george gifford, puritan propaganda and popular religion in elizabethan england

24
George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England Author(s): Dewey D. Wallace, Jr. Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Apr., 1978), pp. 27-49 Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3003738 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 19:07 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Sixteenth Century Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Upload: jr

Post on 15-Jan-2017

215 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan EnglandAuthor(s): Dewey D. Wallace, Jr.Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Apr., 1978), pp. 27-49Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3003738 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 19:07

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheSixteenth Century Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Sixteenth Century Journal IX, 1 (1978)

George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Dewey D. Wallace, Jr. * The George Washington University

MUCH ATTENTION HAS been given lately to a social history which seeks to determine the feelings and aspirations of the ordinary person, and such an inquiry often leads to the study of the religious attitudes of a society. It is difficult, however, to find the less precise beliefs of those whom the Eliza- bethan Puritan George Gifford called "the common sort."' Among important recent studies of Tudor and Stuart England which have attempted this may be mentioned A. D. J. Macfarlane's Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England and Keith Thomas' Religion and the Decline of Magic. Both of these utilize sources other than literary, such as wills, court records, and local archives; both are also informed by insights drawn from anthropology. Nonetheless, both Macfarlane and Thomas depend on published writings of the period they are studying, and both cite George Gifford.2 No doubt the principal reason for interest in Gifford is that he wrote on witchcraft,3 but it also stems from the fact that his writings pay an unusual degree of attention to describing the attitudes of "the common sort" even though he deplored their attitudes. In a 1967 article James Hitchcock wrote of Gifford that he "showed in all his writings that he understood the popular mind better" than most of his "learned contemporaries, a judgment with which I would concur. This

*An earlier version of this article was presented at the American Society of Church History meeting, Washington, D.C., December 28, 1976. 1 wish to acknowledge several helpful suggestions made by Richard L. De Molen (Folger Shakespeare Library).

'George Gifford, A Briefe discourse of certaine points of the religion, which is among the common sort of Christians, which may be termed the Countrie Divinitie. With a nanifest confutation of the same, after the order of a Dialogue, (London, 1581), STC 11845, title page, f. 76v. This work had later editions in 1582 and 1598. Hereafter cited as Countrie Divinitie.

2A. D. J. Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England (New York: Harper and Row, 1970), p. 332 for indexed references; Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York: Scribner, 1971), p. 687 for indexed references.

3This is what interests both Thomas and Macfarlane (see esp. pp. 75, 89-90), who mainly refer to his two works on the subject; see also James Hitchcock, "George Gifford and Puritan Witch Beliefs," Archiv fuir Refjrmationsgeschichte, 58 (1967), 90-99; John L. Teall, "Witchcraft and Calvinism in Elizabethan England: Divine Power and Human Agency," Journal of the History of Ideas, XXIII (1962), 30-31. There is a facsimile reprint of one of his writings on witchcraft, A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcraftes, introduction by Beatrice White, Shakespeare Association Facsimiles No. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931). 'Hitchcock, pp. 99.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

28 The Sixteenth Century Journal

paper will attempt to examine popular religious notions and the Puritan atti- tude toward them in Elizabethan England through the admittedly limited means of published sources, by analyzing the writings of George Gifford, and will also attempt to investigate the intentions which gave unity and over-all purpose to Gifford's work.

Gifford, a preacher active in Essex in the later Elizabethan period and often in trouble for his nonconformity, published a group of writings in which he described the attitudes of "the common sort." In three dialogues and a catechism, and also occasionally in sermons and treatises, spokesmen appear who articulate the ordinary person's point of view. Accordingly, the first task of this paper will be to reconstruct these common religious opinions of the Elizabethan Englishman as Gifford presented them.

It must be remembered that it was Gifford, a Puritan propagandist, who constructed this picture. His aim in doing so was to refute the everyday attitudes with which he met. Ultimately we have then in his writings a picture of how a Puritan regarded the views of "the common sort" and went about refuting them; they are to him proponents of "countrie divinitie," "church- papists," and holders of false opinions about witches and charms; and in addressing these erroneous stances he tells us much about what was involved for him in instructing such people in true religion. Patrick Collinson has shown how Puritanism was shaped by a radical lay clientele;5 perhaps from Gifford we might learn how Puritanism was shaped by its mission of taking religion to a recalcitrant "folk." Thus the second task of this paper is, after the opinions of "the common sort" have been outlined, to show how Puritan propaganda met these and was shaped by the confrontation.

The third task of the paper, which will be largely accomplished in the course of fulfilling the first two tasks, will be to suggest that in this theme of George Gifford as Puritan propagandist seeking to refute the common notions found in a typical Elizabethan parish we find the unity behind Gifford's career as a whole. Previously he has gained attention only as a writer on witchcraft or as a participant in the disciplinary protests of the late Eliza- bethan Puritans.6 I would suggest that both of these are but aspects of the larger purpose which animated him and gave unity to his career, that of the preacher and educator seeking to enlighten with proper religious understanding the ordinary folk of Elizabethan England, an aim which he of course shared

'Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 93-97 suggests that in the vestiarian protest the ministers were often the "pressured" followers of their lay clientele, at least in London.

6Collinson, pp. 265-267, 279, 321, 401-402, 405, 408, 412, makes considerable mention of his participation in the Puritan protest and "underground" movements, as does Roland G. Usher, ed., The Presbyterian Movement in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth As Illustrated by the Minute Book of the Dedham Classis 1582-1589, Camden Society Publica- tions, third series, VIII (London: Royal Historical Society, 1905), pp. xli (where he is termed "head of the Braintree Classis in Essex till about 1590"), 9, 16, 19, 42, 94.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 4: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 29

with many other preachers, but which is especially clear in his case. He was informative about who his audience was, how they felt, and what he needed to tell them to alter their attitudes. Even his later anti-Separatist works can be understood as part of this same purpose.

We know few details of Gifford's life. Educated first at Oxford, he received his degrees of B.A. and M.A. from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1570 and 1573. It is generally assumed that he was the George Gifford ordained in 1578 by Bishop John Aylmer of London. In 1582 he was pre- sented to a benefice in Maldon, in Essex, from which he was deprived two years later by Archbishop Whitgift for nonconformity in spite of a petition from his parishioners desiring his continuance and the intercession on his behalf of William Cecil. He soon returned to Maldon, however, as a privately endowed lecturer, and gained a reputation as an effective preacher and re- former. In 1587 Aylmer temporarily suspended Gifford from his lectureship.7 He was involved in Puritan maneuvering to establish a "godly discipline" until at least 1597.8 His death was probably not in 1620, as stated by the Diction- ary of National Biography, but just before 1600.9

There are four works of Gifford in which he endeavors to describe and confute the religious attitudes of the ordinary person, and several of these are such lively and interesting dialogues that one is surprised that they received so little notice. Stylistically they have the verve so characteristic of the more popular forms of Elizabethan literature. The most important of these works for this paper is his A Briefe discourse of certaine points of the religion, which is among the common sort of Christians, which may be termed the Countrie Divinitie. With a manifest confutation of the same, after the order of a Dialogue, published in 1581. Gifford apologizes because "There is no pompe in the manner of speeche, for it is rude and countrie like," and because the content is "not handled as a disputation betweene deepe divines, but after the maner of plough men and Cartars."' 0 His dialogue describes, he says, "the most common principles" of the religion of such folk as "are the most in number, who having Popery taken from them, and not taught thoroughly and sufficiently in the Gospell, doe stand as men indifferent, so that they may quietlie injoy the worlde, they care not what religion come."5' 1 There are two speakers, Zelotes, who clearly speaks for the "godly" viewpoint, and Atheos,

7Hitchcock, pp. 91-92; Emily Tennyson Bradley, "Gifford, George," Dictionary of National Biography, VII, 1179-1180; John Strype, Historical Collections of the Life and Acts of the Right Reverend Father in God, John Aylmer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821), pp. 71-73. For the institution of the lectureship, see Paul S. Seaver, The Puritan Lecture- ships, The Politics of Religious Dissent, 1560-1662 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970). 8Roland G. Usher, p. xli.

