The Marprelate Controversy

On this day in history, 23rd February 1601, Job Throckmorton, religious pamphleteer and Member of Parliament, was buried at Haseley in Warwickshire.

It is believed that Throckmorton was one of the men responsible for the "Martin Marprelate tracts". These religious tracts, which attacked the established church, were written under the pseudonym Martin Marprelate (and his sons) and published in 1588 and 1589 by John Penry and Robert Waldegrave. In his article on Throckmorton, Patrick Collinson, writes that a comparison of Throckmorton's The Defence of Job Throkmorton Against the Slaunders of Maister Sutcliffe (1594) with the Marprelate satires "has persuaded modern critical opinion that if these satires had a single author, that author was Throckmorton", although Throckmorton denied it. Other names linked to the tracts include the publisher John Penry, Sir Michael Hicks, Henry Barrow, Roger Williams, George Carleton and Patrick Collinson.

"The Marprelate Controversy" was a pamphlet war between the writers of the Marprelate tracts and defenders of the Church. Defenders included Thomas Cooper, Bishop of Winchester; writer and playwright John Lyly, writer and playwright Thomas Nashe, and dramatist Robert Greene.

The Marprelate tracts included:

• The Epistle - This can be read at https://archive.org/details/epistleseptember00marpuoft
• The Epitome This can be read at https://archive.org/details/anepitomefirstb00pethgoog
• Certain Mineral and Metaphysical School-points - This can be read at http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Marprelate/Minerals.pdf
• View of Some Part of Such Public Wants
• Hay Any Work For Cooper This can be read at https://archive.org/details/hayanyworkeforc00marpgoog
• Theses Martinianae - This can be read at http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Marprelate/Theses.pdf
• The Just Censure of Martin Junior - This can be read at http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Marprelate/Just_Censure.pdf
• More Work for Cooper
• The Protestation of Martin Mar prelate - This can be read at http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Marprelate/Protestation.pdf

You can find details of other tracts related to Martin Marprelate at http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/marprelate.html.

Defending tracts included:

• An Admonition to the People of England - This can be read at https://archive.org/details/admonitiontopeop00coop
• Pappe with an Hatchet - This can be read at https://archive.org/stream/papwithahatchet00pethgoog#page/n9/mode/2up
• An Almond for a Parrot - This can be read at https://archive.org/details/almondforparrot00nash
• A countercuffe giuen to Martin Iunior by the ventruous, hardie, and renowned Pasquill of England caualiero ; not of olde Martins making, which newlie knighted the saints in heauen, with rise vp Sir Peter and Sir Paule, but lately dubd for his seruice at home in the defence of his countrey, and for the cleane breaking of his staffe vppon Martins face.

You can see a chronology of the printing of the tracts at http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Marprelate/chronology_printing.pdf.

You can read more about the Marprelate Controversy and the tracts at http://www.bartleby.com/213/1701.html and in William Pierce's book An historical introduction to the Marprelate tracts; a chapter in the evolution of religious and civil liberty in England, which can be read online at https://archive.org/details/anhistoricalint01piergoog.

Picture: Title page of the Cavaliero Pasquill's "Countercuffe to Martin Junior," 1589, Wikipedia.

Notes and Sources

• Collinson, Patrick (2004) "Throckmorton, Job (1545-1601), politician and religious pamphleteer", http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101027391/Job-Throckmorton, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Marprelate Controversy, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marprelate_Controversy.
• The Marprelate Tracts - http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/marprelate.html
• Archive.org Internet Archive - https://archive.org/