ABSTRACT
The early years of the seventeenth century saw the emergence of a group of puritan publicists whose oddly contradictory posture sometimes perplexes those who prefer to keep the religious factions of that time in neat categories, corresponding to the denominations and parties of more recent church history. ‘Gadding to sermons’ was a phenomenon widely noted by curious and often hostile observers. William Glibery, a comedian manque though vicar of Halstead in north Essex, saw his own domain invaded for a Sabbath-day exercise by Richard Rogers and his train and delivered from the pulpit his own salty opinion of sermon-tasters: ‘It is no matter. The godly would not willingly receive communion from their parish priest if he was a non-preacher or otherwise objectionable.
