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BARROW, Isaac. A treatise of the Pope's Supremacy. To which is added a discourse Concerning The Unity of the Church.

London. Printed by Miles Flesher, for Brabazon Aylmer, 1680. First edition.
Quarto. [8], 428, [2], 49pp, [1]. Title page in red and black. 'A discourse concerning the unity of the Church' (Wing B932) has separate title page and pagination beginning quire 4A. Without portrait frontispiece. Contemporary blind-ruled calf, later rebacked. Extremities worn, upper joint split, upper board held by two cords only. Bookplate of the Bath Reference Library to FEP, upper corner of text-block damp-stained, foxed.
The first edition of a controversial anti-Catholic treatise, denying the infallibility of the Pontiff, by Isaac Barrow (1630-1677), English mathematician and theologian. Barrow held the Cambridge chairs of Greek, Geometry and Mathematics in the wake of the Restoration before passing each on to notable successors - the latter to Isaac Newton - and was elected to the mastership of Trinity College in 1673. His contemporary theological reputation was high, despite being founded upon oral reception rather than publications; his concerns for the foundation of a library for Trinity, eventually designed by Sir Christopher Wren, being greater than his own desire to see his theological works in print. The sole sermon published in his lifetime, The Duty and Reward of Bounty to the Poor (London, 1671), was joined after his death by a wealth of collected and separate editions published by Brabazon Aylmer and John Tillotson. Aylmer had purchased the rights to his printed and manuscript works in 1680, ensuring frequent reprinting and a posthumous literary tradition for Barrow's theological writings. A Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy was the only work which Barrow, on his deathbed, explicitly requested Tillotson to publish.
ESTC R22068, Wing B961.
£ 250.00 Antiquates Ref: 15438