This is the first study of English sermons to focus on the sermon as heard by the listener rather than as uttered by the preacher. Throughout most of Christian history, the sermon has been the main vehicle for the transmission of religious ideas, particularly during the early modern period when many people could not read or write. Arnold Hunt assesses the effectiveness of the sermon as a means of spreading Protestant ideas, looking at the response from the audience and showing that the laity often interpreted sermons in ways that their clerical authors did not intend. It is also the first book to look in detail at the difference between the sermon as preached and the sermon as printed, showing that the sermons that survive in print are often a very inadequate guide to what was actually delivered from the pulpits of early modern England.