yet affirms that the same Man was made a Presbyter seven years after A. D. 1059. But in truth the Gentleman himself is more upon the Blunder than his Author The Phrase of Saeculum reliquit does not as he imagines import the same thing with mortuus est But signifies only as it does in the same Year and on the same Occasion in Matt. of VVestminster and others the Man's leaving the Concerns of this world Secular Affairs to turn Regular and Secluse 'T is a scandalous reproach and not worth the answering which Sir Thomas Craig gives of him That He led his followers into Error like so many Cattle breaking over a Ditch Eadmerus a Monk of Canterbury is our next Historian whose Historia Novorum c. was published by Mr. Selden and contains the story of the two VVilliams and Henry the First from the year 1066 to 1122. 'T is a Work of great Gravity and unquestionable Authority It affords no fooleries of Miracles so very rife in the Writings of other Monks unless perhaps the Story of the B. Virgins Hair have a smack of the Cloister He had Temptations enough being an intimate Acquaintance of Archbishop Anselm to take the Pope's part in the mighty Dispute of his Time about Investituâ—e and yet he approves himself a person of that steady Loyalty to his Country as to give a fair account of the management on both sides and the unanswerable arguments made in Defence of the Regal Power His comparing of our Saviour's Commission to St. Peter and Pope Gregory's to Augustine the Monk for the establishing of the Primacy of Canterbury is notable and either clears that of Canterbury or clouds that of Rome The Character which Selden himself gives of him is that his Style equals that of Malmesbury his Matter and Composure exceeds him His Cotemporary Aelfred Monk and Treasurer of the Church of Beverly seems to be no more than an Epitomizer of Jeoffrey of Monmouth So that all the four general Treatises said to be written by this Author may probably well bear the Name of Deflorationes Galfredi But William Monk and Library-Keeper of Malmesbury was a person of another figure and has had the highest Commendations imaginable given him by some of our best Criticks in English History One calls him an elegant learned and faithful Historian Another says he 's the only Man of his Time that has honestly discharg'd the Trust of such a Writer And the third calls him the chief of all our Historians What falls under our present consideration is his Account De Gestis Regum Anglorum in five Books with an Appendix in two more which he stiles Historiae Novellae In these we have a judicious Collection of whatever he found on Record touching the Affairs of England from the first arrival of the Saxons concluding his Work with the Reign of King Stephen to whom he shews himself as hearty an Enemy as his Patron Robert Earl of Glocester could possibly be We shall have occasion to mention this Author in several of the following Chapters and therefore I shall now only add that I think himself has given an honest account of this part of his Labours when he tells us Privatim ipse mihi sub Ope Christi gratulor quod â—ontinuam Anglorum Historiam ordinaverim post Bedam vel solus vel primus And again Ego enim veram Legem secutus Historiae nihil unquam posui nisi quod a fidelibus Relatoribus vel Scriptoribus addidici Pits says he was epitomiz'd by W. Horman sometime Master of Eaton-School But whether all his Works or some part of 'em only were so contracted he does not tell us Possibly he only transcrib'd what Simeon Dunelmensis had before drawn up to his hand This Simeon and his Cotemporary Ealred Abbot of Rievaulx are our next Historians of Note in this Century and have both deserv'd to be remember'd in several parts of this Treatise The former was Monk and Precentor of Durham A. D. 1164. and might justly be reckon'd one of the most learned Men of his Age. But his two Books De Gestis Regum which alone are now to be mention'd are not his Master-pieces Being only a few indigested Collections chiefly out of Florence of Worcester whose very words he frequently copies Abbot Ealred not of Revesby in Lincolnshire but of Rievaulx in Yorkshire gives us a short Genealogy of our Kings but enlarges chiefly on the Praises of David King of Scots Founder of a great many Abbies for the Cistertians His other Books of the Life of Edward the Confessor c. are treated on elsewhere I doubt Sir George Mackenzy's Baldredus Abbas Rynalis is this very Author Notwithstanding the great pains he is at to distinguish them About the same time flourished Henry Archdeacon of Huntingdon whose eight Books concluding with the Reign of King Stephen were published by Sir Henry Savil. In the Preface he owns himself a Follower of Bede in the main for the time he wrote in But says withal that he added many things met with in old Libraries His first Lines will easily convince the Reader that he does really follow Bede for he Copies him to a word But I am not satisfy'd that he has added any great matters as far as that Author goes He has indeed a great many Lyes out of Jeoffrey of Monmouth which Bede never heard of and which the World might have wanted well enough After Bede's time he has many particulars out of the Saxon Chronicle which had been omitted by our Historians before him He is pleas'd to take notice of one great Truth that he writes very confusedly All the Transactions of the Heptarchy he reduces to the several Reigns of the West-Saxon Kings But has not adjusted them so well as he ought to have done At the same time liv'd John Serlo Abbot of Fountains who as John Pits tells us wrote a Treatise De Bello inter Scotiae Regem Angliae Barones We are not so well assur'd of this as that he wrote a History of the Foundation of his own Monastery for which he shall be remember'd in a proper place The general Histories written by Richard of the Devises and John of Tilbury a London-Divine before the end of this Age are of the same authority and that 's all I have to say concerning either of ' em William of Newburg was so call'd from a Monastery in Yorkshire of that Name whereof he was a Member tho his true Surname was Little whence he sometimes stiles himself Petit or Parvus His History ends at the year 1197. and therefore tho he is said to be alive A. D. 1220. he ought to be reckon'd among the Historians of this Age. John Pits thinks he appears too much a Flatterer of the Grandees at Court to write a true History But by the account he gives of the beginning
some farther Account anon For the present the Reader is only to be inform'd That the excellent Publisher of those Collections has prefix'd to them an Elaborate and Learn'd Discourse of his own touching the first Preachers of the Gospel in this Country our British Metropolitans and the State of the Churches under them The next that engaged in these dark Enquiries was our Learn'd Dr. William Lloyd then Bishop of St. Asaph now of Coventry and Lichfield in his Historical Account of Ancient Church-Government in Great Britain and Ireland The Undertaking became a Bishop of our English Church and the Performance answered the great Opinion that Men of Learning have always had of this worthy Prelate His Aim in it was the encountring an Objection against the Order of Episcopacy from the Story of the Scotch Culdees An Argument put into the Mouths of our Schismaticks by Blondel and Selden out of the abundant Kindness they had for our Establishment In the answering of the several Cavils of these Learned Men the Bishop thought himself obliged to give a short History of the first planting of the Scots in Great Britain which thwarted the common Road of their Historians since the Days of Hector Boethius and bereaf'd them of about Forty of their first Monarchs This shortening of the Royal Line His Majesty's Advocate of Scotland the late Ingenious and Learn'd Sir Geo. Mackenzie presently resented as an Affront little short of what the Lawyers of that Country call Lese-Majesty and therefore publish'd a Defence of the Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland In this Tract the zealous Author was so wholly on Fire that 't was not safe for the Bishop himself to approach him but his incomparable Friend Dr. Stillingfleet took the Pains to confirm at large the Bishops Positions and to answer the most considerable of Sir George's Objections Soon after the Advocate published a Reply to his new Antagonist under the Title of The Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland further clear'd c. I am not now concern'd to enquire whether these two great Opponents or their no less ingenious Answerer had the better in these Debates tho' I may perhaps hereafter weigh some of the Arguments on both sides if I live to publish my Notes on the Scotch and Irish Historians For the present I shall only observe that the Cause of our Church in this Controversie was thought long since to have been secur'd in few words by Sir John Marsham Columbanus says he postquam in Hybernia Armachanum Monasterium fecerat Anno 565. Britanniam venit ad Pictos Australes autem Pictos Nynias Brito ad Veritatem converterat Anno 412. hii Insulam Episcopatus sedem fecerat This last particular was more than needed and is what he could not prove from his avow'd Author Venerable Bede who says no such thing He never speaks of Nynias's being at Hy but expresly tells us that his Church was at Whithern The latest of our British Church-Historians and who shall come after him is the renown'd Dr. Stillingfleet not Bishop of Worcester whose Origines Britannicae have perfected all the Collections of former Writers on that Subject The Design of the Book is to vindicate the Liberties of the ancicient British Church against the pretended Jurisdiction of the Bishops of Rome so that it reaches only from the first appearance of the Christian Faith in this Island to the Conversion of the Saxons 'T is penn'd with an Accuracy of Judgment and Purity of Style peculiar to its great Author and clears many doubtful Passages that had escaped the diligence of the famous AB of Armagh He tells us in the conclusion of his Preface that it comes forth as a Specimen of a greater Design to clear the most important difficulties of Ecclesiastical History He rejects for very good Reasons the Glastonbury-Legend of Ioseph of Arimathea but confirms the Story of St. Paul's planting a Church in this our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The History of King Lucius he endeavours to set free from the Monkish Fopperies and Contradictions that clog it in other Authors explains the Subscriptions of the British Bishops in the Council of Arles shews the probability of some of 'em being present in the Council of Nice excellently illustrates the State of Arrianism and Pelagianism c. The Picts he thinks contrary to Camden's Opinion to have been a People originally distinct from the ancient Britains and agrees with Hector Boethius for better Reasons than ever he knew that they were some of the old Maritime Inhabitants of the Baltic Sea He teaches his Reader how to judge of the Antiquities and Antiquaries of Scotland and Ireland and concludes with a very particular and full Account of the great Revolution in this Island upon the coming in of the Saxons His Preface as we have already hinted was attaqu'd by Sir George Mackenzie and the Book it self by Emanuel a Schelstrate Keeper of the Vatican Library in his Dissertation concerning Patriarchal and Metropolitical Authority To the latter there needs no other Reply than only to tell him 1. The probable Arguments alledg'd for St. Paul's preaching Christianity in this Isle are not to be overthrown by less probable ones on the behalf of St. Peter Nor should the Man that admits King Lucius's and Pope Eleutherius's Epistles as genuine reject the MS. account of Abbot Dinoth and his Monks 2. Mr. Launoy and Dr. Beverege agree with Dr. Stillingfleet in their Exposition of the sixth Canon of the Nicene Council as well as the Anonymous French Author of the Treatise De Disciplina Ecclesiae who exactly jumps with our great Prelate in his Notion about the Suburbicarian Churches Dr. Basire's four Positions asserting the Legitimate Exemption of the British Church from the Roman Patriarchate contain only a short Essay towards the proof of what we have more amply advanc'd and more clearly demonstrated in the Origines not to mention that the greatest part of 'em are borrow'd from John Barnes's Catholico Romanus Pacificus The Lives of our British Saints must be read with the allowance that 's usually given of those of our Neighbouring Nations and we are not under any great difficulties to learning what Opinion even the Romanists themselves have of the Writings of their Monks on these Subjects Dolenter hoc dico says Melchior Canus multo severius a Laertio vitas Philosophorum scriptas quam a Christianis vitas Sanctorum longeque incorruptius integrius Suetonium Res Caesarum exposuisse quam exposuerint Catholici non res dico Imperatorum sed Martyrum Virginum Confessorum 'T is the sense of the gravest and best Writers of that Church and what will very well agree to those of the Times and Country we are now mentioning There cannot be bolder nor more inconsistent Miracles than those we meet with in the Stories of St. Alban and St. Patrick And the whole Treasury of Legends seems
Chester which was thought worthy the publishing by that Judicious Antiquary Sir Simon Archer of Tamworth These two last were afterwards printed together under the Title of The Vale Royal of England by Daniel King who took care to have the Work beautify'd with several Cuts of Heraldry and Topography The Accounts given of this King by Mr. Fuller and the Oxford Antiquary are very widely different So that whether he was Lux Patriae as the former Styles him or in the others plain English a silly Fellow and an errant Knave I know not Sir Peter Leicester's Historical Antiquities were also no doubt chiefly intended to do Honour to this County For tho' the first Book pretends to treat of the general Affairs of Great Britain and Ireland its true Design was to Introduce what alone comes to be handled in the Second the Antiquities of Cheshire and chiefly of Bucklew Hundred The Contests which hereupon happen'd 'twixt Sir Peter and his Kinsman Sir Thomas Manwaring are not worth the remembring as belonging rather to the Men of the Law than History There 's an old MS. History of the Earldom of Chester quoted out of Bennet-Library by Mr. Selden the summ whereof I imagine has been publish'd by Judge Doderidge in the History he wrote of the Ancient and Modern Estate of this Earldom together with that of the Principality of Wales and Dutchy of Cornwall In this Treatise Sir John with a great deal of Industry and Exactness calculates the ancient and present Revenues of this Palatinate but is not so curious in clearing up its original History This Defect is since very much supply'd by the Labours of the late Ingenious Mr. Harrington who has left behind him several excellent Remarks on that Subject together with other good Collections relating to the Antiquities of this County Several Books says John Pits were written by Henry Bradshaw a Benedictine Monk who did A. D. 1513 De Antiquitate Magnificentiâ Vrbis Cestriae All which I am apt to believe are swallow'd up by another Work says that Gentleman His Life of St. Werburg which is still to be had in several of our Libraries CORNWALL The Survey of this County is so exactly taken by R. Carew Esquire that there will be only occasion for Posterity carefully to continue a Work so excellently begun and to which Mr. Camden acknowledges himself indebted for the chief Light he had in these parts This Book with large Additions is now in the possession of Mr. Chiswell Bookseller in London who may probably e're long oblige us with a new Edition There is also an Historical Account of this County in MS. pen'd by J. Norden who Mr. Camden tells us did sometime travel into this part of the Kingdom in the hands of the Learned Dr. Gale Sir John Doderidge's History of the Dutchy has been already mention'd in Cheshire CVMBERLAND There 's a Manuscript Description of this County written by one Mr. Denton of Cardew about 50 or 60 Years agoe which seems to be done with good Care and Judgment Copies whereof are in the hands of several of the Gentry It chiefly treats of Families Pedigrees Conveyances of Estates and Mannors c. but occasionally handles some other Antiquities of a more general Nature and higher Date Some Observations have also been made lately relating to the Natural History of Cumberland which may very probably e're long come into as many hands The Antiquities of the City of Carlisle are collected by Dr. H. Todd Prebendary of that Church and are now or should be in the possession of the Mayor and Aldermen DERBYSHIRE The Mines of this County should methinks invite some of our Inquisitive Naturalists to give us as particular an Account of the Metals and Minerals as Ed. Manlow sometimes Steward of the Works has done of the Miners in his Book entituled Customs of the Barge-Moot-Court which has been improv'd by T. Houghton in his Collection of the Laws Liberties c. of the Mines and Miners of Derbyshire I should also think the Wonders of the Peak are as proper a Subject for a Philosopher to write on in Prose as they can be for the most exalted Poetry of either Mr. Hobbs or Mr. Cotton and that Buxton-Wells deserve a better Describer than Antiquated John Jones DEVONSHIRE Northcot Baronet is reported to have written a Description of Devonshire the Manuscript whereof is all along quoted by Tho. Fuller in his Worthies when he comes to treat of that County tho' he says nothing of him amongst its Writers Tho. Risdon's Survey or Chorographical Description of Devonshire continues likewise in MS. though Copies of it are no rare Matters among the Gentry of that County 'T is said one Westcote either wrote another Survey or at least had a hand in that which was compos'd by Risdon I wish this Westcote be not the same Man with Dr. Fuller's Northcote for he 's often further mistaken than from West to North. The Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter were publish'd by Richard Izaac but as a worthy Person observes the Book is a dry Collection and full of Mistakes there being nothing worth the perusal which had not been before remark'd in J. Hooker's Description Reprinted in Holinshead's Chronicle DORSETSHIRE Unless Mr. Etrick who oblig'd the late Publisher of the Britannia with some of his Remarks will furnish us with the Antiquities of this County I cannot tell from what Quarter we are to expect them DVRHAM The Collections made by Mr. Mickleton are perhaps the only Papers extant which treat of the Civil Affairs of this County as distinct from the Ecclesiastical and indeed considering the whole was anciently and the greatest part is still the Church's Patrimony the matter is not much to be wonder'd at The City of Durham is describ'd in a MS. old English or Saxon Poem in Sr. John Cotton's Library ESSEX There is a Report of J. Norden's having written a Survey of this County a thin Folio MS. in Sr. Edm. Turner's Library and that Mr. Strangman has attempted the Collection of its Antiquities But whatever their Performances may have been we have cause to hope for good things on that Subject very shortly from Mr. Ousley who has given a Specimen of his Work in what he has communicated in the New Edition of Camden The Description of Harwich with all its Appurtenances and Antiquities was written by Silas Taylor Author of the History of Gavelkind who was Store-keeper at that Port A. D. 1665. The Book was never Printed and where 't is to be had in Manuscript my Author does not inform me GLOCESTERSHIRE Whether the Chronicon Claudiocestriae written by Andrew Horn a suppos'd Citizen of Glocester God knows when speaks wholly or at all of the Affairs of this County is mighty uncertain But we are pretty sure that Sr. Matthew Hales
They buried their Princes and great men as the old Greeks and Romans also did in Hills rais'd sometimes to a considerable heighth surrounded with one row of Stones about the bottom and another near the top and on some pompous occasions having a third row in a square at some distance from the lower of the two former Coronets They likewise anciently burn'd their dead and enclos'd their Ashes in Urns which were reposited in the foremention'd Barrows together with the choicest Jewels Treasure and valuable Accoutrements of the deceas'd The places wherein they fought their Duels were sometimes Squares lined out with rows of Stones sometimes round Pits with convenient Posts at a due distance for the By-standers Thus fought Ubbo with the Sclavonian Their Courts of Judicature which they call'd Tinge were also certain plots of ground either oval or square environ'd with great Stones and having one larger than the rest in the middle Near akin to which were the places assign'd for the Election of their Kings being Circles of such Stones usually twelve in number with the bulkiest in the midst The next Monument of Age is their Edda Islandorum the meaning of which Appellation they that publish the Book hardly pretend to understand As far as I can give the Reader any satisfaction he is to know that Island was first inhabited in the year 874 by a Colony of Norwegians who brought hither the Traditions of their Forefathers in certain metrical Composures which as is usual with Men transplanted into a Foreign Land were here more zealously and carefully preserv'd and kept in memory than by the Men of Norway themselves About 240â—years after this A. D. 1114. their History began to be written by one Saemund surnam'd Frode or the wise who in nine years travel through Italy Germany and England had amass'd together a mighty Collection of Historical Treatises With these he return'd full fraught into Island where he also drew up an account of the affairs of his own Country Many of his Works are now said to be lost But there is still an Edda consisting of several Odes whence I suspect its Name is derived written by many several hands and at as different times which bears his Name The Book is a Collection of Mythological Fables relating to the ancient State and Behaviour of the Great Woden and his Followers in terms poetical and adapted to the Service of those that were employ'd in the composure of their old Rhymes and Sonnets Another Edda publish'd by Resenius was written by Snorro Sturlaesonius who was born A. D. 1179. above a hundred years after Saemund and liv'd to be an eminent Lawyer in his own Country His Work is thought to be only an Epitome of the former but I rather look upon them as two several Collections of Islandic Tales and Ballads out of which may be pick'd a deal of good History and the best View of the Religious Rites of the Northern Nations that is any where extant 'T is plain Saxo had seen many Sonnets that are not touch'd upon in either of these and thence the Report comes of an Elder Edda much larger a thousand times says Bishop Br. Suenonius than both of 'em put together Nor is it indeed improbable but that a thousand times more Songs of this kind might have been had for seeking after whatever Scantiness they may now be reduc'd to Magnus Olaus collected many of 'em for Wormius's which he was also so kind as to translate and explain to him And near twenty years ago I met with a much more perfect Edda than Resenius's in the famous Library of the Duke of Brunswic-Wolfembuttel Whether it was a Copy of Saemund Frode's I am not now able so much as to conjecture but I remember the Library Keeper Mr. Hanisius was so much a stranger to its Contents that he had entitul'd it an old Moscovian MS. To the Edda is always annex'd the Scalda which is the old Danish or Islandic Prosodia teaching how to compose their several sorts of Meter Our Danish Antiquary should be also acquainted with the best Islandic Historians the most ancient whereof is Aras Frode Cotemporary with Saemund He first wrote a Regular History of Island from the first planting of the Country down to his own Time wherein he gives an account also of the Affairs of Norway Denmark and England intermixt with those of his own Nation This fell happily into the hands of Tho. Bartholine who with the assistance of his Friend the Bishop of Scalholt took care to have it published A. D. 1689. Since his time the Islandic Historians have not had any great occasion to meddle with the Transactions in Britain excepting only Arngrim Jonas who touches upon some passages which we have also in others already mentioned And indeed most of 'em are written with so little judgment confounding the true and fabulous Sonnets of their Scaldri that they are not to be read without some Caution and Acquaintance with those Poetical Writers who are own'd to be their chief Authors And the Emulation that daily appears to be betwixt the Antiquaries of the two Neighbouring Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark for the gaining the honour of Precedence to their several Countries seems to threaten us with further Corruptions in the Editions of their Manuscripts A misfortune this is which is too frequently observable tho very highly scandalous in Historians and Learned Men who ought not to be byass'd by any even the most natural Affections There is likewise extant a couple of Norwegian Histories of good Authentic Credit which explain a great many particulars relating to the Exploits of the Danish Kings in Great Britain which our own Historians have either wholly omitted or very darkly recorded The former of these was written soon after the year 1130 by one Theodoric a Monk who acknowledges his whole Fabrick to be built upon Tradition and that the old Northern History is no where now to be had save only ab Istendingorum antiquis Carminibus The other was compil'd by Snorro Sturlaesonius who confesses he drew it out of the Ballads of the Scaldri which he verily believes to contain nothing but what may be firmly rely'd on as most unquestionable Truth And Arngrim Jonas so far concurs with him as to assure us that the Songsters of those days were far from Flattery and knew nothing of the more modern poetical Licence of Fable and Rhodomantade in recording the story of their Princes and Patrons This Book was translated into the Vulgar Danish Language by Pet. Vndallensis and so publish'd by VVormius Nor do I know of any more than two Danish Historians which are necessarily requisite to be in our Antiquary's Library and those are Saxo Grammaticus and his Cotemporary and Fellow-Servant Sueno Aggonis Before Stephanius's excellent Edition Saxo's History had been thrice publisht but very faultily He is commonly reckon'd the most ancient
give the Pope a true Account of Becket's Behaviour But whether he did really draw up a Journal of his Embassy with an Apology for his Master I cannot assuredly inform the Reader tho' Hector Boethius pretends to have seen it and recommends it as a Treatise highly worth the Perusal Three of Gyraldus Cambrensis's many Historical Books are likewise reported to be written on this Subject And Mr. Wharton mentions a Manuscript History of the same Reign by Benedictus Some say that the Life of this King as we now have it in Speed's Chronicle was composed by Dr. Barcham Archbishop Bancroft's Chaplain and penn'd chiefly in Confutation of one Bolton a Papist who had newly enlarg'd too far in the Justification of Becket's Insolent Carriage to his Prince These are mostly the King's Friends and such as engaged on the behalf of our English Monarchy What was to be said on the other hand for good Saint Thomas must be learn'd from those that have recorded the Actions Sufferings and Miracles of that worthy Roman Saint and Martyr An Account whereof shall be given in their proper place Richard the First 's Meritorious Expedition into the Holy Land gain'd him so much Repute that he 's as highly extoll'd by the Monkiâ—h Writers of that and the following Ages as his Father is reproach'd for his Persecution of their St. Thomas The chief Remarkables in his Life that part of it especially which was spent in the Levant are largely treated on by Rich. Divisiensis i. e. of the Devises in Wiltshire a Monk of Winchester Walter Constantiensis Bishop of Lincoln who accompany'd him in some of his Travels Will. Peregrinus so call'd from the Peregrination he also made in Attendance on this King and Rich. Canonicus Augustine Canon of St. Trinity in London another of his Retinue Jos. Iscanus or of Exeter had the like Curiosity follow'd the Fortunes of his Prince in the Holy War and at his Return celebrated his Acts in a Book which he thought fit to call Aâ—tiocheidos 'T is in Heroick Verse and in a Style and Strain of Poetry much beyond what one would expect to meet with in the Writings of that Age. John Leland who thought himself as great a Master and Iudge in Poetry as History says of this Author that he was Poeta Britannus omnibus Numeris Elegantissiâ—us and calls his Book Opâ—s Immortale His Life is also said to have been written by Stephen Laugton Archbishop of Canterbury and Alexander de Hales the Famous School-man But we have not so particular Directions where to look for these as for â—n Anonymous Manuscript to the same purpose in the Library of Magdalene College in Oxford The Learned Dr. Gale has obliged us with one of the largest of this King's Journals taken by one Jeâ—ffrey Vinesauf or de Vino Salâ—â— whom he takes to be the same Man with the foremention'd Walter Constantiensis who sometimes he says is also call'd Walter Oxoniensis He likewise believes that Richard of the Devises and Richard the Canon were the same Person So that instead of having our Store enlarged by what he has done for us we have lost some of our former Stock King John's Unhappy Reign was not a Subject so taking as that of his Brother and therefore has not been enquired into by so many Curious Authors John de Forda or Fordeham who is ignorantly confounded with John Fordon the Scottish Historian by John Pits was the first that attempted it and being this King's Chaplain had Opportunities enough of knowing the Truth if he was a Person of such unbyass'd Honesty as to reveal it Gyraldus Cambrensis living also at the same time is said to have likewise penn'd his Story and we may believe it will discover that warmness of Temper which runs through all that Author's Writings Some of the Learned Men of the present Age have thought the Extraordinary Freaks of this Prince worth their Considering and have therefore bestow'd good Pains in Collecting and Methodizing the most Notable Transactions of his Reign Of these Dr. Barcham's History is as we have already observ'd publish'd in Speed's Chronicle and is so well done that an Industrious Antiquary gives this Character of it That it shews more Reading and Judgment than any Life besides in that History And another witty Author says 'T is the King of all the Reigns of that Book for profound Penning The Voluminous Will. Prynne has also carefully and largely inform'd us of the publick Occurrences of this Reign as well as the two next following in order to the Asserting and Vindicating of the ancient Sovereignty of our English Monarchs against all Foreign Incroachments and Innovations whatever Henry the Third's long Reign might seem to afford Matter enough to employ one Man's Pen and yet till the Disturbances given him in the latter end of his time by S. Monfort and the other Barons so few memorable things happen'd in so many years that it has not hitherto been very nicâ—ly enquir'd into In a late Edition of the learned Sir Robert Cotton's Remains the Table of the several Discourses reckons the last of the Sixteen The Life and Reign of Henry the Third compil'd in a Critical way But the Reader to his great Disappointment will meet with no such thing in the Book Perhaps it is to be had in a former Edition of that Treatise as published by James Howel Edward the First was a brave and Victorious Prince and his Atchievements in Scotland deserv'd to be Recorded by some Person of Abilities suitable to so Noble an Undertaking To this purpose he carry'd Robert Baston Prior of Scarborough with him into that Kingdom to describe his Battels and particularly the Famous Siege of Sterling This was done in pretty Elegant Heroicks But the Author being the next year unfortunately taken Prisoner by the Scots was by the over-powering Commands and Severities of R. Bruce oblig'd to recâ—nt all and to extol the Scotch Nation as highly as he had lately magnify'd the English Will. Rishanger who was Historiographer-Royal during this King's whole Reign compos'd a special Treatise of the Annals of Edward the First whereof I presume three other Tracts of the same Man 's Writing entitul'd by J. Pits and others De Joanne Baileolo Rege Super Electione Regis Scotorum and De Jure Regis Anglorum ad Scotiam are only so many several Parts Edward the Second's Misfortunes are very honestly without either Flattery or Contempt written by Stephen Eiton or Eden a Canon Regular of Warter in Yorkshire sometime about the Year 1320. His Life was more accurately penn'd in French by Sir Thomas de la More who was Knighted by Edward the First was Counsellor to Edward the Second and liv'd to the beginning of Edward the Third's more prosperous Reign It was first Translated into Latin by Walter Baker or Swinburn Canon of Osney
