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
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
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
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
London A. D. 1545. The year following a much greater Man of the profession Sir Thomas Eliot one of King Henry's Ambassadors and Sir Thomas Moor's Friends di'd also and left behind him a learned and judicious Commentary de rebus memorabilibus Angliae This work gain'd him the Repute of a most accomplish'd Antiquary in the opinion of J. Leland who is almost immoderate in his Praises But Humphrey Lhuyd being a little disgusted at his Prytannia could only allow him the modest Character of vir non contemnendae eruditionis Cotemporary with these two was George Lilly Son of William Lilly the famous Grammarian who liv'd sometime at Rome with Cardinal Pool and publish'd the first exact Map that ever was drawn of this Island The chief Ornament of this King's Reign was John Leland his Library-Keeper and Canon of Christ-Church of whom we shall have occasion to speak more largely elsewhere Among the many voluminous Writings he left behind him those that have any relation to the general Description of England are his Itinerary in five Volumes which J. Pits seems to have subdivided into a great many other Treatises and his Cygnea Cantio The latter of these is a Poetical Piece of Flattery or a Panegyrick on King Henry wherein the Author brings his Swan down the River of Thames from Oxford to Greenwich describing as she passes along all the Towns Castles and other places of Note within her view And the ancient Names of these being sometimes different from what the common Herd of Writers had usually given therefore in his Commentary on this Poem he Alphabetically explains his Terms and by the bye brings in a great deal of the ancient Geography of this Island Persons of greatest eminence in this sort of Learning under Queen Elizabeth were Humphrey Lhuyd John Twyne William Harrison and William Camden The first of these was born at Denbigh where he afterwards practis'd Physick and wrote many excellent Treatises He was an intimate Acquaintance of Ortelius whom he assisted in the Edition of his Ancient Geography furnishing him with Maps of England and Wales And because he therein disagreed from the opinions of some former Antiquaries in the Position of several of the old Cities Forts and Rivers he sent him also his Commentarioli Britannicae descriptionis fragmentum which gives reasons for all the uncommon Assertions he had there laid down He shews in it how imperfect all the accounts of this Island are which we have from the Roman Writers and how dark for want of a little skill in the old British Language From thence he derives most of our ancient Names and herein he is much follow'd by Camden as himself in other matters is a great follower of Leland John Twyne Schoolmaster and sometime Mayor of Canterbury was so considerable in Antiquities as to deserve a very high place among J. Leland's Worthies and appears indeed to have been a man of extraordinary Knowledge in the Histories and Antiquities of this Kingdom The only thing of his that 's publish'd is his Treatise de rebus Albionicis Britannicis atque Anglicis but his Grandson Bryan gave several other of his Manuscript Collections to Corpus Christi College in Oxford where they still remain William Harrison Chaplain to Sir William Brook Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports with great Pains and good Judgment collected A Description of the Island of Britain with a brief Rehearsal of the Nature and Qualities of the People of England and such Commodities as are to be found in the same Which in three Books has been several times printed together with R. Holinshead's Chronicle Besides these 't is said George Coryat Rector of Odcombe and Father to Tom. Coryat of famous Memory wrote a Description of England Scotland and Ireland in Latin Verse which he dedicated to Queen Elizabeth But the Glory of this Queen's Reign as well as her Successor's and the Prince of our English Antiquaries was Mr. Camden whose Life has been written at large by Dr. Smith Mr. Wood and Mr. Gibson So that I need not here mention any of its particulars His Britannia is the Book which chiefly respects the Subject of this Chapter and may honestly be styl'd the common Sun whereat our modern Writers have all lighted their little Torches In Latin it had many Editions during the Life of its Author who continually polish'd and improv'd it 'T was first translated into English by Philemon Holland who gave two Editions of it in that Language The former of these appearing while Mr. Camden himself was alive I am apt to believe with Tho. Fuller that many of the Additions and Interpolations which were then charg'd on the Translator might not only come in by the Author 's own Permission and Consent but were also placed there by his Directions and are as truly his proper Work as any other part of the Text. But in the second Holland himself frequently turns Antiquary taking upon him to correct add and explode what he pleases These Corruptions have been all noted in a late English Edition of the Work wherein 't is hoped effectual care has been taken to do the great Author all the Honour and Justice he has merited from his Countrymen Some early Attempts were made by an envious Person one Brook or Brookmonth to blast the deservedly great Reputation of this Book but they perish'd and came to nothing as did likewise the terrible Threats given out by Sir Symonds D. Ewes that he would discover Errors in every Page As little to be regarded is that scurrillous Invective which Fuller has most unworthily inserted into his Church-History a Work wherein if the Author had been capable of any such thing a Man would have expected nothing but what look'd like Truth and Gravity There is now no danger of his Suffering by the Injuries done him by Holland and I think very little from the unskilfull Epitome of the Book drawn by Vitellius a Foreigner and long since publish'd at Amsterdam To this we must here add another Work which is now generally ascribed to Mr. Camden but at first carry'd only in its Title Page the two last Letters M. N. of both his Names This is his Remains concerning Britain its Languages Names Surnames c. After 't was enlarg'd by John Philipot Somerset-Herald it has had many Impressions and has been confidently and without any Scruple father'd upon our great Antiquary There are in it a deal of good Collections touching the Languages Money Surnames and Apparel of our British and Saxon Ancestors but his List of proper Names might be considerably enlarged and corrected by what Scottelius and Mr. Gibson have written on that Subject As for his Allusions Rebus and Anagrams he himself fear'd they would pass for Foolish Fopperies and I do not care for thwarting without very good reason any of his opinions
