Beschreibung:

NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). Autograph manuscript, notes and quotations on theology and history, n.p., n.d. [?early-1670s], in Latin and Greek, autograph cancellations and additions, 3 pages, 4to , on a bifolium, probably detached from a notebook (slight soiling to outer leaves). The manuscript consists of: (1) one page of quotations from patristic writings, in particular St Gregory of Nazianzus, on the doctrine of the Trinity; (2) 1 pages of extracts (unrelated to the notes on the previous page) from the works of Procopius, including his 'Secret History', his fragmentary 'On the original habitations and migrations of the Goths', and his 'History of the Wars of Justinian against the Goths', one extract unattributed; and (3) one page (written upside down in relation to the previous pages) of notes and drafts on the doctrine of the Trinity. Under the imminent necessity of ordination as an Anglican clergyman in order to continue his residence in Trinity College, Newton devoted considerable time to theological study in the years after 1672, the period to which this manuscript is most likely to belong. His attention particularly fastened on the doctrine of the Trinity, and, typically, he set himself to examine the problem through virtually the whole span of patristic writing. 'Well before 1675', according to Richard S. Westfall ( The Life of Sir Isaac Newton , 1993), 'Newton had become an Arian in the original sense of the term' - that is to say, in stark opposition to Christian orthodoxy, he disavowed the equality of the Trinity and considered Christ as a divine mediator, subordinate to the Father. This view, and his related interpretations of the Book of Revelation (he seems to have considered swearing orthodox belief in the Trinity to be Revelation's Mark of the Beast) coloured Newton's increasingly eccentric psyche in adult life, and probably played a major part in his decision to forswear the enforced orthodoxy of Cambridge for the lay post of Master of the Royal Mint. The present manuscript apparently springs from an early stage of his investigations: in the drafts concerning the Trinity, Newton turns over the problem hesitantly: 'Aliud est si per Deum intelligas omnes tres personas, aliud si unicam tantum. Tres personae et una persona non sunt idem. nam una perso[na] non est tres ...' (It is one thing if by God you understand all three persons, another if only one person. Three persons and one person are not the same. For one person is not three ...).