Puritanism was an activist movement by English Protestants in the 1600s to reform the Church of England. Religious persecution caused the Puritans to leave England and create a new life of religious freedom and economic opportunity in the North American colonies. The Puritans did not want to separate from the Church of England, but only to “purify” it. King Charles I gave the Puritans a charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628, leading to settlements in Salem. Religion was a priority in the Salem Puritans' way of life. Puritanism was a worldview of pious conformity. The Puritans believed that each person had a divine mission that could only be discovered with zeal. They believed that man's nature was characterized by moral deficiency and corruption inherited from Adam and Eve. They valued simplicity, prohibiting excess and luxury. The Puritans established self-governing parish churches and a system of government based on God's moral code of reward and punishment. The fervent belief in a supernatural realm meant that accidents did not exist. Puritanism was that every event ...