London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Transactions, 66 (2015), 283—8
PASQUILL’S PROTESTATION: RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY AT LONDON STONE IN THE 16th CENTURY
John Clark
SUMMARY Stone’s mysterious history and supposed VLJQLþFDQFH ZHUH WR KDYH D FRQVLGHUDEOH Writers on the subject of the enigmatic London Stone LQÿXHQFHRQODWHUZULWHUV &ODUNÞ have often cited, as evidence for its role as a traditional Among other things, the author claimed place for public proclamations, a 16th-century that London Stone ‘had come to be one of publication usually referred to as Pasquill and the recognised places for the promulgation Marforius. In it ‘Pasquill’ announces his intention of edicts at the latter end of the sixteenth of posting a bill, his ‘Protestation’, on London Stone, century’ (Anon 1888, 242). The only and invites others to do the same. This paper considers evidence cited in support of this claim was the true nature of Pasquill and Marforius and its from a publication that had appeared in context, a religious controversy that shook Elizabethan ZKRVH ORQJ DQG HODERUDWH WLWOH LV England, and questions how far Pasquill’s proposed usually abbreviated to Pasquill and Marforius action can be interpreted as evidence of a common or The Return of Pasquill $QRQ 1DVKH practice at London Stone. In the spring of 2007 at LÞ 7KXVChambers’s Journal tells the Medieval and Tudor London Seminar, Institute of us: Historical Research, University of London, I presented ‘Set up this bill at London Stone. Let a paper under the title ‘Jack Cade and the renowned it be doone solemnly, with drom and Cavaliero Pasquill at London Stone’. The þrst part WUXPSHW DQG ORRNH \RX DGYDQFH P\ of that presentation provided the core of a paper later cullour on the top of the steeple right published in this journal, ‘Jack Cade at London Stone’ over against it’— runs a passage in Pasquil (Clark 2007); this essay is a rewritten and expanded and Marforius. And again we read: ‘If it version of the second half of the seminar paper. please them these dark winter nights to sticke uppe their papers uppon London In its edition for 21 April 1888 the popular Stone’ — from all of which it appears that weekly magazine Chambers’s Journal included LQWKRVHGD\VLWIXOþOOHGIXQFWLRQVZKLFK an article on London Stone, the historic and were a little later discharged in most rather mysterious block of stone then set places, as they still are in some, by the into an alcove in the wall of the church of town pump. (Anon 1888, 242) St Swithin in Cannon Street, City of London (Anon 1888). The anonymous author noted The author’s conclusion that London the sorry state of the stone and the general Stone ‘had come to be one of the recognised ignorance of it — ‘Few people, probably, places for the promulgation of edicts at have ever seen London Stone ...’ (ibid, 241). the latter end of the sixteenth century’ However, the author’s comments on London was subsequently repeated, with different 283 284 John Clark emphasis, by the eminent folklorist Lewis þUVWRIDVHULHVRIVHYHQVDWLULFDOSDPSKOHWV Spence. Spence wrote ‘At the end of the was published, their target the established sixteenth century it was still a recognised Church of England and its prelates — and spot for the public announcement of they appeared under the name of ‘Martin HGLFWVà 6SHQFH P\LWDOLFV 7KXV Marprelate’. Issued from nomadic pirate Spence adopted the view then fashionable presses operating outside the law, they have among folklorists that a ‘custom’ could (and been described as ‘among the liveliest prose probably should) be considered to have a satires to appear in the sixteenth century’ history of incalculable age pre-dating the 5XRII 7KH ELVKRSV UHSXWHGO\ þUVWUHFRUGRILW1 This has in turn fostered the paid a team of writers to respond in kind.3 growth of a belief that London Stone is not Thus was born the Martin Marprelate Cont- only of great age but has had some peculiar roversy, and ‘Martinists’ and ‘anti-Martinists’ VLJQLþFDQFH IRU /RQGRQHUV DQG D SHUKDSV exchanged shot-for-shot in print (ibidÞ esoteric relationship with the city throughout 2). The last Martin Marprelate pamphlet was the ages — a mythical London Stone that SXEOLVKHGLQ6HSWHPEHU EXWWKHIXURUH transcends the historical (though admittedly was slow to die down. There were arrests. SX]]OLQJ UHDOLW\ &ODUNÞ One supposed Martinist ringleader was The Chambers’s Journal contributor prob- hanged, another probably died in prison. ably took the reference to this rather ob- Among the ‘anti-Martinist’ pamphlets three VFXUH WKFHQWXU\ VRXUFH IURP RQH RU appeared under the name ‘Pasquill’. These other edition of John Brand’s Observations were once traditionally attributed to Thomas on Popular Antiquities — perhaps from the 1DVKH Þc SOD\ZULJKW SRHW DQG new edition of 1888 — which includes these pamphleteer, although almost certainly they same two quotations in a brief account of ZHUHQRWE\KLP 1DVKH Y Þ DQG /RQGRQ 6WRQH %UDQG 2 There there has been much debate about their the quotations are taken out of context, DXWKRUVKLS 7KH LGHQWLþFDWLRQ RI 3DVTXLOO referenced only to ‘Pasquill and Marforius, DV (GZDUG GH 9HUH WK (DUO RI 2[IRUG WR /RQG à DQG QR FRQFOXVLRQV DUH SURSRVHG E\ (OL]DEHWK $SSOHWRQ drawn about London Stone’s function as a has been dismissed by the recent editor of ‘place for the promulgation of edicts’. the Martin Marprelate texts as ‘implausible’ It is not clear whether the Chambers’s Journal %ODFN[FYLLLQ author was aware of the true nature of the Pasquill and Marforius, which is dated publication known as Pasquill and Marforius, 2FWREHU ZDV WKH VHFRQG RI WKHVH and it has certainly since been described Pasquill pamphlets. The reference to London ZURQJO\ DV ßD QRZ IRUJRWWHQ SOD\ RI à Stone needs to be read in this context — it is RUßDQ(OL]DEHWKDQSOD\à $FNUR\G not a description of an actual event, nor even :HVWZRRG 6LPSVRQ Pasquill and a realistically proposed course of action. Marforius is not, however, a play, although The pamphlet takes the form of a dialogue it does indeed take the form of a dialogue. between Pasquill (introduced as ‘the re- It is a pamphlet that was published as a nowned Cavaliero’) and his old friend Mar- contribution to a major religious controversy forius, who have met at the Royal Exchange in that divided the England of Elizabeth I — the London on Pasquill’s return from overseas, ‘Martin Marprelate Controversy’. with satirical comments on ‘Martin’ and his (QJODQG LQ WKH ODWH WK FHQWXU\ ZDV opinions.4 At the end of it Pasquill declares ULYHQE\UHOLJLRXVFRQÿLFW,WIDFHGQRWRQO\ his intention of setting out his own views the ever present threat of a resurgence of publicly, in a bill to be stuck up on London the suppressed Roman Catholic faith, but Stone, inviting others to do the same: disputes within the established Church of In the meane season Marforius, I take my England. Puritans and Presbyterians saw leaue of thee, charging thee vpon all our many of the practices of the Church of old acquaintance, and vppon my bless- England, with its authoritarian hierarchy ing, to set vp this bill at London stone. of priests, bishops and archbishops, as little Let it be doone sollemnly with Drom and better than Papist, and sought its reformation Trumpet, and looke you aduance my col- RSHQO\RUVXEYHUVLYHO\,Q2FWREHUWKH lours on the top of the steeple right ouer Pasquill’s Protestation: Religious Controversy at London Stone in the 16th Century
