Miles Huggarde

Who is Miles Huggarde?

Miles Huggarde or Myles Hogarde, was an English religious pamphleteer and opponent of the Protestant Reformation. He has been described as the best of Roman Catholic propagandists in the bitter pamphlet war of 1553-1558 during the reign of Queen Mary I.

Huggarde is stated to have been a shoemaker or hosier in London, and the first writer for the Catholic cause who had not received a monastic or academic education. He lived in Pudding Lane at the northern edge of London Bridge. In 1553 he was made hosier to Queen Mary and allocated a shilling a quarter. But he was not prosperous enough to be made a member of the Haberdashers Company, or a Freeman of the City, or to leave a will.

The 17th-century antiquarian, Anthony Wood, described him as, "the first trader or mechanic that appeared in print for the catholic cause". Huggarde exemplified the gradual spread of literacy and printing, and the rising importance of the laity in religious affairs in England. His earliest work, "The Abuse of the Blessed Sacrament of the Aultare", was written at the end of the reign of King Henry VIII and tackled the denigration of the Eucharist which had developed among some reforming groups.