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[HAWKINS, Thomas]
A View of the Real Power of the Pope, and Of the Power of the Priesthood over the Laity.
With an Account how they use it. By T. H. Esq;
First edition. An interesting example of the apparently widespread attitude of ordinary English Catholics at this time, exhibiting considerable anti-clericalism and impatience bordering on disgust with papal temporal power. The work includes one chapter rich with thinly disguised personal details settling the author's score with various English priests. Thomas Hawkins (c. 1675–1766), of Nash Court, Boughton under Blean, Kent, was a member of a notable English Catholic family, numbering the poet and translator Sir Thomas Hawkins (bap. 1575, d. 1640?) among his forebears. His father, also Thomas, died in 1678, and after 1688 the family was plundered and forced into exile in France, where Hawkins took the opportunity to study at the University of Paris. The second part of the book consists of a translation of the prefatory discourses of Claude Fleury's Histoire ecclésiastique (1691).
Octavo (196 × 119 mm). Contemporary panelled calf, raised bands, unlettered. Early ownership inscriptions of Benjamin Coleman, 1787, and Mary Coleman to front endpapers. Old and inoffensive ink stain running down the rear joint with a couple of ink spots to top edge not affecting the text, a handsome copy in excellent condition, clean and fresh.
