Archbishop Whitgift proceeded against these authors with much severity. In
1589 a proclamation was issued against them; several were taken and
punished. Udal and Penry, who were the chief authors of these outrageous
works, were executed. Hacket, Coppinger, and Arthington, who seem to have
been a trio of insane libellers, and Greenwood and Barrow, whose seditious
books and pamphlets were leading the way to all the horrors of anarchy
introduced by the Anabaptists into Germany and the Netherlands, all felt
the vengeance of the Star Chamber, and were severely punished for their
revilings. The innocent often suffer with the guilty, and Cartwright was
imprisoned for eighteen months, although he denied all connection with the
"Marprelate" books, and declared that he had never written or published
anything which could be offensive to her Majesty or detrimental to the
state.
The Solomon of the North and the Parliament of England dealt hard justice
to the _Interpreter_ (1607), which nearly caused its author's death. He
published also _Institutiones Juris Anglicani ad seriem Institutionum
imperialium_ (Cambridge, 1605, 8vo), which involved him in a charge of
wishing to confound the English with the Roman law. Dr. Cowell, in the
former work, sounded the battle-cry which was heard a few years later on
many a field when the strength of the Crown and Parliament met in deadly
combat.
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