In his 1990 article ‘Holzhauser and England: Three Episodes' T. A. Birrell tells the story of John Dryden's intervention with the Secretary of State, Sir William Trumbull, on behalf of a Catholic publisher who had got into trouble with the authorities for publishing and disseminating ‘several popish and seditious books’. The publisher's name was Thomas Metcalfe, his main crime was the publication of Constitutiones clericorum saecularium in commune viventium, and Dryden asks Trumbull to be lenient since Metcalfe is ‘a young man and this is his first offence’. Moreover Dryden predicts, that ‘upon asking pardon’ Metcalfe will promise to offend no more.