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Thomas Ward, ‘Thomas Webster’ and the 1687 Translation of Henry VIII's Assertio Septem Sacramentorum
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2023
Abstract
The most influential English translation of Henry VIII's Assertio septem sacramentorum against Martin Luther, which is still widely available online and through e-publishing, was originally printed in London in 1687. Its translator, known only by the initials ‘T. W.’ that appear on the title page, is commonly identified in library catalogues as one Thomas Webster. Closer investigation reveals this identification to be based on a series of misunderstandings. It is suggested that this Thomas Webster never existed, and that the more likely translator was the Yorkshire-born controversialist, Thomas Ward.
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References
1 On its printing history and international reception see the introduction to the modern edition, Heinrich VIII.: Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum, ed. Pierre Fraenkel, Münster 1992, 29–39.
2 Wing H.1468.
3 Scott, Geoffrey, ‘Ward, Thomas (1652–1708)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography, Oxford 2004Google Scholar, at <https://doi–org.hull.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28707>, and ‘Thomas Ward (1652–1708) and Hexhamshire: Catholic apologetics in the Tyne valley’, Northern Catholic History xli (2000), 32–7.
4 Clancy, Thomas H., ‘A content analysis of English Catholic books, 1615–1714’, Catholic Historical Review lxxxvi (2000), 258–72Google Scholar, esp. p. 272 (Fig. 6).
5 Peerbooms, Gerard Maria, Nathaniel Thompson: tory printer, ballad monger and propagandist, Nijmegen 1983, 256–63Google Scholar.
6 For a descriptive bibliography of the various Latin and vernacular editions of the Assertio up to 1924 see Fraenkel, Assertio, 77–87.
7 Henry viii, Assertio septem sacramentorum: or, An assertion of the seven sacraments against Martin Luther; … faithfully translated into English by T. W., Gent., London, 1687, sig. C3v. (The preliminaries are unpaginated.)
8 Ibid. 11.
9 Ibid. 5.
10 Ibid. 10.
11 Fraenkel, Assertio, 122.
12 T. W., Assertion, sig. C4r.
13 Ibid. 3.
14 In addition to Scott, ‘Ward’, see Robert Watt (ed.), Bibliotheca Britannica, Edinburgh 1824, ii. 949b; Joseph Gillow (ed.), A literary and biographical history or biographical dictionary of the English Catholics from the breach with Rome in 1534 to the present day, London–New York 1885, v. 570–2; and Clancy, Thomas H. (ed.), English Catholic books, 1641–1700: a bibliography, Chicago 1974, nos 1041Google Scholar, 1043–5. The details on Ward's life that follow are taken from Scott's ODNB entry.
15 ‘The scourge of his fellow stationers, the “papist” Thompson defied the accusations of his Protestant adversaries and, despite the threats of government and his guild, pursued his trade, his faith, and his [Tory] conviction’: Leona Rostenberg, ‘Nathaniel Thompson, Catholic printer and publisher of the Restoration’, The Library 5th ser. x (1955), 186.
16 ‘A life of Mr Ward’, which first appeared in the 1807 edition of Ward's Errata to the Protestant Bible and in the 1815 edition of his Hudibrastic poem England's Reformation, was reprinted many times. I consulted the version prefaced to the New York 1853 edition of England's Reformation.
17 The Dubia formed an appendix, in Latin, to Peter Manby, The considerations which obliged Peter Manby dean of Derry to embrace the Catholique religion (Wing M.384), yet another work published in London by Nathaniel Thompson in 1687. On Manby see Justin Champion, The pillars of priestcraft shaken: the Church of England and its enemies, 1660–1730, Cambridge 1992, 84–8.
18 Anon., ‘The life of Mr. Ward’, in Thomas Ward, England's Reformation: a poem in four cantos, New York 1853, p. xxiii.
19 Ibid. pp. xxiv, xxv.
20 Scott, ‘Ward’.
21 Ward, Thomas, The Roman Catholic souldiers letter to Dr Thomas Tenison, London 1680Google Scholar [i.e. 1688] (Wing W.835), 1.
22 Peter Manby, Certain doubts touching the English Reformation … translated by another hand, Dublin? 1687? (Wing M.382A).
