| Abstrakt: |
On which edition of the early church historians did Marvell rely when composing the Short Historical Essay, touching General Councils, Creeds, and Imposition in Religion that forms part of Mr. Smirke (1676)? The standard answer to this question--that it was the 1569 Latin translation by John Christopherson, the Catholic Bishop of Winchester--is incorrect (though not entirely so). By a process of elimination, it can be shown that the book Marvell actually had on his desk was Eusebii Pamphili, Ruffini, Socratis, Theodoriti, Sozomeni, Theodori, Evagrii et Dorothei Ecclesiastica Historia, edited by Johann Jakob Grynaeus and printed in Basel in 1570 and reprinted in 1587. Its combination of Protestant and Catholic translations allowed Marvell to secure a variety of ideological and polemical objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
