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The Elizabethan Protestant Press: a Study of the Printing and Publishing of Protestant Literature in English

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The Elizabethan Protestant Press: a Study of the Printing and Publishing of Protestant Literature in English THE ELIZABETHAN PROTESTANT PRESS: A STUDY OF THE PRINTING AND PUBLISHING OF PROTESTANT RELIGIOUS LITERATURE IN ENGLISH, EXCLUDING BIBLES AND LITURGIES, 1558-1603. By WILLIAN CALDERWOOD, M.A., B.D. Submitted for the Ph.D. degree, University College. (c\ (LONBI 2 ABSTRACT Uninterrupted for forty-five years, from 1558 to 1603, Protestants in England were able to use the printing press to disseminate Protestant ideology. It was a period long enough for Protestantism to root itself deeply in the life of the nation and to accumulate its own distinctive literature. English Protestantism, like an inf ant vulnerable to the whim of a parent under King Henry VIII, like a headstrong and erratic child in Edward's reign, and like a sulking, chastised youth in the Marian years, had come of age by the end of the Elizabethan period. At the outset of Elizabeth's reign the most pressing religious need was a clear, well-reasoned defence of the Church of England. The publication of Bishop Jewel's Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae in 1562 was a response to that need and set the tone of literary polemics for the rest of the period. It was a time of muscle- flexing for the Elizabethan Church, and especially in the opening decades, a time when anti-Catholicism was particularly vehement. Consistently throughout the period, when Queen and country were threatened by Catholic intrigues and conspiracies, literature of exceptional virulence was published against Catholicism. But just as the press became an effective tool for defenders and apologists of the Church of England, it soon was being used as an instrument to advance the cause of further reform by more radical Protestants. Puritans, Familists and Separatists resorted to the printing press to publicize their particular brand of Protestantism. Puritans, especially, used the press to put pressure on Parliament by arranging the publication of their demands to coincide with the calling of Parliament. Stinging attacks on the established church were met with stout resistance; authors, printers and booksellers often were imprisoned and the literature suppressed. The radicals then turned to secret presses, or to presses outside of England, and continued their onslaught against the "half" reformed Church of England. The bitterness and pugnacity once reserved for the popes of Rome now became, for the dissidents, appropriate senti- ments to be levelled at English bishops. Religious polemics, however, though most eye-catching and revealing from the historian's viewpoint because they reflect pressing issues and concerns, were only one aspect of Elizabethan literature. While the polemicists crossed swords, the great majority of authors 3 and translators busied themselves in producing works designed for general Protestant edification. These were the devotional, didactic and exegetical works that went into multiple editions and were in constant demand throughout the reign. Polemical and controversial writings were published from time to time, but works of edification issued from the press in a continuous stream throughout the reign. The constant repetition of Protestant doctrine and attitudes re- inforced the Protestant policies consistently laid down by the government. For moral and financial support in publishing their literature, Elizabethan Protestant authors relied heavily upon a relatively small group of persons. The great majority of dedications in Protestant literature were addressed to no more than a dozen or so patrons, and, except for a few, tended to sympathize with moderate Puritanism. Furthermore, the Elizabethan period was a watershed in the history of literary patronage and this was reflected in Protestant literature. Printers and publishers became more important to the author than the patron in getting his manuscript into print and furthering his literary pursuits. And it was a relatively small number of print- ers and publishers (no more than twenty-five) who bore the brunt of financing the lion's share of Protestant literature. With such a powerful and relatively new medium as print to dis- seminate ideology, it is not surprising that strong censorship was exercised. From the Queen's Injunctions of 1566, when the Vestments controversy was at its height and offensive Puritan tracts were being published, control of the press tightened as Catholics and radical Protestants became more adept at clandestine printing and at smuggling their literature into the country. Officers of the govern- ient, the church and the Stationers' Company worked so effectively together in their "search and destroy" missions for printing presses used in illegal publishing ventures that, by the end of the period, almost all offensive religious literature had to be printed abroad. The role of the printing press in Elizabethan England is com- parable to that of television in the 20th century. As television revolutionizes the art of politics, from political party conventions to national elections, so the printing press affected politics and religion in the last half of the 16th century. The most effective ay for Puritans, for example, to attack and embarrass the Establish- nent -- and for the Establishment to defend itself -- was to use the medium of print. So much more efficient than preaching -- with much less risk of detection -- the press replaced the pulpit as the main instrument of religious education and of religious reform. 