Some of the Puritans’ controlling doctrine and behavior started at the jump, but much of it developed beginning around the 1640s and 1650s, when founders and elders became rigidly determined to hold what they’d built and developed—that is, when they became corrupted by power and refused to relinquish it. The Puritans came here as dissenters, but ended up as rigid and intolerant as the leadership they’d fled, arguably more so. Their lofty ideals twisted over time. For example, as more community members developed the inner conviction of being saved, ministers feared their leadership would lose
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