THE WRITINGS of the Reverend William Perkins, sometime fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, have not been republished since the seventeenth century; no modern anthology includes anything from his pen; few teachers of history, literature, or theology mention his name in their classes. Yet this man's works were once so popular that they appeared in English, Latin, Dutch, Spanish, Welsh, and Irish, and they influenced the lives of thousands of Englishmen on both sides of the Atlantic. For a century after his death in i602 his treatises and sermons were widely read in England and America by both Puritans and Anglicans. His social teachings were influential, and the effects of his application of religion to contemporary problems were acknowledged by men of various sects. His precepts on the art of preaching were studied by the Puritan clergy in both England and New England, as well as by orthodox ministers of the Establishment. Indeed, his insistence upon plainness and directness in writing and speaking had its effect in simplifying the style of prose exposition. Of particular importance was the instruction in practical divinity contained in his treatises on cases of conscience-the first notable contributions to Puritan casuistry. William Perkins, in short, is an excellent example of the moderate Puritan who helped transform the social and spiritual life of England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.' Some