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Primary Sources
Complete text-searchable facsimiles of a growing selection of works published (mostly) before 1700 and (again, mostly) relating to the religiopolitical conflicts of the early modern period. Some files are large and may take a bit of time to load.
To facilitate alphabetic sorting, articles (“a/an”, “the”) have been removed at the beginning of titles.
Most of these texts follow early modern spelling conventions. Notably, ⟨u⟩ and ⟨v⟩ represented the same sound, with ⟨v⟩ used at the beginning of a word and ⟨u⟩ used elsewhere; ⟨i⟩ and ⟨j⟩ were similarly used both as vowel and consonant; and the long ⟨s⟩, written as ⟨ſ⟩ will register as ⟨f⟩ in text searches. For other early modern spelling conventions, see Terttu Nevalainen’s paper, Early Modern English.
Some of these files are large and may take a while to download.
| AUTHOR | SHORT TITLE | DATE | DETAILS | FORMAT | LINK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASKEW, Anne, and John Bale. | First examinacion of Anne Askewe lately martired in Smythfelde. | 1546-7 | Anne Askew's account of her imprisonment and torture, edited with a commentary by John Bale. | Greyscale flipbook and text-searchable PDF |  |
| AVILA, Teresa of, Saint. Translated by Tobie Matthew. | Flaming Hart, or the life of the glorious S. Teresa | 1642 | A Catholic translation by Tobie Matthew. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| BARCLAY, Robert. | Apology for the true Christian divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, called, in scorn, Quakers. | 1678 | Originally written in Latin and published in 1676 as Theologiæ Vere Christianæ Apologia. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| BARLOW, Thomas, James I, Everard Digby. | Gunpowder-Treason: ... the manner of its discovery ... the proceedings against those horrid conspirators ... King James’s speech to ... Parliament, on that occasion; now re-printed. A preface .. . by ... Thomas Lord Bishop of Lincoln. And ... several papers or letters of Sir Everard Digby ... never before printed. | 1679 | A reprint of various papers relating to the Gunpowder Plot, with a preface by Thomas Barlow and an appendix of papers and letters by Everard Digby. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| BUNYAN, John. | Pilgrim's Progress from this world, to that which is to come. Sixth edition. | 1681 | The sixth edition, with additions. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| BUNYAN, John | Pilgrim's Progress from this world, to that which is to come. Seventh edition. | 1681 | The seventh edition, with additions. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| BURTON, Richard. | Anatomy of Melancholy: What it Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Seuerall Cures of it : in Three Partitions. The third edition. | 1638 | The fifth edition of Burton's seminal work on the nature, causes, symptoms and potential cures for melancholy. Each edition contains substantial revisions and additions. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| BURTON, Richard. | Anatomy of Melancholy: What it Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Seuerall Cures of it : in Three Partitions. The fifth edition. | 1638 | The fifth edition of Burton's seminal work on the nature, causes, symptoms and potential cures for melancholy. Each edition contains substantial revisions and additions. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| CARY, Lucius (Viscount of Falkland) Thomas White, William Chillingworth, John Pearson (Bishop of Chester). Edited, with a prefatory epistle, by Thomas Triplet (Dean of Westminster). | Sir Lucius Cary, late lord viscount of Falkland his Discourse of Infallibility...The second edition. To which are now added two discourses of Episcopacy. | 1660 | A reprint of Cary's 1646 discourse on Infallibility, with Thomas White's reply and Cary's rebuttal, together with two discourses on episcopacy not in the first (1651) edition. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| Catholic Church. | Manuscript Book of Hours, use of Angers | c. 1490 | A late 15th-century French Book of Hours, written in Latin. | Facsimile PDF | |
| Catholic Church. | Missale ad vsum insignis ecclesie Sar[um] nuper accuratissime castigatu [m], perpulcrisq[ue] caracteribus impressum officia omnium sanctorum totaliter ad lo[n]gum (quod celebrantibus maxime erit vtilitati) contine[n]s cu[m] pluribus officiis nouis i[n] fine additis | 1509 | Early 16th-century Missal. The Sarum Rite (the liturgy of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury) was the principal liturgical form used in the Church of England before the introduction of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549. This copy predates the Reformation and the names of popes and Thomas of Canterbury in the calendar have been subsequently inked over, in compliance with the censorship imposed by Henry VIII. