[402] The Church History by Dodd, a Catholic, fills three vols. folio:
it is very rare and curious. Much of our own domestic history
is interwoven in that of the fugitive papists, and the
materials of this work are frequently drawn from their own
archives, preserved in their seminaries at Douay, Valladolid,
&c., which have not been accessible to Protestant writers.
Here I discovered a copious nomenclature of eminent persons,
and many literary men, with many unknown facts, both of a
private and public nature. It is useful, at times, to know
whether an English author was a Catholic.
[403] I refer the reader to Selden's "Table Talk" for many admirable
ideas on "Bishops." That enlightened genius, who was no friend
to the ecclesiastical temporal power, acknowledges the
absolute necessity of this order in a great government. The
preservers of our literature and our morals they ought to be,
and many have been. When the political reformers ejected the
bishops out of the house, what did they gain? a more vulgar
prating race, but even more lordly! Selden says--"The bishops
being put out of the house, whom will they lay the fault upon
now? When the dog is beat out of the room, where will they lay
the stink?"
[404] The freedom of the press hardly subsisted in Elizabeth's
reign; and yet libels abounded! A clear demonstration that
nothing is really gained by those violent suppressions and
expurgatory indexes which power in its usurpation may
enforce. At a time when they did not dare even to publish
the titles of such libels, yet were they spread about, and
even hoarded. The most ancient catalogue of our vernacular
literature is that by Andrew Maunsell, published in 1595.
It consists of Divinity, Mathematics, Medicine, &c.; but
the third part which he promised, and which to us would
have been the most interesting, of "Rhetoric, History,
Poetry, and Policy," never appeared. In the Preface, such was
the temper of the times, and of Elizabeth, we discover that
he has deprived us of a catalogue of the works alluded to in
our text, for he thus distinctly points at them:--"The books
written by the _fugitive papistes_, as also those that are
_written against the present government_ (meaning those of
the Puritans), I doe not think meete for me to meddle
withall." In one part of his catalogue, however, he contrived
to insert the following passage; the burden of the song seems
to have been chorused by the ear of our cautious Maunsell.
He is noticing a Pierce Plowman in prose. "I did not see the
beginning of this booke, but it ended thus:--
"God save the king, and speed the plough
And send the _prelats_ care inough,
Inough, inough, inough."--p. 80.
Few of our native productions are so rare as the _Martin
Mar-Prelate_ publications. I have not found them in the public
repositories of our national literature. There they have been
probably rejected with indignity, though their answerers have
been preserved; yet even these are almost of equal rarity
and price. They were rejected in times less enlightened than
the present. In a national library every book deserves
preservation. By the rejection of these satires, however
absurd or infamous, we have lost a link in the great chain
of our National Literature and History. [Since the above was
written, many have been added to our library; and the Rev.
William Maskell, M.A., has published his "History of the
Martin Mar-Prelate Controversy." It is a most careful
summary of the writings and proceedings of all connected with
this important event, and is worthy the attentive perusal of
such as desire accurate information in this chapter of our
Church history.]
[405] We know them by the name of Puritans, a nickname obtained by
their affecting superior sanctity; but I find them often
distinguished by the more humble appellative of Precisians. As
men do not leap up, but climb on rocks, it is probable they
were only _precise_ before they were _pure_. A satirist of
their day, in "Rythmes against Martin Marre-Prelate," melts
their attributes into one verse:--
"The sacred sect, and perfect _pure precise_."
A more laughing satirist, "Pasquill of England to Martin
Junior," persists in calling them Puritans, _a pruritu!_ for
their perpetual itching, or a desire to do something.
Elizabeth herself only considered them as "a troublesome sort
of people:" even that great politician could not detect the
political monster in a mere chrysalis of reform. I find,
however, in a poet of the Elizabethan age, an evident change
in the public feeling respecting the _Puritans_, who being
always most active when the government was most in trouble,
their political views were discovered. Warner, in his
"Albion's England," describes them:--
"If ever England will in aught prevent her own mishap,
Against these Skommes (no terme too gross) let England shut
the gap;
With giddie heads--
Their countrie's foes they helpt, and most their country
harm'd.
If _Hypocrites_ why _Puritaines_ we term, be asked, in
breefe,
'Tis but an _ironised terme_: good-fellow so spells
theefe!"
The gentle-humoured FULLER, in his "Church History," felt a
tenderness for the name of _Puritan_, which, after the mad
follies they had played during the Commonwealth, was then held
in abhorrence. He could not venture to laud the good men of
that party, without employing a new term to conceal the odium.
