^3)TA^ 
 
 -\i. 
 
 Columbia ©niher^itp 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
This book is due two weeks from the last date stamped 
 below, and if not returned at or before that time a fine of 
 five cents a dav will be incurred. 
 
 I 
 
 
 : U ■ 
 
 33r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 ■'^: 
 
^^^^^^^rf^^S^a/^:S^«** 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
Bi/ the same Author, 
 
 THE ANCIENT LITURGY OF THE 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 According to the Uses of Sarum, Bakgor, York, and 
 
 Hereford, and the Modern Roman Liturgy, 
 
 arranged in parallel Columns. 
 
 London. William Pickering. 1844. 
 8vo. 9s. 6d. 
 
A HISTORY OF THE 
 
 agartin 9@arprelate Conttottetsj) 
 
 IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN 
 ELIZABETH 
 
 BY 
 
 THE KEV. WILLIAM MASKELL MA 
 
 LONDON 
 
 WI LLIAM PICKERING 
 
 1845 
 

 CHARLES WHITTINGHAM, CHISWICK. 
 
'^ir^HE following pages contain a reprint, 
 -*- with considerable additions, of an Arti- 
 cle " Martin Marprelate/' in the third quar- 
 terly number of the Christian Remembrancer. 
 (No. xlviij. April 1845.) 
 
 180124 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Pa.jf. 
 
 rpHE Epistle 12. 29. 
 
 -■- The Epitome 13. 29. 
 
 The Admonition 14. 7r3. 
 
 Hay any Worke 14. 91. 
 
 Penry's Appellation 13. 110. 
 
 The Dialogue 15. 141. 
 
 M. Some laid open in his coulers 16. 120. 
 
 The Protestation 16. 128. 
 
 The Theses 17. 149. 
 
 The Just Censure ...., 18. 151. 
 
 Pappe with an Hatchet 18. 168. 
 
 The Countercuffe 19. 168. 
 
 An Almond for a Parrat 19. 182. 
 
 Return of Pasquil 19. 177. 
 
 The Month's Minde 20. 186. 
 
 Plaine Percevall 21. 199. 
 
 Penry on Reformation 21. 202. 
 
 I'asquil's Apology 21. 204. 
 
VIU 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGJi 
 
 Bishop Aylmer's Harboiowe S7. 
 
 Bishop Bancroft's Sermon 162. 
 
 Anti-Martinus 206. 
 
 Mar-Martin 207. 
 
 Whip for an Ape = 208. 
 
ion. 
 ns;er of 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ^THHOSE who may be lookers on in the begin- introduct 
 -■- ning of any popular movement, those who excess in 
 
 popular 
 
 may be actors in it, and those who are the leaders, movements, 
 are all equally ignorant of the end to which it will 
 reach, and the excesses into which it may run. 
 Many will at first be interested in, and well-wishers 
 to the cause, until gradually they will lose their in- 
 terest from their own objects being already gained, 
 or some mismanagement disgusts them : and those 
 who set on foot great changes in important matters, 
 whether of belief or practice, whether temporal or 
 spiritual, are quickly passed by their eager followers, 
 and these again in their turn by others, until liberty 
 becomes tyranny, and reformation the most abomi- 
 nable of all abuses. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Corruptions It would be absurd to deny that there were cor- 
 
 existed in the . . , . t y-n . . /^^ 
 
 Church in the ruptions existmg in the Christian Church about 
 
 xvithCen- i , . • « , . 
 
 tury. the beginning oi the sixteenth century : the West- 
 
 ern Branch was not yet divided in communion ; 
 and, bound up as all her members had ever been, 
 not only in their practice and doctrines and go- 
 vernment, but in their sympathies, with thousands 
 and tens of thousands, none acknowledging any 
 checks which the boundaries of earthly kingdoms 
 would put upon their one brotherhood, it is not to 
 be wondered at that errors and corruptions should 
 arise and spread among so great a multitude. 
 There is no promise among the many given to His 
 Church by our Blessed Lord, that she should al- 
 ways be free from such calamity : but rather on the 
 contrary it was foretold, and herself cautioned, that 
 in the midst of all, the Faith might be the more 
 carefully preserved, and the faithful might be known. 
 So in the It was uot possible therefore that the English 
 
 Branch. Church should escapc : among the people under 
 
 her rule, both clerical and lay, there were many 
 matters at that time to be corrected, and new life 
 and energy given, (it was to be hoped) by the mere 
 pursuit itself of the proper and necessary means. 
 But it is far easier to spy out abuses than to ad- 
 minister the right remedies : it is far more suitable 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 3 
 
 to men's impatience to rush on headlong, cutting 
 away all that they suppose is wrong or useless, than 
 to wait for the sober arm of constituted authority, 
 and follow the cautious steps of matured and delibe- 
 rate judgment. 
 
 The whole Western Church then, felt the neces- These were to 
 
 , . .be reformed. 
 
 sity of some reformation : it was not only irreve- 
 rently demanded by turbulent burghers in Ger- 
 many and Bavaria, and by disappointed priests, 
 but acknowledged equally in the quiet cloisters 
 whether of Abbey or Cathedral, and in the halls 
 of the Vatican. But men would not wait. And 
 the sad consequences followed. Church after 
 Church took each upon itself the task of reforma- 
 tion : human politics were rapidly mixed up with 
 real and pretended religious zeal : there were prizes 
 to be gained in the tumult, rich enough and various 
 enough to excite the worst passions of our fallen 
 nature : and the end of the century saw the scat- 
 tered fragments of the once glorious Western 
 Church under very different fates. Some portions Consequences 
 
 " of loo imicli 
 
 had perished altogether : in others the people had I'aste. 
 but dim remnants left by which they might still be 
 distinguished and acknowledged : others had resist- 
 ed more stoutly, and saved more from the ravages 
 of the storm ; and once again, in no small part. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 (of which both rulers and people had been, as it 
 were, terror-struck at what had passed around them) 
 all attempt at any reformation had been stopped, 
 and whilst perhaps no privilege or means of grace 
 had been lost, it was but by the forced retaining of 
 much that was to be wished away. 
 Stnigeiecon- In the Church of England the struggle which 
 England. was to determine whether any of the marks and 
 tokens of Catholicity were to remain in her, or 
 whether she was to be utterly removed, had not 
 ceased in the yeai;, 1590. We might rather say 
 that until that date, after 1552, a crisis had not 
 arrived. The Almighty Ruler had Himself inter- 
 fered before, and by the early death of the inexpe- 
 rienced Edward, who could be but a tool in the 
 hands of others, had then preserved the Church. 
 Another year or two of his unhappy reign, after 
 the fashion in which religion and religious ordi- 
 nances were then esteemed and at the same rate 
 of innovation, would have sufficed to effect its ruin.* 
 
 * A book which I shall have occasion probably again to 
 refer to, is plain upon this point : viz. " The Troubles at 
 Frankfort." This is feprinted in the Phoenix, and is of much 
 more value as a contemporary document upon many impor- 
 tant questions, than appears to be commonly supposed. I 
 quote from the original edition of 1575, 4to. It was objected 
 to the extreme party at Frankfort that the not continuing 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 5 
 
 When the throne again became vacant, and Queen 
 Elizabeth was permitted by the same Great Provi- 
 dence to succeed, the contest was renewed: and 
 the more steadily resistance was continued, the 
 more constant were the efforts and the more re- 
 peated were the attacks of those, who were not 
 content that matters should be restored (with very 
 trivial alterations) even to their condition in the 
 last years of King Edward the Sixth. 
 
 I propose now to attempt to give a sketch of the Martin Mar- 
 Martin Marprelate Controversy in the year which 
 I have alluded to, viz. 1590. I think that its im- 
 portance has been very much overlooked, and this 
 by two parties : the Historians of the Church of 
 England, and the readers of their Histories. The 
 latter class, of course, would scarcely direct their 
 especial attention to a period and to a struggle 
 which were not apparently worth much more inquiry, 
 and they would be satisfied with hearing of Martin 
 ^Marprelate by name, and being told that his tracts 
 
 abroad the use of K. Edward's second Common Prayer 
 Book, would be iu effect to throw a slur upon the compilers 
 of it, at that very time, 1.554, suffering in behalf of the Re- 
 formation : as the objectors word it, " least by muche alter- 
 iiige off the same we shulde seeme to condemne the chieff 
 authors theroff, who as they nowe suffer, so are they most 
 redie to confirme that facte with the price off their bloudc, 
 
MARTIN MAKPRELATE. 
 
 were violent, and the matter of some importance. I 
 may say, I think, that the historians who do speak 
 of it, allow it to be of great importance : but they 
 do not seem to realize the doubtful state of the 
 Church of England at the time, and the peril in 
 
 and slmlde also bothe geue occasion to our aduersaries, to 
 accuse oure doctrine of imperfection, and us of mutabilitie." 
 This was a forcible argument, and so also was the reply : 
 " Yff anie thinke that the not vsing off the booke in all pointes 
 shoulde increase (query weaken) our godly fathers and bre- 
 therns hands, or els anye thinge deface the worthie ordinan- 
 ces and lawes off our Soueraigne K. Edward the 6. he 
 semethe ether litle to waie the mater, or els letted through 
 ignorance knowethe not that euen they themselues haue 
 vpon considerations off circumstances, altered heretofore 
 many thinges as touchinge the same. And iff god had not 
 in theis wicked daies otherwise determined, woulde here 
 after haue chaunged more, yea and in oure case we dowte 
 not but that they woulde haue don the like." Pp. xxi. xxii. 
 We must remember that the book was not an ideal one, 
 which was to have been so substituted for the 1552 Common 
 Prayer of Edward VI. It was the one which the Frankfort 
 exiles persisted in the observance of: it was the Order of 
 Geneva which was drawn up by Calvin. Not only unlike 
 any Service or Liturgy which had heretofore been used in 
 the Christian Church, (which was not improbable,) but so 
 changed, so unlike, that the most solemn offices were almost, 
 if we may so speak, made a jest of; there could not even be 
 a valid administration under its rule of the Holy Communion, 
 for the form which it provided omitted the essentials of con- 
 secration. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 which the boldness and the wickedness of her ene- 
 mies had then placed her. 
 
 One, perhaps the cause of this has been, the Rarity of bis 
 
 ^ ^ . Tracts. 
 
 no little difficulty of obtaining and therefore of care- 
 fully examining the original publications. They 
 are all very scarce, and several of extraordinary 
 rarity. It is not possible always to have access to 
 public libraries ; and except there, to expect to find 
 any of them, when wanted, would be almost hope- 
 less : even not one of our public libraries contains 
 the whole series. Hence each would be content 
 under the necessity to follow the guidance of those 
 who had gone before him : and, except that one 
 mistake is sure to be the fruitful parent of others, 
 the accounts which are given us generally in the 
 Ecclesiastical Histories, are in the main repetitions 
 of the same story. " That there was a Martin 
 Marprelate : i. e. a set of men who wrote under 
 that title : that his tracts were violent : that he was 
 answered in the same style : that he was soon sup- 
 pressed." Strype (whose name none can mention 
 without gratitude and respect) had obtained and 
 examined several of the tracts, which more particu- 
 larly concerned the Lives of Whitgift and Aylmer. 
 From his stores chiefly those drew who succeeded 
 him. Mr. DTsraeli seems to have read also some 
 
8 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 four or five of them, and has written a merely 
 Errors re- amusing paper on the subject ; that he did not take 
 
 specliiig . . /. T • 
 
 tbeni. a very accurate view is at once evident, from his 
 
 classing this controversy as "Literary," such as, 
 for example, between " D'Avenant and a club of 
 wits," between " Pope and Addison," in short, 
 among the Quary^els of Authors. We might have 
 looked for the evidence of more research, and there- 
 fore for more information on the point in a book which 
 professes to give us the " Elizabethan Religious 
 History." But I cannot think that Mr. Soames 
 could have taken the trouble to examine even one 
 of these tracts, and was therefore quite inadequate 
 to form any judgment at all upon their importance. 
 How far carelessness in one inquiry (and this as it 
 would seem so necessary) might be an argument 
 against the value of the whole volume, I am not 
 prepared to decide. But even if second-hand in- 
 formation was to be sufficient for us in a work with 
 such a title, as " The Ehzabethan Religious His- 
 tory," we certainly have a just right to complain 
 that its author should be content to speak of Bishop 
 Cooper's Admonition to the People of England 
 as being published after the derisive answers by 
 Nash and others, or suppose that Dr. Bridges, 
 Dean of Salisbury, wrote against Martin Marpre- 
 
MARTIN iMAKFRELATE. 
 
 late,' because one of Martin's tracts has the title, 
 " Oh I read over Dr. John Bridges." * 
 
 Some account of the old controversy may not be 
 the less called for at the present time, when popu- 
 lar attention is directed once more to some of the 
 points then at issue : when ceremonies and rites of 
 the Church, if not exactly the same, certainly the 
 same in kind, have become subjects in debate : and 
 even her essential doctrines and necessary disci- 
 pline once more openly called in question, and the 
 policy (as men think it) of enforcing either dis- 
 puted by her own professed members. 
 
 It is no little sign of the interest which exists Some lately 
 
 1-1 /» 1 1 reprinted, 
 
 upon such questions, that it has proved a profitable 
 speculation to reprint several of the Marprelate 
 tracts : many more also are threatened connected 
 with the Disciplinarian controversy. 
 
 If these pamphlets had been allowed to remain 
 in their long-established obscurity, arising from 
 their rarity of occurrence, few would have wished 
 to see them, for few would have even known their bm mnch to 
 
 be lamented. 
 
 existence. But the mere fact of supplying them by 
 " reprints," excites curiosity, and creates a demand. 
 
 * Or, this error may be traced to a passage in Keal, vol. 
 i. 339, who says (though he knew better)," Dr. Bridges an- 
 swered Martin in a ludicrous style." 
 
lO MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 There is no doubt that before the supply there was 
 little or no inquiry about them. And if at every 
 time, surely now in our own, the spreading them 
 abroad must be accompanied with very serious evils : 
 must tend to excite doubts about things long ago 
 argued and decided upon, and produce much pain 
 in minds accustomed to regard with reverence sub- 
 jects which the Elizabethan Puritans spoke of in 
 mockery and scorn and with blasphemous jesting. 
 
 I do not hesitate to repeat again, however useless 
 such a protest may be, another most serious objec- 
 tion which lies against a republication of the Eliza- 
 bethan Puritan tracts. It is this : that by far the 
 These sent greater part of the edition goes to America. That 
 
 chiefly to . . , i ^ i • i 
 
 America. IS, as it sccms to me, the very country to which 
 these books ought not to go. It is natural that the 
 thousands of its quickly increasing population, with 
 no literature of their own, should eagerly look 
 abroad, from any source, for information. They 
 are not able to judge correctly of the supply which 
 is readily enough poured in ; and in fact whilst a 
 wish for information is made a pretext, excitement 
 and to be amused are the real prompters of the 
 demand for books. And so, this country sends 
 them, as a portion of its traffic, the tracts of Mar- 
 tin Marprelate ! In the hands of a people who 
 
MARTIN MARl'RELATE. H 
 
 possess not the checks to ill which still exist among 
 ourselves ; or the inducements which lead many in 
 England to go on (as we call it) steadily, without 
 knowing why or wherefore : of a people among 
 whom the Catholic Church barely claims to be the 
 City upon a hill, but is oppressed from within and 
 from without : where there is no attempt at disci- 
 pline, and scarcely certainty even upon the most 
 important doctrines : in their hands, I say, we are 
 gratuitously placing weapons of which they know 
 not the fatal power; which they as yet want not, 
 neither ask for, because they are ignorant of their 
 existence : and we thrust upon them most deadly 
 poison, knowing that they have not the antidote, 
 by which our ancestors were saved in their hour of 
 peril. 
 
 I have now before me original copies of the fol- The titles of 
 
 the Marpre- 
 
 lowing tracts, all of which enter into what may be late Tracts, 
 strictly called the Martin Marprelate series : to be 
 classed among which it is not enough that a book 
 should condemn a distinction of ecclesiastical habits 
 and discipline, and church government, and rail 
 against priestly orders and Episcopacy ; otherwise 
 we might, as some have supposed, include in it the 
 Admonition to the Parliamejity or the Parte of a 
 Register^ or the Demonstration of Discipline. I 
 
12 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 would not even include Dr. Bridges' Defence of 
 the Government established, but would limit the 
 beginning, though uncertain perhaps of the end of 
 it, with the Epistle of Martin Marprelate. It 
 seems necessary first to give the full titles of these 
 tracts and their collation, which will enable me to 
 refer to them afterwards by their shorter titles. 
 The Epistle. 1. * Oh read ouer D. John Bridges, for it is a 
 
 * worthy worke : or an Epitome of the fyrste Booke, 
 
 * of that right worshipfull volume, written against 
 
 * the Puritanes, in the defence of the noble cleargie, 
 
 * by as worshipfull a prieste, John Bridges, Pres- 
 
 * byter. Priest or elder, doctor of Diuillitie, and 
 
 * Deane of Sarum. Wherein the arguments of the 
 
 * puritans are wisely prevented, that when they 
 
 * come to answere M. Doctor, they must needes 
 ' say something that hath bene spoken. Compiled 
 
 * for the behoofe and [overthrow of the Parsons, 
 
 * Fyckers, and Currats, that have lernt their Cate- 
 
 * chismes, and are past grace : By the reverend and 
 ' worthie Martin Marprelate gentleman, and dedi- 
 
 * cated to the Confocation house. The Epitome is 
 
 * not yet published, but it shall be when the Bishops 
 ' are at conuenient leysure to view the same. In 
 
 * the meane time, let them be content with this 
 ' learned Epistle. Printed oversea, in Europe, 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I3 
 
 ' within two furlongs of a Bounsing Priest, at the 
 ' cost and charges of M. Marprelate, gentleman.' 
 This tract collates A to G, in fours, 4to, pp. 34. 
 Entirely in black letter. 
 2. * Oh read ouer D. John Bridges, for it is T»ie Epitome. 
 
 * worthy worke : Or an epitome of the fyrste Booke, 
 ' of that right worshippfull volume, written against 
 ' the Puritanes, in the defence of the noble cleargie, 
 ' by as worshipfull a prieste, John Bridges, Pres- 
 ' byter. Priest or elder, doctor of Diuillitie, and 
 ' Deane of Sarum. Wherein the arguments of the 
 ' Puritans are wisely prevented, that when they 
 ' come to answere M. Doctor, they must needes 
 
 * say some thing that hath bene spoken. Compiled 
 ' for the behoofe and overthrow of the vnpreaching 
 
 * Parsons, Fyckers, and Currats, that haue lernt 
 ' their Catechismes, and are past grace : By the 
 ' reverend and worthie Martin Marprelat gentlc- 
 ' man, and dedicated by a second Epistle to the 
 
 * Terrible Priests. In this Epitome, the foresaide 
 ' Pickers, &c. are very insufficiently furnished, with 
 
 * notable inabilitie of most vincible reasons, to an- 
 
 * swere the cauill of the puritanes. And lest M. 
 
 * Doctor should thinke that no man can write with- 
 
 * out sence but his selfe, the senceles titles of the 
 
 * seueral pages, and the handling of the matter 
 
14 MARTIN MARPRF.LATE. 
 
 * throughout the Epitome, shewe plainly, that bee- 
 
 * tleheaded ignoraunce, must not liue and die with 
 
 * him alone. Printed on the other hand of some 
 
 * of the Priests.' Collates G 2 in fours, (the last 
 leaf blank) 4to, and has no pagination. Also in 
 black letter. 
 
 Bishop Coop- 3. *An admonition to the People of England: 
 
 er's Admoni- . i i i i 
 
 tion. ' wherem are answered, not onely the slaunderous 
 
 * vntrouthes, reprochfully vttered by Martin the 
 ' Libeller, but also many other Crimes by some of 
 
 * his broode, obiected generally against all Bishops, 
 
 * and the Chiefe of the Cleargie, purposely to de- 
 
 * face and discredite the present state of the Church. 
 ' - — Detractor & libens auditor, vterque Diabolum 
 ' portat in lingua. — Seene and allowed by autho- 
 ^ ritie. — Imprinted at London by the Deputies of 
 ' Christopher Barker, Printer to the Queenes most 
 
 * excellent Maiestie. 1589.' 4to. K k iij. in fours. 
 Pp. 243. In Roman letter. 
 
 Hay any 4. * Hay any worke for Cooper : or a briefe Pistle 
 
 Cooper. * directed by Waye of an hublication to the reve- 
 
 ' rende Byshopps, counselling them, if they will 
 
 ' needs be barrelled vp, for feare of smelling in the 
 
 * nostrels of her Maiestie and the State, that they 
 
 * would vse the aduise of reuerend Martin, for the 
 
 * prouiding of their Cooper. Because the Reue- 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 5 
 
 ' rend T. C, (by which misticall letters is vnder- 
 ' stood cyther the bounsing Parson of Eastmeane, 
 ' or Tom Coakes his Chaplaine,) to bee an vnskil- 
 ' full and a beceytfull tubtrimmer. — Wherein worthy 
 ' Martin quits himselfe like a man I warrant you, 
 ' in the modest defence of his selfe and his learned 
 
 * Pistles, and makes the Coopers hoopes to flye off, 
 ' and the Bishops Tubs to leake out of all crye. 
 
 * Penned and compiled by Martin the Metropoli- 
 
 * tane. Printed in Europe, not farre from some of 
 
 * the Bounsing Priestes/ 4to. H i, in fours. Pp. 
 48. Black Letter. 
 
 3. 'Th' Appellation of John PenrI, vnto the Penry's Ap- 
 ' Highe court of Parliament, from the bad and in- 
 ' jurious dealing of th' Archb. of Canterb. & other 
 
 * his colleagues of the high commission : Wherin 
 ' the complainant, humbly submitting himselfe and 
 
 * his cause vnto the determination of this honorable 
 ' assembly : craueth nothing els, but either release 
 
 * from trouble and persecution, or just tryall.' — 
 ' (Then follow two quotations ; the one from ' Psalm 
 XXXV. 19, 20, &c. ;' the other, ' Jerem. xx. 21.') — 
 
 * Anno Dom. 1589.' 12mo. G 3, in fours. Pp.52. 
 Small Roman letter. 
 
 6. ' A Dialogue. Wherein is plainly laide open, Dialogue of 
 
 , ■, -HIT nT-n-i • tyrannical 
 
 * the t}Tanmcall dealmg oi L. Bishopps agamst dealing. 
 
i6 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 M. Some 
 laid open in 
 
 The Protesta- 
 tion. 
 
 ' Gods children : with certaine points of doctrine, 
 
 * wherein they approoue themselues (according to 
 
 * D. Bridges his judgement) to be truely the Bishops 
 ' of the Diuell. Mallach ii. 7, 8, 9 : " The Priests 
 
 * lippes — partiall in the lawe." ' 12mo. D, in fours ; 
 no pagination. Small Roman letter. 
 
 7. ' M. Some laid open in his coulers : wherein 
 ' the indifferent Reader may easily see, howe wretch- 
 ' edly and loosely he hath handeled the cause against 
 ' M. Penri. Done by an Oxford man, to his friend in 
 
 * Cambridge. Prov. xxx. 32 : " If thou hast bene 
 
 * foolishe in lifting vp thy selfe, and hast thought 
 
 * maliciously, laye now thy hande vpon thy mouth. 
 ' For proud, haughty, and scornefull is his name, 
 ' that worketh wrath in his arrogancie." Prov.xxi. 
 < 24.' 12mo. Q, in fours. Pp. 124 : in small 
 Roman letter. 
 
 8. ' The Protestatyon of Martin Marprelat 
 
 * wherein notwithstanding the surprizing of the 
 
 * printer, he maketh it known vnto the world that 
 ' he feareth, neither proud priest, Antichristian 
 
 * pope, tiranous prellate, norgodlesse catercap : but 
 ' defiethe all the race of them by these presents 
 
 * and offereth conditionally, as is farthere expressed 
 ' hearein by open disputation to apear in the de- 
 
 * fence of his cause against them and theirs — 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. IJ 
 
 * Which chaleng if they dare not maintaine aginst 
 
 * him : then doth he alsoe publishe that he never 
 ' meaneth, by the assitance of god to leaue the 
 ' assayling of them and theire generation vntill 
 ' they be vterly extinguised out of our church. 
 
 * PubHshed by the worthie gentleman D. martin 
 
 * marprelat, D. in all the faculties primat and me- 
 
 * tropolitan.' 12mo. D, in fours. Pp. 32 ; Ro- 
 man letter. 
 
 9. 'Theses Martinianae: That is, Certaine de- The Theses. 
 
 * monstrative Conclusions, sette downe and collected 
 ' (as it should seeme) by that famous and renowmed 
 ' Clarke, the reuerend INIartin INIarprelate the great : 
 ' seruing as a manifest and sufficient confutation of 
 ' al that euer the Colledge of Catercaps with their 
 
 * whole band of Clergie-priests, haue, or canbring 
 
 * for the defence of their ambitious and Antichris- 
 
 * tian Prelacie. Pvblished and set foorth as an 
 
 * after-birth of the noble Gentleman himselfe, by 
 ' a prety stripling of his, Martin Ivnior, and dedi- 
 ' cated by him to his good neame and nuncka, Mais- 
 ' ter lohn Kankerbury. How the yongman came 
 
 * by them, the Reader shall vnderstande sufficiently 
 ' in the Epilogue. In the meane time, whosoeuer 
 
 * can bring mee acquainted with my father, He bee 
 ' bounde he shall not loose his labour. — Printed by 
 
 c 
 
1 8 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 sure 
 
 * the assignes of Martin Junior, without any priui- 
 ' ledge of the Catercaps.' 12mo. D, in fours. No 
 ' pagination. Small Roman letter. 
 
 The Just Cen- 10. 'The iust censure and reproofe of Martin 
 ' lunior. — Wherein the rash and vndiscreete headi- 
 ' nes of the foolish youth is sharply mette with, and 
 
 * the boy hath his lesson taught him, I warrant you, 
 
 * by his reuerend and elder brother, Martin Senior, 
 
 * Sonne and heire vnto the renowmed Martin Mar- 
 
 * prelate he Great. Where also, least the springall 
 
 * shold be vtterly discouraged in his good meaning, 
 ' you shall finde, that hee is not beraued of his due 
 
 * commendations.' 12mo. D, in fours. No pagi- 
 ' nation. In small Roman letter. 
 
 Pappewith 11. ' Pappo with an hatchet; Alias, A figge for 
 
 * my God sonne ; or, Cracke me this nut ; or, A 
 ' Countrie cufFe, that is, a sound boxe of the eare, 
 
 * for the idiot Martin to hold his peace, seeing the 
 ' patch will take no warning. — Written by one that 
 ' dares call a dog, a dog, and made to preuent Mar- 
 
 * tin's dog-daies. — Imprinted by lohn Anoke, and 
 
 * John Astile, for the Bayliue of Withernam, cum 
 
 * priuilegio perennitatis, and are to bee sold at the 
 
 * signe of the crab-tree cudg^ll, in thwackcoate 
 
 * lane. — A sentence. — Martin hangs fit for my 
 
 * mowing.' 4to. E iij. in fours. No pagination. 
 Roman letter. 
 
 an liatchet. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 12. ' A Countercuffe giuen to Martin Junior : The Counter- 
 
 curte. 
 
 ' by the venturous, bardie, and renowned Pasquill 
 ' of Englande, Caualiero. — Not of olde Martins 
 
 * making, which newlie knighted the Saints in 
 ' Heauen, with rise vppe Sir Peter and Sir Paule ; 
 ' but latelie dubd for his seruice at home in the de- 
 ' fence of his Country, and for the cleane breaking 
 ' of his staffe vpon Martin's face. — Printed between 
 
 * the skye and the grounde, wythin a myle of an 
 
 * Oake, and not manie Fieldes off, from the vnpriui- 
 ' ledged Presse of the Ass — ignes of Martin Junior. 
 
 ' Anno Dom. 1589.' 4to. Single sheet. Roman v 
 
 letter. 
 
 13. 'An Almond for a Parrat, or, Cutbert Almond for a 
 ' Curry-knaues Almes. Fit for the knaue Martin, 
 
 ' and the rest of those impudent Beggers, that can 
 ' not be content to stay their stomakes with a Bene- 
 ' fice, but they will needes breake their fastes with 
 ' our Bishops. Rimarum sum plenus. Therefore 
 ' beware (gentle Reader) you catch not the hicket 
 ' with laughing. Imprinted at a Place, not farre 
 ' from a Place, by the Assignes of Signior Some- 
 ' body, and are to be sold at his shoppe in Trouble- 
 ' knaue-street, at the signe of the Standish.' 4to. 
 F 3, in fours. Pp. 20. Black letter. 
 
 14. * The Returne of the renowned CauaHero pasquii. 
 
20 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ' Pasquill of England, from the other side the Seas, 
 
 * and his meeting with Marforius at London vpon 
 
 * the Royall Exchange. Where they encounter 
 
 * with a Httle houshold talke of Martin and Mar- 
 
 * tinisme, discouering the scabbe that is bredde in 
 ' England ; and conferring together about the 
 ' speedie dispersing of the golden Legende of the 
 ' liues of the Saints. If my breath be so bote that 
 ' I burne my mouth, suppose I was Printed by 
 
 * Pepper Allie. Anno Dom. 1589.' 4to. D, in 
 fours. Roman letter. 
 
 The Months 15. * Martins months minde, that is, A cer- 
 
 Mind. 
 
 ' tame report and true description of the Death and 
 
 * Funeralls, of olde Martin Marre-prelate, the great 
 
 * makebate of England, and father of the Factious. 
 
 * Contayning the cause of his death, the manner of 
 
 * his buriall, and the right copies both of his Will, 
 ' and of such Epitaphs, as by sundrie his dearest 
 
 * friends, and other of his well willers, were framed 
 
 * for him. 
 
 * Martin the Ape, the dronke, and the madde, 
 
 * The three Martins are, whose workes we haue had. 
 
 * If Martin the fourth come, after Martins so euill, 
 
 * Nor man, nor beast comes, but Martin the deuill. 
 
 1589.' 
 4to. H, in fours. Roman letter. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 21 
 
 16. * Plaine Percevall the Peace-Maker of En^- Plain Perce- 
 
 vail. 
 
 ' land. Sweetly indevoring with his blunt persua- 
 ' sions to botch vp a Reconciliation between Mar- 
 
 * ton and INIar-tother. Compiled by lawfull art, 
 
 * that is to say, without witchcraft, or sorcery ; and 
 
 * referred specially to the Meridian and pole Arti- 
 ' chocke of Nomans Land; but may serue generally, 
 ' without any great error, for more Countries then 
 ' He speake of. Quis furor aut hos, Aut hos, arma 
 ' sequi, ferrumque lacessere iussit. Printed in 
 
 * Broad-streete, at the signe of the Pack-staflFe.\ 
 4to. E 2, in fours. Pp. 26. Black letter. 
 
 17. ' A treatise wherein is manifestlie proved, PenryonRe- 
 ' that reformation and those that sincerely fauor the 
 
 ' same, are vnjustly charged to be enemies, vnto 
 ' hir Maiestie, and the state. Written both for the 
 
 * clearing of those that stande in that cause ; and 
 ' the stopping of the sclaunderous mouthes of all the 
 ' enemies thereof. Zephaniah iii. 18, 19. "After 
 
 ' a certaine time will I gather the afflicted, saith 
 
 ' the Lord." 1590. 4to. I. 2, in fours. Roman 
 letter. 
 
 18. ' The First parte of Pasquils Apologie. First part of 
 ^ Wherin he renders a reason to his friendes of his Apology! 
 
 ' long silence : and gallops the fielde with the Trea- 
 
 * tise of Reformation lately written by a fugitiue, 
 
22 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ' lohn Penrie. Printed where I was, and where I 
 
 * will bee readie by the helpe of God and my Muse, 
 ' to send you the Maygame of Martinisme for an 
 
 * intermedium, betweene the first and seconde part 
 ' of the Apologie. Anno Dom. 1590. 4to. E. 1. 
 in fours. Roman letter.* 
 
 Of the above, there are in the Bodleian Library, 
 Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 9 to 17 inclusive; and in the 
 Museum Library, Nos. 1,4, 11, 15, 16. 
 
 * When the Article in the Christian Remembrancer on 
 . Martin Marprelate was written, I had not been able to pro- 
 cure a copy of this First parte of PasquWs Apologie, nor, as 
 I there stated, had I ever seen it. Since that time, I have 
 obtained it, bound with some seven or eight others relating 
 to the same subject in a volume which formerly belonged to 
 Archbishop Sancroft, who has written in it a list of the con- 
 tents. I have now no hesitation in adding it and the tract 
 to which it especially refers, to the above list, as undoubtedly 
 belonging to the series. An additional argument for in- 
 cluding Penry's Treatise would be, that Neal has given it in 
 his own imperfect list. It is not impossible that he had 
 means of information on the point which we are not aware 
 of, and known only to a favoured few. He frequently refers 
 to MSS. in his possession. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WOULD take then, as I have said, * The Martin Mar- 
 
 prelate unlike 
 
 Epistle' to be the first of the Marprelate lusprede- 
 
 tracts; but by this I do not mean that Martin 
 Marprelate sprung up before the astonished coun- 
 sellors and high commissioners of Queen Elizabeth, 
 opening any new controversy, or even directing his 
 attack upon hitherto untouched places of his enemy's 
 camp. Men also had been accustomed to bitter 
 language and misrepresentation, of which a huge 
 foho (for many years a favourite however) was a pon- 
 derous specimen, viz. ' Fox's Acts and Monuments ;' 
 and direct personal allusions had not been spared, 
 and motives, however base and unworthy, already 
 imputed to those who were, or had been in authority. 
 But this had occurred in books written apparently 
 in sober earnestness ; even John Fox might possi- 
 bly have believed that a great part of what he said 
 was fact, and might all have been no more than 
 what every one would naturally look for, in the pro- 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ductions of such men, in times of so fierce religious 
 
 animosity and unsettled faith. Martin Marprelate 
 
 His attacks was a ucw assailaut in an old struggle, armed with 
 
 were upon a • i i t i • 
 
 new system, new wcapous ; uo ouc, mdeed, accordmg to his own 
 admission, yet knew their efl&cacy, but he came to 
 prove them ; these were to be jesting, and ribaldry, 
 and plain lying ; as the Author of ' Pappe with a 
 Hatchet ' says ' to the indifferent reader,' ' They 
 
 * have scattered divers libels, all so taunting and 
 ' slanderous, as it is hard to iudge, whether their 
 
 * lyes exceed their bittemesse, or their bitternesse 
 
 * their fables.' They argued, as one of their most 
 famous men, Mr. Field, had already acknowledged 
 to the Archbishop's Chaplain, " The Scriptures of 
 the Old and New Testament use such vehemency ; 
 we have used gentle words too long, which have done 
 no good ; the wound grows desperate, and wants a 
 corrosive : it is no time to blanch or sew pillars 
 under mens elbows."* Such, then, it seemed, 
 were now to be the means — means worthy of the 
 cause — by which the Church of England, her orders, 
 her worship, and her rulers, were to be overthrown, 
 and the entrance so long looked for at last gained 
 for the 'holy discipline,' the platform of Geneva, 
 the outwardly sanctimonious and meek and un- 
 
 * A^ea/,vol. i. 191. 
 
MARTIN MAKFRELATE. 25 
 
 assuming-, the really insolent and prying and tyran- 
 nical politico-presbyterian model. 
 
 There had been, from about the year 1570, an Many Puritan 
 
 tracts had 
 
 almost unceasing flow of Puritan tracts from the laieiy been 
 
 published. 
 
 press, such for example as the ' Abstract of Acts 
 and Canons, 4"c.,' the ' CoanterpoysoUj the ' Dia- 
 logue concerning the Strife of our Churche,' 
 ' The Demonstration of Discipline (by Udall), and 
 many others, upwards of fo it i/ of which may be 
 found collected together in a volume published by 
 Waldegrave, the chief Puritan printer, with the 
 curious title, ' A parte of a Register, contayninge 
 ' sundrie memorable matters, written by divers godly 
 ' and learned in our time, which stande for, and 
 • desire the reformation of our Church, in Disci- 
 ' pline and Ceremonies, accordinge to the pure 
 ' worde of God, and the Lawe of our Lande.'* 
 
 * The Parte of a Reghter is a most interesting volume, con- 
 taining as it does, republications of so many Puritan tracts, 
 collected at the time, some of the originals of which no longer 
 exist, and perhaps some also were printed from manuscripts. 
 I am not aware that the Table of Contents is to be found in 
 any history or bibliography, and think it well worth extract- Contents of 
 ing, as sufficient to give the reader a just idea of the value ^^J'^jigaisterf 
 of the book. 
 A comfortable epistle by Mai. D. \V. Doctor of Diuinitie. 
 
 fol. 1. 
 
26 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 4to. Pp. 547. Dr. John Bridges (elected in 1603 
 Bishop of Oxford), then Dean of Sarum, in 1587, 
 
 A godly and zealous letter written by Mai. Antony Gilby, 
 about anno 1570. fol. 12, 
 
 A letter written by Mai. D. Pilkenton, about anno 1570, 
 fol. 19. 
 
 An examination of certayne Londonners before the Commis- 
 sioners, about anno 1567. fol. 23. 
 
 Certayne questions answered, touching the defence of popishe 
 ceremonies, anno 1570. fol. 37. 
 
 A viewe of Antichrist his lawes and ceremonies in our 
 Church vnreformed. fol. 55. 
 
 Articles answered by Mai. Edm. Dering, anno 1573. fol. 73. 
 
 Mai. Greneham, Minister of Drayton, his answere to the 
 Bish. of Eley. fol. 86. 
 
 The Bishops proceedings against Maist. Robart Johnson 
 Preacher, who dyed in the gate, 1573. fol. 94. 
 
