Advocates of the Puritans, in an effort to prove that their minds were not absorbed by squabbles over petty details of vestments and symbols, have explained at length the importance of such matters in that age; and they are quite right. The Puritan attack, however, was not merely against the surplice, or minister who did not preach, or immorality in private life, as it certainly was not for liberty of conscience. It was obvious to those in authority that what the reformers desired was a change of the established church government into the Presbyterian form, with themselves in control. Masson claims that between 1580 and 1590 there were not less than five hundred beneficed clergy who practically maintained a Presbyterian organization within the body of the Church.[174] Although these numbers may be somewhat too large, evidence was continually cropping out which showed that the Puritans wished not only to gain control of the Church, but to substitute the Presbyterian discipline in its place.[175] Marsden, like many other writers, has raised the questions whether the points at issue were really vital, and whether more “Christian meekness and moderation” should not have been shown “even to the obstinate.”[176] From the standpoint of the administration of a great organization, upon which rested the responsibility of maintaining what it believed to be essential both to the Church and to the State, it must be admitted that these things did seem vital, just as they seemed so to the small Puritan minority. If they were not vital, then we must impugn either the good faith or the intellectual ability of the entire mass of Puritans who fought for them so bitterly; and if they were, then it must be conceded that they were quite as much so for the majority in power as for the minority in opposition. Footnote 174: D. Masson, _Life of Milton_ (London, 1875), vol. II, p. 532. Footnote 175: Usher, _Reconstruction_, vol. I, pp. 42 _ff._, 347 _ff._; J. B. Marsden, _The History of the Early Puritans_ (London, 1853), pp. 78 _ff._ Footnote 176: Marsden, _Early Puritans_, p. 168.