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
the Miseries and almost utter Ruine of his Country-men by a People under whose Banners they hop'd for Peace His Life is written at large by Carâ—doc of Lancarvan and by an Anonymous Author publish'd by John à Bosco His lamentable History De Excidio Britanniae is all that 's printed of his Writing and perhaps all that is any where extant Bale Pits and others reckon up some other Matters whereof they make this Gildas Badonicus as they distinguish him to be the Author But Archbishop Vsher is peremptory in it that this is the Vnicum quod restat Opusculum for he makes it and the Epistle to be all one thing It was first Publish'd and Dedicated to Bishop Tunstall by Polydore Virgil whose imperfect and corrupt Copy was Reprinted in the Bibliotheca Patrum Afterwards there was another Edition of it by John Josseline who made use of another Manuscript but not much more correct than the former The latest and best is that we have from Dr. Gale who had the advantage of a more ancient and much better Copy than either of the two former had seen If he did write any thing more 't is now lost Leland is mighty desirous to believâ—â—hat there is somewhere such a Treatise as his Cambreis in Verse that 't was stollen and carry'd into Italy and that the Poet Gildas and the Historian were two several Persons But 't is now fear'd we shall never meet with any other Poetical Treatise bearing his Name save only that which Leland himself calls Gildas fictitius and which Archbishop Vsher frequently quotes by the Name of Pseudo-Gildas His Book De Victoria Ambrosii is of the same base metal out of which have been coin'd John Pits's Regum Britannorum Historia De primis Insulae Incolis Lites Luddi Nennii c. The next British Historian of Note is Nennius The first of this Name that is said to have taken care of the Antiquities of his Country was if we are not impos'd on Son to King Helius and Brother to Ludd and Cassibelane who had the Honour to die of a wound given him by Julius Caesar's own hand 'T was he they say 〈◊〉 first wrote a Book of the British History in his own Tongue which was afterwards translated into Latin by his Namesake Abbot of Bangor This same Abbot Nennius is generally suppos'd to be one of the Fifty Monks that were so wise as to skulk at Chester when 1200 of their Brethren fell a Sacrifice to the Pride of Augustine the first Planter of the Romish Principles and Practices in our Isle and to have flourish'd about the Year 620. Which will not agree with what is attested by himself in the best Copies of his Book that he wrote A. D. 858. Anno 24o. Mervini Regis He is said to have left behind him several Treatises whereof all that 's publish'd is his Historia Britonum This is the same Book that Bale and Pits have register'd under the Style of Eulogium Britanniae and the only piece that must answer for what those Gentlemen mention by the Titles of his Collectiones Historiarum Antiquitates Britannicae Chronicon c. In most of the MS. Copies it is erroneously ascrib'd to Gildas This History says nothing of the other brave Nennius abovemention'd whom later Commentators have 〈◊〉 so great in Story I am of Opinion that the Contrivance of this Hero is one of the best things in all Jeoffrey of Monmouth's Romance It looks like a gratefull Acknowledgment to the Person that had oblig'd him or his Author with the ground-work of his whole Fabrick to whom he could not pay a more decent Complement than by making him Godfather to one of his chief Knights Errant Next after Nennius follow Hoel Dha's Laws which were enacted about the middle of the Tenth Century whereof those that relate to Ecclesiastical Affairs have been publish'd by Sir Henry Spelman Of these there are several Copies both in Welsh and Latin still extant among which a very old one written on Parchment in Jesus College at Oxford The Preface to this last will not allow that King Hoel abrogated as Mr. Camden says he did all the Laws of his Ancestors but expresly tells us that according to the Advice of his Council some of the ancient Laws he retain'd 〈◊〉 he corrected and some he quite disannâ—â—â— appointing others in their stead Dr. Powell will not agree that any new Statutes were ordain'd by this King But that his Commissioners according to the Powers given them retain'd only those ancient Laws that were good and usefull explain'd the Ambiguous and abrogated the Superfluous For we are to know that full fourteen hundred years before Hoel's Time the Britains had a whole Body of Muncipal Laws enacted by King Dunwallo Molmutius which were soon afterwards enlarg'd by Queen Martia All these says Bale were translated into Latin by Gildas and into Saxon by King Aelfred Nay some wise Writers will needs affirm that a certain part of our English Saxon Laws which they call Lex Merciorum had its Denomination from these Leges Martiae and this childish Fancy has been embrac'd by several of our grave and ancient Historians Others think it improbable that so great a Prince as King Aelfred should ever trouble his Head with Translating any of the Laws either of Molmutius or Martia who were only Antiquated Legislators among his Enemies and Heathens But since the Britains as Asserius and others tell us voluntarily submitted to him it seems as wise in Him to give them their own Laws in his Language as 't was in William the Conquerour to grant us the Saxon Laws in French Many of 'em we have already been told were abolish'd even by the Britains themselves after they became Christians But Mr. Sheringham thinks 't is evident from several Law-Terms such as Murder Denizon Rout c. which are purely British that some of them were taken into the Body of our English Laws Hoel's are said to have been first Translated into Latin by a Gentleman with a very hard Name Blegabride Langauride Doctor of Laws and Archdeacon of Landaff in the year 914. which if the British History do not misinform us was about 26 years before that King began his Reign There is lately come to my hands a Latin MS Copy in Parchment of these Laws in the end whereof in a later hand is written Istum Librum Tho Powel Joanni Da. Rhaeso Med. Doctori dono dedit meâ—se Augusto 1600. And these I think are all the British Historical Writers that liv'd before the Norman Conquest whose Books are now to be met with in any of our English Libraries I know not how to direct the Reader to seek for the Histories of Elbodus or Elvodugus for they are both the same Man from whom Nennius is made to borrow a good part of what we now have
among that infamous Writer's Works when on the contrary the Book was written against him and he 's the Subditus Infidelis mention'd in the Title-page Our Writers of these two last Ages have been pretty well accounted for by the late industrious Anthony Wood whos 's Athenae Oxonienses give us a large Collection of Reports good and bad of the most minute Circumstances of almost all the Authors that have flourish'd in either of our Universities since the Year 1500. The Writer of these two Volumes or his Friend who penn'd the Prefaces for him thought it convenient to excuse the extraordinary Respect he paid to the Members of the Roman Communion telling us that he had found those the most communicative as on the contrary the Fanaticks were generally the most reserv'd and morose Some fancy'd there were other secret Reasons for these mutual Civilities betwixt the Gentlemen of that Persuasion and our Author who by his long conversation amongst them was thought to be a little too deeply tinctur'd with their Principles 'T will be a difficult Task to prove him a Papist from any thing that he has here advanc'd since in some places he falls as foul on those People as his Praises of 'em are extravagant in others The truth is His Books are little more than a Medly of Notes and such Informations as were sent in from his several Correspondents without being digested into any other method than the throwing them under that particular Author's Name to whom they chiefly related 'T is no Blemish on his Memory to observe that he had his share of that Peevishness and Austerity both in his Stile and Manners which is commonly incident to Antiquaries and thus much we ought gratefully to acknowledge that he has furnish'd us with a larger Stock of useful Materials than perhaps any one Man of this Age has Collected If he was too sullen among Courtiers he paid sufficiently for all the Liberty he took and 't is illegal to object a Crime for which a suitable Penance has been already enjoyn'd and perform'd It were highly to be wish'd that we had a general Account of all our Writers done with the like accuracy and exactness as those of Oxford for the last 200 Years are in these two Volumes but in somewhat better and more polite Air And I think I may boldly promise the Reader that this will be abundantly perform'd by Mr. Tanner who has diligently compar'd Leland's Original Manuscript with the scandalously false Copies that have been given of it by Bale and Pits He has Corrected innumerable Errors in all the three and has made those many and large Additions to all that they could tell us that we shall have reason to look upon the Work as entirely new and his own The obliging Pains that have been taken by this worthy Person on that Subject have render'd him better qualify'd to give an Account of our English Historians than I can pretend to be and I wish I had early enough thought of recommending the Task to him But his great Candour in remarking the Omissions and Mistakes in my former Part encourages me to hope that he will as kindly review this and then I shall not question but they will both become more serviceable than without such an Assistance I could ever have made them The End of the Second Part. AN INDEX OF THE Authors in the Second Part. The Capital Figures refer to the Preface A. Abbo Floriacensis Pag. 52. Abingdon 151 Adalard 51 Adam 75 Adeodatus 118 Aelfric 45 51 54 57. Albanensis 24 Albert Pruss 74 Alcuinus 152 Alfred Malmsburiensis 47 Beverlac xxvi 55 Alford 71 Allen xxiv Andreas xlv Anglicus 22 Aquaepontanus 85 St. Asaph 27 Ashmole 141 Asketel 55 Avesbury xxxviii Augustine 5 33 Ayscue xxxii B. Bacon xlvii 74 Baker 196 Bale 160 201 Barden 169 Barnes xxxix 21 Basire 20 Battely xvi Bede 34 47 48 Benedict xxxvi 26 78 Beulanius xvii xx Biondi xliii Birchington 121 132 Blaneford xxxviii Blegorede xxi Blesensis xxxvi 59 Boseham 76 Boston 182 225 Bracland 76 Brady xxxii xlii Bramhal 164 Bravonius 57 60 Bridferth 50 Bridgewater 85 Britannus xvii xx British Laws xxi Brome xxvii Broughton 11 184 Budden 163 172 Burhil 207 Buriensis 108 Burchardus 51 Burnet 88 98 104 Burton 184 Burtonenses Annales 63 Buttoner 182 209 C. Caius xiii 210 212 219 Cambrensis 26 28 52 75 165 168 Cantabrigiensis Historiola 217 Cantelupe 218 Capgrave 31 171 175 199 Cardiffe xxii Carlton 176 Carnotensis 73 77 79 Cavendish 166 Caxton xxiii 31 Chancey 84 Chartham 162 Chaundler 170 du Chesne xxxv Chesterton 140 Chettel 55 Clapham xxxii Clara 200 Clarentius 44 Clerk xlviii Colman xi Corbet xiv Cosin 92 Cotton xiv 12 144 183 Coventriensis 200 Cressy 72 Croylandensis Will. 52 Faelix 54 Roger 78 Crump 181 D. Daniel 47 Davies 130 Dene 148 Dent xiii Devisiensis xxxvii Deusdedit 118 D'Ewes xv Diceto xxxvi 107 119 Digges xlvii Dinoth 6 126 Dodsworth 154 185 Dorobernensis 119 Drayton xi Duck 162 Dugdale 66 90 143 184 185 Dunelmensis Laur. 49 128 Simeon 128 152 Reginald 49 Nicolas 74 Dunstable 24 E. Eadmerus 47 57 59 Ecleston 199 Eddius 58 Edwards 164 Egwine 44 47 Elerius 30 Eliensis Tho. 53 Elmham xlv Elwamus 4 Enderby xxiii Enquerrant xliv Ernulph 147 Ethelwold 106 Eversden 108 d' Ewes 222 Eveshamensis xli 77 Eulogium xxxi Exoniensis 77 F. Felix 54 Fenn 85 Fitzherbert 213 Fitzstephen 77 Folcard 55 57 Fox 81 Fridegod 59 Froissard xxxix Fuller 91 222 Fulman 214 G. Gardiner xvi Gemeticensis xxxv Gentilis 211 Gibbon 85 Gibson 113 Gillingham 193 Godwine 109 Good 23 Gotseline 48 118 Gourmelene 25 St. Graal 7 le Grand 99 Grandison 79 133 Green 200 Greystanes 128 Guntan 146 H. Hadenham 148 Hales 78 Hall 172 Hardib 198 Hare 206 217 Harmer 101 Harpesfield 67 82 Harrington 113 Hatcher 223 Hayward xxxiv xlvii Hegge 49 Hemmingford xxxviii Hemming 60 150 Herbert 188 Herd xlv Herman 52 Heylin 53 92 94 Heywood xlvi Hildyard xvi Holland 143 Hooker 133 Hopkins 151 Hoscham 77 79 Humphery 173 Huntington 44 107 Hutten 213 Hutton 154 I. James 80 Ingulfus 55 Johnson 170 Jones 195 Josceline 27 28 106 Joseph of Atimathea 2 Josseline 111 121 171 Iscanus 77 Junius 43 K. Key 212 220 Kirkstall 197 Kirkstede 197 Knighton xli Kynder xiv L. Laire xiv Landavensis 26 28 Langhorn xxiv Langtoft xxxvii Langton 78 119 Lantfred 58 Lavingham 39 Leland 109 205 219 226 Lichfedense Chron. 140 Lily 173 Linna 226 Linwood 64 Livius xliv Lloyd 15 Londinensis xxx 220 Lowth 100 Lucius 3 Lydgate 25 51 Lyte 211 M. Mackenzie 14 16 17 20 Maidstone xl 166 Maihew 194 Malmsbury 46 60 107 Marcellinus 56 Markant 219 Marsham xii 17 Martyn 170 Mason 111 Maurice xxii May xxxv xxxix Medvinus 4 Mela x Merlyn xviii Monmouth xxvi Montacute 108 Moryson xlvii Mushens 86 N. Nennius xvii xx Neve xv Noel 148 Nothelmus 47 O. Ocland xxxi xlvi Odo 59 Ogilby xi Osbern 51 52
