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‘For Children in Yeeres and Children in Understanding‘: The Emergence of the English Catechism under Elizabeth and the Early Stuarts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Ian Green
Ian Green
Affiliation:
Department of Modern History, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland BT7 1NN
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Extract

When Immanuel Bourne published his larger catechism in 1646, he prefaced it with an unusually full account of the history of catechising. He was not the first author of the period to trace the practice back to the examples of religious instruction in both Old and New Testaments, or to cite the works of Pantaenus, Clement of Alexandria and Origen as proof of the existence of religious education in the early Church. Nor was he alone in praising the efforts of those continental reformers of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries who thought they had revived the characteristic form of instruction of the early Church after centuries of neglect, though it may be added that Bourne's list of contemporary European catechists was longer and more cosmopolitan than others'.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , July 1986 , pp. 397 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

BL = British Library; EETS = Early English Text Society; STC = A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland…1475-1640; Wing = A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland… 1641-1700.

1 Bourne, Immanuel, A light from Christ…or, the rich jewel of Christian divinity, London 1646, sigs. A8v-a2r, and p. 3Google Scholar.

2 Andrewes, L., A patterne of catechistical doctrine, London 1641Google Scholar, reprinted in The Works of Lancelot Andrewes, 11 vols., Oxford 1841-1854, vi. 3–5Google Scholar;Leech, James, A plain and profitable catechisme, Cambridge 1605Google Scholar, sig. A3V; E. B., A catechisme or briefe instruction, London 1617Google Scholar, sigs. A6v-7r; Bristow, John, An exposition of the creede, the lords prayer, the tenne commandements, and the sacraments, London 1627Google Scholar, sig. A3r; E[dward] A[lport], Davids catechisme, London 1623, pp. 3, 9Google Scholar.

3 Charcke, W., ‘Of the use of catechising’, printed by Cawdrey, Robert in A short and fruitful treatise, London 1580Google Scholar, sigs. D2v-3r; E.B., op.cit. sig. A7v; Mayer, John, The English Catechisme, London 1623Google Scholar, sig. A3V. These and other authors may not have been aware that instruction in the early Church was not usually of the question-and-answer type. However, in so far as an interrogatory form existed by the early ninth century, even though the typical late medieval form used a declaratory technique, Protestant reformers were right in thinking that they were reviving an earlier form.

4 With three exceptions, the works of these men will be referred to in the text or footnotes below. The catechetical work Bourne associated with John Dod was probably the ‘methodicall short catechisme’ appended to every edition of Dod and Cleaver's Plaine and familiar exposition of the ten commandements from 1604 (the author was actually Thomas Cartwright). Alternatively it might have been the ‘Briefe dialogue’ published sometimes with Dod and Cleaver's Ten sermons and sometimes separately: Pollard, A. W. and Redgrave, G. R. (eds.), A Short-Title Catalogue of Books printed in England, Scotland and Ireland… 1475-1640, revised edn, Jackson, W. A. et al. (eds.), London 1976, nos. 6944. 7-9.3, 6835. 5–7Google Scholar. I am most grateful to the staff of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for allowing me to consult the revised edition of volume one in proof, and to Ms K. Pantzer for permission to cite the provisionally assigned revised STC numbers and for other help. A work often attributed to John Downame (though it is more likely to have been the work of Sir Henry Finch), The summe of sacred divinity, London 1620?, is not in question-and-answer form; but the fact that Downame was a censor in the mid-1640s may help to explain his inclusion in Bourne's list. William Twisse's Brief catechetical! exposition went through at least five editions between 1631 and 1645 (for the 1632 edition see the British Library Catalogue s.v. ‘Brief’).

5 Nichols, Josias, An order of household instruction, London 1596Google Scholar, sig. B3r; Leech, Plain and profitable catechisme, sig. A2r; and see below n. 33. On the titlepage of his Grounds of that doctrine which is according to godlinesse, London 1631, Thomas Vicars named seven English authors from whose works he had ‘gathered’ his own catechism.

6 Bourne, Light from Christ, sigs. A4r-v, a8v.

7 Erasmus' Dilucida et pia explanatio symboli, translated into English as A playne and godly exposytion…of the commune crede, London 1533, had been commissioned by Sir Thomas Boleyn: Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami, Amsterdam 1969-, V.I. 179-85, 200-320. Edwardian works using question-and-answer form included those of Edmond Allen (STC358. 5-61) and John Poynet (STC 4807-13) as well as the Prayer Book one (see below). Other works of this period though called catechisms did not use an interrogatory technique, e.g. Richard Taverner's in 1539 (STC 23709). The Catechismus of 1548 associated with Cranmer (.STC 5992. 5-4), and the works of two Catholic bishops, Hamilton of St Andrews (STC 12731) and Bonner of London (STC 3281)-398

8 Haugaard, W. P., Elizabeth and the English Reformation: the struggle for a stable settlement of religion, Cambridge 1970, 142Google Scholar, 170-1; STC 1629 iff for editions of the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer; H. Anders, ‘The Elizabethan ABC with the Catechism’, The Library,4th ser. xvi (1936), 32-48; E. Birchenough, ‘The Prymer in English’, ibid, xviii (1938), 192-4.

9 J. Calvin, The catechisme (first edition in English 1556, printed in Geneva; first edition published in England 1560: STC 4380, 4380.5); T. Beza, A little catechisme, London 1578, though see also his Booke of Christian questions and answers, London 1572; Matthieu Virel's Learned and excellent treatise sold over a dozen editions in English between 1594 and 1635; and Ursinus' commentary on the Heidelberg catechism appeared in both Latin and English editions in the 1580s (STC 24529, 24532).