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| CHARLES I, King of England, William Fulman, Richard Perrinchief, John Gauden. | ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚA Basilika. The Works of King Charles the Martyr: With a collection of declarations, treaties, and other papers. The second edition. Two vols. | 1687 | Basilika is attributed to King Charles, but was partly authored by John Gauden (1605-1662), Bishop of Worcester: "As there is substantial historical and stylistic evidence to support both the authorship of Charles I and John Gauden, we are best served to read the King’s Book as a heteroglossic, collaborative royalist effort." (Daems and Nelson, 2006, p. 20). Also contains material composed by other hands. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| Church of England. | Book of Common Prayer and administration of the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church. | 1687 | A later printing of the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| Church of England. | Booke of Common Prayer, and adminystracion of the sacramentes. | 1550 (i.e., 1552) | The second edition of the Book of Common Prayer. Includes the initial calendar section, the "Proper Lessons" section and the full "Table for the Order of the Psalms", all present in ESTC S93756 (q.v.). | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| Church of England. | Booke of the Common Prayer and administracion of the sacramentes. | 1549 | Peter Blaney, The Printing and the Printers of the Book of Common Prayer, 1549-1561, shows that, while some of the sheets of this are from the first edition, most are from a later printing. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| Church of England. | Boke of Common Prayer and administracion of the sacramentes. | 1552 | The second edition. Lacks the initial calendar section, the "Proper Lessons" section with reading instructions and the full "Table for the Order of the Psalms", all of which are present in ESTC S93757 (q.v.). | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| Church of England. | Fourme to be Vsed in Common Prayer. | 1563 | A later printing of the third edition (1559) of the Book of Common Prayer. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| CLARKE, Samuel. | Generall Martyrologie containing a collection of all the greatest persecutions which have befallen the church of Christ from the creation to our present times. | 1651 | This Martyrologie by the puritan Samuel Clarke draws heavily on Foxe. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| COLEMAN, Edward, et al. George Treby. | Collection of Letters and other writings, relating to the horrid Popish Plott: Printed from the originals in the hands of George Treby Esq | 1681 | Correspondence between Edward Coleman and the Confessor of the French King, the Papal Internuncio, Monsieur le Point proche de Charing-Cross, St. Germain (i.e., Dr. Burnet, S.J.), Father Sheldon, William Throgmorton and others. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| CORKER, James. | Remonstrance of Piety and Innocence; containing the last devotions and protestations of several Roman-Catholicks, condemned and executed on account of the plot ... To which are annexed certain lessons, psalms and prayers ... proper for the present exigence of the times. Hereunto is also added a summary of Roman Catholick principles | 1683 | Contains prayers, poems, letters, professions of innocence, etc., by Edward Coleman, William Ireland, Thomas Whitbread, William Harcourt, John Gavan, John Fenwick, Richard Langhorn, William Hoard (Viscount Stafford), Thomas Thwing, Oliver Plunkett and others, along with passages from the Bible and an avowal of the loyalty of Catholics to the monarch. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| DUGDALE, Stephen. | The Information of Stephen Dugdale. | One of several accounts purporting to support Oates's claim of a Catholic plot to assassinate King Charles II and bring his Catholic brother to the throne. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
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| FOXE, John. | Actes and Monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happening in the Church, with an vniuersall historie of the same. Volume 1. | 1610 | The first volume of the sixth major edition of Foxe's work, containing additional material compiled after his death in 1587. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| FOXE, John | Actes and Monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happening in the Church, with an vniuersall historie of the same. Volume 2. | 1610 | For some reason, this second volume of Foxe's work is missing from the Google Books Reader. I have used a greyscale version, made from a different copy of the book by the Internet Archive. It's a large file, so I've divided it into four parts. | Greyscale flipbook and text-searchable PDF | |
| FOXE, John. | Actes and Monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happening in the Church, with an vniuersall historie of the same. Volume 3. | 1610 | The third volume of the sixth major edition of Foxe's work, containing additional material compiled after his death in 1587. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| HERBERT, Edward, Baron of Cherbury. | Life and Raigne of King Henry the Eighth. | 1649 | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