9 Hitchcock, p. 92; "Gifford's death was formerly given as 1620, but George Lyman Kittredge discovered that the will of a George Gifford of Maldon was probated in 1600, indicating that he was dead by that year."

l 'Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 3 of epistle dedicatory. 'lIbid., f. Sr.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 5: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

30 The Sixteenth Century Journal

who is hardly an atheist but is certainly "godless" in the Puritan sense of being without true piety. Indeed Gifford says that they may be called "Atheists" who are "of no religion, but looke whatsoever any Prince doth set foorth, that will they professe."' '2 For Gifford it is the height of "godless- ness" merely to hold the religion which is customary, and the Puritan revolu- tionary is apparent when he insists that God must be obeyed rather than men, even if the men are princes, when they command what is contrary to God's word.' 3

Zelotes and Atheos fall into conversation walking along the road to- gether. Atheos praises his parish minister as "the best Priest in this Countie" whom he would be loath to see replaced even by a more learned man, for he is, Atheos avers, a "verie good fellow, hee will not sticke when good fellowes and honest men meete together too spende his groate at the alehouse.... I am afrayed when hee is gone wee shall never have the like agayne." Zelotes, shocked, suggests that the virtues for which he commends him are "more meete for to keepe swine, than too be a Sheephearde over the flocke of Christe," and further asks if this minister instructs the people in God's word. Atheos replies,

I know not what teaching yee would have, hee doth reade the service, as well as any of them all, and I thinke there is as good edifying in those prayers and homilies, as in any that the Preacher canne make: let us learne those first.

Zelotes counters that a boy of ten years can read the service and presses further: "doeth hee not teach them too knowe the will of God and reprove naughtines among the People?" In reply, Atheos observes:

Yes that he doeth, for if there bee any that doe not agree, hee will seeke for to make them friendes; for hee will get them to playe a game or two at Bowles or Cardes and to drinke together at the Alehouse: I think it a Godly waye, too make Charities: he is none of these busie Controllers: for if he were, he could not be so wel liked of (and those not of the meanest) as hee is.

Zelotes picks up the phrase "busie Controllers" and asks if this is what he considers "Preachers of Gods woorde" to be? Atheos expresses himself strong- ly in response: "Wee may call them busie controllers, I thinke wee shall doo nothing shortly, as poore a man as I am, I would not for fortye shillinges that wee had one of them: there bee more of my mind." Zelotes now denounces Atheos as an ignorant man who only praises a minister "because hee is a potte companion." The dialogue proceeds:

' 2Ibid., f. 22r of the text of the dialogue. Elsewhere he speaks of the great ignorance of such persons, f. 43r. Another Elizabethan theological writer defined "Atheos" as meaning "Ungodlie or without God," Thomas Palfreyman, The Treatise of Heavenly Philosophie (London, 1578), p. 83. 1 3lbid., f. 22v, 84r.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 6: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 31

A. Doe ye mislike good fellowshippe, is it not lawful for honest men to drinke and be merrie together. Z. I do not mislike true friendship, which is in the Lorde, knitte in true godlinesse, but I mislike this vice which overfloweth everywhere, that Drunkardes meete together and sitte quaffing and the Minister which should reproove them, to be one of the chiefe: when hee should be at his studie, to be upon the Alebench at Cardes or dice. A. I perceive you are one of those curious, and precise fellowes, which will allowe no recreation, what would yee have men doe, wee shall do nothing shortly. You would have them sitte mooping alwayes at their bookes, I like not that. Z. Nay my Friend, I doe not allowe that recreation, whiche prophane men call so, which is no recreation but a torment to a Godly minde, to see men dronken, to heare them sweare, and raile, to spend their time so lewdly, and hee that should teache them to be a ring leader as there bee many as seemeth, which are entred into the ministry for none other purpose, but too live an ydle life, to have leysure to play at Cardes, or Tables, and Bowles all the Weeke, and therefore they have no skill to teache, but like unsavery salte, are not good even for the Dunghill.

A. These things were used beefore you were borne, and will bee when you are gone. So long as men thinke no hurt when they play and be merry.

When upbraided for appealing to the antiquity and future prospects of vice, Atheos continues:

I meane not so, but there were as wise men, and wyser then bee now among our fore Fathers, and they woulde not have used nor allowed such thinges, if they had not beene good: they knewe weel ynough what they did. Let not us be more precise then they were.

I praye God I may follow our fore fathers, and doe no worse then they did: what should wee seeke for too be wyser or better then they: I would wee could doe but as well as they did... then they lived in friendshippe, and made merrie together, nowe there is no good neigh- bourhoode: nowe every man for himselfe, and are readie to pull one another by the throate.'4

Parenthetically, it might be added that there is a much better known dialogue by Arthur Dent, The Plaine Mans Path-way to Heaven, published in London in 1601, which went through forty-one editions. It is by another Essex Puritan preacher; and though it nowhere acknowledges Gifford, it echoes many of the latter's themes and frequently borrows Gifford's exact phrases. Dent's dialogue has four characters, including an outright scoffer at religion, and is much longer, with extensive moralistic exhortation. Dent was at Christ's College, Cambridge, at the same time as Gifford.

1 4The preceding reproduces much of the dialogue from ibid., f. lr-5r.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 7: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

32 The Sixteenth Century Journal

The second of Gifford's works important for this paper is another dia- logue, printed in the year after the "Countrie-Divinitie," entitled A Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, applied to the Capacity of the unlearned. The characters of this dialogue, are, as expected, a "Papist" and his opponent, "Professor of the Gospel"; they meet and exchange news from London of a debate there between churchmen and Roman Catholics imprisoned in the tower. Papist says that the prisoners acquitted themselves well in debate as a result of which Professor of the Gospel accuses him of being a papist or favorer of papists, and the dialogue proceeds as follows:

Pa. Wherefore would ye call me Papist, I am obedient to the lawes, and do not refuse to go to the Church. Pro. Then it seemeth you are a Church Papist? Pa. A Church Papist, what meane you by that? Pro. Do you not know: I will tell ye: there are Papists which wil not come at the Church: and there are papists which can keepe their con- science to themselves and yet go to Church: of this latter sort it seemeth you are...."

Professor of the Gospel continues that Church Papists are known by their opinions, for although they know little doctrine, they "speake of the merry world when there was lesse preaching, and when all things were so cheape, that they might have xx eggs for a penny." Furthermore "if any preacher do zealously beate downe Popery, he doth raile, he is cholerike, hee is uncharit- able," say such Church Papists!" From the dialogue it becomes clear that Papist is more of a Papist, even on doctrinal matters, than at first appeared.

The next year, 1583, Gifford published a catechism. Unlike many such works, there is something of a real dialogue in it, and the one asking (simply "Q" of course) frequently articulates some of the same "common sort" per- ceptions of religion that appeared in the two dialogues. The catechism begins with "Q" asking, "Are there any greater matters for men to be busied about, then the affaires and state of this life?" And indicating that this is not just a formal beginning, "Q" presses further "our travell and industrie dooth helpe us unto such things as we neede here: but heaven, and heavenlie things are farre abouve our reach: we must commit them to God."' 6 Many other ques- tions are put in the words of one having a difficult time understanding theo- logical distinctions, who even seem to resist some of the instruction he is

' S George Gifford, A Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, applied to the capacity of the unlearned (London, 1599 - this is a later edition of STC 11849, first published in 1582), pp. 1-3. For "Church-Papists" see Christopher Haigh, Reformnation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. 269-294.

1 6G[eorgel G[iffordl, A Catechisme conteining the summe of Christian Religion, giving a most excellent light to all those that seeke to enter the path-way to salvation (London, 1583, STC 11848), f. Al. There was another edition of this work in the same year under the title of A Short Catechisme conteining the summe of Christian religion for Householders (London, 1583).

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 8: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 33

getting and tries occasionally to trip up "A."' 7 All of this is quite removed from the typical catechism in which "Q" is seldom more than a "straight man."

The third of Gifford's dialogues takes up the subject of witchcraft, a matter upon which he had earlier written A Discourse of the Subtill Practices of Devilles by Witches and Sorcerers. The dialogue puts in popular form the main conclusions of the earlier treatise, with more vivid detail and certainly more drama. In the "epistle dedicatory" to the Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts he tells us that he wrote to prevent men from being seduced by the devil into believing that witches really have the powers that they claim and into consulting those "whom the people call cunning men and wise women" in order to obtain charms against witchcraft. He is also concerned that "much innocent blood is shed" in the search for witches.' 8 The dialogue involves a larger cast of characters than Gifford's other dialogues, with Daniel representing the godly Puritan role and instructing Samuel, Samuel's wife, a schoolmaster, and Goodwife R. Samuel and Daniel meet, and Samuel tells him that he has not felt well lately and also that a hog and some of his chickens have mysteriously died. He suspects an old woman who has been frowning at him of having caused these mischiefs, especially since he has recently seen "an ugly Weasill runne through my yard" and "a foule great Cat sometimes in my barne." He has been advised that he should ride to a nearby village and consult "some cunning man, before I have any further harme," for he has heard of many who have been helped by this cunning man as well as by the use of charms.'" Daniel goes to Samuel's house to discuss the matter, and there finds Samuel's wife insistent that Samuel immediately get some remedy against witchcraft. A schoolmaster, representing "learned" opinion, arrives with similar advice. Daniel explains that witches only have such powers as God permits the devil to exercise and that the true remedy is faith in God's providence and prayer, not charms. At the end Goodwife R. appears but quickly leaves, shocked by what she takes to be disbelief in witches.

