Puritans

The Puritans were a group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from all Roman Catholic practices.

As the Puritans were blocked from changing the established church from within and were severely restricted in England by laws controlling the practice of religion, many congregations emigrated to the Netherlands or to North America. Because it was in alliance with the growing commercial world and with the parliamentary opposition to the royal prerogative, Puritanism played a major role in English and New England history during the 17th century,

The Puritans were never a formally defined sect or religious division within Protestantism, and the term "Puritan" itself was rarely used to describe people after the turn of the 18th century. Some Puritan ideals became incorporated into Anglicanism, such as the formal rejection of Roman Catholicism; some fell out of favor, such as the beliefs in demonic possession; some were absorbed into the many Protestant sects that emerged in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in the Americas and Britain.

History
At the end of 17th century, the American puritans were infiltrated by members of the Templar Order, with puritan ministers such as William Stoughton or Samuel Parris being Templars. In 1692, those two were the architects of the Salem witch trials, fueling and then using the mass hysteria caused by the apparition of strange phenomenons to launch a chase for a Piece of Eden.

Reference

 * Assassin's Creed #001 - #004