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
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
that part of the World Of the former sort those I would chiefly recommend to his use are the large Volumes of Goldastus and Lindenbrogius S. Meichsner's Kayserlich und Koniglich Land und Lehnrech The Frisian Laws amongst F. Junius's Bookâ— in Bodley's Library and above all the Sachsenâ—Spiegel or Speculum Saxonicum which is a notable Manual of the old Laws of the ancient German-Saxons For the acquiring a sufficient knowledge of the Language a Man ought not only to be conversant in the Francic pieces that are collected by Junius and others publisht by Lambecius but also and most especially to be familiarly intimate with the most elaborate and exquisite Work of J. G. Schottelius who has all that can be wisht for on that Subject 'T was the Opinion of Sir Henry Spelman that our British Historians have more largely treated of the ancient Affairs of Denmark than the Danes themselves But this seems to have been a little unadvisedly written and before his Correspondence with Wormius had better inform'd him I know that some of the most eminent Antiquaries of that Kingdom bewail a mighty breach in the thred of their History of no less than three hundred years together and that in such Centuries as their Records ought to be most serviceable to us But Pontanus has happily remov'd that Panick Fear shewing that the Story is entire enough and only the Chronological part which is a Fault common to all the ancient Histories of the whole World a little dark and troubled The Scaldri or Runae were men of the same fashion among the Danes and the other Northern Kingdoms as the Bards in Great Britain They were the profest Historians and Genealogists of their several Countries always in attendance on their Kings both in Peace and War and ready to celebrate every remarkable Occurrence in everlasting Rhimes This was their Office And 't was of that Consideration in the State and so acceptable to the Monarchs themselves that those Poets were always the chief Courtiers and Counsellors as being perhaps the only Men of Letters Out of their Compositions is fetch'd all the ancient Danish History for some Centuries as both Saxo himself and all the rest of their Historians have acknowledg'd The Art is still in great Vogue and Credit with the Modern Islanders who are justly reputed the main preservers of the Northern Antiquities notwithstanding that a late Learned person has affirm'd that their Country produces nothing but Apparitions Ghosts Hobgoblins and Fairies Mighty are the Commendations which they that pretend to Skill in these Venerable Sonnets have given us of them They will not allow any thing that was ever penn'd by Homer or Virgil to come in Competition with them assuring us that the happiest Flights we can meet with in the Greek and Roman Poets are dull Trash if compar'd with the Seraphick Lines of a true Cimbrian Scalder The Language wherein the foremention'd Rhimes were compos'd was by the Northern Nations themselves call'd Asamal or the Asian Tongue being suppos'd to be brought out of Asia by Woden or Odin the first great General that led a Colony into these parts The best Remains of this as I long since acquainted the English Reader are now amongst the Inhabitants of Island who have preserv'd their ancient Language in the greatest Purity both by being least acquainted with foreign Commerce and by taking care to Registerin it the public Transactions of their own and the Neighbouring Nations The same old Tongue was also call'd Runa Maali from the Characters wherein 't was written and which they term'd Runer Of the Original of which word and its proper signification Wormius has given us a large account The Characters themselves were first he shews call'd Runer tho afterwards that word came to acquire some new significations As 1. Enchantments because they were perform'd by the help of these strange Letters 2. Learned Men whose business it was by the help of the same Alphabet to compose Epitaphs for their great ones and to make Inscriptions on their Monuments 'T is well worth our Observation that among the several Runic Alphabets reckon'd up by Arngrim Jonas there 's one which he calls Ira Letur or Irlandorum Literae Now it appears indeed that the Danes were long in possession of the Kingdom of Ireland or at least a good share of it and yet we have not hitherto met with any Remains of their ancient Learning which have been discover'd in that Island But the thing is not much to be wonder'd at As all Reformations in religious matters are zealous and warm so we have reason to believe that to have been wherein these Pagan Nations were first converted to Christianity Care was taken to abolish the very Ruins of their former Worship and their first Apostles bringing generally their Commissions from the Court of Rome thought the Papal Conquest never to be effectually finish'd till even the Italian Characters and Way of Writing had been wholly admitted into practice by their Northern Converts Which was the more easily brought about by reason of the ill use which had been some time made of their Runic Letters For the suggestion was obvious that as long as these were at hand it would be difficult to preserve Men from trying some of their old Magical Conclusions and by degrees relapsing into Idolatry and Paganism The Danes as all other ancient People of the World register'd their more considerable Transactions upon Rocks or on parts of them hewen into various Shapes and Figures On these they engrav'd such Inscriptions as were proper for their Heathen Altars Triumphal Arches Sepulchral Monuments and Genealogical Histories of their Ancestors Their Writings of less Concern as Letters Almanacks c. were engraven upon Wood And because Beech was most plentiful in Denmark tho Firr and Oak be so in Norway and Sweden and most commonly employ'd in these Services from the word Bog which in their Language is the Name of that sort of Wood they and all other Northern Nations have the Name of Book The poorer sort used Bark and the Horns of Rain-Deer and Elks were often finely polish'd and shaped into Books of several Leaves Many of their Old Calendars are likewise upon Bones of Beasts and Fishes But the Inscriptions on Tapestry Bells Parchment and Paper are of later use Some other Monuments may be known to be of a Danish Extraction tho they carry nothing of a Runic Inscription Few of their Temples were cover'd and the largest observ'd by Wormius at Kialernes in Island was 120 foot in length and 60 in breadth Their Altars stood in a sort of Chappel or Chancel in the end of these Temples being only large broad Stones erected on three bulky Supporters on the top of a Hillock surrounded with Rows of lesser Stones These Altars are usually three of 'em found together being consecrated to their three chief Deities
