under his Name nor for those of Worgresius and Mawornus Abbot and Monk of Glassenbury nor for the Genealogies drawn up by the Famous Bard in King Edgar's daies Saliphilax When these are retriev'd I would have them all carefully bound up with the Deflorationes Historiae Britannicae which as Jo. Caius has learnedly prov'd from Stow and Lanquet were written by King Gurguntius about 370 years before Christ. The Welsh MS. cited frequently in Camden's Britannia by the name of Triades seems not to carry Age enough to come within this Class 'T is the same I suppose which he elsewhere calls the British old Book of Triplicities running all upon the number three as appears from his Quotation out of it Welshmen love Fire Salt and Drink Frenchmen Women Weapons and Horses Englishmen Good cheer Lands and Traffick We are not to expect any such Assistances for the ascertaining the History of these Times as After-Ages afford us from Charters Letters Patents c. And yet 't is too forward an Assertion to say there were no such things in the days of our British Kings if all be true that Leland tells us of King Arthur's Seal But I am not I confess so much in Love with that Venerable Relique as he seems to have been It might indeed be brought as he guesses from Glassenbury where I do believe 't was hung at a forg'd Charter by some Monk who was a better Mechanick than Antiquary The Inscription easily discovers the Cheat PATRICIVS ARTVRIVS BRITANNIAE GALLIAE GERMANIAE DACIAE IMPERATOR He is certainly call'd Patricius here and no where else out of the abundant Respect that Monastery had for their Guardian Saint Patrick and not as Leland fansies upon any Account of a Roman Fashion Another Help is here wanting which exceedingly Conduces towards the Illustrating the Antiquities of other Nations and that is the Light that is often gain'd from the Impresses and Inscriptions upon their old Coins and Medals The money used here in Caesar's Time was nothing more than Iron Rings and shapeless pieces of Brass nor does it well appear that ever afterwards their Kings brought in any of another sort Camden says he could not learn that after their retirement into Wales they had any such thing among them none of the Learned Men of that Principality having yet been able to produce so much as one piece of British Coin found either in Wales or any where else And is it likely that a Royalty of this Nature of so great Benefit to their Subjects as well as Honour to themselves would have been laid aside by the Cambrian Princes if formerly enjoy'd by any of their Ancestors J. Leland tells us he never in all his Travels throughout the whole Kingdom of England could meet with one British Coin among the many Millions of those of the Romans found in this Nation And the Reason he says was because as he proves out of Gildas the Romans would not allow any of our Metal to be stamp'd with any other Image or Superscription save only that of Caesar's that is some of their own Emperours However we now have several ancient Coins in our publick and private Libraries which are generally reputed to be British tho' 't is very hard to determine in what Age of the World they were minted My very Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Lwhyd believes that before the coming in of the Romans they had Gold Coins of their own because there have been frequently found both in England and Wales thick pieces of that Metal hollow'd on one side with variety of unintelligible Marks and Characters upon them These he is sure cannot be ascrib'd either to the Romans Saxons or Danes and therefore 't is reasonable we should conclude them to be British And the Reason why he thinks they were coin'd before the Romans came is this If the Britains had learn'd the Art from them they would tho' never so inartificially have endeavour'd to imitate their manner of Coining and in all likelyhood have added Letters and the Head of their Kings Here 's a fair and probable opinion against the express Testimony of Julius Caesar who could hardly be impos'd on in this part of the Account he gives of our Isle Camden rather thinks that after the Arrival of the Romans the Britains first began to imitate them in their Coining of both Gold and Copper But his Stories of Cunobeline and Queen Brundvica are much of a piece with those of Doctor Plott's Prasutagus all of 'em liable to very just and to me unanswerable Objections For my own part I am of Opinion that never any of the British Kings did Coin Money But that even their Tribute-Money like the Dane-Gelt and Peterpence afterwards was the ordinary Current Coin which was brought in or minted here by the Romans themselves as long as this Island continu'd a Province The most if not all of the foremention'd pieces which are not Counterfeits I take to be Amulets whereof Tho. Bartholine gives this sensible Account Habuere Veteres in Paganismo res quasdam portatiles ex Argento vel Auro factas Imaginibus Deorum facie humanâ Expressorum signatas quibus Futurorum Cognitionem explorabant quarum possessione felices se quodam quasi Numinis praesidio tutos judicabant These were in use among the Romans a good while after they came into Britain and the Amula from whence they had their Name was a little drinking Cup most probably of this very Fashion If any man dislikes my Conjecture I am willing Sir John Pettus should Umpire the matter between us and his Supposition that Coin is an Abstract of Coynobeline who first coin'd Money at Malden will for ever decide the Controversie After the Conquest The first man that attempted the Writing of the old British History was Geoffery Archdeacon of Monmouth and he did it to some purpose This Author liv'd under King Stephen about the year 1150. He had a peculiar fancy for Stories surmounting all ordinary Faith which inclin'd him to pitch upon King Arthur's feats of Chivalry and Merlyn's Prophecies as proper subjects for his Pen. But his most famous piece is his Chronicon sive Historia Britonum which has taken so well as to have had several Impressions In this he has given a perfect Genealogy of the Kings of Britain from the Days of Brutus wherein we have an Exact Register of above Seventy glorious Monarchs that rul'd this Island before ever Julius Caesar had the good fortune to be acquainted with it The first stone of this fair Fabrick was laid by Nennius but the Superstructure is all Fire-new and purely his own They that are concern'd for the Credit of this Historian tell us that he had no further hand in the Work than only to translate an ancient Welsh History brought out of Britany in France by Walter Calenius Archdeacon of Oxford who was himself
an eminent Antiquary and added a Supplement to the Book The Translation of the whole he committed to the care of his Friend Geoffry who says Matt. Paris approv'd himself Interpres verus And there I am willing to let the matter rest The Translator might have employ'd his time better yet may be an honest man But the Author whoever he was has basely impos'd upon the World and was certainly something of another Nature The best defence that can be made for it is that which was written by Sir John Prise and is publish'd under the Title of Historiae Britannicae Defensio to which something further is added by Mr. Sheringham if it could be help'd to part with any thing of an old Story that looks gay and is but even tolerably well contriv'd As to the regard says the ingenious Mr. Lhwyd due to this History in general the judicious Reader may consult Dr. Powel's Epistle De Britannicâ Historiâ rectè Intelligendâ and Dr. Davies ' s Preface to his British Lexicon and balance them with the Arguments and Authority of those that wholly reject them I am not for wholly rejecting all that 's contained in that History believing there is somewhat of Truth in it under a mighty heap of Monkish Forgeries But for the main I am of Camden's Judgment and I hope my Friend will allow me to think the Arguments and Authority of that Writer and common Sense to be as weighty in these Matters as those of the two greatest Doctors in Christendom Ponticus Virunnius an Italian Epitomiz'd it and indeed 't is of a Complexion fitter for the Air of Italy than England Cotemporary with this Jeoffrey was Caradocus Monk of Lancarvan who contented himself with the Writing of a History of the Petty Kings of Wales after they were driven into that Corner of the Island by the Saxons This History which was written originally in Latin and brought as low as the Year 1156 by its Author was afterwards translated into English by Humphrey Lhuid and enlarg'd and publish'd by Dr. Powel There are three MSS. of good note mention'd by Archbishop Vsher which seem to reach much higher than Caradocus pretends to go all which I guess to have been written about the same Time The first is in Welsh in Sir John Cotton's Library reported to be the same that was translated by Jeoffrey of Monmouth The Second is in old English by one Lazimon and the Third as I take it in Latin by Geraldus Cornubiensis King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table made so considerable a Figure in the British History that many Learned Men have been at a great deal of Trouble to clear up that Prince's Title and to secure that part of Jeoffrey's Story whatever Fate might attend the Rest. The first Stickler against Will. Neubrigensis c. was one Grey the suppos'd Author of Scalechronicon whom Pits calls John and says he was Bishop of Norwich and Elect of Canterbury and that he dy'd A. D. 1217. Bishop Jewel calls him Thomas About two hundred Years after him Tho. Maâ—ory a Welsh Gentleman wrote King Arthur's Story in English a Book that is in our Days often sold by the Ballad-singers with the like Authentick Records of Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Southampton But about the middle of the last Century his chief Champions appear'd on the Stage in defence of him against Polydore Virgil's fierce attack These were Sir John Prise and Mr. Leland the latter whereof was as able as any Man alive to give the Story all the Light which the Kingdom could afford it And yet his Treatise is the most liable to Exception of any thing he ever publish'd Many of the Authors he quotes are only Jeoffrey of Monmouth's Echoes others come not up to the Question and some are too Modern These and more Objections are rais'd against this History by our most Learned Bishop Stillingfleet who nevertheless confesses that he has sufficiently prov'd that there was such a Prince So that it seems there is something of plain Stuff in the Story whatever Imbroydery may be Introduced by the Spanish vein of Romancing Arth. Kelton's Chronicle of the Brutes and H. Lyte's Records c. are such Whimsical and Imperfect Pieces as not to deserve the being nam'd with the last mention'd Authors tho' they treat much on the same Subject After King Charles the Second's Restoration Mr. Robert Vaughan a Learned Gentleman of Meryonidshire publish'd his British Antiquities Reviv'd wherein are a great many very pretty Remarks and Discoveries The Author it appears was well known to Archbishop Vsher by whom he was much countenanc'd and encourag'd in these Studies In one of his Letters to that renown'd Primate he says he had now finish'd his Annals of Wales which he then sent to be perus'd by his Grace and to receive his Approbation if worthy of it for the Press What became of that Work I cannot tell but it has not yet appear'd so publickly as the Author it seems long since intended it should His Executors owe him and us the Justice of sending abroad whatever they have of his that 's compleat For he left also behind him a large Collection of other Manuscript Papers relating to the same Subject which were sometime in the Possession of Sir William Williams After him came forth Aylet Sammes with his Britannia Antiqua Illustrata wherein he fetches the Original of the British Customs Religion and Laws from the Phoenicians This Conceit which is all that looks new in his Book is wholly borrow'd from Bochartus as is his long Discourse of the Off-spring of the Saxons from Sheringham As for his own part 't is visible he equally understood the Phoenician British Gothick Saxon and Islandic Languages and if left to himself could as easily have brought the Britains from New Spain and the Saxons from Madagascar Upon the first publishing of this Book Mr. Oldenburg Secretary to the Royal Society gave a very obliging Character both of the Work and its Author who by what the Oxford Antiquary has since told us was every way unworthy of such a Complement Whether his Uncle or himself was the true Author of what he was pleas'd to publish under his own Name is not worth our while to enquire But if we believe Mr. Wood that Aylet had never so much as heard of John Leland before the Year 1677 he 's the most unaccountable and ridiculous Plagiary and Buffoon that ever had his Name in the Title Page of any Book whatever For that which he pretends to be his was Printed the Year before and in the Preface to it we are told that 't was John Leland's asserting that the main Body of the Welsh Language consisted of Hebrew and Greek words which first put the Author upon his search into the Stories of the Phoenician Voyages So that it 's
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