In noticing, under the date of 1563, that the bishops urged
the clergy of their dioceses to press uniformity, &c., he
adds--"Such as refused were branded with the name of
Puritans--a name which in this nation began in this year,
subject to several senses, and various in the acceptions.
_Puritan_ was taken for the opposers of hierarchy and church
service, as resenting of superstition. But the nickname was
quickly improved by profane mouths to abuse pious persons. We
will decline the word to prevent exceptions, which, if
casually slipping from our pen, the reader knoweth that only
_nonconformists_ are intended," lib. ix. p. 76. Fuller,
however, divided them into classes--"the mild and moderate,
and the fierce and fiery." HEYLIN, in his "History of the
Presbyterians," blackens them as so many political devils; and
NEALE, in his "History of the Puritans," blanches them into a
sweet and almond whiteness.
Let us be thankful to these PURITANS for a political lesson.
They began their quarrels on the most indifferent matters.
They raised disturbances about the "Romish Rags," by which
they described the decent surplice as well as the splendid
scarlet chimere[407] thrown over the white linen rochet,
with the square cap worn by the bishops. The scarlet robe,
to please their sullen fancy, was changed into black satin;
but these men soon resolved to deprive the bishops of more
than a scarlet robe. The affected niceties of these
PRECISIANS, dismembering our images, and scratching at our
paintings, disturbed the uniformity of the religious
service. A clergyman in a surplice was turned out of the
church. Some wore square caps, some round, some abhorred all
caps. The communion-table placed in the East was considered
as an idolatrous altar, and was now dragged into the
middle of the church, where, to show their contempt, it
was always made the filthiest seat in the church. They used
to kneel at the sacrament; now they would sit, because that
was a proper attitude for a supper; then they would not
sit, but stand: at length they tossed the elements about,
because the bread was wafers, and not from a loaf. Among
their _preciseness_ was a qualm at baptism: the water was to
be taken from a basin, and not from a fount; then they
would not name their children, or if they did, they would
neither have Grecian, nor Roman, nor Saxon names, but Hebrew
ones, which they ludicrously translated into English, and
which, as Heylin observes, "many of them when they came of
age were ashamed to own"--such as "Accepted, Ashes,
Fight-the-good-Fight-of-Faith, Joy-again, Kill-sin, &c."
Who could have foreseen that some pious men quarrelling about
the square caps and the rochets of bishops should at length
attack bishops themselves; and, by an easy transition, passing
from bishops to kings, finally close in levellers!
[406] The origin of the controversy may be fixed about 1588. "A far
less easy task," says the Rev. Mr. Maskell, "is it to guess at
the authors. The tracts on the Mar-Prelate side have been
usually attributed to Penry, Throgmorton, Udal, and Fenner.
Very considerable information may be obtained about these
writers in Wood's 'Athenae,' art. _Penry_; in Collier, Strype,
and Herbert's edition of 'Arnes,' 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
authorship of any of the pamphlets."--ED.
[407] So Heylin writes the word; but in the "Rythmes against Martin,"
a contemporary production, the term is _Chiver_. It is not in
Cotgrave.
[408] In the "Just Censure and Reproof of Martin Junior" (circae 1589),
we are told: "There is Cartwright, too, at Warwick; he hath
got him such a company of disciples, both of the worshipfull
and other of the poorer sort, as wee have no cause to thank
him. Never tell me that he is too grave to trouble himself
with Martin's conceits. Cartwright seeks the peace of the
Church no otherwise than his platform may stand." He was
accused before the commissioners in 1590 of knowing who wrote
and printed these squibs, which he did not deny.--ED.
[409] I give a remarkable extract from the writings of Cartwright.
It will prove two points. First, that the _religion_ of
those men became a cover for a _political_ design; which was
_to raise the ecclesiastical above the civil power_. Just
the reverse of Hobbes's after scheme; but while theorists
thus differ and seem to refute one another, they in reality
work for an identical purpose. Secondly, it will show the not
uncommon absurdity of man; while these nonconformists were
affecting to annihilate the hierarchy of England as a
remains of the Romish supremacy, they themselves were
designing one according to their own fresher scheme. It
was to be a state or republic of Presbyters, in which _all
Sovereigns_ were to hold themselves, to use their style, as
"Nourisses, or servants under the Church; the Sovereigns
were to be as subjects; they were to vail their sceptres and
to offer their crowns as the prophet speaketh, _to lick the
dust of the feet of the Church_." These are Cartwright's
words, in his "Defence of the Admonition." But he is still
bolder, in a joint production with _Travers_. He insists
that "the _Monarchs of the World_ should give up their
_sceptres and crowns_ unto him (Jesus Christ) who is
_represented by the Officers of the Church_." See "A Full
and Plain Declaration of Ecclesiastical Discipline," p.