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Cotton Sir Rob. 21. 37 44 210 225. Sir John 21. 23 33. Sir Tho. 35. Mr. 31. Couper Cowper 188. * Cheek 227. Chiswel 29. 〈◊〉 Clarendon 171. 181 182. Craig 151. 190 * Crew 27. S. Cuthbert 102. Darcy 231. Daniel 35. 117 193 * Danish Histories 129. 142. Monuments 134. 135. 144. Davies 77. 96. Devisiensis 157. 205 206 208. Digby 202. Doderidge 21 28 29 62. Dodesworth 16. 55 59 69. Dadwel 104. 196. Doilie 50. Dugdale 15. 16 22 26 44 49 53 63. 23. 24 105. Ealred 124. 154 155. Edda 137. 138 139. Essebiensis 158. 165. Ethelwerd 122 c. Ewes 11. 59 171. S. D' Ewes Fabian 46. 111 192. Fairfax 68. Fell 15. 101 104 218. Florilegus 171. 180. Fox 118. Fresne 106. Fuller 11. 12 14 27 31 32 50 183 192 * 222 231. Gale 16 c. 2. 3 29 83 121 163 173 177 207 212. Gibson 23. 24 39 49 114 116. Gildas 73. 81 c. 85. 87. 16. Grafton 189. * Grey 52. 92 98. Glover 15. Hall 189. * Hanson 15. Harding 125. 189. Harley 36. Harpesfield 225. Harrison 8. 190 * Hatton 23. Hemmingford 18. 176 212. Herald 's Office 21 23. R. of Hexham 203. 204. Heylin 13. Higden 176. 184. Hickes 24. 26 100 101 104. Hobbes 31. Holinshead 32. 190 * Hooker 32. 191 * Howard 14. 215. Howes 192. * 215. Huntingdon 120. 155. Hypercritica 12. James 22. 35. Jessop 20. Ingulfus 24. 148. Johnson 20. 45 57. Jonas 133. 140 142 142. Josseline 8. 12 83 101 103 114. Iscanus 206. 207. Junius 23. 101 103 104 111. 112. Kelton 61. 67 99. Kennet 35. 39 25 54 117. Keurden 41. 42. Kilburn 37. 39. Kniveton 15. Lambard 37. 100 111 112 117 127 168. Lanquet 188. * Laud 23. 114. Lawson 20. Leland 7. 8 37 72 77 78 83 90 91 98 122 124 164 207. Leicester 27 28. Lhuid 8. 20 62 75 80 97 186 186 * Lhwyd 92. 96. Lilie 6. 189 * Lister 18. 20 68. Mackenzy 155. Malmesbury 123. 124 152 177. Malory 98. Manwaring 28. Marianus 122. 148 149 150. Marshal 101. 102 127. Martia 87. Martyn 194. * Medals 90. Middleton 78. Milton 9. Molmutius 81. 87. Monmouth 85. 94 152 158 164. More 189. 211. Morgan 61. 77. Nash 50. 51. Nennius 16 84 85 88 95. Neubrigensis 24. 98 157. Niger 158. 165. Norden 29. 33. 36 39 45. Northcot 31. 32. Nowel 111. Olaus Magnus 139. Oldenburg 101. Oxoniensis 208. Paris 14. 24 165 180. Parker 14. 119. 188. Philpot 12. 37 39. Pettus 94. Pistorius 149. Pits 83. Plot 18. 20 45 53 54 58 93. Powel 60. 86 88 96 97 158. Ptolemy 2. 17. Rastal 188. * Reiner 38. Resenius 138. Rhese 76. 88. Risdon 31. 32. Rishanger 166. 173 211. Ross 64. 183 192. Soemund 137. 138. Saint George 16. Sammes 65. 101. Samothes 81. Sanderson 53. Savil 15. 105 123 155 160 185 * Saxo 131. 139 142 143. Saxton 16. Selden 8. 15 22 23 59 103 126 151 155 163 199. Sheringham 13. 87 96 126 127. Simpson 70. Sleidan 186. Somner 37. 38 40 41 105 106 108 101 103 104 112 116 117 126 127. Speed 13. 16 194 * Spelman 13. 16 49 50 86 106 105 108 112 120 121 124 129 160. Stephens 45. Stillingfleet 80. 99. Stow 46. 47 191 * 215. Sueno 142 143. Surita 17. Sylvius 81. Taylor 33. 36 40 79 202. Temple 9. 99 147 202. Tenison 24. Thynne 190 * Thoresby 69. 199. Tilburiensis 157. 164. Tinmuthensis 178. Todd 30. Towneshend 230. 231. Trussel 35. 194 * Turner 33. 229. Turpin 188. * Twisden 15. 106. 163. Twyne 8. 9 40. Virgil 82. 98 185 * Vincent 16. 23 51. Vinesauf 207 208. Vndallensis 124. Vossius 221. Vsher 15. 82 83 97 100 117 199. Walsingham 14. 119 188 219 231. Wats 106. 124. Waverley 18. Westcot 31. 32. Westminster 14 116. 167 179. Wharton 12. 19 c. 40 61 103 110 116 163 171 172 199 205. Wheloc 21 106 114 116. White 193. * Whitgift 191. * Wikes 118. 172. Williams 73. 77. Wolf 191. * Wood 54. 57 68 102. Woolsey 194. Worcester 14. 116 120 149. Wormius 129. 135 139 142 144. Wyrley 23. 'T is to be noted that in this additional Index References are not only made to the Book it self but also to the Preface which is suppos'd to be Paged from the Title-Page The other Errors and Defects are thus to be corrected and supply'd P. 2. l. 13. Reckoning Nor ought any thing that has been transcrib'd from them by Strabo or Pomponius Mela by Solinius or Pleny to carry any higher Value P. 4. l. 26. Most of them I Leland says he once saw in the Library at St. Paul's a Description of England written in the Saxon Tongue by Coleman who if he be the the same Man with Colemannus Monk of Worcester the Writer of St. Wulstan's Life may justly challenge a Precedence Otherwise Gyraldus c. P. 13. l. 6. This Nature With this fancyful Treatise let me join Mich. Drayton's Poly-Olbion which affords a much truer Account of this Kingdom and the Dominion of Wales than could well be expected from the Pen of a Poet. The first eighteen of these Songs had the Honour to be publish'd with Mr. Selden's Notes the other twelve being hardly capable of such a respect P. 15. l. 11. and Speed Mr. Ogilby design'd a most Noble Description of England in Three Volumes the first whereof which only is publish'd contains an Ichnographical and Historical Account of all our great Roads on 100 large Copper Cuts The second was to have given us the like View of our Cities and the third should have afforded us a Topographical Description of the whole Kingdom P. 16. l. 7. Library Sir John Marsham Junior lately deceas'd took good Pains in writing an Historical List of all the Burroughs in England which send Members to the Parliament This Work was just finish'd upon the Death of its Author and is now ready for the Press in the hands of his Brother Sir Robert Marsham P. 18. l. 8. Performance There are two small Tracts about our English Mastiffs and other extraordinary Animals as well as Plants written by Dr. Caius which are printed with his Treatise de Libris propriis P. 25. l. 13. before mention'd In which Work he told us he design'd a more complete History of these and that he had made Collections in order to it These Collections are now in his Musaeum at Oxford where there are also very considerable Materials of his own gathering for a General History of Berkshire P. 26. l. 5. Kingdom A Catalogue of the indigenous Plants of Cambridgeshire was long since publish'd by the learned Mr. Ray augmented afterwards by Mr. Stone-street and Mr. Dent. There is also a Manuscript-History of this County by Mr. Laire of Shephred near Royston whose Son intends to deposite it in some of the College-Libraries at Cambridge P. 31. l. 13. Jones There 's a MS. in the Musaeum at Oxford which bears the Title of Phil.
