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Martin Luther launches the Protestant Reformation in Europe, bringing an end to the sole authority of the Catholic Church, resulting in the growth of numerous Protestant religious sects.
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John Calvin publishes "Institutes of the Christian Religion" which ellaborated upon Martin Luther's ideas. Calvinism became the dominant religion with the New England Puritans and other settlers. Calvinism believed in predestination, or the assignment of fate before birth. Conversion is the sign of positive predestination. Calvinists wished to break away from the Church of England.
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A group of seperatists, a sect of Puratinism that wanted to break all ties with the Church of England, set sail for Jamestown. However, the land north in Plymouth Bay. The formed the Mayflower Compact, a simple aggreement to form a crude government and the precursor for the written constitution.
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The Pilgrims celebrate their first Thanksgiving with leader William Bradford, a self-taught scholar who mayored plymouth for many years.
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Charles I dismisses Parliment and prosecutes Puritans. His father King James I was not fond of the Puritans either, but he realized that anarchy would follow the prosecution of the Puritans.
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Non-Sepertatist Puritans fleed england and found the MA Bay Colony near present day Boston. The Great Migration followed ( around 70,000 immigrants) followed. Some went to the MA Bay Colony, but most went to the Carribbean. John Winthrop was the mayor of the MA Bay Colony and later the first govenor of MA.
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A salem Minister, Williams had radical ideas and an unrestrained tongue as an extreme seperatist. He wanted to make a clean break from England, challenged the legality of the MA Bay Colony Charter, and did not think it was fair that the colony took the Indian's land without fair pay. Puritan authorities had him banished on account of treason. This is the begining of Rhode Island becoming the Island of Misfit Toys, thus earning the nickname of "The Rhode Island Sewer".
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A war broke out between the English settlers and the powerful Pequot. It wiped out the Pequot tribe and cause tension between the settlers and indians for the next four decades.
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Outspoken woman with unorthodox views that opposed those of the Puritans, an acto of high heresy known as antinomianism. She claimed that no one had to lead a holy life because of predestination.
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The Fundamental Orders was drafted by the Conneticut River Colony. It was a basic Constitution.
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