Catalogue Entry: THEM00003

'Irenicum, or Ecclesiastical Polyty tending to Peace'

Author: Isaac Newton

Source: Keynes Ms. 3, King's College, Cambridge, UK

[Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

Custodial History

SL 240 was bought at the Sotheby sale by Gabriel Wells for £40 and sold to Keynes on 3 August 1936 for £44. Wells had offered it to Keynes on 22 July for £42 (i.e. 5% commission) but Keynes insisted on paying 10%. See Spargo, '1936 sale', 128.

Sotheby Lot

SL240 + ?

Contents

An important statement of Newton's religious views, in several complete and partial drafts.

pp. 1-3 'Irenicum'.

pp. 5-7 'Irenicum', another draft.

pp. 9-14 'Irenicum', another draft.

pp. 17-18 Nine 'positions'.

pp. 21-25 'Irenicum or Ecclesiastical Polyty tending to peace', consisting of twenty 'Theses' (the first fourteen originally headed 'Positions'), followed by revised versions of theses 8 and 9 and two variant draft paragraphs on fundamental and incidental articles of faith.

pp. 27-30 Another draft, untitled.

pp. 31-34 Another draft, untitled.

pp. 35-38 Variant drafts of several paragraphs of the 'Irenicum'.

pp. 39-44 Another draft, untitled.

pp. 47-49 Another draft, untitled.

pp. 50-52 'Chap. 1 Of the ancient form of Church Government'.

Notes

Pagination is given as it appears on the manuscript, though this is somewhat misleading, as in some cases only the leaves are numbered and in others the individual sides. SL240 is described in the Sotheby catalogue as seven drafts, c. 10,000 words on 22 pp. folio and 1 p. sm. 4to. Discounting blank pages and considering the nine 'positions' as a draft of the 'irenicum', this is an accurate description of the present manuscript up to p. 34 (though the word-count, as so often, is on the low side); the remainder has presumably been added from another source.

pp. 21-25 (which seem to represent the fullest and most finished version) published (in a somewhat tidied-up format, as Brewster himself points out) in Brewster (1855), 2: 526-31. The nine 'positions' and twenty 'theses', along with various other fragments in what the editor claims is probably their intended sequence, published in McLachlan, Theological Manuscripts, 27-43. The second draft (pp. 5-7), the first sixteen of the 'Theses' (slightly abridged), and pp. 51-2 published in Goldish, Judaism, 167-71.

[1] a Dan. 9.24, 25.

[2] b Dan. 7.13.

[3] c Psal. 2.7, 8, 9.

[4] d Exod. 12.21, 22, 23, 27, 46. & chap. 29.38.

[5] e Isa. 11.4 Hebr & των ο

[6] f Psal. 110.1.

[7] g Gen. 2.16, 17 & 3.8, 9, 10, 11. See also Gen. 4.6, 9 & 18.1, 17, 21, &19.24 & Exod. 19.18. & 23.21, 22. &c

[8] The contents of this note are only visible in the diplomatic transcript because they were deleted on the original manuscript

[9] a Dan. 9.24, 25.

[10] b Dan. 7.13.

[11] c Psal. 2.7, 8, 9.

[12] d Exod. 12.21, 22, 23, 27, 46.

[13] e Isa. 11.4, Hebr & Sept.

[14] f Psal 110.1.

[15] g Gen. 2.16, 17 & 3.8, 9, 10, 11. See also Gen 19.24 &c.

[16] X

[17] X

[18] 1 Cor. 3.1, 2, 3.

[19] Church of England

© 2024 The Newton Project

Professor Rob Iliffe
Director, AHRC Newton Papers Project

Scott Mandelbrote,
Fellow & Perne librarian, Peterhouse, Cambridge

Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL - newtonproject@history.ox.ac.uk

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