Legend it self The Learned Reader will pardon me if I give him a further Account of this rare French MS. out of Monsieur Borel's Glossary Which because the Book is not in many of our English Libraries I shall do at large in his own Words Il ya un Romant ancien says he intitule La Conqueste du Saingreal c. du S. Vaisseau ou estoit le Sang de Jesus-Christ qu'il appelle aussi le Sang real c. le Sang royal Et ainsi ces deux choses sont confundues tellement qu'on ne connoist qu'auec peine quand les anciens Romans qui en parlent fort souuent entendent le Vaisseau ou le Sang. Perceual l'explique bien en ces mots Senefioit que li greaus Qui tant est beaux precieux Que le S. Sang glorieux Du Roy des Rois y fu receus Et ailleurs Un greal Trestout descouuert Item Et puis apporta un greaux Tout plein de pierres precieuses R. de Merlin MS. Ne oneques peus ne fust veu au siecle ne du greal ne palle Et apres il dit Et cil Rois pecheors avoit le digne sang Jesus-Christ en guarde D'ou il est manifeste que le R. de Sangreal n'est que du Sang Royal de Jesus-Christ Item Pensa moult a la lance ou graal qu'il avoit veu porter Ce texte monstre que c'estoit un vase Mais en suite le mesinem Autheur parlant du Graal l'appelle un Vaisseau car il parle ainsi Et quand le premier mes fust apportee si issi le Graal fo rs d'une Chambre les dignes Reliques auenc si tot comme Perceualle vit qui moult en avoit grand desir de scavoir si dit Sire je vos prie que vous me diez que l'en sert de cest Vessel que cest vallet porte Et encore il dit ailleurs Et porce laupelon nos Graal qu'il agree as prodes homes En cest Vessel gist le Sang de Jesus-Christ En ce texte il donne une Etymologie differente du Sang Royal a scavoir le Sang agreable aux hommes en ce qu' ils en lavent leurs pechez Et derechef confirmant cela il dit vers le commencement de son Livre Et ils distrent porrons dire du Vesseil que nos veimes coman le clameron nos qui tant nos gree cil qui ly voudront clamer ne metre non a nos esciens le clameront le greal qui tant agree Et quant cil l'oyent si dient bien doit avoir non cist vesseaux graax Et ainsi le nomment Et enfin il dit Ou li Vessel de graal seit C'est le vase on Joseph dit il recueillit le Sang qui sortit des playes de Jesus-Christ lors qu'il lavoit son corps pour l'embaumer a la maniere des Juifs The present Age amongst her many Writers in all parts of Learning has afforded us some that have thought it an Undertaking worth their Pains to search after the Remains of our first British Church and the Discoveries they have made have met with very different Characters and Entertainment according as they have fall'n into the Hands of proper or improper Judges The first of these I suppose was R. Broughton a Secular Priest who was bred at Rheims and sojourn'd sometime in Oxford In this latter Place he collected Materials for his Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain from the Nativity of our Saviour unto the happy Conversion of the Saxons The Account that Mr. Wood gives of this Book is this Tho' 't is a Rapsody and a thing not well digested yet there 's a great deal of Reading shew'd in it 'T is said King James J. was overjoy'd to hear of Sir R. Cotton's Design of writing our Church-History from the first planting of Christianity to the Reformation And so far he carry'd on the Project as to draw together no less than Eight large Volumes of Collections which have long been and still are very serviceable to those that engage in those Studies The like Collections were made about the same time by AB Vsher the most Reverend and Learn'd Primate of Ireland and soon after Commendatory Bishop of Carlisle of whom one that knew him well and was as able as any Man to judge of him gives this Character Vir ob Eruditionis immensitatem morumque Sanctitatem toto Orbi Vener andissimus His Book was first printed at Dublin under the Title De Pâ—imordiis c. and is since publish'd by the Name of Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates 'T was begun by Command of King James I. who gave him Licence under the Great Seal of Ireland to retire from his Bishoprick of Meath to one of our English Universities for the more effectual carrying on of so good a Work And this Grant was had and enjoy'd above a dozen Years before the Book was first published He begins with a Collection of whatever Narratives and old Stories he could meet with about Simon Zelotes Joseph of Arimathea and others first planting Christianity in this Island From whence he proceeds to the Legend of King Lucius and the whole Succession of those Archbishops and Bishops descended from Jeoffrey of Monmouth's Flamines and Archi-Flamines After this we have the Settlement of three Metropolitical Thrones at London York and Caerlion which are afterward removed to Canterbury Dole in Britany and St. Davids Then follows the generous Endowments of Glastonbury and other places by Lucius and Arthur The Martyrdom of St. Alban and his Friend or Cloak Amphibalus with many more of their Fellow-Saints The famous Expedition of Vrsula c. Interwoven with these Reports the Reader will find a deal of excellent Learning and the clearing of many doubts in our British Roman and Saxon Antiquities He also gives a particular Account of the Original and Progress of the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian Heresies and concludes with the Remains St. Patrick and the ancient Scottish or Irish Church The Author himself modestly calls the Work Ex omni Scriptorum genere promiscue congesta farrago Which Sir Geo. Mackenzie has a little bluntly translated A confused Rabble and a formless Lump of fabulous Nonsense 'T is a more just Account that another gives of this Treasure of our ancient Church-History That all that have written since with any Success on this Subject must own themselves beholding to him for his Elaborate Collections In the late Edition the References which the Author makes to the several parts of his Work are very faulty The Margin of the former Quarto Edition having not always been Corrected The same Year with AB Vsher's Book was publish'd Sir H. Spelman's first Tome of the Councils Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions c. of this Kingdom and its Dependencies Whereof we are to give
Cotemporary and whose Treatise is publish'd in the Antwerp Collection This was afterwards epitomiz'd and beautified with a set of new Miracles by Adalard at the Command of St. Elphegus to whom 't is dedicated This is also publish'd with the former Out of these two and some other Helps Osbern a very Learn'd Monk and Precentor of Canterbury about the Year 1074. compos'd a couple of elegant Treatises in one of which he gives us the Life and in the other the Posthumous Miracles of St. Dunstan The former of these was publish'd by Mr. Wharton and both of them by Monsieur Mabillon St. Edmund King of the East-Angles has been celebrated in Saxon by Abbot Aelfric and in old English by Iohn Lydgate Monk of Bury Both Bale and Pits tell us a formal Story of one Burchardus a Dorsetshire Hermit whose Company was much affected by Fremund Son of King Offa whose Life after he was Martyr'd by the Danes he took the Pains to write and Bale pretends to have seen it This very Life is quoted by John Stow who says 't is the Life of St. Edmund and that Burchard was Secretary to King Offa. 'T was also written by Will. Monk of Croyland and more fully penn'd at the Request of King Aethelred and St. Dunstan by the famous Abbo Floriâ—censis about the Year of our Lord 985. And soon after the Conquest another Book of his Miracles was composed by Arch-deacon Herman The two last are bound up in one Volume with several other Pieces relating to the Monasteries of St. Edmundsbary and Ely St. Elphegas AB of Canterbury who was also murder'd by the Danes is indebted to the above-mention'd Osbern whose two Books on his Passion and Translation are still extant St. Ethelbert was slain by King Offa A. D. 793. and had afterwards the Honour of being reputed a Martyr To him the Old Church of Hereford was dedicated and therefore Gyraldus Cambrensis who was sometime Canon there took the pains to write his Life among many others that his teeming Pen has given us St. Ethelreda commonly call'd St. Audry was the famous Virgin Queen to Egbert King of Northumberland and first Founder of a Religious House at Ely Upon this latter score she has her Life largely treated on by Thomas a Monk of that City part whereof has only been publish'd by Mabillon to whom we are likewise indebted for Wulstan's Life of Saint Ethelwold St. George Though neither Tinmouth nor Capgrave mention him amongst our English Saints yet we meet with him in both our old Saxon Legendaries I cannot promise the Reader that he 'll have any great stock of English History in his Life But 't is written at large by Dr. Heylin who design'd to have oblig'd for ever our Knights of the Garter by such a signal Service to the Memory of the great Guardian Saint and Protectour of their Order Out of this Elaborate Book have been stoln two shorter Accounts of his Life which bear the same Title and are sometimes sold amongst Romances and Ballads St. Guthlac the Tutelar Saint of Croyland had his Austerities early discribed by Faelix a Monk of that Place about the Year 730. who has the Honour to be quoted by our Learned Camden as a Poet fortunate enough in his descriptions tho' Bale is pleased to give this harsh Character of him Fictis Narratiunculis immo manifestissimis mendaciis Historiam Monachico more implevit The like was done in Latine Heroics by Will Ramsey who dy'd Abbot of that Monastery A. D. 1180. of whom Leland who was a good Judge of Poetry gives this Account that he was Poeta tam barbaro Saeculo clarus We are told of a third by Aelfric in the Cottonian Library which I guess to be that Saxon Translation of Felix's Book which is mentioned by Archbishop Vsher. We are further assured by Mr. Pits that both Ingulfus and M. Paris wrote of the Life and Miracles of St. Guthlac but I dare hardly rely upon his single Authority St. Frideswide's exemplary Chastity is recommended to Posterity by Philip sometimes Prior of her Monastery in Oxford whereof there 's a fair MS. Copy in the Library of Jesus College in that University St. John of Beverley's History was first written at the request of Aldred Arch-bishop of York by Folcard a Benedictine Monk about the Year 1066. which was enlarg'd by Will Asketel or Chettel Clark of Beverley A. D. 1320. Another draught was taken of him by Alfred Canon and Treasurer of that Church in the beginning of the twelfth Century and a Third or Fourth by an Anonymous Writer about 1373. St. Marcellinus would have been utterly forgotten by our English Historians had not Pits met with him in his Travels beyond Seas and learned from his own printed Works that he was a Dominican Monk of York and one of the twelve Apostles sent by Abbot Egbert A. D. 690. to convert the Pagan Germans The Particulars of their Mission with their Entertainment in Westphalia Frisland c. we have from his own Pen. St. Neot's Life written by Will Ramsey is in the Library at Magdalene College in Oxford 'T is in Verse but of so low a strain that the Author seems to have failed here of that Spirit which Leland observ'd in his Guthlac The Matter is likewise as fulsome as the composure is flat so that 't is not probable we shall ever see it out of Manuscript I suppose this is the same which is quoted by Leland and some of our later Writers St. Oswald Arch-bishop of York merited highly of the Regular Clergy and therefore 't is no wonder that a Manuscript Copy of his Life was to be had in almost every Monastery of the Kingdom That whereof Eadmerus was the Author which seems to have been collected with good Judgment out of some others that had been written before him is lately published as is also another written by an Anonymous Monk of Ramsey A Third more Voluminous than either of these was compos'd by another Nameless Monk of Ramsey which is now amongst the many more valuable Manuscripts in Sir Jo. Cotton's Library There also as I guess the Reader may meet with his Saxon Legend by Abbot Aelfric But where he 'll find either of those that were penn'd by Folcard or Senatus Bravonius I cannot inform him St. Swithun's miracles were recorded by Lamfrid or Lantfred a Benedictine Monk of Winchester about the Year 980. Of whose Book we are told there was a Manuscript Copy in the Lord Lumley's Library and we are sure there now is one in Sir Jo. Cotten's This treats only of the great things he did after his Death but 't is probable there was a former part of the Discourse which seems also to have
14. Thomas Stapleton the Translator of Bede in whose Pair-royal of Thomas's this Gentleman makes as considerable a Figure as either Thomas the Apostle or Thomas Aquinas 15. Laurence Vade or Wade a Benedictine Monk of Canterbury who liv'd and dy'd we know not when or where unless perhaps he be the same Person with 16. An Anonymous Writer of the same Life who appears to have been a Monk of that Church and whose Book is now in Manuscript in the Library at Lambeth 17. Rich. James Nephew to Dr. Tho. James our Bodleyan Library-keeper a very industrious and eminent Antiquary who endeavour'd to overthrow the great Design of the foremention'd Authors in his Decanonizatio Thomae Cantuariensis suorum which with many other MSS. of his Composure is in the Publick Library at Oxford CHAP. IV. Histories of the Reformation and of our Church-Affairs down to the end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign THE first Man that engaged in the History of our Reformation was Mr. John Fox sometime Prebendary of Salisbury who dy'd at London in the Year 1587. His Acts and Monuments were first written in Latin for the Instruction of Foreigners and were so publish'd during his own Exile in the Reign of Queen Mary They afterwards grew into two large English Volumes which have had several Impressions and have at last been publish'd in three with fair Copper-Cuts In behalf of this last Edition the Publishers had well nigh prevail'd with King Charles the Second to revive Queen Elizabeth's Order and AB Parker's Canon for the having a Set of these Volumes in the Common Halls of every Archbishop Bishop Dean Archdeacon c. But that Project fail'd and came to nothing And indeed it would have look'd a little odly to have paid such a respect to the Works of an Author Qui Matri Ecclesiae Anglicanae non per omnia Amicus deprehenditur ut pote qui Puritanis faveret Ritibus Ecclesiae se non Conformem praestiterit The Design of the Author is to discover the Corruptions and Cruelties of the Romish Clergy together with the Sufferings and Constancy of the Reform'd and of the Maintainers of their Doctrins in all Ages of the Church which he has done so throughly that 't is no wonder to find those of the Papal Communion very much gall'd with his Writings Hence the Jesuite Parsons took such Pains to represent him as a Corrupter of Antiquity an impertinent Arguer c. And Nich. Harpsfield treated him as coursely in those six Dialogues of his which were printed beyond Seas in his Friend Alan Cope's Name during their true Author's residing in England It must be confess'd that these Volumes being large and penn'd in haste have some Mistakes in them that are not to be dissembl'd But in the main 't is an Honourable Character that one of the greatest Historians of our Age gives of them That having compared these Acts and Monuments with the Records he had never been able to discover any Errors or Prevarications in them but the utmost Fidelity and Exactness Indeed where his Stories are of a more modern Date and depend on common Reports or such Informations as were sent him from distant parts of the Kingdom the like exactness is not always to be look'd for since the Author 's hasty Zeal against the Papists furnish'd him with a large Stock of Faith and a readiness to avouch any thing that might effectually blacken them and their Religion One unlucky Tale occasion'd a deal of Trouble to a Clergy-man who very innocently reporting from him that one Greenwood had by Perjury taken off a Martyr in Queen Mary's Reign and came afterwards to a shameful End the said Greenwood was it seems present at the Sermon and brought an Action of Scandal against the Preacher However the Judge clear'd him at the Trial as only harmlesly quoting an Author without any malicious intent of slandering his Neighbour Such Slips as these were pretty numerous in some of the first Editions But as many of them as came to the Author's knowledge were rectified by himself and others have been corrected since his Death Several Papists were provok'd to write Counterparts to these Volumes wherein they pretended to set forth the Reformers in as bloody a Dress as Fox had painted Them and to draw up as large Kalendars of their own Martyrs The chief of these were 1. Maurice Chancey by some call'd Chamney and by others Chawney a famous Carthusian Friar in the Monastery of that Order near London who fled upon starting the Question of the King's Supremacy and dy'd in a voluntary Exile A. D. 1581. He wrote a large Account of the Sufferings of Sir Thomas Moor Bishop Fisher and others as also of Eighteen Monks of his own Order This Work bears the Title of Historia aliquot nostri saeculi Martyrum and is falsly subdivided into three several Books by John Pits 2. John Fenn sometime a Civilian of New College in Oxford and afterwards a Member of the University of Lovain who clubb'd with one John Gibbon a Jesuite for such another Martyrology which they publish'd under the Title of Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholicae in Anglia adversus Calvino-Papistas Puritanos This Book was afterwards enlarg'd by John Bridgwater or Aquaepontanus as he stiles himself another Jesuite who having corrected many faulty Particulars and added about a hundred new Martyrs dedicated his Edition to the AB of Triers 3. Thomas Worthington Doctor in Divinity and sometime President of the English College at Doway who dy'd in England A. D. 1626. His Book or Pamphlet for it consists only of Four Sheets bears the Name of Catalogus Martyrum pro Religione Catholica in Anglia occisorum ab Anno 1570. ad Ann. 1612. and is mostly taken out of the Book last mention'd 'T is chiefly valuable upon the Account of a Preliminary Discourse wherein the Author gives the History of our English Seminaries beyond Seas and the Success that has attended several Missions out of them 4. John Musheus sent from Doway into England where he liv'd A. D. 1612. somewhere in his Native County of York He is said to have drawn a Register of the Sufferings of all the Roman-Catholicks in the Northern parts of this Kingdom Nicolas Sanders deserves a peculiar Respect and ought to be consider'd by himself The short of his Story as we have it from his Nephew Pits is this He was born in Surrey Educated at Winchester and New College in Oxford where he was sometime Regius Professor of the Canon-Law He afterwards fled to Rome whence he attended Cardinal Hosius to the Council of Trent as also into Poland Russia c. At last Pope Gregory the 13th sent him as his Nuncio into Ireland where he dy'd about the Year 1580. He was an indefatigable Writer as well as Warrior for the Roman Cause and stuck at nothing that he thought might advance it Amongst
short Letter to the Bishop of London His Quarrel with Doctor Burnet is wholly about Method and the Art of Composure wherein most certainly these two Authors have extreamly differ'd And yet notwithstanding the awkardness of Mr. Lowth's Stile 't is thought the Man himself was not Master of so much Venome and Ill-Nature as appears in his Book But that he had a great share of his spiteful Language put into his Mouth by a warm Neighbour who is now dead and ought to be forgotten The next Assailant was a peevish Gentleman in Masquerade who under the feign'd Name of Anthony Harmer publish'd a Specimen of some Errors and Defects in the History of the Reformation c. As if what he there gives were only a Sample of what he had in store for us when it appears that he has stoop'd to such mean and pitiful Remarks as sufficiently shew that he had pump'd himself to the bottom and that his Malice was upon the Lees. 'T is a great Indignity which some have put upon the Memory of a late most Reverend Learn'd and Pious Prelate in reporting him to have been the Author of that malicious Libel For whatever other unhappy Mistakes he might be guilty of he could never fall so low as to write at such an unmanly and uncharitable Rate The Historian vouchsaf'd this Book a short Answer in a Letter to the Bishop of Litchfield to which the Animadverter made no Reply To those that are still inclin'd to favour the Specimen I shall only say that the whole 150 Particulars therein summ'd up will fall under these six Heads as being either 1. Such aery and superficial Matters as we usually call Impertinencies 2. Some inconsiderable Mistakes of the Printer's or Copiers 3. Others that have a little Weight but might have been corrected without Noise and do not affect the Reformation 4. Some few a very few that do touch upon its Justice and Honour In most of which 't is easie to discern the Affection which the Animadverter pretends to bear it if Apologies for the old Monks and N. Sanders be any Argument of such Affection 5. Others wherein he himself is mistaken 6. Several Objections are raised purely for the sake of Calumny and Reflection These are the Thoughts I had of this Piece upon my first perusal of it and I am throughly confirm'd in them from the successful Pains that has been since taken with it by my modest and industrious Friend Something of a fresh Attaque was afterwards made by one who had set himself to discredit whatever had been publish'd by this Historian And yet all that even such a Writer could find chargeable on his History of the Reformation was only that In a Matter of no great Consequence there was too little Care had in Copying or Examining a Letter writ in a very bad Hand and that there was since probability that Dr. Burnet was mistaken in one of his Conjectures I think I may justly observe thus much of all those that have hitherto endeavour'd to lessen the Repute of this History That they have apparently shewn their Inclinations rather to bespatter the Author than his Work And whatever Success such Persons may meet with in their Attempts they have commonly the Misfortune to discover themselves to be at least Men of like Passions with their Adversary The Reverend Author of these Volumes publish'd also an Abridgment of them wherein the Reader has a full and clear View of the Reformation without any of those Obscurities or Defects that usually attend Works of this kind Take an Account of it in his own Words I have wholly wav'd every thing that belong'd to the Records and the proof of what I relate or to the Confutation of the Falshoods that run through the Popish Historians All that is to be found in the History at large And therefore in this Abridgment every thing is to be taken upon Trust and those that desire a fuller Satisfaction are to seek it in the Volumes I have already published The Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer which were lately publish'd by Mr. Strype shall conclude this Chapter tho' were it not that the Subject rather than the Title of the Book inclines me to bring them in here they would more properly belong to another Place The Writer of them has adhered to Dr. Burnet's Method giving us his own Historical Account in Three Books ending with the several Deaths of Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary and in the Conclusion a good Collection of Records Several Things relating to the State of the Church during that Primacy are well Illustrated by him and some Authentick Letters and other Original Papers of Value are discover'd and made publick The only Blemish I know in this Book is what it may be the Author will think its most comely Feature the crowding so much of his other Learning into the Body of his History which instead of entertaining his Readers answerably to his good Design is apt to distract and amuse them Where the Subject is dry and barren a few choice Flowers out of a right Common-place-book are very refreshing provided they are sprinkled with a sparing Hand and a steady Judgment But where the Matter it self is pleasant and diverting all those Embellishments are nauseous and even Tully and Tacitus themselves are troublesome CHAP. V. Histories of our Bishops in general and those of their several Sees THAT Joceline de Fourness an Historian quoted by Stow and Fitzherbert wrote several Books concerning the ancient British Bishops John Pits is very certain But whether he was an English-man or as he rather fancies a Welch-man he dares not be positive One Book indeed of that kind was written by Joceline a Monk of Fourness in Lancashire and is still extant But as the Author himself could not be of any great Age so his Collections seem to have been made out of Histories that were penn'd since the Conquest Of somewhat less Account I fear is that of the Saxon Prelates whereof Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester is said to be the Author whereof a MS. Copy is likewise reported to be in the publick Library at Cambridge After the Conquest the Memoirs of our Bishops were taken by a great many Hands Geoffrey Prior of Winchester about the Year 1100. wrote a Panegyrical Account of them in elegant Verse says Will. of Malmesbury who himself more largely commented upon them in Prose His four first Books were publish'd by Sir Henry Savil from a very faulty Manuscript and his Edition was Copy'd more faultily in that of Francfurt In these we have all that could be had out of the many old Catalogues which swarm'd in our English Monasteries together with what the Author was able to inform us of his own Knowledge touching his Cotemporaries Henry of Huntingdon's Letter to his Friend Walter describes the Prelates of his own Time which immediately succeeded
Ravage of our late Days of Usurpation with those of other Cathedral Churches being made a very improper Prey to a Fanatical and Illiterate Army of Rebellious Blockheads Amongst these Silas Taylor was an Officer of a more than ordinary Fancy and Respect for Books and Learning and having gotten part of the Bishop's Palace into his Possession thought it was also convenient to seize as many of the Churches Evidences and Records as he could possibly get into his Clutches With these and many of the like kind from the Church at Worcester he troop'd off upon the happy return of our old English Government and near Twenty Years afterwards dy'd with some of 'em in his Possession at Harwich His Books and Papers together with the other few Moveables he left behind him fell into the Hands of his Creditors from whom if any care was taken to preserve them it will now be a very difficult Matter to retrieve them LANDAFF Bishop Godwine assures us that all he says of the Archbishops and Bishops of this See down as far as the Year 1110. was taken out of an old Manuscript-Register of that Church which seem'd to him to have been penn'd about that Time This he tells us was most particular in the Account of the Acts and Miracles of St. Teliau the second Bishop of that Diocess and therefore I take it to be the very same with that which is now in Sir John Cotton's Library and for that very Reason bears there the Title of Teilo From 〈◊〉 Sir Henry Spelman had the whole Account he gives us of the several Synodical Decrees of divers Bishops in that Church As Mr. Wharton had also those good Pieces which he afterwards publish'd as being overlook'd both by Godwine and Spelman There 's yet another Book in the same Library that affords a History or Chronicle of this Church which seems to have escap'd the notice of both these diligent Antiquaries It commences at Brute and ends A. D. 1370. LINCOLN There 's a meagre Catalogue of the Bishops of this Diocess in the Cottonian Library which brings down the Succession of them from Birinus to John Longland who was Consecrated A. D. 1521. 'T is much the List of these Prelates should be so compleat when our Historians are at a loss for the very Place where a good many of them 〈◊〉 Some Letters from Pope Martin and his Cardinals about the Struggle that happen'd upon the Advancement of Rich. Fleming to this See may be had but in the main we are very deficient in all the parts of its History and shall hardly recover any great Matters more than its own Registries will supply us with What those are I know not LITCHFIELD In the perusal of the History of this Diocess one great mistake which has been unanimously swallow'd by all our Church-Historians is to be observ'd to our Reader And that is we are told that upon the subdivision of the Kingdom of Mercia into three Dioceses about the Year 740. there was a Bishop placed at Leicester We do indeed meet with one Totta who is said to have been Episcopus Legecestriae about that Time But Legercestria is the old name of Leicester as Legecestria is of Chester It was therefore in Truth at West-Chester that the New Diocess was erected and not at Leicester which is too near to Litchfield were there no other Argument against it With these Cautions we are to peruse the two valuable MSS. in Sir John Cotton's Library which have in a great measure been Printed in the Anglia Sacra and are very probably ascrib'd to Tho. Chesterton and Will. Whitlock two Canons of this Church Of the former of these there are several ancient Copies and 't is that venerable Book which is quoted by many of our late Writers under the Name of Chronicon Lichfeldense These are the chief Registers of the old Records of the Church of Lichfield that are now Extant Unless perhaps their Cartulary or black-Black-Book and the Description of their Close or College be still to be met with The little that was to be sav'd out of the Ruins into which this Cathedral fell in our late Days of Confusion was pick'd up by one of the great Preservers of our English Antiquities Elias Ashmole Esq late Garter King at Arms and is now amongst many other of his precious Remains in his Musaeum at Oxford This excellent Person had a Design to have honour'd the Place of his Nativity with the writing a History and Description of its ancient and present State and had collected a good number of choice Materials for that Purpose LONDON I do not much lament Bishop Godwine's Misfortune that his best diligence could not recover a right Catalogue of the British Arc-bishops of this City Whatever became of Theanus and Theonus the Alpha and Omega of those Sixteen Metropolitans I should be mightily pleased to hear that its History is entire since Mellitus's time or even that we had every thing mention'd in that List of Records Registers and other Books belonging to this Cathedral which was deliver'd by Dean Cole to his Successor Dr. May in the Year 1559. What or where the Annales Londinenses are Mr. Wharton who quotes them does not tell us nor whether they treat only of the Affairs of this Diocess or what I rather Suspect present us with such a short History and Chronicle of the Kingdom in general as almost every one of our Monasteries afforded 'T is enough that he has left behind him an elaborate History of the Bishops and Deans of this See of his own composure wherein following the Method to which he had confin'd himself in his two larger Volumes he brings their Story down to the Year 1540. To this Treatise as well as that of St. Asaph which is joyn'd with it is annex'd an Appendix of Authentic Instruments and he has further let us know that of the Prelates before the Reformation we have the Registers of Gravesend Sudbury Courtney Braybrook Walden Clifford Gilbert Kemp Grey Savage Warham Barnes Fitz-James Tonstal Stokesley and Bonner The Sepulchral Monumnts of St. Paul's Church were first drawn out and publish'd by Mr. Camden's grateful Scholar Hugh Holland the Poet But this was only a mean and dull Performance in comparison of that more absolute one of Sir Will. Dugdale in his History of that Cathedral from its first Foundation extracted out of Lieger Books and other Manuscripts and beautified with sundry Prospects of the Church and the Figures of the Tombs The greatest part of the Cartularies and Records refer'd to in this Book were happily communicated to the Author by one Mr. Reading who thereby encouraged his Zealous Engaging in the Work at a very proper and seasonable Juncture For soon after he had taken Copies of the Inscriptions a great many of the Monuments were defaced and the Church it self
