This is an authoritative and revealing study of an important yet relatively unexplored force in English history. The Elizabethan puritan movement arose from discontent with the religious settlement of 1559 and the desire among many of the clergy and laity for a 'further reformation'. The more radical wished to change the structure of the Church, substituting a presbyterian order for episcopacy. They became, in fact, a revolutionary movement, whose clandestine organization and agitation through parliament constituted a serious threat to the state. It is only in this age of comparable subversive activities that the full significance and danger of the movement can be measured.