against it, that euery one of my Sould- of Rome, near the Forum, was an ancient LHUVPD\NHHSHKLVTXDUWHU $QRQ statue of a sea or river god where the same VLJ'LLLYHUVR 1DVKH L custom prevailed — it was (and is) known as Marforio (ibid Þ 3DVTXLQR DQG ,QWKHþQDOWUDFWLQWKHß3DVTXLOOàVHULHVThe Marforio are the two best known of Rome’s First Parte of Pasquils Apologie $QRQ LW ‘talking statues’. seems that Pasquill has made London Stone But the practice of posting up provocative his headquarters, since it is addressed ‘From bills of this sort had in any case long been my Castell and Collours at London stone known in London. Already in the 14th and the 2. of Iuly. Anno. 1590à 1DVKH L WK FHQWXULHV WKHUH DUH DEXQGDQW UHIHU WKXVPDLQWDLQLQJDQDSSDUHQWPLOLWDU\ HQFHV WR RIþFLDO SURFODPDWLRQV SROLWLFDO context for his activities. tracts and partisan letters being posted up However, Pasquill and Marforius continues around London — at the Cross in Cheap, at with a transcript of Pasquill’s proposed proc- the doors of St Paul’s, around the Palace of lamation: Westminster, in Fleet Street and Cheapside 3$649,/6 3527(67$7,21 93321 and at London Bridge, on the doors and /21'216721( windows of private houses, or simply in ‘divers I Caualiero Pasquill, the writer of this SODFHVLQWKHFLW\à *UDQVGHQ Þ simple hand, a young man, of the age of 6FDVH %\WKHODWHWKFHQWXU\WKH some few hundred yeeres, lately knight- availability of cheap printing facilitated the ed in Englande, with a beetle and a plastering of London buildings, walls and bucking tub, to beat a little reason about structures with printed as well as handwritten Martins head, doe make this my Protes- SRVWHUVÞRIþFLDOQRWLFHVSOD\ELOOVWLWOHSDJHV tation vnto the world, that if any man, of new books and ‘siquises’ (advertisements, woman, or childe, haue any thing to say so called from their customary opening against Martin the great, or any of his words in Latin or in English ‘si quis …’ or ‘if abettors, of what state or calling soeuer anyone ...’), not to mention ‘libels’ (that is, they be, noble or ignoble, from the declarations of political or religious belief, very Court-gates to the Coblers stall, if or personal attacks on individuals, usually it please them these dark Winter-nights, DQRQ\PRXVDQGVFXUULORXV 6WHUQÞ to sticke vppe their papers vppon Lon- VHHDOVR6WHUQ Þ don-stone, I will there giue my atten- In her paper on playbills and advertise- dance to receiue them, from the day of ments in Early Modern London, Tiffany Stern the date hereof, to the full terme and re- notes some ‘publick places’ that were then uolution of seven yeeres ensuing. Dated notorious for the posting of bills, for example 2FWREULV $QQR 0LOOLPR 4XLOOLPR ‘Pauls Church dore’ and even the internal Trillimo, per me venturous Pasquill the &DXDOLHUR $QRQ VLJ 'LLL YHUVR FROXPQVRIWKHFDWKHGUDOWKH2OGDQG1HZ 1DVKH L ([FKDQJHV DQG &KHDSVLGH 6WHUQ Q 6KH GUDZV DWWHQWLRQ WR D SDVVDJH That Pasquill should, with the aid of in Benjamin Rudyerd’s Le Prince d’Amour, an Marforius, set up a bill in this way, and invite account of the Christmas Revels held at the others to do the same, is appropriate. His 0LGGOH7HPSOHLQ ZKHUHZHUHDG name, otherwise Pasquin or Pasquino, was [...] there was a Libel set up against þUVWDSSOLHGWRDEDWWHUHGFODVVLFDOVWDWXHLQ him in all famous places of the City, as 5RPH QHDU WKH 3LD]]D 1DYRQD RQ ZKLFK 4XHHQ+LWKH 1HZJDWH WKH 6WRFNV 3LO- LW EHFDPH WUDGLWLRQDO LQ WKH WK FHQWXU\ lory,8 3LVVLQJ &RQGXLW and (but that to stick up lampoons and political satires — the Provost Marshall was his inward ßSDVTXLQDGHVà 5HQGLQD 5RRP friend) it should not have missed Bride- 2XU ß3DVTXLOOà DGRSWV WKH /DWLQ IRUP well. (ibid 5XG\HUG of the name, Pasquillus, as it appears for example in the title of a collection of the 1RQHRIWKHVHVRXUFHVDSSDUHQWO\PHQWLRQV YHUVHV SXEOLVKHG LQ WKH þUVW RI PDQ\ /RQGRQ6WRQHVSHFLþFDOO\ such anthologies: Carmina ad Pasquillum 6WHUQ Þ DOVR VXJJHVWV WKDW posita 5HQGLQD 2QWKHRWKHUVLGH ßOHJDOàVSDFHIRUWKHGLVSOD\RIRIþFLDOELOOV John Clark was distinct from that used for the random In spite of Pasquill’s drum and trumpet, SRVWLQJRIVLTXLVHVOLEHOVDQGVXFKXQRIþFLDO his bill seems simply to be one advertisement and private notices. She cites Adam Fox’s among many. But it is an advertisement that study of Oral and Literate Culture )R[ invites others to post up libels, ‘any thing [...] IRUWKHSRVWLQJRISXEOLFSURFODPDWLRQV against Martin the great’, and to do so, as was ‘where they might best be seen and redd of all customary, under cover of darkness — ‘these men’, usually in marketplaces and churches. GDUN :LQWHUQLJKWVà $QRQ VLJ 'LLL )R[ DOVRLGHQWLþHVW\SLFDOSODFHV YHUVR 