Wiltshire was put to death for his Gratitude and Loyalty to his lawful Sovereign and kind Master Richard the Second by Henry the Fourth against whom he conspir'd with the Earl of Northumberland and others His Declaration against the said Henry giving his Reasons why he cannot submit to his Government has been lately Publish'd as is likewise Clement Maydestone's History of his Martyrdom Cardinal Wolsey's purple will give him a rank with the greatest of our Prelates how mean soever the Circumstances of his Birth and Parentage may have been and the Figure that he made in the State as well as the Church during his Rule and Government rather than Ministry in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth very justly challeng'd the pains of a special Historian Such was Cavendish his menial Servant who was also in good esteem with that King He has left us an impartial Account of his Master's Life which has had several Editions Dr. Burnet quotes a MS. Copy different from what we have in Print And so does the Lord Herbert but whether this be not the same with the former I know not We have another History of his Life and Death in elegant Verse by Tho. Storer who was a Student of Christ-Church and dy'd a famous Poet in the Year 1604. They that know how many of our Bishops before the Reformation not to mention other inferiour Dignitaries of the Church bore the grand Offices of Chancellours Treasurers Judges c. will readily believe that most of those left such Memoirs as might easily have been fram'd into very exquisite Histories of their Lives And yet our Monks to whom the Trust of writing all our Historis was usually committed were so much Strangers to Affairs of this Nature that we rarely find any thing among them that looks this way Their Business was to pick up or invent as many amazing Stories as they could of the Exemplary Courage of some choice Prelates in asserting the Papal Usurpations of their extraordinary Sanctity of their Benefactons to some Church or Monastery of their Miracles c. And with such Narratives as these we shall find the Lives of most of the following Prelates are Stuff'd and Glutted That of Gundulf Bishop of Rochester by a Monk of that Church his intimate Acquaintance is the earliest of these and the rebuilding of the Cathedral the Enlargement of the Monastery and the Foundation of the Hospital at Chatham were Acts of Piety that very well deserv'd such a Respect The like was done for Robert de Betun Bishop of Hereford by his Chaplain and Successor in the Priory of Lanthony William de Wycumb who had a very noble Subject for the two Books he has left us if we may believe William of Malmesbury He pretends to have known this Robert very well and assures us that he was the most familiarly entertain'd at the Court of Rome of any of our Bishops of that Age. We have only a Fragment of Gyraldus Cambrensis's Life of Hugh Nonant of Norwich and such as is hardly worth the mentioning He is somewhat more copious in his History of the Six chief Bishops of his own Age to which we may add the Three Books he wrote De rebus a se gestisâ— since he was at least Bishop Elect of St. David's Robert Grostest of Lincoln was a Prelate of great Worth a mighty Stickler against the prevailing Crime of Symony and the modish Appeals to Rome and we have a full History of his Life by Richard a Monk of Barden or Burton in Hartfordshire and another Anonymous Writer We have also a Letter from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's for his Canonization But it appears from many of his own Writings that his Request was not like to be granted notwithstanding the fair Caresses that he had from the Pope who fear'd him more than he lov'd him in his Life-time William of Wickham the great Founder of two famous Colleges in Oxford and Winchester could not avoid the having his Benefits carefully Register'd by some of those that daily tasted of the Sweets of them And indeed there have been several of those who have thus paid their grateful Acknowledgments to his Memory The first of 'em I think was Tho. Chaundler sometime Warden of New-College who wrote the Founder's Life by way of Dialogue in a florid and good Stile This is contracted by the Author himself as is suppos'd into a Couple of Pages together with which is publish'd a piece of his larger Colloquy wherein he touches upon the Life of his Patron Tho. Bekinton Bishop of Bath and Wells He commends this latter Prelate's Skill in the Civil Law but says nothing of what won the Heart of King Henry the Sixth his writing against the Salic Law of France The next Writer of Wickham's Life was Dr. Martyn Chancellour of Winchester under Bishop Gardiner who had the greatest part of his Materials out of Chaundler's Book After him Dr. Johnson sometime Fellow of New-College as well as the two former and afterwards Master of Winchester-School gave a short view of their Founder in Latin Verse which being a small thing of it self has been several times Printed with other Tracts Bishop Godwine is censur'd for having a little unfairly borrow'd the Account he gives us of this Prelate's Life one of the best in his Book from Mr. Josseline without taking any notice of his Benefactor Henry Spencer Bishop of Norwich a more proper Officer for a Camp than a Cathedral had his active Life written by John Capgrave who takes occasion to state the Case how far a Prelate may engage in Military Affairs There 's no doubt but there may be some Junctures wherein 't is not only allowable but a Duty in every Man that is able to bear Arms and this Bishop's Suppressing the Rebellious Insurrection in his own Diocess was so far from being a Crime that 't was highly commendable and becomingly Brave But his Atchievements in Flanders and other Foreign Parts against the express Command of his Sovereign were such extraordinary Efforts of Lay-Gallantry as are not easily to be defended Nor do I see that honest John ever thought of Apologizing for them William of Wainfleet Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellour of England was bred in Wickham's Colleges and did his Founder the Honour to Write very fairly after his Copy His Magdalene may vye with the other 's two St. Maries being Modestly one of the richest Seminaries of Learning in the whole World And his magnificent Charity has been celebrated by the eloquent Pen of Dr. Budden the Writer of Arch-bishop Morton's Life who was a while Reader of Philosophy in that College His Book bears the Title of Guilielmi Pateni cui Waynfleti Agnomen fuit Wintoniensis Ecclesiae Praesulis Coll. Beatae Mariae Magd. apud Oxon. Fundatoris Vita Obitusque A Treatise much applauded by Godwine who nevertheless seems not to have
Work And hardly a private Family of any Consideration in the Kingdom but will here meet with something of its Genealogy and Pedigree He is most scrupulously exact in transcribing the ancient Records So that the bald Latin barbarous Expressions and other Deformities of the Monkish Stile are to be reckon'd Beauties in him By the Catalogue of the Monasteries in the end of the First Volume it appears how far the Industry of this Writer has exceeded that of the People employ'd by Henry VIII to bring in a List of all the Religious Houses in this Nation many being added as more might have been in almost every County to the Schedule by them transmitted into the Exchequer And yet the old Register-Books that are cited in the Monasticon have a deal more in them than is there made use of Sir William Dugdale on second Thoughts transcrib'd many Things into the Additamenta of the latter Tome which both he and Mr. Dodsworth had overlook'd or did not at first think Material enough The Third Volume was publish'd under the sole Name of Sir William though Mr. Wood does not question he says but in this also he was very much indebted to Dodsworth's Collections He seems the rather to suspect such a thing because many Records were communicated by himself which are not duly acknowledg'd as they ought to have been and he verily believes the like good Assistance was given him by Sir Tho. Herbert tho' his Benefaction is also disregarded These Three Tomes were lately Epitomiz'd or Abridg'd by some modest Gentleman or other that did not think fit to put his Name to his Work which might have been of some good use if a little more care had been taken of the Numerals which direct to the Pages in the Monasticon it self and being frequently mistaken do not only render the Book useless but very dangerous Besides we are so far from wanting any Abridgment of these Tomes that we rather complain of their too great Conciseness and could wish there were some more added out of such Leiger-Books and Records as never came to the knowledge of either of the worthy Authors of these Three Towards the furtherance of such an acceptable Service as this we have had an excellent Manual given us by Mr. Tanner whose Notitia Monastica does not only afford us a short History of the Foundation and chief Revolutions of all our Religious Houses but presents us also with a Catalogue of such Writers noting the Places where we may find them as will abundantly furnish us with such further Particulars as we shall have occasion for The foremention'd Compilers of the Monasticon Anglicanum took care to make the like References and to let the World know from whose Hands they had the perusal of the Records of this or the other Monastery But as many new Discoveries have been made since their Time so several of the Books they met with have changed their owners and therefore their Defects are not only here supply'd but the present Proprietors of what they mention much better ascertain'd Some Volumes indeed and several single Charters and other Instruments are still appropriated to their old Masters where 't is not known how or to whom they have been lately transfer'd And this may possibly prove an obliging piece of Service to the Executors Administrators or Legatees of the Persons so mention'd who will be hereby directed and encouraged to make Enquiry after their unknown Chattels and to claim them where-ever they shall find them This industrious Author has superseded some Pains I had long since taken to the like purpose and whereof I should have given the Reader an Account in this Chapter The Informations he has here are beyond what I could have afforded him and I hope upon a second Edition of the Book which I much long for will be yet a great deal fuller 'Till that can be had give me leave to offer a slender Tast of the large Editions we may look for from the Author himself In the Cottonian Library alone there are Histories and Register-Books of the following Monasteries which for want of such a Catalogue as we now have had not come to his Knowledge ABINGDON Julius A. 9. Claudius C. 9. St. ALBANS Otho D. 3. Nero D. 1. 7. Julius D. 3. Claudius D. 1. BARDNEY Vespasian E. 20. BINHAM Claudius D. 13. CANTERBURY Christ's Galba E. 4. St. Augustine's Tiberius A. 9. Otho B. 15. DAVENTRY Claudius D. 12. DELACRES Nero C. 3. DERBY Titus C. 9. DUNSTABLE Tiberius A. 10. St. EDMUNDSBURY Tiberius B. 9. Claudius A. 12. ELY Tiberius A. 6. Vespasianus A. 6. GLASTONBURY Vespas D. 22. HULM Nero D. 2. HUNTINGDON Faustina C. 1. KIRKSTEDE Tiberius C. 8. 〈◊〉 E. 18. LEICESTER Vitellius F. 17. LENTON Otho B. 14. MALMESBURY Faustina B. 8. PARCO-STANLEY Julius C. 11. Vespas E. 26. PIPEWELL Caligula A. 13 14. RAMSEY Vespasian E. 2. READING Vespasian E. 5. 25. Domit. A. 3. ROCHESTER Domitian A. 9. Vespasian A. 22. Faustina C. 5. SELBY Vitellius E. 16. SMITHFIELD Vespasianus B. 9. SOUTHWARK Faustina A. 8. STONE Vespasianus E. 24. WALSINGHAM Nero E. 7. WESTWOOD in Com. WIGORN Vespasian E. 9. These are the most Eminent of those Writers that instruct us in the general History of our Monasteries tho' as a very learn'd Person has observed we still want a more copious Notitia than any of them have hitherto seem'd to have thought on such an one as should give us a just account of the Foundation of those Houses the Men of Learning that flourish'd in them their Rules Interests Contests c. There are others that have taken great Pains in writing Histories of some particular Orders of Monks to which themselves have had some special Relation and these moving in a lesser Circle had leisure to make more nice Enquiries and more ample Discoveries Amongst them the Benedictines may justly claim the Precedence as being so much the Darlings of Saint Dunstan and St. Oswald that perhaps 't is true what one of them asserts that from King Edgar's Reign to the Conquest there was not a Monastery in England but what was Model'd according to this Rule Will. Gillingham of Canterbury about the Year 1390. is said to have written De Illustribus Ordinis sui Scriptoribus and if we could meet with this Treatise we should not much lament the loss of his other De Rebus Cantuariensibus Edward Maihew sometime Scholar to John Pits publish'd a little Book under the Title of Congregationis Anglicanae Ordinis St. Benedicti Trophaea wherein he takes frequent occasion to quote his Master's Manuscript Treatise of the Apostolical Men of England now kept as a pretious Rarity in the Archives of the Church of Liverdune He is commended for his Modesty in the Account he gives of their Writers honestly quitting his Inclinations to serve a Party where he observes Truth to be on the other side The Obits and Characters of the English Benedictines
I shall do it with that Sincerity and Caution which becomes an Englishman one that is alwaies ready to put himself upon a Tryal by God and his Countrey as not being conscious of any Offence either against Religion or good Manners And yet where there is Manifest Cause of Complaint where a Writer is either scandalously Ignorant or Impertinent where we have Romance or Buffoonry trump'd upon us for good Sterling-History where a Bankrupt Plagiary sets up upon the borrow'd Stock of an Industrious Author or the like there I hope a moderately keen Resentment will not be Interpreted as a Breach of any Commandment either of the First or Second Table I have but one thing more to Apologize for and that 's the frequent Repetitions the Reader will be apt to observe of the same Word and perhaps Expression and Phrase I have repeated Occasions to take Notice of this and the other Man's Undertaking and Performing Penning and Publishing his several Historical Labours And possibly a nice Critick in the Finery and Cadence of the English Tongue would expect that I should have Collected a good Number of Synonymous Sentences for this Purpose I can only say I never intended my Papers for the View of such Delicate and Curious Judges of Language and Oratory If I had but a Word in readiness that would serve my Turn I never vex'd my Brains in Pumping for another that could only do as well And being to cloath so many People of the very same Size and Shapes it were too severe I think to force me to provide each of 'em with a different Habit and Fashion CHAP. I. Of the General Geography State and Antiquities of England WHatever crime it might be anciently in private Men to be skill'd in Maps and Charts of whole Countries that being thought a Piece of Knowledge proper only for Princes and great Generals 't is now a mighty Defect in the modish Accomplishments of the Age of the otherwise and every Body is so much a Politician States-man and Warriour that there is no conversing in the World without an intimate Acquaintance with all the four Quarters of the Globe 'T is not my business at present to furnish out Instructions for the speedy Attainment of this kind of Learning nor to explain Gazettes and Monthly Mercuries that 's done abundantly by other Hands The sole design of this Chapter is the pointing at such ancient and modern Writers as have describ'd at large and by whole-sale the Lands and Territories Cities and High-ways Natural History Politicks Antiquities c. of this Kingdom Ptolemy liv'd as all agree in the beginning of the second Century and therefore we may safely call him the first Geographer that mention'd any thing of the British Islands For the little florid Accounts which we have from Julius Caesar or Tacitus ought not to come into this reckoning And well he may seem to be so since the Maps which Maginus and others have drawn by his Tables sufficiently shew that when he wrote Geography was but in its Infancy So much of him as relates to us has been lately publish'd by Dr. Gale who has also give us his own learned Notes upon that part of the Book If Antoninus's Itinerary were truly the Composure of that great Emperor whose Name it bears there would be no controversie in placing it next to Ptolemy's Tables but Vossius gives it too severe Language to deserve the Honour it had sometime gain'd in the world and in plain terms calls it a Bastard However let it be written by Antoninus Antonius or Aethicus 't is of an ancient date and shall here keep the Station and Repute it has gotten among as learned and wise Judges as have hitherto condemn'd it That part of his Work which concerns Britain has been amply treated on by three of our own Countrymen Mr. R. Talbot sometime Canon of Norwich whose Manuscript Commentaries much enlarg'd by Dr. Caius are now in the Library at Caius College in Cambridge Mr. William Burton School-master at Kingston upon Thames And Dr. Tho. Gale the present Learned and Worthy Master of St. Paul's School in London The Liber Notitiarum comes next in order and the last mention'd Learned Person has oblig'd us with as much of it as is for our purpose He has also given us what may seem to have any relation to this Country out of an old anonymous Geographer lately publish'd at Paris together with a List of the Hides or Tenements in the several Counties of England in the days of our Saxon Kings And these I think are all the Remains of our old Geography and the Summ of what was penn'd before the Conquest that look'd this way For with what confidence soever J. Pits may report it I do not believe that ever venerable Bede wrote any Book De situ mirabilibus Britanniae or that any such thing is or ever was to be had in the Library of Bennet College His Ecclesiastical History as paraphras'd in the English Saxon Tongue by King Aelfred is indeed there and the first Chapter in it bears a Title which might impose upon the good Man or his Informer who is often guilty of more groundless Mistakes than this From the Conquest down to the Reign of King Henry the Eighth our English Geographers have either been few or the want of Printing has occasion'd the loss of most of them Gyraldus Cambrensis's four Books of the Topography of Britain and his Itinerary both which are said to be in Bennet-Library are the first I can hear off And I doubt I shall only hear of them for they seem to be the same with his Itinerary and Topography of Wales John Leland says he does not question but there was such a Book as the former of these But all his industry could not ferret it out Ralph de Diceto's Treatise de mirabilibus Angliae seems to be as rare a Piece as either of the former and is perhaps laid up with John Horminger's Commendations of England or as Bale calls it de divitiis deliciis Angliae Of the same Stamp I fansie is William Thorn's Chronicle of all the Countries as well as Bishopricks and Abbeys in England John de Trevisa's Description of Britain and William Buttoner's Antiquities collected out of the old Charters Leiger-Books Epitaphs c. of the whole Kingdom Caxton's is the only thing in its kind which I can assuredly say we have as being long since publish'd with his Chronicle or Fructus Temporum Will it be any inducement to the Reader to peruse use this Author's Work to hear him recommended by Bale under the character of vir non omnino stupidus aut ignaviâ torpens Since the beginning of Henry the Eighth's Reign our eldest general Geographer of Antiquary is said to be Tho. Sulmo some call him Sulemanus others Solimountes a Guernsey Man who died at
Abilities sufficient to go through with any Undertaking wherein his singular Modesty will allow him to engage Mr. Beaumont ought also to be reminded of the thoughts he once had oâ— setting forth a particular Tract to this purpose No Man being better qualify'd for such a performance Mr. Ray has put our Botanists upon daily searches after new Plants since his Synopsis has told them what numerous Discoveries have been lately made by Mr. Lhwyd in Wales Mr. Lawson in the Northern Counties of England c. The like Encouragements our Naturalists have from his and Mr. Willughby's Ornithology to make further Enquiries after the many hitherto undiscover'd Species of Birds since 't is easily observable that the Authors of that Work having had the greatest Assistance from Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jessop both Yorkshire Men there are in it more Discoveries of new kinds from the North than any other Quarter of the Kingdom To all these must be added the many Ingenious Informations communicated from most parts of the Nation in our Philosophical Transactions especially from some of the forementioned chief Naturalists of this Age Dr. Plott Dr. Lister and Mr. Ray. Some general Accounts have been given of our English Policy and Frame of Government wherein our Historian ought to be well vers'd and conversant especially in those that are written by Statesmen and such as may be presum'd to have well understood the Affairs they treat on Sir Thomas Smith's Commonwealth of England has met with good Applause having been frequently printed both in English and Latin There was also another small Treatise entitul'd The Authority Form and Manner of holding Parliaments lately publish'd in his Name but some have question'd whether it be rightly father'd Upon this latter Subject we have a printed Account of the Opinion of Mr. Camden together with those of J. Doderidge Arthur Agard and Francis Tate Sir Walter Raleigh has likewise written as he used to do on all other Subjects most judiciously and acutely upon the Prerogatives of our Parliaments and Sir Robert Cotton's Posthuma are full of Learning on the same Topick Dr. Chamberlain's present state of England has been so well receiv'd as to admit of a new Edition almost yearly ever since 't was first publish'd It has been indeed of late very coursly treated by a nameless Scribler of Observations on the Times But he seems to have been hir'd to the Drudgery of penning such unmannerly Reflections by a Gentleman who had newly publish'd another Book much fuller of Mistakes under the like Title As to what concerns our Nobility and Gentry all that come within either of those Lists will allow that Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour ought first to be well perus'd for the gaining of a general Notion of the Distinction of Degrees from an Emperour down to a Country-Gentleman And after this the three Volumes of Sir William Dugdale's Baronage of England which gives an Account of the Lives and Prowess of all our English Nobility from the coming in of the Saxons down to the Year 1676. Whatever relates to the Knights of the most Noble Order of the Garter is completely shewn us by Mr. Ashmole in his most elaborate and perfect Work on that Subject For inferiour Ranks we have 'em in the Books of Heraldry that have been publish'd by Wyrley Brooks Vincent Dugdale and especially Guillim of the two last Editions of whose Book 't is observ'd that R. Blome has so disguis'd and spoil'd it that if the Author or Authors of it were living they could scarce know it What is missing in these will be abundantly supply'd out of the great Treasury of MS. Collections in the Heralds Office at London wherein are innumerable Inscriptions Arms Epitaphs Pedigrees Lists of Precedence at Coronations and Funerals c. CHAP. II. Of particular Descriptions of Counties with their Cities and great Towns 'T IS so much the general Humour of Mankind to be fond of their Native Soil and Places of chief Residence and Abode that Historians must not pretend to be so far of a different Composition from their Neighbours as not to be subject to the common Frailty They are as liable to discover their Dotage in this Particular as other ordinary Mortâ—ls and thence it comes that Ingulfus's History is so full of Crowland W. Neubrigensis's of Yorkshire M. Paris's of St. Albans c. whenever any shadow of an opportunity is offer'd 'T is from the same Principle that we have sew Counties in England whose Records have not been carefully sought out and Endeavours used to preserve them by some of their Sons who have usually prov'd more happy in such Undertakings as having gone about them with most hearty Zeal and Application than any of our more general Writers Those that I have met with of this kind are here drawn into Order and Rank according to the following Alphabetical Lists of our several Counties BARKSHIRE has not hitherto that I know of had its general Antiquities nor it s Natural History collected by any Body Only the Castle and Chapel of Windsor have been at large treated on by the excellent Pen of Elias Ashmole Esquire in his History of the Knights of the Garter before mention'd BEDFORDSHIRE is under the like Misfortune tho' the History of Dunstable of which in its proper place and other Records are not wanting to furnish out Materials for such a Work BVCKINGHAMSHIRE has had the happiness to have some of its Borders about Ambrosden c. curiously describ'd and its Antiquities preserv'd by the Ingenious Mr. Kennet CAMBRIDGESHIRE A little of both the Natural History and Antiquities of this County is touch'd on by Sir William Dugdale in his History of the Imbanking and Dreining of divers Fenns and Marshes both in Foreign Parts and in this Kingdom Dr. Hickes in the Appendix to his Saxon Grammar mentions a Manuscript in Sir John Cotton's Library entitul'd Statuta de Gildâ quâdam in Cantabrigiâ which seems to relate to the Town of Cambridge The Writers upon the Affairs of the University belong to another place CHESHIRE was long since describ'd by Lucian a Monk soon after the Conquest whose Work is cited by Camden as a piece of great Rarity and good Value S. Erdeswick the great Antiquary of Staffordshire seems to have written also something of the History of this County as is intimated by his MS. Book in the hands of several Gentlemen of Staffordshire which begins thus Having disposed with my self to take a further View of the Shires of Staffordshire and Chester c. A third Description of this County Geographical and Historical was written by W. Smith Rouge-dragon Pursuivant at Arms and left in the hands of Sir Ranulph Crew sometimes Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench whose Grandchild Sr R. Crew afterwards publish'd it A Fourth was compil'd by W. Webb M. A. and sometime Town-Clerk of
Mr. Wood who had a Design of obliging the Town in the same manner he had done the University RVTLANDSHIRE is extreamly indebted to J. Wright who has publish'd the History and Antiquities of that County The Author being himself a Barrister at Law propos'd Mr. Burton a person of the same Profession for his pattern So that here as in Leicestershire we have the Towns and Villages in Alphabetical Order the Intermixture of some few remarkable Law-Cases the Inscriptions on Tombs and Grave-Stones Pedigrees of Families c. Sir Wingfield Bodenham had as he owns drawn together a great many Materials out of the vast Collections of R. Dodsworth whereof he had the perusal The rest we owe to his own pains which he says had been to better purpose if he had not met with many of the Gentry a mishap which will always attend Men that engage in these matters very shy in Discovering the Evidences and Conveyances of their several Estates SHROPSHIRE's Antiquities have been hitherto as far as my Acquaintance reaches neglected both by its British and English Inhabitants There 's usually in Border-Countries that Emulation and Jealousie among the different Nations which encourages or provokes the Ingenious on both sides to preserve and maintain the old Honour of their several Ancestors So that the want of such particular Histories in this County is a good Argument of the perfect and happy Union of all its Natives into one People tho' not of their extraordinary Affection to Books and ancient Learning SOMERSETSHIRE The Natural History of this County has been long lookâ—d for from Mr. Beaumont who is a person of that known Ingenuity that the World has just cause to hope for a most excellent Performance I wish his late more noble Considerations as he calls them have not enlarg'd his Thoughts too much for the finishing a Work of so narrow a Compass The Laws Customs c. of the Miners in the King's Forest of Mendip are drawn together in a short Manual and Mr. Beaumont has given us a Specimen of his foremention'd large Design in the Account we have from him of Ookey-hole and other Subterranean Grottoes in those Hills The City of Bath and it s hot Baths has been beholden to Jo Caius the famous Cambridge Antiquary who wrote De Thermis Bathoniensibus as did also Dr. Mayow tho' Mr. Wood which I wonder at has not observ'd it in the Account he gives of his Works The Learned Dr. Jorden's Discourse or Natural Baths and Mineral Waters was not so general but that it was all apply'd to this place and publish'd a third time by Dr. Guidot who has since very greatly enlarg'd his own Observations upon both the Antiquities and Natural Curiosities of the Town and has also given us a Register of two hundred notable Cures wrought there within the time of his own Experience John Chapman's Thermae Redivivae are on the same Subject and have also an Appendix in Coriat's Rhimes on the Antiquities of this City To all which we must add Dr. Tho. Johnson's History of both kinds annex'd to his Mercurius Botanicus wherein the Reader will find as entertaining a Discourse as could well be expected from any Man in so little Room STAFFORDSHIRE had its Antiquities and Records preserv'd by S. Erdeswick of Sandon Esquire who began his Collection A. D. 1593 and continu'd it to the time of his Death the Year 1603. His Manuscript Papers fell happily into the Hands of Walter Chetwind of Ingestree in the same County Esquire a person exactly of Mr. Erdeswick's own Temper Venerandae Antiquitatis Cultoris Maximi and as piously dispos'd to the Founding as he to the Rebuilding of Churches from whom we had reason to hope for a finishing stroke to the Enterprize if Death had not unhappily interven'd The Natural History of this County is written by the same worthy Hand and in the same Method with that of Oxfordshire and the Performance is answerable to the Experience and Knowledge we may easily imagine so industrious an Author would gain in nine Years Study and Travel It had been happy if the Doctor 's Health and Occasions would have allow'd him to have gone on thro' the rest of the Counties of England as he seem'd once to promise But in the Conclusion of this Book he seems to be weary resolv'd to rest and to leave some part of the Glory of this great Work to others SVFFOLK's Topography is said to have been attempted by Mr. Selden's great Friend Sir Simonds d'Ewes but where his Collections now are I cannot tell unless perhaps amongst R. Dodsworth's Papers in the Publick Library at Oxford SVRREY A Survey and the Antiquities of this County were sometime threatned by Sir Edward Bishe but whether any Advances were ever made in good earnest by him towards such a Work I have not yet learnt SVSSEX is not onely famous for several Monasteries mention'd by Bede and others in the Days of the Saxons but also for the remarkable Battle which put a stop to the Glories and Government of that People and brought in the Norman Conqueror And yet none of its Inhabitants that I know of have taken the pains to collect its Antiquities Notwithstanding the just claim that some of 'em have to be Register'd by the most Skilful Historian WALES Gyraldus Cambrensis Bishop Elect of St. Davids about the year 1200. is the oldest Topographer of this Principality and is every where quoted at large by Mr. Camden as an Author of undoubted Credit and Reputation His Itinerary and Description were both publish'd by Dr. Powel with his own most Learned Notes upon ' em The former contains a Journal of the Expedition of Archbishop Baldwine A. D. 1188. in Collecting the Contributions of Wales for the carrying on of the Holy War Together with the Topography we have a mixture of Popish Miracles and Tales which the Publisher thought himself oblig'd in strictness of Justice to give us entire And we have this Advantage by them that they do not onely divert the Reader but afford also an opportunity to the Learned Publisher of communicating a deal of his own Critical Knowledge The Description that follows in General being in the main a Panegyrick on the sweetness of the Soil and the good Humour strict Morals and exemplary Piety of the Inhabitants There 's a second Part of this Description De Illaudabilibus Walliae which the Doctor thought it not convenient to publish but has been set out lately in Print by Mr. Wharton for which the Welshmen are not very much oblig'd to him Gyraldus's Map of Wales mention'd by John Pits and frequently by himself is to be seen in a MS. Copy of some of his Works in the Library at Westminster-Abbey After him David Morgan Treasurer of the Church at Landaff A. D. 1480. is said
