1
THE INTENTIONS OF THOMAS PLUME
If it were reasonable to suppose, as many instinctively do, that
collections of books will faithfully reflect their owner’s concerns and
beliefs, might even indicate accurately changes in their ideas or
interests, then the special value of the PlumeLibrary at Maldon ought to
be as a record of the thoughts and ideas of a man who belonged to an
intellectual climate and a society far different in outlook and structure to
that of its present-day visitors. Thomas Plume, Vicar of Greenwich
from 1658 to 1704, has gained a reputation for piety, learning and
benevolence. In stepping over the threshold of his Library, which he
bequeathed to his native town, one could be stepping back intowhat has
been called “the world we have lost”, the pre-industrial era, and into a
fundamentally different intellectual world.
The books are as he left them, very few having been taken by
plunderers, all things considered; they are kept in the room he built for
them and it is unchanged. A cursory glance along the shelves, an
exploration of the Library’s printed Catalogue [1] is liable to encourage
the supposition that these books’ contents will prove to be an index to
their owner’s mind. Three sources—the easily ascertainable facts about
his smoothly successful career (as set out in Figure 1 below), his Will
[2.1 ],
the subject-matter of his books—can be combined to produce an
illusion that this Library is similar to the contemporary library of
Samuel Pepys which, as it was assembled, “came to reflect almost as
clearly as the diary itself” (i.e. Pepys’ Diary) “the mind and personality
of its owner” [10(a)].
Thus the theology in the Library is as impressive in its range of
Classes as ought to be’ expected for a preacher respected for his
scholarship and authoritative pulpit-style. Here are Bibles in many
languages, commentaries, patristics, pastoral and moral theology,
liturgies, sermons (both printed and manuscript), devotional works and
the earliest essays in what was to become, after his lifetime,
Comparative Religion. Other books on canon law and aspects of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction current during his working life are reminders
that Dr Plume was the archdeacon of the diocese of Rochester for
twenty-five years.