Puritan choir

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The Puritan Choir was a theory - of an influential movement in the Elizabethan Parliament - advanced by historian Sir John Neale in his biography Queen Elizabeth I.

Neale, when researching the politics of Elizabeth's reign, discovered a pamphlet naming 43 members of the House of Commons of 1566 as members of a Puritan movement. He stressed their importance in helping to shape the 1559 Elizabethan Religious Settlement more along the lines of Calvin's Geneva. They were also influential, he argues, in pushing for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth's naming of a successor.

The historian Norman Jones has, however, largely proved the 'Puritan Choir' to be a misinterpretation of evidence. He argues that many of the alleged Puritans listed on the pamphlet did not, in fact have Puritan tendencies. It seems that Neale's error was in endeavouring to find the roots of the English Civil War in Elizabeth's reign which thus led to false conclusions being drawn from the evidence.