THE ENGLISH Historical Library OR 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 WILLIAM NICOLSON A. M. Arch-Deacon of Carlisle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lucian de Conscrib Hist. LONDON Printed for Abel Swall and T. Child at the Unicorn in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCVI TO THE Most Reverend Father in God JOHN By Divine Providence Lord Arch-Bishop of YORK Primate and Metropolitan of ENGLAND MY LORD INstead of prefixing so great a Name to the following Papers I had thoughts of craving Your Grace's Patronage for some others which more nearly relate to the Affairs of Your own Province But I know not how these have gotten the start and tho' I may for the present have some Reason to vary my Subject I hope I may be allow'd to put those also under Your Protection hereafter I am deeply sensible of my own Insufficiency to perfect what is here begun without such Assistances as Your Grace above all others can best afford me My great distance from Libraries and the narrowness of my Acquaintance with our English Historians will render my best Performances very scanty and imperfect Yet if the Design be approv'd and meet with acceptance abroad I shall not despair of such helps as will rectify all my mistakes and supply the defects of this first Essay To this purpose I now humbly offer it to Your Grace's View and Censure being very ready to acknowledge all your Corrections as so many Particular Obligations and Honours conferr'd upon MY LORD YOUR GRACE's Most dutiful Son and Servant WILL. NICOLSON THE PREFACE A General History of this Kingdom is what our learned Men begin now so sensibly to want and so earnestly to desire that I do not question but Attempts will be made to gratify the prevailing Humour of the Times Though to me I confess the Prospect is a little discouraging Since the due observance of all the Rules which Lucian Father Le Moyne and others have laid down for the carrying on of such a work require so many Accomplishments that I am very much of the Jesuits opinion that their Historian is a Man not yet born nor will be before the year that discovers the perpetual motion and Philosopher's Stone 'T is not enough they tell us that he be what the Incomparable Translatour of Polybius observes of his Author a Soldier a Statesman and a Philosopher but he must be also a Divine a Lawyer an Oratour a Poet and a downright honest Countrey-Gentleman At least he must be plentifully stock'd with Wit or an Universal Disposition and unbounded Spirit that comprehends all that 's Great and Glorious in the several States and Empires of the whole World To these Intellectual Endowments we must add the great Moral one of his being Philalethes a Person of that just Integrity as not to be byass'd by Passion or Interest A Learned Writer has very lately observ'd That Private Affections ought not to accompany works of such a Publick Nature and yet how difficult a Lesson this is to Flesh and Blood himself has fairly shewn us when in the same Page he sticks not to affirm that his late Patron left more Collections of his own hand-writing than perhaps any Man either of this or the last Age ever did write So that for my share I know not where to look for this fine Person this Nonesuch of a Man who alone it seems is qualify'd to write a General History We have lately indeed had Proposals for the speedy publishing of an entire History of this Nation But I extremely suspect the Author when he appears abroad will not be able to stand this Test. The very Title of his Book which promises to bring down our Story from the Flood looks so like a Iest that I cannot but fear that we shall not have Alloy enough to qualify the mighty strain of Poetry that will run thorough the whole Work What Advances might be made this way by Leland Bale or Josceline I know not but I think all three of 'em have discover'd such frailties in themselves and such defects in their writings as are hardly consistent with the being able to finish an Vndertaking of this kind Nor do I at all believe Dr. Gale's great Mr. Selden to have been a Man of Accomplishments sufficient for such a Performance and I fansie the learned Doctor himself will be of my opinion when he has carefully perus'd his Preface to the Decem Scriptores his Spicilegium to Eadmerus and his Janus Anglorum Camden bewails the rashness and folly of his own Attempting such a Matter and seems to acknowledge that 't was Imprudence and want of thought which in his younger daies had led him into the Sare Mr. Milton and Sir William Temple design'd only to write Abridgments of our English Story and therefore they do not expect that what they have drawn up for a View of the Times before the Conquest should be receiv'd as a Complete General History even for so far as it reaches Their beating through these rough and dark ways of the Journey appears to be done in so much haste and affords so slender a Discovery of the road that it looks like the Tale of a Man in a fright one that has been scared with dismal Apprehensions of meeting with most monstrous Sprites and Hobgoblins in the Shades and Night he had pass'd thorough Before therefore I can have any tolerable hopes of seeing a work of this Grandeur carry'd on with success and to the purpose I must hear of its being undertaken by a Clubb of Men of Parts and Learning some whereof are Masters of our ancient Languages and others of the Modern Some vers'd in the Writings of the old Britains Romans Saxons and Danes and others thoroughly acquainted with the Historians since the Conquest some that know the Geography and others the Law of the Realm some that have been bred at Court and others in the Camp c. Nor would I have this Society to consist of such as the Bookseller only should assure me were Persons of these very Characters but I could wish it might be an Engagement mutually and generously enter'd into by Men of Leisure and Fortune as additional Accomplishments over and above all that we have mention'd Or else let me hope to see a College of Historians as Nobly endow'd here as that of the Antiquaries is in Sweden where the President has a yearly Salary allow'd him of six hundred Crowns and each of his Assessors three hundred When these Gentlemen have agreed on and finish'd their several Tasks they ought to be carefully perus'd by every particular Member of the Society as well as by him whose peculiar Province it shall be to inspect and supervise the whole To serve this imaginary Fraternity I have drawn together the following Papers which give the
I shall do it with that Sincerity and Caution which becomes an Englishman one that is alwaies ready to put himself upon a Tryal by God and his Countrey as not being conscious of any Offence either against Religion or good Manners And yet where there is Manifest Cause of Complaint where a Writer is either scandalously Ignorant or Impertinent where we have Romance or Buffoonry trump'd upon us for good Sterling-History where a Bankrupt Plagiary sets up upon the borrow'd Stock of an Industrious Author or the like there I hope a moderately keen Resentment will not be Interpreted as a Breach of any Commandment either of the First or Second Table I have but one thing more to Apologize for and that 's the frequent Repetitions the Reader will be apt to observe of the same Word and perhaps Expression and Phrase I have repeated Occasions to take Notice of this and the other Man's Undertaking and Performing Penning and Publishing his several Historical Labours And possibly a nice Critick in the Finery and Cadence of the English Tongue would expect that I should have Collected a good Number of Synonymous Sentences for this Purpose I can only say I never intended my Papers for the View of such Delicate and Curious Judges of Language and Oratory If I had but a Word in readiness that would serve my Turn I never vex'd my Brains in Pumping for another that could only do as well And being to cloath so many People of the very same Size and Shapes it were too severe I think to force me to provide each of 'em with a different Habit and Fashion CHAP. I. Of the General Geography State and Antiquities of England WHatever crime it might be anciently in private Men to be skill'd in Maps and Charts of whole Countries that being thought a Piece of Knowledge proper only for Princes and great Generals 't is now a mighty Defect in the modish Accomplishments of the Age of the otherwise and every Body is so much a Politician States-man and Warriour that there is no conversing in the World without an intimate Acquaintance with all the four Quarters of the Globe 'T is not my business at present to furnish out Instructions for the speedy Attainment of this kind of Learning nor to explain Gazettes and Monthly Mercuries that 's done abundantly by other Hands The sole design of this Chapter is the pointing at such ancient and modern Writers as have describ'd at large and by whole-sale the Lands and Territories Cities and High-ways Natural History Politicks Antiquities c. of this Kingdom Ptolemy liv'd as all agree in the beginning of the second Century and therefore we may safely call him the first Geographer that mention'd any thing of the British Islands For the little florid Accounts which we have from Julius Caesar or Tacitus ought not to come into this reckoning And well he may seem to be so since the Maps which Maginus and others have drawn by his Tables sufficiently shew that when he wrote Geography was but in its Infancy So much of him as relates to us has been lately publish'd by Dr. Gale who has also give us his own learned Notes upon that part of the Book If Antoninus's Itinerary were truly the Composure of that great Emperor whose Name it bears there would be no controversie in placing it next to Ptolemy's Tables but Vossius gives it too severe Language to deserve the Honour it had sometime gain'd in the world and in plain terms calls it a Bastard However let it be written by Antoninus Antonius or Aethicus 't is of an ancient date and shall here keep the Station and Repute it has gotten among as learned and wise Judges as have hitherto condemn'd it That part of his Work which concerns Britain has been amply treated on by three of our own Countrymen Mr. R. Talbot sometime Canon of Norwich whose Manuscript Commentaries much enlarg'd by Dr. Caius are now in the Library at Caius College in Cambridge Mr. William Burton School-master at Kingston upon Thames And Dr. Tho. Gale the present Learned and Worthy Master of St. Paul's School in London The Liber Notitiarum comes next in order and the last mention'd Learned Person has oblig'd us with as much of it as is for our purpose He has also given us what may seem to have any relation to this Country out of an old anonymous Geographer lately publish'd at Paris together with a List of the Hides or Tenements in the several Counties of England in the days of our Saxon Kings And these I think are all the Remains of