 The exceptions of Mai. Nicolas Crane, Preacher: against 
 subscription, who died in Newgate, anno 1588. fol. 119. 
 
 A letter sent from the Ministers of Scotlande, to the Bishops 
 of Englande, anno 1566. fol. 125. 
 
 A complaint presented to the Right Hon. the Lords of her 
 Ma. priuie Counsell by the godly Min. fol. 128. 
 
 The answere to the complaint against the ill disposed what- 
 soever, fol. 131. 
 
 A letter written to a Londoner, contayning an answere to 
 the Arch, articles at large, an. 1583. fol. 132. 
 
 A briefe answere to the principall pointes of the same arti- 
 cles, written an. 1583. fol. 201. 
 
 Certayne reasons against subscription to the booke of com- 
 mon prayer. 
 
 'J'he complaint of the communaltie of Eng. 1586. fol. 201. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 27 
 
 wrote a large 4to of 1401 pages, in which he an- 
 swered the objections contained in these publica- 
 
 The vnlawfull practise of Prelates against the godly Minis- 
 ters, fol. 280. 
 The humble petition of the communaltie to her gracious 
 Maiestie. fol. 304. 
 
 A petition to the conuocation house, anno 1583. fol. 323. 
 The state of the Church of England laide open in a confe- 
 rence, fol, 333. 
 
 A pythie letter to the Bish. of Nor. 1576. by R. T. fol. 365. 
 
 A friendlie caueatto the Bishops, anno 1567. fol. 371. 
 
 The conference betweene some of the High Comissioners, 
 and Mai. Marbury, anno 1578. fol. 381. 
 
 The defence of the godly Ministers against D. Bridges 
 slaunders, by Ma. Dudley Fenner. fol. 387. 
 
 The troubles of Ma. Gawton Preacher in Norw. fol. 393. 
 
 The iudgement of certajne godly brethren uppon a question 
 propounded, fol. 401. 
 
 Certayne reasons against the crosse in baptisme. fol. 409. 
 
 Reasons against kneeling at Communion, fol. 410. 
 
 The Counterpoyson. fol. 412. 
 
 The certayne forme of Ecclesiastical gouemement, prescribed 
 by the worde of God, and perpetuall. fol 421. 
 
 Election with consent of the people, fol. 428. 
 
 Euery Minister ought to preach, fol. 442. 
 
 Ministers falling to Idolatrie, ought not to bee receyued to 
 the Ministerie. fol. 455. 
 
 The authoritie of the Ministers, fol. 461. 
 
 The office of the Doctor is ordinarie, perpetuall, and distinct 
 from the Pastor, fol. 470. 
 
 Of Elders and the Eldership, fol. 474. 
 
 A reply to the variable collections, against Disci, fol. 480. 
 
28 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 tions, and established (to his own satisfaction I 
 mean) the excellence of the government of the re- 
 formed Church of England. The title of his book 
 is (though long, it seems necessary to give it entire), 
 Dr. Bridges < A Defence of the Government estabhshed in the 
 
 ' Deietice.' 
 
 ' Churche of England for ecclesiastical matters. 
 ' Contayning an aunswere unto a Treatise called, 
 ' The Learned Discourse of Ecclesiastical Govern- 
 ' ment, otherwise intituled, A briefe and plaine de- 
 ' claration concerning the desires of all the faithful 
 
 * ministers that have, and do seeke for the discipline 
 
 * and reformation of the Church of Englande. 
 
 * Comprehending likewise an aunswere to the argu- 
 
 That part of D. Copquot his sermon which concerned Dis- 
 cipline, fol. 507, 
 The defence of the reasons of the Counterpoysou. fol. 509. 
 A confession of the faith, fol. 528. 
 A prayer for the faithfull. fol. 547. 
 
 Of the above tracts there are two not in the book, viz. 
 the brief answere fol. 201, and Certayne reasons against siih- 
 scription. The reader will observe that the former of these, 
 and the complaint of the communaltie, are both referred to fol. 
 201, and that the latter (viz. against subscription) has no fo- 
 liation at all. Both trasts are added however at the end of 
 the copy now before me, after the " Finis." These again are 
 succeeded by a reprint of Udall's Demonstration of Discipline : 
 the original edition of which is a 12mo. and has a small 
 folding sheet, " A table of Discipline.'* 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 29 
 
 * ments in a treatise named the iudgement of a 
 
 * most reverend and learned man from beyond the 
 
 * seas, &c. Aunswering also to the argumentes of 
 
 * Calvine, Beza, and Danaeus, with other our reve- 
 
 * rend learned brethren, besides Coenalis and Bodi- 
 
 * nus, both for the regiment of women, and in de- 
 
 * fence of her Maiestie, and of all other Christian 
 
 * Princes supreme gouernment in ecclesiastical 
 
 * causes, against the Tetrarchie that our brethren 
 ' would erect in euery particular congregation, of 
 ' doctors, pastors, gouernors, and deacons, with 
 
 * their seuerall and ioynt authoritie in elections, 
 
 * excommunications, synodall constitutions and 
 
 * other ecclesiasticall matters. Aunswered by John 
 
 * Bridges, Deane of Sarum. 
 
 ' Come and see. Take it up and read. 
 
 * Job. i. 36. Aug. lib. conf. viii. ca. 12. 
 
 * at London. Printed for John Windet,* for 
 
 * Thomas Chard, 1387.' 
 
 It was against this book in particular that Martin 
 Marprelate professed to direct his Epistle and Answered by 
 
 ^ ^ ^ Martin. 
 
 Epitome ; in the first page of the Epitome, he gives 
 
 * This John Windet, ' dwelling at the signe of the Crosse 
 Keyes neere Powles WharfFe,' was the printer, and proba- 
 bly the publisher, of the first edition of the four books, and 
 of the fifth book of the Ecclesiastical Polity. 
 
30 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 a true enough account of it (in a bibliographical 
 ' way} : * The whole volume of M. Deanes, containeth 
 
 * in it, 16 bookes, besides a large preface, and an 
 
 * epistle to the reader. The epistle and the preface 
 
 * are not aboue 8. sheets of paper, and very little 
 
 * vnder 7. You may see when men haue a gift in 
 
 * writing, howe easie it is for them to daube paper. 
 
 * The compleat worke (very briefely comprehended 
 ' in a portable booke, if your horse be not too 
 ' weake, of an hundred threescore and twelue sheets, 
 
 * of good Demie paper) is a confutation,' &c. 
 
 The Arch- But, by far, the greater part of these two tracts 
 
 others is employed in abusing Whitgift, the Archbishop 
 
 attacked. 
 
 of Canterbury, and Aylmer, Bishop of London. 
 
 * Oh ! read over D. John Bridges, for it is a wor- 
 ' thy worke,' is the head-line of the titles of both of 
 them; but in the first page of the Epistle, after 
 mentioning that * seen and allowed by the Arch- 
 
 * bishop,' is not to be found in the Dean's Defence, 
 Martin passes on to claim the victory for Cart- 
 wright, in his old controversy with Whitgift, about 
 the ^Admonition to the Parliament ;' because his 
 two last books, viz., his ' Second Replie,' and * the 
 rest of the Second Replied had not been answered. 
 This was a boast of victory, which the authors of 
 the tracts against Martin Marprelate quickly and 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 3I 
 
 frequently refused to acknowledge : for example, in 
 one of them, * He ribroste * my brother Martin a 
 ' litle, for obiecting to my Lord Archbishop, the 
 ' not answering of his bookes. Therefore, first, 
 ' would I know of sweete M. sauce malapert, whether 
 ' he would have the care of the commonwealth, 
 ' and forseing consultation of domestical and for- 
 
 * reine affairs, resigned to the retorting of T. C, his 
 ' vnreuerent railings. Next, what such equall pro- 
 ' portion his mastership finds in their places, that 
 ' the grauity and mildnes of the one, should stoupe 
 ' his attention so low, as the iangling leuity of the 
 ' other. — As there is nothing more vnseemely, then 
 
 * to aunswere the froward, so there is nothing more 
 ' profitable then scilence to such as are prouokt.' — 
 Almond for a Parrat, sign. D. 2. Hev. To go 
 back, however, to the Epistle. Immediately after 
 this claiming of the victory for Cartwright, Martin 
 proceeds to attack Aylmer, and the Bishops of 
 
 * To Ribroast: to beat soundly. A burlesque word. 
 Johnson, who quotes Butler and L'Estrange. We find the 
 word in " the Life of Long Meg of Westminster," re- 
 printed in Miscell. Antiqua Anglicana, p. 17. " What man, 
 quoth shee, art afraid ? giue mee thy staffe ; for by the 
 grace of God 1 will goe see who it is : and if they be any 
 false knaues, 'tis Shroue-tuesday at night, and I will give 
 them ribroast for a farewell to flesh." 
 
32 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Winchester, Exeter, and Rochester. Presently he 
 returns to Dr. Bridges' book again, not without 
 constant digressions, until, at last, after a few pages, 
 he fairly gives the matter up, plainly confesses that 
 he is weary of him, and says, ' I care not an I now 
 ' leave masse Deane's worship and be eloquent 
 ' once in my dayes :' ' well, nowe, to mine eloquence ;' 
 and this eloquence is displayed to the end of the 
 book, in telling scurrilous stories about Bishops 
 Aylmer, and Cooper of Winchester, and the Arch- 
 bishop. The same account, in as many words, is 
 equally applicable to the second tract, the Epitome, 
 Dr. Bridges The author of the Epistle accuses Dr. Bridges 
 bribery. of having obtained his dignity by bribery. ' Brother 
 ' Bridges, a worde or two more with you, ere we 
 ' depart, I praye you where may a man buie such 
 ' another gelding, and borow such another hun- 
 ' dred poundes, as you bestowed upon your good 
 
 * patron Sir Edward Horsey, for his good worde 
 ' in helping you to your Deanry : go to, go to, I 
 ' perceiue you will prooue a goose. Deale closeliar 
 ' for shame the next time : must I needs come to 
 
 * the knoledge of these things ? what if I should 
 
 * report abroad, that cleargie men come vnto their 
 ' promotions by Simonie ? haue not you giuen me 
 
 * iuste cause ? I thinke Simonie be the bishops 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 33 
 
 a- 
 gidrism. 
 
 * lacky. Tarleton tooke him not long since in Don 
 ' John of London's cellor.' Epistle, t^. \9.^ And 
 in the Epitome an accusation more likely even to 
 excite the Dean's wrath as an author, is made against 
 him, namely, that he had plagiarised. It might And of pi 
 have been of little consequence that Martin should 
 say, ' In this one thing I dare preferre him before 
 
 * any that euer wrote : to wit, that there be not 3. 
 
 * whole periods for euery page in the book, that is 
 ' not graced with a verie faire and visible solacism.' 
 This might be matter of opinion, upon which people 
 might reasonably differ : but the other charge was 
 one of fact ; ' He hath vsed such varietie of lerning, 
 
 * that very often he hath translated out of one mans 
 ' writing, 6. or 7. pages together, note here a newe 
 
 * founde manner of bookemaking.' Epitome, Sign. 
 B. 1. 
 
 It may be well here, though the quotation will be 
 
 * Allusion to this celebrated actor and buflfoon is frequent 
 in the old dramatists. He died Sept. 1588. In " A Whip 
 for an Ape, or INJartin displaied," 1589. lie is thus noticed,-T- 
 " Now Tarleton's dead the Consort lacks a vice, 
 For knaue & fool thou must bear pricke and price :" 
 and again, in some Rhymes against Martin, — 
 " These tinkers terms and barbers jests first Tarleton on the 
 
 stage, 
 Then Martin in his bookes of lies, hath put in every page." 
 Note to Mr. Petheram's Reprinted Epistle, 
 
 D 
 
34 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 somewhat lengthy, to give the question in dispute in 
 Martin Marprelate's own words. There is no 
 necessity to make any remarks upon it, or point 
 out the false method of stating it, which will be at 
 once obvious to every one who is at all conversant 
 with the subject. My object is not to clear the 
 argument of the Church-writers, but to show what 
 the Puritan would pretend to twist it into. * The 
 Martin's ' State of the whole controuersie betweene my 
 
 statement of 
 
 the Question. ' brethren bishops, and my brethren the puritans, 
 ' and so betweene this worthie doctor, and these 
 
 * discourses, is : whether the externall gouernement 
 ' of the Church of Christ, be a thing so prescribed 
 
 * by the Lorde in the New testament, as it is not 
 
 * lawfull for any man to alter the same, any more 
 
 * than it was lawfull to alter y^ form of regiment 
 ' prescribed vnder the law in the old testamet. 
 
 * And see whether if there be any gouernment in y® 
 
 * Church (as necessarily there must be, or els all 
 
 * confusion will ensue) the same must be by those 
 
 * offices and officers alone, and by no other, which 
 
 * the Lord hath set downe and limited in his word. 
 
 * Or els whether man may alter these offices and 
 
 * officers at his will and pleasure, and make newe 
 
 * offices and officers, as he may in the ciuill gouern- 
 
 * ments. The puritanes saye, that these offices 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 35 
 
 ' and officers, whiche our sauior Christe and his 
 ' Apostles did ordaine, are vnchangeable, and that 
 ' it is not lawfull for any prince to alter them, no 
 
 * not though the circumstances of times, places and 
 
 * persons, should seeme in regard of conuenience, to 
 
 * enforce him thereunto. The doctor with all the 
 
 * Lordly priests in the land, hold the contrarie. 
 
 * And sweare it to be lawfull for the magistrate to 
 ' ordaine what gouernement he will in the Church : 
 
 * yea, that the Church gouernors, contrary to the 
 
 * flat commandement of our sauior Christe, Luke 
 ' 22. 25. 26. may be Lordes. And that the Church 
 
 * gouernment prescribed by our Sauiour Christe, 
 
 * and enioyned by the Apostle, was not immutable, 
 
 * as the regiment vnder the law was. In so much 
 ' as in the opinion of M. Bridges and the rest of 
 
 * the cleargie, Paul was deceiued, Ephesians the 4. 
 ' 13. in saying that pastors and doctors were to 
 ' cotinue in the Church vntil we al meet together : 
 ' that is vnto the ende of the worlde. Here then is 
 
 * the puritans I,* for the permanencie of this gouern- 
 
 * ment, and j\L doctors no.' Epitome^ Sign. B. 2. 
 
 John Elmar, Ailmer, or Aylmer, (his name is Bishop A>u 
 
 mer. 
 
 spelt indifferently in books of his own time),-f- then 
 
 * i. e. aye. 
 
 t Strype also adds Elmer and JElmer as further variations, 
 
36 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Bishop of London, comes in for, even more than 
 Whitgift, Martin's abuse, at least, in the early 
 tracts: most probably as having been an active 
 member of the High Commission Court. In the 
 year 1354, he was Archdeacon of Stowe, and one 
 of the six who, in the Convocation of that year, 
 refused to subscribe certain propositions offered by 
 the prolocutor, Weston, Dean of Westminster, and 
 engaged, afterwards, in the disputation which was 
 allowed to be held upon them. A full account of 
 this disputation was printed the same year, at Basil, 
 (a most rare volume,) entitled, ' The trew report 
 
 * of the dysputacyon had and begonne in the con- 
 
 * uocacyon hows at London among the clargye there 
 
 * assembled the xviij. daye of October, in the yeare 
 
 * of our lord m.d.liiii.' There is no name attached, 
 but it purports in the beginning to have been done 
 by one ' that was present thereat,' and John Phil- 
 pot, at that time Archdeacon of Winchester, after- 
 wards burnt in Smithfield causa religionis, acknow- 
 ledged, upon his examination, in 1535, that he had 
 been the author of it. Philpot reports largely 
 
 and says that the name is of Saxon origin, contracted from 
 Adelmar or Ethelmar. (Life of Aylmer, p. 1.) The very 
 accurate Le Neve, in his Fasti, Eccl. Anglic, gives us " Ayl- 
 mer" as the orthography. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 37 
 
 enough his own share, and I need scarcely say 
 that the whole is to be received with very consider- 
 able caution, coming, as it does, from a violent par- 
 tisan who, according to his own admission, would 
 not conform to the usual orders and decency of the 
 house ; but studied to provoke those who w^ere in 
 authority over him, by refusing to appear in ' the 
 long gown and typpet,' which all the others wore ; 
 saying, ' I had rather be absent alltogether.' 
 
 In this disputation. Archdeacon Elmar (as he is 
 there called) took some part, and seems to have 
 said what he did say, learnedly and with modera- 
 tion. He was shortly afterwards deprived, and fled 
 to the Continent. In 1559 he wrote and published His book 
 a work against John Knox's ' First Blast of the Knox, 
 Trumpet against the monstruous Regiment of 
 Women.' This was called ' An Harhorowe for 
 faithfvll and trewe Svbiectes, agaynst the late 
 blowne Blaste^ concerninge the Gouernment of 
 Wemen; wherin he confuted all such reasons as 
 a straunger of late hath made in that behalfey 
 with a briefs exhortation to Obedience. Anno 
 M.D.lix. At Strasborowe the 26. of AprilV 
 (4to.) Aylmer had now been, for some time, 
 among the refugees, and foreign protestants ; and, 
 whatever his opinions might have been before his 
 
38 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 absence, it is quite clear that in 1359 they were 
 not according to what he must have believed as 
 Bishop of London, in 1589. It is ill printing some- 
 times, and the Bishop would gladly have forgotten 
 his early contest with Knox : not, indeed, the in- 
 tention and object with which he wrote against 
 him, (for people were much moved by the Scotch- 
 man's abominable arguments, and Elizabeth wanted 
 a defender, and himself a bishopric,*) but the rea- 
 soning which he had used, and the admissions 
 Quoted which he had made. Martin Marprelate, however, 
 
 against him- tiii-i ■% /-\ ^ i 
 
 self. had unluckily too good a memory : ' Quoth honest 
 
 John Elmar in his Harboro,' is a favourite reference 
 with him, and not unfairly, we must own. For ex- 
 ample, take his very first appeal to John of Lon- 
 don : ' I hope one day her Maiestie will either see 
 
 * Strype is obliged to own that the strong expressions 
 which Aylmer had used in the Harborowe operated more 
 unfavourably against him in the opinion of the Queen's 
 advisers, than the general argument of his book favourably 
 in his behalf. And that therefore he was for some years 
 kept back from preferment. Life of Aylmer, p. 24. I was 
 not able to refer to Strype's Life while writing the article 
 for The Remembrancer, and had not read it. But I have seen 
 no reason since, from what he says, for altering any expres- 
 sion in the text, not merely in this instance, but in other 
 passages : and the impression which the reader will have 
 after reading that Life, 1 am quite sure will be very far 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 39 
 
 * that the L. Bb. prooue their calling lawfull by the 
 ' word, or as lohn of London prophesied saying, 
 ' Come dovvne you bishopps from your thousands, 
 ' and content you with your hundreds, let your diet 
 ' be pristhke and not princeUk, &c. quoth John 
 ' Elmar in Harborow of faithful subiects. But I 
 
 * pray you B. John dissolue this one question to 
 
 * your brother Martin : if this prophesie of yours 
 ' come to passe in your dayes, who shall be B. of 
 ' London ? ' — Epistle, p. 3. Compare Harhorowey 
 sign. O. 4. 
 
 There can be no doubt, let it be excused and 
 disguised as much as it may, that the leading men 
 among the reformers of the sixteenth century w^ere 
 wonderfully pliable.* The circumstances in which 
 they were placed may be allowed to have been 
 
 from a satisfactory one, as regards tbe subject of it. Strype 
 gives some account of the Harborowe, and struggles hard to 
 excuse the author of it : but it is a lame defence which rests 
 upon the acknowledged learning and ability of Aylmer, as a 
 cloak for his excesses. I would add that in 1572, a learned 
 wTiter in a letter to Whitgift, plainly charges that * Mr. 
 Elmer's unseasonable paradox, though true, hath hurt the 
 Church, and yet not advanced his preferment so much as he 
 hoped.' Life of Whitgift, p. 29. 
 
 * Martin puts it in this light : ' how many Bb are there 
 in England, which haue not either said masse, or helped the 
 priest to say masse or bene present at if?' Epiiitle,p. 16. 
 
40 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 various enough, and yet we are utterly at a loss 
 many times to offer any reasons which might 
 honestly have induced them to act as we know they 
 did act : sometimes advocating one doctrine, at 
 others another; now exclaiming against certain prac- 
 tices and customs as unchristian and to be detested 
 (to use mild phrases) ; now, clean contrary, finding 
 out all at once, that they might not only lawfully 
 be submitted to, but rigorously enforced : now^ 
 for years it may be, whilst hope of gain remained 
 from plundering some hospital, or college, or en- 
 dowed cathedral, professing hatred of Catholic truth, 
 and pushing to their furthest limits the wild theories 
 of Luther, and Bucer, and Calvin: now, when 
 about to lay down their heads upon the block, and 
 whilst being disrobed upon the fatal scaffold, a time 
 when men usually are driven to speak the truth, 
 declaring that they died in the true faith of the 
 Church of Rome, and confessing, and joining in 
 the solemn offices which are Proper for those 'who 
 are appointed to die.' 
 The qntsiion Having already slightly alluded to it, let us take 
 ments. morc particularly, yet very briefly, the question of 
 
 the Vestments, Bishop Hooper's case is the best 
 known, from his after-sufferings, and readers of the 
 common books called Ecclesiastical Histories of 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 4I 
 
 Eno-land, or Histories of the Reformation, from the 
 prominence which has been given to it, naturally 
 suppose that he was a rare exception ; and as regards 
 him, the sternness with which he met his dreadful 
 death, almost makes us forget his conduct when he 
 accepted his Bishopric, productive as it was of most 
 unhappy consequences. But the exiles during 
 Queen Mary's time thought as he did :* whilst 
 they were at Strasburg, or Zurich, or Frankfort, 
 
 * That is, the exiles and Hooper said equally hard words 
 about the habits. Because it appears to be somewhat doubt- 
 ful whether the objections of the latter did not lie against 
 the surplice more particularly, because it was rather an TheVest- 
 Anroiiical than a Popish garment. Neal, vol. i. p. 46, tells jected to as 
 us that he declined his offered bishopric ' for two rea- Aaronical. 
 ' sons. 1. Because of the form of the oath, which he called 
 ' foul and impious. 2. By reason of the Aaronical habits*' 
 But he soon found other arguments against them, not more 
 forcible, but more likely at the time to be listened to. Such 
 as that (we quote again from Neal) * They were the inven- 
 • tions of Antichrist, and were introduced into the Church,' 
 not by Moses and Aaron, but ' in the corruptest ages of 
 ' Christianity. That they had been abused to superstition 
 ' and idolatry, and to use them was to symbolize with Anti- 
 ' christ, 6cc.' Here the exiles fully agreed with him. Neal 
 seems, throughout his history, to hang upon the notion that 
 the original objection to the habits was, that they were 
 Aaronical. Compare for example, p. 94, vol. i. where he 
 speaks incidentally of them with that epithet. Again, he 
 says, p. 128, that Archbishop Parker ' gloried in having been 
 
42 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 or Geneva, they could exclaim nearly as loudly as 
 even their hosts could, against the sacerdotal robes, 
 and holy apparel which for ages had been used in 
 their own Church of England. Pilkington of Dur- 
 ham spoke softly when he merely ranked the use 
 of them among ' unprofitable ceremonies ;' Jewel 
 did not hesitate to say that they were ' the relics of 
 the Amorites ;* the English ministers at Frankfort 
 called them, ' those proud things that fools marvel 
 at.' But when the times changed, and sees were 
 Change of offered them, then their objections became less 
 
 opinion re- tit it n ^ i ' 
 
 speciingthem Violent : they could hsten to the disgraceful advice 
 
 among the ^ 
 
 exiles. of Fetcr Martyr, that ' thei/ should consent to wear 
 
 the vestments, but speak and py^each against them:' 
 and even wondered that men who had been taught 
 by them, who were their disciples brought up at 
 their own feet, should not also forget their argu- 
 ments and abuse, and see that the habits and 
 kneehng were simply 'things indiflferent,' and to 
 dispute about them, ' raising great troubles in trifles.' 
 
 consecrated without the Aaronical garments ;' and (to name 
 no more authorities) the suspended ministers in the city of 
 London, 1566, make the first objection to the habits to be, 
 
 • That neither the Prophets, nor the Apostles, were distin- 
 ' guished by their garments; that the linen garment was 
 
 • peculiar to the priesthood of Aaron, and had a signification 
 
 • ofsomething to be fulfilled in Christ and his Church.' p. 151. 
 
MAKTIN MARPRELATE. 43 
 
 They were growing old also, and we may suppose 
 wiser ; they had had enough of trouble, and had 
 gained their end : they now desired to rest, and to 
 live quietly, and that the laws should be observed : 
 and who were their disturbers? who were their 
 opponents? I repeat what I have just observed 
 above, their own disciples. 
 
 These men, the Martin Marprelates, did but Martin Mar- 
 
 prt'late tol- 
 
 carry out and put in practice the rules which had lowed the 
 
 teacliing of 
 
 been set them in former days : on those teachers I Tyndaie, 
 would further make some remark, as not only did 
 the Puritans then appeal to their authority, but not 
 a few still look up to them as worthy ornaments of 
 the English Church. For example, Tyndale, the 
 active spreader abroad of hasty translations of the 
 Scriptures. He had said long before, what now in 
 words scarcely less decent, was eagerly repeated. 
 In his ' Obedience of a Christian man,' p. 102, he 
 had attempted to prove (proved as he blasphemously 
 himself declared) ' That the Bishops were Anti- 
 ' christs, inasmuch as in their doctrine, and their 
 ' doings, they are directly against Christ and his 
 * word.' Again, in his ^Practice of Prelates ,' p. 
 374, he had said, * It is not possible naturally, there 
 *■ should be any honest Lord Bishop.' The refe- 
 rences I have given are those in the ' Protestation,' 
 
44 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 p. 16, and in ' The Just Censure,' sign,D. 1, and 
 are without doubt to the folio edition of the collected 
 works of Tyndale, Frith, and Barnes. This volume 
 I have not at hand to look into : but should have had 
 no difficulty in producing many such passages from 
 the original editions of Tyndale's books, if I had 
 not been fully certain that they are not misquoted, 
 and preferred following in the present instance 
 Martin's own guidance. 
 John Fox, Another, whom I would notice, has been still 
 
 more widely known and reputed in the English 
 Church: John Fox, the martyrologist, as he has 
 been called. His authority as an historian fortu- 
 nately has passed away, and the merest pretenders 
 to accuracy, the lady-sciolists, the Costellos and the 
 Strichlands in their Lives and Memoirs, have 
 their kick at the dead lion. But it was an evil day, 
 when the rulers of the Church, so far as lay in 
 their power, gave effect to, and stamped their seal 
 upon his heretical doctrines and exaggerated tales. 
 It was an evil day, I repeat, when the same Convo- 
 cation which laid down this Canon about preachers, 
 ' Imprimis vero videbunt, ne quid unquam doceant 
 * pro concione, quod a populo religiose teneri et 
 '■ credi velint, nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae 
 ' veteris aut novi testament!, quodque ex ilia ipsa doc- 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 45 
 
 Hoopt 
 
 ' triua catholici patres, et veteres episcopi college- 
 ' rint,' issued also this injunction, — ' Quivis Archie- 
 ' piscopus,et episcopus habebit domi sua? sacra Biblia 
 ' in amplissimo volumine, uti nuperrime Londini ex- 
 ' cusa sunt, et plenam* illam historiam quae inscribi- 
 ' tur 3Iomimenta Martyrum. Locentur autem isti 
 ' libri, vel in aula, vel in grandi coenaculo, ut et ip- 
 ' sorum famulis, et advenis usui esse possint.'f This 
 was truly blowing both hot and cold : and we shall 
 have a proof presently of its sure consequences. 
 
 Listen also to Bishop Hooper. One of the most Bishop 
 rare of his works is his ' Godly Confession and Pro- 
 ' testacion of the Christian fayth, made and set 
 ' f'urth &c. wherein is declared what a christia manne 
 ' is bound to beleue of God, hys King, his neibour, 
 ' and himselfe.' 4to. 1350. The ]^ running title 
 throughout is ' The Confession of Ihon Hoopers 
 fayth.' This book is dated 'xxth of Decembre,' 
 some six months after he had been consecrated to 
 
 * The English edition of these Canons, which was put 
 forth at the same time as the Latin, and by the same prin- 
 ter, has ' that full and perfect history.' The interpolation 
 is worth remark. 
 
 t Liber quorundam Canonum disciplinas Ecclesia; Angli- 
 canfe. Anno 1571. Pp. 5 and 19. Edit. Londini apud 
 Johannem Dayum. 4to. 
 
46 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 his Bishopric : and we may be certain, that on such 
 a subject, at such a time, more than usual caution 
 would be used. We must remember that this was 
 little more than a year after the publication of the 
 new Book of Common Prayer, when many thou- 
 sands of sincere men stood hesitating, unable to go 
 on as rapidly as himself, unable also to see the pro- 
 priety of so numerous and important changes in 
 their mode of worship ; was it decent then, was it a 
 fit example, to strive to create an undeserved pre- 
 judice against such men, and attack their loyalty 
 by way of indulging his anger, and speak of the 
 ' ministers of the churche, persons and vicars, one 
 
 * hand upon the portesse, & the other to strike at 
 
 * the kinges crown.' ? Sign. F. 1 . Rev. Or was it 
 likely to be without its evil consequences hereafter, 
 that a Bishop of the Church should say, * As co- 
 ' cerning the ministers of the Church, I beleue that 
 
 * the church is bound to no sort of people, or any 
 
 * ordinary successio of bishops. Cardinals or such 
 ' like, but unto the only word of god, and none of 
 
 * the shuld be beleued but whe thei speke y'' word 
 
 * of god.' ? Sign, G. ij. 
 
 I pass by other works of the same Bishop : I 
 pass by also references which I have noted in the 
 productions of another who held the same office, 
 
>rARTIN MARPRELATE. 47 
 
 and whose writings were during very great part of 
 
 the sixteenth century held in the highest estimation, 
 
 I mean, Bishop Bale :* and several more books of and Bishop 
 
 the same period : and shall now only quote further 
 
 upon this point, the forty-fifth of the Theses Mar- 
 
 tiniance, ' That this wicked gouernement of bishops 
 
 ' w^as an especial point, gainesaid by the seruants of 
 
 ' God, in the time of King Henrie the eight, and 
 
 * Q. Marie ; and in the withstanding whereof they 
 
 * died, the holie martires of Christ lesus.' 
 
 To return then to the ' Harborow for faithfull The Har- 
 
 ... borow. 
 
 subjects' The book is a quarto, in which the sig- 
 natures run to R. 3. in fours : upon the reverse of 
 the last leaf of which sheet is a device in a square 
 compartment, probably the printer's. It has 125 
 pages, according to the paging in a contemporary 
 hand of a copy now before me. Below the title 
 upon the same page is a text from Prov. xxxii. ; 
 and under it, ' at Strasborowe the 26. of Aprill.' 
 It admits of some doubt whether this date refers to 
 
 * Among the numerous pieces which remain of Bishop 
 Bale's, is a translation in English of Bishop Gardiner's Oration 
 De vera obedientia. In the preface to this, tliere is one pas- 
 sage, so abominably abusive, so blasphemous, and expressed in 
 language so obscene, that it is utterly impossible to quote it. 
 There is nothing even approaching it, in all the Marprelate 
 tracts. 
 
48 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 the conclusion of the author's or the printer's la- 
 bours. From the character however, of the types 
 and speUing, it appears to have been printed abroad, 
 I have been particular in giving some account of 
 the volume, in consequence of its extreme rarity, 
 and its intimate connexion in many respects, though 
 above thirty years preceding them in time, with the 
 pamphlets of Martin Marprelate. 
 Full of ex- The latter reason tempts me to give an extract 
 
 opinions. or two more, provmg that there is no lack m it 01 
 violent and bitter language. Such as calling the 
 Church of Rome ' a beast, — the dungeon of de- 
 
 * uelishe doctrine, couered with the rotten bones of 
 ' Romyshe Martirs, synfule Sayntes, and counter- 
 ' faited Confessores.' — Sign.BA. Bidding ' priests 
 ' and prelats to howld and wail, not for the daunger 
 
 * you stand in, of losing your bishopriks and bene- 
 ' fices, your pomp and your pride ; your dignities 
 ' and honors, your riches and welth : but for that 
 ' hel hath opened hys mouth wide, and gapeth to 
 ' swallowe you, &c.' — Sign. D. 4. Complaining 
 that the Parliament of Queen Mary ' stouped con- 
 
 * trary to their othes and alledgiaunce to the crowne, 
 
 * againste the preuilege of that house, vppon their 
 
 * marye bones to receiue the Deuels blessinge, 
 
 * brought vnto them by satans Apostle the Cardi- 
 
MARTIN MARI'KELATE. 
 
 49 
 
 * nal.' Sign. H. 3. Accusing ' my lordes of the 
 ' clarg-ie, as gaping to see the daye wherein they 
 ' myghte washe their goodly whyte ratchettes in the 
 ' innocent blonde of Elizabeth,' and that they could 
 not but be sure of destroying her, ' when they sawe 
 ' so many holy martirs sacrificed to the God in the 
 ' boxe.' And gibing at the habits of Bishops of the 
 Church, calling them ' ratchetters.' Sign, N. 4. 
 Scoffing at the holy Communion also, as a ' bles- 
 tered masse.' Sign. 0.\. Regretting that under 
 Queen Mary any of the nobility or gentry had been 
 forced to give up their sacrilegious gains, and to 
 disgorge some of the fair manors of the plundered 
 Church, Sign. O. 1 ; and threatening the Bishops 
 of Elizabeth, and telling them, ' Let the Quene have 
 ' the rest of your temporalties and other lands to 
 ' maintain these warres which you procured, and 
 
 * with the rest to builde and founde scoles thorow 
 
 * oute the realme : that euerye parishe church may 
 ' haue his preacher, euery city his superintendent 
 ' to live honestly and not pompously.' Sign. O. 4. 
 I shall quote no more passages upon this head : far 
 more even than all this to our present purpose is it 
 that Aylmer at Strasburg had said, what Bishop 
 Aylmer was reminded of by Martin Marprelate, 
 that ' those that be preachers, must be no mylke 
 
50 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * soppes, no white lyuered gentlemen, that for the 
 
 * frowning and cloudy countenance of euery man in 
 ' authoritie, will leaue his tackle and crie Peccavi.' 
 Sign, H. 1 ; and that Bishops must * away with 
 ' their superfluities, yeld up their thousands, be 
 ' content with hundreds, as they be in other re- 
 
 * formed churches,' Sign. O. 4. 
 
 The Bishop Although the Harhorowe was written expressly 
 Queen of to uphold the lawfulucss of female government, yet 
 the author could not but allow that in his opinion, 
 Mary the Queen of Scotland, was an exception. 
 Queen Elizabeth was a favourer (he supposed) of his 
 own particular views : this was one way of looking 
 at the question : Queen Mary was attached to the 
 religion of her forefathers, and disgusted with Knox 
 and his faction : this was another point of view. 
 ' The present state of Scotland,' he says, (I take 
 the passage from Strype, Aijlmer, p. 230,*) 
 ' through the fault of the person and not of the sex 
 ' is unnatural, unreasonable, unjust and unlawfull. 
 ' And that if he (meaning Knox) had kept him in 
 
 * that particular person, he could have said nothing 
 ' too much, nor in such wise as could have offended 
 
 * Strype gives no reference : it is Sign. B. 2. I rather 
 think Mary of England, and not of Scotland, is the person 
 meant : Strype's defence of the Bishop requires the latter, 
 
MARTIN MAUPRELATE. 5 I 
 
 * any indifferent man.' I would have the reader, as 
 a sort of commentary upon this, remember a letter 
 of Aylmer's predecessor in the See of London, 
 Archbishop Sandys, who, writing to Burleigh, en- 
 closed a paper of measures, which he thought expe- 
 dient at that time for the good of the realm ; coolly 
 beginning, ' Forthwith to cut off the Scottish Queen's 
 ' head; * 
 
 I am glad now to dismiss Bishop Aylmer's book, 
 as neither our present object, nor the question itself 
 how far women are competent to rule, seems to call 
 for any further notice of it. 
 
 A remarkable feature of the first Marprelate The Puritans 
 
 at that time, 
 
 tracts is, the expressions which frequently occur in confident of 
 
 success. 
 
 them of the certain expectation which their authors 
 had, that the Church of England, as ruled by Bishops 
 and Priests, was now tottering to its downfall. 
 ' Look to yourselves, I think you have not long to 
 ' raigne,' is Martin's advice to the Bishops, remind- 
 ing us of the warning given within a few years past, 
 by one now alive, in his place as a peer of the realm, 
 to their successors, that they should ' set their 
 houses in order' And such expectations, humanly 
 
 and he insists on it. I look on it as a matter of not the least 
 consequence which Queen was intended. 
 
 * Ellis's Royal Letters. 2nd Series. Vol. iii. 25. 
 
