A Letter sent by F. A., touching the Proceedings in a private Quarell and Unkindnesse, between Arthur Hall and Melchisidech Mallerie, Gentlemen, to his very Friend L. B., being in Italy. With an admonition by the Father of F. A. to him, being a Burgesse of the Parliament, for his better Behaviour therein. London, by Henry Bynneman, 1579-80.
A book presenting a curious view of the habits and manners of the young men of family and fashion in the reign of Elizabeth. It is reprinted in the Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana. Upon a motion made by Mr. Norton in the House of Commons on February 4th, 1580/81, stating that this book was "done and procured" by Mr. Arthur Hall, a member of that House: it was resolved that the Sergeant at Arms be forthwith sent to apprehend Mr. Hall, and the printer was also to be sent for; and accordingly on the 6th February Mr. Hall was brought to the bar and admitted the offence. On the 14th February it was resolved that he should be committed to the Tower for six months, and so much longer as until he should willingly make a retractation; that he be fined 500 marks, and be expelled the House of Commons. (Vide Commons' Journals, vol. 1, pp. 122, 124, 125, 126, 132, 136.)
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The Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf whereinto England is like to be swallowed by another French marriage, if the Lord forbid not the banes, by letting her Majestie see the sin and punishment thereof. Mense Augusti Anno 1579.
According to Camden[1] the Queen was much incensed at this book, in which those of the Council who favoured the marriage are taxed as ungrateful to their Prince and Country; the Queen herself (in the midst of several flattering expressions) is glanced at as unlike herself; the Duke of Anjou slandered with unworthy reproaches; the French nation odiously defamed; and the marriage itself, in regard of the difference of religion, (as of the daughter of God with a son of Antichrist) with virulent words condemned, as profane, dangerous to the Church, and destructive to the Commonwealth; and this proved out of the Holy Scriptures, miserably wrested. Neither would the Queen be persuaded that the author of the book had any other intent but to procure the hatred of her subjects against her, (who had always no less regard of the love of her people than she had of her own authority, and as Princes use to do, made it her chief care to preserve her reputation) and privately to open a gap for some prodigious innovation; considering that the writer had not so much as mentioned the security of the Queen and realm, or prevention of dangers to either, and that the States of the Realm had before with all earnestness besought her to marry, as the most assured remedy against the threatening mischiefs. These things she declared by public proclamation,[2] wherein having condemned the author of the book as a publisher of sedition, she highly commended the Duke of Anjou's good affection towards her and the Protestant religion, and expressed her resentment that so great an injury should be offered to so noble a Prince, and one that had so well deserved, who had desired nothing to be altered either in the commonwealth or religion: and withal, she commended Simier, the Duke of Anjou's agent, for his wisdom and discretion, whom some had loaded with calumnies and slanders. She also advertised the people that the said book was nothing else but a fiction of some traitors, to raise envy abroad, and sedition at home; and commanded it to be burnt before the magistrate's face. From this time forward she began to be a little more incensed against the puritans, or innovators, from whom she easily believed these kind of things proceeded: and indeed, within a few days after, John Stubbs of Lincoln's Inn, a furious hot-headed professor of religion, (whose sister, Thomas Cartwright, a ringleader amongst the Puritans, had married) the author of this book, William Page, who dispersed the copies, and Singleton the printer, were apprehended; against whom sentence was given, that their right hands should be cut off, according to an Act of Philip and Mary, against the authors and publishers of seditious writings. Though some lawyers muttered that the sentence was erroneous and void by reason of the false noting of the time wherein the law was made; and that that Act was only temporary, and died with Queen Mary. Of this number was Dalton, who often bawled it out openly, and was committed to the Tower; and Monson, a judge in the Court of Common Pleas, was so sharply reprehended, that he resigned his place, forasmuch as Wray, Lord Chief Justice of England, made it appear that there was no mistake in noting the time; and proved by the words of the Act, that the Act was made against those who should abuse the King by seditious writings, and that the King of England never dieth; yea that that Act was renewed Anno primo Elizabethæ, to be in force during the life of her and the heirs of her body. Hereupon Stubbs and Page had their right hands cut off with a cleaver, driven through the wrist by the force of a mallet, upon a scaffold in the market place at Westminster. The printer was pardoned. I remember (being there present) that Stubbs, after his right hand was cut off, put off his hat with his left, and said with a loud voice "God save the Queen." The multitude standing about was deeply silent; either out of an horror of this new and unwonted kind of punishment, or else out of commiseration towards the man, as being of an honest and unblamable repute; or else out of hatred of the marriage, which most men presaged would be the overthrow of religion.
On October 5th, 1579, a circular was prepared from the Council to the bishops, to give notice to the clergy and others that the seditious suggestions set forth in Stubbs's book were without foundation, and that special noted preachers should declare the same to the people.
Eleven copies of this circular are in the Public Record Office unfinished, some signed, others not fully signed, and some not signed at all; from which it would appear that none were sent, and that the matter dropped.
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Henry or Harry Nicholas, The works of.