the far more serious Puritan writings of the time such as Udall's 'Demonstration of the Truth,' without being struck at the same time by the bitter and cantankerous style adopted by the writers, and the perverse and impracticable character of the party whose spokesman they are. The hopeless narrowness with which they assume that opposition to Rome or Roman practice is of itself the test of right, and conformity to it an invariable proof of wrong, and that the mere words of the Bible—or more often their own conclusions as to the applicability of those words—are to settle every controverted point in their favour, without the shadow of an appeal, and the bitter and unsparing denunciation of every attempt at such appeal, as 'devilish practices against God his saints,' and of the bishops and others who thought better of the existing state of things, than they did, as 'impudent, shameless, and wainscote-faced bishops;'[1] all these are the marks of a bitter and unreasoning fanaticism, with which it is difficult if not impossible to deal, except with the strong hand. On the other hand, it appears certain that the bishops did use strong measures with these men, to an extent which to modern ideas appears harsh to an inexcusable degree. Mr. Arber, in his introduction, quotes contemporary documents showing twenty-five men in various prisons in London for ecclesiastical offences, many of whom appear to have been committed without warrants or kept in prison for months together without trial, and some beaten and 'cast in little ease,' and several to have died in prison, leaving their families destitute. To all this it must be added that printing was not permitted them; these very tracts were printed by stealth and under hiding, and the printers and authors hunted, im-
- ↑ See, e.g., Martin's Epistle, Arber's edit. pp. 30-1.