collected his Cambria Triumphans or Ancient and Modern British and Welsh Histories from Brute to Charles the First Nic. Allen's Britanneis ten Books whereof are now in MS. in Bodley's Library comes no lower than the Conquest P. 107. l. 4. from the time of Claudius to that of Valentinian about five hundred he should say four hundred years the c. P. 104. * l. 20. Bodley 's Library But the Transcript of it in eleven Volumes at the Charge of the late pious Bishop Fell is not in the Musaeum Ashmoleanum as Dr. Hickes was inform'd P. 111. l. 20. Laur. Nowel P. 121. l. 19. the matter But I do know that there was a short Life of this great King publish'd by R. Powel a Lawyer who has been at no contemptible Pains to make up a Parallel betwixt Aelfred and Charles the First P. 128. l. 12. put together A short Chronicle of our English-Saxon Kings from Hengist to the end of the Heptarchy was written in Latin by Dan. Langhorn whose chief Authors are those publish'd by Sir Hen. Savil and Sir Roger Twisden He had formerly given us the Antiquities of this Island previous to the Arrival of the Saxons wherein amongst other Remains of those dark Times we have a Catalogue of the Pictish King 'T is said that the Continuation of this History is much desir'd by Learned Men And 't is pity but the Author if yet living should be prevail'd with to gratifie them P. 139. l. 15. Wormius 's use P. 140. l. 14. own Nation Some part of this fell happily into the hands of Tho. Bartholine 's Friend the Bishop of Scalholt who took care to have it printed A. D. 1689. P. 152. l. 23. Galfredi But in this I dare not be positive Leland saw this Author 's entire History which ended Anno 29 Hen. 1. He has made Collections out of it wherein as in some other Passages cited by R. Higden there are several things not found in Jeoffrey Which considering withal that Aelfred may probably be reckon'd as early a Writer as himself is one of the most cogent Arguments as far as I know to prove that this Monmouth was not the first Author of the whole British Story P. 159. l. 17. Judgment enough So much Encouragement we have to look after the whole that we are sure Leland had the perusal of an entire Copy the Prologue whereof he has transcrib'd as likewise many following Passages relating to the Affairs of the Britains and Saxons Ibid. l. ult Blockhead 'T is to be fear'd we shall hardly meet with this History till we find the Historian himself which is more than either Bishop Godwine or Mr. Wharton could do amongst the Bishops of Durham P. 161. l. 3. temporum Indices And indeed Leland himself was afterwards of the like Opinion For in his Book de Scriptoribus he says nothing of his being a Plagiary but gives him this great Character Mortuo Henrico Rege sc. ejus nominis secundo omne studium suum ad Historiam scribendam contulit in quo Negotio si diligentiam si Antiquitatis cognitionem si sanctam fidem spectes non modo quotquot seculis rudibus quidem praecesserunt Scriptores verum etiam seipsum superavit P. 163. l. 3. Library This British Chronicle is probably the same that 's printed by Dr. Gale and seems to be wholly transcrib'd out of the Works of a former Author whom he calls Brome This may be the same with Jo. Bromius or Bramus quoted sometimes by Dr. Caius and Franc. Thynne but must be different from Jo. Bramis the Friar of Gorleston with whom he is confounded by Bale and Pits because the Friar did not flourish till 1440. and the Historian must live before Ralph de Diceto and was moreover as Thynne observes a Monk of Thetford P. 164. l. 19. the Fourth Here likewise notice ought to be taken of Joh. Wallingford's Chronicle publish'd by Dr. Gale if the Abbot of St. Albans of that name who dy'ds in the Year 1214. was as the learned Editor guesses the Author of it But he seems to be a different Person from the Historian who carries down his Work forty years after the Abbot's Death The Doctor indeed makes R. Wendover Author of the latter Part of that History But if he had look'd into the next Treatise to this Chronicle in the Cottonian MS. from whence he had it he would have met with another John Wallingford who was made Monk of St. Alban's in the Year 1231. and so might bring down the History till 1258. without the Assistance of Wendover P. 172. l. 15. flourish'd Or it may be the Chronicle that was written by John de Taxston a Monk of Bury which ends at the Reign of Edw. 3. is the same thing with these Annals John de Oxenedes a Monk of Hulm mention'd by Mr. Wharton liv'd about the same time P. 175. l. 7. Years more 'T is probable the Chronicle of Joh. Londinensis who liv'd about the same time is still extant For 't is quoted in Lambard's Preface to his Archaionomia and among R. James's Collections there are several things extracted out of it P. 184. l. 21. To these we may probably add the Author of the MS. Eulogium who begins his Work at Bruâ—e and ends at the Year 1367. The beginning of the Book 't is likely may be Nennius's but the rest seems to have been penn'd by a Monk of Canterbury by his calling St. Thomas Becket his Patron P. 194. l. 23. the Year 1530. P. 185. * l. 15. their Countrey Bale reports that Sir Brian Tuke wrote a Chronicle purposely to vindicate the Honour of the English Nation against those Aspersions which Virgil had cast upon it in this History P. 190. * l. 2. and others To these we may add two Poetical Historians of this Age Chr. Ocland who wrote Anglorum praelia in Latin Verse and Will. Warner an English Rhimer Author of the Romantick Story of Albion's England in twelve Books containing the Occurrences of our Land from Noah to the 39th of Queen Elizabeth P. 194. * l. 19. Queen Elizabeth Cotemporaries with these were John Clapham Edward Ayscue and Will. Slatyer the first whereof left us the History of Great Britain the second that of the Wars Treaties and Marriages with Scotland and the third his Palae-Albion in ten Books of Latin and English Verse P. 198. l. 9. Arms c. 3. Dr. R. Brady's Complete History of England wherein he endeavours to prove and no Man ever did it more effectually that all our adored Liberties are deriv'd from the Crown and owing to the Concessions of our Princes He shews that the Normans themselves weary of the Tenure of Knight-Service and other Drudgeries of the Feudal Law rais'd all our old Civil Commotions in England And that no ancient Rights and Properties of the Subject were any part of the true
