Author: BURNET, GILBERT
Title: The History of the Reformation of the Church of England (Six Volumes, Complete, without Index)
Description: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1829. Fifth Edition. First Printing. Leather. Publisher's full brown calf, spines in six compartments separated by raised bands, gilt lettering and borders on burgundy labels in two compartments, floral gilt tooling in remainder, gilt and blind-stamped borders on covers, all edges red, marbled endpapers, gilt dentelles. Gilbert Burnet (1643 – 1715) was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury (Sarum). He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian. He was associated with the Whig party. In the mid-1670s, a French translation of Nicholas Sanders' De origine et progressu schismatio Anglicani libri tres (1585) appeared. Sanders attacked the English Reformation as a political act carried on by a corrupt king. Several of Burnet's friends wished him to publish a rebuttal of the work, so in 1679 his first volume of The History of the Reformation of the Church of England was published. This covered the reign of Henry VIII; the second volume (1681) covered the reign of Elizabeth and the Elizabethan Religious Settlement; the third volume (1714) consisted of corrections and additional material.[1] His literary reputation was greatly enhanced by this publication. The Parliament of England voted thanks for Burnet after the publication of the first volume, and in 1680 the University of Oxford awarded Burnet the degree of Doctor of Divinity on the advice of William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. For over a century this was the standard reference work in the field, although Catholics disputed some of its content. Thomas Babington Macaulay describes Burnet in relation to the king he served, William of Orange: "When the doctor took liberties, which was not seldom the case, his patron became more than usually cold and sullen, and sometimes uttered a short dry sarcasm which would have struck dumb any person of ordinary assurance. In spite of such occurrences, however, the amity between this singular pair continued, with some temporary interruptions, till it was dissolved by death. Indeed it was not easy to wound Burnet's feelings. His self-complacency, his animal spirits, and his want of tact, were such that, though he frequently gave offence, he never took it." - History of England, Vol. 2, Ch 7. Armorial bookplates of Walter Hamilton Moberly on feps, prize inscription, in Latin, on ffep of Volume One, otherwise unmarked, tight, square and clean. All six volumes of the text, but laking the seventh, Index, volume. VERY GOOD. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. Very Good with No dust jacket as issued .

Keywords: Religion; Reformation; Church of England; History; History Religion & Mythology Rare, Antiquarian, and Collectible Books


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