Autograph letter from Archbishop John Whitgift to William Cecil, Lord Burghley concerning the discovery of the Marprelate press (August 24, 1589)
On August 14, 1589 agents employed by Henry Stanley, earl of Derby, tracked John Hodgkins
and his two assistants, Valentine Simmes and Arthur Thomlin, to a rented house in Newton
Lane, just outside Manchester, where they seized press, paper, and printed sheets of a book in
progress(document 11). After questioning by local officials, the three captured printers were
brought to London for questioning by the Privy Council. Hearing about the seizure of the press,
Archbishop John Whitgift wrote the following letter to William Cecil, Lord Burghley on August
24. He begins with some church business, noting the unsuitability of Dr John Sprint (d. 1590),
archdeacon of Wiltshire and treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, for a bishopric. He then proceeds
to the happy news about the Marprelate controversy. Noting that he himself had been a particular
target of Martinist attack, “the greatest moate in there eye,” he nonetheless disclaims any
personal interest in the judicial outcome but requests that with respect to his calling and
profession, “I cowld wisch them delt with acording to there desertes, and the qualitie of there
offense.” He also notes that it would be better that the men be questioned by the Privy Council
than by church officials, “that the world may know that wee are men not cast off on all sydes, as
abjectes of the worlde, but that Justice shal as well take place in owre causes, as yt doth in all
other mens.”
The Privy Council examined the printers that same day, then handed them over to a
committee with instructions to “put them all to the torture” if they continued unforthcoming
(Acts of the Privy, n.s. XVIII, 59, 62). The information the men provided, possibly as a result of
being put to the rack, marked the beginning of the end of the most famous pamphlet war in
Elizabethan England.
Source: British Library Lansdowne MS 61/3, fol. 5. Printed in Arber (1879), 112-13.
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My verie good lord, Dr Sprint (whome your Lordship mentioned in your last letters) ys a man greatlie indetted; and by hys meanes, as I am informed, the Church of bristoll, whereof he ys deane, standith also indetted to her majestie for the tenthes and subsidies of that dioces, in some good rownd some of monie. Besides he ys noted to be a man of verie light and wanton behavior: And therefore I do not think hym to be mete for a bishopprik. I do understand that the printers of certaine bokes of Marten Marp. are sent up to your Lordships beeing fownd printing northward by the Earle of Dabie. I assuer my self that they shalbe delt with, acording to there desertes. The letters wherewith they were now taken printing, are the same whereby Marten Junior, and Marten senior, as they term them selfs, were printed: and therefore I dowt not, but that the author of those unchristian libles, may by them be detected. I know how greatlie your Lordship doth detest such actions beeing against all Christianitie, and not tollerated among the heathen. If wee weare such men as they wold make us, wee weare not worthy to lyve, much lesse to injoy owre places: and yet not to be used in that manner and sort. For my owne parte, in respect of my self (the greatest moate in there eye) I make smale accownt of there mallice, nether dyd I ever break slepe for the care thereof: yet in respect of my calling and profession, and of the scandall that may, by such lewde libles, be ministred to men apt to beleave anie thing, I cowld wisch them delt with acording to there desertes, and the qualitie of there offense: And that rather by your Lordships then by [verso] owre selfes, that the world may know that wee are men not cast off on all sydes, as abjectes of the worlde, but that Justice shal as well take place in owre causes, as yt doth in all other mens. The rather by cause wee susteane these injuries by martynistes, for doeing of owre duties in suppressing sectes and wicked opinions, and in manteyning the state and government by lawe established, which ys wounded thorowe owre sydes. And so with my hartie prayers to god for your Lordship I committ you to his tuition / from Canterb[ury] the 24 of August 1589.
your Lordships most assuered
Jo: Cantuar.
[Addressed:]
To the right honorable my verie good Lorde,
the Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England.