Papers to be publish'd and they are now I am told sub sigillo in the Custody of Mr. Fairfax of Menston A lean Catalogue of the Mayors Sheriffs c. from the Reign of Edward the First to the year 1664 is publish'd by their late Recorder Hildyard And some Learned Observations on a Roman Wall and Multangular Tower in that City have been made by M. Lister The Tower of St. Mary's in York was the best furnish'd with ancient Charters and Records of any Place in the North of England as appears from the many Transcripts which are thence Inserted in the two first Volumes of the Monasticon But the barbarous Rage of our late Days of Rebellion laid it and them in Ashes Mr. Dodesworth happily copy'd all or most of 'em before those Times of Destruction came upon us and his large Collections were afterwards as happily deposited in Bodley's Library where they now remain The Registrum Feodorum de Richmondshire is quoted both by Mr. Camden and Sir William Dugdale It seems to be the same which is cited by Mr. Selden under the Name of an old Genealogy of the Earls of Richmond The Parish of Leedes will shortly be describ'd and have its Antiquities Publish'd by my Ingenious and Industrious Friend Mr. R. Thoresby The Spaw-waters in Yorkshire have occasion'd the publishing of several Learned and Ingenious Treatises on that Subject Knaresbrough is particularly oblig'd to Mich. Stanhop's Knaresbrough-Spaw to Dr. Edm. Dean's Spadacrene Anglica and to Dr. French's Yorkshire-Spaw Dr. Wittie's Scarborough-Spaw publish'd both in English and Latin met not with so much quiet as the three former being briskly encounter'd by two several Champions The first that engaged it was W. Simpson in his Hydrologia Chymica to which the Doctor made a sharp Reply under the Title of Pyrologia Mimica His next Opposer was Dr. Tonstall who wrote Scarborough-Spaw Spagirically Anatomiz'd together with a New-years-Gift for Dr. Wittie but whether he was ever vouchsafed any Answer I know not The Reader may expect a further Account of the Affairs of our several Counties from those that have treated of the History of our Cathedrals and Monasteries and whatever Writers fall under those Heads will be remember'd elsewhere CHAP. III. Of the Histories that relate to the Times of the old Britains and Romans 'T IS a very discouraging Censure which Sir William Temple passes upon all the Accounts given us of the Affairs of this Island before the Romans came and Invaded it The Tales says he we have of what pass'd before Caesar ' s Time of Brute and his Trojans of many Adventures and Successions are cover'd with the Rust of Time or Involv'd in the Vanity of Fables or pretended Traditions which seem to all Men obscure or uncertain but to me forged at pleasure by the Wit or Folly of their first Authors and not to be regarded And again I know few ancient Authors upon this Subject of the British History worth the pains of perusal and of Dividing or Refining so little Gold out of so much course Oar or from so much Dross But some other Inferiour People may think this worth their pains since all Men are not born to be Ambassadors And accordingly we are told of a very Eminent Antiquary who has thought fit to give his Labours in this kind the Title of Aurum ex Stercore There 's a deal of Servile Drudgery requir'd to the Discovery of these Riches and such as every Body will not stoop to For few Statesmen and Courtiers as one is lately said to have observ'd in his own Case care for Travelling in Ireland or Wales purely to learn the Language A diligent Enquirer into our old British Antiquities would rather observe with Industrious Leland that the poor Britains being harass'd by those Roman Conquerours with continual Wars could neither have leisure nor thought for the penning of a Regular History and that afterwards their Back-Friends the Saxons were for a good while an Illiterate Generation and minded nothing but Killing and taking Possession So that 't is a wonder that even so much remains of the Story of those Times as the sorry Fragment of Gildas who appears to have written in such a Consternation that what he has left us looks more like the Declamation of an Orator hired to expose the miserable Wretches than any Historical Account of their Sufferings Besides 't is not to be imagin'd but another long and calamitous War with the Picts and Saxons afterwards that demolish'd their Churches as well as Libraries would sweep away even the very Ruines of Religion and Learning Some have thought that there are considerable Reliques of the British History among the Refugees of Britany in France and that they have Manuscripts of much elder Dates than the Lives of some ancient Saints which have been had from thence We are sure there are many such Books of a very great Age that still remain in Wales a good Collection whereof was lately made by a notable Antiquary Mr. Maurice of Kevny braich in Denbighshire and is now as I am inform'd fallen into the hands of Sir William Williams But 't will be to no purpose for a Man to seek out these Venerable Remnants unless he be able to understand the meaning of what he meets with and therefore 't is requisite that our Antiquary furnish himself with a competent skill in the British or Welsh Language The thing will be of no great Difficulty if the ancient Tongue be so far perish'd that as Dr. Bernard has observ'd the words in Dr. Davies's Dictionary are one half Latin a Quarter English and onely another quarter Welsh But I dare not promise that this will be found to be a true and punctual Account Mr. Edward Lhwyd who took the pains to examine into the matter says there are about 10000 Words in that Dictionary whereof 1500 are indeed like the Latin and 200 like the English So that not a sixth part can be so much as suspected to be Latin nor a fortieth English For tho' the Welshmen grant 1500 words to be like the Latin yet they will not allow that their Original is owing to that Language since many of 'em are also used in the like signification by other Nations who are confess'd to have borrow'd none from thence Mr. Sheringham takes notice that Brutus coming from Italy which I do as verily believe as that Romulus came from Mars and Rhes Sylvia must necessarily have had a Language near-a-kin to what was spoken there and that hence are so many words in the Welsh which look like the Roman and not from the Corruption of it by the Conquering Romans afterwards Tacitus himself confesses the Britains zealously kept their Language unmix'd And Dr. Davies says their old Laws expresly forbid the Bards to introduce any new words into their Rhimes Mr. Sheringham further observes that the Britains
have many words nearly related to such old Latin ones as were grown obsolete even before Caesar's time and that many of the Roman Proper Names may be handsomly deriv'd from the British Tongue which have no Foundation in the Modern Latin As to that part of the Language which Dr. Bernard invidiously tells them they owe Dominis Anglis to their Masters the Saxons Mr. Lhwyd will not allow that they are so indebted for one Moyety of the 200 words observ'd to agree in Sound and Signification with the English since above half of 'em are found in the Armorican Vocabulary publish'd by Ivon Quillivere Now 't is certain the Britains went hence to Armorica in the Year 384 whereas the Saxons came not in before 450. If then our English Antiquary be not a Native of Wales 't is indispensably necessary that to compleat himself in this Study he gain a good acquaintance with the Welsh Tongue which he may pretty readily do with the Assistance of such Grammars as have been compos'd for that purpose The first of these was publish'd by W. Salesbury sometime a Member of Lincoln's Inn under the Title of A plain and familiar Introduction teaching how to pronounce the Letters in the British Tongue c. The next was Sir Edward Stradling's which seems to have given occasion to the Third that of J. Dav. Rhese printed together with a large Preface by H. Prichard by the Name of Cambro-Britannicae Cymraecaeve Linguae Institutiones Rudimenta c. ad Intelligend Biblia Sacra nuper in Cambro-Britan Sermonem eleganter versa The Fourth and last was written by Dr. Davies and bears the Title of Antiquae Linguae Britannicae nunc communiter dictae Cambro-Britannicae à suis Cymraecae vel Cambricae ab aliis Wallicae Rudimenta c. There are also several Dictionaries publish'd in that Language which will all be of singular Use and Advantage to a true Antiquary of this Kingdom Will. Salesbury beforemention'd compos'd one in English and Welsh which was first privately presented to King Henry the Eighth his very kind Patron and afterwards Printed The Summ and Substance of this as likewise what was afterwards written in the same kind by Bishop Morgan H. Salesbury H. Perry and Tho. Williams was publish'd in Dr. Joh. Davies's most Elaborate Work entitul'd Antiquae Linguae Britannicae c. Dictionarium duplex A Book which shews its excellent Author to have been perfectly acquainted with all the Learned Languages as well as his own Mother Tongue John Leland is also reported by Pits to have written a Dictionarium Britannico-Latinum But I suspect there 's no more grounds for such a Story than only this Leland publish'd a Latin Poem upon the Birth of the Prince of VVales afterwards King Edward the Sixth and taking occasion to use some hard words in it added to it Syllabus Interpretatio Antiquarum Dictionum quae passim per Libellum Lectori occurrunt And this I believe is all the VVelsh Dictionary that will be found of his Composure With these Helps a Man may venture upon those most Ancient and Authentick Writings of the old Bards wherein he shall have exact Genealogies of all the British Kings and Princes up to Brute and from thence to Adam This very Account is given of those famous Songsters by Lucan Strabo Diodorus Siculus and Am. Marcellinus And almost all other History among the Chaldeans Greeks and Romans had its first Foundation in Poetry Whether he will find the Rules of their Prosodia to agree with those that are laid down by Captain Middleton in his Bardoniaeth or Art of Welsh Poetry I know not But how methodically they order'd their TYLWYTHS or Tribes Silas Taylour has at large inform'd us Nor were they content to preserve the Pedigrees of their own Princes and great Men but were also so good-natur'd as to do the like Services for the Saxons Thus we are told that S. Benlanius who is sometimes quoted by the name of Samuel Britannus and liv'd about the Year 600 was a curious Enquirer into the Genealogies of many English Families some whereof he carry'd as high as the Flood 'T was customary to sing these Composures in the presence of their Nobles and at their chief Festivals and Solemnities And truly if the Story of one of these Bards canting the Praises of King Arthur before Henry II. and giving a hint to the Monks of Glassenbury for the Discovery of that British King's Body be fairly true and have nothing of Legend in it a very great regard is to be had to these Historical Ballads Amongst these Bards is to be reckon'd their famous Merlyn whose true Name says Humph. Lhuid is Merdhyn so called from Caermarthen Mariduno where he was born This was so mighty a Man in his Time that our Writers have thought it convenient to split him into three The first of these Godfather to the two following they call Merlinus Ambrosius or Merdhyn Emrys who liv'd about the Year 480 and wrote several Prophetical Odes turn'd into Latin Prose by Jeoffrey of Monmouth The next is Merlinus Caledonius who liv'd A. D. 570 wrote upon the same Subject with the former and had the same Translator The third is surnam'd Avalonius who liv'd under King Malgocunus they might as well have made him Secretary to Ioseph of Arimathea says our great Stillingfleet and yet my Author goes gravely on and affirms that he was an eminent Antiquary but seems to mix too many Fables with his true Story They write this last indeed Melchinus Melkinus and Mewynus and make him to live some time before the latter Merlyn But all this is Stuff and he 's manifestly the same Man or nothing Soon after him came Ambrosius Thaliessin whom Bale and Pits make to live in the days of King Arthur and to record his Story Sir John Prise quotes a certain Ode of his call'd Hannes Thaliessin or Thaliessin's Errors which he says is to be seen in several of their old Manuscripts The most ancient British Historian now extant is Gildas For the Chronicle that bears the Name of Brutus mentions the Legend of King Lucius and is apparently a late contriv'd Piece and Sylvius is much of the same Authority with the Writings of Samothes This Gentleman has had the same Respect paid to his Memory that we have already noted of Merlyn Since Gildas Cambricus Albanius and Badonicus are made by the generality of our Writers three several Persons It does not well appear that there was ever more than one Historian of this Name whatever they that love to multiply Authors as well as Books have said to the contrary And therefore notwithstanding Archbishop Vsher's great Authority on the other side I shall venture to consider him in a single Capacity He was Monk of Bangor about the middle of the Sixth Century a sorrowful Spectator of
two Manuscript Copies one in Cotton's Library the other in that of Bennet College whereof the former ended with the year 1001 and the latter with 1070. Cotton's he says had been compar'd with a Third which the Collater whom he supposes to have been Mr. Josseline calls the Book of Peterburgh Mr. Gibson had the advantage of three Copies more 1. Laud A fair one in Vellum given by Archbishop Laud to the University of Oxford which corrects those that Wheloc had seen and continues the History down to the year 1154. This he fansies did anciently belong to the Monastery of Peterburgh because it often largely insists upon the Affairs of that place But if it did so 't is plain it cannot be the same wherewith Mr. Wheloc's Cottonian MS. had been compar'd tho its variations from it are not very considerable being mostly in words and not in sence 2. Cant. Another Gift of the same Archbishop to the publick Library at Oxford 'T is a Paper-transcript of some Copy now lost differing from all the rest and sometimes explaining their dark passages and supplying their defects It ends with the year 977. 3. Cot. A better Copy than it had been Mr. Wheloc's Fortune to meet with in the Cotton-Library which was accurately compared with Wheloc's Edition by â—r Junius and ends A. D. 1057. Out of all these we have the Text made up as entire and compleat as 't was possible to give it us with an elegant and proper Translation void of all affected Strains and unlucky Mistakes which used to abound in Works of this kind If some few passages have a little puzzl'd the Ingenious publisher let it be consider'd that in these Florence of Worcester and Matthew of Westminster who lived nearer the times wherein they were penn'd were much more lamentably gravell'd Perhaps some further Enlargements and Additions might yet be made to this Work out of such MSS. as came not early enough to Mr. Gibson's View and Knowledge Of this Number I take to be 1. The Saxon Chronicle from Julius Caesar down to the Reign of King Edward the Martyr in Sir John Cotton's Library For if it ends as Mr. Wharton says it does A. D. 975. it must be different from what was perus'd by A. Wheloc 2. Another in the same Library from Iulius Caesar down to the Conquest which was transcrib'd by Somner and is now under the Title of the Chronicle of Abingdon amongst his MSS. at Canterbury 3. A Third in Latin and Saxon at the same place which is frequently referr'd to by Mr. Wharton and seems to have recorded many particulars of Note not mention'd by any of the rest This Book was given to Sir Robert Cotton by Mr. Camden says Archbishop Vsher who also mentions a Copy of his own worth the enquiring after 4. The Book of Peterburgh which was never thoroughly compar'd with any Copy hitherto publisht and differs from them all May we not also bring into this List those hinted at by Mr. Kennet and that which Mr. Somner had from Mr. Lambard I think we may The History that is written by Bede is so purely Ecclesiastical that it will not fall under our consideration in this Chapter But some of his Cotemporaries are said to have recorded the Civil Transactions of their Times Thus Cimbert first Monk and afterwards Bishop of Lincoln is the reputed Author of the Annals of his own time and Daniel Bishop of the West Saxons is said to have written four or five Historical Treatises I suppose there was no other grounds for dubbing these men Historians save only Bede's grateful Acknowledgments of his being indebted to both of 'em for the Informations and Assistances they gave him towards the compiling his Ecclesiastical History and if he quotes them in twenty particulars 't is enough for either Bale or Pits to make them Authors of as many Books To W. Caxton I suppose good Mr. Fox was oblig'd for the Account he gives us of King Aelfred ' s compiling a Story in the Saxon Speech c. But Bale and Pits have bravely enlarg'd upon the matter assuring us that he did not only write Collectiones Chronicorum but also Acta suorum Mastratuum The Mirroir des Justices written in the days of Edward the First would incline us to believe the latter part of the story giving so very punctual an Account of forty and four of his Judges executed in one year for corrupt Practices But all that now remains of that great Monarch's Works which relates to History is only his paraphrastical Translation of Bede and a short Genealogy of the Kings of the West Saxons The former of these will be treated on hereafter and the other may be seen among the Appendices to the Oxford Edition of his Life The earliest Account we have of the Reign of this excellent Prince is owing to Asserius Menevensis who lived in his Court and is said to haâ—e been promoted by him to the Bishoprick of Sherburn This Treatise was first publisht by A. B. Parker in the old Saxon Character at the end of his Edition of Thâ— Walsingham's History This he did to invite his English Readers and to draw them in unawares to an Acquaintance with the Hand writing of their Ancestors in hopes to beget in 'em by degrees a Love for the Antiquities of their own Country Asserius wrote his Soveraign's Life no further than the 45th year of his Age which according to his computation fell in the year of our Lordâ—893 So that tho the Book as 't is publisht continue his Story to his Death yet that part is borrowed from Authors of a later time particularly the Copy of Verses by way of Epitaph is Henry of Huntingdon's He shows through the whole a great deal of Modesty especially in the Account he gives of his own being call'd to Court and his Reception there He mentions nothing of the Visionary Dialogue 'twixt King Aelfred and St. Cuthbert which all the rest of our Historians largely insist on together with the good effects it had upon the Diocess of Lindisfern He is exactly copy'd by Florence of Worcester and others when they come to treat of the great things of this Reign As to what relates to the Truth or Falshood of that Memorable Passage in this Book mightily asserting the Antiquity of the University of Oxford I shall not meddle at present that matter having been sufficiently canvass'd by those whose proper business led them to it The best thing this Contest could do for us was the putting Sir John Spelman upon writing a New Life of this King which he seems to have undertaken chiefly upon a Design to vindicate the University of Cambridge from the Reflections which he apprehended were cast upon it by the use that had been made of that passage The most elaborate piece in his whole Book is on this Subject and
his zealous Management has afforded us some good Remarks of his own and others of the learned Translator and Publisher of his Work Whether St. Neot ever wrote as some have reported the Life of King Aelfred Sir John Spelman justly doubts and I am not able to resolve him unless the next Paragraph will unravel the matter Another piece has been lately pubâ—lisht under the Title of Asserius's Annals by Dr. Gale who tells us that the Manuscript Copy which he used is now in the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge Jo Brompton indeed cites several things relating to the Story of King Offa out of Asserius's Writings which are not in his Life of Aelfred Hence some have concluded that he might possibly have been impos'd upon by those that had given the Name of that Author to such Anonymous Collections as they knew not how truly to Father and the Jealousy may still continue for any thing which this Book discoverâ—â—o the contrary For King Offa is hardly named in it and therefore Brompton must have hit upon a spurious piece how genuine soever this may prove The learned Publisher does not question but 't is the true Off-spring of Asserius and its insisting chiefly on the Fortunes of King Aelfred seems to countenance his Opinion Leland calls it the Chronicle of St. Neot's because he found it in that Monastery Marianus Scotus had also met with it somewhere for he transcribes it by whole Sale The next Saxon Historian now extant is Ethelwerd or Elward Patricius descended as himself attests of the Blood Royal who liv'd till the year 1090 but did not continue his Chronicle so far His work consists of four Books which are publish'd by Sir H. Savil. The whole is a Translation of a very false and imperfect Copy of the Saxon Chronicle and therefore William of Malmesbury has modestly out of Deference to his Family declin'd the giving a Character of this Writer's performance If he had done it truly he ought to have told us that his Style is boisterous and that several parts of his History are not so much as hardly sence It appears from what we have noted above that both Malmesbury and Camden are mistaken when they affirm him to be our most ancient Historian after Bede J. Pits will tell you that we had two other Ethelwerds of the same Royal Extraction who long before this Man's time wrote each of 'em a Chronicle or History of our English Affairs The Elder of these he makes Son to King Aelfred and the other his Grandson Nay and St. Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester was likewise most certainly Senior to this Ethelwerd Patricius dying in the year 984. Now he says the same Author wrote two Books De Regibus c. totius Angliae and De Tempore Regum Britannorum for Copies of both which he sends to the public Library at Cambridge Many things relating to the Civil Government of these Times are dispers'd in some particular Lives of their Saints and Kings the latter whereof may be here mention'd tho the former will fall under another Head The Life of Offa frequently referr'd to by Sir Hen. Spelman has been publisht by Dr. Watts That of King Oswin was somewhere met with by John Leland King Ethelwolph's is said to have been written by VVolstan a famous Monk of VVinchester much commended by VVilliam of Malmesbury Edward the Confessor's written by Abbot Ealred has had several Editions and Queen Emma's Encomium is also made publick After the Conquest J. Pike is said to have written De Regibus Anglo-Saxonum and De Danis in Anglia dominantibus but it seems to be a mistake Upon the same Credit we are assured that John Mercius under the Reign of King Stephen publisht an Historical Account of the Mercian Kings which got him his Surname That Colman the wise John Harding's great Friend wrote most copiously and clearly of the Saxon Heptarchy their uniting afterwards into a Monarchy the Danish Incursions and Cruelties c. And that Gyraldus Cambrensis penn'd the Story of the West Saxon Kings R. Verstegan ' s Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Antiquities does especially relate to the Language Religion Manners and Government of the ancient English Saxons This Writer being of Low Dutch Extraction a Romanist and something of an Artist in Painting had several advantages for the making of some special Discoveries on the Subject whereon he treats which is handled so plausibly and so well illustrated with handsome Cuts that the Book has taken and sold very well But a great many Mistakes have escap'd him Some whereof have been noted by Mr. Sheringham As his fancy of the Vitae being the ancient Inhabitants of the Isle of Wight Of the Saxons being in Germany before they came in the more Northern Countries Of Tuisco's coming from Babel his giving Name to Tuesday c. The rest have been carefully corrected by Mr. Somner who has left large Marginal Notes upon the whole Mr. Selden was a person of vast Industry and his Attainments in most parts of Learning were so extraordinary that every thing that came from him was always highly admir'd and applauded Tho I must confess I cannot think he was that great Man in our English Antiquities which some have taken him to be His Analecta do not so clearly account for the Religion Government and Revolutions of State among our Saxon Ancestors as they are reported to do The Laws he quotes in his Janus Anglorum are as faulty as if his whole Skill in them reach'd no higher than Lambard's Translation and seem to want Will. Somner's Emendations as much as those he has publisht of William the Conqueror in his Spicelegium in Eadmerum The very best performance that I know of relating to the prime Antiquities of the Saxons is Mr. Sheringham's Treatise De Anglorum Gentis Origine Our Civil Wars sent this Author into the Low Countries where he had the Opportunity of coming acquainted with Dr. Marshal and the Dutch Language both inclining him to such Studies as this Book shews him to have delighted in He appears to have been a person of great Modesty as well as Industry and Learning Hence some will conclude him to be too credulous and that several of his Authorities particularly Lazius's Tattle about the Hebrew Inscriptions found at Vienna have not been sufficiently consider'd But his Collections out of the Greek Roman and chiefly the Northern Writers are highly commendable and for the most part very well put together Our Saxon Antiquary ought also to be skill'd in the Writings of those Learned Germans who have made Collections of their old Laws or have written such Glossaries or other Grammatical Discourses as may bring him acquainted with the many ancient Dialects of our Ancestors and Kinsmen in
his Namesake Ralph Abbot of Coggeshal are of the same date Soon after these appear'd Matthew Paris a Monk of St. Albans one of the most renown'd Historians of this Kingdom His Historia Major contains the Annals at large of Eight of our Kings from the beginning of the Reign of William the First to the conclusion of that of Henry the Third 'T was first publisht at London A. D. 1571. and the Zurich Edition only copy'd from that It was again verbatim reprinted the errors of the Press being only corrected by Dr. Wats who beautify'd it with additions of various Readings the Author 's large Additamenta and his Lives of the Abbots of St. Albans a good Glossary of his own composure c. Among other Reasons that prevailed with him to publish the very words of the former Edition he thought he should hereby effectually stop the Mouths of the Romanists who pretended that the Hereticks had vilely corrupted that Historian when they should see their Case was not better'd by comparing it with all the Manuscript Copies that could be had of it From the year 1259. wherein M. Paris dy'd to King Henry the Third's Death it was continu'd by Will. Rishanger a Monk of the same Fraternity as some inform us Others will needs affirm that Paris himself had a very small hand in the whole having only begun at the year 1235. the rest being done to his hand by one Roger de Windleshore or Windsor the MS. Copy of his History in Cotton's Library calls him Rogerus Wendovre de Wendover prior de Bealvair one of his Predecessors in the same Monastery Before that time they tell us there are only some few Interpolations of M. Paris's who for some reasons best known to himself did not break off at the year 1250. as it appears he design'd but continued writing to his Death The Author whoever he was did certainly begin his Chronicle at the Creation tho we now have lost all that went before the Conquest unless as the Publisher of him guesses that which now goes under the Name of Matthew of Westminster be in reality the true Work of Mat. Paris This undoubtedly is as much the Offspring of Roger de Wendover as that following part now published is the genuine Work of M. Paris as will sufficiently appear to any that shall take the pains to consult the abovementioned Manuscript Copy The whole Book manifests a great deal of Candour and Exactness in its Author who furnishes us with so particular a relation of the brave Repulses given by many of our Princes to the Usurping Power of the Roman See that 't is a wonder how such an heretical history came to survive thus long Quam fuit animo infensissimâ— in Apostolicam Sedem quivis facile potest intelligere says Cardinal Baronius The English whereof is only this he was a Writer of a singular Courage and one that durst maintain the Prerogatives of his Soveraign's Imperial Crown against the Usurpations of the Papal Crosier And yet he is as kind to the Pope as he is either to the King himself or the Abbot of St. Albans for he indiscriminately lasâ—es upon occasion every body that comes in his way The same Author wrote an Abstract of the foremention'd Work to which he gave the Title of Chronica and VV. Lambard first christen'd it Historia Minor It begins as the former with VVilliam the Conqueror and ends A. D. 1250 having in it several Particulars of Note omitted in the larger history The fairest Copy of this Book suppos'd to be written by the Authorâ—s own hand is in the King's Library at St. James's One John Shepshed is supposed to have liv'd at the same time with M. Paris and is by John Stow asserted to be the Author of an English history We may probably bring in also Robert of Glocester for another of his Cotemporaries since Archbishop Vsher and Mr. Camden are both positive that he liv'd some time in the Reign of King Henry the Third His rhyming Chronicle is in English and the Reader may have a Tast 〈◊〉 it as much it may be as ever he 'll desire either from Mr. Selden or Mr. VVood. The Chronicle of Mailros tho its Title may seem to rank it among the Records of another Kingdom yet may justly challenge a place among our English Historians since it chiefly insists upon the affairs of this Nation The Abbot of Prior of Dundrainand in Galloway a Nursery under Mailros is thought to have been the first Compiler of the work which was afterwards continued by several hands down to the year 1270. There 's very little relating to the Northern history of this Kingdom before the year 1142. when the little Convent of Dundrainand was founded save what is borrow'd from Florence of Worcester and Matthew of Westminster So that it must be after that time that the Character which the Publisher gives of this Chronicle exhibet Principum Procerum Episcoporum Abbatum 〈◊〉 Borealibus istis Oris successiones is most agreeable From the year 1262 the Continuator whoever had the turn to be Register at that time is as dull and whimsical as any Monk needs be 'T was his business to draw the Picture of Simon Monfort the famous Earl of Leicester and he has so overdone the matter that he thought himself oblig'd in the Conclusion to instance in a great many Authors of Note that had publish'd some Stories a little Romantick and yet had found the favour to be believ'd The rest of the general Historians of this Age are of a much lower form and less weight than these already mention'd Such were Elias de Evesham and his Namesake Elias de Trickingham who are both said to have flourish'd about the year 1270. There is a Copy of the latter's Chronicle among my Lord Clarendon's Manuscripts which ends A. D. 1268. Peter Ickeham a Kentish Man born and sometime a Student in the University of Paris about the year 1274. collected the British and English Histories from the coming in of Brute and continued them to the Reign of Edward the First This Chronicle is said to have been some time in the possession of Sir Symonds D' Ewes and perhaps is the same Book which Mr. Wharton acquaints us is now at Lambeth John Buriensir Abbot of St. Edmundsbury where he dy'd A. D. 1280. wrote also English Annals wherein he treats at large of the Disputes betwixt Pope Innocent the Fourth and R. Grostest Bishop of Lincoln Possibly this Buriensis may be the same with Burgensis and all one with John Abbot of Peterburgh whos 's MS. Chronicle is quoted by Mr. VVharton And then he should have been reserv'd till the next Century about the middle whereof that Abbot certainly flourish'd 1301. Tho. VVikes call'd by Leland Vicanus by others VVicâ—ius ought to begin the Fourteenth Century tho both Bale and Pits bring him
always protested and we may take his honest word for it that he never was sway'd by Favour or Fear in any of his Writings but that he had impartially to the best of his Knowledge deliver'd the Truth This good Opinion the greatest of our later Historians seem to have of him since even Sir Francis Bacon and Mr. Camden not to mention others of a less Repute have boldly taken several things upon his single Credit and sometimes without being so just as to own their Benefactor Upon his Death the Revising and Continuation of his Book was committed to Ed. Howes who says he bestow'd thirty Years in bringing it into that good Order and Method in which we now see it He is very Unfortunate if after so great Pains he be justly liable to the sharp Sentence that one has pass'd upon him That he 's as far short of Mr. Stow in Goodness as 〈◊〉 Age is of the Integrity and Charity of those that went before it I am abundantly sensible of the Degenetacy of our Age and how Corrupt our Morals are beyond the Precedents of former Times But how applicable this grave Comparison may be to Mr. Howes I know not He does indeed say some great things of King James and King Charles and if that be a Fault in him 't is transgressing with a Multitude Not long after Mr. Stow died R. White Vitus he calls himself Canon of Doway who left nine Books of our English or rather British History in a pretty elegant Latin Style His business is to assert the Rights of the Papacy in this Kingdom and therefore having setled Religion by Augustine the Monk and other Emissaries he ends his Story A. D. 800. Our next Historian of Eminence was Sam. Daniel some time Groom of the Privy-Chamber to Queen Anne He was a Person of great Wit a notable Poet and of an Affable and Winning Conversation His first and second Part of the History 〈◊〉 England fell no lower than the end of Edward the Third's Reign but was penn'd in so accurate and copious a Style that it took mightily and was read with so much Applause that it quickly had several Impressions It was afterwards enlarg'd and continu'd to the end of King Richard the Third's Reign by John Trussel Alderman of Winchester who has not had the Luck to have either his Language Matter or Method so well approv'd as those of Mr. Daniel About the same time Will. Martyn Recorder of Exeter wrote his History and Lives of the Kings of England from William the Conqueror to Henry the Eighth This came recommended to the World by the Author 's own Sons But I cannot learn that any other Family in the Nation could ever discover so much Worth and Beauty in the Book as they pretended to see in it Upon a second Edition it was enlarg'd by R. B. Master of Arts with the Reigns of Edward the Sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth John Speed who 〈◊〉 London A. D. 1619. must be acknowledg'd to have had a Head the best dispos'd towards History of any of our Writers and would certainly have out-done himself as far as he has gone beyond the rest of his Profession if the Advantages of his Education had been answerable to those of his Natural Genius But what could be expected from a Taylor However we may boldly say that his Chronicle is the largest and best we have hitherto Extant It begins with the first Inhabitants of the Island and ends with the Union of the Kingdoms under King James to whom it is Dedicated Tho' some say he spent twice seven years in compiling the whole he himself owns he made more haste than he ought to have done and that he was forced to trust a deal of his Work in the hands of his Friends and Journey-men And the Truth of this honest Acknowledgment and Confession is obvious enough to a discerning Reader who will easily find a mighty Difference in the Style as well as Matter of several of the Reigns Those of King John and Henry the Second were written by Dr. Barcham Dean of Bocking a curious Antiquary who has done them answerably to the good Opinion which Men of Learning had of him Several Remarkables in that of Henry the Fifth were Collected by George Carew Earl of Totnes as was his Catalogue of the Monasteries by Will. Burton c. Sir Richard Baker who died in the Fleet A. D. 1644. was a Person of those Accomplishments in Wit and Language that his Chronicle has been the best Read and Liked of any hitherto publish'd which looks as if almost every Body in the Kingdom as well as himself believ'd it to be Collected with so great Care and Diligence that if all other of our Chronicles were lost this only would be sufficient to inform Posterity of all Passages Memorable or Worthy to be known His Method is New and seems to please the Rabble But Learned Men will be of another Opinion for 't is the same with that of Sueronius which is justly complain'd of by Mr. Dâ—dwell In the first and second Editions we had nothing more than the Author 's own Work containing the History of our Kings from the Roman Government down to the end of King James the First 's Reign But afterwards it was continu'd to the Restoration of Charles the Second by Edward Philips who having the perusal of some of the Duke of Albâ—â—arle's Papers might have set that great Revolution in its true Light had not Ambition and Flattery carry'd him beyond Truth and his Copy Soon after these Additions were publish'd the whole Book was examin'd by Tho. Blount a Barrister of the Inner-Temple who printed his Animadversions upon it and gave the World such a Specimen of its many and gross Errors as ought to have shaken its Credit And yet so little Regard have we for Truth if a Story be but handsomly told the Chronicle has been Reprinted since that Time and Sells as well as ever notwithstanding that no notice is taken of the Animadversions but all the old Faults remain uncorrected Mr. Blount himself spent some Years in writing an English Chronicle which we may believe would at least want those Errors which he had descry'd in the Labours of other Men But where 't is to be had I know not There are some later Histories which are so well known to all that are any thing Curious in these Matters that I need do little more than mention them Such are 1. Sir Winston Churchill's Diâ—i Britannici which gives the Reader a diverting View of the Arms and Exploits of our Kings down to the Restoration in 1660. 2. Fr. Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of England and Monarchs of Great Britain from the Norman Conquest to the year 1677. with their several Effigies Seals Tombs Arms c. 3. Let me add Dr. Hoel's Medulla