In addition to these four works, Gifford also depicted the religious attitudes of the "common sort" in some published sermons.20 In his later work A Treatise of True Fortitude he devoted considerable space to delineat- ing popular attitudes about manliness and revenge.2'

' 'Ibid., ff. Bi, C6r, D3v, G7v; in the last of these "Q" objects that "The Scripture doth mention that dansing was used and allowed."

8George Giffard, A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witcherafts... (London, 1603, STC 11851; this is the second edition, the first having been printed in 1593, STC 11850), ff. A2-A3.

9 Ibid., ff. A4-B 1. 20 For example, in A Godlie, zealous, and profitable Sermon upon the second

Chapter of Saint Iames (London, 1582, STC 11860, reprinted in 1583), where he is concerned by casual persons who mistake a few good deeds for faith.

2 1 George Gyffard, A Treatise of True fortitude (London, 1594) ff. D3-D4r.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 9: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

34 The Sixteenth Century Journal

A fairly consistent and convincing picture of the popular religious atti- tudes of the "common sort" comes.through these writings. First of all, in Gifford's picture the common religion is riddled with superstition. It is a religion of supernatural power accessible through charms and various loci of the sacred available for dealing with everyday problems of illness, misfortune, and one's general lack of control over the environment - in short, a very magical religion. Keith Thomas portrays this kind of religion as central to Elizabethan England and as surviving long beyond that time ;22 Gifford con- firms such a pattern of belief and practice among the Elizabethan folk. According to Gifford, in the face of difficulties such as disease, lost articles, thunderstorms, and dying livestock, people resorted to "cunning men" and "wise women" to gain charms and spells useful against the powers of witches who were thought to have caused these things.2 3 These "cunning folk" often conjured by a mirror in which there appeared the image of the witch causing the harm.24 Gifford reports a case of a lost article found by such help: the schoolmaster in his Dialogue Concerning Witches says that "I did know where the communion cup was stolen: the Churchwardens rode to a wise man, he gave them direction what night, & where they should stand, and the party that had stolen it should come thither, and confesse he had it: & certainly they had it againe."25 The witches who cast spells are thought to do so by the use of "imps" in animal form, who carry out their evil intentions; weasels, cats, mice, and toads are mentioned.26 A good charm against witches and general niisfortune is to wear some portion of the Gospel of John tied around the neck.27 Omens foretelling misfortune, such as the spilling of salt, are commonly accepted.28 Keith Thomas argues that such elements of popular religion were more easily accommodated to Roman Catholicism than to Prot- estantisM,2 9 and perhaps one of the reasons for resistance to the new Protes-

2 2 Thomas, pp. 25-50, 70, 7 3. 2"Gifford, Dialogue concerning Witches, ff. B r 1F4v; Gifford, A Discourse of the

Subtill Practices of Devilles by Witches and Sorcerers. . . (London, 1587; STC 11852), ff. H4v, 11; Gifford, A Catechismne, f. A7r; Giffard, Certaine Sermons Upon Divers Texts of Holie Scripture .... (London, 1597; no STC), pp. 67-68.

2 4Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, ff. B ir, D4r, E2v, E4. Thomas gives examples of conjuring by mirror or "crystal ball," "in which the client would be asked if he could perceive the features of the guilty party," pp. 215, 221.

2 Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, f. E3v. 26Ibid., ff. Bir, B4r-Clr. For animal familiars, see Macfarlane, pp. xxi, 171, 191 n.

#19; Thomas, pp. 445-446, 524-525, 547, 551, 575; and Chadwick Hansen, Wfitcheraft at Salem (New York: Braziller, 1969), pp. 33, 37, 54.

2"Ibid., f. Blv. The Edwardian Injunctions of 1547 forbade the use of St. John's Gospel as a charm, but nonetheless in the next century Bishop Hall noted that people still believed in its protective power, "printed in a small roundel and sold to the credulous ignorants with this fond warrant, that whosoever carries it about with him shall be free from the dangers of a day's mishaps," Thomas, pp. 53, 31. See also Macl'arlane, p. 104.

28 Gifford, A Discourse of the Subtill Practices of Devilles, ff. Clv-C2r; another omen mentioned by Gifford is the behavior of birds, and he even refers to divination "by the intrals of beasts," some "reliques and dregs" of which still persist.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 10: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 35

tantism among the common people was that it threatened to take away such means of comfort in the face of misfortune as these practices provided. Gifford sees a connection between these superstitions and the older order: "In the Poperie there were many things devised to drive away divels;" "Popery" prevails "mightelie among the blind superstitious people."30

Gifford also portrays a popular religious attitude which is nostalgic for the good old days and sets great stock by the customary. We have already seen that in the Countrie Divinitie dialogue Atheos appeals to customs of long standing as a sanction for behavior; he appeals also to the wisdom of the forefathers, who lived better than people today, for there was better friend- ship and more merriment then. According to Papist we have seen that things were cheaper when there was less preaching. Atheos keeps returning to this theme: condemning meddling Puritans, he adds that he knew the fathers of some of them, and they were "honest men" who "never troubled themselves that way"; why should their sons "do otherwise than their fathers before them."3 1 When reminded that their forefathers practised the idolatry of Rome, Atheos says that he is sure that God forgave it in them, for they pleased God "better than we doe nowe."3 2 Nostalgia for the old days could easily then be an insufficiently hostile attitude towards Rome, and this seems to be the case in Gifford's picture; of course, if Rome meant a religious life more accommodating to popular attitudes, that nostalgia is more understand- able. It is interesting in this connection that in the Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant one of the arguments of Papist which is refuted at greatest length is that the religion of Rome had greater antiquity and that in following it one was simply following the faith of one's forefathers. At one point Papist, the conservative fearful of the future, exclaims, "Oh, this corrupt age, whither will it tend at the last?"3 3

Another part of the common man's religion which Gifford depicts is an anticlericalism directed against the interference of the more Puritan inclined clergy in the lives of the laity; those godly laity, who are identified by the

2 9 His argument is that although official Catholic doctrine disapproved of most such things, they were nonetheless usually overlooked and in any case fitted better the Catholic sacramental view than the Protestant, Thomas, pp. 32, 45, 51, 74, 77, 277-278. He adds that recusants were considered more superstitious than others, p. 408. He notes too that "the cunning folk made extensive use of old Catholic formulae," p. 494. Haigh concludes that in Lancashire, "The use of charms and Catholicism tended to go together," p. 322.

" Gifford, Certaine Sermons, p. 71; George Gifford, A Short Treatise against the Donatists of England, whomne we call Brownists (London, 1590), f. Al. Haigh, p. 245, quotes a Puritan who had given up on the older generation as too "superstitious," and who pinned his hopes on the education of the next generation. Reginald Scot, well known for his The Discoverie of Witchcraft.. . (n.p. 1584) connected Catholicism and magic though he noted that the latter nonetheless survived the demise of the former, f. Bii.

31 Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 18. 3 2 Ibid., f. 4 Lv. 3 3Gifford, A Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, pp. 4-8, 42. Haigh, p. 221,

cites two men in Lancashire who "abused their vicar and said that the old religion which he belied was better than that used in these unique times!"

