1640s MANUSCRIPT EXTRACT — WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH, APOSTOLICAL INSTITUTION OF EPISCOPACY — 5pp + MS TITLE‑PAGE — CONTEMPORARY CIVIL WAR COPY

DESCRIPTION: A mid‑17th‑century manuscript extract, written on five sides plus a manuscript title‑page, containing the first argument only from William Chillingworth’s The Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy (Oxford, Henry Hall, 1641/1644). This is not the printed book, and not a full transcript: it is a contemporary handwritten copy of the opening section, produced during the intense ecclesiastical and political turmoil of the 1640s.

The manuscript opens with a full title‑page:

“The APOSTOLICAL Institution of EPISCOPACY / By Mr. Wm. Chillingworth. Oxford. Printed by H. Hall An. Dom. 1644.”

The text then proceeds through Chillingworth’s first doctrinal point — that episcopacy is not repugnant to the government settled by the Apostles — and ends exactly where the printed tract’s first argument ends:

“Quod erat demonstrandum.”

This confirms the scribe copied only the first section, likely for immediate polemical use.HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

Chillingworth’s defence of episcopacy was printed at Oxford under Royalist control at the outbreak of the Civil War. Distribution was dangerous, interrupted, and often blocked by Parliamentarian committees. Clergy, students, and Royalist sympathisers frequently made manuscript copies of key arguments for sermons, debates, and parish disputes.

This extract is precisely that: A portable, discreet, immediately usable copy of the argument most needed in 1641–1644 — the claim that episcopacy is apostolic and universal.

PROVENANCE NOTE:

The handwriting, selection, and context strongly indicate a contemporary cleric or educated layman, likely Royalist‑leaning, who required Chillingworth’s argument at a moment when printed copies were scarce or politically risky to possess.

RARITY & INTEREST:

Complete Chillingworth manuscripts are extremely rare; partial Civil War polemical extracts survive more commonly, but each is unique. This example is unusually clean, self‑contained, and clearly purposeful.

Provenance: 

One of c.2,500+ items once from the collection or dealer stock of Winifred A Myers (Autographs) Ltd, St Martins Lane, London, evidenced by the quantity of Myers pre-printed envelopes and paper folders and the general ‘presentation’ of the items, many having Myers identification notes in pencil. 

Winifred Alice Myers (1909 – 1985) served as ABA (Antiquarian Booksellers Assoc) president, 1950-1952. See the ABA website for an extended article on Myers. Myers left her business, in 1985, to Ruth Shepherd, who traded from home until 2004. 

William Chillingworth (Oct 1602 – Jan 1644) was a controversial English churchman.