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| JENISON, Robert. | Narrative of Robert Jenison. | 1679 | One of several accounts purporting to support Oates's claim of a Catholic plot to assassinate King Charles II and bring his Catholic brother to the throne. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| LAUD, William, Edmund Wharton, Henry Wharton. | History of the Troubles and tryal of the most reverend father in God, and blessed martyr, William Laud, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. | 1695 | The title page says this history of Laud's trial was "Wrote by Himself during his Imprisonment in the Tower. To which is prefixed, The Diary of His Own Life ... and subjoined ... the Archbishop's Last Will; his Large Answer to the Lord Say's Speech concerning Liturgies; his Annual Accounts of his Province delivered to the King; and some other things relating to the History." This volume also contains "Rome's Master-Piece: or, the Grand Conspiracy of the Pope and his Jesuited Instruments ... Casually found by Mr. Prynn ... Together with the Archbishop's Notes", edited by Henry Wharton. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| LAUD, William, Thomas Dring, John Fisher (aka John Percy). | Relation of the Conference Between William Laud, late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mr. Fisher the Jesuite by the command of King James. | 1673 | Also contains a reply to: A.C. True relations of sundry conferences had between certain Protestant doctours and a Iesuite called M. Fisher. "A.C.", [= A Catholic], may be John Sweet. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| LAUD, William. | Seven sermons preached upon severall occasions. | 1651 | Despite hundreds of biblical references, these sermons are more political than religious. They were mostly preached in the presence of the king (Charles I) and the central theme is the the Divine Right of the monarch. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| LOVE, Christopher. | Heavens Glory, Hells Terror, or, Two treatises: the one concerning the glory of the saints with Jesus Christ, as a spur to duty: the other. of the torments of the damned. | 1658 | A posthumous publication of the work of Christopher Love, executed in 1651 for his part in a Presbyterian plot to restore Charles II to the throne. The two treatises are separately paginated, with a separate title page for the second. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| MANSELL, Roderick | Exact and True Narrative of the late popish intrigue. | 1679 | This book focuses on one Thomas Dangerfield, who, like Oates, concocted a tale of a nonexistent plot. In Dangerfield's case, it was a transparently false claim of a Presbyterian plot to kill the king. When his tale was exposed as a falsehood, he alleged that the Catholics had put him up to it as cover for their own plot, implicating Elizabeth Cellier, a Catholic midwife, who had befriended Dangerfield while he was in prison. In this way, Dangerfield's lies fed into the frenzy of the Popish Plot. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| MORE, Thomas | De optimo reip. statu, deque nova insula Utopia libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus | 1518 | The third edition of the 1516 original, written in Latin. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| MORTON, Thomas. | Grand Imposture of the (now) Church of Rome manifested in this one article of the new Romane Creede. | 1628 | The second edition, revised, with additions. | B&W flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF link | |
| NALSON, John. Attested by John Phelps. | True Copy of the Journal of the High Court of Justice, for the trial of K. Charles I...With a large introduction. | 1683 | A detailed account of Nalson's probable sources may be found here. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| PERSONS, Robert (author), and Edmund Bunny (editor). | Booke of Christian Exercise appertaining to resolution...with a Treatise tending to Pacification by Edmund Bunny. | 1584 | Bunny (also "Buny") produced this Protestant edition of Robert Persons' Christian Directory, which came out in 1584. Bunny's Treatise tending to pacification did not pacify Persons, who wrote an angry response which appeared in later Catholic editions (q.v.). | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| PERSONS, Robert. | Christian Directory. | 1650 | A later edition of The first booke of the Christian exercise appertayning to resolution (1582), by Robert Persons (sometimes Parsons). Originally conceived as a three-volume work, the second two volumes were never actually written. Later on, this work came to be known as The "Christian Directory" and was also commonly referred to as "The Book of Resolution". This work consists of two parts, the first dealing with all the reasons why (Catholic) Christians should resolve to keep their faith, and the second dealing with the obstacles that might lie in their way. A Protestant edition of this work was produced by Edmund Bunny (sometimes Buny, q.v.). Persons' angry reaction to Bunny's edition is included in this volume. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| PRYNNE, William. | Breviate of the life of William Laud, Arch-bishop of Canterbury extracted (for the most part) verbatim, out of his owne diary, and other writings, under his owne hand | 1644 | Prynne's version of the life of Archbishop Laud, denouncing him as a "busie body" and a "bitter Enemy" to parliamentary proceedings (p. 34). | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| PRYNNE, William. | Hidden Workes of Darknes brought to publike light, o,r A necessary introduction to the Archbishop of Canterburie's triall. | 1645 | Title page missing. Bound together with Prynne, A Breviate of the life of William Laud (q.v.). Misbound pages after page 80: 83, 84, 81, 82, 87, 88, 85, 86, 93, 90, 91. Misnumbered pages after page 220: 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| PRYNNE, William. | Signal Loyalty and devotion of God's true saints and pious Christians, especially in this our island towards their kings | 1660 | In two parts. The second part contains an account of the coronation of James I. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| RUBEUS, Johannes (vero Wilfrid Selby). | Narratio mortis in odium fidei Londini in Anglia illatæ R.A.P. Mauro Scotto. | 1657 | An account in Latin of the martyrdom of the Catholic convert Maurus Scott. From the collection of Sir Leicester Harmsworth, 19th-century book-collector. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| SMITH, John. | Narrative of Mr. John Smith. | 1679 | One of several accounts purporting to support Oates's claim of a Catholic plot to assassinate King Charles II and bring his Catholic brother to the throne. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| SORAPÁN DE HIEROS, Juan. James Mabbe (translator) | Medicina Hispánica: Or physicall aphorisms, and medicinall rules, contained in olde sayings and ancient Spanishe proverbs. (Manuscript.) | c. 1640? | This manuscript, found among the Strangeways family papers in the Dorchester County Record Office, was written by the Stuart Hispanist James Mabbe. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| STAPLETON, Thomas. | Tres Thomae, seu Res Gestae S. Thomae apostoli, S. Thomae Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis et Martyris, Thomae Mori, Angliae quondam cancellarii. | 1612 | An account in Latin of Thomas the Apostle, Thomas Beckett and Thomas More. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| SWETNAM, Joseph. | Arraignment of lewd, idle, froward, and unconstant women: or, The vanity of them; chuse you wheter. | 1690 | First published in 1615. This misogynistic diatribe sparked outrage and numerous rebuttals. Swetnam viciously attacks the vices he perceived in women, fueling an intense pamphlet war over gender roles in early 17th century England. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| WENTWORTH, Thomas, Earl of Strafford. William Knowler. | Earl of Strafforde’s letters and dispatches, with an essay towards his life by Sir George Radcliffe … Vol. I. | 1739 | Edited and with a dedication by William Knowler from the originals owned by Thomas Watson-Wentworth The “Essay towards his Life”, by George Radcliffe, mentioned in the title page, is appended to volume two (see index). Association copy, with the armorial bookplate of Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth of Woolley Hall (1773-1834). The Wentworths of Woolley Hall and the Wentworth Straffords were branches of the Yorkshire Wentworths. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| WENTWORTH, Thomas, Earl of Strafford. George Radcliffe. | Earl of Strafforde’s letters and dispatches, with an essay towards his life by Sir George Radcliffe … Vol. 2. | 1739 | Edited and with a dedication by William Knowler from the originals owned by Thomas Watson-Wentworth The “Essay towards his Life”, by George Radcliffe, mentioned in the title page, is appended to this volume, along with addenda and an index. Association copy, with the armorial bookplate of Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth of Woolley Hall (1773-1834). The Wentworths of Woolley Hall and the Wentworth Straffords were branches of the Yorkshire Wentworths. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| WILSON, John. | English Martyrologe. | 1672 | The third edition (first published in 1608). A Catholic work. This copy has the bookplate of Joseph Gillow, author of A Literary and Biographical History, of Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics (q.v.). Despite its title, The English Martyrologe is more a calendar of saints' days than a martyrology, and does not include Catholic martyrs of the Reformation. | Flipbook, text-searchable facsimile PDF | |
| WROTH, Mary. | Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania. | 1621 | The first published prose romance written by an Englishwoman. Wroth challenges traditional gender roles, giving female perspectives on love, marriage, and sexuality. Her heroines express desire openly and on their own terms. Urania was withdrawn from publication shortly after its release, not for its thinly-veiled erotic content, but because it was considered libellous. | Text-searchable facsimile PDF | |