ABSTRACT
In 1999 the Bodleian Library acquired a tract volume containing a hitherto unre-corded and unknown publication of William Carter. The Campion-Persons mission had undoubtedly stimulated government razzias against recusants, and Carter was already a marked man. In July 1582 his house in Hart Street, an almshouse of the Drapers Company, where he lived with his wife and mother, was raided by the pursuivant Richard Topcliffe and his papers and possessions seized. Thomas Norton replied by referring to Carter’s speech as long and futile, and then embarked on an elaborate and repetitive interpretation of the Judith and Holofernes passage. He was interrupted by Aylmer, a man of little erudition or modesty, but outstandingly ill-tempered and shameless. The indecorous spectacle of the chief judges of the land, bandying insults with the prisoner, is probably the reason why ‘official’ versions of such trials were never published.