10 Haugaard, op. cit. 277-9; STC 18701-38, and D. Wing (ed.), Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland…1641-1700, i (2nd edn), 1978, ii (2nd edn), 1982, iii (1st edn), 1951, N 1436-9. Some confusion has arisen over the shortest of the catechisms associated with Nowell, but this matter is best resolved at length on another occasion.

11 Variously entitled A briefe and necessary instruction, A briefe and necessary calechisme and A short catechisme for householders: STC 6679-82.3, 6710. 5-24.5 and Wing S 3613; P. Collinson, A Minor of Elizabethan Puritanism: the life and letters of ‘Godly Master Bering’ (Friends of Dr Williams's Library, 17th lecture), London 1964, 9-10, 33-4.

12 The shorter form was entitled Short questions and answeares, contemning the summe of Christian religion; the longer added Newly enlarged with the testimonies of scripture: STC 18816-30.9, and STC Addenda for the reasons for attributing the original work to Paget.

13 STC 19709-21 (in addition to those listed there, there is a 1635 edition in New College Library, Edinburgh), several editions in the folio Workes, and Wing P 1563-4; STC 7527.9-36.4; Ball's best-selling catechism was variously entitled A short treatise and A short catechisme: STC 1313.3-7 and 1314.2-18.5, and Wing B 563-5.

14 I hope to publish soon an annotated list of those catechetical forms and works that I have identified. Two of the main criteria for inclusion have been that a work was written for avowedly catechetical ends, and/or that it was totally or partly in question-and-answer form. Three categories are excluded from these totals: Roman Catholic catechisms; Scottish catechisms not known to have been used or reprinted in England; and American works also not known to have been used in England. See also below p. 402.

15 Cartwrightiana, ed. Peel, A. and Carlson, L. H., London 1951, 158–9Google Scholar;Andrewe, L.s, The morall law explained, London 1642Google Scholar, titlepage; and see Gouge, William, A short catechisme, London 1621Google Scholar, sig. A3r; G[eorge] W[ebbe], A brief exposition of the principles of Christian religion, London 1612, sig. A3r; and J[ohn] S[talham], A catechisme for children inyeeres and children in understanding, London 1644, sig. A2r. For a manuscript copy of ‘Mr Boys catechisme wherein he catechized the congregation att Hallifax’, see BL, Add. MS 4928, fos. 2V-34V; and for the catechism ascribed to John Morehouse, see BL, Egerton MS 2877, fo. 83 (I am most grateful to Dr Jane Freeman for this reference).

18 Cambridge, Emmanuel College Library, MS. III 1. 13. I have also found in con-temporary sources a number of references to printed works of which not a single copy appears to have survived.

17 See above p. 399 and nn. 9, 10 and 13 for Nowell's catechism and for Egerton's edition of Virel's treatise; the English edition of the Heidelberg catechism produced by Sparke and Seddon appeared in 1588 (STC 13030-1), Sparke's own catechism is part two of STC 23025-.5. Mention of indebtedness to continental forms can be found in E.B., Catechisme, sig. B3r, and Mayer, English catechisme, sig. A3V.

18 The chronology of publication is derived from the list referred to in n. 14 above. On anti-Catholic feeling see McGrath, P., Papists and Puritans under Elizabeth I, London 1967Google Scholar, ch. viii; Clifton, R., ‘Fear of popery‘, in Russell, C. (ed.), Origins of the English Civil War, London 1973, 152–4, 157-8; andGoogle ScholarKenyon, J. P., The Stuart Constitution, Cambridge 1969, 39Google Scholar, 43-6, 449. In an unpublished paper on ‘The Church of England and its people, 1604-40’, Dr Christopher Haigh has suggested an alternative reason for the increased number of catechisms in the years after 1617: increased pressure from bishops trying to enforce the canons on catechising.

19 Strauss, G., Luther's House of Learning: indoctrination of the young in the German Reformation, London 1978, espec. chs. i, viiiGoogle Scholar.

20 Together Allen's Treasurie of catechisme, London 1600, and The doctrine of the gospel, London 1606 comprised over 1,300 pages; Mayer's English catechisme went through at least six editions between 1621 and 1635, despite being nearly 600 pages long.

21 Matt. xvi. 16-17; Heb. v. 12-14 and vi. 1-3; 1 Cor. iii. 2-3; 1 Pet. i. 2; Webbe, Brief exposition, sig. A2r; William Attersoll, The principles of Christian religion, London 1623, sig. A2r; Christopher Blackwood, A soul-searching catechism, London 1644, titlepage.

22 Becon, T., Workes, London 1560-1564, pt. 1, 287–558Google Scholar.

23 For Andrewes's catechetical lectures at Cambridge, see n. 2 and p. 400 above; Ussher's two works were written when he was in his early twenties and catechist at Trinity College, Dublin, : Whole Works of…James Ussher, 17 vols., ed. Elrington, C. R., Dublin 1847-1864, i. 15, xi. 179Google Scholar; Allen, Doctrine of the gospel, sig., 4V.

24 Dorothy Burch, A catechism, London 1646, sigs. Aar~3r; the unknown printer is mentioned by Gouge, Short catechisme, sig. A3r; the lawyer Thoma s Norton translated Nowell's Latin catechism into English, A Catechism…by Alexander Nowell, ed. Corrie, G. E., Cambridge 1853, viii-ix, 107–111Google Scholar;Jones, Richard, author of A briefe and necessary catechisme, London 1583Google Scholar, was a schoolmaster; other authors, like Joh n Stockwood, combined schoolteaching with a parish cure.