our old Geography and the Summ of what was penn'd before the Conquest that look'd this way For with what confidence soever J. Pits may report it I do not believe that ever venerable Bede wrote any Book De situ mirabilibus Britanniae or that any such thing is or ever was to be had in the Library of Bennet College His Ecclesiastical History as paraphras'd in the English Saxon Tongue by King Aelfred is indeed there and the first Chapter in it bears a Title which might impose upon the good Man or his Informer who is often guilty of more groundless Mistakes than this From the Conquest down to the Reign of King Henry the Eighth our English Geographers have either been few or the want of Printing has occasion'd the loss of most of them Gyraldus Cambrensis's four Books of the Topography of Britain and his Itinerary both which are said to be in Bennet-Library are the first I can hear off And I doubt I shall only hear of them for they seem to be the same with his Itinerary and Topography of Wales John Leland says he does not question but there was such a Book as the former of these But all his industry could not ferret it out Ralph de Diceto's Treatise de mirabilibus Angliae seems to be as rare a Piece as either of the former and is perhaps laid up with John Horminger's Commendations of England or as Bale calls it de divitiis deliciis Angliae Of the same Stamp I fansie is William Thorn's Chronicle of all the Countries as well as Bishopricks and Abbeys in England John de Trevisa's Description of Britain and William Buttoner's Antiquities collected out of the old Charters Leiger-Books Epitaphs c. of the whole Kingdom Caxton's is the only thing in its kind which I can assuredly say we have as being long since publish'd with his Chronicle or Fructus Temporum Will it be any inducement to the Reader to peruse use this Author's Work to hear him recommended by Bale under the character of vir non omnino stupidus aut ignaviâ torpens Since the beginning of Henry the Eighth's Reign our eldest general Geographer of Antiquary is said to be Tho. Sulmo some call him Sulemanus others Solimountes a Guernsey Man who died at
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
Abilities sufficient to go through with any Undertaking wherein his singular Modesty will allow him to engage Mr. Beaumont ought also to be reminded of the thoughts he once had oâ— setting forth a particular Tract to this purpose No Man being better qualify'd for such a performance Mr. Ray has put our Botanists upon daily searches after new Plants since his Synopsis has told them what numerous Discoveries have been lately made by Mr. Lhwyd in Wales Mr. Lawson in the Northern Counties of England c. The like Encouragements our Naturalists have from his and Mr. Willughby's Ornithology to make further Enquiries after the many hitherto undiscover'd Species of Birds since 't is easily observable that the Authors of that Work having had the greatest Assistance from Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jessop both Yorkshire Men there are in it more Discoveries of new kinds from the North than any other Quarter of the Kingdom To all these must be added the many Ingenious Informations communicated from most parts of the Nation in our Philosophical Transactions especially from some of the forementioned chief Naturalists of this Age Dr. Plott Dr. Lister and Mr. Ray. Some general Accounts have been given of our English Policy and Frame of Government wherein our Historian ought to be well vers'd and conversant especially in those that are written by Statesmen and such as may be presum'd to have well understood the Affairs they treat on Sir Thomas Smith's Commonwealth of England has met with good Applause having been frequently printed both in English and Latin There was also another small Treatise entitul'd The Authority Form and Manner of holding Parliaments lately publish'd in his Name but some have question'd whether it be rightly father'd Upon this latter Subject we have a printed Account of the Opinion of Mr. Camden together with those of J. Doderidge Arthur Agard and Francis Tate Sir Walter Raleigh has likewise written as he used to do on all other Subjects most judiciously and acutely upon the Prerogatives of our Parliaments and Sir Robert Cotton's Posthuma are full of Learning on the same Topick Dr. Chamberlain's present state of England has been so well receiv'd as to admit of a new Edition almost yearly ever since 't was first publish'd It has been indeed of late very coursly treated by a nameless Scribler of Observations on the Times But he seems to have been hir'd to the Drudgery of penning such unmannerly Reflections by a Gentleman who had newly publish'd another Book much fuller of Mistakes under the like Title As to what concerns our Nobility and Gentry all that come within either of those Lists will allow that Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour ought first to be well perus'd for the gaining of a general Notion of the Distinction of Degrees from an Emperour down to a Country-Gentleman And after this the three Volumes of Sir William Dugdale's Baronage of England which gives an Account of the Lives and Prowess of all our English Nobility from the coming in of the Saxons down to the Year 1676. Whatever relates to the Knights of the most Noble Order of the Garter is completely shewn us by Mr. Ashmole in his most elaborate and perfect Work on that Subject For inferiour Ranks we have 'em in the Books of Heraldry that have been publish'd by Wyrley Brooks Vincent Dugdale and especially Guillim of the two last Editions of whose Book 't is observ'd that R. Blome has so disguis'd and spoil'd it that if the Author or Authors of it were living they could scarce know it What is missing in these will be abundantly supply'd out of the great Treasury of MS. Collections in the Heralds Office at London wherein are innumerable Inscriptions Arms Epitaphs Pedigrees Lists of Precedence at Coronations and Funerals c. CHAP. II. Of particular Descriptions of Counties with their Cities and great Towns 'T IS so much the general Humour of Mankind to be fond of their Native Soil and Places of chief Residence and Abode that Historians must not pretend to be so far of a different Composition from their Neighbours as not to be subject to the common Frailty They are as liable to discover their Dotage in this Particular as other ordinary Mortâ—ls and thence it comes that Ingulfus's History is so full of Crowland W. Neubrigensis's of Yorkshire M. Paris's of St. Albans c. whenever any shadow of an opportunity is offer'd 'T is from the same Principle that we have sew Counties in England whose Records have not been carefully sought out and Endeavours used to preserve them by some of their Sons who have usually prov'd more happy in such Undertakings as having gone about them with most hearty Zeal and Application than any of our more general Writers Those that I have met with of this kind are here drawn into Order and Rank according to the following Alphabetical Lists of our several Counties BARKSHIRE has not hitherto that I know of had its general Antiquities nor it s Natural History collected by any Body Only the Castle and Chapel of Windsor have been at large treated on by the excellent Pen of Elias Ashmole Esquire in his History of the Knights of the Garter before mention'd BEDFORDSHIRE is under the like Misfortune tho' the History of Dunstable of which in its proper place and other Records are not wanting to furnish out Materials for such a Work BVCKINGHAMSHIRE has had the happiness to have some of its Borders about Ambrosden c. curiously describ'd and its Antiquities preserv'd by the Ingenious Mr. Kennet CAMBRIDGESHIRE A little of both the Natural History and Antiquities of this County is touch'd on by Sir William Dugdale in his History of the Imbanking and Dreining of divers Fenns and Marshes both in Foreign Parts and in this Kingdom Dr. Hickes in the Appendix to his Saxon Grammar mentions a Manuscript in Sir John Cotton's Library entitul'd Statuta de Gildâ quâdam in Cantabrigiâ which seems to relate to the Town of Cambridge The Writers upon the Affairs of the University belong to another place CHESHIRE was long since describ'd by Lucian a Monk soon after the Conquest whose Work is cited by Camden as a piece of great Rarity and good Value S. Erdeswick the great Antiquary of Staffordshire seems to have written also something of the History of this County as is intimated by his MS. Book in the hands of several Gentlemen of Staffordshire which begins thus Having disposed with my self to take a further View of the Shires of Staffordshire and Chester c. A third Description of this County Geographical and Historical was written by W. Smith Rouge-dragon Pursuivant at Arms and left in the hands of Sir Ranulph Crew sometimes Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench whose Grandchild Sr R. Crew afterwards publish'd it A Fourth was compil'd by W. Webb M. A. and sometime Town-Clerk of
Chester which was thought worthy the publishing by that Judicious Antiquary Sir Simon Archer of Tamworth These two last were afterwards printed together under the Title of The Vale Royal of England by Daniel King who took care to have the Work beautify'd with several Cuts of Heraldry and Topography The Accounts given of this King by Mr. Fuller and the Oxford Antiquary are very widely different So that whether he was Lux Patriae as the former Styles him or in the others plain English a silly Fellow and an errant Knave I know not Sir Peter Leicester's Historical Antiquities were also no doubt chiefly intended to do Honour to this County For tho' the first Book pretends to treat of the general Affairs of Great Britain and Ireland its true Design was to Introduce what alone comes to be handled in the Second the Antiquities of Cheshire and chiefly of Bucklew Hundred The Contests which hereupon happen'd 'twixt Sir Peter and his Kinsman Sir Thomas Manwaring are not worth the remembring as belonging rather to the Men of the Law than History There 's an old MS. History of the Earldom of Chester quoted out of Bennet-Library by Mr. Selden the summ whereof I imagine has been publish'd by Judge Doderidge in the History he wrote of the Ancient and Modern Estate of this Earldom together with that of the Principality of Wales and Dutchy of Cornwall In this Treatise Sir John with a great deal of Industry and Exactness calculates the ancient and present Revenues of this Palatinate but is not so curious in clearing up its original History This Defect is since very much supply'd by the Labours of the late Ingenious Mr. Harrington who has left behind him several excellent Remarks on that Subject together with other good Collections relating to the Antiquities of this County Several Books says John Pits were written by Henry Bradshaw a Benedictine Monk who did A. D. 1513 De Antiquitate Magnificentiâ Vrbis Cestriae All which I am apt to believe are swallow'd up by another Work says that Gentleman His Life of St. Werburg which is still to be had in several of our Libraries CORNWALL The Survey of this County is so exactly taken by R. Carew Esquire that there will be only occasion for Posterity carefully to continue a Work so excellently begun and to which Mr. Camden acknowledges himself indebted for the chief Light he had in these parts This Book with large Additions is now in the possession of Mr. Chiswell Bookseller in London who may probably e're long oblige us with a new Edition There is also an Historical Account of this County in MS. pen'd by J. Norden who Mr. Camden tells us did sometime travel into this part of the Kingdom in the hands of the Learned Dr. Gale Sir John Doderidge's History of the Dutchy has been already mention'd in Cheshire CVMBERLAND There 's a Manuscript Description of this County written by one Mr. Denton of Cardew about 50 or 60 Years agoe which seems to be done with good Care and Judgment Copies whereof are in the hands of several of the Gentry It chiefly treats of Families Pedigrees Conveyances of Estates and Mannors