, we have a very good example in another of Day's
publications in 1571, a reprint of _The Poore Mans Librarie_, a
discourse by George Alley, Bishop of Exeter, upon the First Epistle of
St. Peter, which made up a very respectable folio, printed in Day's best
manner, and with a great number of founts.

But Day's prosperity roused the envy of his fellow-stationers, and they
tried their best to hinder the sale of his books and cause him
annoyance. This opposition took a violent form in 1572, when Day, whose
premises at Aldersgate had become too small to carry on his growing
business, his stock being valued at that time between L2000 and L3000,
obtained the leave of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to set up a
little shop in St. Paul's Churchyard for the sale of his books. The
booksellers appealed to the Lord Mayor, who was prevailed upon to stop
Day's proceedings, and it required all the power and influence of
Archbishop Parker, backed by an order of the Privy Council, to enable
the printer to carry out his project.[4]

The Archbishop meanwhile had been busy furnishing replies to Nicholas
Sanders' book _De Visibili Monarchia_, and amongst those whom he
selected for the work was Dr. Clerke of Cambridge, who accordingly wrote
a Latin treatise entitled _Fidelis Servi subdito infideli Responsio_.
From a letter written by the Archbishop to Lord Burleigh at this time,
we learn that John Day had cast a special fount of Italian letter for
this book at a cost of forty marks.[5]

By Italian letter is here meant Roman, and not Italic, as Mr. Reed
supposes, for the _Responsio_ was printed in a new fount of that type,
clear, even, and free from abbreviations.

In the same year (1572) Day printed at the Archbishop's private press
at Lambeth his great work _De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae_ in
folio, in a new fount of Italic, with preface in Roman, and the titles
and sub-titles in the larger Italic of the _Cosmographicall Glasse_. It
was a special feature of Day's letter-founding that he cut the Roman and
Italic letters to the same size. Before his time there was no
uniformity; the separate founts mixed badly, and spoilt the appearance
of many books that would otherwise have been well printed.

The _De Antiquitate_ is believed to have been the first book printed at
a private press in England. The issue was limited to fifty copies, and
the majority of them were in the Archbishop's possession at the time of
his death.

But whil