NALSON, John. & WARE, Robert. Foxes and Firebrands: Or, A Specimen of the Danger and Harmony of Popery and Separation.

Wherein is proved from undeniable Matter of Fact and Reason, the Separation from the Church of England is, in the judgement of Papists, and by sad experience, found the most compendious way to introduce Popery, and to ruine the Protestant Religion. The second edition in two parts. Dublin: Printed by Jos. Ray for Jos. Howes, and are to be sold by Awnsham Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-noster-Row, near Amen-Corner, 1682. The second edition. In two parts. 12mo. pp. [14], 70; [8], 154. Modern brown buckram. Mild foxing. A good copy. Rare in the marketplace.

Wing (2nd ed.) N 104. Sweeney 3141.
Robert Ware (1639-96), protestant polemicist and forger of historical documents, was born in Dublin,
the second son of Sir James Ware. Robert Ware’s learning was of a sufficiently high order to deceive
scholars for more than two centuries, yet nothing is known of his education. No university attendance
is recorded, and it seems probable that he was educated in London under the supervision of his father.
Ware’s extensive and pernicious forgeries of church history intended to stir up anti-Catholic, anti-Irish
and anti-Jesuit sentiment. Ware’s method of forgery surrounding the Popish Plot was to insert material
in blank pages of the manuscripts of his father, whose high reputation (as well as that of James Ussher
he exploited to give credibility to these inventions when he published them. Sir James Ware’s notably
ecumenical spirit in dealing with other Irish scholars left no mark on his son, who was a bitter opponent
of catholics and nonconforming protestants alike. Indeed, in works such as The Hunting of the Romish
Fox (1683) and Foxes and Fire-brands (1682, 1689) one of his themes was the alleged willingness of
papal agents to pretend, in order to divide the protestant interest, to be protestant dissenters, whom in
turn he denounced as tools of Rome.
John Nalson (c.1638-1686) was an English clergyman, historian and early Tory pamphleteer.

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