Book burning -- Great Britain; Censorship -- Great Britain -- History; Prohibited books -- Great Britain -- History
In the proclamation itself there is no actual mention of burning,
all persons in possession of the book being required to deliver
their copies to the Lord Mayor or County Sheriffs "for the
further order of its utter suppression" (March 25th, 1610);
neither is there any allusion to burning in the Parliamentary
journals, nor in the letters relating to the subject in Winwood's
_Memorials_. The contemporary evidence of the fact is, however,
supplied by Sir H. Spelman, who says in his _Glossarium_ (under
the word "Tenure") that Cowell's book was publicly burnt.
Otherwise, James's proclamations were not always attended to (by
one, for instance, he prohibited hunting); and Roger Coke says
that the books being out, "the proclamation could not call them
in, but only served to make them more taken notice of."[57:1]
That books were often suppressed or called in without being
publicly burnt is well shown by Heylin's remark about Mocket's
book (presently referred to), that it was "thought fit not only
to call it in, but to expiate the errors of it in a public
flame."[57:2] Among works thus suppressed without being burnt may
be mentioned Bishop Thornborough's two books in favour of the
union between England and Scotland (1604), Lord Coke's Speech and
Charge at the Norwich Assizes (1607), and Sir W. Raleigh's first
volume of the _History of the World_ (1614). I suspect that
Scott's _Discoverie_ was likewise only suppressed, and that Voet
erroneously thought that this involved and implied a public
burning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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