Controversie He very well illustrates many dark Passages in our English-Saxon Laws by comparing them with those of the old Germans Francs Lombards c. His Preface to the Norman History largely accounts for the Customs of that People and shews what sort of Government and Laws they brought with them into this Kingdom Afterwards we have a good view of the seven first Reigns after the Conquest His chief Author is M. Paris well epitomiz'd and confirm'd and enlarg'd with authentick Evidence from Records a great many whereof are printed at large in his Appendix He has also publish'd an Introduction to the English History which treating chiefly of Matters of Law and Government shall be consider'd elsewhere 4. Let me add c. P. 202. l. 17. great Man Sir John Hayward's History of the three Norman Kings was undertaken at the Request of Prince Henry who hardly liv'd to read it and not to requite the Author's Pains He calls his Lives of these Monarchs Descriptions rather than Histories And so indeed they are being only short Portraictures of 'em in such a witty and humour some Style and Method as might better serve to divert the young Prince than instruct him I shall give the Reader but one Instance of the Care he took of the Chronological part of his Story He says Hen. 1. was crown'd the second of August which is the same day whereon he acknowledges King William II. was slain a little before Sun-set in the New-Forest A small Fragment of the Conqueror's History is among Cambden's Anglica Normannica c. and some Particulars relating to the Reigns of this and the two following Kings may be pick'd out of Guil. Gemeticensis and others publish'd by the learned And. du Chesne But above all c. P. 203. l. 21. the second There 's an old English History in Saxon Letters of the Transactions of some few years of his Reign after 1123 in Sir John Cotton's Library P. 204. l. 3. voluminous Author In Du Chesne's Collection there 's a pretty large Life of this King whose Author though Anonymous seems to have flourish'd in the latter end of this or the beginning of the next Reign And Pits assures us that Ralph de Diceto's Annals of King Stephen are in the Library at Bennet-College P. 205. l. 18. Benedictus whose Book we are since told is full of notable and politick Remarks and is much follow'd by Hoveden and Brompton Pet. Blesensis certainly wrote his Life tho' we know not what 's become of it Tho. May the Translator of Lucan has given us seven Books in English Poetry on this Subject to which is annex'd his Character in Prose with a short Survey of the Changes in his Reign and a comparative Description of his two Sons Henry and Richard P. 207. l. 5. Antiocheis P. 208. l. 8. But perhaps he 's mistaken in that Conjecture since Rich. Devisiensis was certainly a Monk of Winchester However to make up the Number the Reader is to know that an old printed Life of this Ceur du Lyon is in English Meeter tho' I cannot inform him who was its Author P. 211. l. 15. several Parts Peter de Langetoft who drew up an Epitome of our Chronicles in old French Rhimes bestows one whole Book upon Edward the First Ibid. l. 21 1320. The Annals of the greatest and best part of his Reign from 1307. to 1323. were digested by John de Frokelow a Monk as the History of his Treaty of Peace in the Sixteenth Year of his Reign with Robert King of Scots was by Henry de Blaneford Walter de Heminford's Life of Edw. II. is said to have been in the Library of Bennet-College which we are not so sure of as that his Life of Edw. III. is in that of Magdalene-College in Oxford as well as in Sir John Cotton's at Westminster P. 212. l. 22. Deleantur I doubt whether c. usque ad Old Manuscript Historians p. 213. l. 7. inclusivè P. 214. l. 11. a Friend R. James in some Volume of his MS. Collections reports that Rob. Avesbury Registrary of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Court wrote Mirabilia gesta R. Edwardi III. post Conquestum procerúmque suorum tractis primitùs quibusdam gestis de tempore Patris sui D. Edv. II. quae in regnis Angliae Scotioe Franciae in Aquitaniâ Britanniâ non humanâ sed Dei potentiâ contigerunt Tho. May the Poet has likewise some English Raptures upon this King 's Life Nor ought I to forget that Sir John Froissard is said to have written two Books on that of Queen Philippa the first glorious Patroness of Queen's College in Oxford Above all Mr. Joshua Barnes has diligently collected whatever was to be had far and near upon the several Passages of this great King's Reign His Quotations are many and generally his Authors are as well chosen as such a Multitude can be suppos'd to have been His Inferences are not always like a Statesman and sometimes his Digressions are tedious His deriving of the famous Institution of the Garter from the Phaenicians is extremely obliging to good Master Sammes But came too late it seems to Mr. Ashmole's Knowledge or otherwise would have bid fair for a choice Post of Honour in his Elaborate Book In short this industrious Author seems to have hasten'd his Work too much to the Press before he had provided an Index and some other Accoutrements which might have made it more serviceable to his Readers P. 215. l. 6. untimely Death Deleantur which it may be contains the whole Chronicle Et adde Richard Maidstone a learned Carmelite wrote also in Latin Verse Concordiam inter Ricardum II. Cives Londâ—nenses And Henry Knighton's History of his Deposition is among the Decem Scriptores as another short History of his Reign by an anonymous Monk of Evesham it in the Coâ—tonian Library Amongst later Pamphlets on this Subject the Idol of Clowns or the Insurrection of Wat Tyler as a Parallel with some Occurrences in our late Days of Rebellion may balance the Exact Ac-Account of the Articles and Proceedings c. P. 216. 1. 5. those Reigns There is an old French MS. in Verse which treats of the Affairs of this Reign the Title whereof in a hand more modern than the Book it self is this Histoire du Roy D' Angleterre Richard traictant particulierement la Rebellion des sus Subjects prinse de sa personne c. Composée par un gentilhomme François de Marque qui fut à la suité du dict Roy avecque permission du Roy de France At the end in a hand as old as that of the Book is written Ce livre de la prinse du Roy Richart d' Angleterre est à Monseigneur Charles Damon Conte du Maine de Mortaing Gouverneur de Languedoc This was lately in the Possession of the learned Dr. Hickes who
