You probably haven’t seen many treasure maps with the X marking the spot right in the middle of Oxford. But at Regent’s we have a whole chamber of treasures lying right underneath the Vinson corridor: The Angus Library and Archive, the world’s leading collection of Baptist history and heritage. Today, we are delighted to showcase one of the collection’s treasures!

Did you know that pamphlets were an early form of printed material and that the Angus holds a rich collection of them dating from the sixteenth century onwards? Quickly and easily produced, sold widely and cheaply, they were an extremely popular way to spread news, opinions, and information – some of which we might now deem to be less factual.

This particular pamphlet, held in the Angus Library, has the somewhat confusing title, Pappe with an hatchet.: Alias, a figge for my God sonne. Or cracke me this nut. Or a countrie cuffe, that is, a sound boxe of the eare, for the idiot Martin to hold his peace, seeing the patch will take no warning. It is a fine example of late sixteenth century religious propaganda, published in 1589.

Despite the humorous title, it has a serious intent, taking aim at a mysterious figure known as ‘Martin Marprelate’, now believed to be a group of men including Job Throckmorton (a Member of Parliament), John Penry (a Separatist Preacher and owner of a printing press) and John Udall (a Puritan clergyman).

Martin Marprelate published a series of tracts directly criticising the episcopacy at a time when the powers of the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift, had been greatly extended. The government responded in kind by employing a group of professional writers to retaliate, one of whom, John Lyly, styled himself ‘Pap Hatchet’ and set about trying to undermine and damage Martin with the sharp whit of his prose. Martin is accordingly called ‘an unmannerly knave’, ‘a Monarch in his own moyst conceit’, a man who ‘makes but porridge for the divil’ and, threatens Pappe, ‘if hee meddle with mee, Ile make his braines so hot that they shall crumble, and rattle in his warpt scull, like pepper in a dride bladder”!

Though Throckmorton denied any connection with Marprelate and escaped punishment, John Uldall was imprisoned on charges of sedition, while John Penry met a terrible end. Found guilty of sedition, he was hung at the age of just 30 years old and is now known as a Protestant martyr. Lyly meanwhile lived a successful and varied life as a popular author, acclaimed playwright, sometime debtor, sometime courtier of Elizabeth I, and a man of dazzling wit.

As he wrote: “Rip up my life, discipher my name, fill thy answer as full of lies as of lines, swel like a toade, hisse like an adder, bite like a dog, & chatter like a monkey, my pen is prepared and my minde; and if yee chaunce to finde any worse words than you brought, let them be put in your dads dicionarie”!

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With thanks to Emily Burgoyne, Angus Librarian. Adapted from article in Regent’s Now 2024, p. 4.