He was a choice Collector of the Flowers of former Historians from whence and from the Title of his Book he is usually styl'd Florilegus His chief Benefactoris Matthew Paris whom he so accurately transcribes that he cannot be perswaded to leave him even when he warmly treats of the particulars of his own Monastery of St. Albans Nay he sometimes refers in Paris's very words to that Author's Addilamenta as to a Work of his own composure and hence some have concluded that the whole even that part which precedes the Conquest was borrow'd from the same hand But I can hardly agree to that since the same heedless way of writing unbecoming the Accuracy of M. Paris runs through both of ' em Hence Vnde Reges Cantiae usque hodie Aeskynges vocantur with a thousand more of the like 'T is most likely as has been already observ'd that R. de Wendover was a common Parent to both the Matthews and the main of what is publisht under both their Names came from that hand There was an Edition of Westminster's history before that at Francfort but abominably corrupt and imperfect especially after the year 1245. the Author 's punctual Relation of the brisk behaviour of our Kings and Nobility in opposition to the Encroachments of the Roman See being wretchedly mangled and purloynâ—d Upon this bottom John Pits divides the History into two several Works whereof the former he calls Historia ampla which says he is that which was publish'd at London and the other Historiarum Flores The Distinction he had from Bale tho the Application be his own This Report seems to have had some slender Foundation since we are told that amongst my Lord Clarendon's Manuscripts there 's another historical Work which bears the Name of Flores Historiarum which is very different from the Printed Copy and is continu'd near forty years further But the Reader ought to know that there are many anonymous Historians in this Kingdom who beginning at the year 1307 manifestly shew that they chiefly intended to continue the Work of Matthew of Westminster The most eminent indeed of his Continuators was Adam Merimuth Canon Regular of St. Paul's and an eminent Civilian who in the latter end of his days gave himself wholly to the reading and writing of English History He begins his Work at 1302. and his first part reaches only to 1343. which I suppose makes the Enlargement in my Lord Clarendon's Copy but the second continues the Story to in all likelihood the year of his own Death A. D. 1300. 'T is observable that his History commences at Michaelmas and for that reason he always afterwards begins the New Year at that Feast A few more of an inferior Rank may probably be reckoned amongst the Historians of this Age. As 1. John Staffort a Franciscan â—â—iar who is supposed to have written an English History about the year 1800. Tho. Fuller observes very well that the exact time when he wrote or liv'd is not known 〈◊〉 only being a Francisean and that I doubt is not very certainly known neither he must have flourished after the year 1226. when that Order first came into England and being quoted by John Ross must come in before 1400. 2. William de Packington Secretary and Treasurer to the Black Prince in Gascoigne wrote a Cronique in French from the Ninth year of King John down to his own time 1380. out of which several Collections have been made by Leland Stow and others 3. Henry de Knyghton one of the Canons of Leicester whose History may be said to begin at the Conquest since he has only a short Abstract of the Saxon Affairs in his first Book It is continued down to the year 1395. He fairly owns what he transcribes from Ralph Higden whom he imitates also in the Crotchet of making the fifteen first Chapters of his Second Book give his Name in their Initial Letters thus HENRICVS CNITTON 'T is plain that neither Leland Bale nor Pits had ever seen this Work An Encouragement to the industrious Antiquaries of this Age to continue their Enquiries after such Histories as are presum'd to be irrecoverably lost 4. Galf Lingius a Franciscan of Norwich about the year 1390. is also said to have compil'd a History of this Kingdom from the coming in of Brutus down to his own Time 1401. The fifteenth Century was one of the most rude and illiterate Ages and therefore we are not to look for a large Harvest of Historians in a Dearth and Scarcity of Persons eminent in other parts of Learning Sir John Froissart sometime Canon and Treasurer of Chimay in the Diocess of Liege justly deserves to be placed first as having ended his Life and Story about the beginning of it His Work contains a General History of the Affairs of France Spain and other parts of Europe as well as England tho it chiefly insists on those of this Nation The Author was a Frenchman born but was brought up in his Youth in the Court of our King Edward the Third and many years after familiarly conversant in King Richard the Second's He wrote in his own Native Language which was also in his Time the Court-Language of England The Copies that were taken of him in French as well Manuscript as in Print are generally faulty and corrupt in Names and Numbers whereas the Author himself being perfectly acquainted with the English Court and Customs could not well mistake Most of these Errors are corrected in the English Edition which was published by Sir John Bourchier Deputy of Calais at the Command of King Henry the Eighth towards the latter end of his Reign His Account of matters seems to be plain and honest and perhaps none gives a better of the Affairs of Edward the Third and his unfortunate Successor Richard the Second Sleidan epitomiz'd his History in Latin but has not done it with that impartiality and fairness that might have been expected from a Man of his great Name Take the Censure which our learned Humphry Lhuid long since gave of that piece and its Author Dum Gallico Nomini nimium faveret Anglorum Nobilissima Gesta aut Silentio praeteritt aut ab Authore dissentiens aliter quam á Froissardo scriptum est literis commendavit After him follow down to the middle of the Century a set of very ordinary Scriblers such as 1. Tho. Otterburn a Franciscan Friar of some of our English Monasteries about the year 1411. whose MS. History is said to be in our publick Library at Oxford 2. Tho. Radburn Bishop of St. Davids and Câ—ancellor of the University of Oxford A. D. 1420. He is usually quoted by the Name of Radburn â—enior to distinguish him from another little Chronicler of both his Names who was a Monk of St. Swithin's in Winchester and Joh. Ross's great Acquaintance This latter wrote two Books of our General History
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
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
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
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
whole Work In the same place the Hannow Edition is blam'd for omitting Parker's own Life which perhaps was no fault in those that had the care of it There were only a few Copies of the First Edition such as were design'd for public Libraries and the accomodation of a few choise Friends that had the 29 Pages which make up that Life so that 't was not to be expected that the Foreign Publishers should Print it otherwise than as 't was commonly sold by our English Booksellers Mr. Wharton every where gives this Writer more respect than any other he 's pleased to cite and yet he observes a great many of his mistakes and I do not doubt but any skilful Antiquarie will easily take notice of many and many more So imperfect will always be the most compleat Works of any single Man CARLILE This remote and small Diocese has been heretofore so much expos'd to the continual Incursions of the Scots before the Kingdoms were happily united in King James the First that there are not many of it's ancient Records any where now to be had The only pieces of Antiquity in the Bishops possession are two Register Books of four successive Prelates Halton Rosse Kirkby and Welton and these will furnish us with little more than the History of one Century The Records of the Dean and Chapter go not much higher than their new Denomination given them by Henry the Eighth and are very broken and imperfect since that Epoche Out of these and what other helps could be had from some Neighbouring and Distant Libraries Dr. Hugh Todd Prebendary of this Church has made a Volume of Collections which is lately placed in the Dean and Chapter 's Library under the Title of An History of the Diocese of Carlile containing an Account of the Parishes Abbies Nunneries Churches Monuments Epitaphs Coats of Arms Founders Benefactors c. with a perfect Catalogue of the Bishops Priors Deans Chancellours Arch-deacons Prebendaries and of all Rectors and Vicars of the several Parishes in the said Diocese My worthy Brother hopes that the Additions which will hereafter be made to this Work will at last make it answer its Title and I heartily wish I could do so too But to me the prospect is so discouraging that I know not which way to look for such Helps as would be necessary for the compleating of so full and ample an Account of our Church and Diocess Our Sufferings in the days of Rapine and Rebellion equal'd or exceeded those of any other Cathedral of England and after our Chapter-House and Treasury had been turn'd into a Magazine for the Garrison and our very Charter sold to make a Taylor 's Measures it can hardly be expected that so many of our Records will ever be retriev'd as are requisite to finish out such a History CHESTER being another of King Henry the Eighth's Foundations cannot have any great stock of Records Some notice may possibly be taken of its most early Times by Mr. Vrmston who wrote an Account of the State of Religion in Lancashire part of this Diocess in the beginning of King James the First 's Reign CHICHESTER Most of the antient Records of this Church were squander'd and lost upon the City's being taken and plunder'd by Sir William Waller in our late Civil Wars and after the Restauration they never recover'd more than three Books belonging to the Chapter and a Register or two of the Bishops These do not reach above 230 Years backwards so that the prime Antiquities of this See before the Episcopal Throne was removed from Selsey to this Place and for some Ages afterwards are either wholly lost or in such private Hands as have hitherto very injuriously detain'd them from their right Owners 'Till a Restitution is made we must content our selves with such poor Fragments as Bede Malmesbury and others will afford us of the first Foundation of the Diocess by our Nothern Saint Wilfrid who with his Successors in the same Order that Godwine has given them stands yet pictur'd on the backside of the Quire Here are the chief Remains of their History as far as they are now to be had within the Verge of their own Cathedral to which if more shall be added by such Foreigners as are Masters of their dispersed Records 't will be a very gratefull as well as just service to the present Members of that Church St. DAVID'S We have already noted the Disputes there are about Abbot Dinoth's Remonstrance against the pretensions of Augustine the Monk and we are told that he did not only leave behind him his thoughts of that Matter in the foremention'd Protestation but that he also wrote another Treatise entitl'd Defensorinm Jurisdictionis Sedis Menevensis Bishop Godwine quotes a Catalogue of the Bishops of St. David's not taken notice of either by Gyraldus or the Annales Menevenses which he says is in the Archives of that Church There 's also an Anonymous Manuscript in the Library at Magdalen College in Oxford which treats de Gestis Ritibus Cler ' Cambrensis and may probably afford some discoveries of the ancient State of this Diocess DVRHAM The first Collecter of the History and Antiquities of this Ancient and Noble Church was Turgot who was Prior Arch-deacon and Vicar General of that Diocess He was afterwards Bishop of St. David's But upon the death of Queen Margaret return'd to Durham where he dy'd A. D. 1115. and lyes bury'd in the Chapter-House His Book bears the Title De Exordio progressu Ecclesiae Dunelmensis that is from K. Oswald's Time to the Year 1097. This was transcrib'd by Sim. Dunelm mention'd in the former part of this Work who also continu'd it to the Year 1129. from whence it has been drawn downwards by Jeoffery de Coldingham R. de Greystanes c. There are still some latent Manuscript Histories of this Church which if discover'd would undoubtedly supply a great many defects in those that are already publish'd Prior Laurence who dy'd in the Year 1154. wrote a Treatise in Meeter De Civitate Episcopatu Dunelmensi There are several MS. Tracts of that Author's Composure in the Libraries at Lambeth Durham and elsewhere and yet we cannot hitherto learn where this is to be had Tho. Rudburn in the very heart of his Historia Major has a large History of the Bishops of this See from the first Foundation at Lindisfarn to the Year 1083. which tho' mostly taken out of Turgot and Simeon has some remarkable passages never yet Printed John Wessington who dy'd Prior of Durham A. D. 1446. wrote a Book De Juribus Possessionibus Ecclesiae Dunelmensis wherein amongst other choice Matters 't is prov'd that the Priors of that Church were always invested with the Dignity and Priviledges of Abbots Sir H. Spelman quotes some Synodical or rather Consistorial Constitutions made by Bishop Lewis in the
seems soon after this to have written particularly of the Antiquities of Oxford besides the Treatise he left upon the two Universities in common for such a Book of his Leland refers to tho' he gives the Author of it the tart Character of Vir majoris longe Diligentiae quam Judicii 'T is perhaps the same which we elsewhere meet with under the Title of Contra Historiolam Cantabrigiensem About the same time or it may be a little sooner William Wircester Worcester or Buttoner wrote his Polyandrum Oxoniensium c. wherein he gave a List of all the eminent Persons that had been educated in this University which might possibly be had amongst Brian Twine's Collections The first Champion that appear'd in the Cause against Cambridge was Tho. Key Master of University College who having for some time been employ'd in the Registrary's Office was the best acquainted with the public Instruments and Records His Assertio Antiquitatis Oxoniensis Academiae was written in Defence of this University in opposition to what had been advanc'd two years before by the public Orator of Cambridge who in an Harangue to Queen Elizabeth had affirm'd his own Mother to be the Elder Sister of the two That Princess coming afterwards to Oxford the foresaid Treatise was hastily drawn up and presented to Her in Manuscript And a Copy of it falling afterwards into the hands of Dr. Caius it was publish'd with his Answer which will be further mention'd anon This usuage provok'd the Author to take more leisure in Composing a Reply which he communicated to several of his Friends under the Title of Examen Judicii Cantrabrigiensis cujusdam qui se Londinensem dicit nuper de Origine utriusque Academiae lati Mr. Wood says he once met with a Transcript of this Book and found some things in it worth his observation but he could not direct his Reader where it was afterwards to be had and speaks so coldly of it that the obscure owner in whose hands he saw it does not appear to be worth the enquiring after He rather offers to our perusal the Mystical Oxon. of Oxonford c. by Henry Lyte which he says is amongst Twine's Manuscripts at Oxford and has several Crotchets in it which may be serviceable to the Man that shall hereafter engage in these weighty Disputes To these fanciful pieces may be added the Laudes Academiae