SANDYS, Sir Edwin

by Sir Edwin Sandys

£1,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

First unauthorised and complete edition of Sir Edwin Sandys (1561-1629) seminal, and potentially inflammatory, work on the state of Christianity in Europe. The result of a three-year tour around the continent, undertaken with Sandys companion George Cranmer in 1593, the Europae Speculum professes to examine the condition of the Reformed Churches of mainland Europe, possibly with a view to suggesting some form of re-unification; in fact, Sandys never reaches the topic in this work, but dedicates nearly three quarters of the book to detailed description and analysis of Roman Catholicism, enumerating their beliefs, practices, government, and the means used to increase power, frequently finding merit in their customs and ideas while disapproving of the way in which these were put into practice , Mary Ellen Henley, Sir Edwin Sandy s Europae Speculum: a critical edition. Sandys writes that the French Catholics were most ripe for a reunification with Protestantism; he believed that Italy would first have to abandon its predilection for popery and that Spain, a lost cause, should be left to the Jews and the Moors. In his book, Sandys avoided polemics, seeking not sectarian victory but a church that could, by transcending sectarianism, reunite Christendom. Henley. The work first appeared in 1599, in a number of manuscript copies; it was pirated anonymously in June 1605 without Sandys consent. The Gunpowder Plot of November that same year created strong anti-Catholic feeling in England

• Binding: Hardcover

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