William Reese Gives Us That Old Tyme Religion
Early American Religion from William Reese Co.
By Michael Stillman
You might think a collection of religious material from the 17th through 19th centuries would be rather boring. We've all heard that fire and brimstone stuff too many times before. You would be very wrong if that's what you thought. The William Reese Company has issued its 243rd catalogue, Early American Religion. It is an absolutely fascinating look at early America, and the values and beliefs that shaped the thinking of the settlers.
There have always been struggles between fundamentalists and reformers, even in the days when most people took a very literalist view of the Bible. In 1700, Increase Mather was already complaining about the liberal tendencies of some younger preachers, and you will find his laments herein. Of course there is always religious intolerance. In 18th century America, the Quakers were often on the receiving end. By the 19th century, it was the Mormons who became religion's favored whipping boy. Of course, Catholics were always good for prejudice. Ironically, Catholicism finds its share of intolerance from the pen of William Penn, America's early Quaker leader. That was the young Penn. The older Penn becomes a much more tolerant individual, perhaps from his experience with abuse heaped upon the Quakers.
Then there are the Indian Bibles. Missions were sent out to virtually every Indian tribe in the land, with missionaries painstakingly translating the Bible into all types of native tongues. Today we might regard the missionaries as a bit dismissive of the religious beliefs and practices of the native tribes. However, in a land where too many settlers were more interested in stealing their land if not just plain killing them, the missionaries were likely the most humanitarian white faces the Indians encountered.
Those are just a few of Reese's topics. We can't begin to cover all of the ground contained within this catalogue, but here are just a few of the items you will find in the latest Reese edition.
We mentioned that William Penn expressed some rather narrow-minded views early in his life. A recent convert to Quakerism, Penn expressed these views in his 1670 pamphlet, A Seasonable Caveat Against Popery. In it, Penn attacks certain Catholic beliefs, using Scripture to assail them, and states that Catholics cannot be trusted because their faith cannot accept "heretics." At the time, Penn was writing from Ireland, where he feared Catholicism was making inroads. Item 132. Priced at $2,500.
|
William Reese Gives Us That Old Tyme Religion
It's a genuine 'John Hancock' signature, even if it doesn't look like one.
By 1687, Penn was a more mature and accepting individual. His colony of Pennsylvania would attract many settlers with less conventional beliefs because of its tolerance. In that year he published, Good Advice to the Church of England, Roman Catholick, and Protestant Dissenter. Herein he argues for toleration on both religious and ethical principles. This is more the Penn we remember. Item 136. $2,500.
William Penn would go on to express even more liberal views in the mid-19th century, some 130 years after his death. Huh? You can check out his much later views in Voices from the Spirit World, Being Communications from Many Spirits. By the Hand of Isaac Post, Medium. You can also check out updated views from the likes of Washington, Jefferson, and Voltaire, as well as other early Quakers. The introduction was "written" by Benjamin Franklin. Post was an upstate New York reformer. He was deeply involved with abolitionism and women's rights, at times hosting Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth in his Rochester home. He became disillusioned with the more moderate opposition of traditional Quakers, and, with many others, split from them. Around 1850, he became a believer in Spiritualism, communicating with the dead, a movement started by two teenage sisters from nearby Hydesville. The sisters would recant their claims many years later (long after Post's death), but a belief in Spiritualism lives on. In 1851, when Post published his book, many who promoted abolition and other liberal causes also became believers in Spiritualism. Not surprisingly, the messages Post received from the long-dead Penn supported Post's views. Despite his strong antislavery principles, Post would oppose the Civil War. His Quaker pacifism prevailed. Nonetheless, he would live to see slavery abolished. Item 137. $600.
From his post-Earthly existence writings, we turn to some of Ben Franklin's earliest work. Actually, this is neither one of his writings or printings. It is even earlier than that. In 1725, young Franklin was working as a typesetter in England. He set type for the third edition of The Religion of Nature Delineated, by William Wollaston. In his autobiography, Franklin states he worked on the second edition, but evidently it must have been the third as Franklin did not begin work at Palmer's, the printer, until after the second was published. Item 71. $500.
Here is another religious text notable more for circumstances surrounding it than what is inside. The book is, A Lecture on Christ's Second Coming 70 A.D., published in Hartford in 1878. Reese describes the book as an "odd bit of revelation," and we'll go with that, never having read the book. Indeed, Reese adds that it displays the "imbalance of mind" which would lead its author, Charles Guiteau, to assassinate the President three years later. His shooting of President Garfield was also divinely inspired, at least in Guiteau's warped mind. Guiteau expected to be acquitted, but was sorely disappointed. He was hanged the following year, hardly the first religious writer to meet such a fate. However, he remains the first and only combination American Presidential assassin and author. Item 80. $400.
|
William Reese Gives Us That Old Tyme Religion
none
Are you looking for a genuine John Hancock autograph? Well, there are a couple of them on this copy of Increase Mather's The Order of the Gospel, Professed and Practiced by the Churches of Christ in New England... published in 1700. This is Mather's protest of the liberal ways of the younger generation, particularly some of the new ministers. But wait a minute; that sure doesn't look like John Hancock's signature. It doesn't even look like a bad forgery. But, it is genuine. In fact both of them are. These are the signatures of the father and grandfather of the John Hancock you know, both also named John Hancock. There is also a signature from his uncle, Ebenezer Hancock. The signatures are certainly very nice and highly collectible, but none could sign his name the way John Hancock of Declaration of Independence fame could. Item 107. $15,000.
Here is a notable title for those who collect Mormon books. It is the first mention of the Book of Mormon in a non-Mormon text. It is The Life of David Marks, to the 26th Year of His Age, Including the Particulars of His Conversion, Call to the Ministry... Marks is not remembered for his own preaching, but achieves some recognition for his early (1831) mention of the Book of Mormon, just a year after its publication. Marks is highly skeptical and less than complimentary about this new revelation. He points out that, "a copy right was secured by Smith in his own name," implying that Joseph Smith wrote the text, rather than receiving it. Marks comments skeptically that the Angel told Smith to sell the book for $1.08 more than it cost to produce. Finally, he dismisses the book with "the style is so insipid, and the work so filled with manifest imposture, that I feel no interest in a further perusal." I think it's safe to say Marks did not accompany Smith and his followers on their journeys west. Item 103. $1,750.
The William Reese Company may be found online at www.reeseco.com or reached by phone at 203-789-8081.
|