What's a 'Puritan' ?

Here in Portugal a puritan is someone who wants to stay pure at all costs who will not compromise in the slightest thing... but it's often said as an insult.. it has a prejurative (I don't sure if this is an english word... lol) meaning.

When you talk about puritans, what do you mean?

FYI,

A word or phrase is [color=000099]pejorative[/color] if it implies contempt or disapproval. The adjective pejorative is synonymous with derogatory and dyslogistic (noun: dyslogism) (antonyms: meliorative, eulogistic, noun eulogism). Dyslogisms such as "pea-brain" and "bottom-feeder" are words and phrases essentially pejorative by their nature. Although pejorative means much the same thing as disparaging, the latter term may be applied to a look or gesture as well; in the evocative language of gesture, it may not be easy to distinguish a disparaging gesture from a dismissive or merely skeptical one, however.[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pejorative]More.[/url]

A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking "purity" of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected the Laudian reform of the Church of England. Those who sought further reform of liturgy and theology away from that of the Roman Catholic Church and those who justified separation from the Church of England following the Elizabethan Religious Settlement are commonly called "Puritans" by historians and critics. Later groups are called "puritan", not necessarily favorably, by comparison to these low church Anglicans and Calvinistic Non-conformists. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan]Read more at Wikipedia.org[/url]

Regards,

Doug

thx alot

Here is a link to many many quotes and writings of some Puritan preachers. Enjoy !!!
[url=http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Reformed-Theology/The-Puritans/]Puritans[/url]

I always liked when teachers like CS Lewis would say that we should reclaim the original meaning of Puritan... one who seeks to have a life of purity.

The American church needs a new wave of purity!

i found this site and you can download many precious books from the puritans,
they are in pdf format,
i strongly recommend Thomas Brooks
there are his complete works six volumes

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=subject:%22Puritans%20--%20Collected%20works%22