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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 September 2017
This article identifies as the work of Richard Baxter a set of ecclesiastical directions and reading recommendations contained in fos 180–208 of St John's College, Cambridge, MS K.38, once tentatively ascribed to Thomas Barlow, but demonstrably a close analogue of British Library, MS Harleian 6009, which is a copy of a lost Baxter original. Internal evidence of MS K.38 and comparison with MS 6009 and Baxter's Christian directory imply both an earlier date and a wider circulation of Baxter's archetype than hitherto suspected, suggesting a new direction of inquiry into Baxter's scholarly and ecclesiastical associations.
1 Keeble, N. H. and Nuttall, Geoffrey F., Calendar of the correspondence of Richard Baxter, Oxford 1991, ii. 112–13Google Scholar.
2 de Jordy, Alma and Fletcher, Harris, ‘A library for younger schollers’ compiled by an English scholar priest about 1655, Urbana 1961Google Scholar; Costello, William T., The scholastic curriculum at early seventeenth-century Cambridge, Cambridge, Ma 1958, 155Google Scholar. The edition of de Jordy and Fletcher seems, unhappily, to be the source for all the references to Barlow's reading lists in Malcolm's, Noel edition of The correspondence of Thomas Hobbes, Oxford 1994, ii.786Google Scholar, as well as for Feingold, Mordechai, ‘The humanities’, in Tyacke, Nicholas (ed.), History of the University of Oxford, IV: The seventeenth century, Oxford 1997, 302Google Scholar. For Costello's misinterpretation of the reference in ms K.38 to ‘Gregorie Arminensis’ see Dulgarian, Robert, ‘Dispelling a phantom reference to Gregory the Illuminator in a seventeenth-century Cambridge manuscript, with apologies to the memory of William T. Costello’, Journal for the Society of Armenian Studies xxi (2012), 117–26Google Scholar.
3 De Jordy and Fletcher note the existence of two posthumous publications of Barlovian material that they assess as ‘almost the same as that found in both the St. John's College and Harleian MSS., but it is greatly expanded and augmented by titles not found in either MS. Most of the additional titles are of books printed since the two MSS were formed, or after about 1655’: ‘A library for younger schollers’, p. x. The works in question are The genuine remains of Thomas Barlow, London 1693 (Wing, B832)Google Scholar, which contains a section ‘’Αὺτοσχεδιάσματα, or Directions to a Young Divine’ (pp. 1–121); and ’Αὺτοσχεδιάσματα, De studio theologiæ; or, Directions for the choice of books in the study of divinity, Oxford 1699 (Wing, B824)Google Scholar. A collation of ms K.38 lies beyond the scope of this article.
4 Given the prominence of ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’ in New Testament theology, one might tentatively propose that the scribe of K.38 has introduced ‘beginning’ and ‘end’. However, the free use of Greek also seems more characteristic of Barlow than of Baxter. For examples of Baxter's use of ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’ see David S. Sytsma, ‘Richard Baxter's philosophical polemics: a Puritan's response to mechanical philosophy’, unpubl. PhD diss. Princeton 2013, 159n.
5 Appendix 2 attempts a rationalisation of the system of numbered headings of K (sc. the Baxterian portions of ms K.38) on the grounds that the organisation of the matter in question may provide further evidence for dating insofar as its reflects a stage in Baxter's evolving analytical practice.
6 Baxter, Richard, A Christian directory, London 1673 (Wing, B1219)Google Scholar, at q. 173: ‘What particular directions for order of studies, and books should be observed by young students?’, 917–20, and q. 174: ‘What books especially of theologie should one choose, who for want of money or time, can read but few?’, at pp. 921–7.
7 ms K.38 (fo. 201) has ‘Mr Lawshon’ where ms Harleian 6621 (fo. [95v]) has ‘Melancthon’. Although the scribe of 6621 is generally less prone to misconstruing names, the Poorer library may in this case vindicate him.
8 Cf. Stephen J. Reid and Emma Annette Wilson, Ramus, pedagogy, and the liberal arts: Ramism in Britain and the wider world, Farnham–Burlington, Vt 2011, and Burton, Simon J. G., The hallowing of logic: the Trinitarian method of Richard Baxter's Methodus theologiæ, Leiden 2012, 65–72Google Scholar.
9 See Matthews, A. G., Calamy revised: being a revision of Edmund Calamy's Account of the ministers and others ejected and silenced, 1660–1662, Oxford 1934, 500–1Google Scholar.
10 For parallel language in Interregnum prefaces see Baxter, Richard, The unreasonableness of infidelity, London 1655 (Thomason E.1562[1])Google Scholar, [fos b7v–b8r], and Confirmation and restauration, the necessary means of reformation and reconciliation: for the healing of the corruptions and divisions of the Churches, London 1658 (Wing, 2nd edn. 1994, B1232)Google Scholar, fos A4[r]–[A5r]; for parallel language in post-Restoration prefaces see The reasons of the Christian religion, London 1667 (Wing, B1367)Google Scholar, fo. A3[r–v]; Directions for weak distempered Christans to grow up to a confirmed state of grace with motives opening the lamentable effects of their weaknesses and distempers, London 1669 (Wing, B1249)Google Scholar, [fo. A4r–v]; and The right method for a setled peace of conscience: in XXXII directions: written for the use of a troubled friend, and now published, London 1669 (Wing, B1376)Google Scholar, [A4v–A5r]. For contrasting language in prefaces around 1660 see Universal concord: the first part: the sufficient terms proposed for the use of those that have liberty to use them: and as the authors profession of his own religion in a contentious, dividing age, London 1660 (Wing, B1444)Google Scholar, fos A3[r–A5r], and To the kings most excellent majesty: the due account and humble petition of the ministers of the Gospel, lately commissioned for the review and lateration of the liturgy, London 1661 (Wing, 1278A), A2Google Scholar.
11 For institutional turmoil at the universities during the Interregnum see Twigg, John, The University of Cambridge and the English revolution, 1625–1688, Cambridge 1990Google Scholar, esp. chs v, vi. For an outline of the development of Baxter's relations to ‘mechanical’ philosophy see Systma, ‘Richard Baxter's philosophical polemics’, ch. ii, esp. pp. 68ff. For the dating of A Christian directory see Baxter, Richard, Reliquiæ baxterianæ; or, Richard Baxter's narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times, London 1696 (Wing, B1370)Google Scholar, i, §229.1 (122). I thank Professor Keeble for this reference. See also Baxter's reference to ‘Cambridge Arminians … [who] were for the new and free Philosophy, and especially for Cartes’: Reliquiæ baxterianæ, iii.19–20, quoted in Spurr, John, ‘Latitudinarianism and the Restoration Church’, HJ xxxi (1988), 63–4Google Scholar.
