British Museum.
"ADMONITION TO THE PARLIAMENT."
(Vol. v., p. 4.)
This is not at all an uncommon book. There are at least three copies in
the University Library, Cambridge; one at Trinity College; besides
others in other college libraries. There is also one at Lambeth; two in
the Bodleian, Oxford; and copies are from time to time occurring at
booksellers' for sale. There is not, however, one in the British Museum;
and the first edition is exceedingly scarce. MR. PAYNE COLLIER is, I
think, mistaken in the dates which he assigns to the _Admonition_ and
to Whitgift's _Answer_. He follows indeed Herbert's _Ames_, in which
reference is made to Strype; but Strype would have furnished materials
for a more accurate statement. Whitgift's _Answer_ was first published
towards the end of 1572; for the edition of that year does not contain
"Certayne notes and properties of Anabaptistes," which Whitgift himself
(_Defense of the Aunswere_, p. 33., and elsewhere) tells us he had
introduced into the _second_ edition. But these "notes" do appear in the
edition dated 1573, which must therefore be only the second. Moreover,
Thomas Norton wrote to Whitgift dissuading him from publishing his
_Answer_. This letter was dated Oct. 20, 1572. In a subsequent letter to
Archbishop Parker, dated Jan. 16, 1572 (1573), Norton speaks of his
former epistle as having been written "before Mr. Whitgift's book came
out." (See _Strype_; _Whitgift_, book I. chap. vi.; _Parker_, book IV.
chap. xii.) The date of the _Answer_ thus ascertained, we may the better
conjecture the dates of the editions of the _Admonition_, which MR.
COLLIER says he gathers "had been printed four times anterior to" 1572.
Whitgift, it would seem, had written, if not published, his reply before
more than a single edition of the _Admonition_ was abroad; for he says
(_Answer_, 1573, p. 189.), "After I had ended this confutation of the
_Admonition_, there comes to my hand a new edition of the same, wherein
some things be added," &c. He also says (_Defense_, p. 34.), "the
_Admonition_ was published after the Parliament, to the which it was
dedicated, was ended ... it was not exhibited in Parliament, as it ought
to have been," &c. Further, the _Admonition_ itself, fol. A. viii.,
says, "immediately after the last Parliament holden at Westminster,
begun in Anno 1570, and ended in Anno 1571," &c. This could hardly have
been said earlier than 1572. For these reasons (I will not occupy space
by alleging more) the _Admonition_ could not, we may gather, have "been
printed four times anterior to that year."