Historiae Anglicanae which tho' only a very concise Epitome of our History is done with that great Judgment that it deserves a place among the best of our Writers on this Subject There have been some Additions made to this Treatise since the Doctor 's death in 1683. which whatever Relish they may have with some Readers are not to be laid to his Charge Others we hear are now engaged in the bold Work of Compiling General Histories of this Kingdom The most considerable of these are Sir John Marsham and James Tyrrel Esq and if the former writes with the true Spirit of his Father and the other with that of Archbishop Vsher his Grandfather we have good cause to hope for great things from them both There are also many Anonymous Historians whose Books are said to remain in several of our publick and private Libraries which ought to be referr'd to in this Chapter 'T is true the Numbers of these might be lessened if they were veiw'd by proper Persons before their Titles were sent abroad in our Catalogues whereas we are now told of Forty Nameless Authors who upon perusal prove only imperfect Copies of Paris Westminster Hoveden c. A few we are sure are not of this kind but appear to be of good value in themselves tho' of an unknown Authority Such are three Manuscripts of good Esteem in the Library at Lambeth sometimes quoted by Mr Wharton a Fourth referred to by Archbishop Vsher a Fifth and Sixth by Mr. Selden a Seventh now in the Possession of my worthy Friend Mr. Thoresby of Leedes in Yorkshire c. To which we might add a large Scrole of those that bear only the Names of such Monasteries as they were penn'd in But these may happen to be remember'd when we come more particularly to treat of the Registers and Records of those Religious Houses CHAP. VI. Of the Writers of Particular Lives of our Kings since the Conquest THE Historians that have been already mention'd in the foregoing Chapter have usually treated most Copiously of the Reigns of those Princes that rul'd in their own Times and are to be most especially consulted in such Transactions as may be suppos'd to have happen'd within the Compass of their own View and Observation Others have confin'd their Pens to the History of this or the other particular Monarch and from them if not manifestly under some Prejudices and Temptations either to Invective or Panegyrick we may expect the best and most comprehensive Account as far as their Subject carries them Of these I shall give the Reader as full a List as I can following the Succession down to the Union of the two Kingdoms William the First 's Conquest or Acquest of this Kingdom was a Revolution that appear'd so Great and Glorious that 't is a Wonder how we come to have so few Writers of his Story whose Labours have continu'd to this day For 't is plain our English-men have been as backward in paying this Complement to this Memory as they were in acknowledging his Title Among those that have done it William of Poictiers Pictaviensis is the largest and tho' a Foreigner and under some seeming Obligations to the King's Interests has so fairly acquitted himself as to find good Credit with the most of our Historians Archbishop Lanfranc is said to have written his Life also and he is observ'd to have been so well affected towards the English Nation tho' a Lombard himself and to have carry'd so even betwixt their New Governour and them that 't is very probable he would likewise approve himself an unbyass'd Author There 's a short Anonymous History of this Reign publish'd by Silas Taylor in the end of his Treatise of Gavel-kind He guesses the Author was a Monk of Battle-Abbey But I see no cogent Reason in the Tract it self to press such a Perswasion 'T is plain the Writer liv'd in the days of Henry the First and so might be sufficiently inform'd of the Truth of all he relates There was some time in the Library of Sir Kenelm Digby a Manuscript History of the Life and Death of the Conqueror said to have been written by Sir Walter Raleigh but my Informer reckons it amongst some other Pieces which he thinks unduly father'd upon that great Man But above all Sir William Temple has lately given us the most excellent and Judicious Account of this King's Reign and Policy the old Laws he preserv'd and the new ones he enacted his good Conduct and Success in his many Wars both in England and France several Instances of his Clemency and Wisdom c. Upon all which he makes such Reflections as become a Statesman and a Person so conversant in the Management of publick Affairs as that Author is known to have been William the Second was more Unfortunate both in his Life and Death than his Father and has also been so Unhappy as to have none to attempt the preserving his Memory in any special History that I have yet heard of Henry the First tho' he reign'd much longer than his Brother and Founded several Religious Houses in this Realm met with the like Treatment Unless we reckon Walter de Mopez's Book De Nâ—gis Curiâ—lluâ— to be something of that â—ind seeing a great many witty things relating to the History of this King are quoteâ— out of it by Mr. Camden That Author was Arch-deacon of Oxford and a Merry Good Fellow in the Reign of Henry the Second King Stephen's Memoirs were collected by Richard Prior of Hexbam whose Book is like to be preserv'd as long as the most durable of our English Records having had the Honour to make a part of the noble Edition of our Decem Scriptores Mr. Selden quotes another Anonymous Writer of his Life who seems to be a voluminous Author Henry the Second's long Contests with the haughty Archbishop Becket gave occasion to vast Numbers of Writers to engage on both sides So that we have several Pictures drawn of this King who is represented sometimes as a God and elsewhere as a Devil according as the Author favour'd the Court of England or Rome Gilbert Folioth Bishop of London who died before the end of this Reign A. D. 1187. was the earliest Stickler for the King against the Archbishop and wrote smartly in Defence of the Prerogative Royal and against the Papal and Prelatical Usurpations of those Times Will. Stephens or Fitz-Stephens the London Antiquary is said to be another Writer of this King's Life but I suspect the Truth of the Story Stow and others quote him sometimes as writing in the Reign of Henry the Second and that 's enough for Pits to conclude that he wrote his Life Prior Richard of Hexham is brought in for another as is also John Oxfordius Bishop of Norwich This last was sometime Dean of Salisbury and was certainly sent by King Henry to Rome to
and Measures us'd both at home and abroad The whole digested into an Alphabetical and the most natural Order the Derivatives and Compounds being ranked after the Primitives and enrich'd with many Thousands of Words that were never inserted in any other Dictionary Illustrated with Figures curiously Engraven on Copper Plates representing all the parts of a Human Body of a Horse Ship Fort and several other things that cannot be well understood without such a Help to the Imagination particularly Geometrical Figures c. To which is added a Collection of the Words and Phrases that are peculiar to the several Counties of England Some of the Parts done and the whole revis'd by J. Mitchel M. D. A larger and more particular Account of the Design and Method of this Great and Usefull Work with a Specimen will be speedily publish'd THE ENGLISH Historical Library PART II. GIVING A CATALOGUE Of the most of our Ecclesiastical Historians And some Critical Reflections upon the chief of them WITH A PREFACE Correcting the Errors and supplying the Defects of the former PART By WILLIAM NICHOLSON A. M. Arch-Deacon of Carlisle London Printed for Abel Swall at the Vnicorn in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD THOMAS Lord Bishop of CARLILE MY LORD THE first Part of this Work having taken Shelter under the Patronage of our Metropolitan this naturally flies to your Lordship From whom I have good Encouragement to hope for as kind a Protection I have great Reason to be fond of any Opportunity of making my grateful Resentments of your Lordship's Favours known to the World and I heartily wish this little Book may be look'd upon as any part of a suitable Return I can honestly boast of your Lordship's Approbation of what I have already publish'd and of your Encouragement to proceed Tho' give me leave My Lord here to repeat it those are Words which sometimes appears in Dedications without any thing of the caress'd Patrons Knowledge or Allowance I dare not presume to enlarge upon your Bounty and Goodness to the Author since most of the Instances I should give of 'em are so many Testimonies of your Lordship's Desire to follow the Directions of your Great Master in bestowing your Benefits in Secret May God be graciously pleas'd to reward openly what you have thus done for this Church and Diocese as well as for MY LORD Your Lordship 's most Obliged Dutiful and Grateful Servant W. Nicolson THE PREFACE WHen I was first perswaded to publish this Historical Library I easily foresaw some of the many Difficulties to which such an Adventure would expose me I knew the little I had to say would fall very far short of being a just Treatise on so copious a Subject And I was also sensible that even in that little there was too much that would give Offence This was the general Notion I had of the Undertaking which was so natural and obvious that 't was impossible I should be mistaken I confess in Particulars my Conjectures have very much fail'd me I have been cavill'd at and buffeted by a couple of Gentlemen whom above all Mankind I thought I had oblig'd One of these is lately dead and therefore my Answers to his Reflections which I think were never made very publick shall be bury'd with him The other attacks me in the Face of the Sun and what he objects shall be particularly reply'd to as soon as that Author and his Book are out of the Clouds Till when it will be sufficient to acquaint the Reader that I have here amended whatever he has truly observ'd to be amiss in me If these two Persons had known and consider's that I have been fifteen Years which Tacitus justly calls grande mortalis aevi spatium a Member of a Church and Diocese at a very great distance from our Universities and Publick Libraries they would have overlook'd a few little Failures and have given some grains of Allowance to a Writer in my Circumstances Not that I who am so insolent as to censure every body either do or ought to beg Quarter of any No. Let each Man that 's offended chastise me in his own way provided his stripes make me wiser For 't is indifferent to me whether my Informations come wrinkled or smooth whether I have 'em in plain English or in rough balderdash Latin I was as much surpriz'd with the different and more acceptable Entertainment which my former Book met with amongst a great many eminently learned Men who were pleas'd together with their kind Remarks on the Omissions and Mistakes in it earnestly to request the publishing of this Second Part. 'T is to their unexpected Goodness that I owe a great share of the following Emendations which strongly oblige and encourage me to proceed in the Attempt hoping for the like Assistance and support from them hereafter I must also acknowledge my self extremely indebted to the late accurate Catalogue of the Manuscripts in Sir John Cotton's Library which has effectually clear'd a great many of my Doubts rectify'd my Mistakes and furnish'd me with a much better Light than I could have hoped for from any other hand So that if it shall be the good Fortune of this Work to appear in a second and more entire Edition it may possibly prove more serviceable to the English Reader than ever its Author had the Confidence to think it would The first Error that 's to be taken notice of is of a very large Extent and wherein the Printer and I are joint Faulters The Index 't is observ'd is too scanty and the repeating of no less than Twenty Pages from p. 99. to 108. and again from 185. to 194. inclusive causes great Confusion in some of the References This latter Failure is remedy'd in the following Additions by marking the repeated Pages thus 99. * 100 * c. and the Reader is desir'd to correct the first Index after the same manner Aelfred King 87. 100 118. of Beverley 147. 152. Aldhelm 100. 101. Annius of Viterbo 106. Antoninus 2. 17. Aras 140. Archer 27. Arthur K. 98. Ashmole 22. 23 25. Asserius 14. 16 87 119 121. Aubrey 17. 65 66 102. Bacon 17. 192 * 223. Baker 196. 212. Baldoc 173. Baldwine 60. Bale 8. 46 213. Barcham 195. 204 205. Bartholine 140. 146. Baston 210. Beamont 19. 56 57. Bede 4. 59 102 114 117. Bernard 24. 74. Blacket 107. Blome 15. 23. Bolton 205. Ã Bosco 82. Bodley 23. Boethius 205. Bourchier 186. 229. Britannus 79. Bodenham 55. Brompton 112. 121 175. Brook 11. 23. Brutus 81. Burnet 56. 227 Burton 3. 43 44 53 55 195. Caedmon 104. Caesar 92. 103. Caius 50. 56 89. Cambrensis 4. 60 125 164 205 206 208. Combden 8. 9 10 15 21 29 49 93 105 108 117 192 * 231. Cantelupus 189. Caradocus 82. 97. Carew 29. 195 218. Cary 212. Caxton 5. 118 178 190. Chetwind 44 58. Childrey 17. 18. Coggeshal 165. Constantiensis 206. 208. Cornubiensis 97. Coryate 9. 57.
Kynder's Natural History of Derbyshire But 't is only as the Author himself there calls it a short Prolusion to an intended future History and has little in it worth the consulting or looking after P. 34. l. 12. Wantner who meeting with those Discouragements that were suitable to the Man 's busie medling in things beyond his Sphere was content to enjoy c. Nor is Corbet's Book worth the mentioning P. 37. l. 4. County But the late learned Publisher of Sir Robert's Life says 't is only probable from the great store of Collections that he had made out of Doomsday c. to that purpose that he had projected such an History He does not believe that he ever finish'd any thing of that Nature P. 50. l. 19. Spelman and was long since printed with the first Edition of his Treatise de Furoribus Norfolciensium Ketto Duce Sir Symonds D Ewes thought of making a Survey of Norfolk out of Original Deeds but we know not what Advances he had made in it P. 51. l. 9. Mr. Peter le Neve one of the Pursuivants at Arms is now preparing an accurate Description and History of this County which we hope to see published ere long Ibid. l. 10. Augustine Vincent P. 52. l. 20. For the Anonymous Author c. Read Ralph Gardiner in his England's Grievances c. Ibid. In the Notes d 40. Lond. 1655. P. 57. l. 1. Bathoniensibus as did also Dr. William Turner a famous Physician in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign P. 59. l. 12. Oxford A kind Friend of mine could not meet with them there But he tells me what is much better worth the hearing that Dr. Battely the present Arch-deacon of Canterbury has made a good Progress in the History of the Town and Abby of St. Edmondsbury I wish this Discovery of it may be a means to hasten its publishing P. 68. l. 21. The late Recorder of Heddon Mr. Christopher Hildyard which is now enlarging by Mr. Forr a Gentleman of good Industry and Abilities suitable to the Work P. 79. l. ult Historical Ballads Be that Matter as it will we ought here to observe that Sam. Beaulanius or Britannus was as himself owns Scholar to Beaulanus Presbyter who was the Genealogist and that neither of 'em liv'd in the beginning or perhaps any part of the Seventh Century Britannus as we shall see anon did certainly write Notes upon Nennius and therefore must have flourish'd after him 'T is likewise very improbable that he never medled with any of the Saxon Genealogies since in one of those Notes he says expresly Cum inutiles Magistro meo id est Beaulario it should be Beaulano Presbytero visae sunt Genealogiae Saxonum aliarum Genealogiae Gentium nolui ea scribere c. P. 81. l. 2. or nothing The most learned of the British Antiquaries agree that this Myrdhyn ap Morvryn call'd from the Country wherein he liv'd Caledonius and Sylvestris from his Humour of leading a retir'd Life in the Woods wrote a Poem call'd Avalleneu or the Apple-Trees to his Lord Gwendholen ap Keidio who was slain in the Battel of Arderith in the Year 577. Some Fragments of this Poem were found at Hengwrt in Meiriondyshire the last Summer by Mr. Lhwyd who very probably conjectures that from hence he had the Surname of Avalonius If so there 's a happy Discovery made of one of the many foolish Impostures of the old Monks of Glassenbury who to secure this famous Prophet to themselves have made King Arthur's Tomb and their own Monastery to stand in Insulâ Avallonia P. 82. In the Notes d 80. Lond. 1525. Basil. 1541. 120. Lond. 1568. Inter Orthodoxographa Patrum c. Angl. 120. Lond. 1638. P. 84. l. penult Mervini Regis Though here also there seems to be some Mistake For the first Mervin dy'd in the Year 843. and the second did not begin to reign till 885. It 's therefore most probable that the Words ought to be read Anno 828. Anno 40. Mervini Regis P. 85. l. 10. to Gildas John Leland mentions an ancient Copy of this History which he says he borrow'd from his Friend Thomas Solme Secretary for the French Tongue to King Henry the Eighth in the Margin whereof were the Additions of Sam. Beaulanius or Britannus He has transcribed several of these Marginal Annotations which it appears were afterwards inserted in the Body of the History and are so publish'd by Dr. Gale The Doctor indeed in his Notes mentions Samuel as the Scholiast upon his Bennet Copy but Leland has a great many other things as Excerpta out of Beulanius which are not there observ'd to be only in the Scholion There is also in Bodley's Library a MS. of this Nennius which cannot be less than 500 Years old wherein the Prefaces and all those Interpolations which are by Leland said to be this Samuel's are wanting P. 88. l. 11. His Reign It appears indeed from the Preface of this Hoel's Laws in most of the Latin and Welsh Copies that Blegorede or Blegwrt was one of the Commissioners appointed to draw up that Code or Abstract and 't is also probable seeing he was the only Ecclesiastick amongst them that he penn'd it But whether he did it in the Latin or British Tongue is wholly uncertain Ibid. l. 17. Augusto 1600. Sir William Dugdale reckons up seven Manuscript Collections of the old British Laws besides those we have aloeady mention'd As 1. Kyfnerth ap Morgan 2. Gronu vab Moreddig 3. Lhyfr hen y tuy Gwyn 4. Gwair mab Ruon 5. Lhyfr Prawf 6. Prawfyneit a Collection he says out of the four first 7. Lhyfr Kyghawssed The third of these is undoubtedly the same with Howel's Dha's as will easily appear from the Title of those Laws All the rest whereof the fifth and sixth seem to be the same are now at Hengwrt except only the fourth which is suppos'd to be in the hands of Sir William Williams amongst Mr. Maurice's MSS. There we are likewise to enquire for that eminent Antiquary's Dedhf-grawn or Thesaurus Juridicus wherein are the various Readings of above thirty ancient Copies of the British Laws To which we may possibly add the Liber Cardiffe being a Treatise upon the ancient Customs of Wales in the Welsh Language P. 96. l. 6. Sheringham who is always very loath if it c. P. 99. l. ult same Subject J. Bale makes Will. Caxton write King Arthur 's History in no less than One and twenty several Books which if they could have been found might have sav'd Rich. Robinson the trouble of translating Leland 's Assertio into English P. 100. l. ult Williams The foremention'd learned Primate made also some choice Collections in his Retirement at St. Donate 's relating to the British Antiquities which were afterwards in the hands of Dr. Parr his Grace's Chaplain And from the like Helps in the Library at Llantarnam Mr. Percie Enderby
collected his Cambria Triumphans or Ancient and Modern British and Welsh Histories from Brute to Charles the First Nic. Allen's Britanneis ten Books whereof are now in MS. in Bodley's Library comes no lower than the Conquest P. 107. l. 4. from the time of Claudius to that of Valentinian about five hundred he should say four hundred years the c. P. 104. * l. 20. Bodley 's Library But the Transcript of it in eleven Volumes at the Charge of the late pious Bishop Fell is not in the Musaeum Ashmoleanum as Dr. Hickes was inform'd P. 111. l. 20. Laur. Nowel P. 121. l. 19. the matter But I do know that there was a short Life of this great King publish'd by R. Powel a Lawyer who has been at no contemptible Pains to make up a Parallel betwixt Aelfred and Charles the First P. 128. l. 12. put together A short Chronicle of our English-Saxon Kings from Hengist to the end of the Heptarchy was written in Latin by Dan. Langhorn whose chief Authors are those publish'd by Sir Hen. Savil and Sir Roger Twisden He had formerly given us the Antiquities of this Island previous to the Arrival of the Saxons wherein amongst other Remains of those dark Times we have a Catalogue of the Pictish King 'T is said that the Continuation of this History is much desir'd by Learned Men And 't is pity but the Author if yet living should be prevail'd with to gratifie them P. 139. l. 15. Wormius 's use P. 140. l. 14. own Nation Some part of this fell happily into the hands of Tho. Bartholine 's Friend the Bishop of Scalholt who took care to have it printed A. D. 1689. P. 152. l. 23. Galfredi But in this I dare not be positive Leland saw this Author 's entire History which ended Anno 29 Hen. 1. He has made Collections out of it wherein as in some other Passages cited by R. Higden there are several things not found in Jeoffrey Which considering withal that Aelfred may probably be reckon'd as early a Writer as himself is one of the most cogent Arguments as far as I know to prove that this Monmouth was not the first Author of the whole British Story P. 159. l. 17. Judgment enough So much Encouragement we have to look after the whole that we are sure Leland had the perusal of an entire Copy the Prologue whereof he has transcrib'd as likewise many following Passages relating to the Affairs of the Britains and Saxons Ibid. l. ult Blockhead 'T is to be fear'd we shall hardly meet with this History till we find the Historian himself which is more than either Bishop Godwine or Mr. Wharton could do amongst the Bishops of Durham P. 161. l. 3. temporum Indices And indeed Leland himself was afterwards of the like Opinion For in his Book de Scriptoribus he says nothing of his being a Plagiary but gives him this great Character Mortuo Henrico Rege sc. ejus nominis secundo omne studium suum ad Historiam scribendam contulit in quo Negotio si diligentiam si Antiquitatis cognitionem si sanctam fidem spectes non modo quotquot seculis rudibus quidem praecesserunt Scriptores verum etiam seipsum superavit P. 163. l. 3. Library This British Chronicle is probably the same that 's printed by Dr. Gale and seems to be wholly transcrib'd out of the Works of a former Author whom he calls Brome This may be the same with Jo. Bromius or Bramus quoted sometimes by Dr. Caius and Franc. Thynne but must be different from Jo. Bramis the Friar of Gorleston with whom he is confounded by Bale and Pits because the Friar did not flourish till 1440. and the Historian must live before Ralph de Diceto and was moreover as Thynne observes a Monk of Thetford P. 164. l. 19. the Fourth Here likewise notice ought to be taken of Joh. Wallingford's Chronicle publish'd by Dr. Gale if the Abbot of St. Albans of that name who dy'ds in the Year 1214. was as the learned Editor guesses the Author of it But he seems to be a different Person from the Historian who carries down his Work forty years after the Abbot's Death The Doctor indeed makes R. Wendover Author of the latter Part of that History But if he had look'd into the next Treatise to this Chronicle in the Cottonian MS. from whence he had it he would have met with another John Wallingford who was made Monk of St. Alban's in the Year 1231. and so might bring down the History till 1258. without the Assistance of Wendover P. 172. l. 15. flourish'd Or it may be the Chronicle that was written by John de Taxston a Monk of Bury which ends at the Reign of Edw. 3. is the same thing with these Annals John de Oxenedes a Monk of Hulm mention'd by Mr. Wharton liv'd about the same time P. 175. l. 7. Years more 'T is probable the Chronicle of Joh. Londinensis who liv'd about the same time is still extant For 't is quoted in Lambard's Preface to his Archaionomia and among R. James's Collections there are several things extracted out of it P. 184. l. 21. To these we may probably add the Author of the MS. Eulogium who begins his Work at Bruâ—e and ends at the Year 1367. The beginning of the Book 't is likely may be Nennius's but the rest seems to have been penn'd by a Monk of Canterbury by his calling St. Thomas Becket his Patron P. 194. l. 23. the Year 1530. P. 185. * l. 15. their Countrey Bale reports that Sir Brian Tuke wrote a Chronicle purposely to vindicate the Honour of the English Nation against those Aspersions which Virgil had cast upon it in this History P. 190. * l. 2. and others To these we may add two Poetical Historians of this Age Chr. Ocland who wrote Anglorum praelia in Latin Verse and Will. Warner an English Rhimer Author of the Romantick Story of Albion's England in twelve Books containing the Occurrences of our Land from Noah to the 39th of Queen Elizabeth P. 194. * l. 19. Queen Elizabeth Cotemporaries with these were John Clapham Edward Ayscue and Will. Slatyer the first whereof left us the History of Great Britain the second that of the Wars Treaties and Marriages with Scotland and the third his Palae-Albion in ten Books of Latin and English Verse P. 198. l. 9. Arms c. 3. Dr. R. Brady's Complete History of England wherein he endeavours to prove and no Man ever did it more effectually that all our adored Liberties are deriv'd from the Crown and owing to the Concessions of our Princes He shews that the Normans themselves weary of the Tenure of Knight-Service and other Drudgeries of the Feudal Law rais'd all our old Civil Commotions in England And that no ancient Rights and Properties of the Subject were any part of the true
Controversie He very well illustrates many dark Passages in our English-Saxon Laws by comparing them with those of the old Germans Francs Lombards c. His Preface to the Norman History largely accounts for the Customs of that People and shews what sort of Government and Laws they brought with them into this Kingdom Afterwards we have a good view of the seven first Reigns after the Conquest His chief Author is M. Paris well epitomiz'd and confirm'd and enlarg'd with authentick Evidence from Records a great many whereof are printed at large in his Appendix He has also publish'd an Introduction to the English History which treating chiefly of Matters of Law and Government shall be consider'd elsewhere 4. Let me add c. P. 202. l. 17. great Man Sir John Hayward's History of the three Norman Kings was undertaken at the Request of Prince Henry who hardly liv'd to read it and not to requite the Author's Pains He calls his Lives of these Monarchs Descriptions rather than Histories And so indeed they are being only short Portraictures of 'em in such a witty and humour some Style and Method as might better serve to divert the young Prince than instruct him I shall give the Reader but one Instance of the Care he took of the Chronological part of his Story He says Hen. 1. was crown'd the second of August which is the same day whereon he acknowledges King William II. was slain a little before Sun-set in the New-Forest A small Fragment of the Conqueror's History is among Cambden's Anglica Normannica c. and some Particulars relating to the Reigns of this and the two following Kings may be pick'd out of Guil. Gemeticensis and others publish'd by the learned And. du Chesne But above all c. P. 203. l. 21. the second There 's an old English History in Saxon Letters of the Transactions of some few years of his Reign after 1123 in Sir John Cotton's Library P. 204. l. 3. voluminous Author In Du Chesne's Collection there 's a pretty large Life of this King whose Author though Anonymous seems to have flourish'd in the latter end of this or the beginning of the next Reign And Pits assures us that Ralph de Diceto's Annals of King Stephen are in the Library at Bennet-College P. 205. l. 18. Benedictus whose Book we are since told is full of notable and politick Remarks and is much follow'd by Hoveden and Brompton Pet. Blesensis certainly wrote his Life tho' we know not what 's become of it Tho. May the Translator of Lucan has given us seven Books in English Poetry on this Subject to which is annex'd his Character in Prose with a short Survey of the Changes in his Reign and a comparative Description of his two Sons Henry and Richard P. 207. l. 5. Antiocheis P. 208. l. 8. But perhaps he 's mistaken in that Conjecture since Rich. Devisiensis was certainly a Monk of Winchester However to make up the Number the Reader is to know that an old printed Life of this Ceur du Lyon is in English Meeter tho' I cannot inform him who was its Author P. 211. l. 15. several Parts Peter de Langetoft who drew up an Epitome of our Chronicles in old French Rhimes bestows one whole Book upon Edward the First Ibid. l. 21 1320. The Annals of the greatest and best part of his Reign from 1307. to 1323. were digested by John de Frokelow a Monk as the History of his Treaty of Peace in the Sixteenth Year of his Reign with Robert King of Scots was by Henry de Blaneford Walter de Heminford's Life of Edw. II. is said to have been in the Library of Bennet-College which we are not so sure of as that his Life of Edw. III. is in that of Magdalene-College in Oxford as well as in Sir John Cotton's at Westminster P. 212. l. 22. Deleantur I doubt whether c. usque ad Old Manuscript Historians p. 213. l. 7. inclusivè P. 214. l. 11. a Friend R. James in some Volume of his MS. Collections reports that Rob. Avesbury Registrary of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Court wrote Mirabilia gesta R. Edwardi III. post Conquestum procerúmque suorum tractis primitùs quibusdam gestis de tempore Patris sui D. Edv. II. quae in regnis Angliae Scotioe Franciae in Aquitaniâ Britanniâ non humanâ sed Dei potentiâ contigerunt Tho. May the Poet has likewise some English Raptures upon this King 's Life Nor ought I to forget that Sir John Froissard is said to have written two Books on that of Queen Philippa the first glorious Patroness of Queen's College in Oxford Above all Mr. Joshua Barnes has diligently collected whatever was to be had far and near upon the several Passages of this great King's Reign His Quotations are many and generally his Authors are as well chosen as such a Multitude can be suppos'd to have been His Inferences are not always like a Statesman and sometimes his Digressions are tedious His deriving of the famous Institution of the Garter from the Phaenicians is extremely obliging to good Master Sammes But came too late it seems to Mr. Ashmole's Knowledge or otherwise would have bid fair for a choice Post of Honour in his Elaborate Book In short this industrious Author seems to have hasten'd his Work too much to the Press before he had provided an Index and some other Accoutrements which might have made it more serviceable to his Readers P. 215. l. 6. untimely Death Deleantur which it may be contains the whole Chronicle Et adde Richard Maidstone a learned Carmelite wrote also in Latin Verse Concordiam inter Ricardum II. Cives Londâ—nenses And Henry Knighton's History of his Deposition is among the Decem Scriptores as another short History of his Reign by an anonymous Monk of Evesham it in the Coâ—tonian Library Amongst later Pamphlets on this Subject the Idol of Clowns or the Insurrection of Wat Tyler as a Parallel with some Occurrences in our late Days of Rebellion may balance the Exact Ac-Account of the Articles and Proceedings c. P. 216. 1. 5. those Reigns There is an old French MS. in Verse which treats of the Affairs of this Reign the Title whereof in a hand more modern than the Book it self is this Histoire du Roy D' Angleterre Richard traictant particulierement la Rebellion des sus Subjects prinse de sa personne c. Composée par un gentilhomme François de Marque qui fut à la suité du dict Roy avecque permission du Roy de France At the end in a hand as old as that of the Book is written Ce livre de la prinse du Roy Richart d' Angleterre est à Monseigneur Charles Damon Conte du Maine de Mortaing Gouverneur de Languedoc This was lately in the Possession of the learned Dr. Hickes who
