Dr. Elzé is grossly wrong in arguing that _because_ Shakespeare’s name is found in the Register of Christenings in the parish church of Stratford-on-Avon, _therefore_ Shakespeare’s father was a Protestant. Such a conclusion founded on such proof is simply ludicrous.——See Elzé’s “_Life of Shakespeare_” (Bell & Sons), p. 457. One really is disposed to distrust many of the _conclusions_ of “German learning” when Elzé argues like this. To my mind, much of “the critical” work (so called in a certain department) may be hereafter found to be full of flaws from building on too _narrow a foundation_ of evidence. How little man can know of the Past which affords him evidence to hang even a dog on with absolute, as distinct from moral, certitude! (I wish especially not to be thought to imply any disrespect towards the great German people, whose love for him who is for all nations and all time fills me with the profoundest admiration. But Truth is no respecter of persons when it detects errors, or the probabilities of errors, on the part of such as should be “masters of those that know.”) For even the Rigmaydens, of Woodacre Hall, Garstang (harbourers of Campion in 1581), in the most Catholic part of Lancashire, _apparently_ had at least some of their children baptised at the parish church.——See Colonel Fishwick’s “_Parish of Garstang_” (Chetham Soc.)] CHAPTER XVII. Now we know that Marmaduke Warde was of Mulwaith (or Mulwith) in the year 1585. For the “_Life_” of his daughter Mary expressly states that she was born at Mulwith in that year. And if _a_ Thomas Warde was of Mulwaith (or Mulwith) only six years prior to 1585, and again of Mulwith in 1590, when he lost his wife, the inevitable inference is that the said Marmaduke Warde and the said Thomas Warde belonged to one and the same family, and that, in all probability, they were akin to each other as brothers.[68] Again, the Register of Ripon Minster records on the 6th day of October, 1589, the baptism of Edward,[A] the son of a certain Christopher Wright, of Bondgate, Ripon. [Footnote A: If this Edward Wright is the same as a certain Prebendary Edward Wright, of Ripon Minster, who received his nomination from King James I. on the 26th of March, 1613, then at least one cousin of Mary Ward must have conformed to the Established Church.——See “_Memorials of Ripon_,” in 3 vols. (Surtees Society.) He would be about 23 years of age when the royal favour was thus vouchsafed to him. An Edward Wright was Mayor of Ripon in the year 1635.——Gent’s “_Ripon_.”——Probably the son of Prebendary Edward Wright. Another cousin of Mary Warde, I find, had likewise conformed——a Dr. Warde, the Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He belonged, I think, to the Wardes, of Durham, descended from a brother of Sir Christopher Ward.] On the 23rd day of July, 1594, of Eliza, daughter of Christopher Wright, of Newbie.[69]