The relationship of social unrest to the development of religious communities is examined in this study. With primary documents from social and church history in Hertfordshire, the essays in this collection argue that the existence of social opposition to established society can act as a catalyst for religious forms of expression. Featured are the social and religious implications of the 1683 Rye House Plot, the murder of a Quaker girl in 1699, and the controversial elections from 1722 to 1736.