Parisinoe Oxoniensis by the eminently learned Dr. Alberic Gentilis whose Panegyrick on this University is penn'd with the like accuracy as the other Works of that noted Author After him follows Isaac Wake 's Rex Platonicus wherein the Author who was then publick Orator afterwards a Knight and Ambassador elegantly describes the Entertainment given by the University to King James the First and occasionally intermixes the History and Antiquities of the whole and all its parts Brian Twine Fellow of Corpus Christi and sometime Custos Archivorum to the University made a more diligent search into the History and Records of this place than any of the former and oblig'd the Lovers of these Studies with his Antiquitatis Academiae Oxoniensis Apologia which in three Books very amply refutes all Dr. Caius's Arguments for the Seniority of his Cantabrigians The industrious Author intended another Edition of this Book and to that purpose had largely augmented an interleav'd Copy which 't is suppos'd was lost during those unhappy Confusions which at first retarded the publishing of it What is printed has been censur'd as an Heap rather than a Pile and the Writer himself declar'd to be no methodical Antiquary And yet how strangely different are the Judgments of Men of contrary Affections and Interests this is the Character we have of the Book from another hand In eo libro praeter Subactissimum Judicium etiam varia Lectionis indicia passim sparguntur The same year with this Apology was publish'd Ilium in Italiam written by John Sansbury of St. John's College wherein are the Arms of the several Colleges in this University and Verses upon them 'T is not much more considerable than what not long before was written at Rome by Nich. Fitzherbert a Reteiner to Cardinal Allen and was there printed under the Title of Oxoniensis in Anglia Academiae Descriptio A slight Discourse on the Oxford-Antiquities by way of Letter to a Friend was penn'd by Dr. Leonard Hutton who dy'd Canon of Christ-Church A. D. 1632. and left also behind him a Manuscript Treatise in Latin entitl'd Historia Fundationum Ecclesiae Christi Oxon. una cum Episcoporum Decanorum Canonicorum Ejusdem Catalogo Of the like Complection with the latter of these Meager in it self and of a narrow Subject is Dr. Savage's Ballio-Fergus which pretends to give a true History of all the great Men that have been Members of Baliol College whereof the Author was Master This Writer is observ'd to have had a Genius somewhat averse to the Business he was here engag'd in being too much a Courtier to turn Antiquary so that having also a very imperfect stock of Materials 't was no wonder that a great many Errors and Defects were discover'd in his Book that Duns Scotus for example was transplanted hither from Merton and Bishop Tonstal wholly overlook'd The Notitia Academiae Oxoniensis was the Work of the late learned Mr. Fulman who also began the History of his own College Corpus Christi but did not live to finish it for the Press Above all this famous University is chiefly indebted to the indefatigable pains of honest Anthony Wood whose Industry joyn'd with Camden's Learning and Judgment would have made a compleat English Antiquary His Historia Antiquitates Vniversitatis Oxoniensis gives abundantly more than the whole Tribe of the foremention'd Authors could afford us and in two large Books runs through every particular of her Story In the former of these we have her Annals from the eldest date of her Records down to the Year 1648. wherein our ancient British Government Religion Liberties Laws and Learning were all sacrificed together The Confusions that ensu'd and continu'd for above eleven long Years after King Charles's Martyrdom made a Scene too Tragical and therefore our Historian wisely drop'd the Curtain before Ignorance had entirely usurp'd the Schools Blasphemy the Pulpits and Oliver the Throne The latter Book presents us with an Account of the Foundations Endowments c. of the Publick Lectures Library Colleges and Halls with a List of their Benefactors Governours and eminent Writers To which is added a Catalogue of the Chancellors Vice-Chancellors Proctors Stewards and Representatives in Parliament This Work was first penn'd in English and translated into Latin by several Persons appointed by the Curators of the Press So that the Style is not very uniform and sometimes the original Sense a little mistaken and perverted Some instances of these failures are given by a late Learned
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
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
the Miseries and almost utter Ruine of his Country-men by a People under whose Banners they hop'd for Peace His Life is written at large by Carâ—doc of Lancarvan and by an Anonymous Author publish'd by John à Bosco His lamentable History De Excidio Britanniae is all that 's printed of his Writing and perhaps all that is any where extant Bale Pits and others reckon up some other Matters whereof they make this Gildas Badonicus as they distinguish him to be the Author But Archbishop Vsher is peremptory in it that this is the Vnicum quod restat Opusculum for he makes it and the Epistle to be all one thing It was first Publish'd and Dedicated to Bishop Tunstall by Polydore Virgil whose imperfect and corrupt Copy was Reprinted in the Bibliotheca Patrum Afterwards there was another Edition of it by John Josseline who made use of another Manuscript but not much more correct than the former The latest and best is that we have from Dr. Gale who had the advantage of a more ancient and much better Copy than either of the two former had seen If he did write any thing more 't is now lost Leland is mighty desirous to believâ—â—hat there is somewhere such a Treatise as his Cambreis in Verse that 't was stollen and carry'd into Italy and that the Poet Gildas and the Historian were two several Persons But 't is now fear'd we shall never meet with any other Poetical Treatise bearing his Name save only that which Leland himself calls Gildas fictitius and which Archbishop Vsher frequently quotes by the Name of Pseudo-Gildas His Book De Victoria Ambrosii is of the same base metal out of which have been coin'd John Pits's Regum Britannorum Historia De primis Insulae Incolis Lites Luddi Nennii c. The next British Historian of Note is Nennius The first of this Name that is said to have taken care of the Antiquities of his Country was if we are not impos'd on Son to King Helius and Brother to Ludd and Cassibelane who had the Honour to die of a wound given him by Julius Caesar's own hand 'T was he they say 〈◊〉 first wrote a Book of the British History in his own Tongue which was afterwards translated into Latin by his Namesake Abbot of Bangor This same Abbot Nennius is generally suppos'd to be one of the Fifty Monks that were so wise as to skulk at Chester when 1200 of their Brethren fell a Sacrifice to the Pride of Augustine the first Planter of the Romish Principles and Practices in our Isle and to have flourish'd about the Year 620. Which will not agree with what is attested by himself in the best Copies of his Book that he wrote A. D. 858. Anno 24o. Mervini Regis He is said to have left behind him several Treatises whereof all that 's publish'd is his Historia Britonum This is the same Book that Bale and Pits have register'd under the Style of Eulogium Britanniae and the only piece that must answer for what those Gentlemen mention by the Titles of his Collectiones Historiarum Antiquitates Britannicae Chronicon c. In most of the MS. Copies it is erroneously ascrib'd to Gildas This History says nothing of the other brave Nennius abovemention'd whom later Commentators have 〈◊〉 so great in Story I am of Opinion that the Contrivance of this Hero is one of the best things in all Jeoffrey of Monmouth's Romance It looks like a gratefull Acknowledgment to the Person that had oblig'd him or his Author with the ground-work of his whole Fabrick to whom he could not pay a more decent Complement than by making him Godfather to one of his chief Knights Errant Next after Nennius follow Hoel Dha's Laws which were enacted about the middle of the Tenth Century whereof those that relate to Ecclesiastical Affairs have been publish'd by Sir Henry Spelman Of these there are several Copies both in Welsh and Latin still extant among which a very old one written on Parchment in Jesus College at Oxford The Preface to this last will not allow that King Hoel abrogated as Mr. Camden says he did all the Laws of his Ancestors but expresly tells us that according to the Advice of his Council some of the ancient Laws he retain'd 〈◊〉 he corrected and some he quite disannâ—â—â— appointing others in their stead Dr. Powell will not agree that any new Statutes were ordain'd by this King But that his Commissioners according to the Powers given them retain'd only those ancient Laws that were good and usefull explain'd the Ambiguous and abrogated the Superfluous For we are to know that full fourteen hundred years before Hoel's Time the Britains had a whole Body of Muncipal Laws enacted by King Dunwallo Molmutius which were soon afterwards enlarg'd by Queen Martia All these says Bale were translated into Latin by Gildas and into Saxon by King Aelfred Nay some wise Writers will needs affirm that a certain part of our English Saxon Laws which they call Lex Merciorum had its Denomination from these Leges Martiae and this childish Fancy has been embrac'd by several of our grave and ancient Historians Others think it improbable that so great a Prince as King Aelfred should ever trouble his Head with Translating any of the Laws either of Molmutius or Martia who were only Antiquated Legislators among his Enemies and Heathens But since the Britains as Asserius and others tell us voluntarily submitted to him it seems as wise in Him to give them their own Laws in his Language as 't was in William the Conquerour to grant us the Saxon Laws in French Many of 'em we have already been told were abolish'd even by the Britains themselves after they became Christians But Mr. Sheringham thinks 't is evident from several Law-Terms such as Murder Denizon Rout c. which are purely British that some of them were taken into the Body of our English Laws Hoel's are said to have been first Translated into Latin by a Gentleman with a very hard Name Blegabride Langauride Doctor of Laws and Archdeacon of Landaff in the year 914. which if the British History do not misinform us was about 26 years before that King began his Reign There is lately come to my hands a Latin MS Copy in Parchment of these Laws in the end whereof in a later hand is written Istum Librum Tho Powel Joanni Da. Rhaeso Med. Doctori dono dedit meâ—se Augusto 1600. And these I think are all the British Historical Writers that liv'd before the Norman Conquest whose Books are now to be met with in any of our English Libraries I know not how to direct the Reader to seek for the Histories of Elbodus or Elvodugus for they are both the same Man from whom Nennius is made to borrow a good part of what we now have
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
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
of it a Man would be tempted to believe he never read it He was a most violent Persecutor of Jeoffrey of Monmouth of whose History he gives this sharp Character that it contains only pro expiandis Britonum maculis ridicula figmenta c. But D. Powel gives the reason of this bitterness of Spirit It appears he says from some of their Histories of good Credit and Antiquity that this William whom those Welsh Historians call Gwilym Bach. i. Gulielmus Parvus put in for the Bishoprick of St. Asaph upon the death of the said Jeoffrey Bishop there about the year 1165. and being disappointed fell into a mad humour of decrying the whole Principality of Wales its History Antiquity and all that belongs to it He is large in his account of the Life Manners c. of Hugh Bishop of Durham His Latin Style is preferr'd to that of M. Paris and equall'd with those of Eadmerus and William of Malmesbury by Dr. VVats 1201. The thirteenth Century begins with Gervase a Monk of Canterbury who is reported to have been a most judicious Antiquary and Methodical Historian and to have made excellent Collections of the British and English Story from the coming in of the Trojans down to the year 1200. 