from higher powers; in dealing with a culprit in 1579, they direct that 'for his offence, so farre as it toucheth ye same house only, he shall paye a fine'.[1]
Putting together the entries and the fines, we can arrive at an approximate notion of the position occupied by the Stationers' Company as an intermediary between the individual stationers and the higher powers in Church and State. That it is only approximate and that many points of detail remain obscure is largely due to the methods of the clerk. Richard Collins did not realize the importance, at least to the future historian, of set diplomatic formulas, and it is by no means clear to what extent the variations in the phrasing of his record correspond to variations in the facts recorded. But it is my impression that he was in substance a careful registrar, especially as regards the authority under which his entries were made, and that if he did not note the presence in any case of a corrector's 'hand' to a book, it is fair evidence that such a hand was not before him. On this assumption the register confirms the inference to be drawn from the statements of Lambe and Kingston in 1636, that before 1586 the provision of the Injunctions for licensing by the High Commission for London was not ordinarily operative, and that as a rule the only actual licences issued were those of the Stationers' Company, who used their own discretion in submitting books about which they felt doubtful to the bishop or the archbishop or to an authorized corrector.[2] That books licensed by the Company without such reference were regarded as having been technically licensed under the Injunctions, one would hesitate to say. Licence is a fairly general term, and as used in the Stationers' Register it does not necessarily cover anything more than a permit required by the internal ordinances of the Company itself. Certainly its officials claimed to issue licences to its members for other purposes than printing.[3] What Lambe and Kingston do not tell us, and perhaps ought to have told us, is that, when the master and wardens did call in the assistance of expert referees, it was not to 'ministers' merely chosen by themselves that they applied, but to official correctors nominated by the High Commission, or by the archbishop or bishop on
- ↑ ii. 850.
- ↑ The testimony only relates strictly to the period 1576-86, which is nearly coincident with the slack ecclesiastical rule of Archbishop Grindal (1576-83). Parker (1559-75) may have been stricter, as Whitgift (1583-1604) certainly was.
- ↑ i. 95, 'Master Waye had lycense to take the lawe of James Gonnell for a sarten dett due vnto hym'; 101, 'Owyn Rogers for . . . kepynge of a forren with out lycense ys fyned'.