25 Fairly typical are John Sprint and William Crashaw, and in their contrasting ways Yates, John, Palmer, Herbert and Reeve, Edmund; see Stephen, L. and Lee, S. (eds.), Dictionary of National Biography, London 1908-1909Google Scholar. Biographical information on a large number of authors of catechisms is given in L. T. Grant, ‘The practice of the cure of souls in seventeenth-century English Puritanism’, unpublished University of Edinburgh PhD diss., 1961, Appendix A.

26 Yorkshire: Crashaw, William, Milkefor babes, or a north-countrie catechisme, London 1618Google Scholar, and Ward, William, Short grounds of catechisme, London 1627Google Scholar; Cheshire: Parker, John, A true patteme ofpietie, London 1599Google Scholar; Glos.: Webb, Richard, A key of knowledge, London 1622Google Scholar, and Sprint, John, The summe of the Christian religion, London 1613Google Scholar; Devon: Crompton, William, An explication ofthose principles ofChristian religion, London 1633Google Scholar; Dorset: Lyford, William, An helpe for young people, London 1640Google Scholar, and Principles of faith, London 1642; Samuel Austin's A practical catechisme, London 1647, was ‘Begun at Newport-Pagnel… revived at Luton… and now perfected at Queen Hithe in London’; Suffolk: Andrewes, Bartimaeus, A very short and pithie catechisme, London 1586Google Scholar; Essex: Syme, John, The sweet milke of Christian doctrine, London 1617. Nearly a dozen catechisms were published by London-based clergyGoogle Scholar.

27 See Cartwright's subdued reference to Presbyterian organisation in his short catechism, Cartwrightiana, 171; and Nowell's passing reference to Geneva-style discipline, Catechism…by Alexander Newell, 96, 218.

28 [Francis Davis], A catechisme wherein is contained the true grounds, London 1612, sigs. B4.r-5r; Mayer, English catechisme, 58-61; Crompton, An Explication, 43-4; Henry Hammond, A practical catechisme, Oxford 1645, reprinted in Miscellaneous Theological Works of Henry Hammond, 3 vols., ed. N. Pocock, Oxford 1847-50, i. 333-40.

29 Fasting was not pressed by either of the official forms or by the Dering-More, Paget-Openshaw or Perkins catechisms, but it was stressed by Cartwright and Ball, and by Leech, Plaine and profitable catechisme, 54-7.

30 Compare the more objective definition of assurance in most catechisms of the 1570s and early 1580s, e.g. (anon.), The maner and forme of examination, London 1581, sigs. B3v-4r, with the more subjective definition in some forms from the later 1580s, e.g. (anon.), Motives to godly knowledge, London 1613, 4-6. For other examples see P. F.Jensen, ‘The life of faith in the teaching of Elizabethan Protestants’, unpublished Oxford University DPhil diss., 1979, 184-224; for the background to this change, R. T. Kendall, Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649, Oxford 1979.

31 1 References to the covenant of grace were rare before the 1590s, but so common as to be almost standard by the second quarter of the seventeenth century, e.g. Anthony Tuckney, ‘A breife and pithy catechisme’, Cambridge, Emmanuel College Library, MS III. 1. 138, fo. 18r; Richard Alleine, A briefe explanation of the common catechisme, London 1631, sig. A2v; and J.F., A compendious catechisme, London 1645, sigs. Asv-6r, A7v-8r. For the background see Kendall, op. cit.

32 The earlier and later opinion in the period under review seems to have been against detailed discussion, but in the middle a growing minority decided in favour. Among the latter were Egerton, Briefe methode of catechising, 3, 11, 23-4, and I[ohn] B[oughton], God and man. Or a treatise catechisticall, London 1623, 25-30. In his Short catechisme, first published in James's reign, Joh n Ball used predestinarian terms, but in his Short questions and answeres of 1639 (STC 1314) he did not. It is also of interest that the rules drawn up by parliament in 1645 for the minimum knowledge required by communicants (the basis of several catechisms in 1646-7) did not mention predestination: Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, ed. C. H. Firth and R. S. Rait, London 1911, i. 789-91.

33 Linaker, Robert, A short catechisme, London 1610Google Scholar, sig A4V; Home, Robert, Points of instruction for the ignorant, London 1613Google Scholar, sigs. A2r-v; Foorthe, John, The apostles catechisme, London 1623Google Scholar, sig. A2v; Bernard, Richard, Thecommon catechismc expressed in the Common Prayer Book, London 1640Google Scholar, sig. A2r. By the 1630s some more overtly controversial works were appearing, e.g. H[ugh] P[eters], Milkefor babes, and meat for men, Amsterdam ? 1630, and Reeve, Edmund, The communion booke catechismc expounded, London 1635Google Scholar, but they were in a tiny minority before the 1640s.

34 Cardwell, E., A History of Conferences and other Proceedings, Oxford 1849, 186–7Google Scholar.

35 Proctor, F. and Frere, W. H., A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, London 1925, 600-2Google Scholar

36 Ratcliffe, Thomas, A short summe of the whole catechisme, London 1620Google Scholar(but probably written by 1594); William Hill, The fast principles of a Christian (fourteen editions by 1639); Crashaw, Milkefor babes, sigs. A2v-3 r (six editions by 1633); Henry Wilkinson, A catechisme, contqyning a short exposition (four editions by 1637).