'T were to be wished these dormant Tomes could be discover'd For the Reigns of three Kings which are the only part of our General History of this Author 's penning now extant are done with judgment enough About the same time Nicholas de Fly Bishop of Durham is said to have written and Historical Treatise wherein he relates that memorable passage mentioned also by some other Historians of one Simon Thurvay's forgetting all that he had learned which was to a good pitch of Eminence and turning perfect Blockhead Cotemporary to these two and a much greater Historian than both of 'em join'd was Roger de Hoveden who seems to have been Chaplain for some time to King Henry the Second His History was published by Sir H. Savil But as Sir H. Spelman observes there are many errors in that foreign Edition of this and all our other Historians and therefore he well cautions the English Reader attentively to consider the spelling of such words as are of our own growth as very frequently mistaken by Printers that are Strangers to our Country and Language 'T is a heavy Censure which Leland has given of this Author Qui Scrinia Simeonis suppresso ejus nomine strenue compilavit aliena pro suis Gloriae avidulus supposuit Mr. Selden justifies him against this sharp Sentence and Sir Henry Savil gives a quite different Character of the Man and his Writings Huntingdoniensis Hovedenus says he Authores cuâ—â— primis boni diligentes verissimique superiorum temporum Indices He may possibly have borrowed something from Simeon of Durham But if he did he has improv'd his Story adding the years to many things confusedly related in that Writer After the year 802. he falls indeed a little into confusion himself jumbling a great many things touch'd on before without any manner of Form or Order But after three or four Pages he comes to himself again and goes on regularly enough There are in his Book many Letters Speeches c. relating to Ecclesiastical affairs which are good Materials towards a General Church history of this Kingdom In the year 1291. King Edward the First is said to have caus'd diligent search to be made in all the Libraries in England for Hoveden's History to adjust the Dispute about the Homage due from the Crown of Scotland which says my Author it clears effectually At the same time Joh. Oxfordius Bishop of Norwich is reported to have compil'd an English Chronicle and we may look for some good Remarks from a person employ'd as he was on an Embassy to Rome there truly to represent to his Holiness an account of Archbishop Beâ—ket's Behaviour Hector Boethius pretends to have seen his History and applauds him as a Writer next to his mighty Jeoffrey of Monmouth in Authority as well as Time The next Historian of Note and Figure is Ralph de Diceto or Disseto Dean of London who wrote about the year 1210. He sometimes refers to a Chronological Account of our British Kings of his own Composure which must have reach'd much higher than any thing hitherto published under his Name And such a Work in several parts containing a British Chronicle from Brute to Cadwallador and an English one from Hengist to King Harold the industrious Mr. Wharton says he had seen and perus'd in the Norfolk-Library The two Treatises which concern us at present and are already printed are his Abbreviationes Chronicorum and his Imagines Historiarum The former whereof contains an Abstract of our History but chiefly in Church-matters down to the Conquest and the latter gives the Portraictures of some of our Kings more at length ending with the first years of King John's Reign Mr. Selden is much in the Praises of this Author and his Works tho all that is here remember'd is usually copy'd out of other Writers who are often transcrib'd verbatim Dr. Gale met with a better Copy of his Abbreviations than had fallen into the hands of Sir Roger Twisden and has taken occasion in discoursing upon that subject to shew how mischievously the old Monks of Canterbury us'd to corrupt their Manuscripts Diceto's Talent lay mainly towards Church-history and on that Topick we shall hereafter meet with him more than once If Gyraldus Cambrensis ever wrote any such thing as an English Chronicle it ought to come in the same rank of time with these of Diceto's But I very much suspect the Truth of that Report Hither also must be referr'd the famous Exchequer-man King Henry the Second's Nephew Gervase of Tilbury who besides the Black Book to be remembered when we come to the Twelfth Chapter is said to have written a large historical Commentary upon Jeoffrey of Monmouth under the Title of Illustrationes Galfredi which he dedicated to the Emperor Otho the Fourth Walter Monk of Coventry deserves a more particular Remembrance as perhaps very well meriting the account given of him by Iohn Leland who says the two main Ornaments of an Historian Sincera sides lucidus ordo are to be had in him Upon the strength of this Authority Bale tells us he was Immortali Vir dignus memoria But his three Books of Chronicles and Annals for which these men send us to Bennet College are all one being chiefly Collections out of Jeoffrey of Monmouth R. Hoveden and H. Huntingdon Some few things of Note and Consequence he has which are not to be met with in those Authors He is said to have liv'd in Coventry A. D. 1217. and therefore Alexander Essebiensis's Epitome of our English Annals Peter Henham's history and R. Niger's continued by
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
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
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
Lambeth was by this Gentleman I should have been able to have enlarg'd this Collection to a much greater bulk whereas for want of such Discoveries some hundreds of Volumes may possibly escape me Sir John Cotton's at VVestminster collected by his Grandfather Sir Robert has heretofore been justly esteem'd to contain more Helps for the composure of a General History of England than all the other Libraries of the Kingdom put together being not only plentifully stock'd with Manuscript Historians Original Grants Patents c. but also abundantly furnish'd with our old Roman British Saxon and Norman Coins Tho-James first publish'd a Catalogue of the MSS. in the Publick Library at Cambridge and of the Private College-Libraries in Oxford out of which last he is reported to have borrow'd several Volumes never hitherto restor'd to their proper Owners Afterwards he did the like for Bodley's which the Reader ought to know has been wonderfully improv'd since that time by the many large Additions that have been made to it chiefly in Manuscripts by Archbishop Laud the Lord Hatton Mr. Selden's and Mr. Junius's Executors c. To which the Musaeum Ashmoleanum makes now a most Noble Appendix as being richly fraught with an excellent Collection of Manuscripts and Coins as well as other Rarities in Art and Nature made by that worthy Person whose Name it deservedly bears Some part of the great Treasure here reposited has been already discover'd to us by Mr. Gibson who has publish'd a Catalogue of Sir VVilliam Dugdale 's Books and we hope the like good Office will be done for Mr. Ashmole by another learned hand Dr. Hickes's Catalogue of such MSS. as relate to the Saxon and Danish Times is the most complete we have in its kind and Mr. Gibson's Account of Tennison's Library founded by His Grace the present Archbishop of Canterbury at St. Martin's in the Fields is highly beneficial and obliging But all these are small shreds and scantlings if compar'd with the Voluminous work of Dr. Bernard who threatens to give us an entire List of all the Manuscripts of this Kingdom of all kinds that either our Publick or Private Libraries will afford 'T is a very Noble and Generous Vndertaking Only a little more caution I think should be observ'd by him in carefully perusing the Catalogues that are sent from some of the most distant Counties especially where the Authority rely'd on for the Truth of the Copies is not very good and staunch Otherwise 't is possible the Reader may be sent some hundreds of Miles to enquire after a Book that has not appear'd in the place referr'd to at any time since the Restoration of King Charles the Second This I am very sure is the Case with some of the Northern Libraries whose Catalogues as he has Printed them were either drawn thirty years ago or else are Prophetically calculated for about thirty years hence Of this latter kind is that of a certain Cathedral Church which neither is nor ever was furnish'd with any one single Manuscript of the several in all Volumes which 't is there said to contain I have some cause to fear that I shall never live to see such Books in that Library as are there mention'd and I am also afraid that most of 'em if they have any being at all are of that modest complexion which becomes a private retirement better than an appearance in publick The Doctor 's Project is certainly very commendable and deserves encouragement and the utmost Assistance that Men of Learning and Acquaintance with Books can give it But then They that pretend to put a helping hand to the Work should be sure to do it effectually They should be scrupulously nice in their Informations take nothing upon Trust and Hear-say send no Transcripts of ancient heretofore Catalogues instead of such as give the present State of their Libraries view the Books themselves be sure they are already in the Classes referr'd to and not only in some distant and uncertain promise c. By these means we might truly discover the dormant Riches of the Nation and the câ—rious might with good assurance apply to such Persons as were undoubtedly able to Answer their Hopes Till these vast Designs are perfected we cannot hope for a full and exact Index of all those Historians that have escaped the common Destruction in the Dissolution of Abbeys and the Outrages of our Civil Wars And 't will be enough for a Man that lives in such an obscure corner of the Earth as my Lot is fallen into to point at the Times wherein the greatest part of 'em flourish'd how they were qualify'd for their several Vndertakings and how well or ill they have acquitted themselves in their Performances This I shall endeavour to do in a Method which I hope the Reader will think Natural enough as agreeing with me that our General Historian ought to enquire for 1. Geographical Chorographical and Topographical Writers of this Nation such as give an Account of its chief Remarkables in Nature Arts and Antiquities And that either 1. In Generaâ— Chap. 1. 2. In Particular Counties Cities and Great Towns Ch. 2. 2. Chronicles and Annals Which are either 1. General Relating to the Times 1. Of the Britains and Romans Chap. 3. 2. Of the Saxons and Danes Ch. 4. 3. Since the Conquest Ch. 5. 2. Particular Lives of our several Kings down from William the Conqueror Ch. 6. 3. Ecclesiastical Historians 1. General As 1. From the first Establishment of Christianity to the Reign of Henry VIII Chap. 7. 2. Since the Reformation Ch. 8. 2. Particular As to the several 1. Bishopricks Ch. 9. 2. Monasteries Ch. 10. 3. Vniversities Ch. 11. 4. Law-Books Records and Papers of State Ch. 12. 5. Biographers Writers of the Lives of our English 1. Saints Ch. 13. 2. Eminent Churchmen and Statesman Ch. 14. 3. Writers Ch. 15. I have not the vanity to imagine that I shall ever be able to run through all these Chapters without being guilty of a deal of very gross Mistakes and therefore I expect to hear of a large Muster-Roll of Errors and Defects in my Book This I shall so little repine at that I do assure Thee Honest Reader 't is what I heartily long for and desire I pretend to little more at present than the drawing of such Lines as may be filld up hereafter into a piece worth the Viewing and I shall be abundantly thankful to have the finishing part done by a better and more Skilful hand than my own I have spent a great deal of time perhaps too much in conversing with some of these old Gentlemen and I cannot but flatter my self into a belief that I have attain'd to something of a more than ordinary Acquaintance with them However the Characters I shall give of 'em are not alwaies mine but are sometimes Censures pass'd by better Judges than my self Where-ever I venture to give my own opinion I hope
very probable that good Master Sammes never read so much as the Preface to his Book Or else either he or Mr. Wood must be under the misfortune of a very treacherous Memory Something of value might have been expected from the many Years Labours and Collections of that excellent Antiquary John Aubrey Esquire Fellow of the Royal Society if the Proposals he lately made for the publishing of his Monumenta Britannica had met with a suitable Reception The World is not come to that Ripeness we hope for as duely to relish Works of this Nature but how well his have deserv'd a better Encouragement than hitherto they have met with is apparent from the little Tasts we have of 'em in the late Edition of the Britannia especially in Wiltshire Herefordshire and Wales He would have given us if we had been so kind to our selves as to have accepted his Pains a good view of the Temples Religion and Manners of the Ancient Druids of the Camps Castles Military Architecture c. of both Britains and Romans But we rejected his offers and may possibly too late repent of our Folly As to the Roman Writers there are hardly any that treat of the Affairs of this Isle any otherwise than occasionally only and by the bye The Design of Caesar's Commentaries is to give the World an Account of the most glorious Passages of his own Life and what he says of Britain as well as Germany is apparently what he could pick up from uncertain Tattle and Hear-say Something better bottom'd are the Stories we meet with afterwards in Tacitus Dio Cassius Suetonius Eutropius Spartianus Capitolinus Lampridius Vopiscus c. who may all be suppos'd to have had the perusal of such Memorials as were from time to time sent to the Emperours from their Lieutenants and other chief Officers in this Province In the use of these the Reader ought to take a deal of Leisure and Caution For most of 'em seem to have been loose Indigested Adversaria such as had not the last Examination and Thoughts of their Authors and do therefore want the Regard that should be had to Order and Time Besides the several Tracts are not well ascertain'd to their Genuine and Proper Writers the not heeding whereof may draw one unawares into very dangerous mistakes These Defects are happily supply'd by the famous Mr. Dodwell in his late Learned Praelectiones Camdenianae which will be highly serviceable to all such as shall hereafter engage in these Studies Indeed Tacitus's Life of Agricola especially as improv'd by Sir Henry Savil's most admirable Translation and Learned Notes looks something like a Just Treatise upon that great General 's Conduct here and is done with that Fairness and Respect to the Natives that I cannot see but Galgacus is made to talk as Bravely Gracefully and Eloquently as the best of his Enemies Many Defects in these Accounts have been likewise supply'd as well as good store of Conjectural Mistakes in more Modern Authors rectify'd by the Roman Inscriptions and Coins found in several parts of our Island and there are daily new Discoveries of both these sorts Since the acceptable Services done to the Students of Antiquities by Gruterus and Reynesius the Inscriptions on Altars and other Monuments have carry'd a very high price and among others the Antiquaries of our own Nation have fansy'd that our History has had great Improvements from such as have been discover'd here Those that Mr. Camden met with were all preserv'd as choice Ornaments in his Britannia and some few have been added in the late Edition of that Work Many more might undoubtedly be had for seeking after And 't is no small Unhappiness that among the many Advancements of Learning in this Age the Recovery of these precious Treasures should be so much neglected The Persons employ'd in these Searches ought to be Men of Probity as well as Knowledge Religiously scrupulous in obtruding any thing upon the World under the Venerable Name of Antiquity which has not an honest Title to that Character Annius of Viterbo's scandalous Project of raising the Credit of that City by some forg'd Inscriptions which he had caus'd to be hid in the Neighbouring Fields and afterwards discover'd in a Boasting Triumph has been justly resented and exploded by all true Lovers of ancient Learning But the Inclinations of all Men are so naturally bent upon doing Honour and Service to their Native Country in their own way and the Temptations that