Antitheatricalism and Jonson's Volpone Cross-dressing in England was mostly opposed by the fundamentalist branch of the Protestant Church known as the Puritans. Puritan dogma, much like the concept of cross-dressing, was constantly questioned. The Puritans found resistance in the religious authorities of the Church of England and in the English government. Before 1536, the Roman Catholic Church had no obstacles and always won over Puritan proposals in matters of legislation. Without a cooperative political ear, the Puritans resorted to experimental spiritual expression while modifying their behavior and social structure. Because of these changes, a formidable way to attack the theater's use of cross-dressing was developed: public preaching and pamphlets. Other individuals and groups (such as the Juvenalians) supported the moral and social reform movement by speaking and writing essays and books on the subject. Due to the nature of the actor's role in Ben Jonson's Volpone, the play was also involved in this moral battle. The ideology behind the Puritan protest was based on biblical sentiment and the patristic literary tradition of Roman writers such as Tertullian and St. Augustine. The Puritans' religious standard for combating gender transgression was Deuteronomy 22:5: "A woman shall not wear that which belongs to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's raiment" (Tiffany 58). In general, pagan myths were also associated with disguise. Puritans such as William Pryne labeled these actors as “bestial male monsters” who “degenerate into women” (Tiffany 59). Furthermore, the Puritans feared that men dressing as women would cause men in the audience to desire real women and to harbor homoerotic desires for male actors (the re... middle of paper... goal of The Antitheatrical Movement in the Renaissance, was supported and denounced by Jonson in various ways However, the general perception is that Jonson (unlike Shakespeare) fanned the fires of degradation, implicating women with the weakness, lack of intelligence and reason that they were in the annals of theater history, Jonson's metadrama could be said to perpetuate this social stereotype. However, Jonson's crossing of the gender line and sexual scenes such as Celia's "flash" by Volpone were enough to have. a religious, moral and social value. commentators who cry bloody murder. Two issues require prominence in the work, while externally it is a work driven by an overt genreless controversy, Volpone's internal thematic nature suggests a conformity and a adherence to the intellectual and theological moralism of the time..