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 11: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

36 The Sixteenth Century Journal

common man as on the side of the "precise" clergy, are included in this general obloquy. In a sermon Gifford declares that there are many who revile the bearers of the gospel.34 Again our clearest spokesman is Atheos: like Ben Jonson with his image of Zeal-of-the-land he objects to clergy who are "busie controllers" opposed to "honest men" seeking merriment and relaxa- tion. "Nay you that are precise Puritans doe finde fault where there is none: you condemn men for every trifle. Whereas yee are but men, and have your infirmities as well as others: yet yee would make yourselves as holy as angels."3 Gifford is aware of the charge of hypocrisy against the "precise" and has Atheos state it with considerable force; elsewhere Atheos speaks of "trim pulpit men" who speak very well "but their deedes are as evill as other mens, for who is more covetous then they?"36 Too much moral "preciseness" is attributed by Atheos to excessive reading of the scripture; he prefers ser- mons in which things other than scripture are quoted37 and he speaks con- temptously of "scripture men" who are often great hypocrites, concluding from this that "knowledge doeth make men worse." Ordinary men ought not to meddle with scripture,38 for when they do so "they will not doe as their honest neighbours doe, they wil be wiser than their betters: what should they meddle with Gods woorde, it maketh them busie in checking every man. It was never merry since men unlearned have meddled with the Scriptures."3 9 In the Dialogue Concerning Witches, GoodwifeR., upon hearing Samuel and his wife say that charms will not help against spells, cries out "Some scripture man hath told you so," adding that a cunning woman with her charms "doth more good in one yeere than all these scripture men will doe so long as they live."40 The attitude which opposes the wide reading of scripture of course hearkens back to the old religion, too.

Perhaps most important of all to Gifford in this depiction of the ordi- nary person's religion is what may be termed his "common man's pelagian- ism." Again we begin with Atheos: he is confident that although he cannot give much attention to religion (he criticizes those who spend too much time running to hear sermons),4' he has done some good deeds and been an "honest" fellow; and he knows that God will take this into account and forgive his sins, "for I hope I have as good fayth and as good a soule to God

34 George Gifford, Foure Sermons Upon Severall Partes of Scripture (London, 1598; STC 1 185 9 - this was first printed in i5 82), p. 75.

3 5Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 76r. 36Ibid., f. 9v. These themes are echoed in Arthur Dent, The Plaines-Mans Path-way

To Heaven (London, 1601; STC 6626), pp. 26, where the scoffer referes to "precise fooles," p. 105, where he states that the precise are as covetous as anyone else, and p. 303, where he complains that there are too many "controllers."

3Atheos does not consider learned those preachers "which can alledge no more but out of Paule and Peter," Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 50r. 3 8lbid,, f. 9.

39Ibid., f. 17v. The scoffer in Dent's Plaine Mans Path-way also complains of "scripture man," p. 302. But another character admits he cannot read scripture because he cannot read, p. 30. 40Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, f. M3.

4 1 Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 19v, 28r, 42v.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 12: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 37

warde as the best learned of them all."4 2 Pressed by Zelotes, he returns to this theme more strongly: "I hope if there bee but three in all this countrie, [county] goe to heaven, I shal be one of them, I meane so well." (The scoffer in Dent's dialogue says that if only two people in the world are saved, he hopes to be one of them.)43 Later, with less caricature, Atheos says:

If a man labour all the weeke truely and honestly, and upon the Saboth day come to the Church and make his praiers, shall wee say God re- gardeth not his prayer, because hee doth not understande what hee prayeth: his intent is good, hee doth his good will: he hath a wife and children to provide for, hee muste followe the worlde, and let preaching goe, or els hee shall begge: and so long as hee doth hurt no man, but dealeth uprightly: I think God doth require no more at his hands. Such as have naught els for to doe, let them seeke for knowledge.44

It is striking how well Gifford has put Atheos' case - surely something like this speaks for the "commonsense" Christianity of the masses in many ages.

But this kind of religion for Gifford is simply ignorance of Christian teaching. Zelotes speaks of a well instructed child knowing more than most, and when Zelotes explains the gospel scheme of repentance, faith, and sanc- tification, Atheos exclaims, "I never hearde so much in all my -life before."4 5 Even those who have heard many sermons, Gifford complains elsewhere, have "no sound knowledge" but only "a confused opinion" of Christian truth. In many towns there are no more than two or three "which zealously imbrace the Gospell."4 6

"Common man's pelagianism," with its assumption that so long as one tried one's best God would regard one favorably, found several points of Reformed theology, as emphasized by Puritan teachers, difficult to accept. One such point was the doctrine of assurance. Although Atheos presumes that God will forgive him if he does his best, he finds it presumptuous to claim an assurance or certainty of salvation. Zelotes tells him that to say so is to follow the doctrine of popery even though unwittingly.47 Papist, in Dialogue

42Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, ff. 6v, 31r. In a sermon Gifford refers to those who, when upbraided for their sins, say "I have as good a beleefe as your selfe," A Godlie, zealous and profitable Sermon. . . , f. Bv. Cf. Dent's dialogue, pp. 18, 27, 304.

4 3Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 12r. Dent, p. 273. 44Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 72r. Atheos elsewhere mentions that those who run

to too many sermons are likely to be economically unproductive, f. 42v. It is interesting that it is not the Puritan but his opponent who seems to be most concerned about idleness. Atheos is apparently not the poorest peasant farmer, for he employs a servant, f. 15r. Cf. Gifford, Certaine Sermons, p. 134, where the religiously careless person is portrayed as saying "Wee have that which God hath given us, all men are not alike godlie, every man cannot do as you do...." Cf. Dent. p. 152, "if we follow sermons, we shall never thrive."

4 Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, ff. 43r, 24r. 46George Gifford, A Sermon on the Parable of the Sower, taken out of the 13. of

Matthew (London, 1582), f. Bviiir; Gifford, Foure Sermons, p. 82. Collinson notes that where preaching was absent there was no knowledge of Protestant doctrine, Elizabethan Puritan Movement, pp. 37-38. 4a Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 22r. Cf. also f. 65v.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 13: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

38 The Sixteenth Century Journal

betweene a Papist and Protestant, also claims that assurance is presumption,48 and "Q" in the Catechisme says "Yee speake of a matter which seemeth to bee farre beyonde a mans reache, for to hope that his sinnes are forgeven he may: but to know it for certainety, that seemeth unpossible."4 9

Besides finding assurance an offense, common sense also boggles at grace alone and predestination. In his common sense manner Atheos thinks that God will not require more from men than they are able although Zelotes has told him that grace is necessary to do the good and that all that does not proceed from faith is sin.50 "Q", when it is explained to him that man can do nothing to save himself, comments that "this point is hard to perswad some men in ....."51 Atheos complains that Zelotes speaks too much of damnation5 2 and objects strongly to predestination as making men worse,53 for they come to think that "If a man bee chosen for tp bee saved, let him doe as evill as he can hee shall not bee damned."54 Papist echoes this when he says that Protestants teach "licentious libertie" through predestination and the denial of merits.5 5 "Q" asks if justification by faith does not "overthrow good works."56 Belief in free will is identified by Gifford as one of the natural man's assumptions.57 This common man's pelagianism can be summed up as entailing the assertion of a "carnal security," whereby one will be saved by doing one's best, combined with resistance to those ideas about assurance and predestination which accompanied the Protestant theology of grace.

Gifford's purpose, however, was hardly to provide an objective account of the popular religious notions of his day, and so we come to the second task: seeing how he confronted these notions and was shaped by the con- frontation. Gifford saw his ministry as one of educating the "common sort" in the truths of pure religion: God, he declared, had appointed him, "being very weake," "to build in the desolate places, and to spreade the light of his glorious Gospell, even there .... 8 While others have written learned treatises against Popery, he tells us, his Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protes- tant has been accommodated "to the capacity of the unlearned" and deals with "those points which do most commonly trouble them."59 He writes in a dialogue form, he says elsewhere, "to make the fitter for the capacity of the simpler sort."60 The dialogue form had been widely used in the Renaissance

48Gifford, Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, p. 41. See also Foure Ser- mons, pp. 34, 49-50.

49 Gifford, Catechisme, f. Diiv. Cf. Dent, p. 263. 5?Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 31. Cf. Gifford, Certaine Sermons, p. 135. 51 Gifford, Catechisme, f. A8. 5 2 Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 34r. 3Ibid., f. 53v. Cf. Gifford, Certaine Sermons, p. 170.

5 4Ibid., f. 59r. Cf. Dent, pp. 309-310, 320. 5 Gifford, Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, p. 43. 56Gifford, Catechisme, f. D4v. 5 7Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 3 ir. 8 Gifford, Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, f. A2v. 9Ibid.

6 'Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, f. A3v.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 14: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 39

as a pedagogical device, and Tudor England in particular had seen the publica- tion of many of them, on all kinds of subjects. There was an obvious parallel between this form and the disputes by means of which so much contemporary education was carried on.6 1 Catechisms were another variation of the dialogue form, intended for fairly elementary instruction, and one edition of Gifford's bore on the title page that it was intended "for Householders." A certain amount of dialogue even found its way into his sermons.