37 Although the authorities made good the omission in 1604, the tide of new forms or commentaries was too well advanced to be halted then; moreover, the other shortcomings of the short catechism remained.

38 The Work of William Perkins, ed. Breward, I., Abingdon 1970, 23–4Google Scholar, 33, 99-113; Kendall, Calvin and English Calvinism, parts 2, 3; P. Lake, , Moderate Puritans and the Elizabethan Church, Cambridge 1982CrossRefGoogle Scholar;Dent, C. M., Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford, Oxford 1983Google Scholar.

39 See the Presbyterian objections to the catechism at the Savoy conference of 1661, Proctor and Frere, New History of the Book of Common Prayer, 183. On the atonement, see Godfrey, W. R., ‘Reformed thought on the extent of the atonement to 1618’, Westminster Theological Journal xxxvii (1974-1975), 133–71Google Scholar, and Kendall, op. cit. parts 1, 2, though his ideas have been criticised, e.g. by Helm, P., Calvin and the Calvinists, Edinburgh 1982Google Scholar.

40 The Prayer Book catechism contains the line ‘God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the elect people of God’ which encouraged some authors to interpret that catechism in strict reformed terms. The following are called Puritans by Grant, ‘Practice of the cure of souls’, Appendix A, but used the Prayer Book catechism as the basis of an alternative form or praised that catechism: Richard Alleine (Briefe explanation), John Ball (Short questions and answers), Richard Bernard (Common catechisme expressed), William Crashaw (Milke for babes, sigs. A2v~3r), Thomas Ratcliffe (Short summe), William Ward (Short grounds), William Whitaker (A short summe of Christianity, London 1630, sig. A3r), and Henry Wilkinson (Catechisme contayning a short exposition).

41 W. P. Haugaard, ‘John Calvin and the catechism of Alexander Nowell’, Archivjur Reformation-Geschichte lxi (1970), 56.

42 Wood, William, Afourme of catechising in true religion, London 1581, sig. 3r; Cardwell, History of Conferences, 187Google Scholar.

43 Cf. STC 18708-103.5 and 18730-8 (English versions only).

44 It is just possible that Wood and Reynolds were talking of the condensed Nowell form which ha d been through several editions when they voiced their criticisms, but it is more likely that they were attacking the full-length version. For Nowell's estimate of the potential readership of the condensed form, see his letter of 1572 to the archbishops, printed at the start of the work.

45 See below p. 408 and n. 48, and p. 420, n. 96, and above pp. 399, 402 and n. 20.

46 See above nn. 36,40; Edward Fenton, So short a catechisme (at least ten editions by 1643) and M[artin] F[ist], A briefs catechisme, London 1624, did not print the standard formulae in full. Criticism of existing forms can also be found in John Tomkys, A briefe exposition of the lories prayer, London 1585, sigs. 2v-3r, and Thomas Settle, A catechisme briefly opening the misterie of our redemption, London 1587, sigs. A2r, A4V.

47 Bristow, Exposition of the creede, sigs. A3v-4r; (anon.), ‘Of catechisinge’, Cambridge, Emmanuel College Library MS III.1.138, fo. 29, r; the rubric after the catechism in the Book of Common Prayer, and the prefaces to the full-length and condensed versions of the Nowell catechism. Canon 59 of 1604 said the catechism should be used to teach ‘youth and ignorant persons’, but early Stuart visitation articles in general asked only if children, apprentices and servants were being taught, not ignorant adults.

48 (Anon.), Certayn short questions and answeres…foryoung children, London 1580; (anon.), A short catechisme for little children learned by one at three yeares of age, London 1589; Linaker, Short catechisme; [John Craig], The mother and the child…gathered out of Mr Cragges catechisme, London 1611; (anon.), The elements of the beginnings of the oracles of God, London 1619; (anon.), A catechisme: so short for little children, London 1639 (title-page only survives, in BL, Harleian MS 5921/15); Gyles Wigginton, An introduction to the Christian faith, London 1646 (but possibly written much earlier). B. Ritter Dailey has surveyed many such works in ‘Youth and the New Jerusalem: the English catechistical tradition and Henry Jessey's Catechisme for Babes (1652), Harvard Library Bulletin xxx (1982), 25-54.

49 Wolfall, Thomas, Childrens bread, London 1646Google Scholar; Alleine, Briefe explanation, sigs. A2r-3v; Leech, Plaine and profitable catechisme; Denison, Stephen, A compendious catechisme, London 1621Google Scholar;Kussmaul, A., Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England, Cambridge 1981, 3–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 70-1; Stone, L., The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, London 1977, 27–8, 108Google Scholar.

50 See the titlepages of Gervase Scarbrough, The summe of all godly and profitable cat-echismes, London 1623; Reeve, Communion book catechisme; and Christopher Watson, Briefe principles of religion, London 1578.

51 Bernard, Richard, Two Iwinnes: or, two parts of one portion of scripture, London 1613, 8–10Google Scholar; Boughton, God and man, 3. The comment of Calvin is cited by S. Fish, The Living Temple: George Herbert and catechizing, Berkeley 1978, 60; it is from the commentary on Hebrews.

52 Stalham, Catechism for children; I[ohn] G[ibson], An easie entrance into the principall points of Christian religion, London 1579, sig. Aiv; I[ohn] P[aget], A primer of Christian religion, London 1601; D. V., An enlargement of a former catechisme, London 1637; and cf. M[ordechai] A[ldem], A short, plaine and profitable catechisme, London 1592, sig. A3V, an d I[ohn] B[rinsley], A breviate of saving knowledge, London 1643, 1.

