But serpents like himselfe?
What sees the ape within the glasse
But a deformed elfe?

Then must _Mar-Martin_ have some smell
Of forge, or else of fire:
A sotte in wit, a beaste in minde,
For so was damme and sire."

[416] It would, however, appear that these revolutionary publications
reached the universities, and probably fermented "the green
heads" of our students, as the following grave admonition
directed to them evidently proves:--

"Anti-Martinus sive monitio cujusdam Londinensis ad
adolescentes vtrimque academiae contra personatum quendam
rabulam qui se Anglice Martin Marprelat, &c. Londini, 1589,
4o."

A popular favourite as he was, yet even Martin, _in propria
persona_, acknowledges that his manner was not approved of by
_either party_. His "Theses Martinianae" opens thus: "I see my
doings and my course misliked of many, both the good and the
bad; though also I have favourers of both sortes. The bishops
and their traine, though they stumble at the cause, yet
especially mislike my maner of writing. Those whom foolishly
men call _Puritanes_, like of the matter I have handled, but
the forme they cannot brooke. So that herein I have them both
for mine adversaries. But now what if I should take the course
in certain theses or conclusions, without _inveighing_ against
either _person_ or _cause_." This was probably written after
Martin had swallowed some of his own sauce, or taken his "Pap
(offered to him) with a Hatchet," as one of the most
celebrated government pamphlets is entitled. But these "Theses
Martinianae," without either scurrility or invective are the
dullest things imaginable; abstract propositions were not
palatable to the multitude; and then it was, after the trial
had been made, that _Martin Junior and Senior_ attempted to
revive the spirit of the old gentleman; but if sedition has
its progress, it has also its decline; and if it could not
strike its blow when strongest, it only puled and made
grimaces, prognostics of weakness and dissolution. This is
admirably touched in "Pappe with an Hatchet." "Now Old Martin
appeared, with a wit worn into the socket, twingling and