52 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 speaking, were not unfounded. As the learned 
 editor of tlie last edition of the Ecclesiastical Polity- 
 has observed {Preface, lii.), there are certain points, 
 turning points, in the annals of the Church, when 
 God in His mercy is at length pleased to interfere, 
 and stop at once the whole course of things tending 
 (almost without hope) some one evil way. ' One 
 of these critical periods,' the editor continues, ' if 
 he mistakes not, is the latter portion of the sixteenth 
 century.' It was not unnatural, therefore, that the 
 Puritans should begin to rejoice that they were 
 about to gain their end : and even Hooker seems 
 to have thought as they did, that there was but 
 little hope of escape for the English Church, and 
 that her candlestick would be very soon removed. 
 The Puritans wrote as if in triumph, he confessedly 
 desponding : both could but look upon the struggle 
 passing around them, as being themselves actors in 
 it, only guessing at the probable event, and not as 
 we are, at a long distance of time after all is over, 
 able to discern, if I may venture to say so, the 
 plain interposition at the proper hour, of the Al- 
 mighty Hand. This doubt which Hooker evidently 
 felt, and the fearful peril in which to his judgment 
 (and so far we need no better) matters appeared to 
 be, are clearly shown by the first sentence of his 
 
MARTIN MA UP RELATE. 53 
 
 own Preface to his great work. ' Though,' he says, 
 — ' though for no other cause, yet for this ; that 
 ' posteritie may know we have not loosely through 
 ' silence permitted things to passe away as in a 
 ' dreame, there shall be for men's information ex- 
 
 * tant thus much concerning the present state of 
 ' the Church of God estabhshed amongst vs, and 
 ' their carefull endeuour which woulde haue vpheld 
 ' the same.' 
 
 This is a very important point : I shall further Further 
 
 . proofs of this 
 
 illustrate it by a passage from a famous book of the important 
 
 point. 
 
 day, published about 1585. ' The State of the 
 Church of Englande, laide open in a Conference.' 
 The speaker in this extract is Demetrius, a Bishop. 
 He says, ' The Puritanes in Scotland, haue got vp 
 ' their discipline, and vtterly overthrowen all the 
 ' soueraigntie of Bishops, by which they preuailed 
 ' so mightihe, that ive feared our fall in England 
 
 * short lie to ensue, wherevpon I was sent to go and 
 ' seeke the subuersion of their great assemblies, 
 ' and the rest of their iurisdiction, wherein I pre- 
 ' u ailed a while, but now it is woorse, than euer it 
 ' was.' Pandocheus, an Innkeeper to whom (upon 
 his journey home) he is supposed to be speaking, 
 enquires, ' How came it to passe, that when you had 
 ' gotten some ground, you held it not ? Diutrephes. 
 
54 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * Because the whole land cried out for Discipline 
 
 * againe, and the noble men so stifly did stand to it, 
 
 * and lastly, the ministers that came home from 
 
 * England, dealt so boldlie with the King, that I 
 
 * was vtterlie cast out without hope, and nowe I 
 
 * make homeivarde in haste, lest I lose all there 
 
 * also.' * Among some papers seized by the Arch- 
 bishop's officers in 1588, the year in which the 
 Epistle and the Epitome were published, was an 
 account of some questions debated by the Puritans 
 shortly before. It seems that they had actually 
 begun to discuss a difficulty which was likely soon 
 to occur. * How, when all the Church's revenues 
 that then were should be converted, to maintain 
 their presbyteries, her Majesty should be recom- 
 pensed for her first-fruits and tenths. For that 
 they would pay none, as being unlavvful.'-j- 
 
 Martin's con- Hencc, therefore, it was not merely in jest, that 
 
 peace. Martin Marprelate scoffingly proposed the following 
 
 ' conditions of peace, to be inuiolablie kept for euer,' 
 
 between his party and the Bishops of the Church. 
 
 ' 1. In primis, the said Lord Bb. must promise 
 
 * and obserue, without fraud or collusion, and that 
 
 * as much as in them lyeth, they labor to promote 
 
 * State of the Ch. of Engl. &c. Sign. B. 2. 
 t Strype. Life of Wliitgift, 292. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 SS 
 
 ' the preaching of the worde in eucry part of this 
 ' land. 
 
 * 2. That hereafter they admitt none vnto the 
 
 * ministerie, but such as shalbe knowen, both for 
 
 * their godlinesse and learning, to be fit for the 
 ' ministerie — and that they suffer M. Cartwrightes 
 ' auswere to the Rhemish Testament to be pub- 
 ' lished. 
 
 * 3. That neyther they nor theyr scruants — urge 
 ' any to subscribe contrary to the statute 13 Eliza. 
 ' — that none be suspended or silenced, eyther for 
 ' speaking (when their text giueth them occasion) 
 ' against the corruptions of the Church, for refusing 
 ' to weare the surplice, cap, tippet, &c., or omitting 
 ' the corruptions of the booke of common prayers, 
 ' as churching of women, the crosse in baptisme, 
 ' the ring in marriage, &c. 
 
 ' 4. That none be molested by them — for not 
 
 * kneeling at the communion, or for resorting on 
 ' the Saboth (if they haue not preachers of their 
 ' owne) to hear the word preached, and to receiue 
 ' the Sacraments. 
 
 ' 5. Lastly, that they neuer hereafter profane ex- 
 
 ' communication ; that they neuer forbid pub- 
 
 ' like fasts, molest either preacher or hearer, for 
 ' being present at such assemblies. Briefly, that 
 
56 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * they neuer slander the cause of reformation, or 
 
 * the furtherers thereof, in terming the cause by the 
 
 * name of Anabaptisterie, schisme, &c., and the men 
 
 * puritans, and enemies to the state.' — The Epistle^ 
 pp. 38, 39. 
 
 ' I offer you peace upon these conditions,' con- 
 tinues the writer shortly after, ' if you will keep 
 ' them, but if you violate them either in whole or 
 His threats, if ' in part, then your learned brother Martin doth 
 
 rejected. , i i i 
 
 * proclaim open war agamst you, and entendeth to 
 ' worke your woe 2. maner of wayes as folio weth. 
 
 * First, I will watch you at euery halfe turne, and 
 
 * whatsoeuer you do amisse, I will presently publish 
 
 * it : you shall not call one honest man before you, 
 
 * but I will get his examination,* — and publish it. 
 
 * To this purpose I will place a young Martin in 
 
 * euerie diocesse.f — Secondly, all the books that I 
 
 * have in store already of your doings, shall be pub- 
 ' lished — the catalogue of their names, and the 
 ' arguments of some are as followeth : — First, my 
 
 * Among the Tracts contained in the Farte of a Register 
 are, ' An examination of certayne Londonners before the 
 
 * Commissioners, about anno 1567.' 'The Bishops proceed- 
 ' ings against Maist. Robart Johnson Preacher, who dyed in 
 ' the gate 1573.' and * The Conference betweene some of 
 
 * the liigh Commissioners, and Mai. Marbury, anno 1578.' 
 
 t The Puritans soon after the year 1580, began to hold 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 57 
 
 * Paradoxes ; 2. my Dialogues ; 3. my Miscela- 
 *nea; 4. my Varies leiciones ; 5. Martins 
 
 * Dreame ; 6. Of the Hues and doings of English 
 ^ popes : 7. my Itinerarium or visitations; 8. 
 ' my Lamhathismes, In my Paradoxes shalbe 
 ' handled some points, which the comon sort haue 
 ' not greatly considered of: as 1. That our prelats, 
 ' if they professed popery, could not do so much 
 ' hurt unto God's Church as now they do. 2. That 
 ' the Diuele is not better practized in bowling and 
 ^ swering then John of London is, with other like 
 ' points. What shalbe handled in my 2, 3. 4. 5. 
 ' and 6. bookes, you shall know when you read 
 ' them. Epistle, pp. 40, 41. (None of these 
 threatened publications ever appeared, at least no 
 copy of any one of them has been found.) 
 
 The demand, 'that they suffer jNI. Cartwright's 
 ' answer to the Rhemish Testament to be pub- 
 ' lished,' requires some notice. This translation TheRiiemish 
 was put forth by the English College of Ii hemes, 
 
 frequent provincial assemblies. At one of these, in the year 
 158B, at London, it was agreed, ' that the oppressions 
 ' offered to others, and especially to the Ministers, by tlie 
 
 * Bishops and the Bishops' officers, and by their courts, 
 ' should be gathered and registered.' Vide Strype's Life of 
 Whitgift, 292. Strype observes also that this is according to 
 Marprelate's threat in the passage above. 
 
58 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 in 1582, *\vith arguments of bookes and chapters, 
 
 * Annotations, and other necessarie helpes, for the 
 
 * better vnderstanding of the text, and specially for 
 
 * the discouerie of the Corruptions of diuers late 
 
 * translations, and for cleering the Controversies in 
 
 * religion, of these dales.' So the title of the book 
 expresses it. There is a long preface to the reader, 
 and each chapter is followed by annotations, as well 
 as the text accompanied with frequent pithy margi- 
 nal notes, very much to the purpose which the 
 Rhemists had in hand. At the end is a table of 
 Controversies, by which the reader might at once 
 turn to any doctrine disputed and see the texts 
 quoted on it, with the above-mentioned annotations 
 or remarks. This volume was undoubtedly distri- 
 buted widely in England, and its rarity at present 
 arises from the same cause which has operated 
 upon so many books of the same time, the care 
 which was taken to suppress and destroy the copies. 
 And the consequences which followed were those 
 v/hich the Romanists looked for : its very title 
 would excite curiosity, and people would see not 
 only that English translations might give most 
 opposite renderings of the original, but that others 
 besides the Reformers did not fear in such guise to 
 appeal to Scripture. 
 
MAIITIN MA UP RELATE. 59 
 
 It was soon seen that an answer was necessary : Cartwrigiit's 
 
 Coufutiilioii. 
 
 and the preface of ' the Publisher to the studious 
 reader,' in Cartwright's Confutation, when it was 
 pubhshed at last in 1618, gives us some history of 
 the undertaking. He says of Cartwright himself, 
 that though most anxious that some one should 
 perform the work, ' yet humilitie and modestie made 
 
 * him stay, untill he was in some sort enforced unto 
 
 * the labour.' It seems that Sir Francis Walsing- 
 ham pressed the matter upon him, and ' sent him 
 
 * an hundred pounds towards the charges, which 
 ' buying of books and procuring of writers was like 
 
 * to bring upon him : this was about the yeare 1583.' 
 
 * The same yeare also he was solicited very ear- 
 
 * nestly by the most learned men of the Vniversitie 
 
 * of Cambridge,' and by several others of great in- 
 fluence. So Cartwright began his Confutation : 
 but was much discouraged in his progress, until at 
 last in 1590 he writes ' to an Earle and privie 
 
 * Councellor of great note, that aboue 4 yeares be- 
 ' fore, he had received comaundement from the 
 
 * Archbishop, to deale no further in it.' It seems 
 that nevertheless he continued, and made every 
 effort to have it allowed when completed : but in 
 this he did not succeed : and nearly thirty years 
 elapsed before it was published. During the in- 
 
6o 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Remarks 
 upon the 
 Statute, 13. 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 terval, the mice (says the Publisher) had destroyed 
 some part of the manuscript, and that with other 
 defects were supphed from Dr. Fulke.* There is 
 no place or printer's name : yet there is not suffi- 
 cient ground to suppose with Strype, that after so 
 great a length of time, it was still necessary to print 
 it privately. 
 
 The subject of Cartwrighfs Confutation is one 
 frequently alluded to, and complained of in the 
 Marprelate tracts : it is worth our notice also, as 
 evidencing, (though we know not the exact reasons 
 wherefore in this particular case, yet) at least that 
 the Archbishop and those who acted with him were 
 not more afraid of the evil consequences which 
 were said to follow the Rhemish translation, than 
 they were of the remedy which was proposed to be 
 administered by the Puritans. 
 
 Far more important was the demand that, ' ney- 
 ' ther they nor theyr servants urge any to subscribe 
 ' contrary to the Statute 13. Eliza.' This Statute 
 was entitled, ' An Act for the Ministers of the 
 
 * Dr. Fulke's book against the Rhemish Testament was 
 published in 1589, in Fol. and again in 1617. His defence 
 of the EngHsh translations separately in 1583. Cartwright 
 also had an answer to the Preface of the Rhemists printed at 
 Edinburgh, shortly before his death, 1603. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 6l 
 
 * Church to be of sound religion,' and the first clause 
 directed, ' That every Person under the degree of 
 
 * a Bishop, which doth or shall pretend to be a 
 ' Priest or JNIinister of God's holy Word and Sacra- 
 ' ments, by reason of any other Form of Institution, 
 
 * Consecration or Ordering, than the Form set forth 
 
 * by Parliament in the Time of the late King of 
 
 * most worthy Memory, King Edward the Sixth, or 
 
 * now used in the reign of our most gracious Sove- 
 
 * reign Lady, before the feast of the Nativity of 
 
 * Christ next following, shall in the presence of the 
 
 * Bishop declare his assent, and subscribe to 
 
 * all the Articles of Religion, which only concern 
 ' the Confession of the true Christian Faith and the 
 ' Doctrine of the Sacraments, comprised in a Book 
 ' imprinted, intituled, " Articles whereupon it was 
 ' agreed, &c." ' I take this from the Statutes at 
 Large, vol. 2. printed by the King's printers, in 
 1786 : and it is observable that there might be a 
 doubt as to whether the oath was to be taken by all 
 such persons ' before the feast of the Nativity next 
 following,' or rather as it seems to me, whether 
 that clause did not limit the privilege conferred by 
 this Act to those only who before the said Feast 
 had been or should be ordained under any other 
 Form. I leave this to the judgment of men better 
 
6z MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 learned in such inquiries, merely adding that both 
 the sense and the punctuation (as given in the Sta- 
 tutes before me) appear to support my view. And 
 the practice which followed must be considered. 
 Whether the Act was framed with regard chiefly to 
 priests who had been ordained with the ancient 
 Forms by Bishops, or whether, as is equally pro- 
 bable, it looked also to those who had received 
 whilst in exile foreign ordination at the hands of 
 elders or presbyters, it is quite certain that the 
 Puritan ministers quickly claimed under it, free- 
 dom from penalties and permission to exercise their 
 calling. As far as the Act is concerned, there was 
 no objection to this, in the case of those who before 
 the Feast named, had so received orders or pre- 
 tended orders : but the Puritans (as we see Martin 
 Marprelate does) went on to claim the like liberty 
 for the future. 
 
 Now there are two cases very much to the point, 
 Cases of and both famous. The one of Whitting-hara, Dean 
 
 Dean Whit- ^ -^ , , . 
 
 tingham, of Durham, who was cited by Sandys the Arch- 
 bishop of the province, and an attempt was made 
 to deprive him as a layman. This was in 1578. 
 When he appeared before the Commissioners, he 
 produced a certificate, that in Queen Mary's days, 
 * It pleased God, by the suffrages of the whole con- 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 63 
 
 * gregation, at Geneva, orderly to choose Mr. Whit- 
 
 * tingham, unto the office of preaching the word of 
 ' God, and ministring the Sacraments : and he was 
 
 * admitted minister : and so pubHshed, with such 
 ' other ceremonies as here are used and accus- 
 
 * tomed.' * There is here, (as Neal observes was 
 objected at the time,) no mention of a Bishop, or 
 any external solemnity, or even of an imposition of 
 hands : nevertheless he was not rejected, and re- 
 tained his dignity till his death.f The other is the andTiaveis. 
 case of Hooker's opponent in the Temple, Travers : 
 
 he was suspended by the Archbishop, and claimed 
 exemption under this Act, because he had been or- 
 dained (as he called it) at Antwerp in 1578. But 
 the claim was not allowed, his suspension was con- 
 tinued, and he was silenced for life. 
 
 It was a frequent source of complaint by the dis- 
 affected non-conformists, that their interpretation of 
 this Act was resisted : if it had not been, if Mar- 
 tin's demand had been acceded to, it is impossible 
 
 * Neal. i. 243. 
 
 t Against the case of Whittingham as represented above, 
 I am aware that many years afterwards, Whitgift said,' if he 
 had hved, he would have been deprived.' But he adds, 
 * His cause and Mr. Travers were not alike.' Vide Life of 
 Whitgift. 252. and Appendix No. xxx. The fact remains : 
 Dean Whittingham was not deprived. 
 
64 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 to overrate the evils which would have followed: 
 coming in among his proposals and ' conditions of 
 peace,' as it does, scarcely (as it were) of much 
 consequence in the dispute, and relating to a Statute 
 of seemingly allowed doubtfulness, it might possibly 
 have been admitted without due consideration at the 
 time, as now, many who read the passage, overlook 
 altogether its extreme importance : it would not be 
 too much to say, that the whole question hung, in 
 one sense, upon this point.* 
 
 There are many ridiculous tales told of the 
 
 Church-party, both in the Epistle and the Epitome. 
 
 sioryofthe I extract one of a sermon said to be preached by 
 
 Gloucester, the ' Bishop of Gloucester now living.' (John Bul- 
 
 lingham.) ' On a time he preaching at Worcester 
 
 * before he was B. vpon Sir John's f day: as he 
 
 * trauersed his matter, and discoursed vpon many 
 
 * points, he came at the length vnto the very pithe 
 ' of his whol sermon, contained in the distinction of 
 
 * the name of lohn, which he then shewing all his 
 
 * I do not enter into the question how far the same Act 
 allowed &ome and not all the Articles to be subscribed : this 
 was not the point which Martin Marprelate pressed, and the 
 Courts decided that an absolute subscription was required. 
 Vide Collier, 2. 530. who cites Green's case. 
 
 t I shall remark presently upon this use of Sir for Saint 
 by the Puritans. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * learning at once, full learnedly handled after this 
 
 * manner. lohn, lohn, the grace of God, the grace 
 ' of God, the grace of God : gracious lohn, not 
 
 * graceless lohn, but gracious lohn. lohn, holy 
 ' lohn, holy lohn, not lohn full of holes, but holy 
 ' lohn. If he shewed not himselfe learned in this 
 
 * sermond, then hath he bene a duns all his life.' 
 Epistle, p. 47. I would not undertake to say how 
 little of this anecdote is really true, nor I suppose 
 would any one, who has examined many examples 
 which remain of pulpit oratory in Queen Elizabeth's 
 reign. 
 
 I extract another story ; these will shew the spirit And another 
 
 , . story, 
 
 of the rest. ' Some presbyter priest, it seems 
 from what follows after, a bishop, ' being lately de- 
 
 * manded whether he should be bishop of Eh, an- 
 
 * swered that now he had no great hope to be B. of 
 ' Eli : and therefore, quoth he, I may say well 
 
 * inough, Eli, Eli, Lamma-sabacthani. Eli, Eli, why 
 
 * hast thou forsaken me. Alluding very blasphe- 
 
 * mously vnto the words which our Sauiour Christe 
 ' spake, in his greatest agonie vpon the crosse.' 
 Epistle, p. 49. My readers will agree that very 
 blasphemous was such an allusion : we can scarcely 
 believe that it was other than an invention of the 
 writer, or at least fathered unjustly upon an English 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 perhaps to be prelate. And yet Bishop Aylmer makes us doubt, 
 Bishop Ayi- upon the evidence of his own book: (I am obhged 
 
 mer. 
 
 in justice to refer to it once more :) in the Har- 
 bor owe he dared to jest in no less an unseemly way 
 upon the same solemn text. Speaking of a certain 
 argument he says, ' This riseth of wronge vnder- 
 ' standinge, as the Vicar of Trumpington vnder- 
 
 * stode Eli, Eli, lamahzabatani, when he red the 
 ' Passion vpon Palme Sonday ; when he came to 
 
 * that place he stopped, and calling the Church- 
 ' wardens saide : Neighbours this geare must be 
 ' amended, heare is Eli twise in the booke, I assure 
 ' you if my L. of Elie come thys waye and see it, 
 ' hee will haue the booke. Therefore by mine ad- 
 ' vice we shall scrape it out, and put in oure owne 
 ' townes name, Trumpington, Trumpington, lamah- 
 
 * zabactani : they consented, and he did so.' Har- 
 bor owe. Sign. G. iij. Rev. 
 
 Besides anecdotes of this sort, the Epistle and 
 the Epitome abound in scandalous stories of various 
 people in authority, especially of the Bishops of 
 London and Winchester, and the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. There are one or two passages in the 
 Martin depre- first of these volumes in which Martin Marprelate 
 
 cates the in- 
 terference of shews a lurking fear that in thus publicly repeatmg 
 
 them, he has overstepped even the usual allowed 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 67 
 
 broad limits of his party, and that a severe inquiry 
 would be set on foot after himself, and those who 
 printed or bought his tracts. For example, in the 
 Epistle he demands among his " Conditions of 
 Peace," 'that none be molested by them, (i.e. the 
 
 * bishops) or any their aforesaid servants, for this 
 
 * my booke ;' and again, ' If you would haue my 
 
 * friendship, as I seeke yours, then let me see that 
 ' you persecute no more, and especially, that you 
 
 * trouble none for this booke of mine.' Pp. 38. 43. 
 Before the Epitome was published his anticipations 
 were realised : and he now threatens, ' I thinke not 
 ' well of your dealing with my worship, and those 
 ' that haue had of my bookes in their custodie. 
 ' He make you rue that dealing of yours, vnlesse 
 ' you leaue it.' P. 1. And his last sentence is, ' I 
 ' would deuise them not to persecute men for my 
 
 * worships booke as they doe.' 
 
 The author will not have his book to be a libel : Denies his 
 
 booii to be a 
 
 and his denial that it is so is curious. ' You will Ubei. 
 ' go about,' he says, ' I knowe, to proue my booke 
 ' to be a libell, but I haue preuented you of that 
 ' aduantage in lawe, both in bringing in nothing 
 ' but matters of fact, whiche may easily be proued, 
 ' if you dare denie them, and also setting my name 
 
 * to my booke.' Epistle, p. 40. I am at a loss 
 
68 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 which we are here to admire the most : the legal 
 knowledge displayed by the Nonconformist party, 
 or its strict adherence to the truth. 
 
 The Epitome ends with * Errata, or faults escaped.' 
 The first is as follows. ' Whersoever the prelats 
 
 * are called, my Lords, either in the Epistle to the 
 
 * confocation house, or in this Epitome, take that 
 
 * for a fault. Because they are none of M. Martins 
 ' Lords, neither shal any priest of them all be my 
 ' Lord. For I tell thee true, I think foul scorn e 
 ' they should be my Lords, or the Lords of any of 
 
 * my sonnes.' 
 
 The extracts I trust that cuough has been said about these, 
 more^than the first two tracts of Martin Marprelate. Enough 
 shew the Very probably to tire the reader, but not more than 
 
 spirit of the , , ...,.,, 
 
 time. was necessary to show the spirit in which they were 
 
 written, and the objects at which they aimed. Their 
 appearance astounded the people of England ; and 
 their unknown authors became at once ' the ob- 
 served of all observers.' In the state in which par- 
 ■ ties at that time were, it was not that men could 
 suppose that there was any prospect of peace for 
 the Church, but they were not prepared for such 
 an attack, for the undisguised expression of so great 
 confidence in the result, and hope of speedy triumph. 
 For a time, as we shall see, the experiment pros- 
 
MARTIN MAKIMIELATE. 69 
 
 percd : and the Puritans would not have been 
 slack to make their next move in the game, buoyed 
 on by their success. I do not think that, looking 
 back upon the whole matter and upon the years 
 immediately preceding, there is much to be surprised 
 at, either in the attempt, or in the danger in which 
 it placed the Church of England. 
 
 In every age there have always been hasty and Puritanism in 
 
 the reign ot 
 
 turbulent, or sour and discontented men, who wanted Queen Kiiza- 
 
 betli,tiie great 
 
 some outlet for their discontent and violence, and outlet for the 
 
 discontented. 
 
 cared Httle against what they were directed provided 
 only that an opening was found. In the latter 
 years of Queen Elizabeth, the one object seemed to 
 be, the remnant which had escaped the religious 
 revolutionists of Edward's and Henry's reigns. 
 Many questions of great importance had gradually 
 dwindled into almost utter insignificance, or sunk 
 quietly to rest : many others through changes in 
 the political world had lost their interest, or ceased 
 to be even among the probable chances of that busy 
 time : but still one party persevered : the loss, by 
 death, of one leader, the defection of another, only 
 served to stimulate the exertions of the rest, and to 
 produce new hosts. Like a vortex, it was absorb- 
 ing rapidly the scattered fragments of parties which 
 had been broken and dispersed, but formerly united 
 
70 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 with some far different purpose. So, all that had 
 hitherto been given up to clamour, and abandoned 
 through fear, did but whet the appetites and excite 
 the passions of men v/ho pretended to be more 
 thorough reformers. Others, again, would sit specu- 
 lating in their closets, or draw conclusions natural 
 enough from premises laid down by the writers of 
 some forty years before, then go into the world, 
 and look out for an opportunity of putting these 
 theories and conclusions into active practice. Lastly, 
 we must not forget that the popular preachers of 
 the day were not idle in heaping fresh fuel upon 
 the fire. The pulpit then, in many an instance, 
 served the end which now the daily press amongst 
 us does, not merely spreading intelligence abroad, 
 but stirring up and leading the people. 
 Whether such It has been frequently said that many among 
 
 men would p ^ -r ^ ' t 1 • 11 
 
 have entered thcsc, of whom 1 havo just bccu speakmg, would 
 
 Monasteries 
 
 in other havo becomc, in the centuries immediately pre- 
 
 times. 
 
 ceding, inmates of monasteries; that there they 
 would have sought for refuge from disappointment, 
 and, in the equal routine of the daily services and 
 duties of such foundations, have found relief from 
 the excitement of eager and unsatisfied and vision- 
 ary hopes. The fact also has been triumphantly 
 appealed to in support of this opinion, that, until of 
 
MARTIN MARI'RELATE. 7I 
 
 late years, (late, that is in comparison,) so great 
 outrages by professed Christians upon religion and 
 religious ordinances were unheard of. With this 
 I cannot agree ; and (I mention it here merely inci- 
 dentally, as matter (it may be) for future considera- 
 tion) I think the same objection lies, in a measure, 
 against the too hasty revival, amongst ourselves, of 
 conventual institutions, solely with their ancient pur- 
 pose. Convents and monasteries will be only a 
 refuge, to be very partially indeed available, and of 
 very limited use, so long as the masses are irre- 
 ligiously educated under an imperfect system. 
 Most certainly, as regards the Elizabethan Puritans, 
 if the abbeys had been still standing in their time, 
 I cannot think that they and the Martin Marpre- 
 lates would have taken the monastic vows. They 
 were fanatics and seditious preachers, not sober- 
 minded and earnest, not desirous, by a more inti- 
 mate communion with their God, to forget the 
 world. Their great aim was to be among 'the 
 powers of this world.' There were none such, per- 
 haps, among their fathers as they were ; but their 
 fathers had been otherwise brought up. In after 
 days the foundations of the Church had been shaken, 
 her strongholds overthrown, her ordinances ridi- 
 culed, her powers despised, her faith changed, her 
 
72 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 worship meanly, poorly provided for ; and we may 
 as well expect the thunder not to succeed the flash, 
 as that such a generation should not follow, as its 
 most natural progeny, such an age as were the first 
 sixty years of the sixteenth century. The seeds 
 had been sown with an unsparing hand ; home pro- 
 duce and foreign had been mixed in most strange 
 and horrible confusion ; these had been thrown into 
 one hotbed to grow up as they might, and we can- 
 not be surprised at the rank luxuriance of the crop. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 I SHALL now proceed to a publication which 
 was intended to check the outbreaks of Martin 
 Marprelate and his faction. Thomas Cooper, 
 Bishop of Winchester, boldly took up the cause ; 
 and in the work, (No. 3,) ' A71 Admonition to the 
 People of England,' soberly appealed to their 
 good feelings, and warned them against the ribaldry 
 and exaggerations of Martin's pamphlets. 
 
 Bishop Cooper had been a few years before trans- 
 lated from the See of Lincoln, to which he had 
 been elected in 1570, having previously been Dean 
 of Christ Church, Oxford, and Dean of Gloucester. 
 He was originally of low parentage ; and Anthony 
 a Wood gives us an account of the misery which 
 he endured through the misconduct of his wife. 
 There are many indecent allusions to her notorious 
 ill-living in the Marprelate tracts, the authors of 
 which cared not a whit for the feelings of other 
 men, and spared not their misfortunes, so long as 
 
 Tlie Admoni- 
 tion. 
 
 Bishop 
 Cooper. 
 
74 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 riis 
 by 
 prelate 
 
 they might raise a laugh by gibing at them; or 
 through them, injure the reputation of the Church 
 at large. Wood tells us, that it was proposed to 
 set him free by a divorce, but he would not consent, 
 and ' to divorce and marry again, he would not 
 ' charge his conscience with so great a scandal.' 
 His"Thesan- In 1565, Cooper published his 'Thesaurus Lin- 
 by M. Mar- gusB RomausB ct BritannicsB,' &c. fol., commonly 
 known as ' Coopers Dictionary ;' ' this work was 
 
 * so highly esteemed by Queen Elizabeth,' continues 
 Dr. Bliss, in his additions to Wood, ' that ever 
 
 * after she endeavoured to promote the author as 
 
 * high in the Church as she could.' Whether 
 rightly or wrongly, (I have not examined the book,) 
 it is certain that there were more than one opinion 
 of its merits. Martin Marprelate says ' that it was 
 
 * a mere compilation, unworthy of a scholar.' 
 
 * Alas I ' says one of the speakers in the ' Dialogue^' 
 (No. 6,) * he is altogether vnlearned, (for I have 
 
 * heard of him in Oxford, and the papists say they 
 
 * can make him beleeue the moone is made of greene 
 
 * cheese,) marry to get him a name (forsooth), 
 
 * being a correcter with a printer in fleet streete in 
 
 * London, who printed a Dictionarie, called Sir 
 
 * Thomas Eliott's dictionarye. Cooper translated 
 ' a peece of Robert Stephanus his Thesaurus, and 
 
MARTIN IMARPRELATE. 75 
 
 * joined it to the same with a fewe phrases, and so 
 
 * bereaued the famous knight of his labour, and calls 
 ' it by the name of Cooper s Dictionary.'' — Dia- 
 logue, sign, B. 3. (Quoted also by Dr. Bhss from 
 Tanner's Bibl. Brit.) Anxious as the Puritans 
 must have been to rake up any old stories against 
 Bishop Cooper, it is indeed very much in his favour 
 that we find but little against him, except the unfair 
 imputation to himself of his wife's ill-conduct, and 
 this charge about the dictionary. 
 
 As to the Admonition, how sad, how very sad. The gloomy 
 
 view taken by 
 
 is the first sentence of it. Surely, we exclaim, is the Bishop. 
 this England, Catholic England, against which such 
 complaints are laid ? Is this the land, and within 
 few years, of so many holy Bishops and good saints 
 of Christ ? We no longer wonder that at that very 
 time Richard Hooker gave way to despondency. 
 
 * When,' says the Bishop, ' I call to my remem- 
 ' brance the loathsome contempt, hatred, and dis- 
 
 * daine, that the most part of men in these dayes 
 ' beare, and in the face of the worlde declare towarde 
 
 * the ministers of the Church of God, as well Bishops 
 
 * as other among vs here in Englande ; my heart 
 
 * cannot but greatly feare and tremble at the con- 
 
 * sideration thereof.' — Adm, p. 1. And again, 
 shortly after, * Who seeth not in these dayes, that 
 
76 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * hee who can most bitterly inueigh against Bishops 
 
 * and Preachers, that can most boldely blaze their 
 
 * discredites, that can most vn charitably slaunder 
 
 * their hues and doings, thinketh of himselfe, and is 
 
 * esteemed of other, as the most zealous and earnest 
 ' furtherer of the Gospel.' — P. 2. 
 
 So also by Dr. In a like melancholy tone, within the same year, 
 1588, did Dr. Bancroft speak, preaching at Paul's 
 Cross. He had already noted ' the general con- 
 tempt of Bishops ;' and towards the end of that his 
 famous sermon, goes on to say, that the terrible 
 evils which had already fallen upon the Churches 
 abroad through their intemperateness, were greatly 
 to be feared at home. ' For,' he continues, ' it 
 
 * seemeth to me, that whatsoever hath bin done 
 ' heerein abroad, is labored for to be put in execu- 
 
 * tion heer with us at home. Our Bishops you see 
 
 * how unchristianly they are handled, even with 
 ' more contumely and disdainful reproch, then 
 
 * ever it is to be read that the heathen used against 
 
 * their priests, of what condition and behavior 
 
 * soever.* Bancroft's Sermon, Pp. 14. 80. 
 
 Eat Marpre- It appears that when the Admonition was pub- 
 ansVe?ed!' ^ lishcd, there had not been sent abroad by the Mar- 
 prelates more than two or three pamphlets. This 
 is rendered almost certain by the author of ' Hay 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 77 
 
 any Worke,' who says (p. 35) ' I haue onely pub- 
 
 * lished a Pistle, and a Pitoraie, wherein also I 
 ' graunt that I did reasonably Pistle them. There- 
 
 * fore T. C. you begin with a lye, in that you say 
 ' that I haue published either 3 or 4 bookes.' But 
 the eagerness with which these few had been read, 
 and more were looked for, seemed to call for some 
 immediate notice. The scandalous stories told of 
 the Archbishop, and of Bishop Aylmer, and of 
 Cooper himself, required a contradiction ; even 
 where they did not admit of direct and complete 
 denial, yet the exaggerations were to be exposed. 
 To these points the beginning of the Admonition 
 is directed. Each charge is separately dealt with, 
 and satisfactorily also. 
 
 Among those accusations which could not alto- 
 gether be denied, as having no foundation, were 
 two against Bishop Aylmer; one, of appropriating 
 some cloth which had been stolen from certain 
 dyers, (who afterwards claimed it in vain,) and had 
 been hidden by the thieves in a ditch. The Bishop's 
 answer was, that the dyers could not prove the 
 identity of the cloth. The other, that he had cut 
 down too much timber upon his estates at Fulham, 
 and elsewhere : this Bishop Cooper also asserts to 
 be mere exaggeration, and that not more had been 
 
7$ MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 cut than was necessary for the benefit of the rest : 
 and that the Queen had complained that the ^reat 
 number of the elms shut out the prospect from the 
 windows of her own palace. Now whatever truth 
 there might be in this answer, (and Bishop Cooper 
 was not perhaps in a condition to inquire strictly 
 into it,) there are these facts : that Bishop Bancroft 
 who succeeded to the See of London, afterwards, in 
 a bill intended to be brought before the Parliament 
 to enable him to meet his expenses, complained that 
 Aylmer had made six thousand pounds of his woods, 
 and had left scarcely enough to find yearly fuel : 
 and the Queen issued a Commission of Enquiry 
 into the matter, during Aylmer's own incumbency, 
 which decided that there was sufficient reason for a 
 restraint that he should hereafter take down no 
 more of his woods. 
 
 I shall extract only one or two more of the replies 
 made in the Admonition, to the complaints of Mar- 
 tin Marprelate. 
 
 Touching the Apocrypha &c. says the Bishop, 
 referring to the Epistle (p. 37,) wherein it was com- 
 plained, that ' the last lent there came a commaunde- 
 
 * ment from his grace into Paules Churchyard, that 
 
 * no Byble should be bounde without the Apocri- 
 
 * pha.' — ' He gave commaun dement in deede, and 
 
MARTIN iMARPRELATE. 79 
 
 * mGnneth to see it observed. For who ever sepa- 
 ^ rated this Apociypha from the rest of the Bible 
 *■ from the beginning of Christianity to this day? 
 