53 See the titlepages of William Home, A Christian exercise, Londo n 1585; Ball's Short Catechisme; and G[eorge] G[ifford], A catechisme conleining the sum of Christian religion, London 1583; and cf. I[ohn] D[avidson], A short Christian instruction, sig. A4X; John Owen, The principles of the doctrine of Christ, London 1645, sig. A3r; (anon.), A short catechisme collected by a Christian, London 1575 ?, preface; Bourne, Light from Christ, sigs. a2r-v, a8v; ‘Openshaw’, Short questions and answeares, London 1580, sigs. A3r-v.

54 See the title-pages of R.B., A briefe catechisme, London 1601; Elnathan Parr, The grounds of divinitie, London 1614; Richard Bernard, A double catechisme, London 1607; William Bradshaw, A direction for the weaker sort of Christians, London 1609; C[hristopher] S[hutte], The testimonie of a true fayth, London 1581, sigs E5r-7v; Thomas Gataker, The Christian man's care, London 1624; Gibson, Easie entrance; J.H., The principles of Christian religion, London 1645; R[obert] H[arrison], Three formes of catechismes, Middleburgh 1583, sig. A2v; Brinsley, Breviate of saving knowledge. These groups were often bracketed with youth, as in Robert Cawdrey's Short and fruitefull treatise and Thomas Cobhead, A briefe instruction collected for the exercise of youth, and simple sort of people, London 1579.

55 Settle, Catechisme, titlepage; Bernard, Two twinnes, 5; Nichols, Order of household instruction, sig. B3V; John Mico, Spirituallfood, and physicke, London 1631, sig. A4V; Webbe, Briefe exposition, sig. A3V; Crashaw, Milkefor babes (titlepage of second edition; ‘countrie people’ was changed to ‘the simplest’ in the fourth edition); (anon.), The main grounds of religion, London 162 ?, titlepage. Again these groups were often linked with a younger group, e.g. children and ‘common people’: John Craig, A short summe of the whole catechisme, London 1581, and Webbe, loc. cit.

56 E[dmund] C[hapman], A catechisme with a prayer annexed, London 1583, sig. Ciir; William Hinde, A path to pie tie, London 1626, sigs. A6r-v; W[illiam] D[ickenson], Milke for babes. The English catechisme set downe, London 1628, sig. 3r.

57 Titlepage of Wilkinson, Catechisme; and cf. the titlepage of Shutte, Testimonie of a true fayth; Wolfall, Childrens bread (‘for the instruction of such as are ignorant, and for the edification of such as have attained some measure of knowledge’); and E.B., Catechisme, sigs. A2v-6r.

58 A breefe catechisme so necessarie and easie to be learned, London 1576; Thomas Sparke, A brief and short catechisme, London 1580, sigs. E2r-v and the ‘Questions’ at the end; T[homas] W[ilcox], A forme of preparation to the lords supper, London 1587; H. Graie, A short and easie introduction to Christian faith, London 1588; Richard Cox, A short catechisme, London 1620; Josias White, A plaine and familiar exposition, London 1632; John Baker, A short preparation to the worthy receiving of the sacrament of the lords supper, London 1645; Wfalter] Bfridges], A catechisme for communicants, London 1645.

59 Hill, Robert, Christ's prayer expounded, London 1606, 3Google Scholar;Balmford, James, A short catechisme, London 1607,8Google Scholar;Crooke, Samuel, The guide unto true blessedness, London 1613, 56Google Scholar;Whiting, Giles, Short questions andansweres to be learned, London 1629, 9Google Scholar. For an indication that children were sometimes admitted see E. B., Catechisme, sig. B2r.

60 Dering, Edward, Workes, London 1590Google Scholar, sig. A2v; Stockwood, John, A sermon preached at Paules crosse [24 Aug. 1578], London 1578Google Scholar, passim; Cawdrey, Short and fruite full treatise, London 1604, sig. E3V; William Hopkinson, A preparation un to the waye of lyfe, London 1583, sigs. A3r-v. See also P. Collinson, The Religion of Protestants: the Church in English society 1559-1625, Oxford 1982, ch. v.

61 Dering's preface, Stockwood's sermon and Cawdrey's treatise, as last note; see also Thomas Sparke, ‘A treatise, to prove, that ministers publikely, and householders privately, are bound to catechise’, prefixed to Sparke and Seddon's edition of the Heidelberg catechism (see n. 17 above); and Wood, Fourme of catechising, sig. 2v.

62 Strauss, , Luther's House of Learning, 158Google Scholar.

63 Ibid. 167, 174-5 and ch. xiii, and see below pp. 417-19. See also the Puritans' demand at Hampton Court: Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission: Montagu of Beaulieu MSS,33 (clause 9).

64 Ibid. 37-40; Richard Gawton, A short instruction/or all such as are to be admitted, London 1621, sigs. A2r-v; John Frewen, Certain choise grounds and principles of our Christian religion, London 1621, sigs. A4r-6r; Webbe, Briefe exposition, sig. A2v; Webb, Key of knowledge, sigs. A4r-v; Henry Vesey, The scope of the scripture, London 1633, sigs. A2r-3r.

