Reliquiae Baxterianae

Richard Baxter’s 800-page Reliquiae Baxterianae (1696) is an unrivalled primary source for early modern historical, ecclesiastical, cultural and literary studies. Its first-hand account of events from the 1620s to the 1680s is both a strikingly original autobiographical work of personal reflection and insight, and a powerful apologia in defence of Baxter’s moderate Puritan churchmanship.The new edition will enable Baxter’s first-hand account to take its proper place beside those of such better-known (and better-served) witnesses as Burnet, Clarendon, Evelyn and Pepys. Its original editor, the nonconformist minister Matthew Sylvester, confessed himself  ‘deeply sensible of my inability for such Work’ as editing Baxter’s ‘great quantity of loose Papers’ and he wrote feelingly of the oppressive weight of the task. His own description of the result of his labours as a ‘Rhapsody’ is apt, for the 1696 folio is formally confused, textually unreliable, and inadequately indexed. Its wealth of historical data are hence very difficult to access.

Sylvester's chief claim to remembrance is as the literary executor of Baxter who valued him for for his meekness, temper, sound principles, and great pastoral ability. In 1696, five years after Baxter's death, Sylvester issued the long-expected folio, ‘Reliquiae Baxterianae. Or, Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the most Memorable Passages of his Life and Times;’ and appended his own sermon memorializing Baxter. The Unitarian historian Alexander Gordon wrote of his efforts: 'No book of its importance was ever worse edited.' Throughout the exhibition there are examples of the ways in which Sylvester’s edition is looked at afresh by the editorial team’                                                                                 Click on the image for further details.

In this section we explore the place of the Reliquiae in the emerging genre of life writing. The conflicts and confrontations during period of the Civil War in England provoked a number of political and religious works by major figures such as Sir Edmund Ludlow and Sir John Reresby. Like the Reliquiae these works show an increasing interest in personal experience and subjectivity but the attempt in the Reliquiae to combine a fair and credible history of the period through a first hand account of events together with reflective and meditative personal writing it is somewhat inimitable and does not readily fit to our modern conception of autobiography.                                                                                       Click on the image for further details.                                             

Dr Alan Argent's catalogue entry tied with the relevant papers prepared by Baxter for the Savoy Conference, on the Liturgy. It is doubtful that the papers are in their original order, though their cataloguing has respected the order in which they were bound in the 19th century. Baxter's complaint that the bishops have not entered the conference with any intention of compromise is found throughout and commenting on the response from the bishops he notes that 'the straine of these papers we filled is like to perswade many that your designe is not the same with oures.'

The entry in the register for Baxter’s 1672 licence to preach.  The register was transcribed by G. Lyon Turner in his ‘Original Records of Early Nonconformity under Persecution and Indulgence’.  The ‘Indulgence’ referred to in this title was  a Declaration issued by Charles II allowing nonconformist ministers to preach publicly if duly licensed.  Its provisions lasted only a few months, however, as Parliament, supposing its intended beneficiaries were really the Roman Catholics, refused to ratify it.  Baxter refused to register under any denomination and after negotiation was allowed to register as a 'nonconforming minister'.                                                                 Click on the image for further details.

The Stationers Register, Volume III. 1675-1708'. The Licensing Act (14 Charles II, c. 33), had allowed the Stationers Company the right to seize illicit editions and bar the publication of any book which had not been licensed by a warden of the Company, together with a government licenser and afterwards entered in what came to be known as the 'entry book of copies' or the Stationers' Company Register.That Sylvester still felt the need in 1696 to submit the Reliquae to the Register is indicative of his assiduous nature, and conservative, Presbyterian regard for law and authority. New freedoms in print culture had been created by the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 and so the 'Licensing Act' was allowed to lapse in 1695. 

Dr Williams's Library is a major research library which specializes in the history of Protestant nonconformity. Its collections include about 300,000 titles from the earliest years of printing to the present, and many thousands of manuscripts from the thirteenth to the twenty-first century. Although the Library’s strengths are in Protestant nonconformity, its collections include printed works and manuscripts of national and even international significance over a range of literary and religious subjects.

Image: Guard book for the Richard Baxter Treatises. The Treatises, consisting of more than 2600 folios, were bound up haphazardly in seven volumes during the mid-nineteenth century. Prior to their conservation materials were tested and paper support analysed for most appropriate methods of treatment. The production of a calendar to the Richard Baxter Treatises collection by Dr. Alan Argent was essential to its conservation; this cataloguing work informed the conservator, Jane Giscombe, of the original order of the material and produced internal evidence to support decisions on disbinding and appropriate treatments.