we meet with in these Studies are so many and strong that a very great share of Integrity is requisite to the making of a Complete Antiquary Mr. Camden tells us that from the Time of Claudian to that of Valentinian about five hundred years the Roman Coin only was current in this Nation And that whereas all Money for this part of the World was for a long time coin'd either at Rome Lions or Treves Constantine the Great erected a Mint at London Some of his Pieces which were there coin'd I have in my poor Collection and they are not uncommon in many of the Musaea in England But long before his Days his Predecessors took occasion to magnify their Exploits in this other World of Great Britain on the Reverse of their Coins from whence several good Illustrations of that part of our History may be had What are given us of this kind in the Britannia are very valuable But their Numbers might be further enlarg'd and we are the more encouraged to look after those we want because I have not yet heard that our Trayterous English Money-makers have hitherto busy'd themselves in Counterfeiting any Coin of so ancient a Date Such Rogueries are common in France and Germany where most of their old Medals have been Copy'd and many New Ones of the first Caesar's stamp'd and minted by Modern Artists And yet even there those that relate to the Affairs of this Isle are always allow'd to be True and Genuine CHAP. IV. Of the Histories and other Monuments that relate to the Times of the Saxons and Danes THe Dispatch that Sir William Temple makes of the Saxon times is very short and pithy and the Character he gives of their Writers is so full of Contempt that if we were sure it came from a proper Judge 't would save an Antiquary a great deal of trouble and pains The Authors he says of those barbarous and illiterate Ages are few and mean and perhaps the rough course of those Lawless Times and Actions would have been too ignoble a subject for a good Historian The times were not so lawless nor the Authors so few and mean as he imagines A great many of the Records of those days we own are lost but there are still more remaining than any of our Neighbour-Nations can pretend to shew relating to the Transactions of those Ages We know not what 's become of the Book King Aelfred wrote against Corrupt Judges of his Collection
as well as most polite Historian of Denmark dying Provost of the Cathedral Church at Roschild A. D. 1204. Saxo himself says he compil'd a good part of his out of the Islandic Ballads yet Arn. Jonas as quoted by Stephanius assures us that he did not deal fairly in that matter nor make such good use of those Authorities as he ought to have done J. Lyscander quarrels him upon the like bottom and seems to intimate that he had a greater care of the Style than Matter of his Book Sueno dy'd before he could bring his Work which is also publish'd by Stephanius to perfection But what we have is of as good and valuable a kind as the fore-mention'd For as Saxo framed his History out of the old Rhimes so he declares that his is mostly taken from the Tales and Traditions of old people Out of these two is borrow'd the most of what we meet with relating to those Times wherein the Affairs of Denmark and Britain were chiefly interwoven in Huitfield Pontanus Meursius and all other later Historians of that Kingdom The great Restorer of the decay'd Antiquities of Denmark was Olaus Wormius who has also enabled us to make many new Discoveries in those of our own Nation His Literatura Runica was the first happy Attempt made towards the right explaining of the old Cimbrian Monuments which till his time had laid neglected and unknown to the Learned World not only in those Northern Kingdoms but in several parts of Italy Spain and other Europoean Countries where the Gothic Arms and Letters had gain'd a footing The whole Treatise is divided into 29 Chapters largely treating of the Name Number Figure Powers c. of the Runic Characters His Monumenta Danica affords a Noble Collection of the scatter'd Runic Monuments through all the several Provinces of the Danish and Norwegian Kingdoms An undertaking fruitlessly attempted before him and a Work that was so much despair'd on that some of the best pieces were put to the most vile uses Out of this Misery he recover'd them and has now rais'd himself an everlasting Monument out of them all The whole Book is of singular use to any man that pretends to write upon any Branch of our English Antiquities some whereof are particularly Illustrated by the worthy Author himself To these we must add his Lexicon Runicum and Fasti Danici Nor is the Musaeum Wormianum so full fraught with Physical Rarities but that it will supply us with some Curiosities in Northern Antiquities worth our seeking After him Joh. Mejerus made some Gleanings in the same Field which still remain in MS. And several Swedes were by his example induced to pay the like respect to the long neglected Monuments of their Ancestors Among whom Buraeus and Verelius have already appeared in public and Joh. Hadorphius's more complete Work de Sepultura Sueco-Gothorum has been long since promis'd Tho. Bartholinus Son to the famous Physician of that Name has lately given us an Addition to Wormius's Discoveries enquiring into the Reasons that induced the ancient Danes to contemn Death and carry on the most dangerous Exploits with so much Courage and Bravery In pursuance whereof he gives us a notable Account of their Belief of the Soul's Immortality their Deifying of Woden Thor Fro and other Heroes their hopes of enjoying a sensual and Turkish Eternity in Valhalla or Woden's Elysium c. Some few more Writers there are of a lower form that have treated on the same subject which may be useful to our English Antiquary But for these I must refer him to Alb. Bartholine's Treatise de Scriptis Danorum being not very well dispos'd at present for the writing of dry Catalogues CHAP. V. Of our English Historians since the Conquest TO give an exact and full Register of these would be a tedious Work and require a much better acquaintance with our public and private Libraries than I can pretend to Sir William Temple has rightly observ'd that tho since this great period the face of affairs has not been drawn by any one skilful hand or by the Life yet 't is represented in so clear a Light as leaves very little either obscure or uncertain in the History of our Kingdom or Succession of our Kings And 't will be enough for my present purpose to pick out the chief of these Limners and to give the Reader a View of 'em in their proper Colours This I shall endeavour to do as briefly as is possible ranking them in the several Centuries wherein they wrote 1066. The first of our English Historians after the Conqueror's Arrival was Ingulphus who because he chiefly treats of the affairs of Crowland tho he occasionally intermixes the Story of our Kings will be more properly placed elsewhere The Relation he bore to King William does manifestly byass him in the ill account he gives of Haerold pelting that Prince with a Volley of hard Names all in a breath Contemptor praestitae fidei ac nequiter oblitus sui Sacramenti Throno Regio se intrusit c. About the same time wrote Marianus Scotus a Monk of Mentz in Germany who brought down our English History interwoven with a more general one of Europe as low as the year 1083. This Work met with such an universal and great applause in our Monasteries that there was hardly one in the Kingdom that wanted a Copy of it and some had several The frequent transcribing it gave occasion to a deal of errors and mistakes and the Interpolations were so many and confused that when it came to be prepar'd for the Press some of its Genuine and fairest Branches were lopp'd off for Morbose Tumours and Excrescencies Nor will the Reader meet with a word of our English affairs in that lame Edition of Marianus's Chronicle by Pistorius whose business 't was only to publish the ancient Writers of the German History and therefore he designedly omitted all that concern'd this Kingdom The best and most complete Manuscript Copy is in the public Library at Oxford 1101. The earliest History in the twelfth Century was written by Florence a Monk of Worcester whom I know not whether to call an Epitomizer or Transcriber of Marianus He seems to give himself the latter Character tho it must be acknowledg'd that he has added very many Collections out of the Saxon Chronicle and other Writers with much Care and Judgment His Book ended with his Life in the year 1119 but 't was continu'd 50 years farther by another Monk of the same Monastery He so scrupulously adheres to his Authorities that he sometimes retains even their very mistakes and yet I must do him the Justice to say he is not guilty of all the Contradictions that have been laid to his charge An ingenious person has lately observ'd that he makes his Friend Marianus die in the year 1052. and
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
the one whereof he stiles Breviarium Chronicorum which begins at Brute and ends A. D. 1234. After the Conquest he copies most from M. Paris and is very unhappy in his Chronological part His Historia Major as he calls his other Work consists of large Collections out of other common Historians save only in what relates to the Church of Winchester 3 John Sherburn a Monk who wrote Chronica Britannorum from the first coming in of the Trojans to the Reign of Henry the Sixth 4. John Henfield a Monk of Battle-Abby who drew an Abstract of our Chronicles down to the same time 5. John Langden Bishop of Rochester who possibly is all one with John Langton another of the same authentic Gentleman's Historians a Carmelite Friar who is said to die at the Council of Basil A. D. 1434. Tho. Walsingham a Benedictine Monk of St. Alban's and very probably Regins Professor of History in that Monastery about the year 1440. made something a better figure than the last mention'd and accordingly both his Historia brevis and his Hypodigma Neustriae have had the honour to be publish'd by Archbishop Parker His short History begins at the Conclusion of Henry the Third's Reign where M. Paris ended his And he might well seem to be Paris's Continuator were his Language answerable to his matter The account he gives is well enough and we are indebted to him for many things not taken notice of by any other Writer of those times Indeed his Reign of King Edward the Second is wholly borrow'd from Sir Thomas de la More His Ypodigma Neustriae as he calls it has a more particular regard to the Affairs of Normandy giving an account at large of that Dukedom from the time it came first into the hands of Rollo and his Danes down to the Sixth year of Henry the Fifth wherein the Reader will find many Occurrences not elsewhere to be met with About the same time wrote John Wethamstede the first Opposer of the story of King Brutus and Nicolas Cantelupus the Cambridge Historiographer who is also reported to have penn'd a General Chronicle of England The next Historian of Note was John Harding a Northern Englishman and an inveterate Enemy to the Scottish Nation against whom he carry'd Arms in several Expeditions He collected out of all our Histories whatever might tend to the proof of the ancient Vassalage of that Kingdom to the Crown of England and hearing there was in Scotland an old Record that put the matter beyond dispute he went with great hazard thither in disguise and with much ado brought it away and shew'd it to Hen. V. Hen. VI. and Edw. IV. To the last of these he dedicated his two Books of Chronicles in English Rhime whereof the curious Reader may have a taste in some of our Modern Writers It appears he was living tho very old in the year 1461. So that Nic. Montacute about that time Master of Eaton-School and a Collector of English History may be reckon'd his Cotemporary as may also Roger Albanus a Carmelite of London who drew up the Genealogies of some of our Kings William Caxton of whose continuation of Trevisa something has been noted already seems to challenge the next place after Harding He was a menial Servant for thirty years together to Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy Sister to our King Edward the Fourth in Flanders He afterwards return'd into England where finding as he says an imperfect History begun by one of the Monks of St. Albans says John Pits very unadvisedly he continu'd it in English giving it only the Latin Title of Fructus Temporum How small a portion of this Work is owing to this Author has been observ'd before but he now usually bears the Name of the whole which begins with the first inhabiting of his Island and ends the last year of Edward the fourth A. D. 1483. The opportunities he had of being acquainted with the Court-Transactions of his own time would encourage his Reader to hope for great matters from him but his fancy seem to have led him into an Undertaking above his strength John Rosse or Rous was a person somewhat better qualify'd to write History being a Man of tolerable Parts and singular Industry He was born at Warwick and bred at Oxford He travell'd over the greatest part of England and having made large Collections out of the Libraries where he came relating to the History and Antiquities of this Kingdom he at last retir'd to Guy's Cliff about a mile from Warwick on the Banks of Avon where he spent the Remainder of his Life and dy'd A. D. 1491. His History of our Kings is still extant wherein are many Collections illustrating the Antiquities of our Universities Hereupon he is frequently quoted by our Oxford-Antriquary who nevertheless will not allow that his Judgment equall'd his Pains 1501. The first Post in the Sixteenth Century is due to Rob. Fabian an eminent Merchant and some time Sheriff of London where he dy'd A. D. 1512. Both Bale and Pits subdivide his historical Writings into a great many several Treatises but I presume that which they call his Historiarum Concordantiae is the sum of all This Chronicle is publisht and does indeed consist of seven parts whereof the six first bring down his Story from Brutus to William the Conqueror and are chiefly taken out of Jeoffry of Monmouth and the Seventh gives an account of our several Kings from the Conquest of Henry the VII He is very particular in the Affairs of London many good things being noted by him which concern the Government of that great City hardly to be had elsewhere He gives the Names of all the Bailiffs Mayors and Sheriffs with the chief Transactions in their several Years but in other matters he is a great Follower of R. Higden He mixes all along the French History with the English but in different Chapters He translates his Authors very literally whence Monmouth's Phrase of Ferro Flamma vastare is render'd to wast with Iron and Fire c. In the beginning of his Seventh part he observes Higden's method of making his Years commence at Michaelmas by which the Reader will understand how William the Conqueror comes to begin his Reign in October 1067. Cardinal Woolsey is said to have procur'd all the Copies of this History that he could meet with to be burn'd because says my Author who is not infallible either in his Reasons or Relations the Church's Patrimony was thereby too plainly discover'd This Cardinal 's Menial Servant John Skuish Squisus or Squisius is reported to have compil'd a notable Epitome of our Chronicles about the Year 1630. but I am not able to direct the Reader where to meet with it Polydore Virgil was the most recomplish'd Writer for Elegancy and clearness of Style that this Age afforded So much the