23 Manby, Considerations, 12, and Certain doubts, 1; Thomas Ward, Some queries to the Protestants concerning the English reformation, London 1687, 3.
24 Manby, Considerations, 12, and Certain doubts, 2; Ward, Some queries, 3.
25 Manby, Considerations, 12, and Certain doubts, 2; Ward, Some queries, 4.
26 See the transcription from the catalogue provided in Henry viii, Assertio septem sacramentorum or defence of the seven sacraments, ed. Louis O'Donovan, Baltimore 1908, 102.
27 Wing H.1469, the second edition of 1688.
28 Peck, Francis, A complete catalogue of all the discourses written both for and against popery, in the time of King James II, London 1735Google Scholar.
29 Ibid. 21.
30 London 1688 (Wing M.20238).
31 Wing M.20238, 20238A.
32 See Thomas Jones (ed.), A catalogue of the collection of tracts for and against popery (published in or about the reign of James II) in the Manchester library founded by Humphrey Chetham, [Manchester] 1859. For an acknowledgement of the extent of Todd's contribution see Jones's preface at pp. v–vi. The correspondence between Jones and Todd is still held at Chetham's Library. For Todd's life see Andrew O'Brien and Linde Lunney, ‘Todd, James Henthorn’, Dictionary of Irish biography, Cambridge 2009, at <https://doi.org/10.3318/dib.008577.v1>.
33 Jones, A catalogue of the collection of tracts, 208, no. 184.
34 Ibid. 201, nos 173, 174.
35 Smith, Peter, ‘Bishop William Lloyd of Norwich and his commonplace book’, Norfolk Archaeology xliv (2005), 702Google Scholar; Miller, Amos C., ‘William Lloyd, bishop of Norwich: “a very able and worthy pastor”’, Norfolk Archaeology xxxix (1985), 150–68Google Scholar, and ‘“A man of unquiet spirit”: Mordaunt Webster’, Recusant History xvii (1984), 1–16. As Miller notes, Webster seems to have been careful never to put his objections to Anglican orders in writing (‘William Lloyd’, 158), and in this respect Milbourne's description of them as ‘scatter'd’ seems apt.
36 A Thomas Webster of Downham Market, who was admitted to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, on 13 July 1664 as a sizar, aged seventeen, fits Wing's suggested birth date of 1646/7 so exactly that he was very probably the Webster Wing had in mind. There was a further factor which may have decided the matter for Wing: according to the college entry, Thomas had attended school in King's Lynn: Admissions to Gonville and Caius College in the University of Cambridge, March 1558–9 to Jan. 1678–9, ed. John Venn and Susannah Venn, London 1887, 260; according to diocesan records, on being made deacon in 1670 Webster was assigned as curate to the parish of Gaywood, then next to, now part of, King's Lynn: ‘Webster, Thomas (1670–77)’, person ID 128721, Clergy of the Church of England database (www.theclergydatabase.org.uk). This Webster had, however, long ceased to be connected with Lynn by the time Milbourne wrote: in 1677 he became curate at Monk Soham in Suffolk, and in 1679 had his MA incorporated at Oxford, indicating that he held a position there or a benefice in Oxford's gift; there is a suggestion that he served afterwards as a naval chaplain: Clergy of the Church of England database; ‘Thomas Webster, ID WBSR664T’; ACAD – A Cambridge alumni database at <https://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk>, accessed 20 May 2023. Unlike Mordaunt Webster, who was demonstrably agitating very publicly against Anglican orders at Lynn in 1687/8, we know nothing about any activities that the Caian Webster might have undertaken in this regard. More important, from our point of view, there is nothing to connect him to the Assertio translation. Perhaps because this Cambridge candidate is so unconvincing, Fraenkel proposed an Oxford alternative: ‘Über Thomas Webster, am 16. Juli 1660 in Oxford immatrikuliert, S. FOSTER: Alumni, series 1, Bd 3, S. 1592’: Fraenkel, Assertio, 85. The entry in Alumni Oxonienses gives his matriculation date as 13 July and describes him as a ‘ser[vitor?]’ at Lincoln College: Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714, ed. Joseph Foster, at <http://british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp1577-1600>. This Webster would have been around the age of fourteen or fifteen when he matriculated. As with the Caian Webster, however, there is no evidence that this man either rejected Anglican orders or translated the Assertio.