The Works of Thomas Traherne VII: Christian Ethicks and Roman Forgeries

Thomas Traherne (1637-1674), a clergyman of the Church of England during the Restoration, was little known until the early twentieth century, when his poetry and Centuries of Meditations were first printed. Since then, only selections of his poetry and devotional writings have been fully-edited for print publication, a gap which The Works of Thomas Traherne will remedy by bringing together Traherne’s extant works, including his notebooks, in a definitive, printed edition for the first time.

Roman Forgeries (1673) is a complex analysis of the False Decretals , forgeries produced by the Roman Catholic Church, making the Pope supreme head of the Church, which the Eastern Church rejected, fully accepting the Nicene Creed and the constitutions confirmed by the OEcumenical Church councils, which the forgeries attempted to alter. Christian Ethicks (published posthumously in 1675) is a book about the virtues every Christian ought to possess and practice as a witness to the world. Both texts have a complex transmission history, with details in book descriptions and provenance indicating that through the centuries Roman Forgeries and Christian Ethicks had various owners, were read, corrected, annotated and circulated. The copy texts, both held at the Cambridge University Library, have here been collated against others listed in this edition.