1642 EPHRAIM UDALL. Presbyterians Stealing Tithes, Committing Sacrilege, etc., Rare.

A very scarce and scathing tractate addressed to Cromwell and the Puritan / Presbyterian Parliament accusing them of raiding the cupboards once they were in Parliament, stealing tithes which had been collected for the Church of England, of taking Church of England property, etc., 

This was no theory to the author. Udall himself had been a shining light among the puritans, before being persuaded to join the episcopacy in 1641. Immediately afterward, he was removed from his living by the Cromwellians, his tithes and church were seized and turned over to a Presbyterian divine and left paupered. All of this, even though he affirmed the doctrines of the reformation, the thirty-nine articles, and was, by all accounts, a person of reputed piety and good reputation. 

The work itself, a curiousity, has a fascinating full page woodcut illustrating a pair of unholy birds, presumably buzzards or some similar, feast ingon the holy things offered to God on the altar in the presence of "The God who Sees All." The effect is obvious; Udall accuses the Presbyterians of stealing from God, etc., 

Udall, Ephraim. Noli Me Tangere; or, A Thing to be Thought On. London. 1642. 35pp. 

Professionally removed from an important sammelband of 17th century works on religious liberty, the English Civil War, etc. Some stains. Reinforced on frontis woodcut. But complete and very rare.