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Puritan Laws. Intro to The Crucible. What Not to Do…Puritan Style!. Hunting ducks is illegal (If you’re a bad shot, they thought you would waist time and resources) Drama/theater, religious music, and gambling are banned (Remember-these are the people that closed down Shakespeare’s theater)
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Puritan Laws Intro to The Crucible
What Not to Do…Puritan Style! Hunting ducks is illegal (If you’re a bad shot, they thought you would waist time and resources) Drama/theater, religious music, and gambling are banned (Remember-these are the people that closed down Shakespeare’s theater) No idleness or laziness Swearing or sleeping during sermons will be punished
More Rules! Long hair will not be tolerated! Gluttony is forbidden Religious instruction is required for all…as well as public fasting, austere living, and evening curfew (According to one town’s records, a man was imprisoned for three days for smiling during a baptism)
Even More Rules! All of the following are banned: -entertainments -theaters -festivals -sex outside of marriage -dancing -card playing…
…continued -gambling -reading novels or poetry -rolling dice -going to horse races -wearing jewelry -wearing makeup -thoughts related to sexual pleasure
Don’t even think about Christmas! The celebration of Christmas was even forbidden in Massachusetts on pain of a five-shilling fine. In England, the Puritan Parliament “prohibited the observance of Christmas, Easter, saints’ days, and holy days.” All work, play, brewing, and travel were forbidden on Sunday (Sabbath). Debate existed on whether a man could be rescued from a well that day.
More about Sundays In 1670, a couple was brought to trial for “sitting together on the Lord’s Day under an apple tree.” (SHAME!) Sex on Sunday was out of the question! (Particularly a problem for children born on Sunday, because Puritans believed that people were born on the same day which they were conceived) Sunday-born children were occasionally denied baptism
Punishments! Puritan Style!
Benefit of Clergy The convicted may plead benefit of clergy, in which case, if they can read a passage from the Bible without one mistake, their sentence will be reduced
Stocks The convicted will have his head and hands placed in a locked stockade for the remainder of the day, and the community will be invited to pelt them with food. The convicted must clean up anything he is pelted with.
Wearing a Sign A milder punishment than branding. The convicted must make their own sign to hang around their neck, which indicates their crime.
Branding The convicted is marked with letters that stand for their crime—HT for hog thief, A for adulterer…The branding can be on the cheek, forehead, hand, or finger.
A Religious Fanatic One who takes his/her religion to the extreme, letting it control his/her day to day life Complete religion-based lives, including laws