This part includes the papers of Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons, which are uniqely significant for the study of the political and constitutional aspects of the Civil War. In addition, among the correspondents are many of the other leading figures of the parliamentary side - Oliver Cromwell, Essex, Fairfax, Pym, Fleetwood, Ireton, Skippon and Hesilrige. Many letters are from county committees and illustrate problems of local administration of the war effort, essential material for the economic and social historian. Legal papers are strongly represented, including parliamentary proceedings and the notable political trials in the King's Bench, Star Chamber and High Commission Courts. Includes a group of ecclesiastical papers from the fifteenth to the 18th centuries.
Many papers deal with the procedures, powers and abuses of the ecclesiastical and episcopal courts.
Among other ecclesiastical and religious material are documents on the Marian Martyrs, Speeches on the Act of Uniformity of 1559, debate on the infallibility of the Catholic Church and Sabbatarianism and discussions of titles, probate and the powers of the episcopacy. It contains a brief description of the contents of each volume and then an entry for each item, with authors, recipient, date and place or origin of every letter. Each reel contains a list of the volumes on every reel of that part. . . A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford . BIB B668.3su 1953 MASS Bodleian Library.