402
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
those happy ideas which the liberty of the press would produce. And who can estimate that loss? Wherever this liberty is withheld, igno- rance, like a profound darkness, spreads over the minds of men. It is then that the lovers of truth, at the same time that they seek it, fear to find it; they are sensible that they must conceal it, basely disguise it, or expose themselves to persecution, which every man dreads.
During the years 1588 and 1589, a paper war, (the first of its kind in England) was carried on with outrageous virulence between the episco- palians and the Puritans. The latter being shut out from every public press, contrived, in spite of every obstacle, to obtain a private one of their own. Elizabedi was hara-ssed by the two factions of the intriguing Catholic, and the disguised re- publican. The age abounded with libels. Many a Benedicite was lianded to her from the Catho- lics; butaportentous personage,masted,stepped forth from a club of Puritans, and terrified the nation by continued visitations, yet was never visible till the instant of his adieu — ^" starting, like a gnilty thief upon fearful summons." A continued stream of libels ran through the nation, under the portentous name of Martin Mar-prelate . Never did sedition travel so fast, or conceal itself so closely. This extraordinary personage, in bis collective form, for he is splitted into more than one, long terrified Church and State. He walked about the kingdom invisibly, dropping here a libel, and there a proclamation for sedition; but wherever Jlfartinwm was found, Martin was not. He prided himself in what he calls " Pistling the bidiops," a very ambiguous term; but according to his own vulgar orthoepy, pretends it only meant " Episling them." Some- times he hints to bis pursuers how they may catch him, for he prints " within two furlongs of a bouncing priest," or "in Europe;"* while he acquaints his friends, who were so often uneasy for his safety, that " he has neither wife nor child," and prays "they may not be anxious for him, for he wishes that his head might not go to the grave in peace."—" I come, with the rope about my necK, to save you, howsoever it goeth with me." — ^His press is interrupted, he is silent,
- Ok read over 2>. John Bridget, for it i»a worthy worke;
or an epitome ofthefynt booke of that right wonhipfuU volume, written againtt the Pwitanes, in the defence of the noble cleargy, by at worthipfuU a priest, John Bridget, pretbyter, priett, or elder, doctor of divinity, and dean of Sarum. Wherein the argumentt of the Puntnnt are witely prevented, that when they come to answer M, Doctor, they mutt needt say something, that hath been spoken. Compiled for the behoof e and overthrow of the parsons, fyckers, and currates, that have learnt their catechisms, and are past grace, by the reverend and worthy MartinMarprelate,gentle' man, and dedicated to the confocation house. The epitome it not yet published, but it shall be, when the bishops are at dmomienl leyture to view the same. In the mean lime let them be content with this teamed epistle. Printed over sea, in Europe, within two fitrtongs of a bounsing priest, at the cost and charges of M. Marprelate, gentleman. This piece contains 54 paffes quarto, is fnll of personal reflections, and ends thos : wven at my cattle, between two wales, neither fitttrdayetfrompenilettebenche, nor yet at thewett ende of SkroJ^Mei but thefoureteenihyeare at the least of the age qf Charing-crotte, within a year of Midsommer, betweene twelve and twelue of the cloche. Anno pontificatus vestrl qointo, and I hope vltimo of alt Bngtishe Popes. By your ttamtd and worthie brother, Martin Marprelate.
and Lambeth seems to breathe in peace. Bnt he has "a son, nay five hundred sons," and Martin junor starts up.*
Such were the mysterious personages who for a long time haunted the palaces of the bishops, and the vicarages of the clergy, disappearing the moment they were suddenly peiteived to be near. Their slanders were not only coarse buf- fooneries, but the hottest effusions of hatred, with an unparalleled invective of nicknames. The very defects, the personal infirmities, the domestic privacies of the bishops were the in- exliaustible subjects of these popular invectives. These "pillars of the state" were now called " its caterpillars;" and the inferior clergy, who perhaps were not always friendly to their superi- ors, yet dreaded this new race of innovators, were distinguished as "halting neutrals." Such was the strain of ribaldry and malice which Martin Marprelate indulged, and by which he obtained full possession of the minds of the people for a considerable time. These invectives were well farced for the gross taste of the multi- tude; and even the dialect of the populace afiected, and perhaps the coarse malignity of two cohlers, Cliffe and Newman, who were con- nected with the party, often enlivened the satiri- cal page, and were the industrious purveyors of sedition through the kingdom. Among the Martin Marprelate books was one entitled The Cobler's Book.\
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 Throckmor- ton's Letter, by Sutclifie, page 70; More Work for a Cooper: and Hey any Woork for a Cooper; and Some layd open in his Colours;
- The iutt censure arui reproof e of Martin Junior,^e. TUs
piece introduces in the second pa^ the archbishop (Wbit- ^ift) giving instructions to find out the authors, and pnb- lishers of these libels, thus : Hare you been carefvllofui and our places, to find its out the presse and letters, where- with these seditious Martins are printed I Or, have you diligently sought mee out Waldegraue the printer, Newman the cobter, Sharpe the booke binder of Northampton, and that seditious Welshman Penry, who you shall see, will prove the author of all these libels t Promises 40/. and bids them have an eye to the shop of master Boyle, at the rose in Pauls church-yard, at the churches, where Ench as he names do preach, and at the inns, to see what carria^ do go from and too London, to search the packes, &-c, for these sort of libels. 1589. 12mo.
Theses Martinianae;—TAa/ is, certaine demonstrative conclusions, sette downe and collected (at it should seeme) by that famous and renounded clerke, the reuerend Martin Marprelate the Great; seruing as a manifest and sufficient confutation of that euer the colledge of Caiercaps, with their whole band of clergie-priests, haue, or can bring, for the defence of their ambitious and antichristian prelacie. Published andset forth as an after-birth oft/ie noble gentle- man himself, by aprety stripling of his, Martin Junior, and dedicated by him to his good neame and nunka, maisierjohn Kankerbury: how the young mancameby them, the reader shall understande sufficiently in the epilogue. In the mean time whosoever can bring me acquainted with my father, lie be bounde hee shall not loose his labour. Printed by the assignee of Martin junior, without any priviledge of the Catercaps. 1589. 16 leaves, l2mo.
Cater caps were square caps, which the bishops wore.
t The Cobler's Book, which denies the church of England to be a true church, and charges her with maintaining idol- atry under thename of decency, in the habits, fonts, baptitm by womett, gang.dayt, saints evet, bithoping of children^ organt, wiffer-cakes, Ijc. See Life of WhitgiJFl, p. ig6.
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