MARPRELATE CONTROVERSY

marprelate controversy, a war of pamphlets waged in 1588 and 1589 between a puritan writer who employed the pseudonym "martin marprelate" and defenders of the established church. martin's tracts are characterized by violent and personal invective against the anglican dignitaries, by the assumption that the writer had numerous and powerful adherents and was able to enforce his demands for reform, and by a plain and homely style combined with pungent wit. while he maintained the puritan doctrines as a whole, the special point of his attack was the episcopacy. the pamphlets were printed at a secret press established by john penry, a welsh puritan, with the help of the printer robert waldegrave, about midsummer 1588, for the issue of puritan literature forbidden by the authorities. the first tract by "martin marprelate," known as the _epistle_, appeared at molesey in november 1588. it is in answer to _a defence of the government established in the church of englande_, by dr. john bridges, dean of salisbury, itself a reply to earlier puritan works, and besides attacking the episcopal office in general assails certain prelates with much personal abuse. the _epistle_ attracted considerable notice, and a reply was written by thomas cooper, bishop of winchester, under the title _an admonition to the people of england_, but this was too long and too dull to appeal to the same class of readers as the marprelate pamphlets, and produced little effect. penry's press, now removed to fawsley, near northampton, produced a second tract by martin, the _epitome_, which contains more serious argument than the _epistle_ but is otherwise similar, and shortly afterwards, at coventry, martin's reply to the _admonition_, entitled _hay any worke for cooper_ (march 1589). it now appeared to some of the ecclesiastical authorities that the only way to silence martin was to have him attacked in his own railing style, and accordingly certain writers of ready wit, among them john lyly, thomas nashe and robert greene, were secretly commissioned to answer the pamphlets. among the productions of this group were _pappe with an hatchet_ (sept. 1589), probably by lyly, and _an almond for a parrat_ (1590), which, with certain tracts under the pseudonym of pasquil, has been attributed to nashe (q.v.). some anti-martinist plays or shows (now lost) performed in 1589 were perhaps also their work. meanwhile, in july 1589, penry's press, now at wolston, near coventry, produced two tracts purporting to be by "sons" of martin, but probably by martin himself, namely, _theses martinianae_ by martin junior, and _the just censure of martin junior_ by martin senior. shortly after this, _more work for cooper_, a sequel to _hay any worke_, was begun at manchester, but while it was in progress the press was seized. penry however was not found, and in september issued from wolston or haseley _the protestation of martin marprelate_, the last work of the series, though several of the anti-martinist pamphlets appeared after this date. he then fled to scotland, but was later apprehended in london, charged with inciting rebellion, and hanged (may 1593). the authorship of the tracts has been attributed to several persons: to penry himself, who however emphatically denied it and whose acknowledged works have little resemblance in style to those of martin, to job throckmorton, and to henry barrow. see, for list and full titles of the tracts, related documents, and discussion of the authorship, e. arber's _introductory sketch to the martin marprelate controversy_ (1880), which, however, gives no connected account of the matter. a good summary, with quotations from the pamphlets, will be found in h. m. dexter's _congregationalism_ (new york, 1880), pp. 129-202. see also articles on john penry and job throckmorton in _dict. of nat. biography_; and for the history of the press, _bibliographica_, ii. 172-180. maskell's _martin marprelate controversy_ (1845) is of little service. the more important tracts have been reprinted by petheram in his series of _puritan discipline tracts_ (1842-1860), in arber's _english scholar's library_ (1879-1880), in r. w. bond's edition of lyly and in the editions of nashe. (r. b. mck.)