Editor's Preface

This public lecture was presented on the afternoon of December 4. 1995, at White Hall (Emory University) as the Second Annual Thomas Aquinas Lecture and was sponsored by the Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory University. Exhibited in conjunction with the lecture were select pieces from the 2,100 manuscript items and 4,600 books and pamphlets of the Cardinal Manning Collection of the Pitts Theology Library.

Prof. Peter C. Erb was trained at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, and since 1971 has served on the faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University, currently in the Department of Religion and Culture. His publications include Pietists, Protestants, and Mysticism: The Use of the Late Medieval Spiritual Texts in the Work of Gottfried Arnold (1666-1714) (Scarecrow Press, 1989) and Unity in the Church, by Johann Adam Möhler (translation with introduction and notes; Catholic University of America Press, 1996). This lecture grew out of Prof. Erb’s current work on a critical edition of the correspondence between Henry Edward Manning and William E. Gladstone. It has been a source of great satisfaction to follow the work of such a careful and insightful scholar as he brought to life the library’s collections in his splendid presentation.

Finally, thanks are due to Prof. P. Lyndon Reynolds, director of the Aquinas Center of Theology, and to the staff of the Emory Publications Office. The first invited Prof. Erb to deliver the annual Thomas Aquinas Lecture and offered helpful editorial advice for the preparation of this publication. The second lent considerable artistic and technical talents to the design of the poster for the lecture and to the preparation of this pamphlet. More congenial and capable colleagues could not have been found.

M. Patrick Graham
Margaret A. Pitts Associate Professor of Theological Bibliography
Candler School of Theology, Emory University