Surname Index

to

A Defence of the Case of the Ministers Ejected at Exon

by

James Pierce

Exeter: Andrew Brice at the Head of the Serge-Market (1719) 33 pp.

Prepared by Michael Steer

Arianism is defined as those teachings attributed toan early Christian bishop, Arius, that are in opposition to mainstream Trinitarian Christological doctrine, as determined by the first two Ecumenical Councils and maintained by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and most Reformation Protestant Churches. The author of this pamphlet, James Peirce (1674?-1726) was an English dissenting minister, the catalyst for a sensational controversy on the nature of Christ. In 1717, Peirce and Joseph Hallett, presbyterian ministers of Exeter, were taken to task locally for promoting Arianism. In the Exeter assembly of May, 1719, an attempt to enforce their subscription to the first article of the 39 Articles of Faith brought about a split in their Church and they were ejected. This rare and much sought-after book was produced digitally from a copy in the Bodleian Library collection and can be downloaded from Google Books. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.