em by law,
subscription to the Three Articles was exacted from every member of the
clergy. For the moment these measures were crowned with success. The
movement which Cartwright still headed was checked; Cartwright himself
was driven from his Professorship; and an outer uniformity of worship
was more and more brought about by the steady pressure of the
Commission. The old liberty which had been allowed in London and the
other Protestant parts of the kingdom was no longer permitted to exist.
The leading Puritan clergy, whose nonconformity had hitherto been winked
at, were called upon to submit to the surplice, and to make the sign of
the cross in baptism. The remonstrances of the country gentry availed as
little as the protest of Lord Burleigh himself to protect two hundred of
the best ministers from being driven from their parsonages on a refusal
to subscribe to the Three Articles.

[Sidenote: Martin Marprelate.]

But the political danger of the course on which the Crown had entered
was seen in the rise of a spirit of vigorous opposition, such as had not
made its appearance since the accession of the Tudors. The growing power
of public opinion received a striking recognition in the struggle which
bears the name of the "Martin Marprelate controversy." The Puritans had
from the first appealed by their pamphlets from the Crown to the
people, and Archbishop Whitgift bore witness to their influence on
opinion by his efforts to gag the Press. The regulations made by the
Star-Chamber in 1585 for this purpose are memorable as the first step in
the long struggle of government after government to check the liberty of
printing. The irregular censorship which had long existed was now
finally organized. Printing was restricted to London and the two
Universities, the number of printers was reduced, and all applicants for
license to print were placed under the supervision of the Company of
Stationers. Every publication too, great or small, had to receive the
approbation of the Primate or the Bishop of London. The first result of
this system of repression was the appearance, in the very year of the
Armada, of a series of anonymous pamphlets bearing the significant name
of "Martin Marprelate," and issued from a secret press which found
refuge from the Royal pursuivants in the country-houses of the gentry.
The press was at last seized; and the suspected authors of these
scurrilous libels, Penry, a young Welshman, and a minister named Ud