A RATIONALE OR PRACTICAL EXPOSITION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON-PRAYER 1722 A. SPARROW

[SPARROW, Anthony (1612-1685)]. A Rationale, or Practical Exposition of the Book of Common-Prayer, by the Right Reverend Father in God, Anthony Sparrow, D. D. Late Lord Bishop of Norwich. With his Caution to his Diocese Against False Doctrines, and his Famous Sermon of Confession and the Power of Absolution. To Which are Prefix’d, the Lives of the Compilers of the Liturgy; And an Historical Account of its Several Reviews, by the Reverend Mr. Samuel Downes, Late of St. John’s College Oxon. London: printed by J. Bettenham, for Charles Rivington, at the Bible and Crown in St. Paul’s Church Yard, 1722.

Seventh edition (Rationale), second edition (Lives). Two parts in one. Leather-bound. Hardcover. Octavo (200 x 120 x 45 mm). Pp. [18], ccx, [18], 317, [15]. English text. Bound in contemporary full calf. Initial and terminal blanks present. Separate title pages and pagination for 'A Rationale' and 'Lives of the Compilers'. Engraved frontispiece to first part, with title-page in red and black. Head- and tail-pieces. Decorative initials. Printed footnotes. Appendices and indexes. Condition: Good to very good. Binding tight and secure having been neatly re-backed retaining the original spine. Interior lightly toned. Armorial bookplate to front pastedown. Some notes tipped-in at front. A sound copy.

Notes: A very good copy of this early description of the compilation of the English BCP, biographies of the compilers, and commentary on the BCP. Sparrow (1612-1685) was an English Anglican priest and bishop of Norwich and Exeter. He was also an adherent of "Laudianism," an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England promulgated by Archbishop William Laud and his supporters, which rejected the predestination upheld by the previously dominant Calvinism in favor of free will. It is probably best known for its impact on the Anglican High Church movement and its emphasis on liturgical ceremony and clerical hierarchy.