65 There was virtually no censorship of alternative forms, and even in the 1630s, when most new forms were built round the Prayer Book catechism, further editions of tried and tested catechisms by orthodox Calvinists such as Perkins and Egerton continued to pour from the presses apparently unhindered. Some visitation articles asked if the incumbent or schoolteacher used other than an approved form, but such queries were the exception rather than the rule, and in a number of cases were couched in moderate terms rather than the hostile ones reserved for more serious deviations from the norm. At least one bishop wrote catechetical commentaries to help his clergy (Gervase Babington, Works, London 1615), while others appear to have accepted the dedications of alternative forms, e.g. by Thomas Pearston, A short instruction unto Christian religion, Londo n 1590; Foorthe, Apostles catechisme; and Reeve, Communion booke catechisme.

66 Fish, Living Temple, ch. ii.

67 For a brief discussion of experiments with techniques of catechising, see below pp. 420-4.

68 George Gifford, A brief discourse of certaine points, London 1582, fo. 43r and passim; Nicholls, Josias, The plea of the innocent, London 1602, 218–19Google Scholar;Dent, Arthur, The plaine mans pathway to heaven, London 1601, 326–9Google Scholar, 356-61; and see the works cited in notes 60-1 above.

69 Bernard Lord Manning, The People's Faith in the Time of Wyclif 2nd edn, Sussex 1975, 42-7; The Lay Folks' Catechism, ed. T. F. Simmons and H. E. Nolloth (EETS, orig. ser. cxviii, 1901), and n. 7 above.

70 Manning, op. cit. 46-50; Temperley, N., The Music of the English Parish Church, 2 vols., Cambridge 1979, i. 22–76Google Scholar;Hart, A., Shakespeare and the Homilies, 2nd edn, New York 1977, 21–76Google Scholar; a crude guide to absorption over the centuries can be found in the fact that, Shakespeare apart, the largest entries in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations are from the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.

71 For examples of rejection on other grounds, such as contentious or immoral behaviour, see P. Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement, London 1967, 348-9, and M. J. Ingram, ‘Ecclesiastical justice in Wiltshire 1600-1640, with special reference to cases concerning sex and marriage‘, unpublished Oxford University DPhil diss., 1976, 222, 356-8. Though some clergy recommended barring the ignorant, e.g. Boughton, God and man, 156-9, and C. P., Two briefe treatises, London 1616, 30, it is far from clear how often this was actually done. For some possible instances, significantly from Elizabethan East Anglia in the first case and the 1640s in the others, see Collinson, op. cit. 349-50; Lyford, Principles of faith, sig. A2v; and Baker, Short preparation to the worthy receiving, sigs. A2r-v.

72 Perkins, Foundation, London 1590, sigs. A2r-3v; similar warnings can be found in Webbe, Briefe exposition, sig. A3V; Ratcliffe, Short summe, sig. A4T; Mico, Spirituall jood, sigs. A2r-v; and Crompton, Explication, sig. 7r.

73 For admission to communion, getting married or acting as a godparent, the authorities insisted on no more than the mastery of the Prayer Book catechism and freedom from notorious or unpunished sins; those who demanded more included not only Puritans like Gifford and Dent but also a Laudian like Reeve. See also p. 416 and n. 76 below.

74 There has been no attempt to synthesise information on the ecclesiastical geography of the period, but there are illuminating sketches in Collinson, Religion of Protestants, ch. v; K. Wrightson, English Society 1580-1680, London 1982, ch. vii; D. M. Palliser, The Age of Elizabeth: England under the later Tudors 1547-1603, London 1983, ch. xi; and W. J. Sheils, ‘Religion in provincial towns: innovation and tradition’, in F. Heal and R. O'Day (eds.), Church and Society in England: Henry VIII to James I, London 1977, 156-76.

75 Lyford, Helpe for young people, sig. A3r; cf. Dickenson, Milkefor babes, sigs. 2r-v.

76 N[icholas] A[llsopp], Certaine briefe questions and answers, London 1626, sig. A2r; Featley, Daniel, The summe of saving knowledge, London 1626, 28, 55–8Google Scholar;Baynes, Paul, A help to true happiness, London 1635, 307Google Scholar;Abbot, Robert, Milk for babes; or a mother's catechism, London 1646Google Scholar, sig. aa2r; Parker, Truepatteme of pietie, 7-8, 35; Sprint, Summe of the Christian religion, 41-8; Boughton, God and man, titlepage; J.H., Principles of Christian religion, sigs. A2r-v. For examples of overlap see the works of Robert Sherard, John Sprint, Bartholomew Robertson and John Yates.

77 Sparke, ‘Treatise’, 1.

78 Bernard, Two twinnes, 15-17; Mayer, English catechisme, sig. A3r; D[aniel] R[ogers], A practical catechisme, London 1640, sig. A6v; Cawdrey, , Short and fruite full treatise, London 1604Google Scholar, sigs. B7v-8r; Yates, John, A modell of divinitie, London 1622, sig. §2v; Crompton, Explication, sig. ^4v; Bernard, Common catechisme expressed, sig. A4rGoogle Scholar.

79 Cawdrey, op. cit. sigs. Air, B6v.

80 Bernard, , Two twinnes, 3, 19–20Google Scholar, and see his The faithfull shepheard, London 1607, 8-9; E.B., Catechisme, sig. B2v; C.P., Two briefe treatises, sig. A3V and pp. 6-7; (anon.), ‘Of catechisinge’, fos. 30r-v.