 * or what Church in the worlde, refourmed or other, 
 ' doth yet at this present ? and shal we suffer this 
 ' singularitie in the Church of England, to the ad- 
 ' uauntage of the aduersary, offence of the godly, 
 ' and contrary to al the world besides ?' — Adm. p. 
 49. Again — ' Among other their reproches, they 
 ' affirme of the Bishop of Rochester, that hee pre- 
 ' sented himselfe to a benefice. I doe not think it 
 ' to be true, for that I know it can not be good in 
 ' lawe. If he hath procured a benefice in way of 
 ' commendam (as they call it) it is by lawe allowed, 
 ' and hath been done by other.' — P. 62. Soon after, 
 it is said, that the Bishop of Lincoln had been 
 attacked merely because he was a member of the 
 High Commission Court. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that the Bishops, so The Bishops 
 
 /» T^T 1 1 » • unpopular, 
 
 soon even as the early part of Elizabeths reign, being unsup- 
 ported, 
 should have become odious to the non-conforming 
 
 clergy. For the most powerful of all reasons was 
 
 working against them. Strong measures were 
 
 found necessary, in order to enforce uniformity of 
 
 worship, and an unmutilating observance of the 
 
 Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of 
 
8o MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 the Sacraments.* The Queen would not permit 
 those who were in authority to connive at any dis- 
 obedience. She insisted therefore upon the Bishops 
 acting with boldness and sincerity — but she gave 
 them openly no assistance. She refused to approve 
 of the body of Injunctions which Archbishop Par- 
 ker drew up, and laid before the Council in 1564. 
 She would have it, ' that the prelates had already 
 sufficient authority to act as she wished.'f Hence 
 
 * In the conditioa in which the Church of England was 
 during the first thirty years of Elizabeth's reign, it would 
 require but little interference to create great dissatisfaction. 
 Complaints against authority are generally in proportion to 
 the amount of existing abuses. There is a statement pre- 
 served in Strype's Life of Parker (i. 302), which was found 
 among Secretary Cecil's papers, giving an account of the 
 multitude of various ways in which Divine Service was per- 
 formed. Some read in one place, others in another: some 
 administered the Holy Eucharist to people sitting, others 
 kneeling : some used the sign of the Cross, some did not : 
 some wore a surplice, some not : &c. Again, in the Life of 
 Whitgift we are told (P. 115), that many preachers would 
 do nothing but preach, misliking the Communion Book : some 
 officiated who were not ordained at all, others had only re- 
 ceived foreign invalid ordination. In short, what with 
 Bishops disaffected or timid or insincere, what with a Court 
 either careless or temporizing, the Church of England was 
 in the utmost risk of soon being even less than the shadow 
 that practically she undoubtedly was. 
 
 t Strype, Life of Parker, i. .S20. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 8 I 
 
 were put forth the famous Advertisements of the 
 same year, which the Bishops did enforce, only not 
 prevented by the Crown from so doing. A still 
 more invidious case occurred about two years after. 
 Complaints were again made by the Queen against 
 the Archbishop, that her laws were not executed : 
 he and the Bishop of London proceeded immediately 
 to open a court, and called before them the London 
 clergy. The Queen seems to have promised that 
 some from the Court should attend to support them : 
 naming (says Secretary Cecil, who writes) ' himself, 
 ' the Lord Keeper, and the Marquess of Northamp- 
 * ton. But indeed they came not.'* 'Hence,' as 
 Mr. Soames observes, ' all the odium of measures, 
 ' really originating at court, fell upon the prelacy.' 
 There can be no doubt that the Bishops were but 
 doing that which was their bounden duty. The 
 temporising policy of the Court, and cowardly 
 abandonment of its own officers, for such they were 
 to a certain extent in this respect, were no less a 
 carrying out of the principles of the world : and we 
 need not inquire into any more remote cause, such 
 as, (for example, as some suggest) that the Coun- 
 cil numbered among its members many who refused 
 to act against the non-conformists, and overruled 
 
 * Life of Parker, i. 429. Soames' Elizabethan Hist. 62. 
 c; 
 
82 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 the rest. The practice of Ehzabeth's ministers has 
 been that of their successors, with very rare excep- 
 tions, up to the present day. It was a putting into 
 the front of the battle, unsupported, those who 
 needed their best assistance : it was an open invita- 
 tion to IMartin Marprelate and his fellows, to accuse 
 and calumniate their own agents, so long as them- 
 Theiii results selvcs wcre Spared. And when at last the Council 
 
 of such policy. 
 
 did give further power to the Commissioners, this 
 was wrung from it only by the peril in which, it at 
 last became evident, their hesitation and pleasing of 
 both sides had placed not the Church (this was a 
 small matter), but the State also. In 1564 much 
 less severity, much inferior authority well seconded 
 by the countenance of the Crown, would have been 
 probably successful. Some score of years after, it 
 was too late : and the very greatness of the means 
 provided to enforce obedience, and the almost un- 
 limited powers then deputed to the High Commis- 
 sion, were not among the least of the causes which 
 led to the Great Rebellion. 
 Bishop Coo- As the Bishop did not put his name to this de- 
 fine ciwge ^ fence against Martin Marprelate, he speaks of him- 
 uniearned. Self as the Bishop of Winchester, in the same way, 
 with no greater particularity^, answering the accusa- 
 tions which had been made against him. Let us 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 liear what he says about his learning ; a delicate 
 point to be handled by oneself. ' As for the re- 
 ' proch of ivant of learning, hee (i. e. the bishop 
 ' of Winchester) will not striue much with them. 
 ' The Bishoppe hath not vsed (God bee thanked) to 
 
 * vaunt liimselfe of great learning. Neyther doth 
 ' he disdaine to be accounted vnlearned of these 
 ' men, wliicli many yeares since contemned Bishoppe 
 ' Jewell as a man of no deepe learning, and euen 
 ' of late dales could saye that Erasmus was no 
 ' diuine. His praier is, that the small measure of 
 ' knowledge, which it pleased God to giue in the 
 ' continuance of fiftie yeeres studie,* may be im- 
 ' ployed to the glorie of God, and the benefite of 
 ' his Countrey. — This is his greatest comfort, that 
 ' since he was a yong man in Magdalen Colledge 
 ' in Oxford, hee hath bene brought vp in the loue 
 ' of the Gospell, and was reasonablie able to con- 
 ' firme his conscience, & to represse the aduersary, 
 
 * not only by the holy scriptures, but also by the 
 ' writings of the anciet Fathers, and the best authors 
 ' of this age since the renewing of the Gospell, as 
 ' he hath many honest and learned men witnesses 
 ' yet ahue.' P. 77. 
 
 * This only gives Martin a handle to call him, ' a soaking 
 old student of fiftie yeeres.' 
 
84 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 On the name, Upon the name whicli the Puritans had assumed, 
 he observes, ' The author,' of these hbels, ' calleth 
 
 * himselfe by a fained name, Martin 3Iarprelate : 
 
 * a very fit name vndoubtedly. But if this out- 
 
 * ragious spirit of boldenesse be not stopped speedily, 
 
 * I feare he wil proue himselfe to bee, not onely 
 
 * Mar-prelate, but Mar-prince, Mar-state, Mar- 
 
 * lawe. Mar-magistrate, and all together, vntil he 
 
 * bring it to an Anabaptisticall equalitie and com- 
 
 * munitie.'— P. 30. 
 
 On the pro- The Puritaus had objected against the old and 
 
 hibition of i r. • • i z^i i 
 
 Marriage. good custom, Still contiuued for a time in the Church 
 of England, of prohibiting the celebration of mar- 
 riage at certain solemn seasons of the year : 'there- 
 by,' they pretended, ' giving occasion of sin to weake 
 
 * and fraile persons, or to burne in their consciences 
 
 * with great danger of their soules.' The Bishop 
 answers, ' Vndoubtedly this must needs be thought 
 
 * a captious and rigorous interpretation, to say that 
 
 * a stay of marriage for certaine dales and weeks, is 
 
 * an vnchristian forbidding of marriage, — for then 
 
 * it is a Popish disorder also, and Antichristian cor- 
 > ruption, to stay marriage for three weekes, vntill 
 
 * the banes be asked : for in that space, light and 
 
 * euill disposed mindes, may easily fall to offence.' 
 On Fasting. — P. 104. The qucstion of abstinence and fasting 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 85 
 
 is treated in much the same way. ' The law of 
 ' forbearing flesh on Fridayes, in Lent, and other 
 ' dayes, for the state of our countrey, I thinke very 
 ' conuenient, and most necessarie to be vsed in 
 ' Christian pohcie. I woulde to God those men, 
 ' that make so small accompt of this lawe, had 
 ' heard the reasons of the grauest, wisest, and most 
 ' expert men of this realme, not only for the main- 
 
 * tenance of this law, but also for some addition to 
 
 * be made vnto it.* How God hath placed this 
 ' land, there is no reasonable man but seeth : The Sea 
 
 * are our walles, and if on these walles we haue not 
 ' some reasonable furniture of ships, we shal tempt 
 
 * God : — there is no state of men, that doth so fur- 
 
 * The Bishop probably refers to an order of the Privy 
 Council which was sent to the Archbishop in 1576, in 
 which complaint was made that the erabering and fish days 
 were not duly observed, and * it is ordered that they shall 
 ' be more carefully seen unto and continued, than lieretofore 
 ' they have been.' But the Council directs also that the 
 clergy, when they press this order upon their people, shall 
 
 * further declare unto them, that the same is not required for 
 ' any liking of Popish ceremonies heretofore used (which 
 ' utterly are detested), but only to maintain the mariners 
 
 * and the navy of this land, by setting men a fishing.' The 
 whole may be seen in Collier. Ecc. Hist. ii. 557. Edit. 1708. 
 It is not necessary to do more than allude to the well-known 
 line taken in the Homily of Fasting, second part. 
 
86 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * nish this realme with suificient numbers of mari- 
 
 * iiers for our nauie, as fishers do. And howe shall 
 
 * fishers be maintained, if they have not sufficient 
 
 * vtterance for those tliinges, for which they trauell ? 
 
 * And howe can they haue utterance, if euery dainty 
 
 * mouthed man, without infirmitie and sicknesse, 
 < shall eat flesh at his pleasure ? They cannot pre- 
 
 * tend religion, or restraint of Christian libertie, 
 ' seeing open protestation is made by the lawe, that 
 
 * it is not for conscience sake, but for the defence 
 
 * and safetie of the realme.' — P. 107. Alas ! that 
 a Bishop of the Church of England, with the Book 
 of Common Prayer open before him, could sum up 
 such an argument, with such a conclusion I And 
 this is what men called a Reformation of religion, 
 and wanted more of it I 
 
 There is no want of instances in this book, prov- 
 ing the correctness of the remark made in Mr. 
 Keble's Preface to Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity 
 (before cited), that the Church-writers of that day 
 either would not or could not appeal to the true 
 source of Christian teaching, together with the 
 Bis)!op Holy Scriptures, viz. CathoHc antiquity, but to the 
 
 peTirtothe writings of the foreign Protestants, such as Bucer, 
 formers. " Peter Martyr, and Calvin. For example : to prove 
 the lawfulness (not to say the necessity) of the 
 
MARTIN MAllPRELATE. 
 
 Episcopal order, we read, ' Peter Martir, Bucer, 
 ' and John cle Alasco, graue men, and of great 
 ' knowledge and godlinesse, did Hue in that state 
 ' vnder the Archbishops and bishops that then were, 
 ' and wrote to them reuerendly, not refusing to giue 
 
 * them those Titles, that nowe bee accompted Anti- 
 ' christian. The like the {sic) did to other of late 
 ' time. Reade the Preface of Peter Martir, set 
 ' before his Dialogues against J^iquiti/, & see what 
 ' honourable testimonie hee giueth to Bishop Jewel, 
 ' and what titles he aflfoordeth him.' P. 79. Again, 
 answering objections made against the powder of the 
 Bishops, he sums up his argument, ' I will make 
 
 * no longer discourse herein. Such as doe doubt 
 
 * hereof, and desire to be better satisfied, I referre 
 ' them to a Treatise which INIaister Beza hath writ- 
 
 * ten for that matter.' P. 135. But my reader must 
 not suppose that such are (in the present case) the 
 only authorities appealed to : the Bishop was well- 
 read also in a better theology : and the names of 
 the greatest Fathers occur again and again. Ex- 
 cept also for the commendations which he bestows 
 upon men, from the effects of whose evil influence 
 over the Church of England we still suffer, and 
 who should be spoken of to be condemned, I would 
 readily suppose that reference was made to them, 
 
88 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 chiefly that the adversaries might be overthrown 
 by weapons from their own armory. 
 Thejndgment I need now Scarcely perhaps add that there are 
 
 we should • tt i /^ » i ^ • i 
 
 now form of many statements m Joisjiop Cooper s work which 
 
 the"Adiiio- IT ,. . , , . . Ti 1 
 
 nition." we must utterly dissent from ; indeed it is not likely 
 
 that we should agree in all things with a book writ- 
 ten for such a purpose at such a time. Neither 
 can we at all consider the Admonition, to be an 
 authorized exposition or apology by the whole order 
 of which he was a member.* Indeed, the book in 
 no way claims to be other than it really was, a pri- 
 vate answer (apparently not by a public man, or 
 one in power) to the Marprelate libels. 
 
 If then, in short, an over-charitable reader is 
 
 * The indefatigable Strype, who had seen, and (unlike 
 some other historians) had examined, it is evident, several 
 of the Marprelate Tracts, gives us a long account of this 
 book of Bishop Cooper's. And he supposes, but not on 
 satisfactory grounds, that not only the Archbishop himself 
 was a joint-author of it, but that the several vindications 
 were drawn up by the Bishops, and the whole work over- 
 seen and approved by them. I, nevertheless, would rather 
 hold to my opinion expressed above, and believe that Coo- 
 per spoke only from his own knowledge, having unquestion- 
 ably had many opportunities of hearing these slanders con- 
 tradicted. When matters of doctrine are involved we should 
 always give suspected parties the benefit of a doubt. — Vide 
 Strype's Life of Whitgift, pp. 300, 304. 
 
MARTIN MARPUELATE. 89 
 
 not astonished to find unqualified praises of the re- 
 formed discipline and faith of the English Church,* 
 or broad statements such as, p. 10, that ' God al- 
 ' waies hath appointed godlie men to be teachers 
 ' and reuiuers of his trueth, as Abraham with the 
 * other Patriarchs, Moses, Aaron, Dauid, the Pro- 
 *■ phets, the Apostles :' adding in one lump, ' in our 
 ' day es, Luther, Zuinglius, CEcolampadius, Cran- 
 ' mer, Ridley, Jewel,' &c. ; and styling them all, 
 ' godly captaines to gouerne his Church, and to set 
 ' foorth his word ;' — if, again, he should not think 
 it unnatural to call Rome ' Antichrist,' and suppose 
 that the five centuries preceding the sixteenth had 
 
 * In the same sweeping style with Dr. Whitgift in the 
 beginning of his Defence against Cartwright. Not content 
 with asserting that • all poyntes of Religion necessarie to 
 ' saluation, and touching eyther the mysterie of our redemp- 
 ' tion in Christ, or the right vse of the Sacraments, and true 
 ' manner of worshipping God, are as purely and perfectly 
 ' taught and by publike authoritie established in this Church 
 ' of England at this day, as euer they were in any church 
 
 • sithence the Apostles time,' he demands, * who can not see, 
 ' who will not confesse, that all Heresies, all corrupt doc- 
 
 ♦ trines, all superstitious and Papistical 1 opinions, haue beene, 
 
 * and be by the Prince and the Realme banished, by the 
 ' learned Byshops and preachers in word and in writing con- 
 
 * futed V Preface to the Godly Reader, p. 1. This was not 
 arguing, but begging the question, and deciding the dispute. 
 
go MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 been ' dark,' echoing the common cry of a general 
 decay of learning during them, and of the know- 
 ledge of Holy Scripture ; then I believe that such 
 a reader of the whole volume, and such only, 
 (making that reasonable allowance in other matters 
 for Bishop Cooper which, under the circumstances 
 of his position, it would not be improper to do) will 
 find but little cause to dififer from Lord Bacon, who 
 thus spoke of it : ' I do much admire the wisdom 
 
 * and religion of that bishop, who replied to the first 
 
 * pamphlet of this kind, who remembered that a fool 
 
 * was to be answered, but not by becoming like 
 
 * unto him ; and considered the matter which he 
 
 * handled, and not the person with whom he dealt.' 
 — Adv. on Ch. Controvers. Works, vol. ii. p. 
 503. 
 
 It f.iiie<i en- Such, nevertheless, was not the spirit in which 
 
 object. the Admonition was received, nor, as we shall 
 
 hereafter see, were a soberness of reasoning and 
 an appeal to the good feelings of the people, the 
 weapons by which Martin was to be opposed. The 
 same inspired writer who forbids us, under some 
 circumstances, to answer a fool according to his 
 folly, immediately adds the command, that under 
 other circumstances, we must ' answer a fool accord- 
 ' ing to his folly, lest he he wise in his own conceit.' 
 
MARTIN MARPUELATE. 9I 
 
 worke. 
 
 The Puritans were not fools as regarded mere 
 learning-, and knew well enough long ago the com- 
 mon arguments which the Bishop offered in reply : 
 the ohject was not to convince the Martin jNIar- 
 prelates themselves, but the ignorant and silly peo- 
 ple who read their books : and where one bought 
 and read the solemn and apologetic Admonition, 
 scores eagerly purchased and believed the scurri- 
 lous tales and assertions of the Epistle and Epi- 
 tome. 
 
 Scarcely had the Bishop's book issued from the Hay any 
 press, before it was replied to by ' Hay any worke 
 for Cooper' The dedication, or rather inscrip- 
 tion of this is, 'A man of worshipp, to the men of 
 ' worship, that is, Martin Marprelate, gentleman, 
 ' primate, and metropolitane of all the Martins 
 ' whersoeuer. To the John of al the Sir Johns, 
 ' and to the rest of the terrible priests : saith haue 
 ' among you once agahie my cleargie masters.' 
 INIartin ?.Iarprelate had gained, at least, one of the 
 ends which he had proposed ; his libel, wicked and 
 abominable as it was, had drawn forth an earn- 
 est remonstrance from one of the Bishops of the 
 Church. Returning to the passage just before 
 quoted. Lord Bacon in it seems to suppose, that an 
 Admonition was not only the proper style of re- 
 
92 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 buke, but that it was not also either improper or 
 
 impolitic to reply at all. This, however, was exactly 
 
 Martin re- the sort of notice which Martin required ; he there- 
 
 joiced that the 
 
 Bishop had fore could not contain his ioy. Like many other 
 
 answered 
 
 biin. lying pamphlets his, probably, would have been 
 
 confined to a smaller circle of readers, perhaps 
 scarcely beyond the Puritans themselves, if they 
 had been let alone. Such, at any rate, would be 
 a fair way of reasoning under common circum- 
 stances, in common times. But if it was a mistake 
 to bring them into further notoriety by civil penal- 
 ties laid upon the purchasers of them, by seizing the 
 printers, and demolishing their presses, surely much 
 more would it seem to have been a blunder that the 
 Bishop of Winchester should address a sober admo- 
 nition to the people of England upon the subject, 
 which (at the time certainly) could not escape the 
 being looked upon, as an authorized apology of the 
 dignified clergy and the bench of Bishops. 
 
 So the first address of Martin Marprelate to 
 
 * his brethren,' the Bishops is ; ' O brethren, there 
 
 * is such a deal of love growne of late, I perceive 
 
 * betweene you and me, that although I would be 
 
 * negligent in sending my Pistiles unto you ; yet I 
 ' see you cannot forget me. 1 thought you to bee 
 
 * verye kinde when you sent your purcivaunts about 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 93 
 
 * the countrie to seeke for me. But now that you 
 
 * yourselues haue taken the paines to write, this is 
 ' out of all crie. Why it passes to thinke what 
 
 * louing and carefull brethren I haue, who although 
 
 * I cannot be gotten to tell them where I am, will 
 ' notwithstanding, make it known unto the world, 
 
 * that they haue a moneths mind towards me. Now, 
 
 * truly brethren, I find you kinde, why ye do not 
 ' know what a pleasure you haue done me. My 
 ^ worships books were unknown e to many, before 
 ' you allowed T. C. to admonishe the people of 
 ' England to take heed, that if they loued you, they 
 ' would make much of their prelates, and the chiefe 
 ' of the cleargie. Now many seeke after my bookes 
 ' more than euer they did.' I am not inclined to 
 think that Martin here expresses himself beyond 
 the truth. 
 
 And another very serious evil followed the pub- Another iii 
 lication of Cooper's Admonition. It not only spread 
 abroad the fame of his opponent, and appealed to 
 the people to judge the truth of his tales and argu- 
 ments ; but, as the author of ' Hai/ any Worke 
 was sharp enough to see and to mention, * Whatso- 
 
 * euer you ouerpasse in my writings, and did not 
 
 * gainsay, that I hope wilbe iudged to be true. And 
 
 * so John a Bridges his treason out of the 448. page 
 
 " Admoni- 
 tion." 
 
94 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * of his booke, you graunt to be true. Your selues 
 
 * you denie not to bee pettie popes. Tlie B. of Sir 
 ' Dauids in Wales, you denie not to liaue two wiues, 
 
 * with an hundred other thinges which you do not 
 
 * gainsay : so that the reader may iudge that I am 
 
 * true of my worde, and vse not to lye like Bb. And 
 
 * this hath greatly commended my worshipps good 
 < deahng.' P. 2. 
 
 As I before said. Bishop Cooper did not attach 
 his name to the Admonition. The initials T. C* 
 were alone given, at the end of his short preface to 
 the reader. Very probably there was no secrecy 
 about the matter, and common rumour, at the time 
 uncontradicted, gave it to its real author. The 
 Martin author of ' Hcii/ any Worhe appeals to internal 
 
 guesses at its ■^ -y • • f • i 
 
 autiior. evidence, and his inferences are amusingly ex- 
 
 pressed. ' I gesse your T. C. to be Thomas Coo- 
 
 * per (but I do not peremptorily affirme it) because 
 
 * the modest olde student of 52 yeres standing, set- 
 
 * teth Winchester after Lincolne and Rochester in 
 
 * the contents of his booke, which blasphemy would 
 ' not have been tollerated by them that saw and 
 
 * The reader must be careful not to confound this T. C, 
 Bishop of Winchester, with the T. C, Thomas Cartwright, 
 who by a prerogative of dignity, familiar to the students of 
 Hooker, has monopolized these notorious initials. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 95 
 
 * allowed the book, unlesse mistres Coopers husband 
 
 * had bin the author of it. Secondly, because this 
 
 * T. C, the author of this booke is a bishop, and 
 ' therefore Thomas Cooper, he is a bishop, because 
 ' he reckoneth him selfe charged, amongst others, 
 ' with those crimes whereof non are accused but 
 
 * bishops alone. Ha olde INTartin, yet I see thou 
 
 * hast it in thee, thou wilt enter into the bowels of 
 ' the cause in hand I perceve. Nay, if you wil com- 
 ' mend me, I will give you more reasons yet. The 
 ' stile and the phrase is very like her husbands, that 
 
 * was sometimes woont to write vnto Doctor Day of 
 
 * Welles.* You see I can do it indeed. Again, 
 
 * non would be so groshead as to gather, because 
 ' my reuerence telleth Deane John, that he shall 
 
 * haue twenty fists about his eares more than his 
 
 * owne, — that I threatened him with blowes, and to 
 
 * deal by Stafford law ; whereas that was far from 
 
 * Thomas Day, canon of Ch. Ch. sometime fellow of All 
 Souls Coll. There was a libel put forth about this time by 
 Th. Bulkley (also fellow of All Souls) which tells us that a 
 certain person did so much frequent the company of Mistress 
 Cooper, that at length he was bound in a bond of ^100 not 
 to come near her. Wood's Athenas, 1. 610. Dr. Bliss has 
 given some stanzas from this production of Bulkley 's in a 
 note to his edition of Wood : they are not, as he observes, 
 " over-decent." 
 
96 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * my meaning, and could by no means be gathered 
 
 * out of my words, but only by him that pronounced 
 ' Eulojin, for Eulogein, in the pulpit : and by him 
 
 * whom a papist made to beleeve that the Greek 
 
 * word Eulogein, that is, to give thanks, signifieth 
 
 * to make a crosse in the forhead ; py hy hy hy I 
 
 * I cannot but laugh, py hy hy hy ! I cannot but 
 ' laugh to thinke that an olde soaking student in 
 
 * this learned age is not ashamed to be so impudent 
 
 * as to presume to deale with a papist, when he hath 
 ' no grue in his pocked.' — Pp. 3, and reverse. 
 
 Story of the I would quote a story which Martin tells the 
 Daucers. Bishop, uot on accouut of either wit, or importance, 
 but as illustrating points which those who have ex- 
 amined the Visitation Articles of Inquiry in Queen 
 Elizabeth's time, are doubtless familiar with. For 
 example, the 27th Article of the Enquiries by Wil- 
 liam Wickham, Bishop of Lincoln in 1585, is, 
 
 * Whether your Minister and Church-wardens haue 
 
 * suffred any Lords of misrule or sommer Lords, or 
 
 * Ladies or any disguised person in Christmas, or 
 
 * at maigames, or morris dancers or at any other 
 ^ time, to come vnreuerently into the Churchyard, 
 
 * and there to daunce or play any vnsemely part 
 
 * with scoffs, iests, wanton gestures, or ribald talk, 
 ' namely in the time of common praier : and what 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 97 
 
 * they be that commit such disorder, or accompany 
 ' or maintaine them.'* Martin Marprelatc says, 
 ' There is a neighbour of ours, an honest priest, who 
 ' was sometimes (syraple as he nowe standes) a vice 
 
 * in a playe for want of a better, his name is GUbe- 
 ' rie of Hawsteade in Essex, he goes much to the 
 ' pulpit. On a time, I think it was the last Maie, 
 
 * he went up with a full resolution, to do his busi- 
 ' nesse with great commendations. But see the 
 ' fortune of it. A boy in the Church, hearing either 
 ' the sommer Lord with his Maie game, or Robin 
 ' Hood with his Morrice daunce going by the 
 ' Church, out goes the boye. Good Gliberie, though 
 ' he were in the pulpit, yet had a minde to his olde 
 ' companions abroad, (a company of merrie grigs 
 ' you must think them to be, as merie as a vice on 
 ' a stage) seeing y*^ boy going out, finished his 
 ' matter presently with John of Londons Amen, 
 ' saying, ha, ye faith boie, are they there, then ha 
 ' w' thee, & so came down & among them hee 
 ' goes.' P. 3. It does not appear from the Bishops 
 Enquiry and consequent Injunction, that these 
 
 * Articles to be enquired of by the Church-wardens and 
 Sworn-men within the Dieocsse (sic) of Lincoln, &c. 1585. 
 Imprinted at London by lohn Wiudet, 1585. 4<o. In my 
 possession. 
 
 n 
 
98 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 games were forbidden except * in the time of com- 
 mon praier.' 
 Puritan But from this, we now pass on to the picture dis- 
 
 hatredof ' r r ^ 
 
 Episcopacy, played in this pamphlet of the utter hatred which 
 was felt by the Puritans, against the divine order of 
 the Episcopacy. The known leaders of that here- 
 tical faction restrained, or were aware that as much 
 as they could, they ynust restrain their language : I 
 am speaking of their avowed publications. It is, 
 then, from their anonymous works that we are en- 
 abled to discover what their objects were, and the 
 full extent to which their opinions went upon doc- 
 trines and rites of the Church of God, which have 
 been held from the earliest age, the Apostolic, to 
 be essential, not simply to her efficacy and well-being, 
 but to her very existence, and to the validity of her 
 sacraments. 
 
 Now, let us hear ' reverend Martin.' ' Doe you 
 
 * thinke our Churche gouernement to be good and 
 
 * lawfuU, because hir Maiestie and the state, who 
 
 * maintaine the reformed religion, alloweth the 
 
 * same ? Why the Lorde doth not allow it, there- 
 
 * fore it cannot be lawfull. And it is the fait of 
 
 * such wretches as you bishops are, that her Ma- 
 
 * iestie and the state alloweth the same.' — P. 4. 
 Again : ' But our archbishops and bishops, which 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 99 
 
 ' hold it lawfull for her Maiestie and the state, to 
 ' retain this estabHshed forme of gouernmcnt, and 
 ' to keepe out the gouernraent by pastors, doctors, 
 
 * elders, and deacons, which was appointed by 
 ' Christ, — hold it lawful for her Maiestie and the 
 
 * state to bid God to battel against them. — There- 
 
 * fore you T. C, and you Deane John, and you 
 
 * John Whitgift, and you the rest of the beastly 
 ' defenders of the corrupt church gouernment, are 
 ' not only traytors to God and his word, but enemies 
 ' to God and the state. Like you any of these nuts 
 ' John Canterbury ? I am not disposed to iest in 
 ' this serious matter.' — P. 24. And once more, 
 passing by an overflow of ' wretches,' 'grosse beasts,' 
 and such epithets, Martin at last, by impiously per- 
 verting an argument of the Dean of Sarum, arrives 
 at this : ' Now you bishops of the diuell, what say 
 ' you now, are you spighted of the Puritans, because 
 ' you, hke good subicctes, defend the lawes of her 
 ' Maiestie, or els because, like incarnate diuells, 
 ' you are bishops of the diuells. — P. 28. 
 
 It is not without much hesitation that I have 
 brought myself to quote these passages : after all, 
 they are not the worst, neither are they more than 
 a few out of many such : and my purpose is to re- 
 present these productions of the Elizabethan Puri- 
 
lOO MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 tans as indeed they are, and not allow my readers 
 unwarned, to suppose them to be merely witty, 
 though perhaps scandalous, squibs of the day. If 
 any one says that they are but repetitions in coarser 
 language, of still earlier Puritan and Nonconforming 
 objections upon the great question of Episcopacy, 
 and that an apology is unnecessary, I am not disposed 
 to quarrel with him — ' there is nothing new under 
 the sun.' 
 Martin ex- But auothcr point or two remains before I can 
 
 to his own dismiss this ' Hay any Worked Martin confesses, 
 or pretends to confess, that his style and manner 
 of addressing those who were in authority had been 
 misliked by some even of his own party : alluding, 
 that is, to Cartwright, Travers, and others among 
 the chief Puritans. 
 
 He says, ' I am called Martin Marprelat. There 
 
 * be many that greatly dislike of my doinges. I may 
 ' have my wants, I know. For I am a man. But 
 
 * my course I knowe to be ordinary and lawfull. I 
 
 * sawe the cause of Christ's gouernment, and of the 
 ' bishops' antichristian dealing to be hidden. I 
 
 * tooke that course. I might lawfully do it. I,* 
 
 * for iesting is lawful by circumstances, euen in the 
 
 * greatest matters. — My purpose was and is to do 
 
 * i.e. Aye. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. lOI 
 
 * good. I know I haue don no harme, howsoeuer 
 ' som may iudg Martin to mar al. They are very 
 
 * weake ons that so think. In that which I haue 
 ' written I know, vndoubtedly, that I haue done the 
 ' Lord and the state of this kingdom great service.' 
 (I hope it is no profaneness to quote a parallel 
 almost contemporary with the humble Puritan — 
 
 • Soft you ; a word or two, before you go. 
 
 I have done the state some service, and tliey know it ; 
 
 No more of that :' — 
 
 so to return. ) ' Because I haue, in som sort, dis- 
 ' couered the greatest enemies thereof. And by so 
 ' much the most pestilent enemies, because they 
 ' wound God's religion, and corrupt the state with 
 
 * Atheism and loosnes, and so cal for God's ven- 
 ' geance vppon vs all, euen under the coulor of re- 
 ' ligion.'— Pp. 14, 13. 
 
 And a few pages after more plainly ; ' I knowe I 
 ' am disliked of many which are your enemies, that 
 
 * is of many which you cal Puritans. I am alone. 
 ' No man vnder heauen is priuy, or hath bin priuy 
 
 * vnto my writings against you. I vsed the aduise 
 ' of non therein. You haue and do suspect diuers,* 
 &c.— Pp. 20, 21. 
 
 Now I do not think that this dislike arose among 
 the more notorious of his own party, until it was 
 
102 iMARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 by them. 
 
 produced by fear that their experiment was about 
 to fail — that it had overreached the mark, and had 
 disgusted men, rather than was hkely to effect the 
 object which the Puritans had in view. It would 
 not be difficult to point out in the avowed publica- 
 tions of Travers and Cartwright, in the little con- 
 troversial tracts, for example, upon the question of 
 the habits, in the ' Counterpoyson,' &c., many pas- 
 sages which, with less violence of language, and 
 less expressed profaneness, breathe the same viru- 
 lent spirit, and hatred of the ordinances of the 
 His tracfs Church of God. That these pamphlets of Martin 
 disapproved Marprelate were, indeed, disapproved of by the fac- 
 tion who made use of him, we require other witness 
 than himself only before we give it credit ; and I 
 do not remember, that any such disapproval was 
 plainly expressed at the time by the Puritan leaders. 
 It is not enough that they should disclaim him after, 
 before the council-board, with the terrors in the 
 distance of the Tower and the rack, or before 
 the court of High-Commission : it is not enough 
 that Neal, their professed historian in after years 
 and their apologist, should speak of Martin in terms 
 of reprobation, and (which proves either his utter 
 ignorance, or wilful lying) class him and his oppo- 
 nents in the same style, as equally obnoxious to the 
 members of the government. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. lOj 
 
 Even Martin himself, in a later publication, to But it was 
 
 wise to make 
 
 which we shall come presently, speaks again merely it seem so. 
 in such language as this ; addressing the ' Puritans* : 
 ' The report goeth, that some of you have preached 
 ' against me.' The report goeth : very cautious 
 this ; to be used hereafter in two ways. In short, 
 it may easily be downright asserted, but it cannot 
 be proved, that the Marprelate pamphlets were not 
 an experiment which the Puritan leaders, Cart- 
 wright and Travers and the rest, were willing 
 enough to try. Doubtless, being wise in their own 
 generation, when they fancied it about to fail, they 
 neglected not the providing some ground to retreat 
 upon, by a timely disconnecting of it with them- 
 selves. If it should succeed (which was not un- 
 hoped for when ' Hay any Worke was published), 
 there would be no difficulty in substantiating their 
 claim to this honour among others, that Martin 
 Marprelate had been their doing, that his tracts 
 had been a part of their * godly work,' a stepping- 
 stone to the obtaining their ' holy discipline :' — if, 
 again, it should not succeed, disclaimers, such as 
 I have quoted above, would be an easy blind in 
 the eyes of the silly multitude, and it would be far 
 from easy to bring home to them their cognizance of 
 the authors, or their recommendation of such an 
 attempt. 
 
I04 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 After one more passage, illustrating Martin's 
 style and reasoning, I shall pass on to another of 
 the series. 
 
 * Our churche gouernment is an vnlawfull go- 
 
 * uernment, and not allowed in the sight of God. 
 
 * Because, that church gouernment is an vnlawfull 
 
 * church gouernment, the offices and officers whereof 
 ' the civil maiestrate may lawfully ahoUish out of 
 ' the church ; but the offices of archbishops and 
 
 * bishopps, and therefore the officers much more, 
 
 * may be lawfully abollished out of the church by 
 
 * her Maiestie and our state. And truely this were 
 ' braue weather to turne them out : it is pitty to 
 ' keepe them in any longer. And that would do 
 ' me good at the heart, to see John of London, and 
 ' the rest of his brethren, so discharged of his busi- 
 ' nes, as he might freely runn in his cassocke and 
 *^hose after his bowle, or ilorish with his 2-hand 
 
 * sword. O 'tis a sweet trunchfiddle. But the offices 
 
 * of archbishops and bishops may be lawfully abol- 
 
 * lished out of the church by her Maiestie and the 
 ' state. As I hope one day they shalbe. There- 
 ' fore (marke now T. C, and cary me this conclu- 
 ' sion to John O Lambehith for his breakefast) our 
 
 * church gouernment, by Arch, and bishops, is an 
 
 * vnlawful church gouernment. You see, brother 
 
MARTIN MARPUELATE. I05 
 
 ' Cooper, that I am very courteous in my minor, 
 ' for I desire therein no more offices to bee thrust 
 ' out of the church at one time, but Archb. and 
 ' Bishops. As for Deanes, Archdeacons, and Chan- 
 
 * cellors, I hope they will be so kind vnto my Lord's 
 ' grace, as not to stay, if his worship and the rest 
 ' of the noble clergie Lords weare turned out to 
 
 * grasse. I will presently proue both maior and 
 ' minor of this sillogisme. And hold my cloake 
 ' there somebody, that I may go roundly to worke. 
 ' For Ise so bumfeg the Cooper, as he had bin 
 ' better to haue hooped halfe the tubbes in Win- 
 ' Chester, then write against my worship's pistles.* 
 — Hay any Worke, pp. 3, 6. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE controversy thus proceeding in full vigour, 
 its chain of attack and defence is so connected 
 link upon link, that (though they run not exactly 
 link for link, now one added upon this side, and 
 now another upon that,) we must pass on to our 
 next book, led by a passage in the last. 
 
 Martin says, ' Hay any Worke,' p. 21, ' I am 
 ' alone. No man vnder heauen is priuy, or hath 
 
 * bin priuie vnto my writings against you ; I vsed 
 
 * the aduise of non therein. You haue and do sus- 
 ' pect diners, as master Paggett, master Wigging- 
 ' ton, master Udale, and master Penri, &c., to make 
 ' Martin. If they cannot cleare their selues their 
 ' sillinesse is pitifull, and they are worthy to beare 
 
 * Martin's punishment.' Upon this disclaimer of 
 authorship, I need say no more than I already 
 have ; and, indeed, those observations would apply 
 with even greater force in the present case. 
 
 Some account Of the four persous above named, Penry now 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 claims our notice. He was by birth a Welshman, ofPenry. 
 afterwards a member of the University of Oxford, 
 and about the year 1586 admitted into holy orders. 
 Anthony a Wood's account of him is, that being 'a 
 ' person full of Welsh blood, of a hot and restless 
 ' head, he did, upon some discontent, change the 
 ' course of his life, and became a most notorious 
 ' Anabaptist, and in some sort a Brownist, and 
 ' most bitter enemy to the Church of England.' * 
 Hence he was very fit for, and soon became, a tool 
 in the hands of wiser men. The Marprelate tracts 
 were, at the time of their publication, immediately 
 attributed to him as one of the authors : a warrant 
 was issued for his apprehension, together with some 
 others, and he was taken, and his house and study 
 searched for some proof against him. We must not 
 overlook this, that no evidence was found ; and also 
 that Penry himself at the time, (which I cannot 
 give much weight to,) and always after, even when 
 about to die, (when one is rather inclined to beheve 
 
 * Bancroft says of him, * Marie now, two or three yeeres 
 ' studie is as good as twentie. It is wonderfull to see, bow 
 < some raen get perfection. One of fower or five and twentie 
 • yeeres old, if you anger him, will sweare he knoweth more 
 ' then all the ancient fathers.' Sermon at Paul's Cross, 
 p. 57. 
 
108 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 that he would speak the truth,) denied that he had 
 been concerned in the writing of those tracts. 
 
 If I was disposed to adopt Martin's own line of 
 reasoning I should decide that he was mixed up 
 with them, more especially from his being named 
 the last among ' the goodly company' in the extract 
 given above. It is curious, certainly, that, of all 
 the anonymous tracts, ' Hay any Worke has been 
 the most constantly attributed to Penry. However, 
 there being then no sufficient evidence against him, 
 after a short imprisonment of a month, he was dis- 
 charged. 
 
 As soon as he was at liberty, to use his own lan- 
 guage, ' I saw myselfe bound in conscience not to 
 
 * giue ouer my former purpose, in seeking the good 
 
 * of my countrymen, by the rooting out of ignorance 
 
 * and blindness among them/ — P. 5. Here he 
 alludes, not to the Marprelate tracts, but to two 
 former books of his, about the state of religion in 
 Wales. His conscience obliged him then to con- 
 tinue writing. 
 