185. One would imagine he was a disguised Jesuit, and an
advocate for the Pope's supremacy. But observe how these
saintly Republicans would govern the State. Cartwright is
explicit, and very ingenious. "The world is now deceived
that thinketh that the _Church_ must be framed according to
the _Commonwealth_, and the _Church Government_ according to
the _Civil Government_, which is as much as to say, as if
a man should fashion his house according to his hangings;
whereas, indeed, it is clean contrary. That as the hangings
are made fit for the house, so the Commonwealth must be made
to agree with the Church, and the government thereof with her
government; for, as the house is before the hangings,
therefore the hangings, which come after, must be framed to
the house, which was before; so the Church being before there
was a commonwealth, and the commonwealth coming after, must be
fashioned and made suitable to the Church; otherwise, God is
made to give place to men, heaven to earth."--CARTWRIGHT'S
_Defence of the Admonition_, p. 181.
Warburton's "Alliance between Church and State," which was in
his time considered as a hardy paradox, is mawkish in its
pretensions, compared with this sacerdotal republic. It is not
wonderful that the wisest of our Sovereigns, that great
politician Elizabeth, should have punished with death
these democrats: but it is wonderful to discover that these
inveterate enemies to the Church of Rome were only trying to
transfer its absolute power into their own hands! They wanted
to turn the Church into a democracy. They fascinated the
people by telling them that there would be no beggars were
there no bishops; that every man would be a governor by
setting up a Presbytery. From the Church, I repeat, it is
scarcely a single step to the Cabinet. Yet the early
Puritans come down to us as persecuted saints. Doubtless,
there were a few honest saints among them; but they were as
mad politicians as their race afterwards proved to be, to
whom they left so many fatal legacies. Cartwright uses the
very language a certain cast of political reformers have
recently done. He declares "An establishment may be made
without the magistrate;" and told the people that "if every
hair of their head was a life, it ought to be offered for
such a cause." Another of this faction is for "registering
the names of the fittest and hottest brethren without
lingering for Parliament;" and another exults that "there are
a hundred thousand hands ready." Another, that "we may
overthrow the bishops and all the government in one day." Such
was the style, and such the confidence in the plans which the
lowest orders of revolutionists promulgated during their
transient exhibition in this country. More in this strain
may be found in "Maddox's Vindication Against Neale," the
advocate for the Puritans, p. 255; and in an admirable
letter of that great politician, Sir Francis Walsingham, who,
with many others of the ministers of Elizabeth, was a favourer
of the Puritans, till he detected their secret object to
subvert the government. This letter is preserved in
"Collier's Eccl. Hist." vol. ii. 607. They had begun to
divide the whole country into _classes_, provincial synods,
&c. They kept registers, which recorded all the heads of their
debates, to be finally transmitted to the secret head of the
_Classis_ of Warwick, where Cartwright governed as _the
perpetual moderator_! _Heylin's Hist. of Presbyt._ p. 277.
These violent advocates for the freedom of the press had,
however, an evident intention to monopolise it; for they
decreed that "no book should be put in print but by consent of
the _Classes_."--Sir G. PAUL'S _Life of Whitgift_, p. 65. The
very Star-Chamber they justly protested against, they were
for raising among themselves!
[410] Under the denomination of _Barrowists_ and _Brownists_. I find
Sir Walter Raleigh declaring, in the House of Commons, on a
motion for reducing disloyal subjects, that "they are worthy
to be rooted out of a Commonwealth." He is alarmed at the
danger, "for it is to be feared that men not guilty will be
included in the law about to be passed. I am sorry for it. I
am afraid there is near twenty thousand of them in England;
and when they be gone (that is, expelled) who shall maintain
their wives and children?"--SIR SIMONDS D'EWES' _Journal_, p.
517.
[411] The controversies of Whitgift and Cartwright were of a nature
which could never close, for toleration was a notion which
never occurred to either. These rivals from early days wrote
with such bitterness against each other, that at length it
produced mutual reproaches. Whitgift complains to Cartwright:
"If you were writing against the veriest Papist, or the
ignorantest dolt, you could not be more spiteful and
malicious." And Cartwright replies: "If peace had been so
precious unto you as you pretend, you would not have brought
so many hard words and bitter reproaches, as it were sticks
and coals, to double and treble the heat of contention."