c. but occasionally handles some other Antiquities of a more general Nature and higher Date Some Observations have also been made lately relating to the Natural History of Cumberland which may very probably e're long come into as many hands The Antiquities of the City of Carlisle are collected by Dr. H. Todd Prebendary of that Church and are now or should be in the possession of the Mayor and Aldermen DERBYSHIRE The Mines of this County should methinks invite some of our Inquisitive Naturalists to give us as particular an Account of the Metals and Minerals as Ed. Manlow sometimes Steward of the Works has done of the Miners in his Book entituled Customs of the Barge-Moot-Court which has been improv'd by T. Houghton in his Collection of the Laws Liberties c. of the Mines and Miners of Derbyshire I should also think the Wonders of the Peak are as proper a Subject for a Philosopher to write on in Prose as they can be for the most exalted Poetry of either Mr. Hobbs or Mr. Cotton and that Buxton-Wells deserve a better Describer than Antiquated John Jones DEVONSHIRE Northcot Baronet is reported to have written a Description of Devonshire the Manuscript whereof is all along quoted by Tho. Fuller in his Worthies when he comes to treat of that County tho' he says nothing of him amongst its Writers Tho. Risdon's Survey or Chorographical Description of Devonshire continues likewise in MS. though Copies of it are no rare Matters among the Gentry of that County 'T is said one Westcote either wrote another Survey or at least had a hand in that which was compos'd by Risdon I wish this Westcote be not the same Man with Dr. Fuller's Northcote for he 's often further mistaken than from West to North. The Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter were publish'd by Richard Izaac but as a worthy Person observes the Book is a dry Collection and full of Mistakes there being nothing worth the perusal which had not been before remark'd in J. Hooker's Description Reprinted in Holinshead's Chronicle DORSETSHIRE Unless Mr. Etrick who oblig'd the late Publisher of the Britannia with some of his Remarks will furnish us with the Antiquities of this County I cannot tell from what Quarter we are to expect them DVRHAM The Collections made by Mr. Mickleton are perhaps the only Papers extant which treat of the Civil Affairs of this County as distinct from the Ecclesiastical and indeed considering the whole was anciently and the greatest part is still the Church's Patrimony the matter is not much to be wonder'd at The City of Durham is describ'd in a MS. old English or Saxon Poem in Sr. John Cotton's Library ESSEX There is a Report of J. Norden's having written a Survey of this County a thin Folio MS. in Sr. Edm. Turner's Library and that Mr. Strangman has attempted the Collection of its Antiquities But whatever their Performances may have been we have cause to hope for good things on that Subject very shortly from Mr. Ousley who has given a Specimen of his Work in what he has communicated in the New Edition of Camden The Description of Harwich with all its Appurtenances and Antiquities was written by Silas Taylor Author of the History of Gavelkind who was Store-keeper at that Port A. D. 1665. The Book was never Printed and where 't is to be had in Manuscript my Author does not inform me GLOCESTERSHIRE Whether the Chronicon Claudiocestriae written by Andrew Horn a suppos'd Citizen of Glocester God knows when speaks wholly or at all of the Affairs of this County is mighty uncertain But we are pretty sure that Sr. Matthew Hales
made large Collections to that purpose tho he did not live to fit them for the Press Proposals were also long since Publish'd for Printing the Antiquities of Glocestershire by Mr. Abel Wantner who meeting with the Discouragements that are Common in that Case an untoward Recompence for a Gentleman 's twelve years pains and study was content to enjoy the Fruits of his Labour himself the Publick not admitting of his Services The City of Glocester's Military Government has been accounted for by John Corbet and the Laws and Customs of the Miners in the Forest of Dean by an Anonymous Writer HAMPSHIRE The County is yet undescrib'd But a Description of the City of Winchester with an Historical Relation of divers Memorable Occurrences touching the same is said to have been written by John Trussel who was himself sometime Alderman of that City and continu'd S. Daniel's History I guess it to be too Voluminous to appear in Print rather than as Mr. Kennet presumes it too imperfect Something to the same purpose was likewise written by Dr. Bettes whose Book is still in MS. As are also I suppose Mr. Butler's Remarks on the Monuments in this ancient City A General Survey of the Isle of Wight part of this County was written by Sr. Francis Knollis Knight of the Garter and Privy-Counsellour to Queen Elizabeth a Manuscript Copy whereof was in the Library of the late Earl of Anglesey There is also a Fragment of 17. Quarto Pages Entitul'd Antiquitates Insulae Vectae in Bodley's Library among the MSS. of Richard James Fellow of C.C.C. in Oxford an eminent Antiquary who dy'd at Sr. Tho. Cotton's in Westminster A. D. 1638. HARTFORDSHIRE A Chorographical Description of this County was published by John Norden Gentleman whom we shall again meet with in Kent and Middlesex as we have had already occasion to mention him in other Counties But 't is hop'd his Enquiries will be infinitely outdone by Sr. Henry Chauncey Kt. Serjeant at Law whose Antiquities we are greedily expecting to see Publish'd HEREFORDSHIRE Silas Taylor beforemention'd in Essex spent four years in collecting the Antiquities Pedigrees Epitaphs c. of this County and his Papers were lately perhaps now are in the hands of Sr. Edward Harley of Brompton-Brian The Ransack he made during the times of Usurpation in the Libraries of the Cathedral Churches of Hereford and Worcester might furnish him with a greater plenty of Materials than it may be a man will easily meet with at this Day and therefore his Collections are justly recommended as a good Apparatus for any that shall hereafter write on the same Subject HVNTINGDONSHIRE Sr. Robert Cotton is reported to have written that Description which John Speed has publish'd of this County KENT Let this be observ'd for the Honour of Kent says an Ingenious and Learned Gentleman Native of this County that while other Counties and but few of them have met with single Pens to give the History and Description of them ours has had no less than four Writers to celebrate the Glories of it Lambard Somner Kilburn and Philpot He will not I Hope take it ill if we enlarge the Catalogue Both Bale and Pits expressly reckon the Itinerarium Cantiae among John Leland's Composures so that I should think he bestow'd something of more care than ordinary in disposing the Remarks he made on this County W. Lambard's Perambulation of Kent was indeed the first Account which was publish'd and it was not only highly applauded by Camden and other Chief Judges of such Matters but gave the hint to many more Men of Learning to endeavour the like Services for their several Counties 'T was not well approv'd by the Gentlemen of the Roman Communion Reiner particularly censures it as a Work undertaken and carry'd on with a Design to expose the Lewdnesses and Debaucherics of the late Inhabitants of the Monasteries of that County in describing whereof he thinks many things are spitefully misrepresented Mr. Somner it appears fully purpos'd to have given us the Antiquities of the whole County and had certainly made very great Progress towards the completing the Work as appears by his Manuscripts now in the Library of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury 'T is not doubted but he would mightily have enlarg'd W. Lambard's Perambulation and he gives us some Specimen of his Design to correct also his Errors by marking such as came in his way in some of his Treatises already publish'd However we are not wholly depriv'd of this great Work some part of it having been lately publish'd under the Title of A Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent wherein and in Mr. Gibson's Notes upon it we have as entire a Discourse as we could wish for on that Subject rectifying a great many mistakes in Camden Lambard Philpot c. and discovering the true Situation of those ancient Places Philpot's Villare Cantianum was not written by Thomas Philpot whose name in bears but by his Father Iohn Somerset Herald who is only own'd to be Author of the Additional History of the High Sheriffs of the County And what Faith a Learned Countreyman of his puts the Question in my Mouth can be given to him that could afford to rob his own Father of the credit of his Book Kilburn's Survey of Kent you may take Mr. Kennet's word for it is all Modern and Superficial Another Survey of the County in proportion to the rest of the same Author 's was drawn by Iohn Norden which none have hitherto thought worth the handing to the Press and few have reckon'd so considerable as to mention it To these I think we may add Iohn Weever's Funeral Monuments a great share of 'em having been collected in the Dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester But let the Reader never forget the Remark made on him by Mr. Wharton that he has most scandalously mistaken the Numeral Letters and Figures in most of the Inscriptions he transcrib'd which makes it hazardous for an Antiquary to rely upon his Authority Both Mr. Somner's Excellent Treatise of Gavelkind and Silas Taylor 's History of the same ought also to be referr'd to the Catalogue of this County's Historians and Antiquaries as explaining an ancient Custom whereof there are now hardly any Remains elsewhere within the King's Dominions The History of the City of Canterbury seems to have been penn'd long since by Will. Gillingham a Benedictine Monk of that place who is said to have written De Rebus Cantuariensibus about the year 1390. Iohn Twyne mentions some Collections that he had made tending to Illustrate the Antiquities of this City But Mr. Somner assures us he could no more meet with them than with those of Tho. Spott mention'd by Bale But it s everlasting Monument is W. Somner's Antiquities of Canterbury or a Survey of that ancient City
