The historian John Strype (1643–1737) published the fourth and final volume of his monumental Elizabethan religious history Annals of the Reformation in 1731. For over two and a half centuries it remained one of the most important Protestant histories of the period and has been reprinted in numerous editions. Volume 4 is a rich collection of primary sources, covering the final years of Elizabeth I's reign and the first years of the reign of James I. The sources concern the continued threats from Spain; religious dissidence in England; episcopal organisation and the transference of power to James I. The sources, transcribed by Strype, include state papers, official proclamations, royal records, and letters. Strype's thorough use of sources and the enormous scope and detail of his history has ensured its place as an outstanding work of eighteenth-century scholarship. It should be read by every student of Elizabethan religious history.
