Mass. The Ross, Block, and Evans collections contain Bibles written and printed in many languages over many centuries. So do works of Reformation and Counter-Reformation theological controversy. Many of the controversial works concern marriage and family issues and thus illuminate gender-related topics, as well. The Yarnall Collection documents theological and liturgical practices, church architecture, and devotional literature with special reference to England and the Anglican Church as well as to the Episcopal Church in America, and to the Roman Catholic antecedents of both. Older Yarnall books are housed in and made accessible through the Department of Special Collections.
More recent imprints are accessible through the general collections.
Department holdings facilitate study of several aspects of early American religion. Especially rich are resources which concern the intersections of European and Spanish American religious history. The organization and activities of the Inquisition in Europe, Spain, Mexico, and Central and South America are documented by both manuscript and printed materials in the Henry Charles Lea Library . More than 1400 books, pamphlets, and broadsides in the Sydney Keil Collection document Spanish American Church history, parish administration, and devotional literature. Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain is another focus of the Keil Collection, whose contents range in date from roughly 1650 to 1850.