| Summary: | Paolo Sarpi was already an important authority for the English Church before the 1680s. But in the years leading up to 1688, there was a coordinated effort by a small network – including Richard Chiswell, Edward Brown and Gilbert Burnet – to disseminate more information about Sarpi in order to provide intellectual support to opponents of King James II. These works were distributed in such a way as to hide the authors’ identities and to create an impression of impartiality. Historical material was a good way to avoid censorship in the 1680s, and this paper explores how these restrictions worked in practice. After the Revolution of 1688, this material was drawn on again, this time openly, to legitimise a new political order. A distinctive (and often inaccurate !) view of Sarpi’s ecclesiology was championed by Burnet to defend the revolution from its critics. Burnet deployed a historical interpretation of Sarpi as a political tool, just as reading Sarpi had taught him.
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