Christian historian Philip Quenby investigates the ideas and motivations that brought the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World, setting them alongside King James' contrasting autocratic vision for church and state. What special claim do these people have on our attention? The answer is: an idea, a book and an inheritance. The idea was freedom of conscience, the book was the Geneva Bible and the inheritance was the accumulation of English liberties bound up in all that Magna Carta has come to symbolise. Remembering how and why the Pilgrim Fathers stood firm against overbearing state power is vital. By learning from the past, we can find hope, purpose and direction for our nation today.