After this it is curious, even to those accustomed to such
speculations, to observe some men changing with the times, and
furious rivals converted into brothers. Whitgift, whom
Elizabeth, as a mark of her favour, called "her black
husband," soliciting Cartwright's pardon from the Queen; and
the proud Presbyter Cartwright styling Whitgift his Lord the
Archbishop's Grace of Canterbury, and visiting him!
[412] Sir George Paul, a contemporary, attributes his wealth "to the
benevolence and bounty of his followers." Dr. Sutcliffe, one
of his adversaries, sharply upbraids him, that "in the
persecution he perpetually complained of, he was grown rich."
A Puritan advocate reproves Dr. Sutcliffe for always carping
at Cartwright's purchases:--"Why may not Cartwright sell the
lands he had from his father, and buy others with the money,
as well as some of the bishops, who by bribery, simony,
extortion, racking of rents, wasting of woods, and such like
stratagems, wax rich, and purchase great lordships for their
posterity?"
To this Sutcliffe replied:
"I do not carpe alway, no, nor once, at Master Cartwright's
purchase. I hinder him not; I envy him not. Only thus much I
must tell him, that Thomas Cartwright, a man that hath more
landes of his own in possession than any bishop that I know,
and that fareth daintily every day, and feedeth fayre and
fatte, and lyeth as soft as any tenderling of that brood, and
hath wonne much wealth in short time, and will leave more to
his posterity than any bishop, should not cry out either of
persecution or of excess of bishop's livinges."--SUTCLIFFE'S
_Answer to Certain Calumnious Petitions._
[413] "The author of these libels," says Bishop Cooper, in his
"Admonition to the People of England," 1589, "calleth
himself by a feigned name, _Martin Mar-Prelate_, a very
fit name undoubtedly. But if this outrageous spirit of
boldness be not stopped speedily, I fear he will prove
himself to be, not only _Mar-Prelate_, but Mar-Prince,
Mar-State, Mar-Law, Mar-Magistrate, and altogether, until he
bring it to an Anabaptistical equality and community."--ED.
[414] Cartwright approved of them, and well knew the concealed
writers, who frequently consulted him: this appears by Sir G.
Paul's "Life of Whitgift," p. 65. Being asked his opinion of
such books, he said, that "since the bishops, and others there
touched, would not amend by grave books, it was therefore meet
they should be dealt withal to their farther reproach; and
that some books must be _earnest_, some _more mild and
temperate_, whereby they may be both of the spirit of Elias
and Eliseus;" the one the great mocker, the other the more
solemn reprover. It must be confessed Cartwright here
discovers a deep knowledge of human nature. He knew the power
of ridicule and of invective. At a later day, a writer of the
same stamp, in "The Second Wash, or the _Moore_ Scoured _once
more_," (written against Dr. Henry More, the Platonist), in
defence of that vocabulary of _names_ which he has poured on
More, asserts it is a practice allowed by the high authority
of Christ himself. I transcribe the curious passage:--"It is
the practice of Christ himself to character _men_ by those
_things_ to which they assimilate. Thus hath he called _Herod_
a _fox_; _Judas_ a _devil_; _false pastors_ he calls _wolves_;
the _buyers and sellers_, _theeves_; and those Hebrew Puritans
the _Pharisees_, _hypocrites_. This rule and justice of his
Master St. Paul hath well observed, and he acts freely
thereby; for when he reproves the Cretians, he makes use of
that ignominious proverb, _Evil beasts and slow bellies_. When
the high priest commanded the Jews to _smite_ him on the face,
he replied to him, not without some bitterness, _God shall
smite thee, thou white wall_. I cite not these places to
justify an injurious spleen, but to argue the liberty of the
truth."--_The Second Wash, or the +Moore+ Scoured once_ more.
1651. P. 8.
[415] One of their works is "A Dialogue, wherein is laid open the
tyrannical dealing of L. Bishopps against God's children." It
is full of scurrilous stories, probably brought together by
two active cobblers who were so useful to their junto. Yet the
bishops of that day were not of dissolute manners; and the
accusations are such, that it only proves their willingness to
raise charges against them. Of one bishop they tell us, that
after declaring he was poor, and what expenses he had been at,
as Paul's church could bear witness, shortly after hanged four
of his servants for having robbed him of a considerable sum.
