Selection of rare Reformation-era bibles and tracts to go under the hammer, but critics denounce it as 'act of vandalism'
The Law Society, facing straitened times following successive cuts in legal aid, is auctioning a collection of rare Reformation-era bibles and religious tracts in defiance of protests from scholars.
The Mendham Collection, bequeathed to the society by the family of a 19th century clergyman, is due to go under the hammer on Wednesday at Sotheby's in London.
The organisation, which represents solicitors throughout England and Wales, hopes the sale will raise more than £1m, end its obligation to care for the ancient volumes and bolster its financial reserves.
Since 1984, the 15th and 16th century works have been in the University of Kent's library where they can be consulted by theology experts. Among the bibliographic treasures assembled by the Anglican clergyman Joseph Mendham (1769-1856) are early Bible printings, the first publications of the Church of England and a number of the Catholic church's notorious Index of Prohibited Books.
Early pilgrims' guides to Rome, pamphlets deriding the "popish religion" and sumptuous bindings feature in the collection. One item, a polyglot Bible produced in 1517 by a Spanish cardinal in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin, is expected to fetch up to £100,000.
Canterbury catherdal and the University of Kent launched an online petition opposing the sale. Dr Alixe Bovey, of the University's centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, said: "The collection is a valuable witness to the development of Protestantism and Catholicism, and the tensions between them, from the time of the Reformation up to Mendham's lifetime. The imminent removal of the most valuable items will cause irreparable damage to the coherence and richness of this historic collection."
Critics of the sale have questioned whether the Law Society has title to the archive. Diarmaid McCulloch, professor of the history of the church at Oxford University, has denounced it as an "act of vandalism".
But the Law Society insists it owns the collection. "Mendham collected anti-Catholic polemics," said a society spokesman. "We kept it as an intellectual curiosity. But in these days of cuts to criminal and civil legal aid it's difficult to justify paying for looking after these works.
"It costs around £10,000 a year for their upkeep. If it raised a six- or seven-figure sum it would be good for the Law Society's capital reserves.
He added: "It's not that the Law Society has fallen on hard times, but we don't want to be taking money from our members for this kind of thing." Last year the number of registered solicitors on the Law Society's roll fell for the first time in more than 20 years.
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