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Abraham Woodhead (1608–78): Some Research Notes, Chiefly about his Writings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Extract

Of the Catholic polemicists in England in the seventeenth century, few wrote more voluminously or earned more respect from their adversaries than Abraham Woodhead. His works are grave, erudite, and irenic in tone, reflecting their author's retired life of study after his conversion. His efforts to avoid the limelight have been successful, both in his own time and in ours; perhaps that is why no one, so far as I know, has yet subjected his books to the careful scrutiny and analysis which they deserve. There are several worthwhile theses in the history of theology to be written on Woodhead and the controversies in which he was engaged; perhaps the materials offered in this article will help a few scholars through the preliminaries to Woodhead study and encourage them to give us a theological pprtrait of this man whose historical portrait is so hard to draw.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1980

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References

Notes

1 Now in the Library of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Leeds: MS. 45.

2 Thomas H. Clancy, S.J., English Catholic Books 1641-1700: A Bibliography (Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1974).Google Scholar

3 On this matter see also Notes and Queries, 4th series, I, p. 367.

4 A reproduction of the original licence in the hand of Archbishop Sancroft may be seen facing p. 102 of Recusant Books at St Mary's, Oscott, Part III: 1641-1830 (With a Supplement to Part I: To 1687) (New Oscott: St Mary's Seminary, 1966). The licence is also printed in [John, Gutch], Collectanea Curiosa; or Miscellaneous Tracts (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1781), I, 288–9Google Scholar (item No. 35).

5 In particular against Edward Stillingfleet, A Second Discourse in Vindication of the Protestant Grounds of Faith, against the pretence of Infallibility in the Roman Church, in answer to the Guide in Controversies by R.H., Protestancy without Principles, and Reason and religion, or the Certain Rule of Faith by E. W. With a particular Enquiry into the Miracles of the Roman Church. This was the second part of his An Answer to Several Late Treatises…, published in 1673.

6 John, Buchanan-Brown, ‘The First Publication of Abraham Woodhead's Translation of St Teresa’, The Library, 5th series, 21 (1966), 234–40.Google Scholar

7 Madan, F., Oxford Books (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1931), III, 319.Google Scholar

8 Madan, op. cit. III, 370-1.

9 Madan, op. cit. III, 389.

10 The Holy Life of Monr. De Renty, a late Nobleman of France, and sometimes Councellor to King Lewis the 13th. Written in French by John Baptist S. Jure. And Faithfully translated into English, By E.S. Gent. London, Printed for John Crook, at the Sign of the Ship in S. Pauls Church-yard 1658 [1657], Wing S 334.

11 London County Council, Survey of London VIII: The Parish of St Leonard, Shoreditch (London, 1922), pp. 8283.Google Scholar