Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The following treatise was published anonymously in 1714. Dr. Marshall, however, in his preface to his translation of St. Cyprian, acknowledges it in the following words: Perhaps it will be expected from me to apologize for my frequent references in the course of this work to a treatise which I published some time ago without a name to it, concerning 'the Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church:' now my true and only reason for thus referring to it, was to save the trouble of enlarging farther upon subjects which are there properly handled, and which could not so well be deduced to their proper length, within the necessary brevity of notes. - (Pref. p. 20.)<br><br>Of the circumstances of Dr. Marshall's life but little is known. It appears from the Register of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, that Nathaniel Marshall, of the County of Middlesex, was entered a pensioner of that house, July 8th, 1696.