One of the great religio-literary controversies has, for nearly four centuries, involved the question of authorship of the Martin Marprelate Tracts. The tracts themselves deliberately seek to obscure answers, and diverse asseverations on the matter extend from 1588 (the year of the first tracts) to the present.
The printing and publishing of such inflammatory writings as the Marprelate Tracts was, from the beginning, likewise a matter of controversy, although less extensive and less disputed than the authorship.