The purpose of his ministry, then, was to educate the common folk, or as he calls them elsewhere, "the ignoranter sort, who are so easily led astray by superstition or by popery."62 He is sure that they are the majority, and, as he puts it in a sermon on the parable of the sower, many even of those who have received instruction are without clear understanding of the truth; their assumptions must be broken up and replaced with better things. For the "common principles" of "countrie divinitie," he tells us in that dialogue, are barriers to instruction, repentance, and "right understanding."63 Strype re- ports that Gifford had gained some reputation for the success of his ministry in bringing "more sobriety and knowledge of true religion" to Maldon.64

Gifford had specific remedies for each of the major elements of popular religion he depicted. Against the superstition of the common folk he insisted upon the doctrine of providence. This was the main point of both his works dealing with Satan and witchcraft: Satan has no power beyond what God permits, and witches cannot really do any evil through their spells except wheresoever and whensoever God in his providence has permitted the devil to accomplish his work through witches, who are the devil's servants. Nothing at all happens as a result of the power of witchcraft, for there is no such power; it is but a seeming power, a diversionary tactic of Satan to pull men away from reliance upon God alone. Even the wiles 'of Satan are no more than what God permits in order to test mankind.65 This means that one need not fear witches nor seek charms against them, for to do so is simply to cast out Beelzebub with Beelzebub. One should rather fear the wiles of the devil by which men are seduced into believing that witches have power.66 The true

61 Joan Simon, Education and Society in Tudor England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), pp. 108-110, 273, 316; Kenneth Jay Wilson, "The Early Tudor Dialogue," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1973), pp. 5-6, stresses the importance of the dialogue as a humanist literary form; Rainer Pineas, "Thomas More's Use of the Dialogue Form as a Weapon of Religious Controversy," Studies in the Renaissance, VII (1960), 206, concludes that "By using the dialogue to discuss the issues rather than just to ridicule his opponents' beliefs, More widened the scope of the Renaissance dialogue of religious controversy." It is in that manner that Gifford too employs the dialogue.

62 Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, f. A2r; Satan's greatest "cunning" is in leading astray "the minds of ignorant people," ibid., f. G3r; see also Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, pp. 76, 147.

6 3Gifford, A Sermon on the Parable of the Sower, ff. Avii, Aviii, Biiiiv, Bvr, Bvir; Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, "epistle dedicatorie," f. 5r. 64 Strype, p. 72.

65 Gifford, A Discourse of the Subtill Practices of Devilles, ff. Blv, B2v, 1P4; Dialogue Concerning Witches, ff. A2-A3r, B2v, B3r, C1-C2, C3v, C4v, D1-D2, Fi7r, F2v.

6 6Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, ff. D3v, Flv.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 15: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

40 The Sixteenth Century Journal

remedy against the devil is not resort to "cunning folk," for they too are the devil's instruments and should be suppressed.67 Gifford suggests that many things attributed to witchcraft are the result of "natural" causes and would have happened in any case;68 one must remember, of course, that "natural" causes are but instances of secondary causality, of God working through means in the course of his overarching providence. Daniel's description of "natural" causation through what we would term "psychosomatic" effects is striking: "A man feareth hee is bewitched, it troubleth all the powers of his mind, and that distempereth his bodie, maketh great alterations in it, and bringeth sundrie griefes."6 9

This does not mean that witches should go unpunished, for they have chosen to be helpers of Satan even if they do not have powers that they claim, often in self-delusion. Those who have thus trafficked with Satan de- serve death as scripture enjoins. But there is no need to become panicked over witches destroying crops and livestock and causing illness, for none of these things happens apart from God's providence. Therefore, it is wrong for mobs to lynch persons for witchcraft; they should be dealt with soberly in the law courts lest innocent persons be punished, which Gifford thinks has frequently happened. The shedding of innocent blood, he reminds his readers, is a great sin.70 Keith Thomas has made a good deal of the importance of the doctrine of providence in Reformation English thought as a "religious" replacement for the more magical world view of pre-Reformation times,71 and analysis of Gifford's writings on witchcraft bears out the importance and function of this element of Protestant teaching. Of course, not only the doctrine of providence but the whole of true Christian teaching was directed by Puritans against "countrie divinitie."

67Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, ff. A3r, E2v, E4r, Fir, F2r, G3, K3v. Thomas, p. 258, notes that those who sought the suppression of the "cunning folk" were "the most aggressive Protestant section of the Anglican Church." But he also notes, p. 266, that the attempt by the theologians to wipe out the distinction between black and white witches by branding them both as diabolical never got through to the people to whom these witches ministered; see also Macfarlane, p. 129. For a discussion of the same matter on the continent, see E. William Monter, Witchcraft in France and Switzerland, the Borderlands During the Reformation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976), pp. 168-171, 178.

6I8 "Yet the most which the witches thinke their spirits do kill at their request, do die of natural diseases," Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, f. E3r; cf. also ff. Elv, E2r, Hlv. He refers to "natural cause" in A Discourse on the Subtill Practices of Devilles, f. C2r.

69Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, f. G4r. 70"When men are once so bewitched as to thinke, who can live in safety while

witches rernaine: they run with madnesse to seeke all meanes to put them to death, & not only them, but all such as are suspected. They run to coniurers to know if they be not witches whom they suspect;" they even, he adds, "entice children to accuse," Gifford, Discourse on the Subtill Practices of Devilles, f. I 1r; cf. also Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, f. A3v. H. C. Erik Midlefort, Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany 1562-1684 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972), pp. 17, 38-39, 46, 193-194, shows that while individual witches continued to be punished for their apostasy, nonetheless where emphasis was placed on the real powerlessness of witches, there was less likelihood of witchcraft panics. He adds that such a view became almost common among Protestants. At many points Gifford's views on witchcraft parallel those of the Wiirttemberg Lutherans.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 16: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 41

The second element of the "common principles" of "countrie divinitie" which has been singled out is nostalgia for the past and the "forefathers" when things were both more virtuous and "merrier." Against this nostalgia Gifford launched an unrelenting attack upon the customary and the tradi- tional in the name of scriptural principles: the precedent of the forefathers is to him of absolutely no value whatever when it runs counter to the plain commands of scripture; and where it does not, it is of no independent value apart from scriptural principle. In the Dialogue Concerning Witches it is of no weight to Daniel, a "scripture man," that the belief in the powers of witches and charms is customary.72 Zelotes easily disposes of Atheos' appeal to antiquity as an appeal to the vices and errors of the past - because men did evil and thought mistakenly in the past is no reason to continue to do so now that one may be instructed by God's word. When Atheos says that we should follow our forefathers only in the good they did, Zelotes responds that there is nothing good except what God sets forth in his word; if they follow that, they may, in effect, forget their forefathers.73 In the Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, Papist insists that he is simply following the faith of his forefathers while the Reformation is "new" teaching; Professor of the Gospel replies that antiquity is irrelevant, for what matters is fidelity to scripture.74 The radical character of Gifford's Puritan position in quite frankly rejecting the customary and the traditional in the name of his new rule of Scriptual Law is apparent. Two scholars have commented on this: David Little in Religion, Order, and Law has argued that it was the radicalism of Calvinism and Puritanism in destroying the basis for customary mores that most sepa- rated it from "conforming" Anglicanism;75 Michael Walzer in The Revolution of the Saints has called attention to the way Calvinism and Puritanism created autonomous individuals, breaking with tradition as they acted in the service of

7'Thomas, pp. 79, 23, 111. Hitchcock, p. 96, suggests that the popular attitude amounted to an ascription of power to devils and witches equal to that of God. No wonder God's complete providence needed to be reaffirmed forcefully by Protestant teachers! The importance of this point about Protestantism and especially Puritanism is underlined, perhaps with some exaggeration, by Conrad Russell in his introduction to The Origins of the English Civil War (London: MacMillan, 1973), p. 19, where he says "If there was one thing more central to the Reformation than anything else, it was the desire to dispel superstition and ignorance. D. Keith Thomas, in his book on Religion and the Decline of Magic, has shown how much there was to provoke this desire. Much popular religion before the Reformation amounted to little more than a set of magical charms, endowed with the partial and sometimes reluctant blessing of the Church.... The aim of early Protestants, and of the Puritans after them, was to substitute a genuine understanding of Christianity for this mixture of magic and ignorance. This was the point of the insistence on Justification by Faith rather than by Works." This also accounts for some of the iconoclasm of Prot- estantism.