Legend it self The Learned Reader will pardon me if I give him a further Account of this rare French MS. out of Monsieur Borel's Glossary Which because the Book is not in many of our English Libraries I shall do at large in his own Words Il ya un Romant ancien says he intitule La Conqueste du Saingreal c. du S. Vaisseau ou estoit le Sang de Jesus-Christ qu'il appelle aussi le Sang real c. le Sang royal Et ainsi ces deux choses sont confundues tellement qu'on ne connoist qu'auec peine quand les anciens Romans qui en parlent fort souuent entendent le Vaisseau ou le Sang. Perceual l'explique bien en ces mots Senefioit que li greaus Qui tant est beaux precieux Que le S. Sang glorieux Du Roy des Rois y fu receus Et ailleurs Un greal Trestout descouuert Item Et puis apporta un greaux Tout plein de pierres precieuses R. de Merlin MS. Ne oneques peus ne fust veu au siecle ne du greal ne palle Et apres il dit Et cil Rois pecheors avoit le digne sang Jesus-Christ en guarde D'ou il est manifeste que le R. de Sangreal n'est que du Sang Royal de Jesus-Christ Item Pensa moult a la lance ou graal qu'il avoit veu porter Ce texte monstre que c'estoit un vase Mais en suite le mesinem Autheur parlant du Graal l'appelle un Vaisseau car il parle ainsi Et quand le premier mes fust apportee si issi le Graal fo rs d'une Chambre les dignes Reliques auenc si tot comme Perceualle vit qui moult en avoit grand desir de scavoir si dit Sire je vos prie que vous me diez que l'en sert de cest Vessel que cest vallet porte Et encore il dit ailleurs Et porce laupelon nos Graal qu'il agree as prodes homes En cest Vessel gist le Sang de Jesus-Christ En ce texte il donne une Etymologie differente du Sang Royal a scavoir le Sang agreable aux hommes en ce qu' ils en lavent leurs pechez Et derechef confirmant cela il dit vers le commencement de son Livre Et ils distrent porrons dire du Vesseil que nos veimes coman le clameron nos qui tant nos gree cil qui ly voudront clamer ne metre non a nos esciens le clameront le greal qui tant agree Et quant cil l'oyent si dient bien doit avoir non cist vesseaux graax Et ainsi le nomment Et enfin il dit Ou li Vessel de graal seit C'est le vase on Joseph dit il recueillit le Sang qui sortit des playes de Jesus-Christ lors qu'il lavoit son corps pour l'embaumer a la maniere des Juifs The present Age amongst her many Writers in all parts of Learning has afforded us some that have thought it an Undertaking worth their Pains to search after the Remains of our first British Church and the Discoveries they have made have met with very different Characters and Entertainment according as they have fall'n into the Hands of proper or improper Judges The first of these I suppose was R. Broughton a Secular Priest who was bred at Rheims and sojourn'd sometime in Oxford In this latter Place he collected Materials for his Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain from the Nativity of our Saviour unto the happy Conversion of the Saxons The Account that Mr. Wood gives of this Book is this Tho' 't is a Rapsody and a thing not well digested yet there 's a great deal of Reading shew'd in it 'T is said King James J. was overjoy'd to hear of Sir R. Cotton's Design of writing our Church-History from the first planting of Christianity to the Reformation And so far he carry'd on the Project as to draw together no less than Eight large Volumes of Collections which have long been and still are very serviceable to those that engage in those Studies The like Collections were made about the same time by AB Vsher the most Reverend and Learn'd Primate of Ireland and soon after Commendatory Bishop of Carlisle of whom one that knew him well and was as able as any Man to judge of him gives this Character Vir ob Eruditionis immensitatem morumque Sanctitatem toto Orbi Vener andissimus His Book was first printed at Dublin under the Title De Pâ—imordiis c. and is since publish'd by the Name of Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates 'T was begun by Command of King James I. who gave him Licence under the Great Seal of Ireland to retire from his Bishoprick of Meath to one of our English Universities for the more effectual carrying on of so good a Work And this Grant was had and enjoy'd above a dozen Years before the Book was first published He begins with a Collection of whatever Narratives and old Stories he could meet with about Simon Zelotes Joseph of Arimathea and others first planting Christianity in this Island From whence he proceeds to the Legend of King Lucius and the whole Succession of those Archbishops and Bishops descended from Jeoffrey of Monmouth's Flamines and Archi-Flamines After this we have the Settlement of three Metropolitical Thrones at London York and Caerlion which are afterward removed to Canterbury Dole in Britany and St. Davids Then follows the generous Endowments of Glastonbury and other places by Lucius and Arthur The Martyrdom of St. Alban and his Friend or Cloak Amphibalus with many more of their Fellow-Saints The famous Expedition of Vrsula c. Interwoven with these Reports the Reader will find a deal of excellent Learning and the clearing of many doubts in our British Roman and Saxon Antiquities He also gives a particular Account of the Original and Progress of the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian Heresies and concludes with the Remains St. Patrick and the ancient Scottish or Irish Church The Author himself modestly calls the Work Ex omni Scriptorum genere promiscue congesta farrago Which Sir Geo. Mackenzie has a little bluntly translated A confused Rabble and a formless Lump of fabulous Nonsense 'T is a more just Account that another gives of this Treasure of our ancient Church-History That all that have written since with any Success on this Subject must own themselves beholding to him for his Elaborate Collections In the late Edition the References which the Author makes to the several parts of his Work are very faulty The Margin of the former Quarto Edition having not always been Corrected The same Year with AB Vsher's Book was publish'd Sir H. Spelman's first Tome of the Councils Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions c. of this Kingdom and its Dependencies Whereof we are to give
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
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
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
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
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
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