 Severity used We all kuow that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 
 
 towardl pSf- much harshucss was used towards political offenders. 
 
 ftnde*r3. (I suppose it is scarccly necessary to remark, that 
 
 Penry and his fellows would, and justly, be looked 
 
 upon as of that class.) They were generally de- 
 
iMARTlN MARPRELATE. IO9 
 
 prived not merely of liberty, but even of opportuni- 
 ties of communicating- with their friends, and of the 
 means of correspondence : not seldom also, greater 
 violence and torture were resorted to. The extent 
 to which this last way of arriving at confessions 
 had been carried a few years before, more especially 
 in the cases of the seminary priests, had reached so 
 far that the Queen had interfered and checked it ; 
 and a sort of authorized apology was put forth by 
 the council, entitled ' A Declaration of the favour- 
 ' able dealing of her Maiesties Commissioners ap- 
 ' pointed for the Examination of certaine Traitours, 
 ' and of tortures vnjustly reported to be done vpon 
 ' them for matters of religion, 1583.' (4to. re- 
 printed in the Harl. Miscell.) Burleigh himself 
 also found it was necessary to write a like excuse, 
 which he called ' The Execution of Justice in Eng- 
 
 * land, for maintenaunce of publique and Christian 
 < peace, against certeine stirrers of Sedition, &c. 
 ' without any PERSECVTION of them forques- 
 
 * tions of Religion, as is falsely reported and pub- 
 ' lished by the fautors and fosterers of their trea- 
 ' sons.' 4to. 1383. Printed also in Holinshed, p. 
 1358. 
 
 It does not appear, however, that Penry was 
 treated with even the usual severity of the day, but 
 
IIP MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 immediately upon his release he published his 
 Peniy's ' Appellation to the High Court of Parliament' 
 
 Appellation. ,-k.t ^- \ t • i i • i * • i 
 
 (No. 5.) Little less violent or coarse m language, 
 and as bitter in its spirit as the Epitome or 
 the Epistle, or the answer to Bishop Cooper, its 
 author could not possibly suppose that any personal 
 benefit would be the consequence : (in fact, he was 
 included in the next warrant from the High Com- 
 mission Court, which for a time he escaped :) and 
 we must say of him, a kind of praise common to 
 many of his party, that he was both stubborn under 
 correction and insensible to kindness. 
 He claims to Neither was he at all wanting in that self-suffi- 
 instl-ument! cicucy, SO frequent among fanatics, which leads men 
 to suppose that God certainly approves their doings. 
 Penry claims to be an especial instrument employed 
 by Him. ' You are to understand,' he says, ' that 
 
 * the beginning of these mens hatred towards me 
 ' did arise from the goodwill I beare vnto the glory 
 
 * of my God, and the good of his church, and that 
 
 * the continuance thereof is for the same cause. 
 
 * For vntill such time as the Lorde vouchsafed to 
 
 * vse me (most unworthie, I acknowledge from the 
 
 * bottom of my heart) as an instrument to motion 
 
 * the parliament in the cause of God's truth, I was a 
 
 * man altogether vnknowne vnto th' Archb. or any 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. Ill 
 
 ' other of the high commission.' — P. 3. He boasts 
 that ' the Lord, of his infinite goodnes, had en- 
 ' lightened him with the knowledge of the sauing 
 
 * trueth of his gospell.' — P. 2. And he does not 
 stick at comparing himself and his condition with 
 St. Paul, and the Prophet Jeremiah, and their suf- 
 ferings, calling upon the parliament to judge his 
 cause, as Festus listened to St. Paul. 
 
 One would have thought that experience had Speaks iii of 
 
 ° . /- \ llie Bishops, 
 
 taught him moderation; but a side-note (p. 11) 
 tells us, ' It is no new thing to find the supposed 
 ' pillers of the church to be the most pestilent ene- 
 ' mies thereof.' And again he says, ' I am bounde 
 ' in conscience to lay open, that the blindnes and 
 ' ignorance of our blind and ignorant guides, the 
 
 * tiranny, vnlawful bondage, and vnjust oppression 
 ' of God's church by vngodly and tiranical Lord 
 
 * Bishops, with the rest of th' vnlawful church go- 
 
 * uernoures, (who, euen by vertue of their places, 
 ' cannot chuse but oppresse the church of God,) 
 ' are the ready and direct waie, not only to kepe 
 
 * my countrimen from eternal life, but also to bringe 
 ' the Lord's wrath vppon vs, our prince, maiestrats, 
 
 ' people, and the whole kingdome.' — P. 16. And and accuses 
 once more, those to whom he is himself now appeal- ment. 
 ing, he accuses of ' careles and wilfull negligence 
 
112 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 His observa- 
 tion on tiie 
 High Com- 
 mission. 
 
 * to deal in the Lord's matters/ P. 34. Very pro- 
 bably the parliament had been negligent, as he 
 esteemed it. It was no concern of parliament ; and 
 it would have been well if its members had always 
 kept within their proper limits, and from interference 
 with the government and practice of the Church of 
 God. These, no less than the doctrines of the 
 Church, are beyond both its power of controlling, 
 and capability of correctly judging. I need hardly 
 add that in saying this I do not forget its vaunted 
 claim to omnipotence ; but power is not right. 
 The parliament of England, as its parhament alone, 
 acting upon its own judgment only, has never 
 meddled with the Church without weakening her 
 powers, and lessening her efficiency, and injuring 
 her reputation. And if this is true, as most un- 
 questionably it is true, of parliaments which pro- 
 fessed at least to be Christian, how much more 
 now, when this profession has ceased to be a neces- 
 sary qualification of its members. 
 
 Penry, however, does not forget in his Appel- 
 lation to press a point, which, under the strong 
 hand of Elizabeth, and her vigilant eye, and jealousy 
 of her prerogative, the parliament would not then 
 dare to listen to ; viz. this, (speaking of the powers 
 exercised under the High Commission,) ' Judge 
 
MAHTIN MAKPRELATE. II3 
 
 * whether it be not against all right, that some fewe 
 
 * of the inferiour members in that house (of which 
 ' number, in respect of manye, I might justly ac- 
 ' count the men before named) should extort vnto 
 ' their privat censure, the judgement of a cause pre- 
 ' ferred publikely vnto the whole parliament. The 
 ' time hath beene, wherein this high courte woulde 
 ' not haue taken a meaner injurie offered vnto their 
 ' liberties, at the handcs of anye prerogative within 
 ' this kingdome : whether it stands not with the 
 
 * honor and credit of parliament men, amongst pos- 
 ' terities, not to haue their liberties thus infringed 
 ' and diminished by inferior and baser courts ; it 
 ' behoues them that loue their countrie, and ende- 
 ' uor to maintaine the welth thereof, to consider.' — 
 P. 41. Here was a little leaven of sedition thrown 
 into the mass to work its silent way : here was one 
 spark, which, mouldering, was not extinguished, and 
 mouldered on, until more fuel and more fire were 
 gradually given, and at last this question of prero- 
 gative was sufficient to set the kingdom in a blaze. 
 
 I am not in the least disposed to enter into an The oath ex 
 argument in behalf of the oath ex officio, although 
 much possibly might be said for it ; and men now 
 are scarcely sufficient judges how far in former 
 times such means were necessary to extort the truth, 
 I 
 
114 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 for the preservation of the pubHc peace agamst the 
 mahce of the disaffected ; yet it was not according 
 to our modern ideas of justice, and at the time was 
 spoken of as a measure only of absolute necessity. 
 Archbishop Whitgift in a paper which he sent to 
 the Lord Treasurer upon this subject, among other 
 reasons for continuing the oath, argues * If it bee 
 ' sayd, that it is against law, reason, and charitee, 
 
 * for a man to accuse himself, quia nemo tenetur 
 
 * seipsum prodere, aut propriam turpitudinem, 
 
 * revelare, I aunswere, that by law, charitee, and 
 
 * reason, Proditus per denunt'mtionem alterius, 
 
 * sive per famam, tenetur seipsum osfendere, ad 
 
 * evitandum scandalum, et seipsum purganduni. 
 
 * Prceterea, Prcelatus potest inquirere sine prce- 
 
 * viafama; a fortiori ergo, Delegati per Princi- 
 
 * pem possunt Ad Ticec, in istis articulis turpi- 
 
 * tudo non inquiritur aut flagitium, sed excessus 
 
 * et errata Clericorum circa puhlicam functionem 
 
 * ministerii, de quihus Ordinario rationem redder e 
 
 * coguntur'^ The Archbishop sent also at the 
 same time, a paper representing the inconveniences 
 of not proceeding ex officio mero. I wotild refer my 
 reader to these important papers.f 
 
 * Strype, Life of Whitgift, 1. 319. 
 
 t And also to a paper in the Appendix, Book iv. No. 2. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 »5 
 
 One thing cannot be denied, that this method did 
 effect in a great degree the object which it aimed at, 
 and was no less a terror to the Puritans than a very 
 successful means of discomfiting their plans, by 
 arriving at a knowledge of their secrets. I shall Penry's 
 
 account of it. 
 
 quote, therefore, Penry's account of the manner of 
 administering this oath : he says, ' All the justice 
 ' that poore Christians haue at Lambeth is this. 
 
 * You are now sent for by Lords grace here, and 
 ' vs her Majestie's Commissioners; we grant, in 
 ' deed, that as yet we know nothing wherewith you 
 
 * may be charged. For accusers you haue none, 
 
 * neither were you sent for to answere vnto them. 
 
 * For it is our maner to deliver men into bonds, 
 
 * though they haue no accusers to conuince them 
 
 * of any crime. And therefore you must here be 
 
 * deposed vpon your oath, to reveal whatsoeuer you 
 ' know by yourselfe, or any other of Gods children 
 
 * her Majesties subjects. Whereby it shall come 
 
 * to pass, that you shall escape vs narrowly, but 
 ' ere you depart the court, we shall finde sufficient 
 
 * matter to imprison you : and if you refuse the 
 ' oath, to prison you shall goe. For we administer 
 ' it e^ officio, and so, vpon your refusal, we may 
 ' imprison you.' — P. 46. 
 
 Undoubtedly Master Penry had experienced the 
 
Il6 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 putting of this oath ; he may be thought, therefore, 
 to be a good witness against it : and so, indeed, he 
 was in words ; but the fact was clear that he had 
 evaded it in some way or other, and had been set 
 at large by the Commissioners. 
 
 But a word or two more about this ancient (so 
 called) engine of ecclesiastical tyranny, the oath ex 
 officio. Its important bearing upon our present 
 subject, and upon the general history of part of the 
 16th and 17th centuries, both in civil and religious 
 matters, will be, it is to be hoped, a sufficient ex- 
 cuse. 
 Puritan ob- I do uot think that we must listen to objections 
 
 jections 
 
 against It, not from the Elizabethan Puritans in the same temper 
 
 to be listened 
 
 to, as we would to other men's ; neither can we allow 
 
 them to have the same weight. Here were people 
 making a great grievance of this oath ; refusing it 
 stiffly, and with unseemly language, when it was 
 likely to effect the object proposed. Loudly pro- 
 testing also against it as an infringement, not merely 
 of their civil, but of their Christian liberty, and en- 
 listing upon their side, as being cruelly persecuted 
 by it, all who, from whatever motive, were opposed 
 to the government of the day. And what was their 
 
 because over- 0W71 'pvactice 9 It is Very true that legally they could 
 
 ruled by i • • 
 
 themselves, not aummister any oath; but they came as near 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 to it as possibly they could, by subjecting every one 
 who was of their party to the solenui scrutiny of 
 their consistories, and obliging him, upon any sus- 
 picion, to give an account of his private opinions, 
 and so accuse himself. 
 
 They had enacted a plain law (the 52d. Article 
 of their ' Discipline Reformed^) upon this point : 
 ' That every member of the congregation do not 
 ' refuse to render a declaration of their faith, before 
 ' the ministers and ciders, whensoever they shall by 
 ' them be thereunto required.' Their great exem- 
 plar, the heretic Calvin, made use of the actual oath 
 ex officio in his consistory at Geneva. (Calvin. 
 Epist. 71. i^are/fo.) More than this; there was 
 but one Court of High Commission in England 
 which had the power of administering the oath. If 
 the Puritans had gained their end, each parish in 
 the country would have had a little set of arbitrary 
 judges, ready to listen to any trivial complaint, 
 eager to find a cause of intermeddling with every 
 man's afi'airs, and too glad of so ready a means of 
 gratifying their malice. They were even bound, 
 upon their own theory, to find out causes for bring- 
 ing men before them. Cartwright, in his ' Defence 
 ' of the Admonition,' says, ' The Elders watch over 
 ' the hfe and behaviour of every man ; and to them 
 
Il8 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * belongs the decision of all such matters as do rise 
 
 * in the Church, either touching corrupt manners 
 
 * or perverse doctrine.' There was to be no diffi- 
 culty in indulging any of their whims : no check 
 upon partiality or prejudice ; and no provision made 
 against personal dislike having its full swing. 
 These were safeguards which the Puritan Noncon- 
 formists utterly despised ; they were to be accusers, 
 witnesses, and judges : they were to complain, and 
 to determine according to their own pleasure, and 
 their own caprice. And these are the men who 
 sought for compassion and found it, when the oath 
 ex officio was duly administered by a proper autho- 
 rity to themselves. 
 
 Bancroft in his Dangerous Positions gives us 
 from the mouth of one of themselves, a specimen 
 of what such enquiries ended in ; that at one course 
 of censuring which they had, ' there was such rip- 
 
 * ping up, one of anothers life, even from their 
 ' youth, as that they came unto great bitterness, 
 ' with many reviling termes amongst themselves, one 
 ' growing thereby odious to another, and some did 
 ' thereupon utterly forsake those kinde of assem- 
 ' blies.'* Bancroft quotes as his authority Johnson 
 before the Commissioners. One of the tracts in 
 
 * Daungerous Positions, p. 88. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 the Parte of a Register is his examination : but 
 no such statement is in that : very probably he was 
 cited more than once : or, as given in that work, 
 the report of his examination is not altogether to 
 be depended upon as correct.* 
 
 A httle less than a year before this, Dr. Robert Dr. Some. 
 
 * A paper dra^ii up by Archbishop Whitgift contains a 
 summary of Puritan objections, which common justice re- 
 quires should be given, and let them, by all means, have 
 their due weight. ' Divers of them,' he says, ' being de- 
 
 * tected of the premises, and required to make answer upon 
 ' their oaths, do all peremptorily refuse to do so : using very 
 ' frivolous and childish cavils : as, that it is not according to 
 
 * the law : and if it be, such law is against conscience and 
 
 * Gods word. That being Ministers, they should not be ac- 
 ' cused under two or three witnesses. That the deputy said, 
 ' he would hear Paul when his accusers came. That they 
 
 * are not bound to accuse themselves. That they may not 
 
 * bring their brethren into trouble. That they may not be 
 
 * accusers of others. That in so doing, they should violate 
 ' the laws of friendship. That the most, whom they should 
 « discover, are altogether known to the Commissioners : so 
 ' that their oath need not. The example of llahab, that 
 ' would not reveal the spies unto the king : of the midwives, 
 ' that did not as the king of Egypt commanded them : of 
 ' Jonathan, that being commanded of the king, would not 
 ' kill David, but bade him take heed : of the king's servants, 
 ' that would not kill the priests, though the king commanded 
 ' it : of Obadiah, that hid an hundred of the priests in caves, 
 *. to save them from Jezebel, that would have killed them. 
 
 * And such other like, of no moment.' Life of Whit gift, 2. 19. 
 
I20 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Some had written a book against Penry, which he 
 called ' A godly Treatise containing and deciding 
 
 * certaine questions, mooued of late in London, 
 
 * and other places, touching the Ministerie, Sa- 
 
 * craments, and Church' (4to.) To this, * M. 
 Answered by * Some laid open in his coulers, ^c' (No. 7) was 
 
 intended to be an answer. 
 
 The University of Oxford during the first twenty 
 
 or thirty years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
 
 had been remarkable for the strong leaning which 
 
 it displayed towards the Puritan view of the reli- 
 
 Oxford in- gious questions of the day. Very much of this was 
 
 dined to Pu- . . . , „ , 
 
 ritanism at owmg to the promment stations which two oi the 
 returned exiles held among her Heads of Houses. 
 Sampson, Dean of Christchurch, and Humphrey, 
 President of Magdalen, had gone abroad, at the 
 beginning of Queen Mary's reign, with deep-rooted 
 prejudices against the ecclesiastical vestments and 
 Church-government of the day, had been conspi- 
 cuous at Frankfort and Zurich in their opposition 
 to the continued observance of ancient customs, 
 and after their return, shewed sufficient honesty of 
 purpose, still to refuse obedience as much as possi- 
 ble. The example of such men would operate very 
 strongly, not only whilst they were permitted, un- 
 reproved, to hold their high offices in the univer- 
 sity, but for years afterwards, when one had been 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 12 1 
 
 ejected from his deanery, and the other from his 
 professorship. Other causes also would naturally 
 contribute to the influence of Puritan opinions in 
 the university, and some ten years or so were even 
 yet to pass away, before such men as Laud were to 
 arise, and bear witness to the truth. It is all we 
 have to boast of, in speaking of Oxford at this time, 
 and a poor boast (after all) it may be, that the sis- 
 ter-university of Cambridge was even less orthodox, 
 and Catholic in her views. Even at this, the most 
 gloomy period of her history, Oxford still stood, 
 though backward, yet the first, and a spirit existed 
 within her, a memory of better times, which when 
 it had room at last for action, soon restored her 
 old character; and whilst, for generations after, 
 Cambridge was the stronghold of Puritanism and 
 its vices, Oxford was again conspicuous for obe- 
 dience to constituted authority, and unhesitating 
 devotion to the holy offices and government and 
 worship of the Church of England. 
 
 We must not be surprised to find then, that this 
 answer was by an ' Oxford man,' as if a taking title. 
 Who he was, cannot now be ascertained : probably 
 (as Wood supposed) Penry himself. Dr. Some also 
 seems to have thought so, in a book which he pub- 
 lished some time afterwards, in reply. 
 
 However this may be, the volume made its ap- 
 
122 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 pearance very soon after the Appellation. It is 
 long, and sufficiently dull. Hooker's name occurs 
 in it, in connexion with Dr. Some's. The ' Oxford 
 
 * man' denies that a papist can be saved : he says, 
 
 * We hold, that to him that dieth a papist (let him 
 
 * do neuer so many good workes, and builde, if it 
 
 * were possible, ten thousand coUedges or churches) 
 ' the verie gates and portecuUeses of Gods mercie 
 
 * are quite shutt vp, and all those his glorious works, 
 
 * how sweet soeuer they may be to others, shall be 
 ' but wrack Jand misery to himself. And in this 
 ' point if either M. Hooker, M. Some, or all the 
 
 * reuerend Bb. of the land doe stand against vs, it 
 ' shall little dismaie vs.' (P. 29.) There is nothing 
 in it which requires any further account of this re- 
 ply to Dr. Some. 
 
 The Maipre- The advisers of Queen Elizabeth were always in 
 prohibited by those daugcrous days too much upon their guard, to 
 suffer such publications as the tracts of Martin 
 Marprelate to pass unnoticed. Looking at them as 
 we do, after a long period of time, it is a matter of 
 extreme doubt still, in what way they ought to have 
 been received : whether they should have been left 
 unregarded, in silent contempt. Those who were 
 then in authority could not overlook the sedition 
 and treason against the state which they contained. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I23 
 
 even if many who sat at the same council-table 
 cared nothing for their more open attacks upon the 
 Church. 
 
 It has been always known that some of the most Some mem- 
 
 •^ btrs of it 
 
 influential persons about the Queen were inclined favour them, 
 to the Puritan party ; and Lord Leicester generally 
 pretended to be so : it was his game to play : when 
 abroad he had tried to hide his incapacity by spend- 
 ing half his time with the schismatic preachers 
 who were followers of the camp, joining in their 
 praying exercises, and patiently listening to their 
 three hours' sermons. Xo less so were others of a 
 sterner cast ; and some who were mere courtiers 
 and parasites of the day. 
 
 Nor is this to be wondered at ; for, independent 
 of deeper motives by which a few were influenced, 
 up to a certain point the love of being amused was 
 quite sufficient to make Martin popular at court. 
 He says himself, {Epitome, p. 2,) ' I haue been 
 ' entertayned at the court : euerye man talkes of 
 ' my worship. Manye would gladly receiue my 
 
 * bookes, if they coulde tell where to finde them.' 
 So I think myself obliged, by the way, to quote 
 the old anecdote of Lord Essex. * When a prohi- 
 ' bition issued that no person should carry about 
 
 * them any of the Marprelate pamphlets on pain of 
 
124 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * punishment, the Earl of Essex observed to the 
 ' Queen, " What, then, is to become of me ?" 
 
 * drawing one of them out of his bosom and pre- 
 
 * senting it to her.' 
 
 But the trea- But neither the leaning of any of its members 
 could not be towards Puritauism, nor the idle amusement which 
 such publications were likely to supply, could blind 
 the eyes of the Council, as a body, to the very dan- 
 gerous consequences which in all human probability 
 were sure to follow. Such men as Burleigh could 
 not forget, much as he might wish to do so, and 
 much as he might regret the intemperateness of 
 the writers, such men, I say, could not forget that 
 the designs of the party whose organ Martin 
 Marprelate was, had been disclosed by themselves. 
 They could not forget that the great leader, Thomas 
 Cartwright, had been the first to subscribe a book. 
 The Holy Discipline of the Churchy of which 
 Travers was the chief author, in which all who did 
 so subscribe bound themselves to advance by * all 
 lawful and convenient means,' (the common lan- 
 guage in such cases, and language well understood) 
 that Discipline. Such men could not forget that 
 the Puritans had declared that ' if every hair of 
 ' their heads were a several term of their lives, they 
 
 * ought to spend them in the attainment of the 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 25 
 
 * Discipline.' And, once more, that a main point 
 agreed upon by them was this ; that in such a case, 
 subjects might withstand their Prince. That the 
 IMinisters, after due admonition, might excommuni- 
 cate him, as an enemy against the kingdom of 
 Christ. That being so excommunicate, the people 
 might punish him. And that thereby he ceased 
 to be their king. 
 
 We are not to suppose that these were idle 
 threats : another generation, the sons of the men I 
 am now speaking of, carried them into execution. 
 The Counsellors of Elizabeth both saw the danger, 
 and immediately took measures to prevent it. The Seiznre of the 
 
 Marprelate 
 
 ]\Iarprelate tracts were strictly prohibited : as we press. 
 have seen, Penry with several others had already 
 been arrested: and at last, after great difficulty, 
 the press and printers were seized, it is said in 
 Lancashire. 
 
 There is no detailed account, that I am aware of, 
 existing, which gives a history of this seizure. Sir 
 Geo. Paule tells us in his life of the Archbishop, 
 that the Marprelate tracts were printed with a kind 
 of wandering press, which was first set up at Moul- 
 sey, near Kingston upon Thames, and from thence 
 conveyed to Fausly, in Northamptonshire, and 
 from thence to Norton, afterwards to Coventry, 
 
126 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 from tlience to Welstone in Warwickshire, from 
 which place the letters were sent to another press 
 in or near Manchester, where (by the means of 
 Henry, that good Earl of Derby) the press was dis- 
 covered in printing of More work for a Cooper.^ 
 
 Strype in his Appendia; to the Annals (Num- 
 ber Lxviii.) has printed from some manuscripts 
 belonging to Sergeant Puckering, the Examination 
 of certain persons about this matter of the printing, 
 taken at Lambeth, Feb. 15, 1.588. (1589, New 
 style.) From this it appears, that a Sir R. Knightly 
 then lived at Fausley, before mentioned : and that 
 the Epitome was printed there ; by Waldgrave the 
 printer. Mr. Hales of Coventry was next ex- 
 amined, and stated that at his house Waldgrave 
 also worked, and that from him he received a copy 
 afterwards of the Supplication to the Parliament : 
 I presume, Penry's Appellation is meant. The 
 next evidence is of one Henry Sharpe, who deposed, 
 that at Hale's house, Waldgrave printed, the Mine- 
 ral Conclusions, the Supplication, and Hay any 
 work for the Cooper. I would refer the reader to 
 the full examination, as given by Strype. 
 Martin was At the time wheu the press and printers were 
 employed^ taken, it is not improbable that they were engaged 
 
 * Paul's Life of Whitgift. P. 51. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 12/ 
 
 upon more than one pamphlet : the rapidity with 
 which these had ah'cady followed one another, would 
 of itself make us suppose that two or three might 
 be preparing together. It is quite clear that one, 
 at least, was far advanced towards completion ; viz. 
 ' Hay any more worJcefor the Cooper.' All the 
 finished sheets of this w^ere taken, and I believe 
 that no copy of it, in any state, remains. Other 
 titles of books have been mentioned, as seized also 
 at the time : such as Epistoraastix, Paradoxes, Dia- 
 logues, Miscellanea, Variae Lectiones, Martin's 
 Dream, The Lives and Doings of English Popes, 
 Itinerarium or Visitationes, Lambethismes. So 
 they are given (as missing books) in Loivndes Bi- 
 hliographers Manual, p. 1225. 
 
 But they all stand, as to the fact of their * having 
 been,* upon the sole authority of Martin himself, 
 in his later tracts : and I have scarcely any doubt 
 that these titles were a subsequent invention of the 
 Puritans, pretending also that the books were nearly 
 finished and ready for dispersion. It was a cheap 
 way of proving their unwearied diligence in their 
 *caUing,' and of exciting greater pity for their 
 losses. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE surprizing of the printers and the seizure 
 of their press, had but little, if any, effect 
 upon the purposes of the Puritans. They were 
 neither wearied nor fainthearted : hitherto Martin 
 had sufficiently answered their expectations : their 
 attack was checked but for a very short time only : 
 they were many-limbed, and the destruction of one 
 or two members seemed to quicken and give energy 
 The Protesta- to the rest. * The Protestation of Martin Mar- 
 prelate* (No. 8), quickly made its appearance, 
 showing, however, evidently by its wretched typo- 
 graphical execution, and almost countless errors, 
 the haste and fear in which, so immediately after 
 their surprisal, the printers worked. 
 
 It opens, * Thou canst not lightly bee ignorant 
 
 * good reader, of that wich hath latly fallen vnto 
 
 * some things of mine, wich were to be printed, or 
 ' in printing : the presse, leteres, workmen and all, 
 
 * apprehended and caried, as malefactors before the 
 
 tion. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * magistrat, whose authoritie I reverence, and 
 ' whose sword I would fear were I as wicked as our 
 ' Bb. are.' It is a strange characteristic of the time 
 and person, that the writer should suppose the sur- 
 prisal of the press to be perhaps a token of God's 
 anger and dislike against himself: he continues in 
 sober earnest ; * These events I confes doe strike 
 ' me, and giue iuste cause to enter more narrowly 
 ' into my selfe, to see whether I bee at peace with 
 'God or no.' (P. 1.) 
 
 Presently the author says that he (that is, his 
 party) is not dismayed at the mischance which had 
 occurred : ' Good reader, I would not haue thee 
 ' discouraged at this that is latlie fallen out. — As 
 ' to the present action, let them be well assured it 
 ' was not undertaken to be intermitted at everye 
 ' blast of euill successe. Nay let them knowe that 
 ' by the grace of God the last yeare of Martinisme, 
 ' that is, of the discrying and displaying of L. Bb. 
 ' shall not be, till full 2 years after the last year of 
 ' Lambethisme. — Be it knowne vnto them that 
 ' 3Iartinisme stands vpon au (an) other maner of 
 ' fundation, then ther prelacy doth or can stand. 
 ' Therfore yf they will needs ouerthrowe me, let 
 ' them goe in hand with the exdloyte, {exploit?) 
 ' rather by prooving the lawfullnes of their places : 
 
 K 
 
130 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * then by exercising the force of ther vnlawefull 
 
 * tyranny.' (Pp. 6 & 7.) The Protestation gives 
 Hay any US an account, or pretended account, of what the 
 
 more woike. 7 i t "n 
 
 Hay any more tvorke would have been, 'lo 
 
 * tell thee true, good reader, I sigh to remember 
 
 * the losse of it, it was so prettie, and so witty. — 
 
 * First, then, there was set downe, the true, proper, 
 
 * and naturall definition, or rather description of 
 
 * Martinismey to this eflfect. That to be a right 
 
 * Martiniste indeede, is to bee neither Browniste, 
 
 * Cooperist, Lambethist, Schismatike, Papist, atheist, 
 
 * traytor, nor yet L. byshop ; but one that is at de- 
 ' fyaunce with all men, so far forth as he is an 
 
 * enimy to God and her Maiestie. Whereupon I 
 
 * remember, I did then aske the reader, whether it 
 
 * were not good being a Martiniste. — Nexte to this 
 
 * followed a preamble to an Eblitaph vpon the death 
 ' of olde Andrewe Tume-coate, to be sung anti- 
 ' phonically in his graces Chappell, on Wednesdayes 
 ' and Frydayes, to the lamentable tune of Ora- 
 
 * whynemeg. — The next prettie thing to this, was 
 
 * to my remembrance, Chaplain Some confuted 
 ' with the balde sheath of his own dagger. — Then 
 
 * there was recorded a braue agreement which mar- 
 ' tin of his curtesie is contented to make with the 
 ' bishops, &c.' ( Pp. 24—3 1 .) 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I3I 
 
 Old ' Andrevve Turne-coate,' above mentioned, Dr. Peme. 
 is a title which the Puritans very irreverently, 
 whatever his demerits might have been, gave to 
 Dr. Feme.* He died in 1389, Dean of Ely,f 
 and Head of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He had a 
 sufficient command over himself, and his conscience, 
 to go with the leading party, whatever it might be, 
 through the troubled times of Edward VI., Mary, 
 and Elizabeth ; no test was found stringent enough 
 to di'ive him from his deanery or headship. I would 
 not deny that if he had any principle at all, it was 
 upon the side of the Reforming sect : this possibly 
 induced Whitgift to support and patronise him in 
 his later years, to which he was also in a measure 
 bound in gratitude, for some kindnesses which Dr. 
 Perne had shown him when a fellow of Peterhouse, 
 
 * Jacke says, in the ' Dialogue of Tyrannical Dealing,'' 
 ' What, Doctor Pearnel Why he is the notablest turue- 
 • coate in al this land. Why euery boy hath him in his 
 ' mouth, for it is made a prouerbe, both of olde and young, 
 ' that if one haue a coate or cloake that is turned, tliey saye 
 ' it is Pearnd:—Sign. D. 2. 
 
 t Neal, Vol. i.'p. 196, speaks of him as Bishop of Ely : this 
 mistake is to be traced to Strype, who, most unaccountably, 
 also styles him, Bishop. Life of Whitgift, p. 42. At this 
 time, 1589, the See of Ely had been vacant eight years, and, 
 a proof of Queen Elizabeth's care as a " nursing mother," 
 was fated to continue so, ten years more. 
 
132 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 in Queen Mary's days. His partiality, however, 
 seems to have heen extreme. If Dr. Perne had 
 not a character to lose, after 1570, Dr. Whitgift 
 had ; and men cannot touch pitch without some of 
 it sticking to them. 
 
 Martin Marprelate said that the Archbishop had 
 been at Peterhouse ' the master's boy, and had 
 * carried his cloak-bag ;' Bishop Cooper denies this 
 in his Admonition^ in a manner which shows at 
 least that the Doctor's intimacy with the Arch- 
 bishop was a matter of notoriety : and Strype calls 
 him ' his dear friend.' But there is a curious jest, 
 very much to the purpose, which Fuller has handed 
 down to us. Queen Elizabeth (we know from her 
 personal histories) was accustomed to take a certain 
 daily amount of exercise. Once, when it was rain- 
 ing hard, she was still determined upon going from 
 home : at that time she was not in good health : 
 and, after much advice offered, the Archbishop, 
 who happened to be at hand, was called in to dis- 
 suade her majesty. He was not listened to; and, 
 quite in accordance, as it seems, with the practice 
 of the court at that time, the Queen's fool. Clod, 
 was next appealed to. ' Heaven dissuades you, 
 ' madam,' was his address, ' not only by its weep- 
 ' ing aspect, but by the eloquence of the Arch- 
 
MARTIN MAJIPIIELATE. I^ 
 
 ' bishop : earth dissuades you by the tongue of 
 ' your poor fool, Clod : and if neither heaven nor 
 ' earth can succeed, at least listen to Dr. Perne, 
 ' whose religious doubts suspend him between 
 ' both.' 
 
 Now, in all seriousness, it may not be matter of 
 surprise that Dr. Perne (and many others) should 
 have acted as he did ; that he should have been a 
 notorious time-server ; a trimmer to every wind ; 
 and worse than this, (as he actually was,) eager to 
 show his adhesion to the ruling party, whatever it 
 might be, by persecuting the losing one. But we 
 must wonder, unless we set it down as a sign and 
 token by which we are to guide our judgment as to 
 the rulers of that time, and the sincerity of the great 
 movers in and leaders of the Reformation, — we 
 must wonder, I say, that such men — for Dr. Perne, 
 again, was but one of many, a specimen of a class 
 — should have been sought out for preferment, and 
 allowed to retain their dignities. 
 
 There can be no doubt that there were many ciuuchpro- 
 
 P/-V -nTiii'i- perty coveted 
 
 among the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth, high m by the Court, 
 rank and powerful in influence, who, remembering 
 the spoils divided some forty years before, hankered 
 after the remnants of the possessions of the Church, 
 and were lookhig out, eager to avail themselves of 
 
134 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 every internal commotion among her members and 
 reported members, to obtain their end. 
 
 This was asserted, even by the opponents of 
 Martin Marprelate. In the Dialogue between Pas- 
 quill and Marforius {Return of Pasquil, No. 14), 
 we find, ' Marforius. By your leave, Cavaliero, 
 
 * they say Martin hath great vpholders. Pasquil. 
 
 * It may be so, some that are as ready as himselfe, 
 
 * to rob the Church.' {Sign. C.A.Rev.) Again, 
 in the same book, speaking of the punishment of 
 Ananias and Sapphira, ' If a greedie desire of with- 
 
 * holding that from the Church which themselves 
 
 * had giuen, was of force to open such a windowe 
 
 * to the deuill, that they were presently giuen ouer 
 
 * as a pray to the iawes of hell, — howe many foule 
 
 * sinnes, and howe many greeuous plagues are to be 
 
 * feared in this lande, which alreadie hang at the 
 
 * ende of the lyne of Martinisme, and would spee- 
 
 * dilie be puld vpon our heads, if we should but 
 
 * beginne to take that from the Church which we 
 ' neuer gave.' — Sign. D. 1. 
 
 And very I fuHy belicve, that with so near a precedent 
 
 es^clpedf before them, one almost of their own experience, it 
 
 was by the most merciful intei*position only of the 
 
 Divine Providence, that the destroying hands were 
 
 stayed. The same arguments which led men on 
 
MAKTIN iMARl'RELATli. I 35 
 
 blindfold, as it were, to overthrow the abbeys of 
 England, and could make their consciences so blunt, 
 as to care nothing for the sacrilege which they were 
 committing, or, which was more dreadful, could 
 teach men to talk about their sin as done for con- 
 science' sake, — these same arguments, I say, would 
 apply, broadly stated, to the cathedral endowments 
 and parochial revenues of the Church reformed. 
 
 And the work of spoliation was actually at- Attempts on 
 
 it were tVe- 
 
 tempted and begun. In a note just above (p. 131 J quentiy made. 
 it is remarked that the See of Ely was allowed by 
 the Queen to remain vacant for more than eighteen 
 years. This was in order to commit ravages upon, 
 and to misappropriate its revenues. The Secretary 
 and the Lord Treasurer, were among the foremost 
 in the work. Archbishop Sandys was often urged 
 to lease out the manors which belonged to him : 
 and at last pressed to such an extent, that he wrote 
 to one in authority, saying, ' he would not so spoil 
 ' the Church of York, but rather was resolved to 
 ' offer the resignation of his place.' These are in- 
 stances out of many such : the times were indeed, 
 as the same prelate lamented, ' marvellous times. 
 
 * The patrimony of the Church was laid open as a 
 
 * prey unto the world. The ministers of the word, 
 ^ the messengers of Christ, had become coiitempti- 
 
136 MARTIN MARPKELATE. 
 
 tion 
 
 * biles 07nni populo, and esteemed tanquam excre- 
 
 * menta mundi. It might be feared God had some 
 
 * great work in hand, for this ignominy done mito 
 < himself.' * 
 
 Martin's view But self-seekers (to use their own term,) as the 
 
 ot tlie ques- 
 
 Puritans unquestionably were, selfish as were the 
 ends to gain which there were few means which 
 they hesitated to employ, this end, at any rate, was 
 not openly proposed, nay, very openly started from 
 with horror, that the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth 
 should divide the spoils. Far from it : they were 
 avowedly destined to another purpose. Let us, 
 upon this, listen to Martin's indignant protest : ' I 
 
 * may safelye saye, it is so far from me to bringe 
 ' the Churche liuinges into the hands of any but 
 ^ the ministers, and officers thereof;' these ministers 
 to be the elders of the Genevan discipline. Cart- 
 wright, Udall, Travers, and the rest; 'that I can 
 ' no more abide church-robberie in a temporall 
 ' man, then I can brooke sacriledge in a presump- 
 ' tuous priest : as I hate the one, so I abhorre the 
 ' other. But as concerning the laying open of their 
 ' bishopprickes to the spoyle of such cormorants as 
 ' gape for their downfals, thereby only to enrich 
 ' themselues, I greatly muze, that our prelates wil 
 
 * Life of Wbitgift. P. 286. 
 
MARTIN MARPIIELATE. I37 
 
 cummeut. 
 