1DVKH L for the posting of libellous verses, such as the $W WKH HQG RI WKH WK FHQWXU\ /RQGRQ parish pump, the pillory, the maypole or the Stone may well have been awash with bills, market cross. Stern suggests that in London libels and siquises — just like the Pissing RIþFLDOQRWLFHVZHUHPRUHOLNHO\WREHIRXQG Conduit or the Stocks. There is nothing, at parish churches, ward courts, company either among the evidence of late Tudor KDOOVDQGSRVVLEO\WKHFLW\JDWHV advertising practice or in Pasquill and In that case, can we, from the evidence of Marforius, to support the contention that Pasquill and Marforius GHþQH WKH QDWXUH RI WKH 6WRQH KDG DQ\ VSHFLDO VLJQLþFDQFH DW ELOOSRVWLQJDW/RQGRQ6WRQH":DVLWßRIþFLDOà" this time that set it apart from these other The contributor to Chambers’s Journal, as we informal advertisement hoardings. have seen, concluded solely on the basis of [email protected] Pasquill and Marforius that London Stone ‘had come to be one of the recognised places for the promulgation of edicts at the latter end of NOTES the sixteenth century’ (Anon 1888, 242), and 1 3HWHU$FNUR\G DOVRTXRWHVPasquill was followed in this belief by others. and Marforius in support of a contention Stern, however, simply notes that, on that London Stone had a ‘judicial role’. the basis of its appearance in Pasquill and He presumably did not consult the original Marforius, London Stone should be added SXEOLFDWLRQ VLQFH KH LGHQWLþHV LW DV ßD QRZ to the tally of ‘famous places of the City’ for forgotten play’. VHWWLQJ XS ELOOV DQG DGYHUWLVHPHQWV 2 The account of London Stone, with the Þ DQG VXUHO\ ULJKWO\ )RU DV WKH WH[W quotations from Pasquill and Marforius þUVW clearly shows, Pasquill’s ‘Protestation upon appeared (as a long footnote) in the revised London Stone’ is not a public proclamation and expanded version of Brand’s original work, or edict. It is an advertisement, literally a published after his death under the editorship ‘siquis’. We can compare it with a ‘siquis’ RI6LU+HQU\(OOLV %UDQGLL 3 that Stern quotes from Barten Holyday’s play Of the ‘anti-Martinist’ campaign, the editor of the Marprelate tracts Joseph Black concludes TechnogamiaRI ‘there seems little doubt that major elements If there be any Gentleman, that, for the ac- RIWKHFDPSDLJQZHUHRIþFLDOO\RUJDQL]HGDQG complishing of his natural indowments, sanctioned. More than twenty explicitly anti- intertaynes a desire of learning the lan- 0DUWLQLVWZRUNVVXUYLYH1RWDOOZHUHSDUWRI guages [...] he shall, to his abundant sat- WKH RIþFLDO UHVSRQVH >EXW@ PDQ\ WKRVH isfaction, be made happy in his expecta- that deploy a recognizably Martinist style, tions and successe, if he please to repaire to ZHUH SXEOLVKHG ZLWK VRPH PHDVXUH RI RIþFLDO WKHVLJQHRIWKH*OREH 6WHUQ HQFRXUDJHPHQWà %ODFNO[LL 4 The title in full is: The Returne of the renowned The tenor and style are those of Pasquill’s Caualiero Pasquill of England, from the other side ‘Protestation’: the Seas, and his meeting with Marforius at London vpon the Royall Exchange. Where they encounter with if any man, woman, or childe, haue any a little houshold talke of Martin and Martinisme, thing to say against Martin the great [...] discovering the scabbe that is bredde in England; and if it please them these dark Winter-nights, conferring together about the speedie dispersing of the to sticke vppe their papers vppon Lon- golden Legende of the lives of the Saints. don-stone, I will there give my attendance The tower of St Swithin’s church on the >@ $QRQ VLJ 'LLL YHUVR 1DVKH north side of Cannon Street, opposite the L P\LWDOLFVLQHDFKFDVH original site of London Stone. Pasquill’s Protestation: Religious Controversy at London Stone in the 16th Century
