On 19 August 1690 an unusual but by no means unique event took place at Oxford University. Following a decree issued by the university’s Convocation, a treatise was publicly burnt for challenging religious orthodoxy. Seven years earlier, the same action had been taken with regard to the works of, among others, John Milton and Thomas Hobbes, for being perceived threats to the state and church. What gave added significance and frisson to the 1690 episode, however, was not only that The Naked Gospel was written by one of the university’s own – Arthur Bury, rector of Exeter College – but that the author was already embroiled in a dispute that had the potential to damage his college both academically and financially. Over the next few years, a heady combination of institutional politics and theological debate came to define Bury’s rectorship, colouring perceptions, reactions and loyalties both within and beyond the university. It also cemented his reputation as one of the most controversial and unorthodox of college heads.

The signs that this might be his legacy were apparent from early on in his career. Elected rector on 27 May 1666 at the prompting of Charles II in support of his chaplain, the Devon clergyman was not at the time a fellow of the college; although he had been one from 1643 until 1648 when he and others were deprived by parliamentary visitors ‘for their high contempt of the authority of parliament’.