This work traces the history and evolution of thinking about the devil in England during the period of the Protestant Reformation. It focuses mainly on the view of the Protestants, particularly the Puritans, and spends too little time on the Church of England, which was really the dominant church throughout that period. One of the better things about the book is that he differentiates between what the clergy and the hierarchy thought, and the actual practice of the ordinary people, who often weren't all that affected by what the church thought, and held onto their ancient beliefs, often an oddball mix of Catholic ritual, pagan symbolism, and Protestant thought. I was surprised to find out how uneasy the Protestant's were with the thought of the devil as a flesh-and-blood being; I was brought up on that sort of devil my entire Protestant childhood. Now I have some idea of the world in which such ideas formed and evolved. ( )