Puritan
The practices and beliefs of English Protestants dedicated to ‘purifying’ the Protestant Church of England. Puritanism was the English manifestation of the stern and unyielding theology of John Calvin, including the belief that all humans were totally depraved from birth. Several other tenets of Puritanism flowed from this fundamentally pessimistic view of human nature. Puritanism taught that spiritual salvation was not universal. Those chosen by God were powerless to choose or reject salvation that was permanent as well as irresistible. Together, these Calvinist assumptions fostered "predestination," the belief that God has already determined who will be saved and everything that happens in this world. Critics of this form of Protestantism labeled its English followers “Puritans.”