St John's College M.2 (James 385)

Catholic tract after Suarez's Disputationum. Latin, after 1606

 

James, following Cowie, suggests that the 'same amanuensis' was responsible for MSS M.1-5, and that the contents of M.1, 2, 3 and 5 'seem to have been the subjects of lectures etc. in some Spanish University, and were probably the property of an English Romanist exile'. However, this is to some extent questioned by the Revd Claude Jenkins, Librarian at Lambeth Palace, in a note published in the Eagle 35 (1914), 353-4. Jenkins notes the MS's dependence on Franciscus Suarez, Disputationum de Censuris in communi, excommunicatione, suspensione et interdicto, itemque de Irregularitate, Tomus quintus additus ad tertiam partem D. Thomae, first published in Mainz, 1606, but also points out that M.2 'is not a mere summary of Suarez but an independent work'.

Manuscript extra information

195x135 mm. iii+256+v fos. College bookplate (eighteenth century) inside front cover. Also inside front cover a list of contents, now damaged and imperfect. Formerly classified as A.6.20 (inscription inside front cover). Presented by Henry, Earl of Southampton ('Hen: C. S.' on flyleaf).

A single hand; on the whole a clean copy, with few corrections. Paper. Original limp vellum binding, two pairs of replacement ties. Repaired and cleaned by J. P. Gray & Son Ltd, Dec. 1971 (inscription on final flyleaf). Original title on spine: 'MS De Censuris'.