The Puritans who settled in New England in the 1630s and 1640s did so to separate themselves from the Church of England, which they viewed as corrupt. They established towns and new lives based entirely on their religious ideals of a purified Protestant faith and a tightly-knit community. However, tensions arose between religious freedom and order as their communities grew more diverse. Dissenters and others with differing religious views challenged Puritan authority and orthodoxy. This led to a struggle between allowing independence of thought and maintaining religious and political uniformity in their colonies.