that either in the North or West had shun'd the Roman Yoke and enjoy'd their Liberty and Traditional Christianity in the Woods and Mountains are generally believed to have been so much unacquainted with Letters as not to have been able to transmit their own Story to Posterity Some Remains there are of those ancient Times and the State of Christianity in them and our Church has not wanted Men of Learning and Industry who even at this distance have successfully imploy'd themselves in gathering up the scatter'd Fragments that no part of so valuable a Treasure might be lost Master Bale tells us there are some that with a deal of probability on their side have guess'd That Joseph of Arimathea wrote several Epistles to the Churches of Great Britain And for the better strengthening of such a Conjecture he assures us 't was usual for the Primitive Fathers to send such Letters to those Churches to which they were some way or other specially related He might as well have told us of some Epistles sent hither by St. Peter or St. Paul since 't is likely that one or both of those Apostles were as instrumental in planting Christianity in this Island as this Joseph himself and we are also very sure that they used to write such Epistles Our next Ecclesiastical Writer is said to be King Lucius who about a hundred Years after Joseph's Death wanted somebody it seems to instruct him in the First Rudiments of Christianity And thereupon sent a Letter to Pope Eleutherius desiring that some Persons in Holy Orders might be sent hither to Baptize Him and his People There is not any Copy of this Epistle now extant and yet I dare not say the Original is lost Not to mention the Inconsistences that are among the several Authors upon whose Credit this whole Story rests 〈◊〉 observable that the pretended Epistle in return from Eleutherius seems to intimate that Lucius's Request was quite of another Nature and that his Enquiry was after the Imperial Civil Law and not after the Precepts of the Gospel So that I know not how we shall be sure of such a Royal Church Historian But in short the Pope's Letter has so many undeniable Marks of Forgery upon it that we cannot think it worth our while to be very inquisitive after the Kings and tho' a genuine Piece of this kind were highly to be prized we do not desire to build upon Shadow and Fable This Story of King Lucius has help'd us to a Couple more of Ecclestiastical Historians Eluanus and Medvinus who forsooth were first imploy'd in the foremention'd Embassy to Rome After their Return Eluanus was made AB of London and wrote a Book De Origine Ecclesiae Britanniae Medvinus had not the luck to mount equally in Preferment with his Fellow-Ambassador but he rival'd him in the publick Services of his Pen having written Fugatii Damiani gesta in Britannia These were Pope Eleutherius's Legates and are by others call'd Faganus and Derwianus The most probable part of this Account is That this latter Book was found in the Rubbish at Glassenbury 'T is no matter whether at the repairing of that Monastery by St. Patrick or at some other time After these we hear no more of the Writers of our British Church-History before the coming in of a more famous and true Legate Augustine the Monk who is believed to have written something of the state of Christianity in these parts even before his own Arrival If we could be assured of this we could not have a better Authority in some of our Modern Disputes with the Court of Rome But 't is more than probable that those Learned Men that assert such a thing mistook the meaning of William of Malmesbury who seems to have been their Informer in that Matter That Historian speaking of something relating to the first Foundation of the Monastery at Glassenbury which he had met with Apud Sanctum Augustinum Anglorum Apostolum his unwary Readers presently concluded that he quoted some latent MS. Work of that Monk Whereas in truth he meant no more than that he had met with such an Account in the Library at St. Augustine's in Canterbury The like Phrase is common with him and in the same Paragraph Apud Sanctum Edmundum is to be English'd in the Library at St. Edmundsbury The Remonstrance of Dinoth Abbot of Bangor against the Pretensions of this Legate Augustine challenging a Supremacy for his Master in this Isle is of some better Credit since even John Pits himself owns that he stoutly opposed such Encroachments and that he has left to Posterity his Thoughts on that Subject having written among other Things two Books entitled Defensorium Jurisdictionis sedis Menevensis and De Conservandis Britannorum Ritibus Both these Treatises have certainly been fram'd out of that Answer of the Abbots which Sir H. Spelman has given us in Welch English and Latin having found it in an old Transcript out of a more ancient Manuscript in the two former Languages and adding a Translation of his own in the last The Critique that our Learn'd Stillingfleet gives upon this Piece and its Publisher is what I dare not add to There is he says all the appearance of Ingenuity and Faithfulness that can be expected and he was a Person of too great Judgment and Sagacity to be easily imposed upon by a Modern Invention or a new-found Schedule I know some Romanists have endeavour'd to persuade the World That this Monument bears no great Age and was probably forg'd since the Reformation But since Venerable Bede himself who was as great a Favourer of Augustine and as profess'd an Enemy to the ancient British Church as they could wish confirms the main of the Story they will not easily persuade us that the whole is improbable I can hear of no more ancient Treatises relating to the Ecclesiastical State of Old Britain save only the Sanctum Graal Which says trusty Iohn Pits was written by an Anonymous Hermit about the Year 720. and gives an ample Account of the Miracles wrought by Joseph of Arimathea Indeed Vincentius of Beauvais mentions such a French Legend which as he observes had the Name of Graal or Gruel because it likewise treated of a Dish of Meat miraculously preserved since our Saviour's last Supper But the Book he confesses was somewhat hard to be met with In this Dish which was to be seen among the sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at Glastonbury they pretended to have part of the true Blood of our Redeemer But whether 't was of that shed on the Cross or of that which was at the said last Supper after Consecration the Historian dares not be positive However from hence the same Person gives the Relick the Name of Sanegreal i.e. Sanguis Realis And from him 't is probable the following Writers gave that Title to the
to be out-vy'd by the choice Adventures of St. Vrsula and her Train To furnish the Reader with an exact List of all the ancient Saints of this Island would be as edifying as to present him with a Catalogue of the Parishes of Wales most of which bear the Inscription and Name of some one or other of Them Besides the general Pains taken by Surius and others in this Matter there are some who have more particularly treated of our British Saints and others that have apply'd themselves to the History of the Life Actions and Sufferings of some special Hero John Pits tells us of Johannes Anglicus who seems to have been a Welch Man notwithstanding his Name that wrote a Book De Vitis Sanctorum Wallensium And we are also told by a Brother of his of somewhat better Authority that there is now in the Library of the English College at Rome a Manuscript Treatise of the like import by William Good a Fugitive Papist under the Reign of Queen Elizabeth 'T is likewise certain that Ricemarchus whether Bishop of St. Davids himself or only Son to Sulgenus Bishop of that Place or both wrote such a Martyrology tho' perhaps in the Manuscript Lives of the British Saints which are now in the Cottonian Library the Life of St. David is only to be ascribed to that Author In perusing those of the several other Writers who have made it their Business to collect or invent Matter for the magnifying of some single Martyr the Reader will be cautious in separating the Chaff and good Corn And so by distinguishing the Monk from the Historian a good use may be made of these Romantick ones that follow St. Alban is our Proto-Martyr and might therefore justly challenge the first place in our Catalogue if the method of the Alphabet which shall be our Guide had not given it him His Life has been the Subject of some learn'd Pens and of some that were otherwise The first that we hear of was a Person of good Abilities who wrote about the Year 590. but had the modesty to conceal his Name This Work was translated into Latin by Will. Albanensis a Monk of St. Albans who afterwards prevail'd with his Brother Ralph de Dunstable to turn it into Heroic Verse Vnwon an old Priest well skill'd in the ancient British Language translated another such Volume but of much greater Antiquity at the Request of Abbot Aedmar about the Year 970. whereof we have an notable Account given by Matt. Paris who is also reported to have written two Books of the Martyrdom of St. Alban and St. Amphibalus Dr. Wats could not meet with them and indeed Pits is not very consistent in the Account he gives of them For he elsewhere tells us That a certain modest Gentleman who calls himself Miserorum Simplicissimus wrote these same Books which were translated into French Verse by M. Paris as they were afterwards into English Meeter by John Lydgate The latest Writer of his Life is Stephen Gourmeline a Cornish Man who is said to have published something of that kind about the Year 1585. St. Columba's Life translated out of Cornish was in the Hands of Mr. Roscarrock who communicated it to Mr. Camden and thereby convinced him of an Error which he had advanced in some of the first Editions of his Britannia that St. Columb's a Market-Town in Cornwal had its Name from Columbanus the famous Scotch Apostle St. David's had almost as many Pen-men as St. Albans The oldest says Bollandus is the Vtrecht-Manuscript which he publishes The next to this he thinks that in Colganus which he believes to be that which was written by Ricemarchus and is now publish'd by Mr. Wharton This industrious Person observes that out of this all the latter Writers of his Life have transcribed their Treatises particularly Giraldus Cambrensis who omits some Miracles but gives new ones in lieu of them and is with the like freedom epitomized by John of Tinmouth and Capgrave For this Reason he has thought it sufficient to give us Giraldus entire adding only what he was pleased to omit in that of Ricemarchus St. Dubricius Arch-Bishop of Caerleon is beholden to one Benedict Monk of Glocester who is supposed to have written his Life about the middle of the Twelfth Century This is also publish'd by the same Learned Person who acknowledges he pass'd over some fulsome Miracles and guesses that its Author borrowed his best Materials from Geoffrey of Landaff whose Manuscript-History of this Saint was in the same Volume out of which this is given us St. Germanus's Embassies under Pope Celestine have been treated on at large by some Forreigners and others of our own Nation of whose Performances the inquisitive Reader will have a better Account from our great AB Vsher than I can pretend to give him St. Kentigern better known to our Northern Borderers by the Name of St. Mungo had his Life largely written by Josceline a Monk of Fournes in Lancashire whose Book is now in Sir John Cotton's Library But whether that which was written by his Scholar St. Asaph be any where extant I dare not take upon me to determine S. Lupus was Germanus's Collegue in the notable Undertaking for confounding of the Palagian Heresy and re-establishment of Catholicism in this Island and has been particularly obliged by an anonymous Writer of his Life St. Ninian who by our Neighbours on the Borders of Scotland is corruptly call'd Ringen and is remembred in our Nine Churches in Cumberland is reported to have had his Wonders recorded by Ealred Abbot of Rievaulx which is not so certain as that his Life was some time extant and pretty common in Ireland St. Patrick the great Apostle of Ireland is challenged by the Monks of Glassenbury and therefore may be reckon'd indifferently either a British or Irish Saint Under the former Denomination we must believe that his History was written by Gyraldus Cambrensis and under the latter by Joceline and Rich. Stanyhurst St. Teliau or Eliud St. David's Successor in his Arch-bishoprick had his Life penn'd by Geoffrey of Landaff Brother to Vrbane Bishop of that See about the beginning of the Twelfth Century whose Treatise is still to be had at large in an old Register-book of that Church St. Vrsula and her Eleven thousand Companions had reason to expect to have their Story handed down to Posterity in a Method peculiar to themselves and therefore about Thirteen Ages after their Martyrdom they deputed one Verena to bring hither a true Relation of their Sufferings This she punctually revealed to one Elizabeth a Nun of Schaffhausen who publish'd with the great Applause of the Monks of Cologn who set her on Work her Visions on this Occasion St. Winefride's Miracles and the many glorious Cures done
by her Well in Flint-shire were Register'd by Robert Prior of Shrewsbury who about the Year 1140. translated her Relicks to his own Convent so that 't is justly wondered how Giraldus Cambrensis came to take no notice of this sacred Fountain in his Itinerary of Wales which was penn'd many Years after The Wonder will increase when we consider that long before the Prior's time her Life was written by Elerius a Monk of St. Asaph who himself about the middle of the Seventh Century instructed her in the Monastick Rules and had the comfort of seeing her so great a Proficient as first to turn Nun afterwards to become an Abbess and in the end a Martyr under the Tyranny of Carodocus Abstracts of these Lives and many others which are either now lost or at least have not come to my Knowledge may be had in the voluminous Work of John of Tynmouth's Sanctilogium Britanniae which gives the best and largest Account that is any where extant of the Lives of our British English Scotch and Irish Saints The whole is a Collection of such Passages as related to these Holy Persons out of his Historia Aurea mention'd in the first part of this Work And this perhaps gave occasion to Mr. Pits to split the Sanctilogium into a Majus and Minus and to provide a pair of Appendices Martyrologii to bind up with these two Books There 's an ancient and fair Copy of it in the Cottonian Library at the end whereof we have this Note Hunc Librum dedit Dominus Thomas de la Marc Abbas Monasterii St. Albani Anglorum Proto-Martyris Deo Ecclesiae B. Amphibali de Redburn ut Fratres ibidem in cursu existentes per ejus Lecturam poterint coelestibus instrui per Sanctorum Exempla virtutibus insigniri John Capgrave Provincial of the Augustine Friars and Confessor to the famous Humphrey Duke of Glocester epitomiz'd Tynmouth's Book adding here and there several Fancies and Interpolations of his own It was translated into English by Caxton and first printed in the Year 1516. since which time it has been frequently reprinted both here and beyond the Seas and is common in the Families of our Gentlemen of the Roman Communion He 's not quite so modest as his Principal John of Tynmouth who sometimes c prefaces a Miracle of a more than ordinary size with leaving his Reader to a liberty of believing or disbelieving as his own Reason shall guide him But so far is both Capgrave and his Translator from any thing of this bashful Temper that they always load a Man's Faith with more than it well can carry For Example The Story of St. Vrsula and her Eleven thousand Virgins was thought in former times a sufficiently glorious Army of Martyrs but Mr. Caxton assures us there were also Fifteen thousand Men that suffer'd with them and so the whole Company consisted of no less than 26000. This part of the History was vouch'd to him by the Men of Cologn who seem to have had some farther Revelation since the Days of Tynmouth and Capgrave CHAP. II. Historians of the English Church from the coming in of Augustine the Monk to the Conquest THE Conversion of our Saxon Ancestors happen'd at a time when Learning run very low and when a general Credulity and want of Thought gave opportunity to the Monks of coining their Legendary Fables and obtruding them upon the World for true and unquestionable History So that the main part of the Ecclesiastical Story if we may so call it of those Ages is to be had amongst the Lives of our English Saints which are much of a piece with those of the British already mention'd The Account that Augustine gave to Pope Gregory of the Success of his Apostleship in Kent is hardly extant But we have the Queries he put to that Holy Father with the Pope's Answers in Bede from whom several of our later Historians have transcrib'd them Both the Questions and Answers are plain enough and of no great moment yet I think Bale's Censure a little too severe when he affirms that they are Omnis Evangelii atque Legis Eruditionis vacuae immo ineptissimae In truth Venerable Bede is the only Person of those Times that deserves the Name of an Ecclesiastical Historian there having not been many of his Cotemporaries furnish'd with either Learning or Judgment sufficient for such an Undertaking The Account which himself gives of his own Life is That he was born within the Territories 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Saxon Paraphrase of the Monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul at Weremouth and Jarrow where he was afterwards Educated That he was when Seven Years old committed to the care of Abbot Benedict That he was ordain'd Deacon at Nineteen and Priest at Thirty by St. John of Beverly That from thenceforth he continued still in the same Monastery to the 59th Year of his Age. Here he imploy'd himself in writing Commentaries on the Scriptures and distinct Treatises upon almost every part of Learning most of which are still extant What we are at present concern'd in is his Ecclesiastical History of this Island in Five Books which have had many Impressions in Latin the Language wherein he penn'd them It 's plain he had seen and perused several Chronicles of the English Kings before his own Time witness that Expression Vnde cunctis placuit Regum tempora computantibus c. But he first attempted an Account of their Church-Affairs and kept Correspondence in the other Kingdoms of the Heptarchy the better to enable him to give a true State of Christianity throughout the whole Nation He treats indeed most largely of the Conversion of Northumberland and the progress of Religion in that Kingdom but always intermixes what other Relations he could borrow from Books or learn from such living Testimonies as he believed to be credible Some have censur'd his History as composed with too great partiality favouring on all Occasions the Saxons and depressing the Britains Such a Charge is not wholly groundless He must be pardon'd for stuffing it here and there with thumping Miracles the natural product of the Zeal and Ignorance of his Age Especially since so little Truth was to be had of the Saints of those Days that there was a sort of Necessity of filling up Books of this kind with such pleasant Legends as the Chat of the Country or a good Invention would afford a Man It 's worth our observation that none of the Writers of his own Life have mention'd one single Miracle wrought by him because they had enough of Truth to relate Not but that we may boldly reckon him as a Foreign Minister is said once to have done a much better Saint than many of those Thaumaturgi that we read of in his History There was a Paraphrase very early made of it in the English Saxon Tongue which has been printed together with the
been translated into the old English-Saxon Tongue that took the Story higher The like says Pits was penn'd by Wolstan the same famous Monk of Winchester who about the Year 1000 did as much for St. Ethelwald but I can hear of this piece no where else St. Wilfrid's uneasie Life and Sufferings were first regester'd by Eddius or Heddius a noted Monk of Canterbury whence he was brought by Wilfrid himself to instruct his Quire-men of the Kingdom of Northumberland in the Art of Singing Out of this which is lately publish'd by Dr. Gale there was a second Account taken in Latin Rhime by Fridegod another Monk of the same Church who was put upon the Employment by Odo Archbishop of Canterbury The Arch-bishop himself wrote a Preface to the Book which was omitted by Mabillon but is since published by another and for this Mr. Pits makes him a distinct Writer of St. Wilfrid's Life A Third was written in Prose by Eadmerus and a fourth by Petrus Blesensis dedicated to Jeofrey A. B. of York So that this Petrus Blesensis and Mr. Pit's Petrus Ripponensis tho' he makes them two several Authors are the same Person There is now in my Possession a Latin Manuscript Life of this Saint which perhaps may be the same with the last mention'd It is certainly different from the three first and seems not to have Length enough for that tedious Discourse on this Subject which is said to have been written by one Stephen a Priest and Epitomiz'd by William of Malmesbury It begins Anâ—â— igitur ab Incar natione Verbi Dei Sexceiâ—â—esimo tricesimo quarto and ends with St. Wilfrid's Epitaph in twenty Hexameters St. Wulstan as two of his immediate Predecessors held the Arch-bishoprick of York together with the Bishoprick of Worcester and was Sainted for the same Reasons as St. Oswald There 's a double Account of his Life already publish'd a short one by Hemming a Monk of Worcester and another more at large by the famous Will. of Malmesbury But what 's become of those by Bravonius and M. Paris we know not These are they that make the most considerable Figure in the Saxon Calendar and whose Lives being most amply treated on will afford some Passages that may be of use to our English Historian Nor are the little inferior Saints of those times to be wholly despised by him He 'll meet with abundance of such in the several Voluminous Collections to which we sometimes referr him And I dare promise that in most of 'em he shall frequently discover some hidden Treasure even in the midst of the most drossy Miracles CHAP. III. Of our Church-Historians from the Conquest to the Reformation THE Subject of this Chapter is in a great measure dispatch'd already The general Historians of the Kingdom during this whole Period were mostly Monks and other Church-men who have taken care to Register our Ecclesiastical Transactions as accurately as the Civil and to carry along with them the Affairs of our Church and State together Canon-Law and Appeals to Rome were first brought into England in King Stephen's Reign upon the Debates that arose betwixt the Bishop of Winchester the Pope's Legate and the AB of Canterbury And these soon introduced that Exaltation of the Clergy that they were necessarily in at every thing no Intriegue either of the Court or Camp being to be manag'd without them So that 't is no wonder if after that time our Histories are generally cramm'd with Disputes and other Matters of a purely Ecclesiastical Nature and the main Body of 'em look like the Annals of Saint Peter's Patrimony Odericus or Ordericus Vitalis ends his Ecclesiastical History at the Year 1121. some time before these Alterations happen'd in England He was Monk of St. Eurole's Vtici in Normandy where he lived 56 Years The most of his Thirteen Books are spent in Affairs of the Church within his own Native Country But towards the latter end he has intermix'd a great many Passages that relate to us There are in his Writings two Faults and they are great ones which Lucian of old condemn'd in History For 1. He 's immoderate in the Praise of his Friends and the Dispraise of his Enemies either all Panegyrick or all Satyr Now such Discourses are rightly observed to be strangely monstrous and unnatural Productions They want Meeter to become Poems and Truth to make them just Histories 2. He 's too large in his Descriptions of little petit Matters and on the contrary passes too cursorily over some things of such weight as would well endure Reflection and a second Thought We are told of one Richard Pluto who was Monk of Canterbury A. D. 1181. a Writer of the Ecclesiastical History of England which he dedicated to Richard Duke of Normandy Where or what it is I know not But what is hop'd for in that Book may possibly be found in the Burtonenses Annales written I suppose by some Monk of Burton in Staffordshire For it begins with the Foundation of that Monastery A. D. 1004. and ends at the Year 1263. Many Passages in it are borrow'd from Roger Hoveden whom the Author calls Hugh and not a few from M. Paris The latter of these was certainly Cotemporary with this Author whoever he was and they may be to good purpose read together The Reader will meet with a great many remarkable Stories in it that are hardly to be had elsewhere none perhaps having a better Collection of Letters Memorials c. of the Church-History of those Times The Defects of these Annals will be in part supply'd by W. Linwood's Provinciale being a Collection of Canons and Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted and publish'd by no less than Fourteen Arch-bishops of Canterbury from Stephen Langton inclusively down to Henry Chicheley These give us a View of what Points were chiefly under Debate in the Church for about 200 Years and are rank'd after the Example of the Decretals under several distinct Titles or Common Places having annex'd to them a large Commentary or Gloss of the Learn'd Collector's own composure This Writer was Dr. of Laws Official of Canterbury and at last Bishop of St. Davids after he had been imploy'd by King Henry the Fifth in several Embassies and entrusted with his Privy-Seal The Book was first publish'd by Jodocus Badius and dedicated to Arch-bishop Warham but the Abbreviations in the Original MS. being retain'd in this and two following Editions it was lately reprinted at Oxford much more accurately and correct The Legatine Constitutions of the two Cardinals Otho and Othobon in the Years 1236 and 1268. have been always added to these in the Prints together with the like Commentaries of John Acton or Athon sometime Prebendary of Lincoln The Oxford Edition gives us the Canons of the several Arch-bishops entire and apart as well as in that confusion to which Linwood's Method had reduced them
and it also intermixes some other Edicts of a spiritual kind such as Edward the First 's Statute of Circumspecte Agatis the Decree of the University of Oxford against some Tenets of Wickliff c. Lastly it furnishes us with some other Canons made by Stafford and Waâ—ham which will bring us down as low as the beginning of the Reformation What is here missing may be sought for in Sir Henry Spelman's second Volume of our English Councils which unhappily wanted the finishing Hand of its Author Indeed he was so far from perfecting what he had projected that he is said to have left no more than 57 Sheets of the 200. which are now publish'd under his Name the rest being entirely owing to the indefatigable Pains of our late excellent Antiquary Sir William Dugdale 'T is a pity that the joint Labours of two such great Men as these should stand in need of a third Hand to compleat them And yet the Errors that were committed either in Transcribing or Printing or both are apparently so many that we cannot but earnestly wish that better care may be taken in a second Edition Arch-bishop Sheldon and Chancellour Hide thought such a Structure as this worth the rearing and will none of the present Patrons of our Church think fit to repair it Mr. Somner has long since made a considerable advance toward so good a Work having with great Pains and Accuracy collated the Printed Copy with many of the Original Records and in the Margin amended the infinite Defects This Book is now amongst others of the same worthy Person 's valuable Labours in the Library at Canterbury where it cannot lie much longer in obscurity After the Papal Yoke was thrown off in that great Revolution which was begun in our Church by King Henry the Eighth and finish'd by Queen Elizabeth the Roman Emissaries try'd all imaginable Expedients to reduce us to our former Obedience and amongst others spared no Pains in representing to us the Primitive State of Christianity in this Isle The first of these doughty Champions was Nicholas Harpesfield sometime Arch-Deacon of Canterbury but outed A. D. 1559. for refusing the Oath of Supremacy John Pits says he was afterwards imprison'd So far from it that AB Parker took him into his own particular care and gave him all the assistance he could wish for in compiling what he calls his Ecclesistaical History of the British Church In the first Ages he has lazily follow'd Bede and Malmesbury transcribing the very Errors of such Copies as he met with and not giving himself leisure to examine the Incoherencies in Chronology and other Contradictions that he delivers for good and grave History In after-times he amasses Things together out of the Registraries and other Helps he had at hand without any sort of Order or Form Insomuch that sometimes the Reader is plagued with several Sheets of tedious Impertinences and elsewhere scarce meets with the bare Names of the Prelates for some Ages together Some things are said to have been expunged out of his Original Manuscript by the Licenser of his Book being mostly particular Opinions of his own condemning the Discords Broils and ambitious Poverty of the begging Fryers So that we may probably want the best part of his Work since this would have a little ballanc'd that load of Infamy which he endeavours to lay upon the chief of our Reformers I confess our Oxford Antiquary gives a somewhat different Character of this History Quo quidem in Libro Eruditio an Industria conspicua magis sit haud facile dicendum Vtroque revera Nomine laudandus adeo comparet ut nisi partium studio abductus suorum in Vtilitatem omnia rapuisset haud modice de Republica Literaria meruisset Another Zealous engager in this undertaking was the famous Jesuite Robert Parsons who wrote an Account of the three Conversions of England from Paganism to Christianity in as many little Volumes The first of these he ascribes to St. Peter whom he very Logically proves to have been here because he was not at Rome when St. Paul sent his Epistle thither His story of King Lucius's change is shewn to be borrow'd from Baronius who also tho' he would have been loath to have own'd any such thing had it from the Centuriators The whole seems to have been design'd in answer to Mr. Fox whom he profess'dly opposes throughout a great part of his Second and Third Volumes He represents that Author as a Person very ignorant and very dishonest perverting the Sense in some of his Quotations and mistaking it in others Rich. Smith Titular Bishop of Chalcedon who took upon him to exercise Episcopal Jurisdiction here in the beginning of K. Charles the First 's Reign was not much short of Parsons in Learning and was certainly much his superior in that Candour and fair Dealing which ought to be the Property of an Historian He made very large Collections out of our English Histories which were publish'd in seven Books under the Title of Flores Ecclesiasticae Historiae Gentis Anglorum The whole Volume is rather an indigested heap of Materials than a just and formal History and thus much may be said in it's commendation that it honestly Quotes the Reform'd Writers as well as those of the Author 's own Persuasion After these Flores came out the Annales Ecclesiae Britannicae in four Volumes by Michael Alford a Jesuite whose true Name is said to be Griffith From this Work a late Learn'd Member of our Church has well prov'd how vain and empty are the brags of our Romanists who are frequently valuing themselves upon the great Treasure they have of our Ancient English Records These they say were carry'd off by Monks and other Religious People who were forc'd to fly in the last Age and are now in Salva Custodia in several Monasteries beyond the Seas 'T is much as he unanswerably argues that none of their own Friends should ever reap any Benefit from these mighty Spoils that this same Alford for Example should not have the Advantage of one of those Venerable Instruments to grace his Book but be forced to run on in the beaten Track and fetch all his Quotations from such printed Authors as we poor Hereticks have publish'd for him This is the true state of his Case There 's nothing in him that carries a Face of Antiquity save only some few Shreds that were pick'd up at Lambeth by Harpsfield who has furnish'd him and his Brethren with whatever looks this way Out of this Gentleman and some more of our late publish'd Historians Serenus Cressy compil'd his Church-History which should have been brought down to the Dissolution of Monasteries by K. Henry the Eighth tho' what is publish'd reaches no lower than the Conquest 'T was much wondred by those that had been acquainted with this Learned Person in Oxford before he fled to the Roman
