Add MS 89252

Spiritual notebook of William Jemmat (d. 1678), signed on the front page with ‘William Jemmat his booke’. There are existing editions of William Jemmat’s printed works and work he edited held in the British Library, but this is the only extant manuscript of his. Begins with an exposition of verses from Proverbs (1 page) and then a long catechism on temptation concluding with ‘Notes of true faith’ (44 pages).

This is followed by a series of sermons which are dated and written in mostly chronological order, although three from March, September and October 1615 precede the fourth written in October 1614, suggesting a later composition date for the notebook. The final sermon dates from September 1615. They are laid out with margins and references, and appear to have been copied from printed texts. As William Jemmat was a student in Oxford for the dates of the sermons, it is likely they were originally preached there. Many of these sermons debate the finer points of theology and frame attacks on the Roman Catholic church, and some mention the works of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), a pre-eminent Catholic theologian. Most of the sermons are in English, although there are occasional Latin and Greek quotations.

The notebook concludes with a series of Latin theses to be defended:

1 On the World

2 On Heaven

3 On the Angels (this section is the longest of the three).

These are followed by summary answers to spiritual questions. On the back page there are various signatures of ‘William Jemmat’ and ‘John Jemmat’ – his son and the apparent inheritor of the volume.