The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1896 page)

 
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Puri
.

Hindu pilgrimage centre in Bengal, site of the
Jagann
tha
temple, and one of the seven particularly holy places of India (see
SACRED CITIES, SEVEN
).

 
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see
CHINUL
.

 
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(Heb., ‘lots’). Jewish feast commemorating the deliverance of Jews, as recorded in the book of
Esther
. The feast is celebrated on 14 Adar; it was established by the 2nd cent. CE, and the
Mishnah
tractate
Megillah
discusses its observance.

 
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Puritans
.

Those members of the late 16th-cent. church in England who were dissatisfied with the Elizabethan Settlement of Religion. The term was one of abuse coined in the 1560s to describe ‘a hotter sort of
Protestant
’. These included people who had returned to England after exile under Queen Mary (1553–8), some of whom refused to be
bishops
, and who held strong views about worship, as well as others who pressed vigorously for the purification of the Church. The term ‘Puritan’ thus describes attitudes to the Church of England which changed through time. In the early 17th cent., the lines separating Puritans and English Protestants became more blurred as they continued, in the main, to worship in the same churches and espouse the same basic theology. The appointment by Charles I of a number of bishops who were
Arminian
in much of their theology, together with the seeming alliance of court and church in promoting
high church
practices, alienated many: it raised questions about the
episcopate
, the
liturgy
, and the proper way of life for the elect (cf.
election
), which had largely lain dormant for half a century. Not so by 1642, when these issues figured in the English Civil War, the so-called Puritan Revolution. After the restoration, some Puritans became Separatists, believing in a
Congregational
form of church government. Several of these Separatist leaders were executed, whilst others were compelled to leave the country (e.g. the Pilgrim Fathers) in order to enjoy religious liberty.
Under the auspices of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Puritans settled in all the new colonies, but especially in New England and Virginia. Until the end of the 17th cent., the strong Puritan sense of holding authority under God (as God's elect) created a kind of ‘holy commonwealth’, with strong religious control.

 
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Judaism
Purity
(Heb.,
tohorah
) involves the state of being ritually acceptable. According to Leviticus 11–17 and Numbers 19, the three major causes of ritual impurity are leprosy, sexual emissions, and contact with the dead. In the
halakhah
, the laws of ritual purity and impurity are laid out in twelve tractates of the
Mishnah
and the
Tosefta
. Human beings, utensils, and food can all become impure, and purification involves the performance of particular rituals, although many have fallen into disuse in modern times. See also
MIKVEH
;
NIDDAH
;
TOHORAH
.
Islam
See
ABLUTION
.
Hinduism
See
ODHANA
.
Zoroastrianism
Purity and pollution are central concerns in
Zoroastrian
thought and practice. In Zoroastrian theology (
Bundahisn
)
Ahura Mazda
is wholly good and all that leads to death and decay is the work of the evil
Angra Mainyu
. The ultimate pollution is a corpse, especially that of a righteous person, for their death represents a greater triumph for evil than that of a sinner. But anything leaving the body (urine, spittle, blood, cut hair, etc.) is also thought of as dead, and therefore polluting.
The purity laws affect most aspects of life for all Zoroastrians, from the obligation to clean the home; to observing laws which are nowadays seen as hygienic; to acts of worship (
Atas
); funerals (
daxma
); even to rules against intermarriage or in strict priestly homes against commensality with anyone who does not observe the purity laws, especially non-Zoroastrians (
juddins
).
There are various rites of purification. For minor pollutions, the
padyab
, washing and saying the
kusti
prayers (
Naujote
), is all that is necessary. On special occasions, for example before initiations or weddings, the
Nahn
is necessary. This begins with the
Padyab-kusti
; the symbolic eating of a pomegranate leaf and drinking of
nirang
to cleanse spiritually; the recital of the
Patet
, the prayer of repentance, and finally a bath.