ABSTRACT
As we have seen, puritans were earnestly convinced of the importance of education. The Bible had set all men free and when all could read and ponder it for themselves the truth would prevail and the Kingdom of God would be at hand. Hence much of the educational investment of the period from 1560 to 1640 was prompted by puritan-inspired charity. During the upheavals of the 1640s and 1650s, when militant puritanism swept away the monarchy, the House of Lords and the bishops, and the country was governed in turn by a puritan Parliament, army and Lord Protector, education (like religion and politics) was endlessly debated and reforming ideas circulated as never before.