to have written the Geography and Antiquities of Wales and Arthur Kelton an Ingenious Welsh Bard in the top of his Fame about the year 1548. wrote several English Accounts both in Verse and Prose of the Glories of his Countrey most of which he dedicated to Sr. William Herbert Another Description of Wales was written by Sr. John Price in the Reign of Edward the Sixth perfected by Humph. Lhwyd and prefix'd to his Translation of the Welsh History This Humphrey himself gives also a more large Account of his own Countrey Wales than any other part of Britain and enlarges often sometimes corrects the Description given by Gyraldus The History of the Ancient and Modern State of the Principality is well written by Sr. John Doderidge and the latest and incomparably the best Account of its Antiquities is just now publish'd by my Friend Mr. Edw. Lhwyd The same excellent Person is also projecting a Design of a British Dictionary Historical and Geographical with an Essay entitul'd Archaeologia Britannica being a Complete Collection of the ancient Monuments throughout this whole Country and lastly a Natural History of Wales In order to the performance of so Noble and Undertaking he thinks of travailing in that Principality four or five Summers and likewise to make one Journey into Cornwal and another into Ireland or the Highlands of Scotland for Parallel Observations as to their Language Names of Towns Rivers Mountains c. I heartily hope the Work will not meet with those Obstructions which have hitherto usually befaln Attempts of this Nature since the Author is so generally known to be of suitable Industry and Abilities and cannot fail if God continue his Life of making good his Proposals WARWICKSHIRE's Antiquities are truly Illustrated by Sr. William Dugdale who was Master of all the Advantages requisite for such a Performance And no man can so well judge of the great Labour and Pains bestow'd on the bringing of this excellent Work the Author's Master-piece to perfection as he that has view'd the many Volumes of Materials which he gather'd in order to the compiling of it His great zeal against the Sacrilegious Destruction of some Religious Structures carry'd his Searches into every corner of the History that related to that Matter and his early Inclination to the Study of Heraldry obliged him carefully to preserve whatever might be grateful on that Head to the Nobility and Gentry of the County The History of the Earls of Warwick was long since written by John Ross or Rouse a noted Antiquary who dy'd at Warwick or Guy's Cliff within a Mile of the Town A. D. 1491. A Noble Manuscript Copy of this Book with the Pictures of the several Earls their Coats of Arms c. is now in the Archives of the Publick Library at Oxford John Pits makes him write four distinct Volumes of the Antiquities and History of Warwick but this is all that more credible Enquirers could meet with The Life of the Famous Earl Guy was first written by Walter of Exeter a Dominican Friar about the year 1301. There is a sort of Spaw-water at Ilmington in this County the History whereof is Publish'd by Sam. Derham an Ingenious Physician WESTMORLAND Mr. Tho Machel Rector of Kirkbythore in this County has with a great deal of Pains and good Judgment collected its Antiquities which we hope will ere long meet with so suitable an Encouragement as will oblige the Author to publish ' em That Part of its Story which more nearly concerns the Nobility and Gentry has been well preserv'd by Sr. Daniel Fleming of Rydale Knt. who has thereby done his own ancient Family a great deal of Right and has also approv'd himself an Eminent Benefactor to those of his Neighbours WILTSHIRE John Aubrey Esq Fellow of the Royal Society and a Person well vers'd in our British and English Antiquities has laid the Foundation of the History and Antiquities of this County but designs to leave the finishing part I think to Mr. Tanner Whose extraordinary Proficiency in these Studies will quickly be made known to the World The Monument of Stonehenge in Wiltshire has engaged several Antiquaries in disputing the Original of so Famous and Admirable a Structure and they have advanc'd almost as many different Opinions about it Mr. Samms in a particular Treatise endeavours to fetch its Original from the Phaenicians his only Darlings and clears the point as fairly as he does all the rest wherein he 's singular Mr. Inigo Jones King James the First 's Learned Architect believes it to be a Roman Temple and strongly proveâ— that the Fabrick is of the Tuscan Order His Scheme however false in it self is also learnedly defended by Mr. Webb his Son-in-Law Mr. Aubrey and others think they can evidently prove 't is British and Dr. Charlton is very sure that 't was erected by the Danes No Author that hitherto has consider'd it has so much as dream'd of its being a Saxon Monument And yet if the true old Writing of the Name be Stan-Hengest as the Monasticon seems to tell us I cannot see why that people may not have as just a Title as any to the Honour of it Possibly the MS. Treatise that is said to be written on this subject by Joh. Gibbons may place it here WORCESTERSHIRE There is now a large MS. Description of this County in the hands of Tho. Abingdon Esq written by his Grand-father an Able and Industrious Antiquary wherein if there be any Defects they may be supply'd by a present Prebendary of the Church of Worcester who when his modesty will give him leave can effectually complete such a Work YORKSHIRE There are some Collections in Sir John Cotton's Library relating to this County gather'd by one Tho. Talbot who was some time Clerk of the Records in the Tower and was alive A. D. 1580. These and whatever else looks this way we must believe to have been long since seen and perus'd by Dr. Nath. Johnston of Pomfret who as he saies has spent thirty years in amassing together Materials for the Illustrating the Antiquities and Natural History of Yorkshire In the former of these he intends to write after Sir William Dugdale's Copy and in the latter after Dr. Plott's and to finish the whole in five Volumes I am pretty well assur'd that he is not yet as Mr. Wood was inform'd weary of the Work but that tho' some late troubles have render'd him unable to finish it so soon as he design'd he is every day doing something at it H. Keep mention'd before in Middlesex is reported to have made some Collections towards the Antiquities of the City of York and Sir Thomas Widdrington sometime Recorder there did certainly make a very great Progress in a learned and exact Description of it Some distast given him by the Citizens obstructed his allowing of his
have many words nearly related to such old Latin ones as were grown obsolete even before Caesar's time and that many of the Roman Proper Names may be handsomly deriv'd from the British Tongue which have no Foundation in the Modern Latin As to that part of the Language which Dr. Bernard invidiously tells them they owe Dominis Anglis to their Masters the Saxons Mr. Lhwyd will not allow that they are so indebted for one Moyety of the 200 words observ'd to agree in Sound and Signification with the English since above half of 'em are found in the Armorican Vocabulary publish'd by Ivon Quillivere Now 't is certain the Britains went hence to Armorica in the Year 384 whereas the Saxons came not in before 450. If then our English Antiquary be not a Native of Wales 't is indispensably necessary that to compleat himself in this Study he gain a good acquaintance with the Welsh Tongue which he may pretty readily do with the Assistance of such Grammars as have been compos'd for that purpose The first of these was publish'd by W. Salesbury sometime a Member of Lincoln's Inn under the Title of A plain and familiar Introduction teaching how to pronounce the Letters in the British Tongue c. The next was Sir Edward Stradling's which seems to have given occasion to the Third that of J. Dav. Rhese printed together with a large Preface by H. Prichard by the Name of Cambro-Britannicae Cymraecaeve Linguae Institutiones Rudimenta c. ad Intelligend Biblia Sacra nuper in Cambro-Britan Sermonem eleganter versa The Fourth and last was written by Dr. Davies and bears the Title of Antiquae Linguae Britannicae nunc communiter dictae Cambro-Britannicae à suis Cymraecae vel Cambricae ab aliis Wallicae Rudimenta c. There are also several Dictionaries publish'd in that Language which will all be of singular Use and Advantage to a true Antiquary of this Kingdom Will. Salesbury beforemention'd compos'd one in English and Welsh which was first privately presented to King Henry the Eighth his very kind Patron and afterwards Printed The Summ and Substance of this as likewise what was afterwards written in the same kind by Bishop Morgan H. Salesbury H. Perry and Tho. Williams was publish'd in Dr. Joh. Davies's most Elaborate Work entitul'd Antiquae Linguae Britannicae c. Dictionarium duplex A Book which shews its excellent Author to have been perfectly acquainted with all the Learned Languages as well as his own Mother Tongue John Leland is also reported by Pits to have written a Dictionarium Britannico-Latinum But I suspect there 's no more grounds for such a Story than only this Leland publish'd a Latin Poem upon the Birth of the Prince of VVales afterwards King Edward the Sixth and taking occasion to use some hard words in it added to it Syllabus Interpretatio Antiquarum Dictionum quae passim per Libellum Lectori occurrunt And this I believe is all the VVelsh Dictionary that will be found of his Composure With these Helps a Man may venture upon those most Ancient and Authentick Writings of the old Bards wherein he shall have exact Genealogies of all the British Kings and Princes up to Brute and from thence to Adam This very Account is given of those famous Songsters by Lucan Strabo Diodorus Siculus and Am. Marcellinus And almost all other History among the Chaldeans Greeks and Romans had its first Foundation in Poetry Whether he will find the Rules of their Prosodia to agree with those that are laid down by Captain Middleton in his Bardoniaeth or Art of Welsh Poetry I know not But how methodically they order'd their TYLWYTHS or Tribes Silas Taylour has at large inform'd us Nor were they content to preserve the Pedigrees of their own Princes and great Men but were also so good-natur'd as to do the like Services for the Saxons Thus we are told that S. Benlanius who is sometimes quoted by the name of Samuel Britannus and liv'd about the Year 600 was a curious Enquirer into the Genealogies of many English Families some whereof he carry'd as high as the Flood 'T was customary to sing these Composures in the presence of their Nobles and at their chief Festivals and Solemnities And truly if the Story of one of these Bards canting the Praises of King Arthur before Henry II. and giving a hint to the Monks of Glassenbury for the Discovery of that British King's Body be fairly true and have nothing of Legend in it a very great regard is to be had to these Historical Ballads Amongst these Bards is to be reckon'd their famous Merlyn whose true Name says Humph. Lhuid is Merdhyn so called from Caermarthen Mariduno where he was born This was so mighty a Man in his Time that our Writers have thought it convenient to split him into three The first of these Godfather to the two following they call Merlinus Ambrosius or Merdhyn Emrys who liv'd about the Year 480 and wrote several Prophetical Odes turn'd into Latin Prose by Jeoffrey of Monmouth The next is Merlinus Caledonius who liv'd A. D. 570 wrote upon the same Subject with the former and had the same Translator The third is surnam'd Avalonius who liv'd under King Malgocunus they might as well have made him Secretary to Ioseph of Arimathea says our great Stillingfleet and yet my Author goes gravely on and affirms that he was an eminent Antiquary but seems to mix too many Fables with his true Story They write this last indeed Melchinus Melkinus and Mewynus and make him to live some time before the latter Merlyn But all this is Stuff and he 's manifestly the same Man or nothing Soon after him came Ambrosius Thaliessin whom Bale and Pits make to live in the days of King Arthur and to record his Story Sir John Prise quotes a certain Ode of his call'd Hannes Thaliessin or Thaliessin's Errors which he says is to be seen in several of their old Manuscripts The most ancient British Historian now extant is Gildas For the Chronicle that bears the Name of Brutus mentions the Legend of King Lucius and is apparently a late contriv'd Piece and Sylvius is much of the same Authority with the Writings of Samothes This Gentleman has had the same Respect paid to his Memory that we have already noted of Merlyn Since Gildas Cambricus Albanius and Badonicus are made by the generality of our Writers three several Persons It does not well appear that there was ever more than one Historian of this Name whatever they that love to multiply Authors as well as Books have said to the contrary And therefore notwithstanding Archbishop Vsher's great Authority on the other side I shall venture to consider him in a single Capacity He was Monk of Bangor about the middle of the Sixth Century a sorrowful Spectator of