 * be SO ouersene as to charge me therwith.' — Pro- 
 testacyon, p. 18.* 
 
 Really, all this looks so honest, that if it stood 
 alone, we might give the Puritan credit, more par- 
 ticularly in such a case, for once speaking the 
 truth ; but, alas I Pasquil of England has been and Pasquii\ 
 before us, and hinders our praise. He mildly ad- 
 monishes Martin Marprelate upon this very point : 
 ' May it please your Masterdom to vnderstand, that 
 ' by the last Butterflie you sent abroad, you tel me 
 ' a tale of a dry Sommer, and protest that you seek 
 ' not to stanch the bote thyrst of any couetous 
 ' courtier, with the bishoprickes of the land, but to 
 ' share them amongst the Ministerie. Fie, fie, do 
 ' you not know that a Iyer must haue no shetle 
 ' memory ? If you looke eyther to your former 
 ' workes, where you urge the spoyle of the Church 
 ' for the maintenaunce of w^ars, or to your son Mar- 
 ' tin Senior, a man that hath slept in his father's 
 ' bosome, and knowes your mind, in exhorting his 
 ' yonger brother to resigne the care of Church 
 
 * So, the writers of the Supplication of the Communaltief 
 1585, had ' set it down as a most resolute doctrine, that 
 ' things once dedicated to a sacred use, ought to remain by 
 ' the Word of God for ever, and ought not to be converted 
 ' to any jjrivate use.' 
 
138 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * reuenewes to the Court, you shal find your selfe 
 
 * taken with an overture.' — The return ofPasquily 
 sign. D. 4. 
 
 The author also of ' An Almond for a Parrat ' 
 speaks out plainly, not fearing the Court, upon the 
 ill-concealed rapacity of some of the then advisers 
 of the Crown, and their friends the Puritans. He 
 says of Martin Marprelate, ' One thing I am per- 
 
 * suaded, that he neither respects the propagation 
 ' of the Gospel, nor the prosperity of the Church, 
 
 * but only the benefite that may fall to him and his 
 ' boulsterers by the distribution of bishoprickes. 
 
 * Beshrewe mee but those Church-liuings would 
 
 * come well to decayed courtiers. O howe merrilye 
 ' the dyce would runne, if our lustye laddes might 
 
 * goe to hazard for half-a-dozen of these dioceses. 
 ' Not a page but woulde haue a flinge at some or 
 ' other impropriation or parsonage : and in conclu- 
 
 * sion, those linings which now maintaine so many 
 ' scollers and students, would in two or three yeares 
 
 * be all spent in a taverne amongst a consort of 
 
 * queanes and fidlers, that might carouse on their 
 
 * wine-bench to the confusion of religion.' — Sign, 
 E, 4. Rev. 
 
 Martiu's dial- The term ' Protestation' in the title of this tract 
 ^"^ * would rather seem to imply ' Proclamation,' or 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 39 
 
 ' Publishing.' It is this, pp. 10 and 11, printed in 
 a larger type : ' I doe therefore, by this my protes- 
 ' tation, make it knowne to the whole church of 
 ' England — that I who do now go vnder the name 
 ' of Martin Marprelate, do offer personally to apear, 
 ' and there to make my selfe knowen in open dis- 
 
 * putation, vpon the danger not onlie of my libertie, 
 ' but also of my life, to maintaine against all our 
 ' bishops, or any els whosoever, that shal dare in 
 ' any scholastical manner, to take their parts : the 
 ' cause of the church government, which is now in 
 ' controversie betwixt me and our prelats : so that 
 ' I may have this condition following inviolablie 
 ' kept and obserued, viz. That for apearing, I be 
 ' not delt with, except thei overthrow me by the 
 
 * worde of God. — But if in this encounter I over- 
 ' throwe them (as I make no question of it, if they 
 ' dare abide the pushe) then they to trusse vp and 
 ' be packing to Rome, and to trouble our church 
 ' no longer. Provided also, that if any of the Pu- 
 ' ritans wil ioyn with me, and venture their lines in 
 ' the cause, it maye be lawfull for them to come in 
 
 * freely against these dragons in disputation.' 
 
 This Protestation was new only in its name : Not newiy 
 
 . II' T\/r • 1 offered. 
 
 merely harpmg upon an old strmg. Martm has 
 just before said, in this same book, speaking of the 
 
140 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Bishops, ' They are the children of those fathers, 
 ' who neuer as yet durst abide to haue their pro- 
 
 * ceedings examined by the word, and me thinks 
 ' they should be ashamed to haue it recorded vnto 
 
 * ages to come, that they haue evere shunned to 
 
 * maintaine theyre cause, eithere by open disputa- 
 
 * tion, or by any other sounde conference or writing.' 
 — P. 8. There are allusions to it in the ' Aj^pel- 
 lation of John Penri,' and in the earlier tracts, 
 the Epistle and the Epitome. In the first we find, 
 ' Nowe may it please your grace (addressing Whit- 
 < gift) with the rest of your worships, to procure 
 
 * that the Puritans may one day haue a free dispu- 
 ' tation with you about the controuersies of the 
 ' Church, and if you be not set at a flat 7ion plus, 
 '■ and quite ouerthrowen, ile be a Lord B. my selfe.' 
 — P. 3. In the other, ' Haue but a free disputa- 
 ' tion with the Puritans, about the vnlawfulnes of 
 ' your place, and if you be not ouerthrowene I wil 
 
 * come in, and do vnto you what you thinke good : 
 ' for then I will say that you are no Popes.' — P. 3. 
 And in the next tract, which I am about to give 
 some account of, the same demand is boastfully re- 
 peated, and the denial of it, or not having been 
 taken notice of, set down as an acknowledgment of 
 Q'ight being on the side of the Puritans. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I4I 
 
 This tract is the ^Dialogue of tlie Tyrannical The Dialogue. 
 Dealings S;c.' (No. 6), and the speakers arc ' Pu- 
 ' ritane, Papist, Jacke of both sides, and Idoll 
 ' ^Minister.' 
 
 The opening is good, in the Izaak Walton style. 
 ' Puritane. You are well ouertaken, sir ; doe you 
 ' travel far this way, I pray you ? Jacke. Towards 
 ' London, sir. Puritane. I shall willingly beare 
 ' you companie, if it please you. Jacke. With all 
 ' my heart ; I shall be very glad of yours.' — P. 1. 
 Jacke, it appears, had just come from France, from 
 Orleans, the Puritan also from Rochelle ; this leads 
 to a discussion upon the points in controversy, suf- 
 ficiently well managed. 
 
 But, being upon the point, let us hear what they 
 say about a disputation. I must premise that they 
 have been joined ere this by the idoll minister, 
 who is supposed to represent the Church party, or 
 Conformists of the day. Neither Jacke nor Puri- 
 tane hit it off with him at first. ' Jacke. Why, 
 ' vicker of the diuell' (I suppose the vicker was a 
 meek man) * why, vicker of the diuell, let the whole 
 ' conuocation house of diuels know of it, and you 
 
 * wil, for they dare not, noe not Beelzehuh of Can- 
 ' terburye the cheefe of the diuels, come to disputa- 
 
 * tion, therby to approoue their CaUings to be lawe- 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * full, and other points in controuersie against the 
 ' discipline of God, as they haue bin often chal- 
 
 * lenged, and offered by the Puritans, euen to ad- 
 
 * uenture their liues against their bishopricks, and 
 
 * yet they durst not. And I pray you tell me, if 
 
 * they were not Bishops of the diuel indeed, woulde 
 
 * they refuse this offer. Minister. Why, the Puri- 
 ' tans have bene often disputed with. Puritane. 
 
 * Where ? In the Bishops closet ? For they are 
 
 * ashamed to haue it tried before any magistrate. 
 ' Let them, if they dare, procure a free disputation, 
 
 * wherby every man may freely speake, and be in- 
 
 * differently heard, and if the Bishops and al their 
 
 * partakers be not ouerthrowne, I will loose my life 
 ' for \t:—Sign. C, 4.* 
 
 Character of I do uot think that any of the Marprelate Tracts 
 exceeds the Dialogue in violence and bitterness of 
 language. The check which had been given was 
 not likely to mitigate either the one or the other. 
 In the extract just above ' Bishops of the diuell,' 
 is a specimen which might be easily accompanied, 
 if I thought it necessary, by others of a like sort. 
 This volume, however, is chiefly of importance 
 
 * See a letter in Strype's Life of Whitgift, p. 351, from 
 Treasurer Knollys, to the Lord Treasurer, in which he 
 presses this question of a Disputation. 
 
 the Dialogue. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 43 
 
 O 
 
 as a proof of what the Puritans really thought of 
 Archbishop Whitgift. There have been, according 
 to various writers' views, various opinions given 
 upon this : some say, that although harsh and 
 severe in a few instances, he nevertheless had won 
 the general good-will of many among the Non- 
 conforming and Puritan party : some go so far as 
 to assert, that he did not press the penalties upon 
 them of his own accord, so much as in compliance 
 with the will of another more powerful than him- 
 self, (though the Archbishop stood very near the 
 throne,) and more determined in Church views and 
 principles. 
 
 But, says INIartin, and I look upon his hatred as Martin's 
 
 opinit)ii of 
 
 clearing a doubtful point in the Archbishop's cha- wiiitgin. 
 
 racter, ' Is not this a divelishe pollicie of the Bishop 
 
 ' of Canterbury, to place such heads in the vniuer- 
 
 ' sitie : that none shal proceed, or be preferred, 
 
 ' but such as wil subscribe* — Of all the Bishops 
 
 ' that ever were in that place, I meane in the see 
 
 ' of Canterbury, did neuer so much hurt vnto the 
 
 ' church of God, as he hath done since his comming. 
 
 ' No Bishoppe that ever had suche an aspiring and 
 
 * Curious this : with a little change of persons, plans and 
 purposes, some late proposals in 'the vniuersitie' seem to be 
 a burlesque of it. 
 
144 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * ambitious a mind as he, no not Cardinal Wolsey : 
 
 * none so proud as he, no not Steuen Gardiner of 
 ' Winchester : none so tirannical as he, noe not 
 
 * Bonner.' — Sig7i. D. 4.* Martin is very parti- 
 cular in stating the place he means ; but still it may 
 be thought hyper-critical, if I venture to observe, 
 that not one of his three examples was an Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. Nevertheless, it stands the 
 same for his and my purpose. 
 
 Restoration Archbishop WTiito-ift had made himself especially 
 
 of the High , . , . .-,,.11 ,1 
 
 Commission, obnoxious by rcstomig, with tuller powers, the 
 Court of High Commission. A few remarks upon 
 this cannot be out of place, connected so much as 
 
 * About four years before tbis, tbe Arcbbishop says, 
 writing to tbe Lord Treasurer/ Netber do I fear tbe displea- 
 
 * sure of man, nor regard tbe wicked tongues of tbe uncbari- 
 ' table, wbicb cal me Tyrant, Pope, Papist, Knave, and lay 
 ' to mj cbarge tbings wbicb I never dyd, nor tbougbt upon. 
 
 * Scio hoc esse opus Diaboli, ut servos Dei mendacio laceret, 
 
 * opinioiiibus falsis gloriosum nomen infamet, ut qui conscienticE 
 ' su(C luce clarescunt, alienis rumoribus sordidentur. So was 
 ' Cyprian bimself used for tbe same causes, and otber godlie 
 
 * Bisbops, to wbom I am not comparable. Tbe day wyll 
 
 * come wben all mens bearts sbalbe opened and made 
 ' manifest. In tbe mean tyme, I will depend upon bym, 
 
 * wbo batb called me to tbis place; and will not forsake 
 
 * tbose tbat trust in bym.' Records. Life of Wbitgift. 
 P. 66. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I45 
 
 it is with our subject, and the oath (before spoken 
 of) ex officio. 
 
 The original Court of High Commission was 
 estabhshed under a clause in the Act 1st Ehza. 
 cap. 1. §. xviij. giving authority to the Queen and 
 her successors to assign Commissioners to exercise 
 Ecclesiastical jurisdiction. By virtue of this seve- 
 ral commissions were issued, and at length a new 
 one was solicited by the Archbishop in 1584, upon 
 some weighty reasons, all bearing upon the Puri- 
 tans, the last of which was ' because the whole 
 ' ecclesiastical law, is but a carcase without a soul, 
 ^ unless it be qualified by the commission.' Far 
 greater powers were now given than under any for- 
 mer grant : the commissioners were to inquire not 
 only by the oaths of twelve good and lawful men, 
 but by all other ways and means they could devise, 
 and by the corporal oath of the accused or suspected 
 persons. Hence it followed that (as the commission 
 itself stated) they might fine or imprison at plea- 
 sure. 
 
 In order that the court might be as efficient as 
 possible, the Archbishop drew up a form of twenty- 
 four Articles, for the use and guidance of its mem- 
 bers. These are stringent enough : and with the 
 
 L 
 
146 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Lord Treasurer's remarks, may be seen in Neal,^ 
 and in the Appendix of Records to Strype's Life.f 
 It certainly would appear from Cartwi'ight's case, 
 that if the suspected person refused to take the 
 oath, and cared for neither fine nor imprisonment, 
 the Court of High Commission could not compel, 
 without applying to the higher court of Star- 
 chamber. There seems also to be some doubt, 
 whether the power of enforcing the oath ex officio, 
 was included in former commissions before 1384. 
 Bishop Aylmer in 1591 said, * that he had been 
 
 * Commissioner this thirty years, partly in Lincoln 
 
 * and partly in London, and had always had that 
 
 * clause of the oath inserted.' :J: The probability is, 
 he had hitherto exceeded his powers. 
 
 Its powers The Court of High Commission acted with great 
 
 prohibitions, firmuess for Several years, but about 1598 a prac- 
 tice crept gradually in, which for a time checked 
 its operations ; this was by applying for prohibi- 
 tions from the civil courts. 
 
 To return to the Dialogue. It is quite towards 
 the end of it, that the Papist joins the others with, 
 
 * You are well overtaken, my masters. Which way 
 ' trauel you, I pray? Jacke. Towards London, 
 
 * Vol. i. 281—285. t B. iv. No. 9. 
 
 X Life of Whitgift. P. 364. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 47 
 
 ' sir. Papist. WTiat good newes is there abroad, 
 'doe you heare any? Puritane. I knowe none 
 
 * good, for the land is sore troubled with these tre- 
 ' cherous Papists ; and our Church pestered,' &c. ; 
 and so he goes on, in the old fashion, with Bishops 
 of the devil, and popish priests, and dumb dogs. 
 Most certainly, if we take their own evidence, the 
 Puritans must have had not only a monopoly of 
 impudence, but a miraculous means of knowing 
 whom they might insult upon the Queen's highway 
 with impunity. 
 
 The Papist does not, in return, say much ; and Papist, Jacke, 
 
 _,,, ,, 11- 1 "^"^ ^'^^ Min- 
 
 1 should scarcely have thought it necessary to have ister unite a- 
 
 . „ - , gainst the Pu- 
 
 noticed him, were it not tor a somewhat (to say the ritan. 
 least) witty application of his having joined the 
 travelling party; for the Dialogue ends with an 
 arrangement between him and Jacke of both sides, 
 and the idoll minister, to lay an information against 
 the Puritan as soon as they should reach London. 
 ' Papist. I can hardly beleeve that you heard 
 ^ masse at Orleans ? Jacke. If I had not bin 
 ' present at the masse, I should have bene taken 
 
 * for a Hugonot, and so I shoulde hardly escaped 
 ' with my life. Papist, I am the gladder of your 
 
 * company. Jacke. And I of yours, for I perceue 
 ' you are a CathoUke. Papist. Yea, indeed, and I 
 
148 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * will not deny it : looke, I thinke the Puritane and 
 
 * the Vicker will goe by the eares. Jacke. He 
 
 * shall doe the Vicker no wrong- for al my speeches 
 ' to him : and he will be ruled by me, wee will 
 
 * haue him before my lords grace, for we will giue 
 
 * him the slip, when we come in the citie, and one 
 
 * of vs will fetch a pursiuant, and the other twoe 
 *shaldoghim. Papist. Content, sir, if you please, 
 
 * let it be so.' — Sign. D. 4. Hev. 
 
 I have said that here ends the dialogue : this is 
 a mistake, for the Puritan, as might be expected, 
 strikes in, has the last word, and sums up the 
 whole with two texts about ' blind watchmen,' ' dumb 
 dogs,' and ' idoll shepheardes,' and thunders that 
 he will justify all that he hath spoken. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I SHALL be more brief now in noticing the 
 other Marprelate tracts, which I proposed to 
 give account of. 
 
 The first of these is the ' Theses Martiniance' The Theses. 
 (No. 9.) The fact, that Penry and some others 
 had been imprisoned, and their press taken, sug- 
 gested the not very witty idea of IMartin's sons 
 succeeding to their father's place, and carrying out 
 his interrupted design : neither, whoever he might 
 have been, does the author of this book retrieve his 
 character, in respect of wit, by what he has written, 
 A set of 110 Theses, pretended to have been col- 
 lected out of his works by old Martin Marprelate, 
 and now published by his son, Ma7'tin junior^ 
 would but drily answer the expectations of his old 
 admirers. 
 
 We must acknowledge, however, that there is 
 the usual seasoning of virulence and blasphemy. 
 As, for example, the 34th Thesis, ' That the war- 
 
15° MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * rant that the Archbishops and Bishops haue for 
 ^ their places, can be no better than the warrant which 
 ' the open and most monstrous whoredom in the 
 
 * stewes had in times past amongest vs. For by 
 ' the worde they are condemned, &c. And as for 
 ' the laws that maintain them, being the wound and 
 ' sore of the church, they are no more to be ac- 
 ' counted of then the lawes mainteining the stewes.' 
 
 * That by the doctrine of the Church of England 
 ' our lord bishops are none of Christ's bishops, but 
 
 * the ministers of Antichrist.' Thesis 60. 
 Appeals made Many Theses begin, ' That by the doctrine of the 
 and others. ' ' Church of England,' and that it is her doctrine is 
 
 proved previously by citing Tyndal, and others, 
 and especially Master Fox, as being authorized ex- 
 pounders and doctors of the Church. Once more, 
 the 72nd, ' That hy the doctrine of the Church of 
 ' Englande, all ministers be of equal authoritie;* 
 the 78th and 79th,"' That our prelates haue no 
 
 * authoritie to make ministers ; and to haue a bishops 
 ' licence to preach is the very marke of the beast 
 ' Antichrist.' 
 
 Martin junior, adds an ' Epilogue,^ of some five 
 or six pages, headed by an address or dedication, 
 ' To the worshipfull his very good neame, Maister 
 ' lohn Canturburie.' This gives an account of the 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I5I 
 
 Theses having been picked up ' under a bush ;' and 
 a hope is expressed that old Martin Marprelate, 
 who is supposed to be in jail, would not be offended 
 at their having been pubHshed. All this seems ex- 
 ceedingly dull and stupid. Neither does the book 
 show any novelty of daring (as my readers are al- 
 ready aware) in demanding a public disputation, 
 {sign, Z). iij.) or of wit, in using the queer words 
 which had already been repeated over and over 
 again, such as * Ka,' ' nunckle,' * Cankerbury,' * Ca- 
 tercaps,* and the like. 
 
 But, within a short time, from one of his own TheJnstCt 
 party, comes out ' The just Censure and Reproof,* 
 Sfc, (No. J 0.) This is the last tract plainly from 
 Martin Marprelate, w'hich I have to notice; and 
 one feels a sort of satisfaction that the ancient vio- 
 lence of Penry and Cartwright, and the rest, is 
 fully displayed even to the last. There are no 
 signs of weariness and flagging in them. Their old 
 supporters might probably be getting tired; the 
 fallacy of their arguments might, in many instances, 
 have been exposed; their exaggerations been ex- 
 plained away; their lies contradicted; and, more 
 than all, answerers in their own style have taken 
 the field against them, but they are determined to 
 die hard. If profaneness and m.alice were destined 
 
152 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 for a season to be checked, though not destroyed, 
 it was even then to be only after a desperate 
 strug-gle. 
 Why written. But why this apparent disagreement among 
 themselves ? Why this censure of one of Martin's 
 sons by an elder brother ? Because, it is pre- 
 tended, if no more pamphlets had been pubhshed 
 after the imprisonment of the printers, and Penry's 
 seizure, that the High Commissioners would pro- 
 bably have looked upon Martin's productions as 
 mere jokes, and said, ' I faith, lette him go, Mar- 
 
 * tin is a madde knaue.' Sign. A. ij. Rev. But 
 now their pursuivants will be sent out, and a sharp 
 search made, and ' Marke whether these poore men 
 
 * beforenamed, to wit, Penry, Sharpe, Walde-graue, 
 
 * Newman, &c. with many other good men, who, I 
 ' dare sweare for them, did neuer medle nor make 
 ' at anie time with the metropoliticall writings of 
 ' our renowmed father, shall not be now as hotlie 
 ' pursued after as euer they were. And al this 
 
 * comes of thy foolish and paltrie meddhng in mat- 
 ' ters too high for thy capacitie. And thus other 
 
 * men are like to smart by thy follie.' — Sign.B.i], 
 
 In this ' Reproofed the Puritan speaks out again 
 about the ' men of sinne, I meane the Canturburie 
 
 * Caiphas, with the rest of his anti-Christian beasts. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * who beare his abominable marke' (Sign. A. ij.) ; 
 and makes his usual ten or eleven protests against 
 the Ecclesiastical government of the Church of 
 England. I quote the first of these. ' First, I 
 ' protest and affirme, that the foresaide lohn Whit- 
 ' gift, alias Canturburie, which nameth himselfe 
 
 * archbishop of Canturburie, is no minister at all in 
 
 * the church of God, but hath, and doeth wrong- 
 ' fully usurp, and inuade the name and seate of the 
 ' ministerie, vnto the great detriment of the Church 
 ' of God, the vtter spoyle of the soules of men, and 
 
 * the likelie mine of this commonwealth. And in 
 ' this case do I affirme al the lord bishops in Eng- 
 ' land to be. — Sign. B. iv. 
 
 It is well known that Archbishop Whitgift main- Attacks the 
 tained always a household and retinue suited to his 
 high dignity. If I remember rightly, it was of him 
 that an Italian spoke, when he afterwards told some 
 Englishman that ' the English nation had been 
 ' much misrepresented abroad : that instead of there 
 ' being no Archbishop, or cathedral, or ecclesias- 
 ' tical services, he never remembered to have seen 
 ' greater pomp displayed, or more outward cere- 
 ' monial.' It would be well if we might justly ap- 
 propriate this praise, but we cannot. Ever since 
 the alterations of the 1 6th century, though, upon 
 
154 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 the one hand, the Church of England has retained 
 more propriety of administration of her Sacraments, 
 and arrangement of her sanctuaries, than we may 
 see in the meeting-houses of the Kirk of Scotland, 
 or of Wesleyans, or Quakers, yet, upon the other, 
 she has been far less Catholic in appearance (most 
 certainly to an Italian eye) than when the mission- 
 aries landed with St. Augustine, and celebrated the 
 Divine Offices in the open air, or in a log-built 
 church. If, then, the traveller did not speak in 
 sarcasm, much that he said must be set down as 
 empty compliment : greatly as we may desire it to 
 be so, it could not possibly be true of a Church, 
 mercilessly stripped of almost all her ancient glo- 
 rious apparel, and with a scarcely sufficient cere- 
 monial left, by which even in decency, her priests 
 might go through the offices of her Liturgy and 
 Ritual. 
 
 The fact, however, remains undisputed, that 
 Archbishop Whitgift properly kept up great per- 
 sonal state. Sir Geo. Paule says, ' He kept a good 
 
 * armory, and a fair stable of great horses : inas- 
 
 * much as he was able to arm at all points both 
 
 * horse and foot ; and divers times had one hundred 
 
 * foot and fifty horse of his own servants mustered 
 
 * and trained, for which purpose he entertained 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 55 
 
 * captains.' Martin Marprelate was not a likely 
 man to overlook this : we have one sharp example 
 of his keen sight in the * Just Censure and Re- 
 proof.' * Doest thou not see thy vncle Canturburie 
 ' abroad in his visitation ? Doest thou not see with 
 ' how manie men Esau rides, that if hee meete with 
 ' his poore brother Jacob he maie be sure to sucke 
 
 * his blood ? Is seuen score horse nothing, think- 
 
 * est thou, to bee in the traine of an English 
 ' priest ? Whereof also there are thirtie golden 
 ' chaines I Doest thou thinke that the kingdome 
 ' of Christ, which thy father seeketh to builde, 
 ' shall be able to stand, seeing John Canturburie, 
 
 * with so manie men, rideth about the countrie, to 
 
 * proclame nothing else but fire and sworde vnto 
 ' as manie as professe themselues to be the true 
 ' subjects thereof.' — Sign, B. 1. 
 
 The Puritans were never behindhand in claiming Puritan daim 
 
 asserted of be- 
 
 for themselves the distinction of beinff the true >"§ t^^ true 
 
 ° Church. 
 
 Church ; as here, in his last effort, Martin declares 
 himself and company to be the only ' true subjects 
 ' of Christ's kingdome ;' so in his first tract also he 
 had said, ' all the pastors in the land, that deserue 
 ' the name of pastors, are against their wil vnder 
 ' the bishops iurisdictions.' — Epistle^ p. 6. 
 
 Hooker has set down, amongst the causes ad- 
 
156 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 vancing the popularity of Puritanism, this one ; that 
 it is ' instilled into their hearts, that the Spirit, 
 
 * leading men into their opinion, doth thereby seal 
 ' them to be God's children ; and that, as the state 
 
 * of the times now standeth, the most speciartoken 
 
 * to know them that are God's own from others is 
 
 * an earnest affection that way. This hath bred 
 
 * high terms of separation between such and the 
 
 * rest; whereby the one sort are named the bre- 
 ' thren, the godly, and so forth ; the other, world- 
 
 * lings, time-servers, pleasers of men not of God, 
 
 * with such like.' And Bishop Cooper, speaking of 
 the Recusaiits, * Some haue affirmed flatly vnto 
 
 * me, that in seeking to presse them to come to our 
 ' church and seruice, we doe against our owne con- 
 ' sciences, seeing our most zealous preachers (as 
 
 * they be taken) openly speake and write, that as 
 ' well our service, as the administration of the sa- 
 ' craments are contrary to the word of God.' — 
 Admonition, p. 128. 
 
 Treatise of I propose to consider Penry's Treatise of Refor- 
 
 Reformation. 
 
 mation towards the end of this volume, as having 
 certainly been printed some time after the replies to 
 Martin Marprelate. Before we pass on, however, 
 to that part of our subject, there is one matter fre- 
 quently alluded to in many of the tracts which have 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 57 
 
 already been examined, and of which some notice 
 seems not unnecessary. 
 
 If there is one thing more than another which puritan exai- 
 has ever distinguished, from its first beginning up preaching. 
 to the present time, the puritanical party either in 
 or out of the Church, it is the unduly exalting of 
 the office and benefits of preaching. Preaching is, 
 without doubt, one of the appointed means, by 
 which God saves men, by which He calls them out 
 of darkness into light, and leads them onwards to 
 perfection. But not content with giving to it its 
 proper and reasonable honour, the Puritans lowered 
 the mysterious efficacy of the Sacraments, and made 
 preaching the only ordinary means, by which men 
 might be saved. It was natural that they should 
 do so. They, teachers and disciples together, were 
 men who could not bear so great a burden, as would 
 be faith in the promises of God, without under- 
 standing, in some degree at least, how and why the 
 observance of certain means should produce certain 
 effects. They could comprehend easily, that men 
 might be influenced by reasoning, by eloquence, by 
 constant admonitions from the pulpit: but they 
 could not understand how water should wash away 
 sin ; how the grace given in confirmation should 
 both strengthen and subdue ; how the blessing of 
 
158 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 the Church is indispensable to the future well-being 
 of the newly-married, and to the establishing them 
 in a religious observance of their new duties ; how, 
 more than all, the partaking of the consecrated ele- 
 ments, the eating of the flesh of Christ, and the 
 drinking of His blood, could be necessary to the 
 continuance of a Christian life on earth, to the 
 actual enjoyment of, and a capability for an endless 
 life hereafter. 
 Particularly Hcuce we find frequent assertions to this purport 
 
 y artiu. .^ ^^^ Marprelatc tracts. I shall trouble the reader 
 with but one extract. In the Epistle, we find, * John 
 ' London (Aylmer) demaunded whether preach- 
 ' ing was the onely meanes to saluation? Penrie 
 
 * answered, that it was the onely ordinarie meanes. 
 
 ' This point being a long time canuassed, at 
 
 ' the legth his worship of Winchester (Bp. Cooper) 
 
 * rose vp, and mildly after his manner, brast forth 
 
 * into these words. I assure you my lords, it is an 
 ' execrable heresie : an heresie, quoth John Penry, 
 
 * I thank God that euer I knewe that heresie." 
 Epistle, P. 80. 
 
 But not lawful But, though moro preachers sent abroad was to 
 be the remedy for evil, Martin will not allow that 
 the Bishops should preach. He proves it by a 
 syllogism in a new mood. * This is the syllogisme, 
 
 for Bishops. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 59 
 
 rent. 
 
 * theraoode answereth vnto " Celarent," elder daugh- 
 ' ter to " Barbara," and I will haue it called, " Pern- 
 ' canterburikenolde." ' 
 
 Perne. No ciuill magistrate can be an ordi- 
 narye preacher without sinne. 
 
 Canter- Euerie Lorde Bishoppe is a ciuill 
 hurie. magistrate. Therefore 
 
 Kenolde. No Lord Bishop can be an ordina- 
 rie preacher. 
 
 ' What say you now, brethren, would you haue 
 ' ciuill gouernors (such as our Bishops are) to 
 
 * preach ? I hope not. For although I cannot deny, 
 ' but som of our bishops are very great breakepul- 
 ' pits, and have as marueilous rawe gifts in preach- 
 
 * ing, as any that euer came to Paul's wharflf, yet 
 ' surely I caiiot see what warrant you haue to vrge 
 ' ciuil officers to preach." Epitome. Sign. E. iv. 
 Rev. 
 
 If preaching then was so high an office, and its 
 effects so great, it would not be just to pass on 
 without, at the same time, adding the opinion of a 
 contemporary, as to the performances of the Puri- 
 tans themselves. Pasquil of England says, that 
 they ' leape into the Pulpit with a Pitchfork, to 
 ' teach men, before they haue either learning. 
 
i6o 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * iudgment or wit inough to teach boyes." i?e- 
 turne ofPasquil. Sign. A. iij. Again, in the same 
 volume, he rephes to the question, * haue you not 
 
 * heard Cooper at Paules chayne, and the rest of 
 
 * the men that are commended to your eares by 
 
 * Martin Senior ? Pas. I haue followed them 
 
 * also, and I finde them fitte to preach vpon Bel- 
 
 * lowes, and Bagpipes, and blowne Bladders, they 
 
 * are so full of ventositie, that I cannot come at 
 
 * their matter for winde and wordes.' Sign. c.ij.Rev. 
 The style But WO havo also evidence of their own, as to 
 romraendedr the style of preaching which was to perform wonders : 
 
 and this includes, as it happens, the judgment of 
 Penry himself. It seems that about 1388 a clergy- 
 man of the name of Hocknell, who had been in 
 orders some six or seven years, was presented to a 
 benefice. It is not clear, from his after-conduct, 
 that he was sincerely inclined to that party ; but 
 whether it was the fashion of the neighbourhood 
 into which he was going, or whether he thought two 
 strings to his bow were better than one, he sought for 
 some testimonials from the Ministers of the said shire. 
 These testimonials differed somewhat from modern 
 ones, because (the account tells us) it was a sort of 
 fresh ordination : Hocknell was willing to renounce 
 his first calling by the Bishops to the ministry. So 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. l6l 
 
 the non-conforming ministers appoint a time for 
 him to preach, and give him a text. Which was 
 performed at St. Peter's Church. ' After which 
 ' sermon, the classis alone being assembled, Hock- 
 
 * nell was willed to stand aloofe. Then Penrie be- 
 ' gan to make a speech, and to exhort them, &c, to 
 ' deal without affection. After which they fell to 
 
 * consultation. Some liked that he should be ad- 
 ' mitted, and others misliked; both because he had 
 ' not delyvered the metaphor which was in his text, 
 
 * and because he was no Grecian nor Hebrician. 
 ' Who overweighed the rest. — Whereupon Hock- 
 ' nell fel out with them, and contemning their cen- 
 ' sure, did proceed, and took possession of his 
 
 * benefice."* 
 
 When, happily for himself, the clerical aspirant 
 had this marvellous gift, he could inveigh bitterly 
 against the institutions which gave him bread, and 
 denounce his Church, her offices, and worship, from 
 her own pulpit. Those ordinances which he des- 
 pised were to be performed by deputy. ' Some 
 
 * humble curate was hired to read prayers, and ad- 
 
 * minister sacraments. The well-endowed incumbent 
 ' could not stoop to waste his powers and tarnish 
 ' his consistency, by any such grovelling regard for 
 
 * Strype. Life of Whitgift, P. 331. 
 M 
 
l62 
 
 MARTIN INIARPRELATE. 
 
 Bancroft's 
 Sermon. 
 
 his obligations. He was above ordinances. His 
 admiring hearers termed him a Preacher and no 
 Sacrament Minister. His own assistant, and 
 neighbours equally unpretending, were contemptu- 
 ously known as reading and ministering Minis- 
 ters, We know of one preacher who inveighed in 
 the pulpit against statute Protestants, Injunction 
 men, and such as love to jump with the law.* 
 
 I must add a word or two, now we are on the 
 subject of preaching, about a very famous sermon, 
 which almost comes into the series of the Marpre- 
 late tracts : so often is Martin alluded to in it, so 
 near the same time was its delivery, and so impor- 
 tant were its results. I allude to Dr. Bancroft's 
 sermon at Paul's cross, Feb. 9, 1588. That is, new 
 style, 1589. 
 
 It was in this sermon that the Divine right of 
 episcopacy was first openly and plainly laid down 
 and supported, after an interval of many years. 
 This alone would in those days be sufficient to 
 create much uproar, and even general dissatisfac- 
 tion. We may find in it also many important ob- 
 servations, bearing upon the evils prevalent in 
 England. The peril in which the Church then 
 was is acknowledged, and some remedies suggested. 
 
 * Soames' Elizabethan Hist. P. 242. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 163 
 
 In short, the whole sermon is well worth perusal 
 by every one, who wishes to inquire into the his- 
 tory of the time. 
 
 It was not to be expected that the Puritans would Answered, 
 sit down quietly under such a public and learned 
 reproof. Very shortly afterwards came out * A 
 ' briefe discovery of the vntruthes and slanders 
 
 * (against the true gouernement of the Church of 
 ' Christ) contained in a Sermon, &c., by D. Ban- 
 
 * croft.' 4to. no date. Pp. 56. The point of this 
 tract (a larger answer is promised in the title of it) 
 is to disprove the necessity of episcopacy. There 
 is a preliminary letter to the *godlie indifferent 
 Reader,' giving an abstract of what the writer in- 
 tends to prove, viz. that ' our Bb. are scismatickes,' 
 and that * sathan is wont to bear power and sway 
 by virtue of the hierarchic.' 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
 The replies. TT/E Hiust turn, at last, to those productions 
 ' y which were to be eiFective, when other 
 means had failed, to check (for a time) this outbreak 
 against the Church. I have given httle more than 
 a sketch, and but few extracts from the writings of 
 Martin Marprelate ; and I propose to be not more 
 copious in my selection now. It will be sufficient 
 for the purpose if I mention each in order, upon my 
 former plan, and give my reader a just notion of the 
 spirit in which they were designed to carry out their 
 purpose. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that Neal, and others 
 after him of the same sort, should attempt to class 
 both the answerers and the answered as equally ob- 
 noxious to the government, and equally included 
 under the same prohibitory proclamations. These 
 writers knew that the original pamphlets were of 
 very rare occurrence, that few could obtain them, 
 and that the majority of people were quite content 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I 65 
 
 to take statements for granted: it did not seem 
 likely therefore to injure their reputation as histo- 
 rians (such as it was) so to speak of them, and 
 echo from one to another a false account. 
 
 But it is quite certain that Nash and others, who- Not disliked 
 
 by the go- 
 
 ever they might have been, who were the authors vernment. 
 of these replies, were looked upon in a very differ- 
 ent light by the government of the day. It is not 
 necessary to defend upon every point the style of 
 answer adopted; the argumentum ad hominemy 
 the tu quoque way of reasoning, is one of the least 
 satisfactory at all times : but here was an especial 
 case ; one out of the common pale of things ; ex- 
 travagant in its attack, it was to be met by an ex- 
 travagant defence ; fools were to be answered ac- 
 cording to their folly. 
 
 It is certain, also, that this mode of defence was But recom- 
 
 mended. 
 
 not adopted without consideration, and until other 
 means had been tried and failed. There are evi- 
 dences ample to prove this : for example : a passage 
 in the preface to the Answer to Bancroft's Sermon 
 shows what was the opinion at the time, viz. that 
 the answers to Martin were recommended by, and 
 carried on under the guidance of people in autho- 
 rity. The author is speaking of the Almond for a 
 Parroi) and calls it a vile and scurrilous pamphlet, 
 
l66 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 which had been lately suffered to come abroad by 
 the privity and allowance of the Bishops. He 
 continues : ' the strength which they get by such 
 
 * leud and filthie stuffe, & the discredit which 
 
 * thereby they worke either vnto the cause, or the 
 
 * men and women whome they suffer to bee so vn- 
 
 * worthilie traduced, is noe other then it were to 
 
 * bee wished (that seeing they will needs be filthy) 
 
 * they would publish such another booke euery day : 
 ' That then it might appeare indeed whose sonnes 
 
 * they are. And this is all the confutation that I 
 ^ thinke, so godles & leud a scrole to deserve.' 
 
 But there is a proof so strong that we need ask 
 for no more: coming as it does from so high a 
 quarter, and spoken of so important a person. 
 