Of another, who cut down all the woods at Hampstead, till the
towns-women "fell a swaddling of his men," and so saved
Hampstead by their resolution. But when _Martin_ would give a
proof that the Bishop of London was one of the bishops of the
devil, in his "Pistle to the terrible priests," he tells this
story:--"When the bishop throws his bowl (as he useth it
commonly upon the Sabbath-day), he runnes after it; and if it
be too hard, he cries _Rub! rub! rub! the diuel goe with
thee!_ and he goeth himself with it; so that by these words he
names himself the Bishop of the Divel, and by his tirannical
practice prooveth himselfe to be." He tells, too, of a parson
well known, who, being in the pulpit, and "hearing his dog
cry, he out with this text: 'Why, how now, hoe! can you not
let my dog alone there? Come, Springe! come, Springe!' and
whistled the dog to the pulpit." One of their chief objects of
attack was Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln, a laborious student, but
married to a dissolute woman, whom the University of Oxford
offered to separate from him: but he said he knew his
infirmity, and could not live without his wife, and was tender
on the point of divorce. He had a greater misfortune than even
this loose woman about him--his _name_ could be punned on; and
this bishop may be placed among that unlucky class of authors
who have fallen victims to their _names_. Shenstone meant more
than he expressed, when he thanked God that he could not be
punned on. Mar-Prelate, besides many cruel hits at Bishop
Cooper's wife, was now always "making the _Cooper's hoops to
flye off_, and the bishop's tubs to leake out." In "The
Protestatyon of Martin Marprelat," where he tells of two
bishops, "who so contended in throwing down elmes, as if the
wager had bene whether of them should most have impoverished
their bishopricks. Yet I blame not _Mar-Elme_ so much as
Cooper for this fact, because it is no less given him by his
_name_ to spoil elmes, than it is allowed him by the secret
judgment of God to mar the Church. A man of _Cooper's_ age and
occupation, so wel seene in that trade, might easily knowe
that tubs made of green timber must needs leak out; and yet I
do not so greatly marvel; for he that makes no conscience to
be a deceiver in the building of the churche, will not stick
for his game to be a _deceitfull workeman in making of
tubbs_."--p. 19. The author of the books against Bishop Cooper
is said to have been Job Throckmorton, a learned man,
affecting raillery and humour to court the mob.
Such was the strain of ribaldry and malice which Martin
Mar-Prelate indulged, and by which he obtained full possession
of the minds of the people for a considerable time. His libels
were translated, and have been often quoted by the Roman
Catholics abroad and at home for their particular purposes,
just as the revolutionary publications in this country have
been concluded abroad to be the general sentiments of the
people of England; and thus our factions always will serve the
interests of our enemies. Martin seems to have written little
verse; but there is one epigram worth preserving for its
bitterness.
Martin Senior, in his "Reproofe of Martin Junior," complains
that "his younger brother has not taken a little paines in
ryming with _Mar-Martin_ (one of their poetical antagonists),
that the Cater-Caps may know how the meanest of my father's
sonnes is able to answeare them both at blunt and sharpe." He
then gives his younger brother a specimen of what he is
hereafter to do. He attributes the satire of _Mar-Martin_ to
Dr. Bridges, Dean of Sarum, and John Whitgift, Archbishop of
Canterbury.
"The first Rising, Generation, and Original of _Mar-Martin_.
"From Sarum came a goos's egg,
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 us all this 'larum.
What can the cockatrice hatch up
But serpents like himselfe?
What sees the ape within the glasse
But a deformed elfe?
Then must _Mar-Martin_ have some smell
Of forge, or else of fire:
A sotte in wit, a beaste in minde,
For so was damme and sire."
[416] It would, however, appear that these revolutionary publications
reached the universities, and probably fermented "the green
heads" of our students, as the following grave admonition
directed to them evidently proves:--
"Anti-Martinus sive monitio cujusdam Londinensis ad
adolescentes vtrimque academiae contra personatum quendam
rabulam qui se Anglice Martin Marprelat, &c. Londini, 1589,
4o."