5 CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT 2 PREFACE 7 PART ONE: PROTESTANT IDEOLOGY IN PRINT Chap. I: The Book trade in England 12 (a) The Growth of the Book trade from 1476 - 1558. (b) The Elizabethan Protestant Press. Chap. II: The Affirmation and Defence of Protestantism, 1558-1603. 21 (a) The Link with Continental Protestantism. (b) Protestant-Catholic Literary Skirmishes. (c) Against Catholic Institutions. (d) Against the Church of Rome. (e) Against Catholic Doctrine and Practices. (f) Protestant Persuasion. Chap. III: Protestant Against Protestant, 1558-1583. 55 (a) Marian Exiles. (b) The Vestiarlan Controversy. (c) The Admonition Controversy. (d) The Family of Love. (e) Separatist Apologetics. (f) Archbishop GrindaL and th Puritans. Chap. IV: Protestant Against Protestant, 1583-1603. 90 (a) Archbidhop Whitgift and Enforcement of Conformity. (b) From Subscription to Marprelate. (c) The Aftermath of Marprelate. (d) Wrestling with Separatism. (e) The Puritan "Register". (f) Defence of Establishment. (g) The Last Puritan Shots. Chap. V: Protestant EdIfication, 1558-1603. 141 (a) Devotional Literature. (b) Didactic Literature. (c) Social Criticism and Commentary. PART TWO: PATRONS AND PRINTERS Chap. VI: Patronage 175 (a) Significance of Dedications (b) Single-Patron Dedications. (c) Multi-Patron and Collective forms of Dedications. 6 Page Chap. VII: The Orthodox Press 199 (a) Edwardian-Elizabethan Printers and Publishers. (b) Elizabethan Printers and Publishers. (c) The Contribution of Trade Printers. Chap. VIII: The Radical Press 225 (a) Vehicles of Puritan Propaganda. (b) An Early Case of Surreptitious Printing by an Established Printer. (c) The Clandestine Press. (d) The Foreign Press PART THREE: CENSORSHIP AND CONCLUSION Chap. IX: Restrictions and Regulations 266 (a) Control of the Press before 1558. (b) Control of the Elizabethan Press: Decrees and Ordinances. (c) Control of the Elizabethan Press: Enforcement. Chap. X: Conclusion: Impact of the Press on Elizabethan Society 302 (a) Literacy. (b) Availability. (c) Novelty of Printing. (d) Power of Print. BIBLIOGRAPHY I: Sources Consulted in the Preparation 332 of this Thesis. BIBLIOGRAPHY II: Elizabethan Protestant Literature 357 Arranged According to Dedicatees. BIBLIOGRAPHY III: Elizabethan Protestant Literature 401 Arranged According to Translators 7 PREFACE Although the English book trade of the Sixteenth century has already received much attention from the standpoint of literary scholarship, yet much less attention has been given to the important part it played in nourishing and stabilizing Protestantism in England. That the printing press rendered invaluable service to the Protestant cause in itS initial phase in Germany is clearly evident in the use made of it by Martin Luther. Within a few years of nailing his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Luther became the most widely read and most influential writer on religious subjects in Germany. 1 This would have been impossible without the aid of the printing press. As soon as Luther published a work in Wittenberg, which became the dominant printing center during the Reformation period, it was printed and reprinted in other places like Leipzig, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Strassburg, and Basle, usually at two, three, or four printing presses in the city at once. The average number of editions of his popular works published up to 1520 was twelve, some having fewer but others as many as twenty- four. Of the thirty writings published by Luther between March, 1517, and the summer of 1520, about 370 editIons had already been printed by the latter year. 2 These statistics adequately illustrate the complementary functions of these two great revolutionary develop- ments, the printing press and Protestantisin, in Germany; it will be one of the purposes of this study to show their interaction in the establishment of the Protestant faith in England. Originally, the intended subject of this dissertation was the Elizabethan Puritan press. However, since most of the Puritan3 literature was published by printers who mainly printed Protestant material, it seemed more feasible to expand the study
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