The Hunting of the Romish Fox is a curious book, not only in its content but its history: it is (as many of our religious antiquarian items are) born out of a turbulent time of theology in Britain and Ireland.
The full title is: The Hunting of the Romish Fox, and the Quenching of Sectarian Fire Brands: Being a Specimen of Popery and Separation. According to the title page, the writer and historian, Sir James Ware, collected this work out of the ‘Memorials of Eminent Men both in Church and State’. Ware himself was an Irishman born in Dublin and wrote The Hunting of the Romish Fox about the change of religion and persecution of Roman Catholics in England and Ireland. It was not published in his lifetime, however, as James’ second son, Robert, compiled his father’s writings for him after he died in 1666, and had the book published in 1683 in Dublin.
The title is borrowed from a collection of religious books by William Turner from the 16th century, the first being called The Hunting and Finding Out of the Romish Fox that was published in 1543. Turner’s book was ‘a sharp condemnation of the condition of the Church of England’ (Stein), and originated from the notion that King Henry VIII’s Church of England reform was driving out the ‘Romish fox’ (‘Romish’ being that related to Rome: the home of the Pope and centre of the Catholic Church).
This copy of Ware’s Hunting of the Romish Fox includes a folding frontispiece with a unique and obscure emblem on the inside. The image is of Mount Zion, with a temple on the summit, and surrounded by clouds on which angels blow winds. The image was used on a silver medal or coin that was made to commemorate the Synod of Dort in 1619 – a meeting in which various European Reformed Churches set about to discuss a new protestant theological movement called Arminianism. The Latin that laces the perimeter of the oval symbol can be translated as: ‘The Anglican Church will be like Mount Zion’. Not much else can be gleaned from this image, but it is clear that the contents of this book have been muddied by time. It was suspected that James’s son, Robert, added his own writings into his father’s manuscripts before they were published, and this this was only discovered hundreds of years later. Similar to the unsettled religious atmosphere in James’s own time, his writings and books have succumbed to the legacy of treachery and conflicting ideologies.
The book is in fine condition, with only some minor rubbing and wear on the spine and boards, and signs of dirtiness on the top edge. It is in its original binding, and even though the text pages have little to no foxing, there is some sign of age on the end papers. The edge of the folding frontispiece is fragile from time. It is being sold for £750.
This copy comes from The Ombersley Court Library, one of England’s most significant country house libraries, which was dispersed recently, and we have acquired a number of seventeenth century puritanical tracts, along with Milton’s Works, Johnson’s Dictionary, and other titles (which are all available for sale).
If you are interested in purchasing this book, or would like more information on other items we sell, then please get in contact with us by calling us on 01753 855534, emailing us at sales@mainlybooks.co.uk, or come visit us in store in Eton! Please refer to our Contact Us page for more information on how to reach us.
Referenced in this post:
Harold Stein, ‘Spenser and William Turner’, Modern Language Notes, 51 (1936), 345-351 (p. 347).
More about Sir James Ware Knight can be found here: https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-James-Ware-Kt/6000000001877544324
