Transgressing the Bounds: Subversive Enterprises among the Puritan Elite in Massachusetts, 1630-1692 (Religion in America)

## Abstract This book examines the divisions in Massachusetts over the colony's social and religious boundaries and its relationship to the transatlantic world in the period 1638–92. Central actors are leading men who congregated in the Artillery Company of Massachusetts, an organization that attracted a heterogeneous yet prominent membership – a membership whose diversity and cosmopolitanism contrasted with the social and religious ideals of the cultural majority. Focusing on elite men – not marginalized outsiders – who endeavored to stretch the intellectual and social bounds of orthodoxy, the book demonstrates that the dangers posed by the outside world and various sorts of “others” were perceived in very similar terms over the course of the seventeenth century. The tendency to form opposing factions, insisting both on isolation from that world and involvement in its growing diversity, also remained relatively constant, from the antinomian controversy of the 1630s through the witchcraft epidemic of 1692. The old declension model suggested that Massachusetts fell away from its original purity as alien outside forces impinged ever more heavily on its residents. This study argues rather that dueling versions of the good life, which pitted localism against cosmopolitanism and homogeneity against heterogeneity, competed with one another persistently throughout the century and beyond. This Study Offers A New Interpretation Of The Puritan Antinomian Controversy And A Skillful Analysis Of Its Wider And Long Term Social And Cultural Significance. Breen Argues That Controversy Both Reflected And Fostered Larger Questions Of Identity That Would Persist In Puritan New England During The 17th Century. Some Issues Discussed Here Include The Existence Of Individualism In A Society That Valued Conformity And The Response Of Members Of An Inward-looking, Localistic Culture To Those Among Them Of A More Cosmopolitan Nature. Central To Breen's Study Is The Ancient And Honorable Artillery Company Of Massachusetts, An Elite Social Club That Attracted A Heterogeneous Yet Prominent Membership, And Whose Diversity Contrasted With The Social And Religious Ideals Of The Cultural Majority.--jacket. Louise Breen. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 221-282) And Index. This study offers a new interpretation of the puritan 'Antinomian' controversy and a skilful analysis of its wider and long term social and cultural significance. Breen argues that the controversy both reflected and fostered larger questions of identity that would persist in puritan New England throughout the 17th century