Four controversial letters on ecclesiastical subjects, [circa 1765-1771].

1 v. (96 p.) ; 21 cm.

English

Purchased from Robert H. Rubin Books on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Fund, 2009.

Thomas Rutherforth was a Church of England clergyman and moral philosopher who taught at Cambridge and was appointed to the Regius Chair of Divinity there in 1756. His major publications were A System of Natural Philosophy (1748) and Institutes of Natural Law (1754, 1756).

Manuscript fair copy, corrected, in Rutherforth's hand, of four controversial letters. The first discusses the demographic implications of a petition to Parliament to allow fellows of the colleges of Cambridge to marry; the second discusses tithes as they relate to statute work on the roads; the third contains commentary on Blackburne's contribution to the "controversy regarding an intermediate state;" and the fourth and longest letter concerns his defense of the requirement that Anglican clergy subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles. The letters are preceded by a table of contents, and all are signed with the initials "T.R."

January 20, 2010

Thomas Rutherforth, Four Controversial Letters on Ecclesiastical Subjects. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Thomas Rutherforth, Four Controversial Letters on Ecclesiastical Subjects. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.