Beschreibung:

MORNAY, Philippe de Le mystère d'iniquité, c'est a dire L'histoire de la papauté, par quels progrets elle est montée à ce comble [...] Où sont aussi defendus les droicts des empereurs, rois & princes chrestiens, contre les assertions des cardinaux Bellarmin & Baronius. Geneva, P. Albert, Sm. 8vo: [48]-1355-[1 bl.-33-1 bl.] pp. (trimmed somewhat short to head, tear without loss to A2). Jansenist purple morocco signed Hans Asper spine with 5 raised bands, gilt orn. inner covers, a.e.g. Good copy. Uncommon new edition (1st Saumur also in Latin the same year) of a vehement anti-papal treatise by the French Protestant writer and statesman Philippe de Mornay, Lord du Plessis Marly (1549-1623), and the foremost Huguenot apologist. He was the leading scholar of the Protestant Academy at Saumur and "served as a diplomat for the future Henri IV as early as His political role expanded to the point of earning him the nickname of "the Huguenot pope". Although his influence faded when Henri IV abjured Protestantism (1593), he remained moderately influential, particularly in the drafting of the Edict of Nantes (1598)" (British Museum). The book caused great controversy, partly because Mornay compared Pope Paul V to the Beast of Revelation, and was condemned in the Sorbonne in August All his work was put on the Index in and Ref. Desgraves - Sauvy - Brunet III:- BnF. - COPAC. - Swissbib. Prov. Modern armorial bookplate.