72This is best seen as he responds to various stories of bewitching, e.g., Gifford, Dialogue Concerning Witches, ff. B1, C1. 7 3Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 4.

7 4Gifford, Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, pp. 4ff, 75 [77], 122. 7'David Little, Religion, Order, and Law, A Study in Pre-Revolutionary England

(New York: Harper and Row, 1969), pp. 93, 127, 130, 147.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 17: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

42 The Sixteenth Century Journal

an abstract party ideal.76 The force of something like this can be sensed in the nostalgic appeal of Atheos and Papist confronted by the fierce idealism of Zelotes and Professor of the Gospel, both of whom would destroy the com- fortable customs of the first two. That the idealism of the latter two could be potentially politically revolutionary is apparent when Zelotes upbraids A theos for merely following the law of land rather than personal conviction in reli- gion. But at the end of that dialogue Atheos embarrasses Zelotes when he says that "it were good that you Puritans should consider your selves, and become better subjects to the Prince." Zelotes' response is first rather lamely to assert that Atheos breaks many laws too but finally to reaffirm that one must obey God rather than men.7 7

The anticlericalism which is the third element of popular religion drawn out of Gifford's writings was built upon the layman's natural resistance to meddling in his life by the clergy. Gifford's first response to this attitude is simply to insist on more meddling, to the end that the principles of scripture are obeyed and a disciplined society encouraged. Zelotes has no objection to "busie controlling" when it follows God's word.78 Atheos, who correctly sees a connection between scripture reading and "meddling" is firmly rebuked by Zelotes: "And because yee may not doe what lewdness yee list, uncontrolled, ye say it was never merry since every man might read the scriptures." Atheos replies that there is such meddling in small matters that "a man may not be merry now," but Zelotes makes clear to him that the swearing and ribaldry that Atheos considers but small matters are "foul sins."79 The Puritan interest in an ordered and disciplined society is apparent from this exchange.

But Gifford has more to offer against anticlericalism than the recom- mendation of more and better meddling. He himself shares the anticlerical attitude so far as the careless, conforming clergy are concerned, and he agrees with Atheos that there are many greedy ministers, only denying that they are the ones who are truly learned in God's word.80 Papist, in Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, objects that many English clergy live evil lives, and Professor of the Gospel concedes it but denies that it is the gospel which is to blame; rather it is a carry-over from "popish" times. In the preface of that dialogue Gifford complains of the need for worthy preachers and denounces clergy who "have mouthes and speake not," having chosen the ministry out of a desire to "live easily," being themselves "riotous dicers, gamesters, quaffers,

76 Michael Walzer, The Revolution of the Saints, A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965), pp. 2, 13, 20, 118, 121, 170.

7 7Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, ff. 83r-84r; cf. also 22v. 78Ibid., f. 2v. In a sermon Gifford calls upon pastors and all the devout to rebuke

"prophaneness": "Therefore let the Pastors use all their diligence to looke to their flock, that prophaneness creepe not in among them. Let every man . . . take heede to himselfe, yea let him not neglect his neighbour, . . ." Foure Sermons, pp. 75-76.

7 9Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, ff. 1 8v-19r. 8 0Ibid., ff. lOv-1 ir.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 18: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 43

quarrelers, adultereres and such like."8 1 The real solution to the legitimate kind of anticlericalism is more worthy ministers able to preach God's word: "It is great pitie that the worde of God is not laide open in all places, that the people might come to the understanding of Christ and his power...." 882

Such preaching would be the means of achieving the Puritan ideal of the "godly" society. Gifford himself held special evening meetings for the further instruction of his flock.83

Preaching, then, is the answer to the false religion abroad in the land. Already the kingdom of antichrist is being broken up by true preaching, Gifford tells us in one of his last works.84 But what is to be preached? Clearly the answer is that gospel which will counter what is for Gifford the most unfortunate element of the "common principles" of "countrie divinitie," that "common man's pelagianism," which stands as a barrier to true faith and which constitutes stubborn resistance to God's grace.85 The explanation of the true nature of the gospel of God's grace is the burden of most of Gif- ford's printed sermons and also of the arguments of Zelotes and Professor of the Gospel with their opponents.

Against the natural man's presumption that God will look after those who do their best and cannot set aside much time for religion, Gifford ex- plains a gospel and a piety which consists of a series of precise steps laid

81 Gifford, Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, pp. 47-49, f. A3v. Apparently the clergy in Essex were in need of reform: "At the end of Mary's reign the church in Essex was in a bad state. The clergy were time-servers, unprincipled, and for the most part uneducated," James E. Oxley, The Reformation in Essex to the Death of Mary (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1965), p. 266.

8 2 Gifford, Coun trie Divinitie, f. 8 3r. 83Collinson, Elizabethan Puritan Movement, pp. 377-378. Also Collinson, "The

Reformer and the Archbishop: Martin Bucer and an English Bucerian," Journal of Religious History, VI (1971), 327-328, traces the ideal that society may be reformed through a reformed and preaching ministry to Martin Bucer and to comments of Archbishop Grindal (who was notorious for his sympathy for Puritans) that he "placed his hopes for the progressive reform of a backward diocese on the importation of a clerical elite," exactly the opinion expressed frequently by nonconformists; as Paul S. Seaver, comments, p. 37, "Among the many reforms requested by Puritans a preaching ministry usually came first, for almost all Puritan schemes for the reformation of the Church considered such a ministry essential." As early as 1573 in his "Epistle Dedicatorie" to his translation of a work by William Fulke, Praelections Upon the Sacred and holy Revelation of St. Iohn (London, 1573; STC 11443), f. ilir, Gifford complained that the evils of the English Church flowed from careless clergy; "true pastors" are needed so that the people will have "good instruction." Elsewhere Collinson notes that Puritan-Protestant preaching was still a novelty in many areas of England long after that land had supposedly been won to the Reformation, "Towards a Broader Understanding of the Early Dissenting Tradition," C. R. Cole and M. C. Moody, eds., The Dissenting Tradition: Essays for Leland Carlson (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1975), p. 11.

84George Gyffard, Sermons Upon the Whole Booke of the Revelation. (London, 1596; STC 11866), f. A7v. There was another edition of this in 1599.

8"Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, f. 83r. Cf. Foure Sermons, p. 82, where Esau is the "type" of such persons.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 19: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

44 The Sixteenth Century Journal

down in the Bible. One must be truly contrite for one's sins, "melted down," and stripped of all pride and claim to merit before God (which Atheos in various shifting ways refuses to do). Atheos consistently feels that one may repent at the end and even says of the young that they should enjoy them- selves now, for "they have time ynough, to bee holy hereafter." Zelotes denies that one can simply repent when one pleases and says, "we may see that the common & general repentance which all professe at their end, is not so much as a shadow of true repentance: repentance cannot be in a man, especially upon a sodeine, but he must feele a wonderfull change in him selfe . .86

Such a true repentence will be followed by a lively faith and will con- stitute a "conversion unto God" and a "newe birth" (it is noteworthy how often Gifford uses the language of conversion and rebirth).87 Such a new birth will cleanse one from sin as one is crucified with Christ. Atheos is rebuked for making of Christ's death "an easie score to set all upon," and when it is explained to him that his sinful nature must be crucified, he replies, "I knowe not what yee meane."88 This new birth leads to sanctification, the fruits and holiness of a new life renewed by grace. "The true faith cannot bee without good workes."89

Those who have undergone this new birth and its subsequent sanctifica- tion will have a sense of assurance that they are God's elect and that nothing can separate them from the Grace of Christ.90 While it would be presump- tuous to be assured on the basis of one's own merit, assurance comes by trusting in the power and extent of God's grace.91 The doctrine of predestina- tion is important because it is a comfort to the godly, although it must be remembered that predestination constitutes a responsibility; for those whom God has elected are to be a holy people.92

86Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, ff. 44v, 67r, 68v. Cf. Gifford, A Sermon on the Parable of the Sower, ff. Biiiiv, Bvir; Gifford, Catechisme, f. Dii [sic] r, D3r; Foure Sermons, pp. 107-108. Dent's scoffer also thinks he can repent at the end, p. 305.

87Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, ff. 67r, 70, 82r; Foure Sermons, pp. 34-35, 55, 67, 121; A Treatise of True Fortitude, f. A5v; Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, p. 41.

88Gifford, Countrie Divinitie, ff. 79r, 80r, 81v. Cf. also Gifford, Certaine Sermons, p. 120; Foure Sermons, pp. 121-124.

