Library at Devonshire House, the Congregational Library in London, and the Guildhall Library; to the custodians of records at Somerset House, and to the provost of Worcester College, Oxford. I am under a special debt of gratitude to Professor R. C. H. Catterall, who has been my untiring guide and helpful critic from the inception of this work until its completion. I wish also to express my appreciation of the kindness of those who have helped the book through its final stages, especially that of Miss Grace L. Filer, who has aided me in innumerable ways, for which all words of thanks must be inadequate. WELLESLEY, Massachusetts, September, 1911. L. F. B. CHAPTER I. BAPTISTS AND FIFTH MONARCHY MEN. It is evident to students of the Protectorate p that the religious views of the men who were dire public affairs, and the attitude of the various. toward the government, were very important eler in the fortunes of England during those difficulty The problems of Cromwell, in adjusting to politica gencies his own ideas on the subject of religion a church organization; his real perplexity and sorr dealing with conscientious men whose scruple understood, and with whose pleas for liberty of science he sympathized: these were factors of co erable weight in shaping the destinies of the P torate. The curious attempt at government by a of men chosen for their godliness, and the altern of governments which gave the country over to c sion in the period which followed Richard Crom abdication: these, as well as the days of the Prot ate, can be better understood after a study o activities of two bodies of men, frequently con even by contemporaries-the politico-religious known as Fifth Monarchy men, and the membe the Baptist denomination. It will be necessary, b beginning such a study, to have a clear idea of the and characteristics of each of these bodies. Of all the forms of Protestantism to which the ormation gave birth there was one which, more r I |