SPARROW, Anthony (compiler). A Collection of Articles, Injunctions, Canons, Orders, Ordinances and Constitutions Ecclesiastical, With other Publick Records of the Church of England, Chiefly in the Times of K. Edward VI. Q. Elizabeth, K. James, & K. Charles I. London: Printed for Robert Cutler and Joseph Clarke, 1671. The Second Edition Enlarged. Quarto, complete with various historically dated divisional title pages and the spectacular full-page engraving of the Episcopal Seals by William Sherwin.
This 17th-century compendium stands as one of the ultimate primary sources for legal and religious anchors of the English Restoration. Compiled by Bishop Anthony Sparrow, this work was a calculated, high-stakes ideological weapon designed to solidify the orthodoxy of the Church of England against the radical Puritans and Dissenters by resurrecting the foundational, "ancient" rules of the realm. The volume acts as a historical time capsule, binding together the structural edicts of Tudor and Stuart monarchs. This 1671 expanded edition features historical manifestos with their original typographic formatting, complete with black-letter fonts, royal proclamations, and individual historical title pages.
Think of this book as the official, unfiltered administrative blueprint of a religious empire wrestling for absolute control. Anthony Sparrow's A Collection of Articles drops you straight into the institutional machinery of early modern England, serving as the ultimate rulebook for uniformity. Instead of poetic musings, this text offers raw political power, binding together everything from Queen Elizabeth’s sharp 1559 Injunctions regarding the lifestyle of the laity to the deeply controversial 1640 Constitutions and Canons that pushed England right to the brink of Civil War. The text is brought to life by William Sherwin's copperplate engraving mapping out the detailed coats of arms for the entire English episcopacy. It captures an attempt to codify faith, stamp out intellectual rebellion, and enforce national compliance through the authority of the printed word.
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