Communion how he came to stuff his Book so full of Legendary Miracles since a Man of good substantial Learning and that enlargement of Thought which usually accompanies it is very rarely split upon such Rocks Yet let this be said for him says honest and blunt Anthony Wood that for as much as he mostly quotes his Authors for and leaves what he says to the Judgment of the Readers he is to be excused and in the mean time to be commended for his grave and good Style proper for an Ecclesiastical Historian In the rear of these let us remember such as have penn'd the Lives of those few Saints that flourish'd in the English Church after the Conquest who have been usually Canoniz'd for such Exploits as in our days are commonly thought to desevre another sort of Treatment St. Anselm who is believed to have a better Title to his Saint-ship than any of those that follow had great contests with Henry the First about Investitures an Account whereof with the other Remarkables of his Life was written by John of Salisbury an Author much commended by Petrus Blesensis 'T is the same with that which is now extant in Manuscript I suppose in the Library at Lambeth and goes by the Name of John Carnotensis St. Edmund's is said to be penn'd by Rob Bacon a secular Priest and Dr. of Divinity in Oxford who is also reported to have been sometime Servant to that eminently learn'd and pious Arch-bishop The same Authority assures us that 't was likewise written by his only Brother and Companion in all the varieties of his Fortune Robert Rich as also by M. Paris Let me add 't was also written by Albert AB of Prussia the Pope's Legate St. Gilbert of Sempringham the Founder of our Famous English Order of Gilbertines had his Life written by a modest Brother of his own Order who dedicates his Work to Hubert AB of Canterbury This is publish'd in the Monasticon out of the Cottonian Library St. Goodric Nicholaus Dunelmensis a Monk of Durham was as M. Paris tells the Story a great Comrade of an Eminent Hermit of his Time call'd Goodric whose Life Nicolas being by some of his Friends desired to Write and Publish he acquainted Goodric with the Design and desired his Assistance But instead of having an Account of the remarkable instances of Piety and Mortification which he expected the Hermite gives him a long Schedule of all the Crimes he had been guilty of during his whole Life Yet on a second Importunity his request was granted and plenty of Materials given for such a Treatise St. Remigius and St. Hugh were both Bishops of Lincoln and had their Histories written in the same Treatise by Gyraldus Cambrensis The latter having himself been sometimes Prior of a Carthusian Monastery at Witham in Somersetshire had his Life also written by one Adam a Monk of that Order which is suppos'd to be done about the Year 1340. St. Richard de Witz or Wych Bishop of Chichester was sometime Chaplain to St. Edmund and so intimately privy to all the Severities of his Life that he could not well avoid the being very exemplary afterwards in his own Conversation This and the Miracles that were necessary upon such an Occasion procur'd for him an Enrolment in the Calendar of Saints by Pope Vrban in the Year 1259. And Ralph Rocking his Confessor wrote two Books of the History of his Life and Wonders which he dedicated to Isabel Countess of Arundel St. Robert's is reckon'd amongst the Works of Joceline Bracland a Learn'd Monk of St. Edmundsbury about the Year 1214. St. Thomas Becket was the great Goliah Saint of these times and as his Shrine out-did that of all the Martyrs that had gone before him so his Life and Miracles have had more Writers to record them for the use of after Ages than the most Glorious Adventures of the best of our Kings The following long list of 'em may be pick'd out of Leland Bale and Pits together with some of our later Authors 1. Herbert Bosenham Boseham or Bosseham Secretary to this Arch-bishop who was also present at the Slaughter of him Others call him Herb. de Hoscham and by that Name we shall shortly meet with him again 2. Edward a Monk of Canterbury the Martyr's most intimate Friend 3. Joh. Salesburiensis who accompanied Becket in his Exile but never countenanc'd him in his Misbehaviour towards his Sovereign being as sharp a Writer against the Encroachments of the Papal See as any Man of his time 4. Barthol Iscanus or Exoniensis Bishop of Exeter where he dy'd A. D. 1184. 5. E. a Monk of Evesham who dedicated his Book or wrote by way of Epistle to Henry Abbot of Croyland 6. Will. Stephens or Fitz-Stephen a Monk of Canterbury and for that reason some times call'd Guilielmus Cantuariensis He is said to have written three several Treatises of the Life Martyrdom and Miracles of this precious Saint which we are told are now in Cottons Library But that which there carrys his Name seems to have been penn'd by Joh. Carnotensis who is the same Person with Salesburiensis above mention'd since in the Quadripartite History what we have from him is often in the same Words in that Life there attributed to Fitz-Stephen 7. Benedictus Petroburgensis Abbot of Peterborough who dy'd in the Year 1200. 8. Alanus Teukesburiensis Abbot also of the Monastery from whence he had that surname who liv'd and dy'd about the same time 9. Roger Monk of Croyland who liv'd about the Year 1214. 'T is observ'd that St. Thomas's Miracles encreased so fast in his time that as late as he was started he had matter enough for Seven full Volumes in composing whereof he spent no less then Fifteen Years 10. Stephen Langton a famous Successor of his in the See of Canterbury whose Work on this Subject is said to be in the Library of Bennet College 11. Alexander de Hales so call'd from the Monastery of Hales in Glocestershire where he was sometime Educated one of the most eminent Schoolmen of his Age Master to Thomas Aquinas and S. Bonaventure c. 12. John Grandison or Graunston Bishop of Exeter who dy'd in the Year 1369. 13. Quadrilogus or the Author of the Book entitled De Vita Processu Thomâ— Cantuariensis Martyris super Libertate Ecclesiastica 'T is collected out of Four Historians who were Cotemporary and conversant with him in his height of Glory and lowest depression Herbert de Hoscham Joh. Carnotensis Will. of Canterbury and Alan of Tukesbury who are brought in as so many several Relators of Matters of Fact interchangeably This Book was long since printed in an Old Character and senseless Method and is often quoted by our Historians in the Reign of Henry the Second by the Name of Quadripartita Historia
his many Treatises those that fall under our present Consideration are De Martyrio quorundam temp Hen. 8. Elizab. running in the same Strain with those of the like Title already mention'd 2. De Origine Progressu Schismatis Anglicani with such Enlargements as were made to it by Edward Rishton another Popish Emissary Qui impie ingratus in Principem cui vitam debuit publicatis scriptis malitiae Virus illieo evomuit This Libellous Invective was mainly design'd for a Calumny upon Queen Elizabeth in her Birth and Parentage It was not in her Reign allow'd to be answer'd because such an impudent Slander 't was thought would soonest fall to nothing if slighted and despised But this allowance of its walking abroad without controul has embolden'd some in our Days to magnifie its Authority and to quote it as a Story of great Truth and Gravity Hence it has had the Honour to be translated by a Polite Pen into French A respect which had formerly been pay'd it in Italian by Pollini who tho' he pretended to write a History of his own yet in reality was no more than a Translator of Sanders But sufficient care has been taken by our Learn'd Bishop Burnet to guard the English Protestant Reader against any Mistake that this bold Romancer might lead him into by publishing a Catalogue and Refutation of his Calumnies and Lies His Stile is generally clean and pretty and his way of telling his Tales is facetious enough and pleasant So that the Book may pass with Argenis and Euphormio for good Diversion but ought not to be rely'd on for sound History Great were the Clamours of many other Romanists upon this Kingdom 's breaking the Papal Tyranny and the Monarchy's resuming its ancient and just Rights insomuch that Pamphlets were penn'd and publish'd by Men of all Professions Priests Lawyers and Lay-Gentlemen aspersing our Reformers with Heresy Schism Apostacy c. As much of these as falls under our present Consideration has been amply reply'd to by Sir Roger Twisden in his most elaborate Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism as it stands separated from the Roman and was reform'd 1 Eliz. Wherein he shews 1. How the Papal Usurpations grew upon us and what immense Sums they extorted from the English Clergy 2. That our Kings were always believ'd to be invested with a Plenary Power in sacris as much as is at this Day acknowledg'd by our Laws 3. That the Procedure of our Princes in this Separation from the Roman See was agreeable to that Power and consistent with the legal and primitive Constitution of our Government These Particulars he proves at large by the irrefragable Authorities of a vast number of our old Histories and Records wherein no Man was ever better vers'd than this truly Learned and Religious Baronet Tho' Sir Henry Spelman speaks of a third Tome of his Councils which should give us a Collection of all the Acts and Constitutions of our Reform'd English Church as of a Work already finish'd and ready for the Press we have no great encouragement to enquire after any such thing We have seen in what an imperfect Condition the second was left at his Death and tho' his Grandson acknowledges some assistance given in the Edition of that Volume by Mr. Stephens who he says not only Corrected the Press but brought in a deal of Materials yet he says nothing of any such Provision like to be made for the sending abroad his Grandfathers third Tome The Truth is the Gentleman takes no notice of his chief Benefactor in that Matter who was as has been already observ'd Sir Will. Dugdale and who seems to have had a Resolution to have compleated the whole Work Amongst his MSS. at Oxford there 's one Volume of his own Collections which he has Entitled Papers to be made use of for a Third Volume of the Councils or History of the Reformation And there 's no doubt but they will be found to contain most of what was any where to be had on that Subject Thomas Fuller's Church-History must have the next Place for tho' he begins higher and goes lower than the strict limits of this Chapter would require his chief business falls within the Times we are speaking of It starts with the first planting of Christianity in this Island and ends with the Death of King Charles the First 'T is divided into Eleven Books whereof the Sixth gives the History of the Abbies of England from the first rise of Monkery to the final Eradication of it under Henry the VIII These are subdivided into lesser Sections which are severally dedicated to such Patrons as were most likely to make their due acknowledgments to the Author Nor were these Infant Lords and Rich Aldermen the only People he design'd to flatter He was to make his Court to the Powers then in fashion and he well knew nothing would be more grateful to them than squinting Reflections on the Management of the Late King 's chief Ministers of State Eminent Church-men c. For such mis-behaviour as this he was severely taken to task by Peter Heylin in his Examen Historicum to which was added Dr. Cosin's Apology in Answer to some Passages in that History which concern'd himself We have formerly observ'd that his Worthies were sent abroad to Apologize for the mistakes in his Church-History and we have here an ample instance of the Truth of that Remark Upon the King's Restauration Dr. Cosin was deservedly advanc'd to the See of Durham and 't was then high time to harp upon another string and to turn his Eloquence another way The late wavering Doctor is now the very Atlas of the Protestant Religion confirming the same with his Piety and Learning c. But to what purpose should we insist upon Particulars Through the whole he is so full of his own Wit that he does not seem to have minded what he was about The Gravity of an Historian much more an Ecclesiastical one requires a far greater care both of the Matter and Style of His Work than is here to be met with If a pretty Story comes in his way that affords scope for Clinch and Droll off it goes with all the gayety of the Stage without staying to enquire whether it have any Foundation in Truth or not and even the most serious and most authentic Parts of it are so interlac'd with Punn and Quibble that it looks as if the Man had design'd to ridicule the Annals of our Church into Fable and Romance Yet if it were possible to refine it well the Work would be of good use since there are in it some things of Moment hardly to be had elsewhere which may often illustrate dark Passages in more serious Writers These are not to be despised where his Authorities are cited and appear Credible But otherwise in matters wherein he 's singular and
without his Vouchers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first that attempted a formal History of our Reformation was Dr. Peter Heylyn who upon the return of Monarchy and Episcopacy publish'd his Book entitl'd Ecclesia Restaurata wherein he pretends to give a punctual account of the rise and progress of that great Work But the first Agitations in Religion as he calls them are very slenderly touch'd his Story beginning at the Year 1537. What he chiefly design'd by it I cannot well apprehend unless 't was to shew K. Charles the Second the Errors and Mistakes of our first Reformers and to direct him how to settle the Church on a better Foundation For he falls foul on all the Princes of those Times without any regard to their good or ill Wishes to the Protestant Interest He represents K. Edward the Sixth as one of ill Principles and Soft and Censures his Mother's Relations with a more than ordinary Freedom He intimates as if the Zwinglian Gospellers would have carri'd all before them had that Prince Liv'd and observes they were far too rife in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reformation when many were rais'd to great Preferments who were too much inclin'd to the Platform of Geneva On the other hand Queen Mary's Bloodiness is no where set off in so lively a Paint as where he tells us She admitted of a Consultation for burning the Body of her Father and cutting off the Head of her Sister 'T is a good Rule which a modern Critick gives his Historian That he should have a Regard to his own Birth and not forget the Respect due to the Memory of those Princes that have Govern'd his native Country As this should restrain a Man from exposing the Failures of such Governours in their own Persons so it ought to caution him against making too free with the Frailties of their Kindred and Councellors He concludes with the Act of Establishing the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops in the Eighth Year of Queen Elizabeth whose famous Court of High Commission he calls the Principal Bulwark and Preservative of the Church of England If the Reader desires any further Character of this Writer and his History 't is given him by one who should be best acquainted with it He wrote says he Smoothly and Handsomly His Method and Style are good and his Work was generally more read than any thing that had appear'd before him But either he was very ill inform'd or very much led by his Passions and being wrought on by some Violent Prejudices against some that were concern'd in that Time he delivers many things in such a manner and so strangely that one would think he had been secretly set on to it by those of the Church of Rome Tho' I doubt not but he was a sincere Protestant but violently carri'd away by some particular Conceits In one thing he is not to be excused That he never vouch'd any Authority for what he wrote which is not to be forgiven any who write of Transactions beyond their own Time and deliver new things not known before The most of his Materials I guess were had from the Transcript which AB Laud caus'd to be made of all that related to the Story of the Reformation out of those eight large Volumes of Collections that are still in the Cottonian Library So that upon what Grounds he wrote a great deal of his Book we can only conjecture and many in their Guesses are not apt to be very favourable to him I know endeavours have been used to blunt the Edge of this Censure by one who has done all that a true Friend could do to place the Doctor and his Writings in a better Light But what would that kind Gentleman have said to a sharper Sentence pass'd by another Learn'd Prelate on this Book How would he have resented the telling the World that Dr. Heylin's representing our first Reformers as Fanaticks was an Angry and Scandalous injury to Truth and our Church This I confess is very hard Language but perhaps it may more easily be digested than refused The Defects of the foremention'd Author were abundantly supply'd in the more compleat History of our Reformation by Dr. Burnet the present Bishop of Salisbury whose first Volume was publish'd in the Year 1679. by Secretary Coventry's Order and Dedicated to K. Charles the Second In the Months of December and January in the Year following 1680. The Historian had the Thanks of both Houses of Parliament for what he had already done and was desired to proceed to the finishing of the whole Work which was done accordingly This History gives a punctual Account of all the Affairs of the Reformation from it 's first beginnings in the Reign of Henry the Eighth till it was finally compleated and setled by Queen Elizabeth A. D. 1559. And the whole is penn'd in such a Masculine Style as becomes an Historian and such as is this Author's Property in all his Writings The Collection of Records which he gives in the conclusion of each Volume are good Vouchers of the Truth of all he delivers as such in the Body of his History and are much more perfect than could reasonably be expected after the Pains taken in Q. Maries days to suppress every thing that carry'd the Marks of the Reformation upon it The Work has had so much Justice done it as to meet with a general Acceptance abroad and to be translated into most of the European Languages insomuch that even the most Picquant of the Author's Enemies allow it to have a Reputation firmly and deservedly establish'd Indeed some of the French Writers have cavill'd at it But the most eminent of them Mr. Varillas and Mr. Le Grand have receiv'd due correction from the Author himself It was no wonder to see some Members of the Roman Communion laying out their best endeavours to raise themselves a Name by so glorious a Service to their Church as the disparagement of this Writer and the disgracing his History might justly have been reckon'd But 't was a little unaccountable that the same Rancour should possess Men within the Pale of our Reform'd English Church and such as desired to be looked upon as Zealous maintainers of Her Honour and the Justice and Honesty of her Reformation The first of these was S. Lowth who pretended only to batter the Erastian Tenets in Mr. Hobbes's Leviathan But took occasion in the conclusion of his Book to Censure the Account Dr. Burnet had given of some of Arch-bishop Cranmer's singular Opinions This Gentleman had the confidence to assert That both our Historian and Dr. Stillingfleet had impos'd upon the World in that Particular and had unfaithfully joyn'd together in their endeavours to lessen Episcopal Ordination I am not now concern'd with his Charge against Dr. Stillingfleet who did him the Honour which he ought not to have hoped for to expose his Folly in a
to Malmesbury's and 't is done with all the heartiness that becomes a familiar Epistle and a Freedom inclining to Satyr Ralph de Diceto follow'd these with a Catalogue of his own drawing from the coming in of Augustine the Monk to the beginning of King John's Reign But there 's little in it worth the publishing Joh. Eversden a Monk of Bury who dy'd says Pits about the Year 1636. is said to have written de Episcopis Anglìae as well as de Regibus But Mr. Wharton could never meet with any such Treatise He found he says some of Mr. Joceline's Collections out of Eversden's Chronicle So that perhaps he 's the same Man with that Johannes Buriensis whom we have mention'd in the First Part. We are also told of a like Book by one Nicolas Montacute or Manacutius who is believed to have been sometime Master of Eaton School because forsooth most of his Works were in the Library of that College What good Things were heretofore in that Library I know not But upon a late Search nothing could be found that bore this Author's Name save only a pitiful Treatise at Lambeth de Pontificibus Romanis not worth the reading I fancy somebody's quoting this under the Title de Pontificibus simply has given occasion to Bale and Pits who collected and wrote in haste to Naturalize all his Bishops Polydore Virgil's Book or Scrowl of our English Prelates is boasted of in our Seminaries beyond Seas And his great Antagonist John Leland assures us he had taken mighty care to collect their Remains Et majori cura propediem in ordinem redigam He had many other grand Projects in his Head which came to nothing John Pits likewise very gravely refers his Readers in many parts of his Book de Illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus to another of his own composure de Episcopis which we are credibly inform'd is only a poor and silly Abstract of the first and worst Edition of that which falls next under our Thoughts and deserves to be separately consider'd Francis Godwine Son of Tho. Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells was most fortunate in his Commentary as he calls it on this Subject being himself advanced to the Episcopal Order for the good Services that as Queen Elizabeth thought he had done the Church by that Book It was twice published in English equally full of the Authors and Printer's Mistakes The Faults of the latter Edition especially were so very gross that they put him upon the speedy dispatch of another in Latine which came out the next Year The Style of this is very neat and clean and he seems to have taken more Pains in polishing it than in gathering together all the Materials of his History He quotes no Authorities excepting belike that Posterity should acquiesce in his singly without enquiring any further He is particularly ungrateful to the Author of the Antiquitates Britannicae from whom he has borrow'd by the Great his Account of the See of Canterbury varying only the Phrase and that sometimes for the worse The like Carriage he is guilty of towards Bale Camden and others But what is most especially notorious is his transcribing out of Josseline and Mason what he pretends to have had immediately from the Archives and Registraries from the Year 1559 to his own Time He is also frequently guilty of Chronological Mistakes a too confident Reliance on the Authorities of counterfeit Charters in Ingulfus and others an uncertain Calculation of Years beginning some at Michaelmas and others at Christmas c. as his Authors blindly led him and lastly a contenting himself with false and imperfect Catalogues of the Prelates in almost every Diocess These are the Failures where with he stands charg'd by Mr. Wharton who modestly assures us that a better Progress had been made in these Matters by himself within the compass of Eighteen Months than by this Bishop in Twenty Years Our Oxford Antiquary further complains that he Puritanically vilified Popish Bishops with a Design thereby to advance the Credit of those since the Reformation whereby he had given unlucky Advantages to William Prynne the profess'd Enemy of Episcopacy who made ill use of his Book I will not say that either of these Censurers are mistaken but I must observe to the Reader that each of them intended to have furnish'd us with a View of this part of our Ecclesiastical History of his own drawing and therefore like all new Builders they must be allow'd to spy more Faults in the old Fabrick than others can The former has help'd us to a noble Stock of old Writers upon the Affairs of a great many of our Sees from their Foundation in his Anglia Sacra and the latter has given us almost an entire History of our Bishops for the two last Centuries in his Athenae Oxonienses These are good Materials and such as will direct to more of the same kind whereof there are good store in the Bodleian and Cottonian Libraries We long only for a skilful Architect to put them into the Figure we desire And I hear the Work is at last put into the Hands of a Person who wants none of those Helps or Qualifications that are necessary to the Undertaking Hitherto we have mention'd only such as have written the History of our Prelacy with an honest Intent to represent it to the World in its proper and true Colours we have others that have made it their Business to daub it with false Paint endeavouring to give such Pourtraictures of our Bishops as might most effectually defame and prostitute the sacred Order The first of these was one Thomas Gibson a Fanatical Physitian in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign who entitl'done of his Treatises A History of the Treasons of the Bishops since the Norman Conquest Whether this was ever Printed my Author cannot inform me The next was Sir John Harring ton of Kelweston who soon after K. James the First 's arrival in England began to draw together some malicious Remarks upon the Bishops of his Time which he at last finish'd under the Title of A brief view of the state of the Church of England as it stood in Queen Elizabeth 's and King Jame 's Reign to the Year 1608. It was presented by the Author in Manuscript to Prince Henry from whom the Presbyterian Faction expected great Alterations in Church-Government After the downfal of Episcopacy it fell into such Hands as brought it to the Press believing it to be a proper Antidote against the return of the plaguy Hierarchis The last of this Gang was that eternal Scribler Will. Prynne who rak'd together all the Dirt that had been thrown at any of our Bishops by the most inveterate and implacable of all their Enemies and hap'd it into a large Dunghil-Book inscrib'd The Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy both to legal Monarchy and civil Vnity Wherein he pretends to give
to counterfeit Acts when they have none that are true Mr. Wheloâ— quotes an old Saxon Schedule of the endowments of our ancient Monasteries before the Conquest which he says is in the same Volume with King Aelfred's Paraphrastical version of Bede's History in the Cottonian Library and yet the learned Publisher of the Catalogue of those Manuscripts takes no notice of any such Tract in the place where if at all it ought to have been mention'd We are also told of an Historical Account of the Benedictines in England from King Edgar's time to the Conquest which is as high as that Order could be traced in this Kingdom For whatever may be argued to the contrary 't is very plain that our first Saxon Monks knew nothing of St. Bennet's Rule but lived under the Discipline brought from Ireland which was very much different from what was afterwards introduced by St. Dunstan If Augustine himself was of this Order and planted it at Canterbury which is much questioned by very Learn'd Men 't is demonstrable the Rules were soon forgotten or laid aside even in the southern Parts of the Island and in the North Columbanus and the Men of Hy were the Founders of all our Monastic Schemes After the Norman Invasion we had several Members of particular Monasteries that apply'd themselves to write the Histories of their own Houses but few that had any such concern for the Honour of their Orders in general The first I can hear of was Henry Crump a Cistertian Monk about the Year 1380 and Dr. of Divinity in the University of Oxford who wrote an Account of the Foundation of all the Monasteries of England from the time of St. â—irin the first Bishop of Dorchester down to that of Bishop 〈◊〉 But 't is to be fear'd this is now lost since it could not be found by one whom hardly any thing of that kind could escape After him John Boston a Monk of St. Edmondsbury who will be remember'd hereafter on another Occasion Collected the Histories of the Foundations of his own and some other Religious Orders which I suppose was done in those three Books which bore the Title of Speculum Coenobitarum The next Writer on this Subject was William Buttoner who is also named Buttonius and William of Worcester who is said to have written De Civitatibus Monasteriis Abbatiis deque Longitudine Latitudine eorum which Treatise we are assured is in the Library of Bennet College I am very confident that the Topographical Description of England which has been already mention'd in the first part is the whole of this Gentleman's Labours and that this Treatise has been sub-divided into 〈◊〉 deal of lesser Tracts such as his Itinerary of Bristol History of Osney c. by the same Powers that sliced the Man himself into three several Authors Sir Henry Savile did certainly make a draught of a future History of the English Monasteries but is supposed to have laid aside those Thoughts upon John Speed's intermixing something of that Nature in his General History The Annual Revenues of the Abbies c. in Speed were had from Sir Robert Cotton whose Copy has a double Valuation of computed and clear Profits whereof the former is only given by Speed and the latter by Dugdale The Reason why the former of these Writers is so frequently mistaken in assigning the right Counties to the several Monasteries was because he follow'd the List brought in by Cromwell's Commissioners who were chiefly sollicitous in learning the Value and Income without being too nice in the Topographical part of their Account This is what we have from a very learn'd Pen To which let me add what another worthy Person who has been very happy in his searches into these Matters has further told us That Catalogue he observes was drawn up by William Burton out of Leland's Papers and the Original Book of Valuations which Book differs indeed from that ancient Copy which Sir William Dugdale transcrib'd from the Cottonian Library Nor are these to be reconcil'd by deducting of Reprises as appears from the History of those in Dugdale's Warwickshire where all those common Burthens of Pensions Corrodies Alms c. are summ'd up so that he inclines to the Opinion that there were several Rates taken of our Monasteries upon various Surveys and at different Times especially since he meets with some Valuations in Leland's Notes that will not agree with either of these Richard Broughton who has been once remember'd before wrote a small Book of indigested Tales which he entitl'd Monasticon Britannicum or A Historical Narration of the first Founding and flourishing State of the Ancient Monasteries Religious Rules and Orders of Great Britain in the Times of the Britains and Primitive Church of the Saxons c. This was printed a dozen Years after the Death of the Author by some of his Friends so that 't is probable we have it much more imperfect than he intended and in such an unfinish'd Condition as the mistaken Kindness of Executors too frequently send things abroad The same Year was publish'd the First Volume of the famous Monasticon Anglicanum to which a Second and Third were afterwards added The two former of these were as the Title-Pages will inform us owing to the joint Labours of Sir Will. Dugdale and Mr. Dodsworth who had also the Assistance of a great many other eminent Antiquaries and Well-wishers to our English History These were indeed chiefly the Work of R. Dodsworth whose Father was Register at York and Dugdale had only so much share in it Vt Authoris alterius Titulum optime meritus sit as Sir John Marsham expresses it That is as the Oxford-Antiquary explains it to us He took care in the Methodizing and Publishing of them in Correcting the Sheets at the Press and in Composing very useful Indexes Accordingly tho' Dodsworth was dead before the printing of the First Volume yet he has the glory given him in the Title of the principal Author of both Tomes The former of these gives us the Records of the Benedictine Monasteries and their Off-spring the Cluniacenses Cistertians and Carthusians And the latter affords those of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine Hospitalers Templars Gilbertines Praemanstratenses and the Maturines or Trinitarians We have in them the Remains of all those Orders digested into a good Method without any thing intermix'd either by the Collector or Publisher The Latin Pieces are printed off exactly as they found them and those in Saxon as also Leland's English Notes were translated by Will. Somner The Collector ought to be reckon'd amongst those worthy Benefactors to the Publick that have made it their Business to preserve our ancient Historians such as Twisden Fell Gale c. Great and many are the Advantages which all the several Branches of our History not only in Ecclesiastical but Civil and Martial Occurrences will derive from this
