Samuel Rawson Gardiner 
The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution 

In this volume are reprinted for convenient reference more than ninety documents which are ‘intended to serve either as a basis for the study of the constitutional history of an important period, or as a companion to the political history of the time.’ With the exception of four, mentioned in the preface, they are taken from books that are beyond the reach of most students unless they have access to large and well-equipped libraries The whole is prefaced by a concise account of the period, so that we have at hand what might be compared to the finder on a telescope. Among the papers are the following, of which we have often heard, and which we can here examine that they may throw light upon our understanding of the history of the period : The Declaration of Sports, the Scottish National Covenant, the Root and Branch Petition, the Solemn League and Covenant, the Self-denying Ordinance.