severest Enemy he had has acknowledg'd of him and on this score alone some have unreasonably extoll'd him But there 's so little of the other more Necessary Qualifications of a good Historian Truth and Fair Dealing in all his Twently-six Books that he has been justly condemn'd by our Criticks and 't is no wonder that some of them have express'd an Indignation suitable to the Abuses put upon their Country Sir Henry Savil is warmer on this occasion than is usual with him Polydorus says he ut homo Italus in rebus nostris Hospes quod Caput est neque in Republicâ versatus nec magni alioqui vel Judicii vel Ingenii pauca ex multis delibans falsa plerumque pro veris complexus Historiam nobis reliquit cùm coetera mendosam tùm exiliter sanè jejunè conscriptam Some have fansy'd that the severe Character which Sir Henry is here pleas'd to give of this Author might chiefly by apply'd to the History of Henry the Eighth And that a great many Passages in that Reign may be darkly or falsly represented by him by reason of his being unacquainted with the English Tongue which could not but very much obstruct his Knowledge in Modern Transactions Other things say they have fallen from him under a borrow'd Light and Colour out of the Respect he had for Queen Mary and his great Inclinations to serve the Interests of that Princess But does not even this Apology carry a deal of Invective in it Sir Henry Savil is far from being singular in the severest part of his Censure Some of our late Writers have agreed to it and his Cotemporary Humph. Lhuyd out-throws him a Bar or two For what think you of these Expressions Nominis Britannici gloriam non solum obfuscare sed etiam Britannos ipsos mendacissimis suis Calumniis infamare totis viribus conatur Homo Ignotus Exterus Vir perfrictae frontis Invidiâ odio tumens Infamis Homunculus Os Impudens Nor ought any thing of this to be attributed to an over-boyling of honest Humphrey's Welsh Blood if the other Matters he 's accus'd on be true He is said to have borrow'd Books out of the publick Library at Oxford without taking any Care to restore them Upon which the University as they had good reason declin'd lending any more till forc'd to it by a Mandate which he made a shift to procure from the King In other places he likewise pillag'd the Libraries at his pleasure and at last sent over a whole Ship-load of Manuscripts to Rome And yet when this Publican himself left England when there was no further occasion for his Collecting the Papal Revenues King Edward the Sixth is said to have dismiss'd him with several handsome Presents Which we are not to look upon as a Reward as a certain late Writer expresses it but rather to consider that the young King being about to take his final leave of the Pope and all that belong'd to him resolv'd to do it as courteously as was possible The other Historians of his Time have been much Eclips'd by the glaring Lustre of this Foreigner insomuch that some of their Writings have hardly ever seen the Light John Rastal a Citizen and Printer in London who marry'd Sir Thomas Meer's Sister and died A. D. 1536. wrote an English Chronicle but I know no more where to find it than another of the same Age written by Richard Turpin a Leicestershire Gentleman and an Officer in the Garrison at Calais which I find quoted by his Countryman Tho. Lanquet who died at London in the twenty-fourth year of his Age A. D. 1545. began an Abbreviation of our Chronicles but brought it no lower than the Birth of our Saviour Its third part which chiefly relates to this Kingdom was written by the Learned Tho. Cowper afterwards Bishop of Winchester and by him published He calls it as justly he may an Epitome of our Chronicles and 't is a Meagre one too far short of the Performances of the same Author on other Subjects The like slender Abstract of our English History was about the same time penn'd by George Lily son of William the Famous Grammarian which together with his short Account of the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster and his Genealogy of our Kings has had several Impressions Somewhat bulkier is the Work of Edward Hall who was some time Recorder if I understand my Author right of London where he died A. D. 1547. He wrote a large Account of the foremention'd Wars which in a very flattering Epistle he dedicates to Henry the Eighth If the Reader desires to know what sort of Cloaths were worn in each King's Reign and how the Fashions alter'd this is an Historian for his purpose but in other Matters his Information is not very valuable A great Borrower from this Hall was Rich. Grafton who as Buchanan rightly observes was a very heedless and unskilful Writer and yet he has the Honour done him to be sometimes quoted by Stow and others Of much better Note are the joynt Labours of Will. Harrison and Ra. Holinshead whose Chronicle has been well receiv'd and still bears a good Port among our Books of that kind These Authors are suppos'd to have been both Clergy-men but 't is not certainly known where they spent the most of their days So remarkably careful have they been to benefit the Publick without the Vanity of making their own Story known to Posterity Holinshead frequently owns the great Assistance he had from Fran. Thynne sometime in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Lancaster-Herald and an eminent Antiquary He has been severely treated by Sir Thomas Craig for some Insolencies which that Learned Gentleman suppos'd him guilty of in Relation to the Kingdom of Scotland Whereas in Truth that part of the Book no farther concern'd poor Mr. Holinshead than as the whole was sheltered under his Name In the second Edition the History was continu'd to the year 1586. by John Hooker alias Vowel of whom we shall have occasion to make some further mention hereafter 1601. Industrious John Stow leads the Van in the present Century which is now brought near its Conclusion And he well deserves to be remember'd with Honour He was a Member of the Merchant-Taylors Company in London and as has been already observ'd a special Benefactor to that City in enquiring after and preserving its Antiquities and Records He travell'd on foot through a good part of England in search after the Manuscript Historians in the Libraries of our Cathedral Churches and was very exact and Critical in his Collections Having spent above Forty Years in these Studies he was put upon the Correction and Publishing of Reyne Wolf's Chronicle by Archbishop Whitgift and he had fairly transcrib'd his Work and made it ready for the Press when he died A. D. 1605. He
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
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
frequently publish'd by his Son Morgan Godwin LL. D. Sir Robert Cotton had drawn together some Notes and Collections as Materials for a future History of this King's Reign But these fell unfinish'd into the hands of John Speed who has taken Care to preserve them as orderly as he could in his Chronicle I suppose that which was written in Greek Verse by George Etheridge sometime Regius Professor of that Language in Oxford and by him presented to Queen Elizabeth was intended only for the Use of Her Majesty and its Author and for that reason has ever continu'd in Manuscript sub Noctibus Atticis Above all Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury may be truly said to have written the Life and Reign of King Henry the Eighth having acquitted himself with the like Reputation as the Lord Chancellor Bacon gain'd by that of Henry the Seventh For in the Politick and Martial Part this Honourable Author has been admirably Particular and Exact from the best Records that were Extant Tho' as to the Ecclesiastical he seems to have look'd upon it as a Thing out of his Province and an Undertaking more proper for Men of another Profession The Oxford Antiquary tells us That he had seen four thick Volumes in Folio of Collections which this Lord has furnish'd himself withal as Materials necessary for the firm erecting of so noble a Structure Out of these and other Helps he at last finish'd his excellent History the Original Manuscript whereof he was pleas'd to bestow on the University of Oxford in whose Archives it still remains It has been frequently Printed and the several Impressions as greedily bought up But the last Edition is indeed what is always Pretended the Best and most Correct Edward the Sixth The most Considerable Transactions of this Reign are it may be as well Register'd by the Young King himself as any other Historian in the Diary written with his own hand and still preserv'd in Sir John Cotton's Famous Library from whence our Learned Bishop Burnet transcrib'd and publish'd it There was a Notable Discourse touching the State of the Times in this King's Reign written by a Person admirably well Skill'd in the Antiquities and Laws of England Dr. Gerard Langbaine Provost of Queen's College in Oxford which he publish'd by way of Preface to Sir John Cheek's True Subject to the Rebel As for Sir John Hayward He is the same Man in his Life of Edward the Sixth that we have already observ'd him to be in that of Henry the Fourth Only his Style is here sometimes too Sharp and Pungent especially when he comes to give Characters of the Nobility Ministers of State c. where an Intelligent Historian ought no more to be Clownish than he needs turn Courtier when he Converses with Plowmen Queen Mary's Reign had Blemishes in it which have discourag'd some sort of Writers from attempting its Story tho' I cannot but wonder that others have not thought themselves oblig'd to endeavour to Represent it as Advantageously to Posterity as Art can do it Queen Elizabeth in a long and Prosperous Reign gave the World very ample Proofs of her Sex's being Capable of Government and the most gallant Aâ—chievements Her blasting the longing Hopes of Spain after an Universal Monarchy in Temporals and putting a final Period to that of Rome in Spirituals together with her Personal Endowments were such Extraordinary Glories as tempted a great many Artists to try how fairly they were able to take the Features of such an Original in all Points of Soveraignty Her Establishment of the Reformation and Executing the Laws upon some few Turbulent Persons of the Romish Communion whetted the Style of that Party against her and particularly provok'd Tho. Bourchier a Franciscan Doctor of the Sorbon to write a History of the Martyrdom as he terms it of the Men of his Order The Life and Martyrdom of Mary Queen of Scots was also written by Rob. Turner sometime Scholar to Ed. Campian who was afterwards Doctor of Divinity at Rome and Secretary to Ferdinand Arch-duke of Austria Some of her better Subjects have furnish'd us with more agreeable Accounts of the chief Passages in her Reign Sir Henry Vnton has drawn up a Journal of his Embassy in France giving a full Register of his Commission Instructions Expences c. a Manuscript Copy whereof is now in the Publick Library at Oxford Heyward Towneshend an Eminent Member of the House of Commons preserv'd the Debates in Parliament of her last fourteen Years which long after the Author's Death were publish'd under the Title of Historical Collections c. But this as vast an Undertaking as it seems to be is only a part of that more Comprehensive one of Sir Symonds d'Ewes whose Journal of Both Houses during her whole Reign was soon after given us in Print Her Wars with Spain the several Engagements of her Fleets at Sea with their many Successful Expeditions c. have been well described by Sir William Monson who bore a high Command in most of them and has shewn such a Judgment in Maritime Affairs as well qualify'd him for such Posts of Honour His Book bears the Title of A Particular and Exact Account of the last Seventeen Years of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign both Military and Civil The former kind being the Work of Sir William and the latter Mr. Towneshend's Out of all these and many other good Helps Mr. Camden compos'd his most Exquisite History of this Queen which as Dr. Smith shews in his Life was undertaken by the special Directions and Command of the great Lord Cecil It has had many Editions and in several Languages tho' 't is pity it should be read in any other than its Author 's Polite Original Latin Dr. Fuller observes that one of its English Translations for it had several was done out of French by Abraham Darcy who understood not the Latin and has therefore committed many Mistakes Hugh Holland one of Camden's Scholars at Westminster and a Papist is said to have written this Queen's Life as well as his Master 's But 't is only if it be at all an English Manuscript and very probably not worth the seeking Sir Robert Naunton's Character of her Court and Favourites has been lately publish'd with Sir Francis Walsingham's Arcana Aulica and a short System of her Policies hath been offer'd to our present Soveraign and the late excellent Queen by the Ingenious Edmund Bohun Esq Author of many other Treatises of good Value The End of the First Part. AN INDEX OF THE AUTHORS c. A ABingdon Pag. 67 Adams 16 Aelfred King 100 118 of Beverly 147 Aelfric 103 Agard 21 Albanus 190 Aldhelm 101 Aleyn 223 Anonymi 199 202 Antoninus 2 Aras 136 Asamal 131 Asserius 121 Ashmole 22 25 Aubrey 65 102 B. Bacon 223 Baker 196 Baldoc 165 Bale 46 213 Barcham 193 205 209 Bards 78 Bartholin 146 Basset 217
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.