of greatest note since the Reformation were penn'd by Tho. White alias Woodhop a Monk of Doway where he dy'd of the Plague in 1654. A Manuscript Copy of this was in Mr. Wood's possession and I suppose is now among those Books that he Bequeath'd to the University in the Musaeum at Oxford But the chief of our Historians of this Order was Clement Reyner whose elaborate Book is Entitl'd Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia sive Decerptatio Historica de Antiquitate Ordinis Congregationisque Monachorum Nigrorum in Anglia His Business is to prove that the Order was brought hither by Augustine Arch-bishop of Canterbury and he is thought by some of our best Antiquaries to have effectually prov'd his Point and to have fairly Answer'd all the Objections against it He is said to have had great helps from the Collections made by John Jones or Leander de Sancto Martino as he nam'd himself Prior of St. Gregory's and Publick Professor of Divinity at Doway who sojourning sometime in England with his heretofore Chamber-fellow Arch-bishop Laud had frequent access to the Cotton-Library where he transcrib'd whatever he could find that related to the History aâ—d Antiquities of his own Order Others say that the most of the Collections out of this Library which were used by our Author Reyner were made by Augustine Baker another Monk of Doway who left several Volumes in Folio of Select Matters very serviceable towards the Illustrating of this and other parts of our English History However it was Sir Thomas Bodley's Library was thought the most proper Magazine to furnish out Artillery against the Man that had already seiz'd on that of Sir Robert Cotton and to this purpose Father John Barnes a Brother Benedictine but of different Sentiments with Reyner betakes himself to Oxford and there Composes a sharp Refutation of the Apostolatus This was very ill resented by those of the Fraternity and other Members of the Roman Church And they had some reason to be Angry at one of their own Body's using the Book more Scurvily than any of the Protestant Writers had done There are several Learn'd Foreigners in France and Flanders that have lately made very Voluminous Collections of the Acta Benedictinorum in General wherein are some Tracts written by English-Men and such as wholly treat on our own Historical Matters These have been occasionally mention'd in other parts of this Work And my Design will not allow me to consider them any further The Cistercians may be reckon'd one of our own Orders For tho' they came not into this Kingdom 'till almost a Hundred Years after their first Formation they were founded by Robert Harding an English-Man Hugh Kirkstede or rather Kirkstall was a Monk of this Order about the Year 1220. and collected the Memoirs of all the English that had been of it which he Dedicated to John Abbot of Fountains This is attested by Leland who acquaints us further that in the Library at Rippon he saw his Book entitl'd Historia rerum a Monachis Cisterciensibus gestarum Bale tells us that he was greatly assisted in this Work by Serlo Abbat of Fountains about the Year 1160. And because there appears to be a good distance betwixt the reputed Times of these two Writers he assures us that Hugh liv'd very near a hundred Year I am apt to believe that Serlo was the sole Author of another Treatise ascrib'd to this Monk De Origine Fontani Coenobij and that this is the true bottom of Bale's fine Contrivance The Canons Regular of St. Augustine pretend to be Founded by that famous Father and Bishop of Hippo whose Name they bear But they are of no great Antiquity Here all our Historians agreeing in this tho' they disagree about the precise time that they came into England since the Conquest The first of their Historiographers was Jeoffrey Hardib Canon of Leicester and Privy Councellour to King Edward the Third in the Year 1360. who was an eminent Preacher a great Divine and amongst many other things wrote De rebus gestis Ordinis sui The next and the last that I know of was John Capgrave who was sometime Provincial of the Order and he alotted one his many Volumes the Subject De Illustribus Viris Ordinis S. Augustini The Dominicans Franciscans and other Mendicant Friers having had no Lands had no occasion for Leiger-Books But I know not why we should not have better Remains of their History Penn'd by themselves since 't was no part of their Vow that they should so far renounce the World as not to have their good Works had in remembrance The Story of the settlement of the Order of St. Francis in England being confirm'd by Henry the Third in the Year 1224 is written by Tho. Ecleston whose Book De adventu Minorum in Angliam is in several of our Libraries Mr. Pits says he wrote also another Book De Ordinis impugnatione per Dominicanos Which I am afraid is only a part of the former for they had Battail given soon after their first Landing Their History afterwards is pretty well accounted for by Fran. a Sancta Clara and we have a formal Register of that Colony of them that was seated in London with some Fragments of those of other Places The Records of the University of Oxford with those in the Neighbourhood have afforded us a diverting View of their frequent Bickerings with the Dominicans in our publick Schools which for an Age or two make up a good share of the Annals of that Place The Carmelites have likewise had some few of their Fraternity who have taken the pains to enquire into the History of that Order of whom William of Coventry about the Year 1360. wrote de Adventu Carmelitarum in Angliam Bale quotes some of his Words and Writes as if he had seen his Book About a Hundred Years after this Will. Green a Cambridg-Man collected out of the most of the Libraries in England the noted Exploits of the great Men of this Order which he afterwards published under the Title of Hagiologium Carmelitarum And lastly Robert Bale a Carmelite Fryar at Norwich and afterwards Prior of Burnham where he dy'd A. D. 1503. wrote Annales Breves Ordinis sui 'T is much that this Gentleman's name-sake the famous Mr. John Bale never penn'd any thing of this kind For he was also a Carmelite of Norwich and assures us in the Account he gives of his own dear Self in the Tail of his Writers that the Libraries of that Order were the chief Treasury out of which he had his Riches Perhaps he did Write some such Thing but did not afterwards think fit to own the Respects he once had for those Antichristian Locusts as he there most greatefully calls them CHAP. VIII Of the Histories of our Vniversities and Writers WHAT Sir John Marsham says of the old
Monks of this Isle may be well apply'd to the Zealous Antiquaries of our two Universities Illos in illustrandis suorum Natalibus Antiquitati plus quam Veritati incubuisse In the days of Henry the Eighth during the Storm against Abbies and Colleges the Controversy was seemly enough For whilst nothing but Ruin was within their view such a concern was as natural as 't is for decaying Families to value themselves on their Pedigrees But in their flourishing condition under Queen Elizabeth it might have been hoped that the Members of both would have found themselves better Employment This the contending Parties in that Reign seem to have been somewhat sensible of and therefore the most violent and fierce of 'em declin'd the owning of their several Brats the affixing their Names to Pleadings and Apologies The Truth is the greatest part of what was offer'd on either side was so aery and vapid that 't was fit only for young Sophisters or Men that had left the School for thirty Years to argue at such a rate whereas the grave and residing Doctors were justly asham'd of such Practices and for some time modestly play'd their Puppets from behind the Curtain What was done for either of these Noble Seminaries by King Sigebert or King Aelfred may possibly endure the Canvasing But when the contesting Antiquaries begin to be so hardy as to launch farther into the vast and dark Ocean of the Times of Iren or Rydychen and Caer-grant I think the wisest Course is to divide the Laurel and to call in King Bladud to be Founder of our first University at Stanford Thus the pitching of our Tents in a third place ends the Controversy and we may quietly and at leisure draw off our Colonies to Oxford or Cambridge as we have occasion Some Writers we have that have behaved themselves with tolerable indifferency in treating of these Matters and have honestly enquir'd into the true History of the gradual Advancement of Learning in this Kingdom recounting whatever remain'd of the ancient State and Condition of it in either of our Universities But the most of those that pretend to write of both without prejudice are too manifestly byass'd in their Affections and seldome fail of giving the Precedence to the place of their own respective Education John Ross the Warwick Antiquary has been already observ'd to mix a deal of this kind of History in that which he wrote of the Kings of England And 't is certain he also design'd a particular Treatise of the Antiquities of our Universities This very Treatise tho' he acknowledges 't was an imperfect Copy that came to his hands is frequently quoted by John Leland and yet Mr. Wood believes 't is now lost as confidently as his Predecessor Brian Twine thought it never had a being I presume his other Tract Contra Historiolam Cantabrigiensem was only a Fragment of this Fragment and therefore if the one be irrecoverably gone there 's little encouragement to look after the other Amongst Master Leland's own Works we have also one that bears the Title De Academiis Britannicis which was once in such forwardness as that himself spoke of it as of a piece that would suddainly appear abroad Quin Grantae gloriam accuratius in Opusculo quod de Academiis Britannicis sum propediem editurus collaudabo I cannot see how this Expression could give any Foundation to one of our Queen Elizabeth's Antiquaries to assert that if this Book were publish'd in that intire Condition in which its Author left it it would infallibly stop the Mouths of those that contend for the Antiquity of Cambridge But I think 't was a sufficient Reply to such a Supposition that If the Sky should fall we should as infallibly catch Larâ—s John Pits prefaced his Account of our Writers with a small History of our Universities which he desir'd might be taken notice of in the Title of that Work inscrib'd by himself De Academiis Illustribus Scriptoribus Angliae There 's nothing in him on the former head but what he has Epitomiz'd out of some of those that wrote on the same Subject a little before his Time from whom he borrows all the new Light he pretends to give De Academiis tam Antiquis Britonum quam recentioribus Anglorum About the same time as I guess liv'd Robert Hare who was an Esquire of good Worship and Wealth and a great lover and preserver of Antiquities He carefully Collected the precious Monuments of both Vniversities caus'd them fairly to be transcrib'd and freely bestow'd a Duplicate or double Copy on each of them This industrious Gentleman was sometimes a Member of Gonvil and Caius College in Cambridge and therefore tho' he pretends to give a fair History of the Priviledges of Oxford yet he inclines too much upon occasion the other way In Howes's Edition of Stow's Chronicle we have an Appendix or Corollary of the Foundations and Descriptions of the three most famous Vniversities of England viz. Cambridge Oxford and London The Story of the two first of these we are told was compiled by John Stow and continu'd by his Publisher and 't is not much that we owe to the pains of either of 'em since the whole is only a lean Tract of half a dozen Pages There 's in the Archives of Bodley's Library a Poetical Piece entitul'd Britannia Scholastica which was written by one Robert Burhil about the beginning of King James the First 's Reign and Treats of the prime Antiquities of our two Universities The zealous stickling for Seniority in the last Age did this Service to both our famous Nurseries of good Learning that many of their most ancient Records were hereupon enquir'd out and carefully preserv'd which may be as beneficial to our English History as some officious Forgeries on the same occasion are injurious to it We have no less than one and twenty several Volumes relating to the Antiquities of the University of Oxford as Charters Orders Statutes Decrees Letters c. the last whereof bears this Title About the Burghesses for the Vniversity and what may be answer'd in case their Right of sitting in Parliament should be impugn'd These are all in Manuscript and are the Fountain whence some of our best Printed Accounts have been deriv'd Amongst the latter kind the Historiola Oxoniensis is look'd upon the most Authentic and as such has had several Impressions 'T is only a short Fragment of a single Page in Octavo wherein we are told that the Britains began an University at Grekelade which the Saxons remov'd to Oxford This is the Summ of that little Narrative which tho' 't is found in some of their Manuscript statute-Statute-Books as old as the Reigns of Edward the Third and Henry the Fourth yet is not much insisted on by Mr. Wood who was sensible that it was Penn'd too carelesly to be of any great use in the grand Controversy John Ross
endear'd themselves to Posterity and to have made their Labours for ever valuable We are extreamly indebted to those pious Princes and generous Heroes that either in the East or Western Parts of the Kingdom have afforded us such noble advantages of Education in all sorts of Learning as no other Nation can pretend to and perhaps we cannot be more injurious to their Memories than by clogging their true Story with Fables Fancies and Forgeries Instead therefore of raking in their Ashes and rifling their Sepulchres to prove them Men of Gigantick Stature instead of refineing upon their History till we have turn'd it into Romance we should pay them more grateful and real Honours if being content with such Remains of them as we know are Genuine we employ'd more of our Time in letting the World see what use has been made of their Benefits how much the several Branches of the unforbidden Tree of Knowledge have thriven under the Influences of their Charity what mighty Numbers of great Doctors and Masters in all Faculties have been fed at their Expence and flourish'd by their Bounty 'T is true our Universities were not always the sole Fountains of good Literature in this Island many of our eminent Writers having had their Education in Monasteries But since St. John of Beverly has been made a Member of that at Oxford and venerable Bede a Student at Cambridge I wish they had rank'd all our antient Men of Knowledge on one Hand or the other provided they had given us full Accounts of their Persons and Labours I think we may without Vanity affirm that hardly any Kingdom in the World has outdone England either in the Number or Goodness of her Authors and that even in the darkest Ages our Lamps shone always as bright as any in our Neighbourhood When School-Divinity was in Fashion we had our Doctores Subtiles Irrefragabiles c. and as Learning grew to a better Ripeness and Stature we had plenty of good Books in other as useful Sciences The first that attempted the History of our Writers was John Boston a Monk of St. Edmundsbury A. D. 1410. who having view'd most of the Libraries in England drew a Catalogue of all the British Authors and gave short censures upon them He could hardly have flourish'd so early as Pits here speaks of if his Progress was as a later Writer informs us in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh But we shall not quarrel with him for such small Mistakes as this He ought indeed to have been a little better vers'd in the Story of his great Grandfather for the three following Johns Leland Bale and Pits handed from one another what was first borrow'd from him Arch-bishop Vsher had the most curious MS. Copy of his Book And our Oxford Antiquary cites another smaller Catalogue of the same Author's Composure Whether Alanus de Linna Prior of a Carmolite Monastery at Lyn in Norfolk A. D. 1420. did enlarge this Catalogue or the other I dare not determine Possibly he only made an Index to them as he did to forty other Volumes in the Library at Norwich The next that thought this Matter worth his consideration was John Leland who was indeed an extraordinary Person having besides his being a great Master in Poetry attain'd to a good share of Knowledge in the Greek Latin Welsh Saxon Italian French and Spanish Languages In the Year 1534. King Henry the Eighth gave him a Commission to Search all the Libraries of England and to make what Collections he thought Good in which Employment he Spent Six whole Years He afterwards turn'd Protestant and was siez'd with a Frenzy losing says my Author very uncharitably his Understanding with his Faith In this Condition he dy'd at London A. D. 1552. leaving a vast number of Historical Treatises behind him Amongst these the most valuable at least that which we are now chiefly concern'd to enquire after is said to have been entitl'd De Illustribus Britanniae Scriptoribus containing the Lives and Characters of most of the eminent Writers of this Kingdom This Work is now in the publick Library at Oxford where it makes the fourth Volume of his Collectanea being 354 Pages in Folio given by Will. Burton to that University John Bale was a Suffolk-Man sometime Scholar in Jesus College in Cambridge and afterwards a Carmelite Friar in Norwich He was as he says converted from Popery by the procurement of Thomas Lord Wentworth tho' in truth his wife Dorothy seems to have had as great Hand in that happy Work In the Year 1552. he was made Bishop of Ossory in Ireland But returning from Exile in Queen Elizabeth's Reign he did not think it advisable to go any more into that Kingdom contenting himself with a Prebend of Canterbury where he dy'd A. D. 1563. His Summarium Illustrium Majoris Britanniae Scriptorum was first presented to King Edward the Sixth and contain'd only five Centuries of Writers To these he afterwards added three more and made several Corrections and Additions throughout the whole Book The Ground-plot of this Work as has been observ'd was borrow'd from Leland and the chief of his own Superstructure is malicious and bitter Invectives against the Papists The Character which a late learned Person gives of him and his Writings is too just Veritas Balaeo Parum curae erat dummodo Romanae Ecclesiae Inimicorum Numerum augere posset And again Clausis plerunque oculis Scriptorum Anglicorum aetates definivit Some have thought his making Books of some little Saxon Epistles excusable and what would admit of an Apology But if we mark him well he 's continually multiplying the Writings of all his Authors at a very unsufferable and unjustifiable rate In Opposition to Bale's hard Treatment of the Romanists came forth J. P's Relat. Histor de rebus Anglicis Tom. 1. c. which is the same Book with that usually quoted by the Name of Pitseus de Scriptoribus This Author Stuy'd in New-College in Oxford and was at last Dean of Liverdune in Lorain where he dy'd A. D. 1616. Tho' he quotes Leland with great Familiarity and Assurance 't is very probable he never saw any such thing as his Collectanea de Scriptoribus but that his only true Author for all he pretends to bring out of that Store-house was John Bale himself His Latin is clean enough and his giving an Account of some eminent Popish Writers that liv'd beyond Sea in the beginning of the Reformation is an acceptable Piece of Service Mr. Wood has taken the pains to Correct a great many of his Mistakes and might have noted some hundreds more He must needs have been too much in hast to write accurately who even in the Catalogue he gives of his own Uncle Nich. Sanders's Writings is guilty of so gross an Error as to reckon the Treatise entitl'd Fidelis Servi subdito infideli responsio
near Oxford and has been frequently publish'd in English by our general Chroniclers In our Age Sir Henry Carey Lord Viscount Faulkland wrote the History of this unfortunate Prince with choice Political Observations on him and his unhappy Favourites Gaveston and Spencer There was also an Historical Poem written about the same time tho' it appear'd abroad much sooner on the same subject whose Author was Rich. Hobert a younger Brother to Sir Henry who himself made some additional Observations that are of good Vse and Ornament to it Edward the Third reign'd long and prosperously and yet I cannot assuredly inform the Reader of one Writer who has singly treated on those Glories and Successes that attended him I doubt whether Walter Hemmingford's Chronicle of this King be as certainly Extant as that larger History of his which has in part been publish'd by Dr. Gale For tho' Bale and Pits assert it Leland mentions no such thing If it be 't is not likely that it can escape the diligent and curious Enquiry of the foremention'd worthy Person who has encourag'd us to hope for his sending abroad a great many more of our old Manuscript Historians The like Scruples I have upon me as to some other Res Gestae of this King which are said to have been written by Robert Bale sometime Recorder of London And yet John Pits avers that in his time such a Treatise was kept as a choice Rarity by the Citizens of London in their publick Library together with some Historical Pieces of the same Author 's Penning which more immediately related to that City The victorious Atchievements of the Black Prince falling all within the Compass of his Father's Reign make up a good Share of its Story And these were collected and separately treated on in French by Will. Packington who was Secretary and Treasurer to that Hero and constantly attended him in the Wars The English Historian will observe that in this and many of the following Reigns this Kingdom was so constantly engaged against the United Policies and Forces both of France and Scotland that 't will be convenient for him to consult the Accounts given by the Writers of those Nations as well as our own especially since the Testimony of an Enemy if to the Advantage and Honour of our Country is of double value with that of a Friend Richard the Second's good Success in Ireland was so far out-balanc'd by the other more unlucky Adventures of his Reign that I have not heard of any who have thought it worth their while to write his Life except only a poor Knight of John Pits's Creation That Author says That one Sir John Gower a Yorkshire Knight and Cotemporary with the Famous Chaucer died in the Year 1402. leaving behind him a deal of Monuments of his Learning and amongst the rest a Latin Chronicle of King Richard the Second There was indeed one Mr. John Gower a noted Poet who liv'd about the time he mentions This witty Person took the Liberty that has always been allow'd to Men of his Profession to make Free with his Prince and Mr. Stow or his Continuer Howes has done him the Honour to Translate the Elegy he made on this King 's untimely Death which it may be contains the whole Chronicle There 's an Ingenious Treatise lately written and published by Sir Robert Howard which in the Title-page is said to be the History of the Reigns of Edward and Richard the Second But the Author himself seems to have more rightly named it Reflections upon some select Passages in them His Design is to give a Prospect of the Hazard and Madness of a Prince's following the Misguiding Meteor of Arbitrary Power And by comparing the Misadventures of these two unhappy Kings with the Triumphs of their Prosperous Predecessors to shew what Glory and Safety Wise and Vertuous Princes have obtain'd and what Ruin the Cruelty and Folly of others have brought upon Themselves and Subjects This he has done in a Well-penn'd Political Essay which will very much advantage our English Historian in giving him a Right Notion of many otherwise dark Occurrences in those Reigns Henry the Fourth's surprizing and pompous Accession to the Throne was a more proper Subject for a Poet to Descant upon than the Melancholick Reign of his Predecessor And therefore we may the more readily believe what the same Author tells us that the foremention'd Northern Bard wrote his Panegyrick Pits also says that Rob. Mascall Bishop of Hereford was employ'd in several Embassies during the Reigns of this King and his Successor and that dying at Ludlow in the Year 1417. he left among other things a Treatise De suis Legationibus Sir John Hayward King James the First 's Historiographer at Chelsey wrote Henry the Fourth's Life among others and had the Repute in those days of a good clean Pen and smooth Style tho' some have since blamed him for being a little too Dramatical Henry the Fifth was a most Heroick Prince and his single Victory at Agencourt might have afforded Matter for more Volumes than as far as I can yet learn have been written on his whole Reign 'T is said that his Exploits were carefully Recorded by Peter Basset who was of his Bed-chamber and an Attendant on him in all his Triumphs But what the same Person writes of another Anonymous Author who translated Livy's History into English and also wrote the Life of Henry the Fifth is such Stuff as is common with him The Truth is His Life was written at large by one who call'd himself Titus Livius who by that name dedicated it to King Henry the Sixth and is still quoted by Stow and others We have to this day two good Copies of his Work one in Sir John Cotton's Library the other in that of Bennet College Out of these carefully collated a third was prepared for the Press by the worthy Publishers of the Decem Scriptores which with several other Historical Treatises some whereof have been printed was afterwards purchas'd by that Indefatigable Promoter of all sorts of Learning the late Pious Bishop Fell. This Treatise is abundantly quoted by our General Chroniclers But no piece of History relishes so well at the second hand as it does when we have it from its first Author It were therefore to be wish'd that the good Prelate's Executors would do Him and Themselves as well as the Publick so much Right as to Print it together with the like valuable Manuscripts which have thus fallen into their hands What was done by Sir George Carew Earl of Totness has been already observ'd to be remitted into J. Speed's Chronicle where the Reader will meet with some Remarks becoming a Statesman a General and a Scholar Henry the Sixth was as Good as his Father was Great being as Conversant in the Holy Scriptures and Books of Devotion as the other was in Arms and Feats
of Chivalry And yet I do not find that all his strict Piety gain'd so far upon the Monks of his Time as that there was any great struggling among them who should most effectually recommend him to Posterity Archbishop Vsher tells us of one Iohn Blackman a Carthusian who was particularly intimate with him and has left a Collection of the many good things he had taken notice of in the most Secret Passages of his Life Tho. Walsingham who also liv'd in his Time took a Journal of his Reign out of which is composed that which some have entitul'd his Acta Regis Henrici Sexti Had the Pope favour'd the Attempt which was afterwards made at the Enshrining or Sainting of this King 't is very likely that his Legend would have out-grown his History and have been penn'd by more Writers than his Life Since the Roman Saints are commonly most Active after their Decease and the Wonders of their Relicks are usually much greater than those of their Persons Edward the Fourth can hardly be said to have enjoy'd so much Quiet during the Twenty Years of his suppos'd Reign as to have setled the House of York in the Throne So that even the Favourers of Justice and his Cause have not known what Account to give of the Times or how to Form a Regular History out of such a vast Heap of Rubbish and Confusion Mr. Habbington has given us as fair a Draught as the thing would bear At least he has Copy'd this King's Picture as agreeably as could be expected from one standing at so great a distance from the Original Edward the Fifth had the Name of a King for some few Weeks and purchas'd the Complement at far too high a Rate His Accession to the Throne the Tower and the Grave all within the Compass of little more than two Months are largely and elegantly described by the Famous Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England who has sufficiently shewn how a short and doleful Tale may be improv'd into a complete History by a Person of good Skill and Judgment This Treatise has met with such a general Acceptance as that it not only finds Admission by whole-sale into all our late Chronicles but has also been separately printed without any other Alteration than a small change of the English Orthography according to the Usage and Mode of the present Age. The short Epitome of this and the three following Reigns that was written and publish'd by Will. Fleetwood Serjeant at Law is so thin a piece and refers so peculiarly to the Transactions in the Courts at Westminster that it has been rather look'd on as a Table or Index to the Year-books of those Times than any Historical Treatise Richard the Third's short and unfortunate Reign had its Tragical History begun by Sir Thomas Moor who did not bring it to such a final Conclusion as he had done that of his Nephew and Predecessor Neither Bale nor Pits take notice of any such thing But Vossius seems to have seen and perus'd it Vt fusè says he persequitur quibus Sceleribus ille ad Regnum pervenerit ita quomodo id gesserit non exponit Ac nec eâ parte quam habemus ultimam manum accepit Praeterea Elegantiâ Latini Sermonis ab aliis ejusce viri operibus longè vincitur Which last words must refer to Sir Thomas's Life of this King and not to that of Edward which indeed might seem to be an Introduction to this and would answer all the former part of Vossius's Story But King Edward's was only written in English whereas Richard's was in both Languages and as appears from Stow's account was more copiously treated on in Latin Great Additions have been since made by a more Candid Composer of his Annals who endeavours to represent him as a Prince of much better Shapes both of Body and Mind than he had been generally esteem'd Various are the Censures which have pass'd upon this Work I shall only trouble the Reader with that of Dr. Fuller His Memory says he speaking of King Richard has met with a Modern Pen who has not only purg'd but prais'd it to the heighth and pity it is that so able an Advocate had not a more meriting Person to his Client Henry the Seventh having most fortunately and wisely united the Houses of York and Lancaster continu'd his Reign as prosperously as it began and is justly esteem'd one of the most Politick Princes that ever sat on the English Throne It appears Sir Thomas Moor had once some faint Thoughts of writing this King's Life whilst he was in hand with those of his immediate Predecessors But I know not whether he ever liv'd or not to digest them Sir James Ware has Industriously Collected and Published such Occurrences of this Reign as relate to the Affairs of Ireland And a Poetical History of the whole has been printed by Ch. Aleyn But this good Work was the most effectually undertaken and compleated by the Incomparable Sir Francis Bacon who has bravely surmounted all those Difficulties and pass'd over those Rocks and Shallows against which he took such Pains to caution other less experienc'd Historians He has perfectly put himself into King Henry's own Garb and Livery giving as spritely a View of the Secrets of his Council as if himself had been President in it No trivial Passages such as are below the Notice of a Statesman are mix'd with his Sage Remarks Nor is any thing of Weight or Moment slubber'd over with that careless Hast and Indifferency which is too common in other Writers No Allowances are given to the Author 's own Conjecture or Invention where a little Pains and Consideration will serve to set the Matter in its proper and true Light No Impertinent Digressions nor fanciful Comments distract his Readers But the whole is written in such a Grave and Uniform Style as becomes both the Subject and the Artificer Henry the Eighth was a Prince of great Vertues and Accomplishments and as great Vices So that the pleasing Varieties that were in his Life and Reign might have temptest many more Writers than we know of to engage in the Composure of so entertaining an History Edmund Campian wrote a Narrative of the most remarkable Passages relating to his Divorce of Queen Katharine which is printed at the end of Nich. Harpesfeild's Church-History and is written with the true Spirit and Heart as well as Eloquence of a Jesuit Fran. Godwin Bishop of Landaff who will be remember'd at large amongst our Ecclesiastical Historians compil'd also the Annals of this and the two following Reigns Whereof one of our Criticks gives this just Character That his Book is penn'd Non mâ—gis succinctâ quà m laudabili brevitate The Author was a perfect Master of the Latin Tongue and wrote in that Language But his Annals were translated into English and so have been