From: Rosemary D'Angelo
Date: 2/2/00
Time: 6:20:21 PM
Remote Name: 209.246.208.140
Rosemary D’Angelo History 67
John Winthrop was born in the year 1587, in Suffolk, England. He was an educated man. His education started at home, where he had a private tutor. At fourteen, he left home to attend Trinity College in Cambridge. After two years of attending Trinity College, he returned home to learn how to run his father’s estate. John Winthrop was married three times. His first two wives both died. He went on to marry his third wife who he was deeply in love with. During his travels, he always sent love letters to his wife. In these love letters he portrayed his Puritan beliefs by reminding his wife that their strongest love should be devoted to God. In the beginning of his life he discovered Puritanism. The people who believed in Puritanism were called the Puritans. The Puritans were devoted to God and wanted to make their church pleasing to God. In order to do this, they broke off from the church of England to start their own church in a colony in the New World. John Winthrop was elected to be governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which was the organization for the Puritans to come to the New World. During their voyage to the New World, John Winthrop delivered a sermon called “A Model of Christian Charity”. In this sermon he explained to the Puritans how important they were to Puritanism, he stressed by calling their city “a city upon a hill”. He referred to it as “a city upon a hill” because he said everybody would be watching them, and everybody would know if they failed or succeeded. If they failed people would speak evil against their God and say that their God withdrew his help from them. If they succeeded they would be known as God’s people, and God would help them as a society. John Winthrop’s sermon was almost like a game plan on how to succeed in the New World. He preached on how the people should keep the covenant between God. He gave his sermon before he landed in the New World so everyone would be thinking the same ideas, such as their goals and the way they are going to reach those goals.