William Perkins has only recently come to receive from historians the attention that was given to him by contemporaries.' He was the first systematic Calvinist theologian in England who also had a clearly defined attitude towards social problems. I hope that a study of his theology and its outcome in social theory may help to throw some light on the historical significance of Puritanism. Perkins's life almost exactly covered the reign of Elizabeth. He died in 1602, at the age of 44. It was the life of a don and popular preacher in Cambridge. He was at one stage associated with Cartwright and others in an underground classis in Cambridge, but there is no evidence that he took any part in the more directly political activities of the Puritans. From about 1590, when the radicals began to be subjected to severe persecution, Perkins carefully dissociated himself from them.2 Nevertheless, he or his works were known to most of the great families from whom the leaders of the 17th century opposition were to come. Treatises of his were dedicated, by himself or his editors, to the third Earl of Bedford, to Lord Russell of Thornhaugh, to the Countess of Cumberland (a Russell); to Henry Grey, 6th Earl of Kent; to Robert, Lord Rich, father of the Earl of Warwick; to the family of Montagu of Boughton, many of whom were members of Perkins's College, Christ's; to Sir Edward Coke, Sir Christopher Yelverton, Sir John Savile; to Oliver St. John of Bletsho, and to Valentine Knightley. Perkins's decisive influence was as a teacher. Ministers came to