$SSOHWRQ Þ QRWHVWKHSUHYDOHQFH %ODFN-/ HG The Martin Marprelate Tracts: of military terms and images throughout the A Modernized and Annotated Edition, Cambridge three Pasquill texts. However, Londoners would Brand, J, 1813 Observations on Popular Antiquities: also have been familiar with companies of Chieÿy Illustrating the Origin of our 9ulgar actors parading through the streets ‘with drum Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions arranged and trumpet’ to advertise their next production and rev with additions by Henry Ellis, 2 vols, 6WHUQ VRWKDWWKHSUHVHQFHRIWKHVH London DFFRPSDQLPHQWVGRHVQRWLQLWVHOIFRQþUPWKDW Brand, J, 1888 Observations on Popular Antiquities: the image is a military one! Chieÿy Illustrating the Origin of our 9ulgar The subject was also discussed by Professor Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions ... with the Caroline Barron in her inaugural lecture Additions of Sir Henry Ellis rev edn, London ‘The writing on the wall: the uses of literacy in &ODUN-ß-DFN&DGHDW/RQGRQ6WRQHàTrans Medieval London’ at Royal Holloway, University London Middlesex Archaeol Soc Þ RI/RQGRQ2FWREHU &ODUN-ß/RQGRQ6WRQH 6WRQHRI%UXWXV or fetish stone — making the myth’ Folklore 121, 8 ‘... the Stocks, Pillory, ...’: There were a Þ number of sets of stocks around the city ‘to )R[$Oral and Literate Culture in England, SXQLVK YDJDERQGVà 6WRZ LL DQG 1500—1700, Oxford there were also both a pillory and a stocks on *UDQVGHQ$ Historical Writing in England Cornhill attached to a prison house known as 2: c.1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century, London the Tun (ibidL Þ +RZHYHUßWKH6WRFNVà +DUEHQ+$ A Dictionary of London: Being might otherwise refer to the Stocks Market, Notes Topographical and Historical Relating to which stood on the site now occupied by the the Streets and Principal Buildings in the City of 0DQVLRQ +RXVH +DUEHQ Þ ,Q DQ London, London earlier manuscript version of Rudyerd’s text Manning, J A, (ed) 1841 Memoirs of Sir Benjamin (Manning 1841, 11) the reading ‘... the Stocks’ Rudyerd, Knt, Containing his Speeches and Poems Pillory ...’, with an apostrophe rather than a ..., London FRPPDLVIRXQG WKHUHIHUHQFHPLJKWEHWRD 1DVKH 7 The Works of Thomas Nashe R pillory by the Stocks Market rather than to two % 0F.HUURZ HG YROV UHSULQWHG ZLWK separate structures. corrections and notes, F P Wilson (ed), The ‘Pissing Conduit’ by the Stocks Market Oxford was presumably so called because it provided The Oxford English Dictionary J A Simpson & only a thin and intermittent stream of water E S C Weiner (eds), 2nd ednYROVOxford, 6WRZ L KWWS ZZZRHGFRPYLHZ(QWU\ DFFHVVHG$SULO Thus the Oxford English Dictionary quotes 5HQGLQD & Pasquino statua parlante: IURP D OHWWHU RI %LVKRS /RQJODQG LQ Quattro secoli di pasquante, Rome ‘Suche famous lybells and bills as be sett uppe 5RRP$ HG Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase in night tymes upon Chirche doores’ (Oxford and Fable, Millennium edn, London English Dictionary VY ßOLEHOà PHDQLQJ >5XG\HUG%@Le Prince d’Amour; or the Prince For the earlier use of the Latin term ‘libelli of Love. With a Collection of Several Ingenious IDPRVLàVHH6FDVH Þ Poems and Songs by the Wits of the Age, London 5XRII - ( Macmillan’s Handbook of BIBLIOGRAPHY Elizabethan and Stuart Literature, London 6FDVH : ßâ6WUDQJH DQG ZRQGHUIXO ELOOVã $FNUR\G3London: The Biography, London bill casting and political discourse in late $QRQ The Returne of the renowned Caualiero medieval England’ in R Copeland, D Lawton Pasquill of England ... and his meeting with & W Scase (eds) New Medieval Literatures 2, Marforius at London vpon the Royall Exchange ..., 2[IRUGÞ London 6SHQFH/ Legendary London: Early London $QRQ The First parte of Pasquils Apologie. in Tradition and History, London Wherin he renders a reason to his friends of his long 6WHUQ7ßâ2QHDFK:DOODQG&RUQHU3RDVWã silence ..., London playbills, title-pages, and advertising in Early Anon, 1888 ‘London Stone’ Chambers’s J WK Modern London’ Engl Literary Renaissance 6HULHVYRO $SULO Þ Þ $SSOHWRQ ( An Anatomy of the Marprelate 6WHUQ7 Documents of Performance in Early Controversy, 1588—1596: Retracing Shakespeare’s Modern England, Cambridge Identity and that of Martin Marprelate, Lewiston, 6WRZ - A Survey of London 2 vols 1< UHSULQWHG &/.LQJVIRUG HG 2[IRUG 288 John Clark
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