English scholar and divine Joseph Bingham (1668-1723) was educated at University College, Oxford, where he was made fellow in 1689 and tutor in 1691. Unfortunately, he preached a sermon from from the university pulpit that was considered so heretical that he was compelled to give up his fellowship and leave the university. Afterwards he became rector of a small parish near Winchester; his isolation gave him plenty of time to write Origines Ecclesiasticae, or Antiquities of the Christian Church. His aim was to provide a methodical account of the church's customs and practices and, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, he "completely exhausts his great subject, treating it with consummate learning and admirable impartialty." The original English version appeared in separate volumes between 1708 and 1722. Grischow, a clergyman in Halle, Germany undertook the task of translating the work into Latin. Preface is by John Francis Buddeus, Lutheran divine.
