Rivington's Theological Library was a series of 15 volumes, edited by William Rowe Lyall and Hugh James Rose, and published in London during the 1830s by Rivington's. Rose as founder intended "to restore in England the tradition of the primitive church and revive a taste for patristic studies." His quest for contributors took him to Oxford in 1832, at a pivotal moment for what would become the Tractarian movement.
A work by John Henry Newman, The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833), was intended for the Library. Lyall, however, had objections, to its theology and its scope (Newman had been assigned the topic of Church Councils of the period), and it was published by Rivingtons, but outside the Library. Rose told Newman privately that the series was playing too safe, and was not making its mark. A further work, commissioned from Joseph Blanco White, and announced as a History of the Inquisition, as Newman's had been intended as a History of the Principal Councils, took its own way, and became a work Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy (1835) with a Unitarian aspect. Other announced volumes, by Rose on Martin Luther, and by James Nichols on Hugo Grotius, did not appear in the series.
NumberYearAuthorTitleI1832Life of WiclifCharles Webb Le BasIIThe Consistency of the Whole Scheme of RevelationPhilip Nicholas ShuttleworthIIIHistory of the Reformed Religion in France IEdward SmedleyIVThe Life of Archbishop Cranmer ILe BasVThe Life of Archbishop Cranmer IILe BasVIHistory of the Reformed Religion in France IISmedleyVIIScripture Biography IRobert Wilson EvansVIIIHistory of the Reformed Religion in France IIISmedleyIXHistory of the Church in Scotland IMichael RussellXHistory of the Church in Scotland IIRussellXILife of Bishop JewelLe BasXII1835Scripture Biography IIEvansXIIILife of Archbishop LaudLe BasXIV1837Biography of the Early Church IEvansXV1839Biography of the Early Church IIEvans
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