As Jewel had been compelled, at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, [Sidenote: 1562] to defend the Anglican church against Rome, so Richard Hooker, in his famous {345} _Ecclesiastical Polity_ [Sidenote: 1594] was now forced to defend it from the extreme Protestants.

In the very year in which this finely tempered work was written, a Jesuit reported that the Puritans were the strongest body in the kingdom and particularly that they had the most officers and soldiers on their side.

The coming Commonwealth was already casting its shadow on the age of Shakespeare.
As a moral and religious influence Puritanism was of the utmost importance in moulding the English--and American--character and it was, take it all in all, a noble thing.

If it has been justly blamed for a certain narrowness in its hostility, or indifference, to art and refinement, it more than compensated for this by the moral earnestness that it impressed on the people.

To bring the genius of the Bible into English life and literature, to impress each man with the idea of living for duty, to reduce politics and the whole life of the state to ethical standards, are undoubted services of Puritanism.