under his Name nor for those of Worgresius and Mawornus Abbot and Monk of Glassenbury nor for the Genealogies drawn up by the Famous Bard in King Edgar's daies Saliphilax When these are retriev'd I would have them all carefully bound up with the Deflorationes Historiae Britannicae which as Jo. Caius has learnedly prov'd from Stow and Lanquet were written by King Gurguntius about 370 years before Christ. The Welsh MS. cited frequently in Camden's Britannia by the name of Triades seems not to carry Age enough to come within this Class 'T is the same I suppose which he elsewhere calls the British old Book of Triplicities running all upon the number three as appears from his Quotation out of it Welshmen love Fire Salt and Drink Frenchmen Women Weapons and Horses Englishmen Good cheer Lands and Traffick We are not to expect any such Assistances for the ascertaining the History of these Times as After-Ages afford us from Charters Letters Patents c. And yet 't is too forward an Assertion to say there were no such things in the days of our British Kings if all be true that Leland tells us of King Arthur's Seal But I am not I confess so much in Love with that Venerable Relique as he seems to have been It might indeed be brought as he guesses from Glassenbury where I do believe 't was hung at a forg'd Charter by some Monk who was a better Mechanick than Antiquary The Inscription easily discovers the Cheat PATRICIVS ARTVRIVS BRITANNIAE GALLIAE GERMANIAE DACIAE IMPERATOR He is certainly call'd Patricius here and no where else out of the abundant Respect that Monastery had for their Guardian Saint Patrick and not as Leland fansies upon any Account of a Roman Fashion Another Help is here wanting which exceedingly Conduces towards the Illustrating the Antiquities of other Nations and that is the Light that is often gain'd from the Impresses and Inscriptions upon their old Coins and Medals The money used here in Caesar's Time was nothing more than Iron Rings and shapeless pieces of Brass nor does it well appear that ever afterwards their Kings brought in any of another sort Camden says he could not learn that after their retirement into Wales they had any such thing among them none of the Learned Men of that Principality having yet been able to produce so much as one piece of British Coin found either in Wales or any where else And is it likely that a Royalty of this Nature of so great Benefit to their Subjects as well as Honour to themselves would have been laid aside by the Cambrian Princes if formerly enjoy'd by any of their Ancestors J. Leland tells us he never in all his Travels throughout the whole Kingdom of England could meet with one British Coin among the many Millions of those of the Romans found in this Nation And the Reason he says was because as he proves out of Gildas the Romans would not allow any of our Metal to be stamp'd with any other Image or Superscription save only that of Caesar's that is some of their own Emperours However we now have several ancient Coins in our publick and private Libraries which are generally reputed to be British tho' 't is very hard to determine in what Age of the World they were minted My very Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Lwhyd believes that before the coming in of the Romans they had Gold Coins of their own because there have been frequently found both in England and Wales thick pieces of that Metal hollow'd on one side with variety of unintelligible Marks and Characters upon them These he is sure cannot be ascrib'd either to the Romans Saxons or Danes and therefore 't is reasonable we should conclude them to be British And the Reason why he thinks they were coin'd before the Romans came is this If the Britains had learn'd the Art from them they would tho' never so inartificially have endeavour'd to imitate their manner of Coining and in all likelyhood have added Letters and the Head of their Kings Here 's a fair and probable opinion against the express Testimony of Julius Caesar who could hardly be impos'd on in this part of the Account he gives of our Isle Camden rather thinks that after the Arrival of the Romans the Britains first began to imitate them in their Coining of both Gold and Copper But his Stories of Cunobeline and Queen Brundvica are much of a piece with those of Doctor Plott's Prasutagus all of 'em liable to very just and to me unanswerable Objections For my own part I am of Opinion that never any of the British Kings did Coin Money But that even their Tribute-Money like the Dane-Gelt and Peterpence afterwards was the ordinary Current Coin which was brought in or minted here by the Romans themselves as long as this Island continu'd a Province The most if not all of the foremention'd pieces which are not Counterfeits I take to be Amulets whereof Tho. Bartholine gives this sensible Account Habuere Veteres in Paganismo res quasdam portatiles ex Argento vel Auro factas Imaginibus Deorum facie humanâ Expressorum signatas quibus Futurorum Cognitionem explorabant quarum possessione felices se quodam quasi Numinis praesidio tutos judicabant These were in use among the Romans a good while after they came into Britain and the Amula from whence they had their Name was a little drinking Cup most probably of this very Fashion If any man dislikes my Conjecture I am willing Sir John Pettus should Umpire the matter between us and his Supposition that Coin is an Abstract of Coynobeline who first coin'd Money at Malden will for ever decide the Controversie After the Conquest The first man that attempted the Writing of the old British History was Geoffery Archdeacon of Monmouth and he did it to some purpose This Author liv'd under King Stephen about the year 1150. He had a peculiar fancy for Stories surmounting all ordinary Faith which inclin'd him to pitch upon King Arthur's feats of Chivalry and Merlyn's Prophecies as proper subjects for his Pen. But his most famous piece is his Chronicon sive Historia Britonum which has taken so well as to have had several Impressions In this he has given a perfect Genealogy of the Kings of Britain from the Days of Brutus wherein we have an Exact Register of above Seventy glorious Monarchs that rul'd this Island before ever Julius Caesar had the good fortune to be acquainted with it The first stone of this fair Fabrick was laid by Nennius but the Superstructure is all Fire-new and purely his own They that are concern'd for the Credit of this Historian tell us that he had no further hand in the Work than only to translate an ancient Welsh History brought out of Britany in France by Walter Calenius Archdeacon of Oxford who was himself
an eminent Antiquary and added a Supplement to the Book The Translation of the whole he committed to the care of his Friend Geoffry who says Matt. Paris approv'd himself Interpres verus And there I am willing to let the matter rest The Translator might have employ'd his time better yet may be an honest man But the Author whoever he was has basely impos'd upon the World and was certainly something of another Nature The best defence that can be made for it is that which was written by Sir John Prise and is publish'd under the Title of Historiae Britannicae Defensio to which something further is added by Mr. Sheringham if it could be help'd to part with any thing of an old Story that looks gay and is but even tolerably well contriv'd As to the regard says the ingenious Mr. Lhwyd due to this History in general the judicious Reader may consult Dr. Powel's Epistle De Britannicâ Historiâ rectè Intelligendâ and Dr. Davies ' s Preface to his British Lexicon and balance them with the Arguments and Authority of those that wholly reject them I am not for wholly rejecting all that 's contained in that History believing there is somewhat of Truth in it under a mighty heap of Monkish Forgeries But for the main I am of Camden's Judgment and I hope my Friend will allow me to think the Arguments and Authority of that Writer and common Sense to be as weighty in these Matters as those of the two greatest Doctors in Christendom Ponticus Virunnius an Italian Epitomiz'd it and indeed 't is of a Complexion fitter for the Air of Italy than England Cotemporary with this Jeoffrey was Caradocus Monk of Lancarvan who contented himself with the Writing of a History of the Petty Kings of Wales after they were driven into that Corner of the Island by the Saxons This History which was written originally in Latin and brought as low as the Year 1156 by its Author was afterwards translated into English by Humphrey Lhuid and enlarg'd and publish'd by Dr. Powel There are three MSS. of good note mention'd by Archbishop Vsher which seem to reach much higher than Caradocus pretends to go all which I guess to have been written about the same Time The first is in Welsh in Sir John Cotton's Library reported to be the same that was translated by Jeoffrey of Monmouth The Second is in old English by one Lazimon and the Third as I take it in Latin by Geraldus Cornubiensis King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table made so considerable a Figure in the British History that many Learned Men have been at a great deal of Trouble to clear up that Prince's Title and to secure that part of Jeoffrey's Story whatever Fate might attend the Rest. The first Stickler against Will. Neubrigensis c. was one Grey the suppos'd Author of Scalechronicon whom Pits calls John and says he was Bishop of Norwich and Elect of Canterbury and that he dy'd A. D. 1217. Bishop Jewel calls him Thomas About two hundred Years after him Tho. Maâ—ory a Welsh Gentleman wrote King Arthur's Story in English a Book that is in our Days often sold by the Ballad-singers with the like Authentick Records of Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Southampton But about the middle of the last Century his chief Champions appear'd on the Stage in defence of him against Polydore Virgil's fierce attack These were Sir John Prise and Mr. Leland the latter whereof was as able as any Man alive to give the Story all the Light which the Kingdom could afford it And yet his Treatise is the most liable to Exception of any thing he ever publish'd Many of the Authors he quotes are only Jeoffrey of Monmouth's Echoes others come not up to the Question and some are too Modern These and more Objections are rais'd against this History by our most Learned Bishop Stillingfleet who nevertheless confesses that he has sufficiently prov'd that there was such a Prince So that it seems there is something of plain Stuff in the Story whatever Imbroydery may be Introduced by the Spanish vein of Romancing Arth. Kelton's Chronicle of the Brutes and H. Lyte's Records c. are such Whimsical and Imperfect Pieces as not to deserve the being nam'd with the last mention'd Authors tho' they treat much on the same Subject After King Charles the Second's Restoration Mr. Robert Vaughan a Learned Gentleman of Meryonidshire publish'd his British Antiquities Reviv'd wherein are a great many very pretty Remarks and Discoveries The Author it appears was well known to Archbishop Vsher by whom he was much countenanc'd and encourag'd in these Studies In one of his Letters to that renown'd Primate he says he had now finish'd his Annals of Wales which he then sent to be perus'd by his Grace and to receive his Approbation if worthy of it for the Press What became of that Work I cannot tell but it has not yet appear'd so publickly as the Author it seems long since intended it should His Executors owe him and us the Justice of sending abroad whatever they have of his that 's compleat For he left also behind him a large Collection of other Manuscript Papers relating to the same Subject which were sometime in the Possession of Sir William Williams After him came forth Aylet Sammes with his Britannia Antiqua Illustrata wherein he fetches the Original of the British Customs Religion and Laws from the Phoenicians This Conceit which is all that looks new in his Book is wholly borrow'd from Bochartus as is his long Discourse of the Off-spring of the Saxons from Sheringham As for his own part 't is visible he equally understood the Phoenician British Gothick Saxon and Islandic Languages and if left to himself could as easily have brought the Britains from New Spain and the Saxons from Madagascar Upon the first publishing of this Book Mr. Oldenburg Secretary to the Royal Society gave a very obliging Character both of the Work and its Author who by what the Oxford Antiquary has since told us was every way unworthy of such a Complement Whether his Uncle or himself was the true Author of what he was pleas'd to publish under his own Name is not worth our while to enquire But if we believe Mr. Wood that Aylet had never so much as heard of John Leland before the Year 1677 he 's the most unaccountable and ridiculous Plagiary and Buffoon that ever had his Name in the Title Page of any Book whatever For that which he pretends to be his was Printed the Year before and in the Preface to it we are told that 't was John Leland's asserting that the main Body of the Welsh Language consisted of Hebrew and Greek words which first put the Author upon his search into the Stories of the Phoenician Voyages So that it 's