A popular favourite as he was, yet even Martin, _in propria
persona_, acknowledges that his manner was not approved of by
_either party_. His "Theses Martinianae" opens thus: "I see my
doings and my course misliked of many, both the good and the
bad; though also I have favourers of both sortes. The bishops
and their traine, though they stumble at the cause, yet
especially mislike my maner of writing. Those whom foolishly
men call _Puritanes_, like of the matter I have handled, but
the forme they cannot brooke. So that herein I have them both
for mine adversaries. But now what if I should take the course
in certain theses or conclusions, without _inveighing_ against
either _person_ or _cause_." This was probably written after
Martin had swallowed some of his own sauce, or taken his "Pap
(offered to him) with a Hatchet," as one of the most
celebrated government pamphlets is entitled. But these "Theses
Martinianae," without either scurrility or invective are the
dullest things imaginable; abstract propositions were not
palatable to the multitude; and then it was, after the trial
had been made, that _Martin Junior and Senior_ attempted to
revive the spirit of the old gentleman; but if sedition has
its progress, it has also its decline; and if it could not
strike its blow when strongest, it only puled and made
grimaces, prognostics of weakness and dissolution. This is
admirably touched in "Pappe with an Hatchet." "Now Old Martin
appeared, with a wit worn into the socket, twingling and
pinking like the snuffe of a candle; _quantum mutatus ab
illo_, how unlike the knave he was before, not for malice, but
for sharpnesse! The hogshead was even come to the hauncing,
and nothing could be drawne from him but dregs; yet the emptie
caske sounds lowder than when it was full, and protests more
in his waining than he could performe in his waxing. I drew
neere the sillie soul, whom I found quivering in two sheets of
protestation paper (alluding to the work mentioned here in the
following note). O how meager and leane he looked, so crest
falne that his combe hung downe to his bill; and had I not
been sure it was the picture of Envie, I should have sworn it
had been the image of Death: so like the verie anatomie of
Mischief, that one might see through all the ribbes of his
conscience."
In another rare pamphlet from the same school, "Pasquill of
England to Martin Junior, in a countercuffe given to Martin
Junior," he humorously threatens to write "The Owle's
Almanack, wherein your night labours be set down;" and "some
fruitful volumes of 'The Lives of the Saints,' which, maugre
your father's five hundred sons, shall be printed," with
"hays, jiggs, and roundelays, and madrigals, serving for
epitaphs for his father's hearse."
[417] Some of these works still bear evident marks that the
"pursuivants" were hunting the printers. "The Protestatyon
of Martin Mar-Prelate, wherein, notwithstanding the
surprising of the printer, he maketh it knowne vnto the
world that he feareth neither proud priest, tirannous prelate,
nor godlesse cater-cap; but defieth all the race of them,"
including "a challenge" to meet them personally; was
probably one of their latest efforts. The printing and the
orthography show all the imperfections of that haste in
which they were forced to print this work. As they lost their
strength, they were getting more venomous. Among the little
Martins disturbed in the hour of parturition, but already
christened, there were: "Episto Mastix;" "The Lives and
Doings of English Popes;" "Itinerarium, or Visitations;"
"Lambethisms." The "Itinerary" was a survey of every
clergyman of England! and served as a model to a similar
work, which appeared during the time of the Commonwealth. The
"Lambethisms" were secrets divulged by Martin, who, it seems,
had got into the palace itself! Their productions were,
probably, often got up in haste, in utter scorn of the
Horatian precept. [These pamphlets were printed with
difficulty and danger, in secrecy and fear, for they were
rigidly denounced by the government of Elizabeth. Sir George
Paul, in his "Life of Archbishop Whitgift," informs us that
they were printed with a kind of wandering press, which was
first set up at Moulsey, near Kingston-on-Thames, and from
thence conveyed to Fauseley in Northamptonshire, and from
thence to Norton, afterwards to Coventry, from thence to
Welstone in Warwickshire, from which place the letters were
sent to another press in or near Manchester; where by the
means of Henry, Earl of Derby, the press was discovered in
printing "More Work for a Cooper;" an answer to Bishop
Cooper's attack on the party, and a work so rare Mr. Maskell
says, "I believe no copy of it, in any state, remains."]
As a great curiosity, I preserve a fragment in the _Scottish_
dialect, which well describes them and their views. The title
is wanting in the only copy I have seen; but its extreme
rarity is not its only value: there is something venerable in
the criticism, and poignant in the political sarcasm.
"Weil lettred clarkis endite their warkes, quoth Horace,
slow and geasoun,
Bot thou can wise forth buike by buike, at every spurt and
seasoun;
For men of litrature t'endite so fast, them doth not fitte,
Enanter in them, as in thee, their pen outrun thair witte.
