(i) The negotiations between the non-juring Bishops and the Orthodox Church were initiated during the stay in London of Archbishop Arsenius of Thebais, and conducted largely through the Russian Court; they end on the death of Peter the Great. See ‘A History of the Non-Jurors’, pages 309-361, and ‘The Orthodox Church of the East in the Eighteenth Century’.

The original letters and papers from the Orthodox side in these negotiations (with English or Latin translations when these are in Greek or Russian), together with copies of the Non-Jurors` letters and papers (sometimes with Latin and/or Greek versions) are preserved in the Library of the Theological College of the Scottish Episcopal Church (Jolly MSS. Folio 2, 4, and 5) (see the note inserted at the beginning of this manuscript).

Copies of all the correspondence, in English only, prefaced by an account of the negotiations, and followed by an index of the correspondence and a note of points to be discussed at a proposed conference, were compiled by Bishop Thomas Brett, one of the leading participants. From this manuscript a copy was made for the Reverend Robert Lyon (preserved in the same Library, Jolly MS. Folio 3), and from this the present copy was made for William Falconar, Bishop of Moray (died 1784) (see pages 1, 120).

In this manuscript Brett`s general account is at page 6, the index to the correspondence at page 113, and the note of points to be discussed at page 115. It contains in addition the first proposals of the Non-Jurors in Latin (pages 1-5; perhaps taken from Jolly MS. Folio 4), and a note on Arsenius (pages 120-122; probably added by Falconar; it was copied from this manuscript into Jolly MS. Folio 3 by Alexander Jolly, Bishop of Moray).

(ii) The copies of Brett’s letters to Archibald Campbell end in the middle of a letter and must have been continued in another volume. They were presumably copied from the originals in Jolly MS. Folio 1, which is lost (page 123).