have read all the published writings of the Mathers and most of the manuscripts. The weary reader of this book may assume that I have discussed and cited them all too, but I can assure him that I have not. The character of the other Puritan tracts that I have used should be apparent from the text and the notes.
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Discussing the Mathers' writings here is probably not necessary in any case, since valuable information about them has been available for a number of years in the distinguished bibliographies by Thomas James Holmes. They deserve mention here as the single most valuable bibliographical aid to my work. They are
Increase Mather: A Bibliography of His Works
(2 vols., Cleveland, Ohio, 1931);
Cotton Mather: A Bibliography Of His Works
(3 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1940); and
The Minor Mathers: A List Of Their Works
(Cambridge, Mass., 1940).
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Several other works proved so valuable to me that I want to mention them once more. Clifford K. Shipton,
Sibley's Harvard Graduates: Biographical Sketches Of Those Who Attended Harvard College
(14 vols. to date, Boston, 1873-1968) is a splendid piece of scholarship and I have drawn on it more times than I have been able to say in my notes. In a different way, I am deeply indebted to Perry Miller's
The New England Mind: From Colony To Province
(Cambridge, Mass., 1953), one of the great histories written in the twentieth century. My view of the development of Puritanism is different from Miller's, but his book has helped me to see things differently. Miller's other work on the Puritans has been only slightly less useful to me in this study.
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I have discussed Miller's work at length in an essay in Marcus Cunliffe and Robin Winks, eds.,
Pastmasters: Some Essays On American Historians
(New York, 1969). There I also deal with the work of a number of other able scholars of Puritanism whose studies have helped me in writing this book. Of that scholarship, the histories by Edmund S. Morgan have affected my method and thought most deeply. Morgan's
Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea
(New York, 1963), in particular has helped me work out my understanding of Puritan Church polity.
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