118 Osmund 47 Oxenedes xxx Oxoniensis Historiola 208 P. Paris 24 55 64 74 Parker 121 222 Parsons 69 82 134 Paul 164 Philip Monachus 55 Pits 109 194 206 220 Pliny x Pluto 63 Pollini 88 Porter 46 Powel xxiv Proctor xlvi Prynne 112 114 Q. Quadrilogus 79 R. Ramsey 54 56 57 Ray xiii Regina Literata 221 Reyner 195 Ricemarchus 23 26 Rich 74 Rievallensis 28 Ripponensis 59 Rishton 87 Robinson xxiii Rocking 76 Rosse 150 204 209 Rudburn 128 149 S. Saints British 21 Saxon 44 English 73 Salisburiensis 73 78 Salopiensis 29 Sancta Clara 200 Sanders 86 Sansbury 213 Savage 214 Savil 183 Schelstract 20 Schaffhausen 29 Searl 144 Selden xi Serlo 198 Slatyer xxxii Smith 70 131 Solinus x Somner 44 67 120 Speed 183 Spelman 15 40 66 90 Spott 120 Stanyhurst 28 Stapleton 38 79 Stephens 60 77 90 Stillingfleet 17 100 Stokys 222 Stonestreet xiii Storer 166 Stow 207 Strabo x Strype 104 Stubbes 152 T. Tanner 50 116 189 232 Taylor 136 Taxston xxx Teilo 138 Teukesbury 78 79 Textus Roffensis 148 Thorn 120 Thynne 146 Tinmuthensis 30 31 Tood 123 Torr xvii 154 Trokelow xxxvii Trussel 149 Tuke xxxi Turgot 127 Turner xvi Twine 212 Twisden 89 V. Vade 79 Varillas 99 Virgil 109 Vitalis 62 Unwon 24 Vowel 133 Urmston 125 Usher xxiii 12 W. Wade 79 Wake 212 Wall xlv Wallingford xxix Wantner xiv Warner xxxi Wendover xxix Wessington 128 Wharton 111 115 116 142 178 Wheloc 37 38 White 146 194 Whitlock 140 Wilson 45 163 Wintoniensis 107 Wood 111 145 128 215 231 Woodhop 194 Worcester 182 209 Worthington 85 Wulstan 53 58 Wycumb 168 Books Printed for Abel Swall at the Vnicorn in St. Paul's Chuch-Yard CAmden's Britannia newly Translated into English with large Additions and Improvements and Maps of every County engrav'd anew Folio Thesaurus Geographicus a new Body of Geography containing the General Doctrin of that Science and a particular Description Geographical Topographical and Political of all the known Countries of the Earth with Maps engraven in Copper Folio Monsieur L. E. Du Pin's History of Ecclesiastical Writers containing an Account of the Lives and Writings and an Abridgment of the Works of the Primitive Fathers and all Ecclesiastical Writers from the time of our Saviour to the end of the Ninth Century Folio seven Tomes The Evangelical History or the Life of our Saviour Jesus Christ comprehensively and plainly related Adorn'd with Copper Cuts Octavo The Evangelical History Part II. being the Lives and Acts of the Holy Apostles Illustrated with the Effigies of the Apostles and a Map of their Travels engraven in Copper Octavo The Essays or Councils Civil and Moral of Sir Francis Bacon Lord Verulam and Vicount of St. Alban with a Character of Q. Eliz. now added in this Edition Octavo The History of the Revolutions in Sweden occasioned by the Change of Religion and Alteration of Government in that Kingdom Translated from French by J. M. Octavo Travels through Germany Bohemia Swisserland Holland and other parts of Europe describing the most considerable Cities and Palaces of Princes By C. Patin M. D. of Paris English'd and Illustrated with Cuts Octavo C. Jul. Caesaris Comment cum Notis Interpretat Joan. Goduini in usum Delph Octavo P. Ovidij Metamorphosaeon Interpret Notis illustravit D. Crispinus in usum Delph recensuit J. Freind Oxon. Octavo P. Virgilij Opera Notis Interpret illustravit Carol. Ruaeus in usum Delphinij Octavo Eutropij Historiae Romanae Breviar cum Notis Emendationibus Annae Tannaq Fabri Filia in usum Delphini Octavo The English Historical Library Part I. A short View and Character of most of the Writers now extant either in Print or Manuscript which may be serviceable to the Undertakers of a General History of this Kingdom By W. Nicolson Octavo Now newly Published Archaeologiae Greciae Or the Antiquities of Greece containing an Account of the Civil Government of Athens The Religion of the Greeks c. By John Potter M. A. and Fellow of Lincoln College Oxon. Illustrated with Sculptures Octavo To be Published by the end of this Month of June 1697. The Lives and Characters of the Ancient Greek Poets By Basil Kennet of C. C. C. Oxon. Adorn'd with their Heads in Sculpture Octavo C. Crispi Sallustij Opera quae Extant D. Crispinus Notis Interpretatione illustravit in usum Delph Octavo FINIS a Le moyne's Art of Writing Hist. p. 224. a Sir H. S. Pref. to Polyb. b Le Moyne p. 21 22 c. a H. Wharton's Pref. to AB Laud's Life p. 10. a J. â—â—â—on's Proposals b T. Gale Praef. ad Script XV. â— 8. c Id. ib. a Camd. Brit. in Norman b Sir W. T.'s Introduct p. 5. a Praef. ad Angl. Sacr. Vol. I. p. 26. b Athen-Oxon Vol. I. p. 452. alibi c Hist. Eccles. lib. I. p. 42. a Edit London 8 o 1659. a London 1570. b London 1571. c Lond. 1574. d Cum priore e Francof 1601. a Francof 1601. b Ib. 1602. c Lond. 1652. d See W. Kennet's Life of Mr. Sâ—â—â—er p. 64 65 66. a Oxon. 1684. b Oxon. 1691. a Oxon. 1687. a Praef. ad Vol. I. p. 5 6. a Anglia Sacra Par. I. II. Lond. 1691. a Cùm adversa Clementissimi Patroni fortuna mihi hujusmodi studiorum subsidia omnium verò praemia infoelici excusserit Praef. ad Par. II. p. 30. a Tot tantisque Argumentis firmata ut non facilè aliis rejicienda fuerit b Ad Antiq. 975. c P. 796. a J. Usser Praef. ad Brit. Eccl. Antiq. p. 2. b Camden and Speed c Praef. ad vit Aelfredi R. Not. ad Tab. IV. d Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabr Lond. 1600. e Athen. Oxon. Vol. I. p. 459. a Oxon. 1605 1620. b See Dr. Plott's Hist. of Staffordsh p. 277. c Oxon. 1692. a Mr. Edw. Lhwyd the worthy Keeper of the Musaeum b Ad finem Instit. Gramm Anglo-Sax c Oxon. 1692. d Librorum MSS. Academiorum Oxoniensis Cantabrigiensis celebrium per Angliam Hiberniamque Bibliothecarum Catalogus c. Ptolemy a H. Lhuyd Fragment fol. 35. a. Jo. Ant. Maginus Pag. 4. c. b Append. ad Hist. Brit. p. 735. 787. Antoninus c De Hist. Lat. in vità Livii a Vide Usserii Hist. Eccles. Brit. p. 42. b M. S. in Coll. Ben. Cantab. Bibl. Cott. de quo vid. Hist. Antiq. Oxon. par II. p. 135. J. Pits p. 737. c Fol. London 1658. d Append. ad Hist. Brit. p. 787. Liber Notitiaâ— rum e Id. ib. p. 744 746 748. a Pag. 136. Since the Conquest a Id. p. 280. b Assert Arthur fol. 33. a. c Pits p. 283. d Id. p. 398. e Id. pag. 529. f Id. pag. 567. g Id. p. 646. h Fol. Lond. 1515. a Edit prim Cent. 8. cap. 43. In Hen Eighth's Reign b J. Pits p. 733. c Id. p. 734. d De Encom virorum illustr p. 18. e Fragment