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
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
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
an Historical Collection of I know not how many Hundreds of exercrable Treasons Conspiracies c. of the British English French Scotch and Irish Bishops against our Kings and Kingdom But 't is time to rid our Hands of this Filth and Nastiness The most ancient Register Books and Records of our several Dioceses and Cathedral Churches will less sully our Fingers S. ASAPH The History of the Bishops and Deans of this Place was composed by the late learned and industrious Mr. Wharton whose Book was publish'd soon after his Death as a Specimen of what his general Work of all the Dioceses in England would have been if he had liv'd to have finish'd it To this Treatise as well as to the other that is prefix'd to it there is an Appendix of Authentic Instruments out of the Register Books c. According to the Method first taught him by Dr. Burnet In the Lives of the Bishops he frequently quotes the Liber ruber Assavensis an old Cartulary of that Church of good Value BANGOR Godwine mentions a Catalogue of the Bishops of this See in the Archives of the Church of Bangor which I suppose was a very Empty one since upon the two first Editions of his Book he had not any thing to say of this Diocese BATH and WELLS What has been lately done for this Diocese is already taken notice of by Mr. Tanner whose Collections and References let it be here observ'd once for all I shall not repeat but shall wish the Reader himself to consult his very useful Book saving only that some of those Authors he barely quotes where I am able to do it shall be set in the truest Light I can give them Let it be here also noted that when ever he refers his Readers as he does in this place to one or the other Volume of Anglia Sacra they are there sure to meet with a good view of such old Writers as have treated of the ancient History of this or that Diocess or else they have at least a composure of Mr. Wharton's very valuable for the Pains that Author took in adjusting the true Chronological succession of our Bishops Dr. Thomas Chandler sometime Warden of New College in Oxford and Chancellour of this Church wrote a Treatise de Laudibus Bathoniae Welliae which I suppose would afford us some such Light as the same learn'd Person has given in those Lives that have been gratefully penn'd by him and will be taken notice of in another place I guess the Historia de tempore Primaevae inchoationis Sedis Episcopalis Wellensis c. which was made ready for the Press by the noble Publishers of the Decem Scriptores is part of what we have had since from Mr. Wharton who also must be thought to have enrich'd his own Notes out of the great Treasure of Collections which was gather'd and communicated to him by the Reverend and Learn'd Dr. Matt. Hutton BRISTOL This See having only been erected by King Henry the Eighth can have no Records of any great Antiquity but 't is hop'd its entire Story may be had out of such Registers as are in the Hands either of the Bishop or Dean and Chapter of the Church CANTERBVRY as in Justice it ought has had the most and best learn'd Preservers of its History and Antiquities of any Diocess in England The first of these was Arch-bishop Deusdedit or Adeodatus who is said to have recorded the Acts of all his Predecessors which was no mighty Undertaking since himself was only the Sixth from Augustine The eldest of those Writers whose Works are now Extant is Gotseline the Monk who besides the Life of Augustine publish'd by Mr. Wharton wrote also those of the Six following Arch-bishops These are now in MS. in Sir Joh. Cotton's Library but being only Collections out of Bede with the enlargement of a few Romantic Miracles they have not hitherto been thought worth the Printing About the same time Osbern was Precentor of Christ-Church and upon the unhappy Fire which destroy'd most of their Records A. D. 1070. took a deal of Pains in recovering the Histories of the Arch-bishops several of whose Lives were written by him besides those we have in Print Gervasius Dorobernensis that is Monk of Canterbury has left three good Treatises on this Subject which bear the following Titles 1. Tractatus de Combustione Reparatione Dorobernensis Ecclesiae 2. Imaginationes de Discordiis inter Monachos Cantuarienses Archiepiscopum Baldewinum 3. Vitae Dorobernensium Archiepiscoporum R. de Diceto's History of these Primates was discover'd in the Norfolk Library after some others amongst whom he should have been rank'd were publish'd And 't would not have been any great loss if we had still wanted it being very short and mostly stuff'd with Matters foreign to the Purpose Mr. Pits sends us to the Library at Bennet College to enquire after a Manuscript Copy of Arch-bishop Langton's Annals of his Predecessors But he that runs on his Errand will find himself mistaken There are indeed in that Library some Collections out of the last mention'd Author's History of our Kings which relate chiefly to the Affairs of this See the transcriber whereof had some thoughts of Copying out St. Langton's History of Richard the First and so prefaced his Work with the Title of Annales Stephani Archiepiscopi But he soon quits that Subject and so imposes upon a careless Catalogue-monger The next in Order of time was Tho. Spott Spottey or Sprott a Benedictine Monk of Canterbury in the Year 1274. whose Book has been vainly enquired after by some of our most Industrious Antiquaries and particularly by one whom hardly any thing on this Subject could escape The Truth is Mr. Somner seems to think 't was rather a Chronicle of the City of Canterbury than of the Arch-bishops and if W. Thorn who was a Monk of the same House in the Year 1380. either Epitomiz'd or Enlarged it it may probably prove only the same with his History of the Abbots of St. Augustines St. Birchington's Performance is largely accounted for by his late Publisher who has assur'd us that nothing that either this Writer or any of the former can afford us has been omitted by the diligent Author of the Antiquitates Britannicae Archbishop Parker was generally reputed the Author of this admired Book till Mr. Selden transferr'd the Honour of it to His Grace's Chaplain Mr. Josseline who has since enjoy'd it I confess I am far from being of AB Bramhal's Opinion That the conclusion of the Preface proves the Acrhbishop himself to have been the Author of that Book But it does fairly intimate that the Composer of it whoever he was did desire the World should believe that most of his Materials were handed to him by that Learn'd Metropolitan who was also he saies the Directer and Overseer of the
Year 1319. which certainly must be very learn'd ones if they answer the Account Godwine gives of that Prelate The Cotton Library is hardly better stock'd with the Records of any Cathedral Church in England than that of Durham whereof the chief is a large Catalogue of their Benefactors from King Edwine down to the Reign of King Henry VIII The beginning of the Book is in an old Saxon Character as ancient as the time of K. Aethelstane in whose Possession 't is very probable from his Name in the Title Page supposed to be written with his own Hand it sometime was There is also a Miscellany Collection of a great many curious Particulars relating to St. Cuthbert and his Successors in that See the Contests of the Prior and Convent with their own Bishops and the Archbishops of York about the Visitatorial Power an entire History of that Church from its Foundation at Lindistarn through all its changes of Fortune and Place as low as the death of Bishop Hugh A. D. 1194. with many other remarkable Fragments of its History There 's also in the Bishops Library at Durham a MS. Collection of the Antiquities of this Church transcribed by the Directions of Bishop Cosin wherein there 's a different Account of some Particulars from what we have in the Rites and Monuments published by Mr. Davies Nor is this last mention'd Piece such an ignorant and pitiful Legend as a very worthy Person has represented it since there 's no where extant so full and exact an Account of the State of this Cathedral at the suppression of Monasteries The Author seems to have been an Eye-witness of all that pass'd at that time and his Descriptions of such Matters as are still remaining appear to be so nicely true that we have great Reason to credit him in the rest Besides these there are now in the Possession of the Dean and Chapter a great many Authentick Records Original Charters Endowments c. which will enable one to furnish out a much more compleat History of this Church than has yet appear'd And I hope the Ingenious and Learn'd Dr. Iohn Smith now Prebendary of that Cathedral will think the Undertaking most proper for himself ELY That History of the Church of Ely which was partly publish'd by Sir William Dugdale and wholly by Mr. Wharton is not the Work of Thomas and Richard whose Names it carries but an Abstract by a nameless Author out of their much larger Volumes which still remain in Manuscript Some parts of the former have been printed out of other Copies by L. D' Achery and Dr. Gale if those Learn'd Gentlemen be not mistaken as I suspect they are in their Conjectures Dr. Brady quotes a Survey of all the Mannors belonging to this Bishoprick taken in the Year 1248. but does not direct us where to find it That S. Birchington or Brickington as he calls him wrote a Catalogue of the Bishops of Ely Mr. Pits is very positive But how he fell into that Mistake wherein he is follow'd by Vossius has been discover'd by a late Writer of much better Credit He probably conjectures that staging over the Margin of one of our Learn'd Church-Historians he met with this Quotation Steph. Birch Catal. Episc. Eliens and thence presently concluded that Stephen must be the Author of the Catalogue there cited Whereas the Historian referr'd his Readers to two several Manuscripts Birchington's History of the Archbishops of Canterbury and an anoâ—ymous Catalogue of the Bishops of Ely for the proof of what he had there advanced EXETER There is in Bodley's Library an old Latin Mass-Book in Saxon Characters in the end whereof we have many Particulars of the Life of Bishop Leofric who gave the Book to his Cathedral as his settling the Episcopal See at Exeter A. D. 1050. c. It gives us also a Catalogue of the Reliques that Church was possess'd of at the time when this Book was written John Grandeson who dy'd Bishop of this See A. D. 1369. is said to have written Martyrologium Exoniense for a Manuscript whereof we are advised to consult the Library at Bennet College John Hooker or Vowel Chamberlain of Exeter where he dy'd A. D. 1601. wrote a lean Catalogue of the Bishops of that See first publish'd by him in Quarto and afterwards inserted into Ralph Holinshead's Chronicle It begins with Eadulph whom he unaccountably calls Werstant and ends at Bishop Woolton who was consecrated in the Year 1579. There 's no want of Materials for the composure of a much fuller History Since the Registers of a good many of the Bishops Stapleton Brantingham Stafford c. are cited by Mr. Wharton and many more pointed at by Mr. Taâ—â—er GLOCESTER being a Diocess of Henry VIIIth's Erection cannot have any Records relating to the See it self more authentick than that which acquaints us with the Erection of St. Peter's Church into a Cathedral But there are many Venerable Remains of Ecclesiastical History which are to be had in the Register-books of those Religious Houses and Parochial Churches which were then brought within that Jurisdiction Out of these Dr. R. Parsons the present worthy Chancellor of that Diocess has collected two MS. Volumes which are also digested into so good a Method that they well deserve the Title of a Compleat History The first of these he stiles Memoirs of the ancient Abbey and present Cathedral of Gloucester wherein he gives an Account of the Foundation of the Great Abbey of St. Peter's in this City and the Succession of its Abbots down to the Dissolution with the History and Succession of the Bishops Deans Chancellors Archdeacons and Prebendaries ever since the dismembering of it from the See of Worcester This Work was happily undertaken at the Request of the late Mr. Wharton who design'd to have oblig'd the Publick with it in some future Volume of his Anglia Sacra We are not in despair of seeing the good Services that were intended our Church by that Learn'd Person fully finish'd and brought to Perfection by some other able Hand So that 't is to be hop'd we shall not long want the Benefit of such successful Labours His other Volume bears the Inscription of A Parochial Visitation of the Diocess of Gloucester wherein the Matters treated on are chiefly Ecclesiastical tho' some Affairs of a Civil Nature are also intermix'd The Observations that occur in this are partly owing to the Author 's own View and Enquiries made in the several Parishes and partly to such Helps as could be had out of the Registry at Worcester and his own at Gloucester HEREFORD That there were anciently several good old Register-books belonging to this Cathedral is beyond dispute Sir H. Spelman quotes one of 'em and we have heard of several others besides that of Bishop Booth The Library and Archives here fell under the like Misfortunes during the
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-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
