Richard Overton's Marpriest Tracts

Abstract

The history of the origins and development of the Leveller movement in the 1640s is a much-explored topic in recent historical writing. Standing for the most extreme version of personal and political liberty in that decade, the Levellers braved persecution in order to criticise Parliament and the New Model Army leaders. At various points between 1646 and 1649, they had considerable influence among the radical Puritan churches and in the Army itself. Richard Overton’s role as one of the most outspoken leaders of the Leveller movement in the 1640s and the early 1650s is a familiar one to historians of the Civil War. The Marpriest tracts, so-called because they are centred on the persona of Martin Marpriest, are important as examples of extremely fine polemical writing. In many ways highly-wrought and patterned, they make hilarious reading in a popular festive mode, which had been taken into the realms of ecclesiastical discourse.