Coit, Thomas W. Puritanism: or, A Churchman's Defence against its Aspersions, by An Appeal to its own History. New-York: D. Appleton & Co., 1845. First Edition. [10580]
Faded cloth, edgeworn, 7 1/2 x 5 inches, center page gathering pulled but not quite detached. 527, [1] pp., the last being errata. Light foxing. Fair. Hardcover.
In 1835 the author had written a series published in the periodical The Churchman, in which he defended Episcopacy from the "harsh and unwarranted cavils" against the Established church in a book on the history of the Puritans. In 1843 "several bishops and a large number of clergy" urged him to revise and expand the series into book form. Here he examines the writings of the Puritans, the deeds done by them in England and in New England, and finds their treatment of Episcopalians, Baptists, Quakers, Papists, Presbyterians, and Indians, shameful and unchristian.
Thomas Winthrop Coit (1803-1885), b. New London, CT; d. Middletown, CT. “He graduated at Yale College in 1821, and became rector of St. Peter’s Church, Salem, Massachusetts, and of Christ Church, Cambridge, in the same State, before going to New Rochelle [NY]. Nearly twenty-five years of the latter portion of Dr. Coit’s life were passed as rector of St. Paul’s Church, Troy, New York. For a short period he was professor in Trinity College, Hartford, and president of Transylvania University, Kentucky. In 1854, he was appointed lecturer on ecclesiastical history in Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Connecticut, discharging his duties there, in connection with his pastoral work, but finally removing thither in 1872 to make instruction his principal occupation. Dr. Coit was one of the ripest scholars and ablest writers in the Church, and left numerous works of great value.” - Updike, A History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, Rhode Island…(1907).
