I have to acknowledge much kind cc-operation in the preparation of the illustrations and revision of some of the chapters. I am especially indebted to Mrs. Rylands, of Manchester, for permission to reproduce a number of old engravings. Readers of these pages will see that while Puritanism has assumed various forms, it has always stood for a Spiritual interpretation of Christianity and the Christian Church. This spiritual interpretation, as Milton said, it hath befallen us to assert, with God's assistance.