History and Fate of Sacrilege ..... Beginners of a Monastick Life [Reformed Church; Monastics] [Two Works in One] by Spelman, Henry (1562?-1641) - 1698

London: Printed for John Hartley, over-against Gray's-Inn, in Holborn, 1698. First Edition. Full Leather. Good/No Dust Jacket As Issued.

Full Titles: History and Fate of Sacrilege discover'd by examples of scripture, of heathens, and Christians; from the beginning of the world continually to this day. A treatise omitted in the late edition of his posthumous works, and now published for the terror of evil doers.  To which is added, the beginners of a monastick life, in Asia, Africa, and Europe; by Sir Roger Twisden, Kt. and Bar.

Full leather; gilt border outline on boards; 12mo 7.25 inches tall; Fate of Sacrilege [10], 292 Beginners of a Monastick Life [2], 3-40 First edition.

Boards have been reattached with new leather spine labels. The bindings are tight and square. Text clean, even toning. Moderate shelf handling wear, corners rounded. K2 signature slightly pulled. Armorial bookplate of Charles James Blomfield DD.. Sir Henry Spelman was a 17th-century English antiquarian known for his collections of records. He was, according to Woolf, deeply interested in ecclesiastical history and was a zealous defender of the Church's rights. In addition to works defending historically the Church's right to tithes.

He produced in this outstanding History and Fate of Sacrilege which detailed the suffering that had befallen those who acquired church property as a result of the Reformation.

In the second half of this work the author gives accounts of a great variety of historical people and their misfortunes suffered as a result of their sacrilege. He traces, for instance, the continuing misfortunes of those families who were given monastery lands on their dissolution by Henry VIII.

References: ESTC R232843 /; Wing S 4927 [ESTC R16984 is a reissue of this first, which was printed the same year. with title page cancelled and replaced by a bifolium including an advertisement leaf. Wing does not differentiate between issues.]

Charles James Blomfield, whose bookplate shows ownership, was the son of a schoolteacher who rose higher in English society than would be expected. In 1828 the Duke of Wellington appointed him as Bishop of London. Blomfield was known as one of the best debaters in the House of Lords; a Greek scholar, and a force in Church reform.