 When Dr. Bancroft was made Bishop of London, 
 the Archbishop, in consequence of some ill reports 
 spread abroad about him, wrote a commendatory 
 letter to the Court in his behalf. Among other 
 things, ' That he was, by his diligent search, the first 
 
 * detector of Martin Marprelate's press and books : 
 
 * where and by whom they were printed. He was 
 
 * a special man, that gave the instructions to her 
 
 * Majesty's learned council, when Martin's agents 
 
 * were brought into the Star Chamber. By his 
 ' advice that course was taken f which did princi- 
 
MAUTIN MARPllELATE. 167 
 
 * pally stop 3Iartms and his fellows' mouths ; viz, 
 ' to have them answered after their own vain 
 
 * writings,' — Strype. Life of Whitgift, cap. xxiij. 
 p. 516. 
 
 It is not easy to say which of these answers was Nash, not ti.e 
 
 only writer ol 
 
 first pubUshed; neither is it possible to assign a them, 
 name to each as its author. It must be evident to 
 any one who reads the books, that they were writ- 
 ten by several men. Yet Thomas Nash, who had 
 formerly been of St. John's College, Cambridge, is 
 usually spoken of as the sole author : generally in 
 Catalogues (even of our public libraries) we find 
 all entered under his name, which not only confirms 
 error, but misleads. Anthony a Wood attributes 
 to him particularly ^ Pappe with a Hatchet ;' but 
 Dr. Bliss has added, in a note to his edition of 
 Wood, ' It may be doubted, however, whether Nash 
 
 * wrote this ; for Oldys, in his MS. notes to Lang- 
 ' baine's " Dramatic Poets" in the British JVIuseum, 
 ' expressly says that John Lilly was the author.' 
 So imperfect is our knowledge of the whole afi"air. 
 It is not either impossible or improbable but that 
 Bancroft himself had something more to do with the 
 composing them than merely recommending. His 
 avowed book, the ' Dangerous Positions and Pro- 
 ceedings, 1593,' is little less severe, somewhat in 
 
68 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 t 
 ciitfe, 
 
 the same style, and shows an intimate acquaintance 
 with the most foul and disgraceful pamphlets of the 
 Puritans. 
 Pappewith a I see everv reason to suppose that Pappe with a 
 
 H atchet and 
 
 Counter- Hatchet, (No. 11,) and the Countercuffe, (No. 
 12,) were the first published, and must have made 
 their appearance shortly after the TTieses Martini- 
 ancB, and the Just Censure and Reproofs. ' Take 
 
 * this,' the author of the first says, ' for the first 
 
 * venew of a yonger brother, that meanes to drie 
 
 * beate those of the elder house.' — Sign. E. 3. Kev. 
 The dedication is, *To the Father and the two 
 ' Sonnes, Huffe, Ruffe, and SnufFe, the three tame 
 ' ruffians of the Church, which take pepper in the 
 ' nose, because they cannot marre Prelates grating.' 
 
 As a specimen of the style and manner of arguing 
 now about to be tried against Martin Marprelate, I 
 shall give the beginning and part of this dedica- 
 tion. 
 
 ' Roome for a royster ; so that's well sayd, itch 
 ' a little further for a good fellowe. Now haue at 
 ' you all my gaffers of the rayling religion, tis I 
 ' that must take you a peg lower. I am sure you 
 ' looke for more worke, you shall haue wood enough 
 ' to cleaue, make your tongue the wedge, and your 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 169 
 
 ' head the beetle, He make such a spHnter ninne 
 ' into your wits, as shal make them ranckle till you 
 ' become fooles. Nay, if you shoot bookes like 
 ' fooles bolts. He be so bold as to make your iudg- 
 ' ments quiuer with my thunderbolts. — We care not 
 ' for a Scottish mist, though it wet us to the skin. 
 ' I professe rayling, and think it as good a cudgell 
 ' for a Martin, as a stone for a dogge, or a whippe 
 ' for an ape, or poyson for a rat. Yet find fault 
 ' with no broad termes, for I haue measured yours 
 ' with mine, and I find yours broader iust by the 
 
 * list. — I was loath to write as I haue done, but that 
 ' I learnde, that he that drinkes with cutters, must 
 ' not be without his ale dagger ; nor he that buckles 
 ' with Martin, without his lauish termes. — If a Mar- 
 ' tin can play at chestes, he shall knowe what it is 
 ' for a scaddle pawne to crosse a Bishop in his owne 
 ' walke. Such dydoppers must be taken up, els 
 ' theile not stick to check the king. Rip vp my 
 ' life, discipher my name, fill thy answer as full of 
 
 * lies as of lines, swel like a toade, hisse like an 
 ' adder, bite hke a dog, and chatter like a monkey, 
 ' my pen is prepared and my minde ; and if yee 
 ' chaunce to finde any worse words than you brought, 
 ' let them be put in your dads dictionarie. And so 
 
170 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * farewell, and be hangd, and I pray God ye fare 
 
 * no worse. 
 
 * Yours at an lioures warning. 
 
 Double V. 
 
 Immediately after this Dedication follows a more 
 
 sober admonition to 'the indifferent Reader,' in 
 
 which the author says, 'it is found that certaine 
 
 ' Martins, if no miscreants in religion, (which wee 
 
 ' may suspect,) yet without doubt malecontents, 
 
 ' (which wee ought to feare,) haue thro wen fire, 
 
 ' not into the church porch, but into the chauncell, 
 
 ' and though not able by learning and iudgment to 
 
 ' displace a sexton, yet seeke to remooue Bishops.' 
 
 The author And he again excuses the style which he has been 
 
 excuses him- it, 
 
 self. obliged to adopt : ' If they be answered by the gra- 
 
 * uitie of learned Prelates, they presentlie reply 
 
 * with railings ; seeing then either they expect no 
 
 * graue replie, or that they are settled with railing 
 ' to replie, I thought it more convenient to give 
 ' them a whiske with their owne wande, than to 
 ' haue them spurd with deeper learning. I seldom 
 ' vse to write, and yet never writ anie thing that in 
 ' speech might seeme vndecent, or in sense vn- 
 ' honest ; if here I haue vsed bad tearmes, it is be- 
 ' cause they are not to be answered with good 
 ' tearmes.' 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I7I 
 
 The passaf^e above, ' such dvdoppers must be The objects of 
 
 ^ . J ff ^ the I'untaiis 
 
 * taken up, else theile not stick to check the king,' exposed. 
 reminds us of the often quoted untrue aphorism of 
 King James. ' No bishop, no king.'* The rephes 
 
 to Martin IMarprelate press this point however : 
 years before the conference at Hampton Court, a 
 
 * Not that James cared so much for Episcopacy, as he 
 did for the acknowledgment of his own divine right as King. 
 Bancroft in his sermon (which the reader must remember 
 was preached some twenty years before James succeeded to 
 the throne of England, and when the preacher would be 
 more likely to take an unprejudiced view, than when arguing 
 as Bishop of London iu 1603, at the Hampton Court Confe- 
 rence) gives us a succinct account of the causes which had 
 led James in Scotland to arrive at such a conclusion. Speak- 
 ing of a most outrageous decision which the chief Presbyte- 
 rian assembly had made, he continues, ' When the King saw 
 ' what course these men held, and how notwithstanding the 
 ' equalitie they pretended, they sought altogether their own 
 ' advancement : how they erected that in themselves, which 
 
 * they had dejected in the Bishops: how they took upon them 
 ' more then ever the Bishops had done : how they did imi- 
 ' tate preposterouslie the papal iurisdiction ; how under the 
 ' pretence of their presbyteries, they trod upon his scepter, 
 
 * and labored to establish an ecclesiastical tyranny ; — that it 
 t tended to the overthrow of his state and liealme, and to 
 
 * the decaie of his crown, he overthrew their presbyteries, 
 
 * and restored the Bishops again to their places.' Sermon, 
 &c. P. 74. 
 
 The above is a most important explanation of the ends, 
 which iufluenced both the King and the Presbyterians. 
 
lyz MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 generation or two before their plans had matured, 
 the necessary consequences to which, as the consti- 
 tution of England is framed, the Puritan objections 
 and attempts tended, were clearly foreseen. 
 Story of the In this book we find again, ' There was one in- 
 steaier. * ditcd at a Jaile deliverie of felonie, for taking vp 
 
 ' an halter by the high way. The Jurie gaue ver- 
 ' dit and said guiltie. The Judge, an honest man, 
 
 * said it w^as hard to find one guiltie for taking vp 
 ' a penie halter, and bad them consider, what it was 
 ' to cast awaie a man. Quoth the foreman, we 
 
 * haue enquired throughly, and found there was a 
 ' horse tied to the halter. I marie (quoth the 
 
 * Judge) then let him be tied to the halter and the 
 ' horse goe home. Mm'tin sales, he is envied 
 
 * onelie, because he leuelleth at Bishops ! and we 
 ' say as the Judge saith, that if there were there 
 
 * nothing else, it were hard to persecute them to 
 
 * death ; but when we finde that to the rule of the 
 
 * Church, the whole state of the Realme is linckt 
 ' and that they filching away Bishop by Bishop, 
 
 * seeke to fish for the Crown, and glew to their newe 
 
 * Church theire owne conclusions, we must then 
 
 * say, let Bishops stand, and they hang ; that is, 
 ' goe home.' — Poppe, ^c. Sign. C. 3. Rev. Again, 
 soon after : * They that teare the boughs, will hew 
 
MARTIN ^rARPRELATE. I 73 
 
 * at the tree, and hauing once wet their feete in 
 ' factions, will not care how deepe they wade in 
 ' treason/ Sign. E. 2. 
 
 I could multiply these passages : for example, in Evidences of 
 the Almond for a Parratt, p. 5 : ' Were this all, treason. 
 
 * then shoulde not treason be such a braunche of 
 ' your religion as it is. Haue not you and your 
 ' followers vndcrmined her Graces Throane, as 
 ' much as traytours might.' And, indeed, there 
 had been open threats used by the Puritans which 
 were quite sufficient to set men on their guard, and 
 excuse the severity with which some of the leaders 
 were treated by the Council. Tliey had declared 
 in their ' Subscription to the hook of Discipline,^ 
 that it should prevail, in spite of all opposition : 
 and they hint at other methods to advance it, be- 
 sides an appeal to the Queen's Majesty and the 
 Parliament. In the ' Motion to the Council with 
 Submission ' they had said that thousands sigh for 
 it, and ten thousands have fought for it, and ap- 
 proved. Thomas Cartwright in his * Reply to 
 JVhitgift' that, some of these matters are such, as 
 if every hair of our head were a life, we ought to 
 afford them, in defence of them. Martin himself, 
 in his Epitome, had wished that the Parliament 
 would bring it in («. e, the godly discipline) though 
 
174 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 it were by withstanding her Majesty. And once 
 more in the Just Censure^ he boasts of ' a hundred 
 
 * thousand hands, to offer a supplication, which in 
 
 * poUcy would not be rejected ; especially standing 
 
 * thus in danger of our enemies abroad.' 
 
 I have mentioned already that not only are the 
 Marprelate tracts full of scandalous stories of the 
 Bishops and Clergy, but also that Martin had pro- 
 mised to put spies in every parish, for the purpose 
 of collecting slanders, and that a volume was nearly 
 finished, and about to be published. It is not, 
 therefore, to be wondered at, that the replies abun- 
 dantly retort with stories, one or two equally inde- 
 cent, of the leading Nonconformists, and itinerant 
 preachers, and notable men among the godly. 
 Pasqnii's But it was uot au uuwise thought also to threaten 
 
 such a volume against them in return. Pasquill 
 says, that * hee came latelie ouer-sea into Kenty from 
 
 * thence he cut ouer into Essex at Gravesend, and 
 
 * hearing some tidings of Hartfordshire, hee made 
 
 * as much haste as he coulde to S. Albanes, where 
 
 * he staide one whole Sabaoth at the Christopher ^ 
 
 * and hauing there pestered a newe paire of writing- 
 
 * tables with profitable notes for that quarter, hee 
 
 * sette forwarde the Munday following to North- 
 
 * hamton-shire, smiling and glauncing as hee turned 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I75 
 
 * his horse about to bidde the congregation of Saint 
 
 * Michaels adieu.* To be breefe with your wor- 
 
 * shipfultie Pasquill hath posted very dilligentlie 
 
 * ouer all the Realme, to gather some fruitfull vo- 
 
 * lum of THE Lives of the Saints, which mau- 
 
 * gre your five hundred fauorites shall be printed. 
 
 * There shall you read, &c. &c.' (with half a dozen 
 specimens which I willingly omit.) Countercnffe. 
 Sign. A. ij. Rev. And the author of Pajjpe with 
 a Hatchet threatens ; * Pasquil is comming out 
 
 * with the Hues of the Saints. Beware my com- 
 
 * ment, tis odds the margent shall be as full as 
 ' the text. I haue manie sequences of Saints ; if 
 ' naming be the advantage, and ripping up of lives 
 ' make sport, haue with thee knuckle deepe, it shall 
 ' neuer bee said, that I dare not venter mine eares, 
 ' where r^Iartin hazards his necke.' — Sign. E. 3. 
 
 The passage in the title of the Counterciiffe -Vo- Peter, &c. 
 
 * Not of olde Martin's making, which newlie knighted 
 
 * the Saints in Heauen, with rise vppe Sir Peter and 
 
 * Sir Paule,' refers to some places in the Epistle 
 and the Epitome in which the Puritan, not con- 
 tent with speaking evil of earthly dignities, had 
 denied also their proper titles to the Holy Saints, 
 
 * These were places well known as strongholds of the 
 Puritans. 
 
176 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 and made a mock at them. Si7' Pete?', Sir Marie, 
 &c. instead of Saint Peter, and Saint Mary the 
 Blessed Virgin, occur again and again. I leave 
 Bishop Cooper to express, as he has well done, the 
 indignation, which every good man must feel at 
 this blasphemy. ' I must needs,' he says, ' looke 
 ' for any hurt, that venemous scoffing, and unbridled 
 
 * tongues can worke toward me. And how shoulde 
 
 * I hope to escape that, when the Saints of God in 
 
 * Heaven do feel it ? In the course of their whole 
 
 * libell, when they speake of Peter, Paul, or the 
 
 * Blessed Vii^gin Mary, &c., whome other justlie 
 
 * call Saintes, their phrase in derision is. Sir Peter, 
 
 * Sir Paul, Sir Marie. Surely it had becommed 
 
 * right well the same unmodest Spirite, to have 
 
 * said also Sir Christ, and so throughly to have 
 
 * bewrayed himself.' — Admonition, Sign, A. ij. 
 
 f>. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE Retiirne of the renowned Caualiero Return of 
 Pasquill of England (No. 14) is a dialogue 
 between himself and Marforius, as the title of the 
 tract tells us, meeting upon the ' Royall Exchange.' 
 This seems, independent of some internal evidence, 
 to have been by the same hand as was the Coun- 
 tercuffe. Pasquil inquires, ' But of fellowship tell 
 
 * me, how hath my Countercuffe been intreated?' 
 and INIarforius answers both to his satisfaction, and 
 I must confess to my own, ' It was verie welcome 
 ' to the court, thankfully received in both Vniver- 
 
 * sities, the citties of the land doe giue you good 
 ' speeches, as for the countrey, after the plainest 
 
 * manner, with hart and good will they are ready 
 
 * to greete you with a cake and a cup of ale in 
 
 * euery parish. This onely is the thing that greiveth, 
 ' they know not what Pasquill is. They desire in 
 
 * all places of the Realme to be acquainted with 
 
 * you, because they would bring you intelligence, 
 
178 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ' thicke and threefolde, to further your volume of 
 * the Hues of the Saints/ Sign. A. ij. 
 A new Golden This ' Golden Leffende,' as it is called in the 
 
 Legend. . ° 
 
 title, if the Puritans had gone on with their threat- 
 ened publications, would probably have proved, and 
 without the expense of much labour in the collec- 
 tion, a bulky volume. There was an abundance of 
 stories afloat (of which we have in these answers a 
 random selection) about the doings of that ' godly ' 
 set, and if Martin upon his side did not stop to in- 
 vestigate the evidence upon which they were told, 
 it was not to be expected that those whom he had 
 so wantonly attacked would be more strict in their 
 inquiries. But happily we have been spared this 
 infliction : for one's antiquarian curiosity does not 
 reach so far as to regret the loss of those anecdotes 
 and secret history of Puritan misdeeds : no length 
 of time could have sweetened such a dunghill : — 
 and more than this, the good old ' Golden Legende' 
 itself, the favourite book and guide of our fore- 
 fathers, holding up examples which men ought to 
 follow, retains its holy associations, unmixed even 
 in a passing thought with any thing so wretched, as 
 this travesty must inevitably have proved. 
 
 Every one has heard of the ' Prophesyings ' 
 which were set on foot, and patronized by some of 
 
MARTIN MARPHKLATK. 1 79 
 
 the Bishops in Queen Elizabeth's reign, until their 
 ill-consequences were discovered ; in this dialogue 
 Pasquil gives an account of one, at which he says 
 he was present, at Ashford in Kent. I extract this 
 as curious, from a contemporary, and probably not 
 exaggerated. 
 
 ' I went thither,' he says, ' with a student of a PmKan 
 ' Cambridge, and comming in the habite of schollers, 
 ' we pressed somewhat boldly into their companie 
 ' to dine with them, assuring ourselues to finde 
 
 * some new service at theyr table. When the din- 
 ' ner was doone, one of them read a chapter, every 
 ' man keeping his place still. — The chapter was, 
 
 * the 1 Cor. 3 ; which being read, the reader began 
 ' first to vtter his conceit upon the text, in short 
 ' notes, then it came to his next neighbours course, 
 ' and so in order, glosses went a begging, and ex- 
 ' positions ranne a pace through the table, till they 
 
 * came to me, whom they desired to open my mouth 
 ' among the rest. I vtterly refused to vndertake 
 ' the taske, notwithstanding, I was so wonderfully 
 
 * vrged, that I coulde not any way shift them ofi^, 
 
 * and somewhat I spake among them. When I 
 ' came to the ende of my cariere, my companion 
 ' was requested to pricke in for company with his 
 
 * freendes. I needed no minstrill to make me mer- 
 
8o MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ' rie, my hart tickled of it selfe, when it came to 
 
 * his turn, because I knew him to be a gentleman 
 
 * well studied in Philosophic, but he had not yet 
 
 * medled with Diuinitie. He chose the thirteenth 
 
 * verse of the chapter to discourse vpon, where the 
 
 * Apostle saith, Euery mans worke shall be tryed 
 
 * by fire. But to see how brauely hee trotted ouer 
 
 * all the meteors bredde in the highest region of 
 
 * the ayre, to see how louingly hee made the sence 
 
 * of the Apostle, and Quid's fiction of Phaeton's 
 
 * firing of the world to kisse before they parted, and 
 
 * then how souldier-like hee made an ende of his 
 ' manage with a double rest, was sport enough for 
 
 * vs to beguile the way, as we travailed backe againe 
 
 * from thence to Canterburie. I have brought 
 
 * many a propper note out of that meeting, for euery 
 
 * mans spirit at the table, had two bowts with the 
 
 * Apostle before hee left him, and one whilst ano- 
 ' ther spake, had a breathing time giuen him to 
 
 * whisper with the Holy Ghost, to know what 
 
 * should be put into his head to vtter, against it 
 
 * came about to his course againe.' — Return of 
 Pasquil, sign. C. ij. 
 
 I have the more readily selected this description 
 of one of the famous ' Exercises,' as they were also 
 called, because it does not appear that while the 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. l8l 
 
 author was present, there was any attempt at those 
 treasonable and forbidden discussions in which the 
 members very frequently engaged, and managed, 
 by some twist or other, to drive their subject into. 
 Here we have a plain account of what the Exercise 
 was, as recommended by Parkhurst or Grindal ; 
 and I do not think that it differed much from some Modem imi- 
 such meetings of the clergy in modern days, (under 
 other names,) — dull, stale, and unprofitable — an 
 opening for the display of the commonest informa- 
 tion, and for the indulgence of an aptitude to talk ; 
 an opportunity which, if the members are agreed 
 upon the point before them, is worse than useless ; 
 if they are divided, is almost certain to lead to per- 
 sonal recrimination and to quarrels ; a disputation 
 without a moderator, whose authority is recognised 
 for an instant when interference becomes really 
 necessary, and where the vain and the pretending 
 claim an unjust superiority, which the less as- 
 suming, though they refuse to own it, cannot resist. 
 I make one extract more from this tract, viz. 
 ' Pasquils Protestation vppon London Stone.' We 
 have had Martin's ; let us now hear his adversary's. 
 ' I, Cavaliero Pasquill, the writer of this simple 
 ' hand, a young man of the age of some few hun- 
 ' dred yeeres, lately knighted in Englande, with a 
 
l8z MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ' beetle and a bucking tub, to beat a little reason 
 
 * about Martin's head, doe make my protestation 
 ' vnto the world, that if any man, woman, or childe, 
 ' haue anything to say against Martin the great, or 
 
 * any of his abettors, of what state or calling soever 
 ' they be, noble or ignoble, from the very court 
 
 * gates to the cobbler's stall,' Pasquil flies high, but 
 his quarry was in sight : ' If it please them these 
 ' dark winter nights, to sticke up their papers upon 
 ' London stone, I will there giue my attendance to 
 ' receiue them, from the day of the date heereof, to 
 ' the full terme and reuolution of seuen yeeres next 
 ' ensuing. Dated 20 Octobris. Anno Millimo, 
 ' QuiUimo, Trillimo, per me venturous Pasquill the 
 ' Cavaliero.' — Sign. D. iij. Rev. Pasquil had just 
 come ' from the other side the seas,' and had been, 
 there is no doubt, at Venice, and admired the use- 
 fulness of the lion's mouth. 
 
 Almond for An Almond fov a Parrat (No. 13) would seem 
 to have been published next. The author alludes 
 to Tfie Retmm and to Pap ivith a Hatchet. Speak- 
 ing of Martin Marprelate, he says, ' His crazed 
 ' cause goes on crutches, that was earst so bravely 
 ' encountered by Pasquin and INIarphoreus, and not 
 ' many moneths since most wittily scofte at by the 
 ' extemporall author of Pap with a Hatchet.' — 
 Sign. B. 3. 
 
 Parratt. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 183 
 
 The style is different from the last-named of By another 
 
 author. 
 
 these tracts ; and from other evidence I think it 
 highly improbable that both, as has commonly been 
 supposed, are from the same pen. The extravagant 
 wit of the Fcqj with a Hatchet, and manner of 
 expression, are imitated, in one or two places, with 
 the plain intention of being so understood. 
 
 But there is a general soberness of argument in 
 this pamphlet, which is not to be found in the other, 
 and an earnestness of reasoning in many parts, 
 showing the natural style of the writer of it, if he 
 had not been desirous of concealing himself. 
 
 I would quote, particularly, one passage in illus- 
 tration of this : ' By this time, I thinke, good-man 
 ' Puritan, that thou art perswaded that I knowe as 
 ' well as thy owne conscience thee, namely, Mar- 
 ' tin 3Iakehate of Englande, to bee a moste scur- 
 ' vie and beggerlie benefactor to obedience, and, 
 ^ per consequens, to feare neyther men, nor that 
 ' God who can cast both bodie and soule into un- 
 ' quenchable fire. — Talke as long as you will of the 
 ' ioyes of heauen, or paines of hell, and turne from 
 ' your selues the terrour of that iudgement howe 
 ' you will, which shall bereaue blushing iniquitie of 
 ' the figge leaues of hypocrisie, yet will the eie of 
 ' immortalitie discerne of your painted pollutions, 
 
184 MARTIN MARPKELATE. 
 
 * as the euer-liuing foode of perdition. The hu- 
 ' mours of my eies are the habitations of fountaines, 
 
 * and the circumference of my heart the enclosure 
 
 * of tearefull contrition, when I thinke howe many 
 ' soules at that moment shall carrie the name of 
 ' Martine on their foreheads to the vale of confu- 
 ' sion. There will enuie, malice, and dissimulation 
 ' bee euer calling for vengeaunce agaynst thee, and 
 
 * incite whole legions of deuilles to thy deathless 
 ' lamentation. 3Iercie will saie unto thee, I knowe 
 ' thee not, and Repentaunce, what haue I to doe 
 ' with thee ? All hopes shall shake the head at 
 ' thee, and saie, there goes the poyson of puritie, 
 ' the perfection of impietie, the serpentine seducer 
 ' of simplicitie. Zeale herselfe will crie out upon 
 ' thee, and curse the time that euer shee was maskte 
 ' by thy mallice, who, lyke a blinde leader of the 
 ' bhnde, sufferedst her to stumble in the dimness of 
 ' her sight, to murther her mother the Churche.' — 
 Sign. C, 2. 
 
 I shall refer to this tract presently upon another 
 
 point, and would at once pass on to the next, if I 
 
 could resist quoting an anecdote which the writer 
 
 gives us of the state of learning among the Puri- 
 
 Puritan taus ; * A doctor, standing in election for a lining 
 
 learning. . i%t • • ? 
 
 ' that was then in her Maiestie's bestowing, came 
 
MARTIN MARFRELATE. iS 
 
 * to be examined by men of grauitie in the circum- 
 
 * stance of his sufficiencie, who descending eft 
 
 * soones into his unschooled simplicitie, gave him 
 
 * this little English to be made in Latin. There be 
 
 * three Creedes, the Nycene Creede, Athanasius 
 ' Creede, and the Apostles' Creede, all which ought 
 ' to be belieued upon paine of damnation. The 
 ' good simple superintendant, that sawe himselfe so 
 ' hardly beset, craved respite to compasse this vul- 
 ' gar, which graunted, after some deliberation he 
 ' began thus to go forward. Tria sunt Cveday 
 ' vnum Niceni, alterum Athanasii, tertium Apos- 
 ' tolorvm, quce omnes debent esse creditunij sub 
 ^ poena condemnationis.' ^ — Sign. F, 1. 
 
 * I happen to be able to parallel this in late days, upon 
 the authority of a friend, an ear-witness. At a meeting, some 
 four years ago, in Southampton, the reverend ' the Deputa- 
 tion from the Parent Society' made a long and wonderful 
 speech, to the admiration of the ladies present : he concluded 
 in a sonorous voice, and with an energetic wave of his hand, 
 that called down loud applause, ' magna est Veritas et prccxa- 
 Icbit.' A clergyman there (albeit a friend, perhaps) could 
 not resist a pun : whether his audience would be alive to it 
 was another matter ; but he rose, and having complimented 
 ' the reverend the Deputation ' upon his eloquence, begged 
 to say, that ' he was sorry to differ from him, but he could 
 ' not help believing that truth would not merely prevail a 
 • bit, but that it would prevail a great deal.' 
 
I 86 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Two or three other stories follow this, exhibiting 
 the absurdity and ribaldry of some of the noted 
 non-conformists in the pulpit, which I refrain from 
 citing, because Martin Marprelate's anecdotes have 
 not been given ; and even a more potent reason : 
 these, equally with his, are really not fit to be 
 transcribed. I must, therefore, refer the reader to 
 the original ; if he have no means of such reference, 
 I hope that he will hold me excused; and the rather, 
 as they are, in fact, of little importance to our main 
 object, and it appears sufficient to mention, which I 
 have already, that the tracts, on both sides, contain 
 many such tales. 
 The Month's Martins Month Mlnde (No. 15) is, without 
 doubt, the cleverest and the most witty of the re- 
 plies to Martin Marprelate. We cannot be sur- 
 prised that the contest was getting for a season near 
 its end, and that the men who began it and recom- 
 mended such a plan, should now think that they 
 had had enough, as it was a game at which two 
 might play ; and those only could hope to win when 
 stones of this sort were flying, who had no glass in 
 their own windows. 
 
 The title fully explains the object of it. It has 
 two prefatory epistles. The first to Pasquine of 
 England, author of the Countercuffe, compliment- 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. iSj 
 
 ing him and pressing the speedy pubhcation of his 
 Lives of the Saints. ' It must needes be a singu- 
 ' lar peece of work, and edifie much ; especialHe 
 ' against the seuen deadhe sinnes which they never 
 ' transgresse. Pride, for they despise all but 
 
 * themselves. Lecherie, for three at a clappe, their 
 ' heaths can yeeld them. Sloath, for though they 
 ' bee seldom idle, yet they are neuer well occupied. 
 
 * Gluttonies for they would devoure all. Couet- 
 ' ousness, for they are never satisfied. Wrath, 
 ' for they doo nothing but quarrell. Enuie, for 
 ' they cannot abide anie to haue ought, but them- 
 ' selues. But especially for the foure cardinall ver- 
 ' tues : — Fortitude, for they hide their heads. 
 ' Justice, for they would take from euerie man his 
 
 * owne. Wisedome, or els I report me to their 
 ' wittie conceits. And Temperance, for they go- 
 ' uern their passions passingly well. But for the 
 ' three Theological vertues they excell, of all that 
 ' euer I heard of : — Faith, for I doubt me whether 
 ' they bee of anie. Hope, which is to see the 
 
 * ouerthrowe of all. And Charitie, for they detest 
 ' and damne all but themselves.' — Sign. A. 3. The 
 epistle to the reader follows, rather long, giving a 
 history of the rise and growth of Martin among the 
 Puritans, and tracing him from the ' Admonition to 
 
MARTIN iMARPRELATE. 
 
 the Parliament^ down to their last productions, the 
 Theses and the Just Censure. 
 Reports of Thc author reckons up a vast number of reported 
 
 Martin's 
 
 death. ways by which men said (he tells us) that Martin 
 
 Marprelate had met his death. That he was now 
 defunct all allowed. Some said that he had died 
 abroad, taken by the Spaniards or the Portuguese : 
 others, that he had been killed fighting in the 
 Queen's service ; that his horse had stumbled ; that 
 he had died of a surfeit ; been murdered in prison ; 
 been poisoned with ' an Italian figge ;' been choked 
 with a fat prebend, &c. ; all which reports are com- 
 mented on and declared to be false. 
 
 The true ac- We have then ' the true report.' * After that old 
 ' Martin, hauing taken a most desperate cause in 
 ' hand, as the troubling of the state, and ouerthrowe 
 ' of the Church (both which attempts at once, 
 ' Alexander the Copper Smith, that did Paule so 
 
 * much harme, would neuer haue adventured ; nor 
 
 * Herostratus that burned Dianas temple, by many 
 ' degrees came neere unto), and being therefore 
 
 * (and well worthie) sundrie waies verie curstlie 
 ' handled ; as first drie beaten, and thereby his 
 ' bones broken : (T. C) then whipt that made him 
 ' winse (a whip for an ape), then wound and 
 ' launced, that he tooke verie grieuouslie, to be 
 
 count. 
 
MAKTIN MARPRELATE. 1 89 
 
 * made a Maygame upon the stage^ and so bangd, 
 ' both with prose and rime on euerie side, as he 
 
 * knewe not which way to turne himselfe, and at 
 ' \ei\gi\i c\eimc 3Iarde (Marre-martin) : thegriefe 
 ' whereof vext him out of all crie : and that if he 
 ' were taken, it was to be feared he should be made 
 ' a Bishop (of the fields), which name he neuer 
 ' loued, and to weare a tippet,* that he euer de- 
 
 * tested : but especiallie being drawne so drie (so 
 ' as he could say no more) whereby his radicall 
 
 * moisture began to faile him, and his vital powers 
 
 * in such sort to decaie, as he saw that he could 
 ' not long continue, — the old gentleman began at 
 ' the length to droope and to mislike himselfe, and 
 ' through meere melancholie fell into a feauer. And 
 ' so hauing taken his bedde, he sent for his Physi- 
 
 * tions, who albeit they perceived that he was past 
 
 * cure, yet loath to lose so profitable a member to 
 
 * their commensing commonwealth, they ministered 
 ' to him a potion : but afterwards, when they per- 
 ' ceiued that the force thereof wrought so stronglie 
 
 * vpon him, as that it purged away all the consci- 
 
 * ence, wit, and honestie he had ; and that Purga- 
 ' rentur ea, quai purgari non oportuit, a deadlie 
 ' signe, they came vnto him and with teares in their 
 
 * A Tyljiiin tipi)Pt (our author means) in Tyburn fields. 
 
90 MARTIN MAKPRELATE. 
 
 ' eyes, told him that there was no way with him but 
 ' one ; and therefore wisht him to set his worldlie 
 ' affaires in order, that no controuersie might growe 
 
 * amongst his, after he was gone.' — Sign. E. 3. 
 Martin's last Martin then makes his last speech : and explains 
 
 bpeech. 
 
 the three causes of his death. * The first was my 
 ^foolerie :' (his * twaddling tales' and 'fond words 
 'and phrases'): 'the next was my ribaudreie.^ 
 
 * The third and last meanes that hath brought me 
 ' to my last end, was worst of all ; and that was my 
 ' hlaspliemie,' &c. : and ends with some advice to 
 his sons (' those two scapethrifts to him, who like 
 ' a couple of good and vertuous babes stood grin- 
 ' ning all the while, as glad they should bee chiefe 
 ' Martins themselues'), that it was worse than vain 
 to expect that even if the bishoprics were suppressed 
 and their possessions alienated, themselves would 
 be the gainers. ' Touching the matter you strive 
 ' for, take heede what you do : you shoot at Church 
 ' linings, you hope to have the spoyle. See what 
 ' hath come by it in Scotland. Forsee what will 
 ' become of it here : forget not the last partition.' 
 And he tells them the fable of the Fox and the 
 Crow. {Sign, F. 3. Rev.) 
 
 His will. Martin Marprelate's will, his last will and testa- 
 
 ment, that ' lav sealed in his deske, bound fast with 
 
MARTIN ^rAllPRKLAT^.. I9I 
 
 an hempen string,' is now read to liim in the hear- 
 ing of his sons. Let us also hear the substance of 
 the Puritan's bequests. 
 
 * He begun with the vsuall style ; next touching 
 ' his bodie, (for it should seeme he had forgotten 
 
 * his soule, for the partie that heard it told me, he 
 ' heard no word of it,)' much after the fashion of 
 men now-a-days, ' he would not be buried in any 
 ' church, chappell, nor churchyard, for that they 
 ' had been prophaned with superstition ; but in some 
 ' barne, outhouse, or field : without bell, pompe, or 
 ' any solemnitie — minister he would haue none to 
 ' bury him, but his sonne, or some one of his lay 
 ' brethren, to tumble him into the pit.' 
 
 I stop here, to caution my reader against suppos- 
 ing that the author of Martin s MontJis Mind has 
 exaggerated the probabilities of such a case as is 
 here supposed : and it will be necessary upon such 
 a point, one of very great importance, to make 
 some observations. 
 
 Waldegrave, the Puritan printer (who has already Puritan 
 been alluded to), about the year 1583, or 1384, for Prayer. 
 the book is not dated, though the name is attached, 
 published ' A booke of the Forme of common 
 
 * prayers, administration of the Sacraments, &c. : 
 ' agreeable to God's worde, and the vse of the re- 
 
192 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ' formed Churches.'* I shall extract from this, 
 the whole Order of Buriall ! ' The corps is reue- 
 
 * rently to he brought to the graue^ accompanied 
 
 * with the neighbours in comely manner, without 
 
 * any further Ceremonie.' 
 
 It was about this Book that the conference was 
 had, which Bancroft speaks of in his Daungerous 
 Positions ; f when ' three-score ministers met on 
 
 * the 8th of May 1582 at Cockefield, to conferre of 
 
 * the common booke, what might be tollerated, and 
 ' what necessarily to be refused in every point of 
 
 * it.' And when they had settled and got it ready, 
 it was presented, attached to a petition, to the upper 
 House of Parliament. Bancroft, in the same work, 
 gives us the substance of the petition ; viz. ' May 
 
 * it therefore please your Majesty &c. that it may 
 
 * be enacted &c. that the booke hereunto annexed 
 
 * &c. intituled ; a booke of the forme of common 
 
 * prayers, administration of Sacraments &c. and 
 ' every thing therein contained, may be from hence- 
 
 * forth authorized, put in vse, and practised through- 
 
 * out all your maiesties dominions.' 
 
 But the Puritans were given to change : in 1584, 
 
 * In my possession : as are also copies of the editions 
 1586, and 1587 : and of the Scotch Book of 1584. 
 t Book 3. Ch. 2. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 9i 
 
 the book presented to the Parhament was most 
 excellent and godly : in 1586, another edition was 
 published, very similar in style and arrangement, 
 but containing many considerable alterations : and 
 in less than a year after, came out a third, further 
 corrected, and, I suppose we must say, improved 
 according to their ideas. After this, even the ra- 
 pidity of change with which such matters were ac- 
 complished about 1350, with regard to our own 
 Book of Common Prayer, must be allowed to have 
 been surpassed.* 
 
 With respect to the point more immediately before 
 us, the order of burial, these several corrected and 
 amended Forms of Common Prayer, have the 
 same service (shall I venture to call it so ? ) ap- 
 pointed, word for word. 
 
 It may be said, that as these were never autho- 
 rized, they were but private forms after all : and 
 that, though attempts were made and though it 
 cannot be denied that they were intended to be of 
 authority, yet that is not sufficient. I would then 
 refer to another work ; viz. ' The Booke of prayers The Scotch 
 
 * and administration of the Sacramentes, approued 
 
 * and received by the Churche of Scotland. 1584.' 
 
 * Bancroft, in his sermon at Paul's Cross, Pp. 62 — 63, 
 gives us an animated account of these changes. 
 o 
 
194 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Again, I extract the whole Order of Burial. * The 
 
 * corps is reuerenthe brought to the graue, accom- 
 
 * panied with the congregation, without any further 
 
 * ceremonies : which being buried, the Minister if 
 
 * he be present, and required, goeth to the Church, 
 
 * if it be not farr off, and maketh some comfortable 
 
 * exhortation to the people, touching death and 
 
 * resurrection.' 
 
 I cannot say whether this is the order still ob- 
 served by the members of the estabhshment, mis- 
 called the Church of Scotland, but we know that 
 it was so for many years after this time : and we 
 must also own that it did allow a faint and distant 
 opening for the burying of our dead out of our sight, 
 in somewhat a more decorous way than we should 
 get rid of a dead dog. But still an opening very 
 distant ; the minister is to be present ; he is to be 
 asked ; he is to go to the church only if it be not 
 far off: — a happy concatenation not very favour- 
 able to the chance of * some comfortable exhorta- 
 tion.' 
 
 Looking back wistfully to years long gone by, 
 regretting, as we often must, the many good obser- 
 vances which have been taken away from us, how 
 much cause yet of thankfulness have we as mem- 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I95 
 
 bers of the Church of England, that not all is 
 gone: that, for example, in this one point of burial, 
 we still commit the bodies of our fellow-Christians 
 to the earth, as hoping for their blessed resurrec- 
 tion ; as knowing that they are not severed really 
 from, although no longer visibly in our Holy Com- 
 munion ; that they are still to be subjects of our 
 pious solicitude, still to be prayed for over the 
 grave, still to be partakers with ourselves in the 
 mysterious blessings which attend the offering up to 
 the Almighty Father, of the Body and the Blood of 
 our risen Lord. 
 
 I reluctantly return to IMartin ; ' he would not Martin's tomb 
 
 * be laid East and West, but North and South : ^^' ^ '' 
 
 * Tomb he would haue none, nor Epitaph upon his 
 
 * graue, but in some post or tree, not farre from it, 
 ' he would have onelie engraven, 31. M. M, 
 ' Whereby his sonnes say, he meant, Memories 
 ' 3Iartini Magni. But I think rather, this, Mon- 
 ' strum Mundi Martinus.' {Sign. G. 1.) The 
 
 will goes on to bequeath various legacies : such as His legacies, 
 his knavery, his lying and slandering, his foolery, 
 &c. &c. to various persons : ' Item, I bequeath all 
 ' my plots, and modells, that I haue drawne, of 
 
 * churches, and commonweales, to the number of 
 
196 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * twelve, for euerie moneth of the year one, to our 
 
 * chiefe builders (you know their names) to dispose 
 
 * of at their pleasure.' 
 
 Death, And SO, the narrative goes on, within about half 
 
 an hour, Martin Marprelate dies. The next day, 
 the physicians open his body, and find, ' a wonder- 
 
 * full corrupt carcasse;' a hollow heart ; lungs, huge 
 and made to prate : a tongue ' wonderfuUie swolne 
 ' in his mouth ; I thinke by reason of his blasphemie. 
 
 * The night after (for the horrible stinke thereof, 
 
 * because his bodie was so corrupt), and for that he 
 
 * durst not in his life time bee scene by day, being a 
 
 * night bird ; they carried him foorth in the darke ; 
 and burial. * and by rcasou he died excommunicate, and they 
 
 * might not therefore burie him in Christian buriall, 
 
 * and his will was not to come there in anie wise ; 
 
 * they brought him vnawares to a dunghill, taking 
 
 * it for a tumpe, since a tomb might not be had, and 
 
 * there cast him in.' ' And this is the very truth 
 
 * of old Martins death, which if the young Mar- 
 
 * tins, or any Martinist of them all denie ; I cast 
 
 * here my mitten upon the quarrel.' — Sign. G. 2. 
 et seq. 
 
 We might have fancied that Martin, being dead, 
 might rest at last; upon the old principle de mortuis 
 nil nisi honwn. But our author thought differ- 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. I97 
 
 ently : and feared not to say so. In his prefatory 
 Epistle to Pasquin, speaking of the Martinists, he 
 ends, ' Since they are now become contemptible, 
 ' amongst the most and best, let vs trample on them 
 ' as the dirt of the streete.' So his book finishes, 
 as in fact the history of any one's death perhaps 
 should, with a series of epitaphs, by various contri- The author's 
 
 epitaph. 
 
 butors. I shall extract the author's own. 
 
 ' Hie iacet, ut pinus, 
 Nee Caesar, nee Ninus, 
 Nee magnus Godwinus, 
 Nee Petrus, nee Linus, 
 Nee plus, nee minus, 
 Quam clandestinus, 
 Miser ille Martinus, 
 Videte singuli.' 
 
 * O vos Martinistae, 
 Et vos Brounistse, 
 Et Famililouistae, 
 Et Anabaptista3, 
 Et omnes sectista?, 
 Et Machiuelistse, 
 Et Atheistsc, 
 Quorum dux fuit iste, 
 Lugete singuli,' 
 
198 MARTIN MARPKELATE. 
 
 * At gens Anglorum, 
 Praesertim verorum, 
 Nee non, qui moruiii, 
 Estis bonorum, 
 Inimici horum, 
 Ut est decorum, 
 Per omne forum, 
 In ssecula sasculorum, 
 
 Gaudete singuli.' 
 
 (Sign,H,2.y 
 
 * This epitaph is quoted by Dr. Bliss in his edition of 
 Wood's Atheniv, from Weaver's Funeral Monuments. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PLAINE Percevall the Peace maker (No. 16) PiainePerce- 
 vall. 
 was either pubUshed at the same time with the 
 
 MontKs Minde^ or very shortly after. Almost 
 
 every one, I know no exception, who has alluded to 
 
 or professed to give a list of the Marprelate Tracts, 
 
 has set it down to the credit of his adversary, or 
 
 has directly attributed it to Nash. {Confer. 
 
 Lowndes Bibl. Diet.) But it is in fact a last Written by a 
 
 Puritan. 
 
 gasp of the Puritans : an expression in their ex- 
 tremity of some desire of peace : a wish that they 
 might for a time, until themselves spoke again, be 
 let alone. The quaintness of the title, leaning ap- 
 parently against Martin Marprelate, would be apt to 
 mislead : and the writer of it struggles to be neutral, 
 but his bias is too strong to be mistaken. 
 
 The book is tiresome : the spirit of the particular 
 controversy might be said to be at an end ; and I 
 do not propose to strain the little remnant of my 
 reader's patience through Plaine Percevall. There 
 
MARTIN AIARPRELATE. 
 
 is no little anxiety displayed to be witty, or to seem 
 to be so, according to the old tune ; but I agree with 
 Percevall himself, that after the spice and pepper- 
 corns of the earlier dishes of the feast, he follows, 
 ' like a plaine Dunstable groome, with salt and 
 spoones on a trencher.' 
 UnsuccessfHi. Now that, In fact, the battle had been fought, 
 and the assailants beaten out of the field with their 
 own weapons, and (in a sense) upon their own 
 ground, it was too late, and manifestly absurd, that 
 any one should venture forward as a peace-maker, 
 to say, as it were, to two parties no longer equally 
 strong, * be friends,' and so strive to cover a defeat, 
 and check, by a pretended compromise, the real 
 triumph of the victors. If there is any cleverness 
 at all in the idea, it certainly consists in the attempt 
 to induce men to believe that such really was the 
 case ; and if, again, we can give any credit for sin- 
 cerity to some of our historians, this ruse, though it 
 failed with contemporaries, succeeded with their 
 successors. These seem to have thought that it was 
 not alarm, but a genuine wish for peace, which at 
 last brought the Puritan to complain that there 
 
 * was no penaltie to represse such lauish ouer rea- 
 
 * chers as offer legends of lies to the presse ;' that 
 ' heresay is too slender an evidence to spit a man's 
 
MARTIN MARl'KELATE. 20 I 
 
 ' credit upon ;' and that it should come to this, as 
 the most reasonable and Christian course, * Well, 
 
 * Martin and you professed Mar-Martins, in presence 
 ' of me Perccuall, shake hands and be fricndes, 
 ' meet halfe-way, and I standing jump in the middle, 
 
 * wijl crie aime to you both.' — Pp. 11, 12, 20. 
 
 One consequence of acting a pretended part is Style of the 
 
 book. 
 
 shown in this book : both the style and the matter 
 are in many places so obscure and involved, that it 
 is not possible to make sense of it. I would wil- 
 lingly give' some specimens of the author's reason- 
 ing, but have found the greatest difficulty in select- 
 ing one : Plaine Percevall begins a long paragraph 
 addressing this side, then turns to thatf back again 
 to the first, and so on, equal in his favours, until 
 the reader is most successfully mystified, and so far 
 the object of the author gained. (I would refer, for 
 example, to pp, 16, 17, 18.) 
 
 The following extract, however, is clear enough^ 
 and somewhat to the purpose ; addressing (if I am 
 not mistaken) the Mar-Martins. ' Mary who began 
 ' (^^y you •) Martin cald traytor first, he spake la- 
 
 * vishly, and must heare as knauishly. Now the blood 
 
 * is vp ; he that hath most gall in his garbage, thinks 
 
 * to win the goall. And he that hath most toong 
 ' powder hopes to driue the other out of the field 
 
202 MARTIN MARrRELATE. 
 
 ' first. I could tell these eager youngsters how they 
 
 * might be euen with their adversary : giue faire 
 ^ words for foule : Doe good against euilly and 
 ' heape hoat hurninge coales vpon his head. 
 ' That is a sentence sooner belieud, bicause it is 
 ' scripture, then put in practise, for all it is true.' — 
 P. 7. And one more : addressing Martin or his 
 sons : ' O Martin, honor gray heares, during thy 
 ' nonage : or else looke for dishonor and dotage, if 
 
 * thou canst get any competent yeeres on thy backe ; 
 
 * be thou a young boy or a stale batchellar, learne 
 
 * to reuerence those two ornaments of a common- 
 
 * wealth ; age and authority. Barre this pert beard- 
 ' ing of men reputed honest for their behaviour, 
 ' and honorable both for their calling and counsaile.' 
 — P. 13. I would draw the reader's attention to 
 the qualified praise, reputed honest and honourable. 
 It was an enemy that did this. 
 
 There now remain only Nos. 17 and 18. Penrij 
 on Reformation and the First part of PasquiVs 
 Apology. 
 Penry on Re- Pcury's name does not appear upon the title, but 
 the preface * to all those that sincerelie loue the 
 ' Lorde lesus, and seeke the flourishing estate of 
 ' his Kingdome,' states that it is by him. It is what 
 it professes to be, a treatise : and appearing some 
 
 formation. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 time after the discontinuance of the other Marpre- 
 late tracts, one might have hesitated about including 
 it among them, except for the reply to it. 
 
 It exhibits the characteristics of Penry's style, 
 an unhesitating conviction of the truth of his cause, 
 and of his own express selection by Providence, as 
 an instrument to forward it. Hence he seeks no 
 more than when he first came forward in its behalf, 
 to mitigate the rancour of his hatred against the 
 laws and government of the Church of Christ : 
 every page would give a specimen of the violence 
 of his language. Thomas Cartwright of his own 
 days, and Bishop Bale chiefly of an earher genera- 
 tion, are the great authorities he appeals to. 
 
 I spoke in the beginning of this volume of the 
 very lamentable effects which the works of some 
 writers, whom men still look up to and regard, 
 have produced in the Church of England. I gave 
 no extract then from Bishop Bale. It may not be Quotes 
 
 ^ •' ^ Bishop Bale, 
 
 useless to take one now, cited by Penry. He is 
 speaking against Episcopacy. 
 
 * The government of the church by bishops, 
 ' began not before the yeare 607, as that reverend 
 ' learned man M. Bale, being a bishop himselfe in 
 * King Edwards dayes, hath set down : his words 
 ' in English are these : From the yeare 607, the 
 
204 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * Church began to he ruled by the polity and go- 
 
 * vernment of Bishops : which govei^nement was 
 
 * especially devised and invented by the monksf 
 
 * ^c* The testimony of M. Bale is true.' Sign. 
 I. i. Rev. 
 
 I shall make one more quotation. * I appeale in 
 
 * this place/ says Penry, * vnto the consciences of 
 
 * our Prelates : whether if all the preachers in 
 ' England sought the ouerthrow of their hierarchic, 
 ' they would not thrust them al out of their places, 
 
 * rather then the church should be deliuered from 
 ' their anti-christian jurisdiction. It is plain they 
 ' would. For B. Cooper f maketh the putting 
 
 * downe of LI. Bb. to be the plain ouerthrow of the 
 ' church. And reading is preaching saieth the 
 ' Archb. Better then for the church to stand by 
 
 * these quiet reading murtherers, then to be ouer- 
 
 * turned by seditious teachers.' Sign. H. iv. Rev. 
 Pasqnii's To this Treatise^ the First part of PasquiVs 
 
 Apo logic (as its title states) was a reply. The 
 author calls Penry a fugitive : which indeed he 
 was : having escaped pursuit, and taken refuge in 
 Edinburgh. Pasquil writes in the same style as 
 was used in some of the earlier answers ; and there 
 
 * Bal. Scrip. Bryt. cent. 1. cap. 73. 
 t Admonition, p. 28. 
 
 Apology. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 205 
 
 is little doubt that it is by one of the same hands, 
 perhaps by the author of Jlie return of Pasquil. 
 
 I shall make only one quotation also from this ; Excuses his 
 
 silence. 
 
 which contains Pasquil's reason for his silence. It 
 would appear that some months before, he had 
 thought that the Marprelate attack had been entirely 
 checked. ' But/ he says, ' seeing sobrietie will do 
 ' no good, let them be well assured, that if I catch 
 
 * such a brinse in my pen as I caught the last Au- 
 
 * gust, I will neuer leaue flynging about with them, 
 
 * so long as I finde anie ground to beare me. Con- 
 ' tention is a coale, the more it is blowne by dyspu- 
 ' tation, the more it kindleth, I must spit in theyr 
 
 * faces, to put it out. Euer since the last Michel- 
 ' mas Tearme, many thousands of my freendes haue 
 
 * looked for me, whom I am loath to enforce to 
 
 * loose their longing : and though I gloate through 
 ' the fingers at other matters, yet am I not care- 
 
 * lesse of the quarrell nowe in hand. The peace of 
 
 * Jerusalem, which the faithfuU are bound to praye 
 ' for, is the onely thing that hath brought me to 
 ' thys long and quiet pause ; wherein I haue set 
 
 * the example of Dauid before mine eyes, seeking 
 ' with my hart a surcease of Armes, euen of those 
 
 * that hated peace, and prepared themselues to bat- 
 ^ taile when I spake vnto them. The case so stand- 
 
206 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ^ ing, I trust I am worthy to be held excused, if I 
 * muster and traine my men a newe/ Sign. A. 3. 
 Rev. 
 Ann- Besides the volumes which I have described, 
 
 Mditinus. 
 
 there was published in 1389 a Latin tract agamst 
 Martin Marprelate, of which I give the full title 
 below.* A copy of this is in the Bodleian Library. 
 It is very sensibly written, and its object to pre- 
 vent the youths of that day being carried away by 
 Martin's misrepresentations of facts, ill-arguments, 
 and lies. It points out the extent which Puritan 
 violence would reach if not checked ; that it would 
 not overthrow the Bishops of the Church only, but 
 the ruling powers of the State. The pretended 
 divine call which many of that faction claimed, and 
 that they had authority given them, are also ex- 
 posed and denied. The author states expressly in 
 his preface that he aims at arguments, and not per- 
 sons. I have no doubt that this is one of the rarest 
 books connected with the controversy ; being writ- 
 ten in a learned language, and for a particular 
 
 * Antimartinus ; seu monitio cujusdam Londinensis ad 
 adoloscentes utriusque academiEe, contra personatum quen- 
 dam rabulam, qui se Anglice Martin Marprelat, hoc est, 
 Martinum Ma(TTiyap%ov, ^ jjiicrdpxov vocat. Londini. Excu- 
 debant Georgius Bishop et Radulphus Newbery. Anno 
 Domini 1589. 4to. Pp. 60. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 20/ 
 
 class, it is probable that the original edition was 
 somewhat limited. 
 
 There were also at least two, perhaps more, poet- 
 ical tracts against Martin. One of these. Mar- Mar-Martin. 
 Mar-tine^ was written soon after the Hay any 
 Worke for Cooper, or the Dialogue of Tyran- 
 nical Dealing. It begins (I take the account from 
 Herbert)— 
 
 * I knowe not why a trueth in rime set out 
 
 * Maie not as wel mar Martine and his mates, 
 
 ' As shamelesse lies in prose-books cast about, 
 
 * Mar priests, & prelates, and subvert whole states. 
 
 ' For where truth builds, and lying overthroes, 
 '■ One truth in rime, is worth ten lies in prose.' 
 
 The book consists of satirical epitaphs, much I 
 suppose after the fashion of those in the Month's 
 Minde, alluded to already.* 
 
 This production excited the wrath of the Martin- 
 ists. The author of the Just Censure and Re- 
 proofe says, * I would have born with thee, if thou 
 
 * haddest taken a little paines in ryming with Mar- 
 
 * Martin, that the eater-caps may knowe howe the 
 
 * meanest of my father's sonnes is able to answeare 
 ' them, both at blunt and sharpe. And for thy 
 
 * Mar-Martine is reprinted in the Censura Literaria, vi. 236. 
 
208 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * further instruction against another time, heere is 
 ' a sample for thee of that, which in such Uke cases 
 ' thou art to performe. ^ The first rising, genera- 
 ' tion, and original! of Mar-Martin. 
 
 1. 
 
 * From Sarum came a gooses egge, 
 ' with specks and spots bepatched, 
 
 * A priest of Lambeth coucht thereon ; 
 
 * thus was Mar-Martin hatched. 
 
 * Whence hath Mar-Martin all his wit 
 
 * but from that egge of Sarum ? 
 ' The rest comes all from great Sir John, 
 
 * who rings vs all this larum. 
 
 2. 
 
 * What can the cockatrice hatch up, 
 
 * but serpent like himselfe ? 
 
 * What sees the Ape within the glass 
 ' but a deformed elfe ? 
 
 * Then must Mar-Martin have some smell 
 ' of forge or else of fire, 
 
 * A sotte in wit, a beast in minde, 
 
 * for so was damme and sire.' 
 Sign. D. iij. Quoted also by Herbert. 
 
 Whip for an The other poetical tract is, A Whip for an 
 Ape, or Martin displaied.* It begins — 
 
 * Reprinted by Mr. D'Israeli in his Quarrels of Authors. 
 
 ape 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 209 
 
 * Since reason, Martin, cannot stay thy pen, 
 
 ' We'il see what rime will do : have at thee then !' 
 
 One stanza bears upon a point which has already 
 been spoken of, and I therefore quote it as con- 
 firming my own view : — 
 
 * And ye graue men that answere Martin's mowes, 
 
 ' lie mocks the more, and you in vain loose times. 
 ' Leaue Apes to Doggs to baite, their skins to crowes, 
 * And let old Lanam lashe him with his rimes. 
 
 * The beast is proud when men note his enditings ; 
 
 * Let his workes goe the waie of all wast writings.* 
 
 Both these tracts are a single sheet each of four 
 leaves, and copies are in the libraries of the British 
 Museum and Bodley. 
 
 Another effective weapon was used against the Plays were 
 
 acted against 
 
 Puritans, but soon forbidden by the government, Martin, 
 viz. the stage. The theatrical history of that period 
 is somewhat obscure ; and there is not any play 
 now extant which was performed with the especial 
 object of ridiculing Martin. 
 
 There are several allusions to him in plays of the 
 same date ; one or two, perhaps, may be traced in 
 Shakspere ; but it seems clear that allusions only 
 were not the limits. Martin Marprelate was put 
 forward as a character. We have a proof of this in 
 p 
 
2IO MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 a passage, wherein the author of Pappe with an 
 Hatchet complains that these representations had 
 been put a stop to. He says, ' Would those Come- 
 
 * dies might be allowed to be plaid that are pend, 
 ' and then I am sure he (i. e, Martin) would be de- 
 
 * cyphered, and so perhaps discouraged. He shall 
 
 * not be brought in as whilom he ivas, and yet 
 ' verie well, with a cocks combe, an apes face, a 
 
 * Wolfe's bellie, cats clawes, &c. ; but in a cap'de 
 ' cloake, and all the best apparel he ware the highest 
 
 * day in the yeare, thats neither on Christmas dale, 
 
 * Good fridaie, Easter dale. Ascension, nor Trinitie 
 
 * sundaie, (for that were popish,) but on some 
 ' rainie weeke-daie, when the brothers and sisters 
 
 * had appointed a match for particular praiers, a 
 ' thing as bad at the least as auricular confession/ 
 —Sign. D. 2. Eev. 
 
 In 1589 the introduction of matters connected 
 with religion into plays had become so extensive, 
 that Burghley (who occasionally threw his shield 
 over the Puritans) issued a commission to inquire 
 what companies of players had offended. A valu- 
 able document has lately been discovered, in which 
 Shakspere, and some twenty of his fellow-players, 
 disclaim their having been concerned in any of these 
 objectionable representations.'^ 
 
 * Vide Knight's Shakspere, a Biography, p. 342. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 WE have now gone through all the volumes of 
 this famous Controversy, which I believe 
 to be included in it, and therefore proposed to 
 examine : and there remain only a few points upon 
 which some observations are necessary, with which 
 I shall conclude. 
 
 And first, the date of these publications. They 
 have been set down as about the year 1590, 
 which, speaking generally, is not incorrect. The 
 Epistle and Epitome were both published in 1588. 
 The first edition of the Admonition* before the 
 
 * The copy which I have used, is a second edition, with 
 a date, 1589. It is almost page for page and line for line, 
 identical with the other. The first is known from two alte- 
 rations ; one in p. 40, where dare in the text is pasted over 
 with can, and one in p. 135, the assertion they willnot denie, 
 is modified into it is not yet primed, also pasted over. Both 
 these are properly corrected in the second edition. We are 
 indebted to Martin's keen eye for the detection of these 
 {Hay any Worke, p. 38), who chuckles and says that he has 
 already ' made the Bishops pull in their homes ;' and indeed 
 the circumstance is very remarkable. Copies of both editions 
 are in the Bodleian. 
 
 Date of the 
 Marprelate 
 tracts. 
 
212 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 end of that year, or early in 1589 (as we now com- 
 pute). Bishop Cooper complains how lamentable 
 a thing it was that such books as the Marprelate's 
 should be in men's hands and bosoms, ' when the 
 
 * viewe of the mightie Navie of the Spaniards is 
 ' scant passed out of our sight : when the terrible 
 
 * sound of their shot ringeth, as it were, yet in our 
 ' eares.'— P. 33. 
 
 Nor had the winter passed away when Martin's 
 answer (Hay any Worke) was published. ' I can- 
 ' not,' he says, ' be got to tell them where I am, 
 '- because I loue not the ayre of the Clinke or Gate- 
 ' house in this colde time of winter.' — P. 2. The 
 Queen's proclamation, as given in Wilkins, Vol. 4, 
 P. 340. against certain seditious and schismatical 
 books and libels, is dated Feb. 13th, 1588, i.e. 1589, 
 new style. The Counterciiffe is dated the eyght 
 of August, and the retiom ofPasquill 20th of Oc- 
 tober, in the same year. The intermediate months 
 would be fully occupied with the other pamphlets, 
 and winter was again near at hand, if not already 
 come, when the ' Month's Hindi dated 1589, was 
 written. — (Vide Sign. A. 2.) At the same time, 
 or shortly after, as I have already said, came out 
 Plain Percevall. 
 
 Lastly, \\iejirst part ofPasquil 's Apology , which 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 2I3 
 
 finished the whole, is dated ' From my Castell and 
 ' Collours at London Stone the 2. of July. Anno. 
 * 1590.' 
 
 A far less easy task is it, even to guess at the The Antiioi? 
 
 .11 of them. 
 
 authors. Ihe tracts on the Marprelate side have 
 usually been attributed to Penry, Throgmorton, 
 Udal, and Fenner. Very considerable information 
 may be obtained about these writers, in Wood's 
 Athenae, under Penry, in Collier, Strype, and Her- 
 bert's edition of Ames. To whom I would refer. 
 After a careful examination of these and other 
 authorities on the subject, the question remains in 
 my judgment as obscure as before ; and I think that 
 it is very far from clear, that either one of the three 
 last named was actually concerned in the author- 
 ship of any of the pamphlets. 
 
 It is undeniable that they were written by several 
 persons. I say undeniable, in spite of the author 
 of the Almond for a Parratt, who attributes 
 all to Penry. ' Let all posteritie that shall heare 
 ' of his knauerie, attend the discovery which now 
 ' I will make of his villanie. Pen. I. Pen. Welch 
 ' Pen. Pen the Protestationer, Demonstration er, 
 ' Supplicationer, Appellationer, Pen. the father, 
 ' Pen. the sonne. Pen. totum in toto et totum in 
 ' qualibet parte.' — Sign. E. 2. Rev. I would add 
 
214 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 that in the Epitome, Sign. F. 1. Rev. the Epistle 
 is quoted as by another hand. And there are no two 
 tracts so similar in style and method as those. 
 Penry's fate. But Penry deserves so much at our hands, as a 
 few words to declare his fate. He remained in 
 Scotland, after his escape from the warrant issued 
 in 1389, until 1393. In that year he prepared a 
 petition which he intended to deliver to the Queen 
 himself, and for that purpose came to London, where 
 he closely concealed himself in the suburbs. But 
 he was discovered in the parish of Stepney ; taken 
 prisoner, and having been tried for sedition at West- 
 minster, was shortly afterwards hanged. Strype,* 
 from whom I take the above, quotes a remarkable 
 wish expressed in one of his known publications ; 
 that if certain things did not happen, ' let not my 
 * head go to the grave in peace' 
 The authors We might have expected more certainty with 
 
 a^diDst ar- ^.^^g^j.^ ^^ ^t^^ Writers against Martin Marprelate : 
 but as w^e have already seen, here also we are disap- 
 pointed ; and all that remains appears to be, to pre- 
 vent, if possible, the connecting them with wrong 
 names. Nash, from general consent, was probably 
 one ; John Lilly, the Euphuist, another, upon the 
 authority of Oldys, who allots to him Pappe with 
 
 * Life of VVbitgift. P. 410. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 21 
 
 a Hatchet ; but if he wrote any of them, I should 
 say not that, but the Almond for a Parratt : it 
 is much more in his style, and I would refer the 
 reader to the extract from that book, given before 
 (p. 183). The sentence, * The humours of my 
 ' eies, &c.' seems conclusive. 
 
 Two or three years after the date of this contro- 
 versy (viz. 1593) a quarrel of long standing was 
 in full vigour between Nash and Gabriel Harvey. 
 The latter pubHshed a quarto volume, now very 
 rare, against Nash, entitled ' Pierce's Supereroga- 
 tion, or, a new praise of the old Ass.' Harvey was 
 a learned man : his books overflow from the most 
 queer accumulation which he had made from all 
 sorts of authors, upon all sorts of subjects ; he 
 knew something also of the classics ; he was a pe- 
 dant, and absurdly vain. His enemy was a wit ; 
 himself an excellent butt. This particular volume, 
 Pierces Supererogation, shows how deeply its 
 author had been stung, and exhibits both his own 
 foolery of style in the highest perfection, and a 
 wonderful mixture of originality of thought, with 
 the result of long study. 
 
 I quote his work now as of no little importance 
 to our subject. Writing against Nash, he charges 
 his friend Lilly with the authorship of Paj^pe with 
 a Hatchet. (I doubt much whether Harvey's 
 
2l6 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 accusation has not been the chief evidence upon the 
 point.) He then acknowledges that himself had 
 been accused of having written some of the Mar- 
 prelate tracts, and, much after Plaine PercevaWs 
 style, complains of the whole affair, speaks in dis- 
 paragement of Martin, and in more decided lan- 
 guage against his answerers, as would be natural, 
 his own enemies, Nash and Lilly, (as the report 
 went,) being of them. He abuses the Pappe with 
 right good will ; but his hatred of the supposed 
 author peeps through as the real cause, together 
 with a strong leaning towards the Puritans. Doctor 
 Perne (of whom enough has been already said) 
 comes in for a fair share of his satire, and both 
 well-placed and well-spoken it is.* 
 How far the A much more important point is it, to prove that 
 
 chief Puritans ^ ^ t ^ m i * • j 
 
 were con- the Marprclate Iracts were not only connived at 
 Martin. (which is acknowledged), but recommended by, 
 
 and their authors known to the leaders of the Puri- 
 tan party. 
 
 In the Just Censure occurs a passage much 
 to the purpose. It shows that at the time of publi- 
 cation, men were generally used to connect the 
 
 * Fierce s Supererogation is reprinted in the second volume 
 of Sir. E. Br^'dges's Archaica. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 2 1/ 
 
 names of Cartwright, and Paget, and Travers, with 
 these Hbels. When the experiment failed, however 
 much their then followers, and afterwards their 
 apologists, have laboured to throw off from them so 
 great odium, yet Martin himself allows that at the 
 time such was the common report. I have already- 
 said, that there is no plain, sincere-looking denial 
 of such connexion in the known writings of those 
 men. 
 
 In the Just Censure, the writer makes the 
 Bishop of London say at the table of the High 
 Commissioners, ' My Masters, you must not sleepe 
 
 * in this matter. I will be a pursuivant myselfe, 
 
 * rather than abide this tumult. If I were, I trowe 
 
 * I would watch about Traverse his house in Milke- 
 
 * streete, who go in and out there, and I would 
 
 * know what they caried vnder their cloakes too. 
 ' There is Paget at Ilounslo, &c. — There is Cart- 
 
 * wright too at Warwicke, he hath got him such a 
 
 * companie of disciples, both of the worshipfull, or 
 ' other of the poorer sort, as we have no cause to 
 
 * thanke him. Neuer tell me, that hee is too graue 
 
 * to trouble himselfe with Martins conceits. — Cart- 
 
 * wright seeks the peace of the Church no otherwise 
 
 * than his platform may stande. I doe not see of 
 
2l8 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 * my trothe, but that Martin's abettors may be 
 
 * worse than himselfe, and doe more mischiefe.' — 
 Sign. D. ij. 
 
 Pasquil tells Marforius also in his Dialogue, that 
 passing by Martin, he must have ' three courses of 
 ' the launce with Th. Cartwright. Hath Martin 
 
 * made him his God, and thinketh he to escape my 
 
 * fingers ?' The author of the Almond for a 
 Parrattf sums up a long history of Cartwright, 
 beginning from his disappointment about the Vice- 
 chancellorship of Cambridge, by praying that pride 
 which overthrew Golias, Haman, and Herod, ' will 
 
 * also confound arrogant T. C. and all his accom- 
 ' plishes in the Lord's good time.' — Sign. D. 2. 
 Rev. 
 
 It is not therefore surprising that when Cart- 
 wright was brought before the Commissioners in 
 1390, among the articles objected were two, accu- 
 sing him of knowing who wrote and printed ' several 
 
 * libels, going under the name of Martin Marprelate.' 
 And it is remarkable, that he refused to deny upon 
 oath that he had such a knowledge : to which refu- 
 sal we must of course give the credit which Neal 
 claims for him and others of the same sort, viz. : 
 
 * That the honest puritans made conscience of 
 
MARTIN iMARPRELATE. 2I9 
 
 * not denying any thing they tcere charged with, 
 ' if it was true' * 
 
 A summary of the objects aimed at by the Puri- Bancionv 
 
 . ,1 „ 1 1 Ml r» account of 
 
 tans cannot be here out or place : and we will reier the Puritan 
 
 -n* i» /~i platform. 
 
 once more to Bancrofts sermon at Pauls Cross. 
 As a contemporary he knew them well. * They do 
 
 * affirme that when Christ used these words, Die 
 
 * ecclesice, he ment thereby to establish in the church 
 
 * for ever the same plat and forme of ecclesiastical 
 
 * government, to be erected in everie parish, which 
 
 * Moses by lethroes councell appointed in Mount 
 
 * Sinaie ; and which afterward the levves did imitate 
 
 * in their particular synagogs. 
 
 * They had (sale tbese men) in their synagogs 
 ' their priests, we must have in every parish our 
 
 * pastors : they their Levites, we our doctors : they 
 
 * their rulers of their synagogs, we our elders : they 
 
 * their leviticall treasurers, we our deacons. 
 
 * This forme of government they call the taber- 
 
 * nacle which God hath appointed — the court of the 
 ' Lorde, and the shining foorth of God's glorie.. 
 ' Where this ecclesiasticall synode is not erected, 
 ' they say Gods ordinance is not performed; the 
 
 * office of Christ as he is a king is not acknowledged; 
 
 • Vol. i. P. 171. 
 
2 20 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 ' in effect that without this government we can never 
 ' attaine to a right and true7eehng of Christian re- 
 ' hgion, but are to be reckoned amongst those who 
 ' are accounted to saie of Christ as it is in Luke, 
 
 * we will not have this man to raigne over us. 
 
 * And their conclusion upon this point against 
 
 * all that do withstande their governement is this, 
 ' according as it likewise followeth in the same 
 ' place : Those mine enemies which would not that 
 ' I should raigne over them, bring hither and slay 
 
 * them before me.' Pp. 8 and 9. 
 
 Conclusion. Little more remains to be said. I trust that my 
 readers will not think that I have been over-liberal 
 in the extracts which I have thought it necessary 
 to make. The subject may not perhaps be so en- 
 tertaining as some would wish it, and though each 
 tract separately is not of much interest, except for 
 the quaint allusions to local customs, and manners 
 of the day, which several of them furnish (and 
 which I have been obliged to omit noticing), yet 
 together they throw very considerable light upon 
 the religious history of the age, and prove equally 
 the extremes to which the doctrines of the Refor- 
 mation were speedily carried, and the peril in which 
 its genuine disciples soon placed the Church of 
 England. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 Martin Marprelate was most rapid in his growth ; 
 sudden in his attack ; novel in his method; we have 
 seen that sober reasoning was powerless against 
 him, and equally so the strong arm of the Privy 
 Council:* but at last he was struck down with 
 almost a like suddenness. Scarcely more than a 
 single year saw both the beginning and the end of 
 his attempt. Nevertheless, it was not only the 
 great controversy of that year, but the controversy 
 of the Elizabethan age. We must not so much 
 estimate it by the shortness of the time it occupied, 
 as by the various circumstances which had been long 
 tending towards it, and of which it was, though 
 monstrous, the matured produce ; and by the con- 
 sequences to which it led. 
 
 The Puritans had been making many struggles : 
 working openly, working secretly : losing no oppor- 
 tunities of carrying on to full perfection the fantas- 
 
 * It may, indeed, be doubted whether the Privy Council 
 was sincere against the Puritans : Fuller says that there lay 
 the great strength of that party, even as the Archbishop 
 and the High Commission were its chief enemies; and 
 Strype in his life of Parker tells us, that when the Admoni- 
 tion to the Parliament was ordered under heavy penalties 
 to be brought into the diocesan within twenty days, so little 
 attention was paid to it, that not one copy ever reached any 
 of the Bishops. 
 
222 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 tic theories, and wild heretical absurdities of the 
 earlier reformers ; pouring out their abuse of Ca- 
 tholic practice in private conventicles, in lectures 
 from the pulpit, in exercises, and in more moderate 
 language, by means of the press. All this was not 
 a disunited effort by individuals, but the plan of a 
 clever, earnest party, working in concert, under 
 most able guidance, and careless what were the 
 instruments they used. They had an object before 
 them, sufficient to justify any means however bad. 
 At last they ventured upon Martin : ventured, if 
 not beyond their own depth, at any rate beyond the 
 sympathy of lookers on : people were amused it 
 may be, but at the first check regained their senses, 
 and took part against them ; and Puritanism for 
 some years, until that generation had passed away, 
 received a blow under which it staggered, without 
 a hope of recovery, until fresh strength and energy 
 were again given it, from sources which would have 
 been abhorred by its Elizabethan chiefs ; and by 
 the enlisting among its ranks a multifarious host, 
 who sought, and with success, to use it as a political 
 weapon for the attainment of mere worldly ends.* 
 
 * In the early part of the Rebellion against Charles I. 
 several of the old Marprelate tracts were reprinted, and 
 diligently dispersed. 
 
MARTIN MARPRELATE. 223 
 
 And let us not forget, in any further inquiries 
 which we may be desirous to make, that Puritanism 
 in those days, neither asked nor wished for tolera- 
 tion. To tolerate and to be tolerated, was a libe- 
 raUty unknown until nearly a century afterwards, 
 and not dreamt of in days of more real earnestness 
 and sincerity. It is a praise which is due to all 
 parties in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that they 
 did not attempt to aim at popularity, by sacrificing 
 what they believed to be the truth, according to the 
 gospel : and they did not try to twist the plain words 
 of Holy Writ, so that they might convey two mean- 
 ings, and allow men to choose in quiet which they 
 would. Religion and religious ordinances were 
 then considered to be the thing needful, not merely 
 to be observed, but to be observed rightly. For 
 example ; the Church commanded all men, kneeling 
 to receive the Blessed Eucharist ; her adversaries 
 as stoutly enforced the necessity of sitting ; the 
 Admonition to the Parliament does not suggest 
 any thing short of the ' total overthrow,' and ' sharp 
 punishment' of the strange and forbidden officers, 
 Lord Bishop, Suffragan, &c. : it asks not permission 
 only for their own form of prayers, but for the 
 quick removal also of ' that prescript Order of Ser- 
 vice made out of the Mass-book.' All this is in- 
 
224 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
 telliglble, and infinitely more like a love of truth 
 than statesmen's politics now-a-days ; who desire to 
 forget nothing so much, as that there is One Ca- 
 tholic Church : and whose unlimited toleration seems 
 to be nothing less than the cursed attempt to unite 
 Christ and Belial, God and mammon ; nothing less 
 than an inviting of every man to lose his own soul 
 in any way that he may think proper. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 C, WIIITTINGHAM, CHISWICK, 
 
rOLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 COLUMBIA ^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^j^^ 
 
 This book is due on *« f^^^^;",^, aate of borrowing, as 
 the Librarian in charge. ^ 
 
 czedi-is) 100M 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 0038420929 
 
 m'^4-*^ 
 
 ""^^^ 
 
 BRITTLE DO NOT 
 PHOTOCOPY