HARTCLIFFE, John. A Discourse Against Purgatory... London: Printed for Brabazon Aylmer, at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, MDCLXXXV [1685]. First Edition. Small Quarto, [iv], 37pp.
This is a rare Restoration-era tract published anonymously. It was authored by the Anglican clergyman John Hartcliffe (1651–1712)—who would later become the Canon of Windsor—this treatise sets out to dismantle the theological architecture of afterlife purification. Hartcliffe targets what he calls the "Errours of the Church of Rome," explicitly treating the concept of Purgatory as a baseline myth or a “Fable... invented on purpose to encrease the treasury of the Church, by putting the grossest abuses upon the ignorant and unwary People.”
The year of publication, 1685, makes this text historic ion that it was the exact year King James II ascended to the throne as Great Britain's final reigning Catholic monarch. The transition triggered waves of panic across English Protestant circles, who feared a dismantling of the Church of England and a return to papal authority. Tracts such as this one were rapidly printed, distributed, and used by Anglican divines to steady the public against court-supported Catholicism.
Provenance
Ex Libris Rev. Thomas Eric Arthur Mead: Affixed to the front pastedown is a striking, custom ecclesiastical Ex Libris bookplate belonging to the Reverend Thomas Eric Arthur Mead, a 20th-century Scottish clergyman and fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The beautifully styled bookplate features dual medieval iconography depicting St. Thomas of Canterbury (Thomas Becket) and St. Eric of Sweden, elegantly rooting the ownership of this volume in the personal library of a dedicated modern student of early church history and historic liturgy.
Condition Report
• Binding: Hardcover modern library style binding, cleanly bound in a full textured blue bookcloth over boards.
• Spine: Square, tight, and completely unlettered. Showcases flawless structural condition with zero handling wear or cloth splitting.
• Interior: The initial leaves include the formal double-ruled title page border and the signature opening page (A2). The hand-pressed rag paper shows handsome, with honest, light uniform age-toning and early peripheral damp-staining along the lower inner gutters that does not bleed into or compromise the stark black type.
