MARPRELATE, MARTIN, CONTROVERSY. — Under the pseudonym of M., which means "scourge of prelates" (from the English mar and prelate), there is designated a Puritan writer of the 16th century, author of various libels against the Anglican hierarchy and against its bishops.
When Henry VIII of England separated from Rome, besides many doctrines and ceremonies of the Catholic Church, he wished especially to preserve the episcopate, even though this displeased some. During the reign of Mary Tudor (1553-58), many English Protestants, who had taken refuge in Switzerland, had become imbued with the anti-hierarchical doctrines of Calvinism. Having therefore returned to England upon the Queen's death, they hoped to reform the Anglican Church on the Calvinist or Presbyterian model, which they considered more conformable to primitive Christianity and purer: whence their name of "Puritans." Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603), although being more inclined to the episcopal regime which, unlike the Calvinist or Presbyterian one, gave her the possibility of dominating the Church through the choice of bishops, nevertheless proceeded with caution at first; however, toward the end of her reign and after the defeat of the Spanish "Armada," feeling secure, she began a veritable persecution against the Puritans of the realm. For this she made use of the Archbishop of Canterbury, G. Whitgift (1583-1604), who willingly made the Queen's designs his own, not so much by reason of the Puritans' doctrine on predestination, since he had been the author of the Lambeth Articles (v.), purely Calvinist, as instead because of their intense propaganda against the episcopal regime. He had draconian laws published against the authors and printers of Puritan pamphlets. Certain men resisted, such as G. Udall, G. Penry, G. Throckmorton, who, defying laws and the severest punishments and moving their printing press, with great dangers and risks, from one place to another, continued the struggle against the episcopate by means of pamphlets or libels signed by M. M.: thus began the "M. M. controversy." Seven were the pamphlets published under this pseudonym, all written in a jesting, skillful and many times vulgar tone, but which laid bare the miseries of the Anglican episcopate. The bishops responded first with a serious pamphlet, written by the Bishop of Winchester T. Cooper, but then, seeing that the people took more interest in the libels of the Marprelatists because of their brilliant and biting style, they availed themselves of the work of popular writers such as Lyly and Nashe, so that with the same weapons they might fight the adversary. The controversy properly lasted one year, from 1588, that is, to 1589. The Marprelatists in fact, persecuted tirelessly by the ecclesiastical and secular police, were discovered; their printing press was tracked down and confiscated, the printers imprisoned, tortured and fined. Of the principal promoters, moreover, Udall died in prison; Penry managed to flee to Scotland, but, returning to England, in 1592 he was hanged; Throckmorton, who appears to have been the principal author of the writings, was first condemned, but was subsequently pardoned because of the appeal he made to the lord chancellor.