And now after this long digression, made for the information of my Reader concerning what follows, I bring him back to venerable Mr. Hooker, where we left him in the Temple, and where we shall find him as deeply engaged in a controversy with Walter Travers,[20]—­a friend and favourite of Mr. Cartwright’s—­as the Bishop had ever been with Mr. Cartwright himself, and of which I shall proceed to give this following account.

[Sidenote:  The new generation]

[Sidenote:  Thomas Nashe]

And first this; that though the pens of Mr. Cartwright and the Bishop were now at rest, yet there was sprung up a new generation of restless men, that by company and clamours became possessed of a faith, which they ought to have kept to themselves, but could not:  men that were become positive in asserting, “That a papist cannot be saved:”  insomuch, that about this time, at the execution of the Queen of Scots, the Bishop that preached her Funeral Sermon—­which was Dr. Howland,[21] then Bishop of Peterborough—­was reviled for not being positive for her damnation.  And besides this boldness of their becoming Gods, so far as to set limits to His mercies, there was not only one Martin Mar-Prelate,[22] but other venomous books daily printed and dispersed; books that were so absurd and scurrilous, that the graver Divines disdained them an answer.  And yet these were grown into high esteem with the common people, till Tom Nash[23] appeared against them all, who was a man of a sharp wit, and the master of a scoffing, satirical, merry pen, which he employed to discover the absurdities of those blind, malicious, senseless pamphlets, and sermons as senseless as they; Nash’s answers being like his books, which bore these, or like titles:  “An Almond for a Parrot;” “A Fig for my Godson;” “Come crack me this nut,” and the like; so that this merry wit made some sport, and such a discovery of their absurdities, as—­which is strange—­he put a greater stop to these malicious pamphlets, than a much wiser man had been able.

[Sidenote:  Mr. Travers]

And now the Reader is to take notice, that at the death of Father Alvey, who was Master of the Temple, this Walter Travers was Lecturer there for the Evening Sermons, which he preached with great approbation, especially of some citizens, and the younger gentlemen of that Society; and for the most part approved by Mr. Hooker himself, in the midst of their oppositions.  For he continued Lecturer a part of his time; Mr. Travers being indeed a man of competent learning, of a winning behaviour, and of a blameless life.  But he had taken Orders by the Presbytery in Antwerp,—­and with them some opinions, that could never be eradicated,—­and if in anything he was transported, it was in an extreme desire to set up that government in this nation; for the promoting of which he had a correspondence with Theodore Beza at Geneva, and others in Scotland; and was one of the chiefest assistants to Mr. Cartwright in that design.