89Gifford, A Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, p. 45; cf. also Gifford, Foure Sermons, pp. 44, 55, 113, 115, 128-129; Gifford, A Godlie zealous and profitable Sermon, f. Bii; Gifford, Certaine Sermons, pp. 121, 125, 131, 136, 150, 162; Gifford, Catechisme, ff. C2r, C8v, D4, 13v.

90Gifford, Foure Sermons, pp. 45, 58, 70-71, Gifford, Catechisme, f. Dii [sicI v; Countrie Divinitie, f. 68v identifies a false faith and repentance as one which does not entail assurance.

9 ' Gifford, Foure Sermons, p. 64. 92 Gifford, Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, pp. 44-45. For the doctrine of

election to holiness see my article, "The Doctrine of Predestination in the Early English Reformation," Church History, XXXIII (1974), 203, 213-214, n. 73.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 20: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 45

Professor of the Gospel tells Papist that worldly people, heedless of God's grace, are really papists even though they obey the laws and come to church. One must remember that Papist himself goes to the parish church and is not a recusant though he certainly must have been a recalcitrant subject for Protestant tutelage! Such persons, "although they be not ranke Papists, yet have in them still, a smacke and savour of popish principles."93 Common man's pelagianism and "popery" are thus identified just as popular supersti- tion, nostalgia, and the preference for easy-going clergy, have been identified with the old church.94

Central to Puritanism was the piety, preaching, and theology of grace,9 5

and Gifford bears this out. Puritanism involved a very intense kind of insis- tence upon the central Protestant Reformation themes of grace and salvation and also a more individual application of those themes in a person's life. Gifford was most concerned with bringing the preaching and piety of grace and holiness to the common folk in his charge and throughout all England. In this he was at one with that "brotherhood of preachers" who unravelled for numerous listeners the mysteries of sin and salvation, election and holiness. Was the urgency and intensity of Puritan preachers for these things abetted and sharpened by their experience of working with just such unmalleable material as Gifford describes? Could it have been that the piety and theology of the Puritan preachers developed as it did partly out of their continual need to bring a deeper religion to a population which had become for the most part only nominally Protestant through an official Reformation which de- veloped from the top down? Study of Gifford's ministry at least gives us some reason to think so, as we see him portraying and sharpening the differences

3Gifford, Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, p. 52; cf. also Foure Sermons, p. 113 and A Godlie, zealous and profitable Sermon, f. Bir; Certaine Sermons, p. 138.

94Gifford, Dialogue betweene a Papist and Protestant, pp. 49, 53, 75 [771; The Subtill Practices of Devilles, pp. 30-31, 43; Foure Sermons, p. 119.

" This is a point which is often mentioned, e.g., William Haller, The Rise of Puritanism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1938), pp. 85, 93; Alan Simpson, Puritanism in Old and New England (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955), pp. 5-6; Perry Miller, The New England Mind, The Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954), pp. 4, 25-28; Norman Pettit, The Heart Prepared, Grace and Conversion in Puritan Spiritual Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966), pp. 6-7. 1 have elsewhere argued it at length, Dewey D. Wallace, Jr., "The Life and Thought of John Owen to 1660: A Study of the Significance of Calvinist Theology in English Puritanism," (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1965), pp. 7-8, 74-87, 97-102. Patrick Collinson has seen this as central in the career of an early Puritan leader, A Mirror of' Elizabethan Puritanism: The Life and Letters of 'Godly Master Dering' (London: Dr. Williams' Trust, 1964), p. 4. One could easily multiply mid-Elizabethan treatises and published sermons which express the central importance of grace, e.g., William Fulke, A Comfbrtable Sermon of Faith, (London, 1574; STC 11422); John Woolton, A Newe Anatomy of the Whole Man... (London, 1576; STC 25977); Thomas Sparke, A Short Treatise, very comfortable for all,... (London, 1580; STC 4797); Thomas Morton, A Treatise of the threefold state of man, .. . (London, 1596; STC 18199); Alexander Gee, The Ground of Christianity, (London, 1584; STC 11697).

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 21: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

46 The Sixteenth Century Journal

between "countrie divinitie" and true faith in the interests of converting the former to the latter. In his case, at least, it would seem that we can see a Puritan's thought and emphases being subtly shaped by the task of taking true Christianity to stubborn people. To look at it in this way suggests the possi- bility of forces shaping Puritan thought which are other than intellectual influences coming from the reading of books by a leadership elite.

The final task of this paper is to offer an analysis of the nature of George Gifford's ministry, and the main outlines of this have by now become apparent. Gifford was one of the brotherhood of preachers who took as his mission the task of educating the "common sort" in true piety, and this theme gives a unity to his work.96 It might be suggested here that his Puritan- ism was a function of his larger educational purposes: the nonconformity for which he was notorious consisted in his participation in movements to estab- lish that godly discipline in the land which sought to place faithful preachers of God's Word in every parish by replacing or re-educating the unfit. (One of the purposes of "prophesyings" had been to train the less able clergy in preaching.)9 ' It is easy to see how one primarily concerned with the conver- sion and training in godliness of the "common sort" would have been at- tracted by such efforts.

In March 1591 Gifford preached a Paul's Cross sermon in London in which he praised the queen's rule and called for unity among the faithful lest encouragement be given to papists. In that same year and in the year preced- ing he published three writings directed against Separatists and Brownists.9 8

9 6Other, later works of Gifford are less obviously intended to edify the common folk: he published three items each directed to explaining books of scripture, Eight Sermons on Ecclesiastes (London, 1589; STC 11853), Sermons, Upon the Whole Booke of the Revelation (London, 1596; STC 11866) and Fifteene Sermons, upon the Song of Solomon (London, 1598; STC 11854). But these were sermons, and perhaps here he set himself the task of offering explanations of difficult biblical materials, the proper interpretation of which would be far from obvious to the common folk. In the "Epistle Dedicatorie" of the Sermons on Ecclesiastes he says that he expounded that book "to drawe men from the vanities of the world," f. A3r.

97Collinson,The Elizabethan Puritan Movement, pp. 51, 170-171, 174-175. As such efforts would indicate, Puritans seem to have been more vitally concerned with the task of popular education than their conformist counterparts: of Elizabethan Sussex, Roger B. Manning, Religion and Society in Elizabethan Sussex (Bristol: Leicester University Press, 1969) comments that "The leadership of the popular Reformation fell to the Puritan minority and manifested itself in the Puritan classical movement of the 1580's . . . ," p. 275; cf. also Haigh, pp. 295-296.

9 8 Marshall Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939), p. 311, called attention to this aspect of Gifford's work, and many writers on Puritanism since have reproduced the quotation he cites there: e.g., Christopher Hill, Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England, second edition (New York: Schocken Books, 1967), pp. 296, 504; Patrick McGrath, Papists and Puritans Under Elizabeth I (New York: Walker, 1967), pp. 308-309. The institution of the Paul's Cross sermon was often a platform for what the government wanted said, Millar Maclure, The Paul's Cross Sermons 1534-1642 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1958), pp. 14, 20, 107.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 22: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 47

But Gifford was by no means wavering in his Puritan allegiance (of course the moderate Puritans felt betrayed by the Separatist radicals). In the same Paul's Cross sermon he called for the removal of unworthy clergy and their replace- ment by "such as bee both skilfull to teach, and of godlie life."99 The concerns expressed in the anti-Separatist writings are of a piece with his earlier work; they are written for circulation among "diverse of the people" who were disturbed by the Separatist claims.100 His chief objection to the Sepa- ratists is that they would thwart the aims which he had pursued: Brownism comes from persons who are not submissive under proper instruction and discipline' 0 1 but take it upon themselves to teach - such persons endanger the church.1 02 He also argues that these Separatists are enemies to the grace of God which converts souls, for they claim that the Church of England is no church at all because it has many abuses (which he acknowledges), not seeing that it is a true church because within it are the faithful preaching of the gospel and numbers of truly converted souls.1 03 Furthermore, Brownism is "the heresie of perfection,"' 04 for they would turn the church into a tiny band of the perfect, neglecting its larger educational mission. The clamor of such "Donatist" perfectionism is so unsettling that it makes some turn back to popery and others to atheism and indifference.1 05 Once again he is con- cerned that the "common sort" can easily be led into error.

