ABSTRACT
Parker’s actions were probably viewed with little enthusiasm by most of the committed protestants in positions of central or local authority. He would later be told by the Privy Council that there was no question of dealing with the preachers ‘as in popish time’, notorious nonconformists though they might be. The vestiarian disturbances arc a reminder that puritanism, in this respect strikingly unlike catholic dissent, was not excessively reliant upon either clerical or aristocratic leadership. Protestantism was at least potentially a levelling principle, with those marked anti-hierarchical and anticlerical tendencies which were displayed by the obscure John Smith when he damned even a Coverdale with the faintest of praise. On few issues did lay prejudice find such forceful expression as in the rejection of the surplice and the square cap. All the indications are that, contrary to the impression of some historians, the scandal of the ‘popish rag’ was felt more strongly by the godly than by their ministers.