two Manuscript Copies one in Cotton's Library the other in that of Bennet College whereof the former ended with the year 1001 and the latter with 1070. Cotton's he says had been compar'd with a Third which the Collater whom he supposes to have been Mr. Josseline calls the Book of Peterburgh Mr. Gibson had the advantage of three Copies more 1. Laud A fair one in Vellum given by Archbishop Laud to the University of Oxford which corrects those that Wheloc had seen and continues the History down to the year 1154. This he fansies did anciently belong to the Monastery of Peterburgh because it often largely insists upon the Affairs of that place But if it did so 't is plain it cannot be the same wherewith Mr. Wheloc's Cottonian MS. had been compar'd tho its variations from it are not very considerable being mostly in words and not in sence 2. Cant. Another Gift of the same Archbishop to the publick Library at Oxford 'T is a Paper-transcript of some Copy now lost differing from all the rest and sometimes explaining their dark passages and supplying their defects It ends with the year 977. 3. Cot. A better Copy than it had been Mr. Wheloc's Fortune to meet with in the Cotton-Library which was accurately compared with Wheloc's Edition by â—r Junius and ends A. D. 1057. Out of all these we have the Text made up as entire and compleat as 't was possible to give it us with an elegant and proper Translation void of all affected Strains and unlucky Mistakes which used to abound in Works of this kind If some few passages have a little puzzl'd the Ingenious publisher let it be consider'd that in these Florence of Worcester and Matthew of Westminster who lived nearer the times wherein they were penn'd were much more lamentably gravell'd Perhaps some further Enlargements and Additions might yet be made to this Work out of such MSS. as came not early enough to Mr. Gibson's View and Knowledge Of this Number I take to be 1. The Saxon Chronicle from Julius Caesar down to the Reign of King Edward the Martyr in Sir John Cotton's Library For if it ends as Mr. Wharton says it does A. D. 975. it must be different from what was perus'd by A. Wheloc 2. Another in the same Library from Iulius Caesar down to the Conquest which was transcrib'd by Somner and is now under the Title of the Chronicle of Abingdon amongst his MSS. at Canterbury 3. A Third in Latin and Saxon at the same place which is frequently referr'd to by Mr. Wharton and seems to have recorded many particulars of Note not mention'd by any of the rest This Book was given to Sir Robert Cotton by Mr. Camden says Archbishop Vsher who also mentions a Copy of his own worth the enquiring after 4. The Book of Peterburgh which was never thoroughly compar'd with any Copy hitherto publisht and differs from them all May we not also bring into this List those hinted at by Mr. Kennet and that which Mr. Somner had from Mr. Lambard I think we may The History that is written by Bede is so purely Ecclesiastical that it will not fall under our consideration in this Chapter But some of his Cotemporaries are said to have recorded the Civil Transactions of their Times Thus Cimbert first Monk and afterwards Bishop of Lincoln is the reputed Author of the Annals of his own time and Daniel Bishop of the West Saxons is said to have written four or five Historical Treatises I suppose there was no other grounds for dubbing these men Historians save only Bede's grateful Acknowledgments of his being indebted to both of 'em for the Informations and Assistances they gave him towards the compiling his Ecclesiastical History and if he quotes them in twenty particulars 't is enough for either Bale or Pits to make them Authors of as many Books To W. Caxton I suppose good Mr. Fox was oblig'd for the Account he gives us of King Aelfred ' s compiling a Story in the Saxon Speech c. But Bale and Pits have bravely enlarg'd upon the matter assuring us that he did not only write Collectiones Chronicorum but also Acta suorum Mastratuum The Mirroir des Justices written in the days of Edward the First would incline us to believe the latter part of the story giving so very punctual an Account of forty and four of his Judges executed in one year for corrupt Practices But all that now remains of that great Monarch's Works which relates to History is only his paraphrastical Translation of Bede and a short Genealogy of the Kings of the West Saxons The former of these will be treated on hereafter and the other may be seen among the Appendices to the Oxford Edition of his Life The earliest Account we have of the Reign of this excellent Prince is owing to Asserius Menevensis who lived in his Court and is said to haâ—e been promoted by him to the Bishoprick of Sherburn This Treatise was first publisht by A. B. Parker in the old Saxon Character at the end of his Edition of Thâ— Walsingham's History This he did to invite his English Readers and to draw them in unawares to an Acquaintance with the Hand writing of their Ancestors in hopes to beget in 'em by degrees a Love for the Antiquities of their own Country Asserius wrote his Soveraign's Life no further than the 45th year of his Age which according to his computation fell in the year of our Lordâ—893 So that tho the Book as 't is publisht continue his Story to his Death yet that part is borrowed from Authors of a later time particularly the Copy of Verses by way of Epitaph is Henry of Huntingdon's He shows through the whole a great deal of Modesty especially in the Account he gives of his own being call'd to Court and his Reception there He mentions nothing of the Visionary Dialogue 'twixt King Aelfred and St. Cuthbert which all the rest of our Historians largely insist on together with the good effects it had upon the Diocess of Lindisfern He is exactly copy'd by Florence of Worcester and others when they come to treat of the great things of this Reign As to what relates to the Truth or Falshood of that Memorable Passage in this Book mightily asserting the Antiquity of the University of Oxford I shall not meddle at present that matter having been sufficiently canvass'd by those whose proper business led them to it The best thing this Contest could do for us was the putting Sir John Spelman upon writing a New Life of this King which he seems to have undertaken chiefly upon a Design to vindicate the University of Cambridge from the Reflections which he apprehended were cast upon it by the use that had been made of that passage The most elaborate piece in his whole Book is on this Subject and
his zealous Management has afforded us some good Remarks of his own and others of the learned Translator and Publisher of his Work Whether St. Neot ever wrote as some have reported the Life of King Aelfred Sir John Spelman justly doubts and I am not able to resolve him unless the next Paragraph will unravel the matter Another piece has been lately pubâ—lisht under the Title of Asserius's Annals by Dr. Gale who tells us that the Manuscript Copy which he used is now in the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge Jo Brompton indeed cites several things relating to the Story of King Offa out of Asserius's Writings which are not in his Life of Aelfred Hence some have concluded that he might possibly have been impos'd upon by those that had given the Name of that Author to such Anonymous Collections as they knew not how truly to Father and the Jealousy may still continue for any thing which this Book discoverâ—â—o the contrary For King Offa is hardly named in it and therefore Brompton must have hit upon a spurious piece how genuine soever this may prove The learned Publisher does not question but 't is the true Off-spring of Asserius and its insisting chiefly on the Fortunes of King Aelfred seems to countenance his Opinion Leland calls it the Chronicle of St. Neot's because he found it in that Monastery Marianus Scotus had also met with it somewhere for he transcribes it by whole Sale The next Saxon Historian now extant is Ethelwerd or Elward Patricius descended as himself attests of the Blood Royal who liv'd till the year 1090 but did not continue his Chronicle so far His work consists of four Books which are publish'd by Sir H. Savil. The whole is a Translation of a very false and imperfect Copy of the Saxon Chronicle and therefore William of Malmesbury has modestly out of Deference to his Family declin'd the giving a Character of this Writer's performance If he had done it truly he ought to have told us that his Style is boisterous and that several parts of his History are not so much as hardly sence It appears from what we have noted above that both Malmesbury and Camden are mistaken when they affirm him to be our most ancient Historian after Bede J. Pits will tell you that we had two other Ethelwerds of the same Royal Extraction who long before this Man's time wrote each of 'em a Chronicle or History of our English Affairs The Elder of these he makes Son to King Aelfred and the other his Grandson Nay and St. Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester was likewise most certainly Senior to this Ethelwerd Patricius dying in the year 984. Now he says the same Author wrote two Books De Regibus c. totius Angliae and De Tempore Regum Britannorum for Copies of both which he sends to the public Library at Cambridge Many things relating to the Civil Government of these Times are dispers'd in some particular Lives of their Saints and Kings the latter whereof may be here mention'd tho the former will fall under another Head The Life of Offa frequently referr'd to by Sir Hen. Spelman has been publisht by Dr. Watts That of King Oswin was somewhere met with by John Leland King Ethelwolph's is said to have been written by VVolstan a famous Monk of VVinchester much commended by VVilliam of Malmesbury Edward the Confessor's written by Abbot Ealred has had several Editions and Queen Emma's Encomium is also made publick After the Conquest J. Pike is said to have written De Regibus Anglo-Saxonum and De Danis in Anglia dominantibus but it seems to be a mistake Upon the same Credit we are assured that John Mercius under the Reign of King Stephen publisht an Historical Account of the Mercian Kings which got him his Surname That Colman the wise John Harding's great Friend wrote most copiously and clearly of the Saxon Heptarchy their uniting afterwards into a Monarchy the Danish Incursions and Cruelties c. And that Gyraldus Cambrensis penn'd the Story of the West Saxon Kings R. Verstegan ' s Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Antiquities does especially relate to the Language Religion Manners and Government of the ancient English Saxons This Writer being of Low Dutch Extraction a Romanist and something of an Artist in Painting had several advantages for the making of some special Discoveries on the Subject whereon he treats which is handled so plausibly and so well illustrated with handsome Cuts that the Book has taken and sold very well But a great many Mistakes have escap'd him Some whereof have been noted by Mr. Sheringham As his fancy of the Vitae being the ancient Inhabitants of the Isle of Wight Of the Saxons being in Germany before they came in the more Northern Countries Of Tuisco's coming from Babel his giving Name to Tuesday c. The rest have been carefully corrected by Mr. Somner who has left large Marginal Notes upon the whole Mr. Selden was a person of vast Industry and his Attainments in most parts of Learning were so extraordinary that every thing that came from him was always highly admir'd and applauded Tho I must confess I cannot think he was that great Man in our English Antiquities which some have taken him to be His Analecta do not so clearly account for the Religion Government and Revolutions of State among our Saxon Ancestors as they are reported to do The Laws he quotes in his Janus Anglorum are as faulty as if his whole Skill in them reach'd no higher than Lambard's Translation and seem to want Will. Somner's Emendations as much as those he has publisht of William the Conqueror in his Spicelegium in Eadmerum The very best performance that I know of relating to the prime Antiquities of the Saxons is Mr. Sheringham's Treatise De Anglorum Gentis Origine Our Civil Wars sent this Author into the Low Countries where he had the Opportunity of coming acquainted with Dr. Marshal and the Dutch Language both inclining him to such Studies as this Book shews him to have delighted in He appears to have been a person of great Modesty as well as Industry and Learning Hence some will conclude him to be too credulous and that several of his Authorities particularly Lazius's Tattle about the Hebrew Inscriptions found at Vienna have not been sufficiently consider'd But his Collections out of the Greek Roman and chiefly the Northern Writers are highly commendable and for the most part very well put together Our Saxon Antiquary ought also to be skill'd in the Writings of those Learned Germans who have made Collections of their old Laws or have written such Glossaries or other Grammatical Discourses as may bring him acquainted with the many ancient Dialects of our Ancestors and Kinsmen in