81 Boughton, God and man, 4, and see n. 66 above.

82 Crawshaw, Milkefor babes, sig. A2V; Syme, Sweet milke of Christian doctrine, sig. A4.1T; Scarbrough, Summe of all godly and profitable catechismes, sigs. A5V-6V; John Mayer, A short catechisme, London 1646, sig. A3V.

83 Kenyon, Stuart Constitution, 159; in 1548 Cranmer wrote of the advantages of parents listening to their children being catechised (Catechismus, sigs. 5V-6V), and as early as the 1570s some adults were apparently being catechised alongside the young: (anon.), A short catechisme collected by a Christian, preface.

84 Cawdrey, Short andfruitefull treatise, London 1580, A3r~5v; Sparke,‘Treatise’, 54-63; E.B., Catechisme, sigs. A2V-B2V; (anon.), ‘Of catechisinge’, fos. 2gr-32r; Scarbrough, op. cit. sigs. A5V-6V and pp. 51-3; ‘James Ussher’, A body of divinitie, London 1645, 4.

85 Sparke, ‘Treatise’, 63-4, 74-6; Cawdrey, Short andfruitefull treatise, London 1604, sigs. F5r-7r; Bernard, Two twinnes, 24; Alport, Davids catechisme, 19.

86 Cawdrey, op. cit. F3v-4r; Bernard, op. cit. 24-5; Gibson, Easie entrance, sig. Air.

87 Webbe, Briefs exposition, sig. A2V; ‘Openshaw’, Short questions and answeares, London 1580, sig. A3r; Sparke, op. cit. 72-3, 76-7; Aldem, Short, plaine and profitable catechisme, sigs. A3V-4X; C. P., Two briefe treatises, 10-11, 16-19; Bernard, op. cit. 22-3; Dickenson, Milke for babes, sigs. 2r-v.

88 ‘Openshaw’, op. cit. A3V; Sparke, op. cit. 72-4; Bernard, op. cit. 25-6; C.P., op. cit. 12-14; Ingram, ‘Ecclesiastical justice in Wiltshire’, 226-7, 232-4, 347-55; Collinson, Religion of Protestants, 224-30.

89 ‘Openshaw’, op. cit. sig. A2v; Gibson, op. cit. sigs. Air-v; Sparke, op. cit. 65, 70, 72-4; E.B., op. cit. sig. B3r.

90 Sparke, op. cit. 76-8; Cawdrey, op. cit. sigs. F4X-V, G7r-Hiv; and Bernard, cf. Richard, Good Christian looke to thy creede, London 1630, 18–24Google Scholar.

91 Sparke,‘Treatise’, 72; Bernard, Twotwinnes, 26; and Bownd, cf. Nicholas, Thedoctrine of the sabbath plainely layde forth, London 1595, 272–3Google Scholar.

92 Tomkys, Brief: exposition of the lordes prayer, sig. 2r; D. Rogers, Practical catechisme, sig. A7r; William Burton, An exposition of the lordes prayer, London 1594; H[enry] B[urton], Grounds of Christian religion, London 1636, sigs. Aar-v; Bridges, Catechisme for communicants, sig. A7r; Owen, Principles of the doctrine of Christ, London 1645, sig. A3r.

93 According to Clarke, Samuel, Richard Greenham catechised ‘the youth’ on Thurs-days: Martyrologie, London 1652, ii. 83Google Scholar.

94 Becon, Thomas, The demaundes of holy scripture, London 1577Google Scholar, sig. E7V; Cawdrey, Short and fruite full treatise, sigs. C7r-Dir; E.B., Catechisme, sig. A2r; The cristall of Chrislianitie, ed. R. P., London 1617, and Mayer, English Catechisme, titlepages.

95 Carrington, R. C., Two Schools: a history of Si Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School, London 1971, 27Google Scholar; Fox, L., A Country Grammar School; a history of Ashby-de-la-zouch School, Oxford 1967, 10–12Google Scholar;Kay, M. M., A History of Rivington and Blackrod Grammar School, Manchester 1966, 189Google Scholar; and n. 10 above.

96 Andrewes, Morall law expounded; John Day, Day's dyall, or his …twelve severall lectures by way of catechisme, Oxford 1614; Tuckney, ‘Breife and pithy catechisme’; BL, Add. Ms 23146 (diary of Thoma s Dugard), fos. 3r-15r; Dent, Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford, 87-92.

97 See the last three works cited in n. 94 and the titlepages of (anon.), The summe of Christian religion, London 1607, and the 1647 edition of Bourne's Light from Christ.

98 Nichols, Order of household instruction, sig. B7V an d passim; Cawdrey, Short andfruitefull treatise, London 1604, sigs. A8r-v; E.B., op. cit. sig. B3r; Bernard, Common catechisme expressed, sigs. A2r-3r.

99 Ibid. sig. A2v; and see some of the examples cited by Collinson, Elizabethan Puritan Movement, 343-4, 376, 379, and by R. L. Greaves, Society and Religion in Elizabethan England, Minneapolis 1981, 296-7. Sparke suggested in 1588 that scarcely one householder in a hundred catechised: ‘Treatise’, 1.

100 Wood, Fourmeof catechising, sigs., 3r-5r; Bernard, Faithfullshepheard, 9-10; Blackwood, Soul-searching catechism, sigs. A2r-v; Bourne, Light from Christ, London 1646, sigs. 3v-4r.

101 Dering, Workes, sig. A2v; Cawdrey, op. cit. sigs. A6r, B2V; Sparke, op. cit. 4; Robert Linaker, A short and plaint instruction, London 1591, sigs. A-JT-V; Gouge, Short catechisme, sigs. A3r-4r; Syme, Sweet milke of Christian doctrine, sig. A3V; W. Hill, First principles of a Christian, sig. A2r. Contemporary booksellers lists tell the same story.