A number of conclusions rise out of this analysis of Gifford's work and call for further investigation. First, Gifford's ministry and writing seem to have been motivated by and to have gained unity from his task of educating the "common sort" in true religion, a task he met head-on by addressing himself to what he perceived to be the attitudes and questions of the English villager. Other conclusions point beyond Gifford alone to wider aspects of Puritanism and religion in Elizabethan England. Secondly, we conclude that

99Gifford, Certaine Sermons, pp. 265f., 27 8-27 9. 1 00Gifford, A Short Treatise Against the Donatists of England, f. A2r of "Epistle

Dedicatory." In his A Short Reply Unto H. Barrow and J. Greenwood (London, 1591; STC 11868), f. A3r, Gifford calls the separatists "notorious seducers" because of whom "many poore sheep of Christ are in hazard to be spoyled."

' 0 'Ibid., f. A3r of main text; Gifford, A Plaine Declaration That Our Brownists Be Full Donatists, by Comparing them together from point to point out of the writings of Augustine (London, 1590; facsimile rpt. Amsterdam: Walter J. Johnson, Inc., 1974, no. 661 of "The English Experience"), f. Alr.

1 0 2 Gifford, A Short Treatise, f. A2v. 1 0 3Ibid., f. A2r; A Plaine Declaration, f. *4v. Patrick Collinson has argued that the

real heart of the dispute between Puritan and Separatist was over this matter of whether or not there were to be found nuclei of true churches in the preaching ministry and godly auditory of Puritan preachers, "Towards a Broader Understanding of the Early Dissenting Tradition," pp. 18-19.

1 4Gifford, A Short Treatise, f. A2v. 1 0 'Ibid., f. A3v. Cf. also Arthur Hildersam, Lectures Upon the Fourth of John ...

(London, 1629; STC 13461), "Ye heare of few seduced either by Papists or Brownists, that did enjoy an ordinary and settled ministry," p. 135.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 23: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

48 The Sixteenth Century Journal

Roman Catholic resistance to Protestantism needs to be understood somewhat less as a matter of resistance based on continuing adherence to a set of defined dogmas rejected by the new religion (though certainly for many of those actually guilty of recusancy it must have been that) and more as a compound of nostalgia for the time when things were "merrier," loyalty to customary usage, and the greater ease with which the old faith was accom- modated to the everyday "magical" and "folk-religious" practices which pro- vided so much comfort to ordinary individuals. Thirdly, Protestantism, and especially Puritanism as the more intense kind of Protestantism active in Eliza- bethan England, sought to replace those old comforts with the comforts of the doctrines of providence and assurance, but its effect was often a more "secularizing" one, as it destroyed folk-religion, leading thereby to a less "supernaturalistic" outlook. Among certain individuals of the common folk this may have led to the kind of "common man's" scoffing at religion and even rationalism which Christopher Hill has so interestingly documented.106 Protestantism was thus a radical force in its modernizing impact and, where Puritanism in particular was involved, quite revolutionary in its break with tradition and custom.

A fourth conclusion of this study is that from the Puritan point of view the common religion was essentially Pelagian (in an imprecise sense, of course) and needed to be broken up by the preaching of the gospel. This definition of their task by Puritans may have contributed to the increasingly anti-Pelagian tenor of their theology, hitherto understood as entirely a reaction to the gradually "arminianizing" tendencies of Anglican theology, and may have re- inforced their insistence on individual conversion and sanctification, as they sought to "shape," one by one, their recalcitrant parishioners. Certainly this conclusion requires refinement by analysis of Puritan preaching and pastoral activities.' 0 7

1 I' Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down (New York: Viking, 1972), pp. 158-162. For this kind of effect of the Reformation in general, see the comment of Steven E. Ozment, The Reformation in the Cities, The Appeal of Protestanism in Sixteenth Century Germany and Switzerland (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975), p. 80, .. .. the Reformation transformed at the popular level the most routine concepts and practices of the medieval church, with an eye to maximum simplification and even a certain desacralizing of religious life."

I ? 7Puritan preachers contemporary to Gifford who echo many of the same themes are Laurence Chaderton, Richard Greenham, John Dod, and Richard Rogers. They are concerned, like Gifford, about superstition and "popery" on the one hand, and the licentiousness of the "Carnall Protestantes" on the other; they emphasize the need for sound preaching of the doctrine of God's regenerating grace to uproot these errors, The Works of the Reverend and Faithful Servant of Jesus Christ M. Richard Greenham ... (London, 1599; facsimile rpt. 1973), pp. 5-6, 29, 50, 93ff, 167, 268, 273; Laurence Chaderton, An Excellent and godly Sermon, most needefull for this time... (London, 1578; STC 4924), ff. Ciiv, Ciii, Cvr, Div, Diiv, Eiiii, Eviiiv; John Dod (and Robert Cleaver), A Treatise or Exposition Upon the Ten Commandments (London, 1603; STC 6967), ff. 15v-16r; 35v, 48v-49r; Seven Godlie and Fruitfull Sermons ... (London, 1614; STC 6944), pp. 3, 17, 18, 22, 35, 46, 61, 112-113, 166, 170; Richard Rogers, Certaine Sermons

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 24: George Gifford, Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion in Elizabethan England

Puritan Propaganda and Popular Religion 49

A fifth conclusion sees the Puritan demand for godly, able preachers in every parish as more pietistic and functional than doctrinaire, resulting from the Puritan's urgent sense of the need to break down the timeworn patterns of religious indifference and folk-religiosity.' 08 The disciplinary movement, with its focus on a church order, which would bring about a structure more amenable to encouraging gospel preaching in every parish; greater pastoral concern would then attract those like Gifford because it promised to aid them in what they saw to be their greatest need. And those like Gifford who strenuously opposed Separatism would have done so not merely because they were more timid or moderate by disposition but because it endangered pre- cisely what they sought most to achieve - the conversion and the nurture of the many in the parish church - whereas the Separatist program seemed more doctrinaire and legalistic and interested only in the spiritual growth of a miniscule inner circle.

The last conclusion highlights the importance of this educational task of Puritanism as an ideal and form of social control. Men like Gifford wanted a disciplined and controlled society to result from their efforts at popular edu- cation, as revolutionaries often do.

(London, 1612; STC 21203), pp. 22-23, 45-46, 131; Seven Treatises ... (London, 1603; STC 2125), pp. 1-2, 25, 27, 127, 205. But the closest parallel of all to Gifford's special concerns is Arthur Dent, The Plaine Mans Path-ways to Heaven, cf. especially pp. 17-19, 25-27, 29, 33, 277. Many of Gifford's concerns with respect to superstition and witchcraft are similarly mirrored in the Welsh dialogue on witchcraft written by Robert Holland in 1595, see Stuart Clark and P. T. J. Morgan, "Religion in Elizabethan Wales: Robert Holland's Dialogue on Witchcraft," Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 27 (1976), pp. 33-35, 37, 39-41, and p. 46 where Holland is dubbed "the Welsh Gifford."

108Some writers speak on the Puritan disciplinary movement as though it were mainly motivated by doctrinaire ideas on church government, but the 1570 Admonition to Parliament (printed in W. H. Frere and C. E. Douglas, eds., Puritan Manifestoes [1907; rpt. London: SPCK, 1954], pp. 23, 32) connected the need for preachers with the problem of educating the masses; Edward Dering, in his famous sermon before Queen Elizabeth made the same connection, Leonard Trinterud, ed., Elizabethan Puritanism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 158-160. Like Gifford later, Dering was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where according to Collinson, A Mirror of Elizabethan Puritanism, p. 7, there flourished a kind of Puritanism most concerned with the "pastoral deficiencies" of the church, a tradition Collinson thinks traceable to Dering and later Laurence Chaderton; Dering and other Puritans Collinson mentions as closely related to him (e.g., John More) show many similarities to Gifford and seem to have sought reform in church and ministry for similar "educational" pastoral purposes, ibid., pp. 8-10. The likelihood is that Gifford was influenced by this tradition of Dering, though the latter resigned his fellowship in 1570, after Gifford had been at Cambridge but a short while. Chaderton, in A Fruitfull Sermon upon the 3.4.5.6.7. and 8. verses of the 12. Chapiter of the Epistle of S. Paul to the Romanes... (London, 1584; STC 4926) complains about the need for discipline, strong action by the magistry, and good teaching pastors in order to overcome irreligion, "popish religion," witchcraft, idleness among the clergy and the social disorder of people abandoning their callings, pp. 72-73, 25, 3[5], 17-18. Cf. also Chaderton's An Excellent and Godly Sermon, ff. Ciii, Eiiii.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:07:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions