Archbishop Caiaphas: The Medieval Stage-Tyrant in the Elizabethan “Martin Marprelate” Controversy

This article examines the 1589–92 “Martin Marprelate” controversy—a battle of pamphlets, sermons, and plays which translated academic debates regarding the best way to govern the Church of England into a remarkably lowbrow register. I argue that the polemical centerpiece of this debate was the stock figure of a wicked prelate, drawn from a long history of popular religious performance reaching back to medieval passion plays depicting the persecution of Christ by the Jewish authorities. The pseudonymous presbyterian pamphleteer “Martin” and his anti-Puritan opponents like John Lyly and Thomas Nashe wrestled for control of this figure, seeking to cast each other’s clerical heroes as the tyrannical high priest Caiaphas of the gospels.