The shaftis of foolis are soone shot out, but fro the merke
they stray;
So art thou glibbe to guibe and taunte, but rouest all the
way,
Quhen thou hast parbrackt out thy gorge, and shot out all
thy arrowes,
See that thou hold thy clacke, and hang thy quiver on the
gallows.
Els Clarkis will soon all be Sir Johns, the priestis craft
will empaire,
And Dickin, Jackin, Tom, and Hob, mon sit in Rabbies
chaire.
Let Georg and Nichlas, cheek by jol, bothe still on
cock-horse yode,
That dignitie of Pristis with thee may hau a long abode.
Els Litrature mon spredde her wings, and piercing welkin
bright,
To Heaven, from whence she did first wend, retire and take
her flight."
[418] "Pasquill of England to Martin Junior, in a countercuffe given
to Martin Junior."
[419] "Most of the books under Martin's name were composed by John
Penry, John Udall, John Field, and Job Throckmorton, who all
concurred in making Martin. See 'Answer to Throgmorton's
Letter by Sutcliffe,' p. 70; 'More Work for a Cooper;' and
'Hay any Work for a Cooper;' and 'Some layd open in his
Colours;' were composed by Job Throckmorton."--MS. Note by
Thomas Baker. Udall, indeed, denied having any concern in
these invectives, and professed to disapprove of them. We see
Cartwright, however, of quite a different opinion. In Udall's
library some MS. notes had been seen by a person who
considered them as materials for a Martin Mar-Prelate work in
embryo, which Udall confessed were written "by a friend." All
the writers were silenced ministers; though it is not
improbable that their scandalous tales, and much of the
ribaldry, might have been contributed by their lowest
retainers, those purveyors for the mob, of what they lately
chose to call their "Pig's-meat."
[420] The execution of Hacket, and condemnation of his party, who had
declared him "King of Europe," so that England was only a
province to him, is noted in our "General History of England."
This was the first serious blow which alarmed the Puritanic
party. Doubtless, this man was a mere maniac, and his
ferocious passions broke out early in life; but, in that day,
they permitted no lunacy as a plea for any politician.
Cartwright held an intercourse with that party, as he had with
Barrow, said to have been a debauched youth; yet we had a sect
of Barrowists; and Robert Brown, the founder of another sect,
named after him _Brownists_; which became very formidable.
This Brown, for his relationship, was patronised by Cecil,
Earl of Burleigh. He was a man of violent passions. He had a
wife, with whom he never lived; and a church, wherein he never
preached, observes the characterising Fuller, who knew him
when Fuller was young. In one of the pamphlets of the time I
have seen, it is mentioned that being reproached with beating
his wife, he replied, "I do not beat Mrs. Brown as my wife,
but as a curst cross old woman." He closed his life in prison;
not for his opinions, but for his brutality to a constable.
The old women and the cobblers connected with these Martin
Mar-Prelates are noticed in the burlesque epitaphs on Martin's
death, supposed to be made by his favourites; a humorous
appendix to "Martin's Monthminde." Few political conspiracies,
whenever religion forms a pretext, is without a woman. One
Dame Lawson is distinguished, changing her "silke for sacke;"
and other names might be added of ladies. Two cobblers are
particularly noticed as some of the industrious purveyors of
sedition through the kingdom--Cliffe, the cobbler, and one
Newman. Cliffe's epitaph on his friend Martin is not without
humour:--
"Adieu, both naule and bristles now for euer;
The shoe and soale--ah, woe is me!--must sever.
Bewaile, mine awle, thy sharpest point is gone;
My bristle's broke, and I am left alone.
Farewell old shoes, thumb-stall, and clouting-leather;
Martin is gone, and we undone together."
Nor is Newman, the other cobbler, less mortified and pathetic.
"The London Corresponding Society" had a more ancient origin
than that sodality was aware.
"My hope once was, my old shoes should be sticht;
My thumbs ygilt, that were before bepicht:
Now Martin's gone, and laid full deep in ground,
My gentry's lost, before it could be found."
