ONE of the most marked characteristics of historical studies in England at the present day is the increasing attention devoted to ecclesiastical history. Since this century began five societies have been founded for the study of the history of particular religious bodies and the publication of documents relating to them. The Congregationalists, the Baptists, and the Friends, all publish periodicals containing dissertations on historical questions and materials for history, while the Jewish Historical Society and the Catholic Records Society have already published many volumes of original documents. Enterprising editors during the same period have collected and printed by subscription materials of the same kind, or reprinted rare tracts. And besides this the University presses of Cambridge, Oxford, and Manchester have published a number of books either containing new documentary evidence or utilising unpublished materials. A bibliography of these works would be a useful but a considerable task, and would take too much space for this Preface. While some of them deal with what may be termed purely sectarian history, others have a wider scope and deal with periods anterior to the definite separation of particular religious societies from the English Church. To this last class Dr Peel's book belongs, and it should be regarded as a contribution to English ecclesiastical history as a whole.

Elizabethan Puritanism has attracted many investigators in recent years.