Page:Books Condemned to be Burnt - James Anson Farrer.djvu/207



APPENDIX.

FTER the conspiracy, known as the Rye House Plot, to kill Charles II. and his brother, the Duke of York, the University of Oxford ordered the public burning of books which ran counter to the doctrine of the Divine right of kings. As the decree is a literary and political curiosity of the highest order, and not easily accessible, I here transcribe it from Lord Somers' Tracts. The authors whose books were condemned are sometimes referred to quite generally, so that some are difficult to identify, but the following appear to be the principal ones that incurred the fiery indignation of the University:—1. Rutherford's Lex Rex; 2. G. Buchanan's De Jure Regni apud Scotos; 3. Bellarmine's De Potestate Papæ, and his De Conciliis et Ecclesiâ Militante; 4. Milton's Eikonoklastes, and his Defensio Populi Anglicani; 5. Goodwin's Obstructours of Justice; 6. Baxter's Holy Commonwealth;