Among the Martin Mar-Prelate books was one entitled "The
Cobbler's Book." This I have not seen; but these cobblers
probably picked up intelligence for these scandalous
chronicles. The writers, too, condescended to intersperse the
cant dialect of the populace, with which the cobblers
doubtless assisted these learned men, when busied in their
buffoonery. Hence all their vulgar gibberish; the Shibboleth
of the numerous class of their admirers--such as, "O, whose
_tat_?" John _Kan_kerbury, for Canterbury; _Paltri_-politans,
for Metropolitans; _See Villains_, for Civilians; and Doctor
of _Devility_, for Divinity! and more of this stamp. Who could
imagine that the writers of these scurrilities were learned
men, and that their patrons were men of rank! We find two
knights heavily fined for secreting these books in their
cellars. But it is the nature of rebellion to unite the two
extremes; for _want_ stirs the populace to rise, and _excess_
the higher orders. This idea is admirably expressed in one of
our elder poets:--
"Want made them murmur; for the people, who
To get their bread, do wrestle with their fate,
Or those, who in superfluous riot flow,
Soonest rebel. Convulsions in a State,
Like those which natural bodies do oppress,
Rise from repletion, or from emptiness."
ALEYNE'S _Henry VII_.
[421] The writer of Algernon Sidney's Memoirs could not have known
this fact, or he would not have said that "this was the first
indictment of high treason upon which any man lost his life
for _writing anything without publishing it_."--Edit. 1751, p.
21. It is curious to have Sidney's own opinion on this point.
We discover this on his trial. He gives it, assuming one of
his own noble principles, not likely to have been allowed by
the wretched Tories of that day. Addressing the villanous
Jeffries, the Lord Chief Justice:--"My Lord, I think it is _a
right of mankind, and 'tis exercised by all studious men_, to
write, in their own closets, what they please, for their own
memory; and no man can be answerable for it, unless they
publish it." Jeffries replied:--"Pray don't go away with _that
right of mankind_, that it is lawful for me to write what I
will in my own closet, so I do not publish it. We must not
endure men to talk thus, that by the _right of nature_ every
man may contrive mischief in his own chamber, and is not to be
punished till he thinks fit to be called to it." Jeffries was
a profligate sophist, but his talents were as great as his
vices.
[422] Penry's unfinished petition, which he designed to have
presented to the Queen before the trial, is a bold and
energetic composition; his protestation, after the trial, a
pathetic prayer! Neale has preserved both in his "History of
the Puritans." With what simplicity of eloquence he
remonstrates on the temporising government of Elizabeth. He
thus addresses the Queen, under the title of Madam!--"Your
standing is, and has been, by the Gospel: it is little
beholden to you for anything that appears. The practice of
your government shows that if you could have ruled without the
Gospel, it would have been doubtful whether the Gospel
should be established or not; for now that you are established
in your throne by the Gospel, you suffer it to reach no
farther than the end of your sceptre limiteth unto it." Of a
milder, and more melancholy cast, is the touching language,
when the hope of life, but not the firmness of his cause had
deserted him. "I look not to live this week to an end. I
never took myself for a rebuker, much less for a reformer of
states and kingdoms. I never did anything in this cause for
contention, vainglory, or to draw disciples after me.
Great things, in this life, I never sought for: sufficiency I
had, with great outward trouble; but most content I was with
my lot, and content with my untimely death, though I leave
behind me a friendless widow and four infants."--Such is often
the pathetic cry of the simple-hearted, who fall the
victims to the political views of more designing heads.
We could hardly have imagined that this eloquent and serious
young man was that Martin Mar-Prelate who so long played the
political ape before the populace, with all the mummery of
their low buffoonery, and even mimicking their own idioms. The
populace, however, seems to have been divided in their
opinions respecting the sanity of his politics, as appears by
some ludicrous lines, made on Penry's death, by a northern
rhymer.
"The Welshman is hanged,
Who at our kirke flanged,
And at the state banged,
And brened are his buks.
And though he be hanged,
Yet he is not wranged;
The deil has him fanged
In his kruked kluks."
WEEVER'S _Funerall Monuments_, p. 56. Edit. 1631.
[423] Observe what different conclusions are drawn from the same fact
by opposite writers. Heylin, arguing that Udall had been
justly condemned, adds, "the man remained a _living
monument_ of the archbishop's extraordinary goodness to
him in the preserving of that life which by the law he had
forfeited." But Neale, on the same point, considers him as
one who "died for his conscience, and stands upon record
_as a monument_ of the oppression and cruelty of the
government." All this opposition of feeling is of the nature
of party-spirit; but what is more curious in the history of
human nature, is the change of opinion in the same family in
the course of the same generation. The son of this Udall
was as great a zealot for Conformity, and as great a
sufferer for it from his father's party, when they possessed
political power. This son would not submit to their oaths
and covenants, but, with his bedridden wife, was left
unmercifully to perish in the open streets,--WALKER'S
_Sufferings of the Clergy_, part ii. p. 178.