MARPRELATE CONTROVERSY, a war of pamphlets waged in 1588 and 1589 between a puritan writer who employed the pseudonym "Martin Marprelate" and defenders of the Estab lished Church. Martin's tracts are characterized by violent and personal invective against the Anglican dignitaries, and by a plain and homely style combined with pungent wit. The special point of his attack was the Episcopacy. The pamphlets were printed at a secret press established by John Penry, a Welsh puritan. After three tracts had been issued, it appeared to some of the ecclesiastical authorities that the only way to silence Martin was to have him attacked in his own railing style, and accordingly certain writers of ready wit, among them John Lyly, Thomas Nashe and Robert Greene, were secretly commissioned to answer the pamphlets. Among the productions of this group were Pappe with an Hatchet (1589), probably by Lyly, and An Almond for a Parrat (159o), which, with certain tracts under the pseudonym of Pasquil, has been attributed to Nashe (q.v.). Meanwhile, in July 1589, Penry's press, now at Wolston, near Coventry, pro duced two tracts purporting to be by "sons" of Martin, but prob ably by Martin himself, namely, Theses Martinianae by Martin Junior, and The Just Censure of Martin Junior by Martin Senior.
Shortly after this the press was seized ; Penry, however, was not found, and in September issued from Wolston or Haseley The Protestation of Martin Marprelate, the last work of the series, though several of the anti-Martinist pamphlets appeared later. Penry then fled to Scotland, but was later apprehended in London, charged with inciting rebellion, and hanged (May 1593).
for list and full titles of the tracts, related documents and discussion of the authorship, E. Arber's Introductory Sketch to the Martin Marprelate Controversy (188o), which, however, gives no connected account of the matter. See also articles on John Penry and Job Throckmorton in Dict. of Nat. Biography. The more important tracts have been reprinted by Petheram in his series of Puri tan Discipline Tracts (1842-60), in Arber's English Scholar's Library (1879-80), in R. W. Bond's edition of Lyly and in the editions of Nashe.