John Northbrooke was a Protestant protesting against Jacobean excesses
http://www.rtjournal.org/vol_3/no_1/pilkinton01.html
He was paid, this source said, to preach in public and his views were...common for the time? The only reason he seems to be noted to theatre history, for instance, is the mention of how evil this pastime was that far back. The fact that theatre development in Ferrara in the 1500s might have been for religious as well as festival masques or reenactments doesn't mean it's pagan.
It was a pastime that people liked and people had more fun at alehouses and theatre and card-playing pastimes than attending church...and this was also noted by others here...
So here's a English religious revivalist of 1577 whose not very favorable to Catholic communities...and many of the Italian cities were quite proud of Roman roots...Cardinal Ippolitto d'Este (son of Lucretia Borgia) raided the ancient Hadrian's Villa to adorn his lavishly built palace (1550s) with Roman artifacts...
Here's a general snapshot of Northbrooke's time...
In 1558, Mary Tudor (of England) died, and her half sister, Elizabeth I became queen of England and Ireland, a woman whose regal bearing and intelligence impressed England's folk. Elizabeth's reign began with enthusiastic support in England, and she inaugurated political and religious stability in the country and aloofness from Spain. Elizabeth had been reared a Protestant, and she was ill-disposed to Roman Catholic jurisdiction which did not recognize the legitimacy of her birth. Protestant exiles returned to England, and they advocated England's church be purified of its remnants of Catholicism, and they were to become known as Puritans. But Elizabeth kept to middle ground. She did not care what people believed so long as they kept quiet about it. What she was insistent upon was dignity in church services and political order.
Elizabeth governed without use of ecclesiastics in foreign or domestic bureaucratic affairs. Archbishops were restricted to church affairs. During her reign, Protestantism became firmly established in England, and England developed further as a sea power.
Sensuality and Religious Conflict
After 1560, Europe was still suffering from periodic epidemics and famines. One-half of all infants born alive were dying before twelve months. The wealthy might live to between 48 and 56, and the poor, who did not eat as well, might live to 40. But it was God whom most people feared. And having a fear of God was still seen as a requirement for being a good person.
These were also times of sensuality, in Italy perhaps more so than in England, the English tending to see the Italians as more morally corrupt. It was in Italy - more densely populated than England - that the Renaissance had begun, and the Renaissance was more liberal in sensuality than the traditions that had preceded it. The English also saw their only great city, London (population 120,000), as more sinful than the rest of their country. London was seen as a place of pleasure and freedom. Relations between men and women were more casual there than elsewhere in England.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h18-eg.htm
Actually, a broad look at the 1500s where it says "Sensuality and Religious conflict" broadly describes English and Italian society differences and views...
perhaps the thinly veiled incitements to not favor rival faiths can be read in sermons such as Northbrooks..."
It didn't have to be cards for Northbrooke to raise oh-so-English eyebrows at the mention of thinly disguised Roman antiquities...and
there's a few excerpts to his sermons about how he sees people seem to praise someone for 'faults' that Northbrooke darkly refers to as leading to unholy things--the theatre, dice, mixed groups of men and women in theatre buildings...his sentiments seemed to be treating all these different things with words that are quite impolite, equating such pastimes as horrid (temptations?)
I think I'm rambling-sorry--may have to edit this later after sleeping to make any sense...hopefully the links will be retained as helpful...
Interesting topic and collection of notes and views...
Cerulean