Notes on Medieval Ecclesiastical Law

A compendium of medieval ecclesiastical laws, predominantly in Latin with some marginal notes in English, compiled by the Reverend Dr Humphrey Prideaux (1648-1724), arranged under various headings: De celibatu clericorum, De electionibus episcoporum, De vicariis, De appropriationibus et impropriationibus, De bonis intestatorum, etc. Several pages are blank. Loosely inserted at the end is a double leaf containing (on folio 84) a brief index. Entitled On Ecclesiastical Law Dr H. Prideaux - MSSon a spine label.

Humphrey Prideaux (1648-1724), dean of Norwich and author, was born on 3 May 1648 at Padstow, Cornwall. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained his BA degree in 1672 (MA 1675, BD 1682, DD 1686); he was praelector in 1673, and in 1680 praelector Graecae. Through the patronage of Lord Chancellor Finch, Prideaux secured the sinecure rectory of Llandewi Felffre, Pembrokeshire, in 1677, and he later became rector of St Clement's, Oxford (1679), prebend of Norwich (1681), and rector of Bladon-cum-Woodstock, Oxfordshire (1683). He worked for Dean Fell as an editor, on Edmund Chilmead's edition of John Malalas (1691), and on a catalogue of Greek marbles. In 1679 he published Moses Maimonides' De jure pauperis et peregrini, with a Latin translation and notes.

In 1685 Prideaux left Bladon for Saham Toney, Norfolk. He was staunchly anti-Catholic and in 1688 published letters he had written to dissuade a Norfolk convert, The validity of the orders of the Church of England. He preached against the Catholic mass, frustrated the reading of James II's declaration of indulgence, and armed his servants in support of William of Orange. He was installed as archdeacon of Suffolk on 21 December 1688. In 1694 Prideaux gave up Saham to live in Norwich, and in 1697 he acquired the neighbouring vicarage of Trowse, which he held until 1709. In 1702 he succeeded Henry Fairfax as dean of Norwich. He also published The original and right of tithes (1710), Life of Mahomet (1697) and The Old and New Testament connected: in the history of the Jews and neighbouring nations (1716-18). He died in the deanery at Norwich on 1 November 1724 and was buried in the nave of Norwich Cathedral.

Source: Hugh de Quehen, 'Prideaux, Humphrey (1648-1724)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. By permission of Oxford University Press - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/22784.

The following papers of Humphrey Prideaux are held in other repositories:

• British Library, Manuscript Collections: letters to John Ellis, 1674-1722 (ref.: GB 0058 Add MS 1152 );
• Cornwall Record Office: 4 vols of letters received with index of correspondents, 1677-1723 (ref.: GB 0021 PB 8/1-4 ): see http://www.a2a.org.uk/html/021-pb.html;
• Norfolk Record Office: diaries, collections, transcriptions and correspondence, 1694-1742 (ref.: GB 0153 DCN117 );
• Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts: correspondence with William Sancroft and others, 1680-1698 (ref.: GB 0161 Tanner MSS ).

See also Humphrey Prideaux, The life of the Reverend Humphrey Prideaux D.D., Dean of Norwich: with several tracts and letters of his upon various subjects (London: printed for J. and P. Knapton, 1748).