Monks of this Isle may be well apply'd to the Zealous Antiquaries of our two Universities Illos in illustrandis suorum Natalibus Antiquitati plus quam Veritati incubuisse In the days of Henry the Eighth during the Storm against Abbies and Colleges the Controversy was seemly enough For whilst nothing but Ruin was within their view such a concern was as natural as 't is for decaying Families to value themselves on their Pedigrees But in their flourishing condition under Queen Elizabeth it might have been hoped that the Members of both would have found themselves better Employment This the contending Parties in that Reign seem to have been somewhat sensible of and therefore the most violent and fierce of 'em declin'd the owning of their several Brats the affixing their Names to Pleadings and Apologies The Truth is the greatest part of what was offer'd on either side was so aery and vapid that 't was fit only for young Sophisters or Men that had left the School for thirty Years to argue at such a rate whereas the grave and residing Doctors were justly asham'd of such Practices and for some time modestly play'd their Puppets from behind the Curtain What was done for either of these Noble Seminaries by King Sigebert or King Aelfred may possibly endure the Canvasing But when the contesting Antiquaries begin to be so hardy as to launch farther into the vast and dark Ocean of the Times of Iren or Rydychen and Caer-grant I think the wisest Course is to divide the Laurel and to call in King Bladud to be Founder of our first University at Stanford Thus the pitching of our Tents in a third place ends the Controversy and we may quietly and at leisure draw off our Colonies to Oxford or Cambridge as we have occasion Some Writers we have that have behaved themselves with tolerable indifferency in treating of these Matters and have honestly enquir'd into the true History of the gradual Advancement of Learning in this Kingdom recounting whatever remain'd of the ancient State and Condition of it in either of our Universities But the most of those that pretend to write of both without prejudice are too manifestly byass'd in their Affections and seldome fail of giving the Precedence to the place of their own respective Education John Ross the Warwick Antiquary has been already observ'd to mix a deal of this kind of History in that which he wrote of the Kings of England And 't is certain he also design'd a particular Treatise of the Antiquities of our Universities This very Treatise tho' he acknowledges 't was an imperfect Copy that came to his hands is frequently quoted by John Leland and yet Mr. Wood believes 't is now lost as confidently as his Predecessor Brian Twine thought it never had a being I presume his other Tract Contra Historiolam Cantabrigiensem was only a Fragment of this Fragment and therefore if the one be irrecoverably gone there 's little encouragement to look after the other Amongst Master Leland's own Works we have also one that bears the Title De Academiis Britannicis which was once in such forwardness as that himself spoke of it as of a piece that would suddainly appear abroad Quin Grantae gloriam accuratius in Opusculo quod de Academiis Britannicis sum propediem editurus collaudabo I cannot see how this Expression could give any Foundation to one of our Queen Elizabeth's Antiquaries to assert that if this Book were publish'd in that intire Condition in which its Author left it it would infallibly stop the Mouths of those that contend for the Antiquity of Cambridge But I think 't was a sufficient Reply to such a Supposition that If the Sky should fall we should as infallibly catch Larâ—s John Pits prefaced his Account of our Writers with a small History of our Universities which he desir'd might be taken notice of in the Title of that Work inscrib'd by himself De Academiis Illustribus Scriptoribus Angliae There 's nothing in him on the former head but what he has Epitomiz'd out of some of those that wrote on the same Subject a little before his Time from whom he borrows all the new Light he pretends to give De Academiis tam Antiquis Britonum quam recentioribus Anglorum About the same time as I guess liv'd Robert Hare who was an Esquire of good Worship and Wealth and a great lover and preserver of Antiquities He carefully Collected the precious Monuments of both Vniversities caus'd them fairly to be transcrib'd and freely bestow'd a Duplicate or double Copy on each of them This industrious Gentleman was sometimes a Member of Gonvil and Caius College in Cambridge and therefore tho' he pretends to give a fair History of the Priviledges of Oxford yet he inclines too much upon occasion the other way In Howes's Edition of Stow's Chronicle we have an Appendix or Corollary of the Foundations and Descriptions of the three most famous Vniversities of England viz. Cambridge Oxford and London The Story of the two first of these we are told was compiled by John Stow and continu'd by his Publisher and 't is not much that we owe to the pains of either of 'em since the whole is only a lean Tract of half a dozen Pages There 's in the Archives of Bodley's Library a Poetical Piece entitul'd Britannia Scholastica which was written by one Robert Burhil about the beginning of King James the First 's Reign and Treats of the prime Antiquities of our two Universities The zealous stickling for Seniority in the last Age did this Service to both our famous Nurseries of good Learning that many of their most ancient Records were hereupon enquir'd out and carefully preserv'd which may be as beneficial to our English History as some officious Forgeries on the same occasion are injurious to it We have no less than one and twenty several Volumes relating to the Antiquities of the University of Oxford as Charters Orders Statutes Decrees Letters c. the last whereof bears this Title About the Burghesses for the Vniversity and what may be answer'd in case their Right of sitting in Parliament should be impugn'd These are all in Manuscript and are the Fountain whence some of our best Printed Accounts have been deriv'd Amongst the latter kind the Historiola Oxoniensis is look'd upon the most Authentic and as such has had several Impressions 'T is only a short Fragment of a single Page in Octavo wherein we are told that the Britains began an University at Grekelade which the Saxons remov'd to Oxford This is the Summ of that little Narrative which tho' 't is found in some of their Manuscript Statute-Books as old as the Reigns of Edward the Third and Henry the Fourth yet is not much insisted on by Mr. Wood who was sensible that it was Penn'd too carelesly to be of any great use in the grand Controversy John Ross