortunately came to an end in 1660 with the restoration of Charles II, our "Merry Monarch," who brought back many Dutch Christmas customs from his exile in Holland ... but that is another story for another Christmas.



Down with actors! Down with plays!

Such the cry in Cromwell days!

Down with puppets! Down with sport!

Down with fun of every sort!

Tightrope walking, football, cricket,

Even bowls is counted wicked!

England's governed by objectors!

Lord protect us from Protectors!



Now are jesters all suppressed!

Cap and bells must take a rest!

No more wrestling on the green

Or grinning matches now are seen!

Now the merry maypole's hidden!

Christmas puddings are forbidden!

Oh, these circumspect inspectors!

Lord protect us from Protectors!



Incidentally, you can get perfectly legal and thoroughly delicious mince pies at the British Pantry in the Redmond Shopping Mall.

TTFN