Sinopsis

With not a few affinities in character to men such as these, but strikingly unlike them in nature of his literary work, there stands a writer whose powers have not even yet been fully appreciated. John Gauden is one of the most remarkable figures in the literary history of his time. A singularly adroit ecclesiastic, who was of the parliament’s party and yet not wholly repugnant to Laud, he was well abused as any clergyman of his day—which is saying a great deal—but no man had a better skill in retort. His little known Anti-Baal-Berith or The Binding of the Covenant and all Convenanters to their good behavior (1661) is as clever and amusing a piece of controversial writing as the seventeen...