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A Window on Seventeenth-Century Religion and Politics

William Thomas entered Brasenose College, Oxford as an undergraduate in 1609 and, while there, possessed at least one small notebook in which he recorded sermons from hearing. After ordination in 1617, and as a committed puritan, Thomas was twice ejected from his living at Ubley in Somerset, first in 1634, then in 1662 after the Restoration. In the period of the Civil War he used the notebook to record excerpts from printed religious and political tracts. In private hands in NZ, this notebook adds to our understanding of the culture of sermon-notation, and the life of Thomas himself, known otherwise through his published works and Somerset ecclesiastical records.

This site provides images of the Notebook, the contents of which are analyzed and discussed in Parergon Volume 32, Number 2, 2015.

Greg Waite

View the contents of the Notebook, with Images. Please note, the images are being uploaded progressively so please check in regularly to see more.

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