102 Titlepages of William Jones, An exposition of the whole catechism, London 1633; O.R., An easie entraunce into the chiefe points of Christian religion, London c. 1585; D. V., Enlargement of a former catechisme; (anon.), Main grounds of religion; and Boughton, God and man; and cf. Scarbrough‘s title: The summe of all godly and profitable catechismes, reduced into one.

103 The 1573 edition of the Dering-More catechism differs markedly from the 1572, and Stockwood later reduced the number of scriptural proofs in his version of that catechism: Short catechisme for householders, London 1583, sig. A2v; see also the 1615 edition of Egerton's Briefe method of catechising, sig. A3r-v, and Gawton, Short instruction, sig. A2r; the three editions of Bourne's Light from Christ listed in Wing, B 3854-5, are in fact all different.

104 Bernard's Large catechisme of 1602 appeared in a revised version in his Double catechisme of 1607 together with a new form; his Common catechisme expressed was enlarged in the 1640 edition; Ball's first three forms are mentioned in nn. 13 and 32 above, the fourth was A short catechisme: composed according to the rules, London 1646.

105 ‘Openshaw’, Short questions and answeres, London 1617, sig. A2v; Tomkys, Briefe exposition of the lordes prayer, sigs. 2v-3r; and see S[amuel] L[angley]'s criticisms and modification of Ball's best-selling form in A catechisme shorter than the short catechisme compiled principally by Mr Ball, London 1649, sigs. A2r-v; and see p. 407 above.

106 Common catechisme expressed, sig. B4r. Gouge's Short catechisme also had some very pithy replies to questions on the Decalogue e.g. ‘What is required in the sixt commandement? Mercy. What in the seventh? Chastity. What in the eight? Justice’, and so on (sig. Bir).

107 In his Fourme of catechising, William Wood sought to imitate ‘countrielike speech’, ‘meere natural English speech’, sigs., 3V, 7r; Hieron, Samuel, The doctrine of the beginning of Christ, London 1617Google Scholar.

108 The works of Nowell, Cartwright and Bourne illustrate this; and see also the two forms in Blackwood's Soul-searching catechism.

109 Crooke's Briefs direction to true happinesse, an abridgement of his Guide unto true blessednesse, was usually published separately; Yates's A short and briefe summe of saving knowledge wa s published a year before the longer Modell of divinitie; Mico, Spirituall food, sigs. A2v-3r. Other examples of multiple forms in one book include Harrison, Three formes of catechismes; Nichols, Order of household instruction; and Owen, Principles of the doctrine of Christ.

110 Mayer, English catechisme, sig. A3V and Mayers catechisme abridged, London 1632, sig. A2r; and cf. Allen, Doctrine of the gospel, sig. 5r.

111 Jeremy Cateline, The rules and directions of the ordinance of Parliament, London 1646, and cf. the single-sheet folio form, as in (anon.), A briefe catechisme, conteining the mostprincipall groundes of religion, London 1615?; Wood, Fourme of catechising, fos. 114V-1 116v; Davidson, Short Christian instruction, sigs. A3V, B8r-C3r; Abbot, Milkefor babes, sigs. A7V-8V and the ‘Mother's catechism’; Stalham, Catechisme for children, 18-19; Vicars, Grounds of that doctrine,1-34; T. R[oberts], The catechisme in meter, London 1583; R. Home, Points of instruction, sig. E8v; Dering, Workes, sigs. B8r-C2r; Bernard, Large catechisme, 53-68.

112 Cobhead, Briefe instruction; Hieron, Doctrine of the beginning of Christ; Powell, Vavasor, The scriptures concord, London 1646Google Scholar.

113 Bridges, Catechisme for communicants; Hammond, Practical catechisme; and see Norton's comments in Catechism… by Alexander Nowell, 109; Sancti Aurelii Augustinii Hipponensis Episcopi Opera Omnia, 11 vols., Paris 1836-8, vi. 1072-99, and cf. viii. 1569-82; above n. 7.

114 [Herbert Palmer], An endeavour of making the principles of Christian religion…plain and easie, Cambridge 1640, reprinted in part in Mitchell, A. F., Catechisms of the Second Reformation, London 1886, 100Google Scholar;Minutes of the Sessions of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, ed. Mitchell, A. F. and Struthers, J., London 1874, 91–4Google Scholar.

115 Strauss, Luther's House of Learning, chs. viii, xiii; for Scotland, see James I'S complaint at Hampton Court (Cardwell, History of Conferences, 187), and Torrance, T. F., The School of Faith: the Catechisms of the Reformed Church, London 1959, 3–4Google Scholar, 67-8, 237, 243, 255, 279-81.

116 See the enthusiastic testimonies of Cawdrey, Short andfruilfull treatise, London 1604, sigs. Ai v, A5V; Syme, Sweet milke of Christian doctrine, sig. A3r; and Crashaw, Milkefor babes, sigs. A2v-3r; and p. 417 above.

117 See n. 14 above.

It was unfortunately not possible to take advantage of the insights offered by Dr P.Tudor in ‘Religious instruction for children and adolescents in the early English Reformation‘, this JOURNAL XXXV (1984), 391-413, which appeared while this article awaited publication. Both in the forms of religious instruction she examines and in the types of work she calls ‘catechisms’, Dr Tudor has cast her net more widely than I have done.