During the late Tudor and early Stuart age, England's parish
ministries were increasingly occupied by energetic Puritan
preachers who sought to convert souls and build ‘godly’
communities. Together with ‘godly’ magistrates and lay supporters, these
preachers laboured to replace a culture rooted in traditional festivals, ales,
dances and games with a culture sustained by frequent sermons, Scripture-reading and a strict observance of the Sabbath. Not everyone, however,
heeded the call of the preachers. Many people, in most places probably
a significant majority, were unable or unwilling to embrace the Puritan
theology of grace and were opposed to Puritans' interference in their lives.
Resistance to Puritans surfaced in different forms and degrees, ranging
from indifference and passivity to organised demonstrations and protests,
to street fighting and violence. Verbal abuse seems to have been common;
the preferred term of abuse, ‘Puritan’, remained a potent and wounding
accusation in spite of its common currency. From about the 1570s and
80s, when Puritan evangelism emerged as a significant movement in
England, to the period of the Civil War, tensions between Puritans and
anti-Puritans periodically surfaced in towns and villages across the
kingdom, with divisions in communities cutting across class lines.