Rose as founder intended "to restore in England the tradition of the primitive church and revive a taste for patristic studies."
[2] A work by John Henry Newman, The Arians of the Fourth Century (1833), was intended for the Library.
[3] Lyall, however, had objections, to its theology and its scope (Newman had been assigned the topic of Church Councils of the period), and it was published by Rivingtons, but outside the Library.
Rose told Newman privately that the series was playing too safe, and was not making its mark.
[6] Other announced volumes, by Rose on Martin Luther, and by James Nichols on Hugo Grotius, did not appear in the series.