turn'd into a common Stable by the Rebel Army as it was within ten Years after that into a heap of Rubbish by the dreadful Fire of London NORWICH There are not many Histories of this Diocess All that Mr. Wharton could pick up was out of a couple of General Histories of England written by Bartholomew de Cotton and another anonymous Monk of that Church He quotes indeed a short Chronicle of Norwich in the same Library whence he had the former of these But the late Publisher of the Catalogue of those Manuscripts is mistaken if there be any such Book in the Place referr'd to There is indeed in another Class a piece which bears the Title of Festa synodalia Norwicensis Dioeceseos which begins with St. Foelix the Burgundian their first Bishop The oldest Register-Book which I have yet heard of in this See is that of Bishop Bateman the Magnanimous Founder of Trinity Hall in Cambridge A short Account of the Bishops and Deans of this Church by Tho. Searle A. D. 1659. is among the MSS. of the present worthy Bishop of the Diocess OXFORD is of so late an Erection that it cannot want an absolute and entire History of all its Prelates since its Foundation by Henry the Eighth And we have already observ'd that its Parochial Antiquities preceeding that Time are happily preserv'd by an Ingenious and Learn'd Person who has spar'd no Pains in Collecting out of a vast number of Neighbouring Records and Evidences whatever was worth the Treasuring up and transmitting to Posterity Anth. Wood Collected the Sepulchral and Fenestral Inscriptions of the several Parishes in the County of Oxford which are now amongst those many Papers he left to the University PETERBVRGH was one of the most Rich and Flourishing Monasteries in this Kingdom and was turn'd into one of the poorest Bishopricks by Henry the Eighth The most of those many excellent Histories that concern this Place in its Pristine State have been noted by Mr. Tanner tho' some few have escap'd his great Diligence He has taken no notice of two old Registers given by my Lord Hatton to the Cottonian Library nor of some ancient Grants and Donations to that Monastery He has also omitted Hugh White Abbot of Peterburgh who in Leland's Character is Rerum Petroburgi gestarum luculentus plane Scriptor To these there 's little to be added since the Foundation of the Episcopal See of any great value saving what has been carefully preserv'd in St. Gunton's History which will be this Churches everlasting Monument Some Inscriptions are said indeed to have been defaced before the Survey taken by this Author but those we are told were also to be had amongst the Manuscripts of Franc. Thynne who Collected them in the Year 1592. 'T was happy that Sir William Dugdale and Mr. Gunton drew up their Collections at so seasonable and lucky a time as the Year 1641. For within two years after that in April 1643. this Cathedral was most miserably abused by Cromwell's Regiment who among other shameless outrages broke into the Chapter-House ransack'd the Records broke the Seals tore the Writings and left the floor cover'd over with torn Papers Parchments and Seals ROCHESTER The most venerable Monument of Antiquity that belongs to this Church is the Textus Roffensis which may justly challenge a Respect more than ordinary It was written by Bishop Ernulf who dy'd in the Year 1124. And besides the Affairs of this Cathedral which are accounted for by Mr. Wharton furnishes us with the Laws of four Kentish Kings Ethelbert Hlothere Eadred and Withred omitted by Lambard together with the Saxon Form of Oaths of Fealty and Wager of Law the old Form of cursing by Bell Book and Candle of Ordale c. I suppose this Book was wisely committed to the care of Sir Roger Twisden during the confusions of our late Civil Wars For in his Custody I find it often referr'd to by Sir William Dugdale in a Work which he Compos'd during those Troubles Hadenham and Dene's Histories have been pickt and their choicest Flowers are preserv'd in the Anglia Sacra And the Chronicon Claustri Roffensis is the same with the Textus SALISBVRY Somewhat of the History of the ancient Bishops of Sherburn may be had among L. Noel's Collections and the defects of those down to the Year 1357. may be supply'd from the Chronicle of the Church of Sarum This Chronicle begins at the Creation and has some special Remarks touching the Affairs of our ancient British Church wherein it seems to be singular The Registers also of several of their Bishops as Mortival Wivil Waltham Medford Aiscough and Beauchamp are still extant WINCHESTER There can hardly be any more said of this Ancient and Famous See than what we have from Tho. Rudburn and other Authors lately publish'd out of Sir John Cotton's inexhaustible Treasury Unless for the more modern Times we had that Continuation of the Bishops which was made by John Trussel who brought their History as low as the Sufferings of Bishop Curl and his Order in the beginning of our English Anarchy WORCESTER As this Church was one of the most flourishing in the whole Island under the Government of our Saxon Kings so it had the fortune to preserve its Charters and other Instruments relating to those Times much better than its Neighbours In the Year 1643. Sir William Dugdale drew a Catalogue of no less than 92 such original Donations none whereof fell lower than the Reign of Henry the First To these there have been fifteen more now in the Archives of that Church and not mentioned in the Monasticon added by Dr. Hickes who also believes that among Mr. Lambard's MSS. now in the Archives at Canterbury there are several Saxon Grants belonging to the Church of Worcester After these we are to have recourse to the Anonymous Compilers of the Annals of this Cathedral and the continuation of them by their learn'd Publisher who by the way tells us that Hemming's Book has much more in it than either he or Sir W. Dugdale have given themselves the trouble of transcribing John Rosse the Renown'd Hermit of Guy's Cliff is said to have written a Treatise de Episcopis Wigorniae which I should not much have believed upon the single Credit of my first Author had I not seen the Book it self quoted by our late industrious Naturalist Doctor Plott Some part of Mr. Abingdon's Collection of the Antiquities of Worcestershire mention'd in the former part of this Historical Library is also reported to bear the Title of A History of the Bishops of Worcester which I cannot but once more heartily wish were committed to the Inspection and Care of the Learn'd Dr. Hopkins Prebendary of that Church who we know is throughly versed in the Antiquities of his own
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
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
Prelate of our Church who is a little too severe in his Reflections upon the chief Publisher of these Antiquities The Author himself complain'd of several Additions and Alterations made without his Privity and Consent and seem'd to hope that his own English Copy the Language whereof I dare say was not over Charming would sometime or other hereafter be Publish'd The Black Book at Cambridge makes as considerable a Figure there as any of our old Statute-Books can do at Oxford and it has also its Historiola which is equal both for Matter and Authority with ours The whole Volume is a Collection of ancient Charters and Priviledges amongst which this short History was in the last Age inserted by William Buckenham Master of Caius College and Vice-Chancellor of that University In this we have the Story of King Gurguntius's bestowing the Eastern part of Great Britain upon Cantaber a Spaniard who forsooth had sometime study'd at Athens and after Caer-Grant was built by his Son Grantanus invited thence his old Friends Anaximander and Anaxagoras to teach Philosophy in this City Centum sunt ibi says John Leland praeterea ejusdem farinae Fabulae Profecto nihil unquam legi vanius sed neque Stultius aut Stupidius Missas igitur facio has Antiquitatis delicias Out of the same Book Robert Hare borrow'd his Catalogue of the Chancellors or Rectors if the other Word should prove too young for the purpose of this University which are most exactly continu'd from St. Amphibalus who was Rector A. D. 289. down to the Conquest 'T is reported that a certain Historia Cantabrigiae was written by Nicholas Cantelupe a Welch Gentleman who dy'd Prior of a Monastery of Carmelites at Northampton A. D. 1441. Archbishop Vsher takes this to be the same with what we have already observ'd to be in the Black Book and therefore he frequently quotes Cantelupe's Historiola for the Benefactions of King Lucius and King Arthur to the University of Cambridge Pelagius's studying there c. Our later Antiquaries agree with this learned Primate and allow this Author and that very Work to be the first that appear'd in defence of the British part of her Story And they further tell us that here began the Quarrel betwixt the two Sisters and that John Ross professedly engag'd on the behalf of Oxford Indeed Tho. Fuller speaks of a Treatise concerning the ancient Priviledges of this University which seems to carry a little more Age being written by one Thomas Markant Fellow of Peter-House and Junior-Proctor A. D. 1417. This Book he says was bestow'd on the University by the Author himself and at his request carefully kept for some time in a lock'd Chest. It was afterwards lost or stoln but recover'd and restor'd by R. Hare It was again lost and recover'd by Matt. Wren Bishop of Ely A third time 't is lost And this Relapse says he I suspect to be mortal The Life of King Sigebert was amongst John Leland's many Designs and broad Hints he gave that in it he would discover the true Original of the University of Cambridge But the bulkiest Promises of such noted Writers commonly prove the most abortive Despair of answering the World 's rais'd Expectations very much contributing to their Miscarriage The most learn'd Cantabrigian Antiquary that has yet appear'd was John Caius Doctor of Physick and Physician in Ordinary to Queen Mary who was born at Norwich and was the generous Founder of Caius College out of Gonvil-Hall His two Books De Antiquitate Cantabrigiensis Academiae were written in defence of the Cambridge-Orator against Tho. Key The former Edition of them was under the feign'd Name of Londinensis But in the second the Author himself thought it no disparagement to own his Work His first Attempt is to establish the lately advanc'd Doctrin of his Mother's great Age and Seniority which he endeavours to do from the exemplify'd Charters of King Arthur and King Cadwallader together with those of the Popes Honorius and Sergius This done his next Business is to overthrow the pretended Antiquity of Oxford which in his second Book he dispatches as effectually as he had done his former Argument He seems to have intended a much larger History of this University than is here given us For speaking of the frequent Depopulations and Miseries of the Town during the Wars betwixt the Saxons and the Danes he concludes De quibus in libris nostris de Historia Cantabrigiensis Academiae explicatius egimus I am very confident that a good part of the Collections which he made for this purpose are still in Sir John Cotton's Library where we are told of a Volume of Collectanea ex antiquis Rotulis variis Auctoribus de Academia Cantabrigiensi ejus Antiquitate Privilegiis cum multis Literis Originalibus ejusdem Academiae ad Regem Henricum VIII Thomam Cromwellum c. The same Year with the first Edition of Dr. Caius's Book was publish'd Regina Litera sive De Adventu Elizabethae Reginae Angliae ad Academiam Cantabrigiensem a Treatise of the same Nature with that of Rex Platonicus afterwards at Oxford In the same Queen's Reign wherein the Civil Wars betwixt our two Universities were the most violent was Printed a Catalogue of the Rectors and Chancellors of Cambridge from Mauritius in the Time of Constantine the Great to the Year 1585. written by Matt. Stokys Beadle and Registrary of that University Since his Time the only Person as far as I know that has publish'd any History of this place for I do not think Sir Simonds D'Ewes's Speech deserves such a Name is Tho. Fuller who was pleas'd to annex his History of the University of Cambridge to that of the Churches of Great Britain and most People think they ought not to be separated He begins modestly at the Conquest and ends at the Year 1643. for the like Reasons that prevail'd with our Oxford-Antiquary to break off Five Years after The Foundation of the University by King Sigebert he had discuss'd before in the Body of his Church-History And the potent Arguments he there produces have been nicely examin'd and consider'd by Mr. Wood. Parker's Sceleton Cantabrigiense does not promise any great Matters in its Title and Mr. Hatcher's Catalogue of the Fellows of King's College tho it may have some things of Note in it yet is of too confin'd a Subject to deserve any more than the bare nameing in this Place It had been a happy thing if all those that with so much Industry and Application have enquir'd into the first Originals of our two Universities had bestowed as much of their learned Pains in following down the Histories of such eminent Writers as have flourish'd in either of them For as hereby they might severally have done as much Honour to their respective Mothers so this had been the most effectual Course to have
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