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Autographs from a private Japanese collection
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Autograph manuscript, drafts on the history of the Church, n.p., n.d. [after 1705]
細節
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Autograph manuscript, drafts on the history of the Church, n.p., n.d. [after 1705]
In English with a few words in Greek. Drafts with extensive cancellations and emendations, 1½ pages, 295 x 175mm, reusing a letter addressed 'To the hand / of Sr Isaac Newton'; framed and glazed.
Newton the religious nonconformist. The manuscript is a draft on the Church history of the fourth century, focusing on the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, including the First Council of Nicaea, the role of Athanasius and Sabellius, and the split between the Roman and Orthodox churches on the status of the Holy Spirit.
'Hitherto the words ὀυσία ὑπόστασις & substantia had been used in one & the same sense, the proper sense of the words for The Council of Nice in saying that the son was begotten of the father th[at is] of the ὀυσία of the father, mean not by ὀυσία the common essence or nature of the father & son but the proper substance or ὑπόστασις of the father. For at the end of their Creed they anathematize those that s[hould] say, that the son was of another ὀυσία or ὑποστασις ...'.
Newton's studies of theology and Church history began in the 1670s, originally to comply with Cambridge University regulations which required ordination in the Church of England as a condition for almost all fellowships. His approach involved a characteristically prodigious programme of reading which swiftly came to focus on his doubts about the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and the status of God the Son: 'He became fascinated with the theological struggle of the fourth century as a result of which trinitarianism was established as Christian orthodoxy. For Athanasius, the principal architect of trinitarianism, he developed more than a mere antipathy—passionate hatred is a better description ... Newton enlisted himself among the disciples of Athanasius's opponent, Arius, for whom Christ was not an eternal part of the Godhead but a created intermediary between God and man, a doctrine similar but not identical to modern unitarianism' (ODNB). Newton's rejection of orthodox doctrine made ordination an impossibility, and only a last-minute exemption enabled him to keep his Cambridge fellowship: the tensions around his religious beliefs undoubtedly contributed to his notorious secretiveness. As can be seen in the present manuscript (which dates from after Newton's knighthood in 1705), he continued in his theological studies long after his departure from Cambridge to London in 1696.
The letter which Newton has reused for his notes is a begging letter from one William Tennant, an unemployed clergyman. Sections of the present manuscript were reused by Newton (with some reordering) in a manuscript now in the National Library of Israel (Yahuda Ms. 15.2: The Newton Project THEM00219: 'Drafts on the history of the Church (Section 2)'). This manuscript is however apparently unstudied.
Autograph manuscript, drafts on the history of the Church, n.p., n.d. [after 1705]
In English with a few words in Greek. Drafts with extensive cancellations and emendations, 1½ pages, 295 x 175mm, reusing a letter addressed 'To the hand / of Sr Isaac Newton'; framed and glazed.
Newton the religious nonconformist. The manuscript is a draft on the Church history of the fourth century, focusing on the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, including the First Council of Nicaea, the role of Athanasius and Sabellius, and the split between the Roman and Orthodox churches on the status of the Holy Spirit.
'Hitherto the words ὀυσία ὑπόστασις & substantia had been used in one & the same sense, the proper sense of the words for The Council of Nice in saying that the son was begotten of the father th[at is] of the ὀυσία of the father, mean not by ὀυσία the common essence or nature of the father & son but the proper substance or ὑπόστασις of the father. For at the end of their Creed they anathematize those that s[hould] say, that the son was of another ὀυσία or ὑποστασις ...'.
Newton's studies of theology and Church history began in the 1670s, originally to comply with Cambridge University regulations which required ordination in the Church of England as a condition for almost all fellowships. His approach involved a characteristically prodigious programme of reading which swiftly came to focus on his doubts about the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and the status of God the Son: 'He became fascinated with the theological struggle of the fourth century as a result of which trinitarianism was established as Christian orthodoxy. For Athanasius, the principal architect of trinitarianism, he developed more than a mere antipathy—passionate hatred is a better description ... Newton enlisted himself among the disciples of Athanasius's opponent, Arius, for whom Christ was not an eternal part of the Godhead but a created intermediary between God and man, a doctrine similar but not identical to modern unitarianism' (ODNB). Newton's rejection of orthodox doctrine made ordination an impossibility, and only a last-minute exemption enabled him to keep his Cambridge fellowship: the tensions around his religious beliefs undoubtedly contributed to his notorious secretiveness. As can be seen in the present manuscript (which dates from after Newton's knighthood in 1705), he continued in his theological studies long after his departure from Cambridge to London in 1696.
The letter which Newton has reused for his notes is a begging letter from one William Tennant, an unemployed clergyman. Sections of the present manuscript were reused by Newton (with some reordering) in a manuscript now in the National Library of Israel (Yahuda Ms. 15.2: The Newton Project THEM00219: 'Drafts on the history of the Church (Section 2)'). This manuscript is however apparently unstudied.
榮譽呈獻
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts