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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.