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
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
Historiae Anglicanae which tho' only a very concise Epitome of our History is done with that great Judgment that it deserves a place among the best of our Writers on this Subject There have been some Additions made to this Treatise since the Doctor 's death in 1683. which whatever Relish they may have with some Readers are not to be laid to his Charge Others we hear are now engaged in the bold Work of Compiling General Histories of this Kingdom The most considerable of these are Sir John Marsham and James Tyrrel Esq and if the former writes with the true Spirit of his Father and the other with that of Archbishop Vsher his Grandfather we have good cause to hope for great things from them both There are also many Anonymous Historians whose Books are said to remain in several of our publick and private Libraries which ought to be referr'd to in this Chapter 'T is true the Numbers of these might be lessened if they were veiw'd by proper Persons before their Titles were sent abroad in our Catalogues whereas we are now told of Forty Nameless Authors who upon perusal prove only imperfect Copies of Paris Westminster Hoveden c. A few we are sure are not of this kind but appear to be of good value in themselves tho' of an unknown Authority Such are three Manuscripts of good Esteem in the Library at Lambeth sometimes quoted by Mr Wharton a Fourth referred to by Archbishop Vsher a Fifth and Sixth by Mr. Selden a Seventh now in the Possession of my worthy Friend Mr. Thoresby of Leedes in Yorkshire c. To which we might add a large Scrole of those that bear only the Names of such Monasteries as they were penn'd in But these may happen to be remember'd when we come more particularly to treat of the Registers and Records of those Religious Houses CHAP. VI. Of the Writers of Particular Lives of our Kings since the Conquest THE Historians that have been already mention'd in the foregoing Chapter have usually treated most Copiously of the Reigns of those Princes that rul'd in their own Times and are to be most especially consulted in such Transactions as may be suppos'd to have happen'd within the Compass of their own View and Observation Others have confin'd their Pens to the History of this or the other particular Monarch and from them if not manifestly under some Prejudices and Temptations either to Invective or Panegyrick we may expect the best and most comprehensive Account as far as their Subject carries them Of these I shall give the Reader as full a List as I can following the Succession down to the Union of the two Kingdoms William the First 's Conquest or Acquest of this Kingdom was a Revolution that appear'd so Great and Glorious that 't is a Wonder how we come to have so few Writers of his Story whose Labours have continu'd to this day For 't is plain our English-men have been as backward in paying this Complement to this Memory as they were in acknowledging his Title Among those that have done it William of Poictiers Pictaviensis is the largest and tho' a Foreigner and under some seeming Obligations to the King's Interests has so fairly acquitted himself as to find good Credit with the most of our Historians Archbishop Lanfranc is said to have written his Life also and he is observ'd to have been so well affected towards the English Nation tho' a Lombard himself and to have carry'd so even betwixt their New Governour and them that 't is very probable he would likewise approve himself an unbyass'd Author There 's a short Anonymous History of this Reign publish'd by Silas Taylor in the end of his Treatise of Gavel-kind He guesses the Author was a Monk of Battle-Abbey But I see no cogent Reason in the Tract it self to press such a Perswasion 'T is plain the Writer liv'd in the days of Henry the First and so might be sufficiently inform'd of the Truth of all he relates There was some time in the Library of Sir Kenelm Digby a Manuscript History of the Life and Death of the Conqueror said to have been written by Sir Walter Raleigh but my Informer reckons it amongst some other Pieces which he thinks unduly father'd upon that great Man But above all Sir William Temple has lately given us the most excellent and Judicious Account of this King's Reign and Policy the old Laws he preserv'd and the new ones he enacted his good Conduct and Success in his many Wars both in England and France several Instances of his Clemency and Wisdom c. Upon all which he makes such Reflections as become a Statesman and a Person so conversant in the Management of publick Affairs as that Author is known to have been William the Second was more Unfortunate both in his Life and Death than his Father and has also been so Unhappy as to have none to attempt the preserving his Memory in any special History that I have yet heard of Henry the First tho' he reign'd much longer than his Brother and Founded several Religious Houses in this Realm met with the like Treatment Unless we reckon Walter de Mopez's Book De Nâ—gis Curiâ—lluâ— to be something of that â—ind seeing a great many witty things relating to the History of this King are quoteâ— out of it by Mr. Camden That Author was Arch-deacon of Oxford and a Merry Good Fellow in the Reign of Henry the Second King Stephen's Memoirs were collected by Richard Prior of Hexbam whose Book is like to be preserv'd as long as the most durable of our English Records having had the Honour to make a part of the noble Edition of our Decem Scriptores Mr. Selden quotes another Anonymous Writer of his Life who seems to be a voluminous Author Henry the Second's long Contests with the haughty Archbishop Becket gave occasion to vast Numbers of Writers to engage on both sides So that we have several Pictures drawn of this King who is represented sometimes as a God and elsewhere as a Devil according as the Author favour'd the Court of England or Rome Gilbert Folioth Bishop of London who died before the end of this Reign A. D. 1187. was the earliest Stickler for the King against the Archbishop and wrote smartly in Defence of the Prerogative Royal and against the Papal and Prelatical Usurpations of those Times Will. Stephens or Fitz-Stephens the London Antiquary is said to be another Writer of this King's Life but I suspect the Truth of the Story Stow and others quote him sometimes as writing in the Reign of Henry the Second and that 's enough for Pits to conclude that he wrote his Life Prior Richard of Hexham is brought in for another as is also John Oxfordius Bishop of Norwich This last was sometime Dean of Salisbury and was certainly sent by King Henry to Rome to
of Chivalry And yet I do not find that all his strict Piety gain'd so far upon the Monks of his Time as that there was any great struggling among them who should most effectually recommend him to Posterity Archbishop Vsher tells us of one Iohn Blackman a Carthusian who was particularly intimate with him and has left a Collection of the many good things he had taken notice of in the most Secret Passages of his Life Tho. Walsingham who also liv'd in his Time took a Journal of his Reign out of which is composed that which some have entitul'd his Acta Regis Henrici Sexti Had the Pope favour'd the Attempt which was afterwards made at the Enshrining or Sainting of this King 't is very likely that his Legend would have out-grown his History and have been penn'd by more Writers than his Life Since the Roman Saints are commonly most Active after their Decease and the Wonders of their Relicks are usually much greater than those of their Persons Edward the Fourth can hardly be said to have enjoy'd so much Quiet during the Twenty Years of his suppos'd Reign as to have setled the House of York in the Throne So that even the Favourers of Justice and his Cause have not known what Account to give of the Times or how to Form a Regular History out of such a vast Heap of Rubbish and Confusion Mr. Habbington has given us as fair a Draught as the thing would bear At least he has Copy'd this King's Picture as agreeably as could be expected from one standing at so great a distance from the Original Edward the Fifth had the Name of a King for some few Weeks and purchas'd the Complement at far too high a Rate His Accession to the Throne the Tower and the Grave all within the Compass of little more than two Months are largely and elegantly described by the Famous Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England who has sufficiently shewn how a short and doleful Tale may be improv'd into a complete History by a Person of good Skill and Judgment This Treatise has met with such a general Acceptance as that it not only finds Admission by whole-sale into all our late Chronicles but has also been separately printed without any other Alteration than a small change of the English Orthography according to the Usage and Mode of the present Age. The short Epitome of this and the three following Reigns that was written and publish'd by Will. Fleetwood Serjeant at Law is so thin a piece and refers so peculiarly to the Transactions in the Courts at Westminster that it has been rather look'd on as a Table or Index to the year-Year-books of those Times than any Historical Treatise Richard the Third's short and unfortunate Reign had its Tragical History begun by Sir Thomas Moor who did not bring it to such a final Conclusion as he had done that of his Nephew and Predecessor Neither Bale nor Pits take notice of any such thing But Vossius seems to have seen and perus'd it Vt fusè says he persequitur quibus Sceleribus ille ad Regnum pervenerit ita quomodo id gesserit non exponit Ac nec eâ parte quam habemus ultimam manum accepit Praeterea Elegantiâ Latini Sermonis ab aliis ejusce viri operibus longè vincitur Which last words must refer to Sir Thomas's Life of this King and not to that of Edward which indeed might seem to be an Introduction to this and would answer all the former part of Vossius's Story But King Edward's was only written in English whereas Richard's was in both Languages and as appears from Stow's account was more copiously treated on in Latin Great Additions have been since made by a more Candid Composer of his Annals who endeavours to represent him as a Prince of much better Shapes both of Body and Mind than he had been generally esteem'd Various are the Censures which have pass'd upon this Work I shall only trouble the Reader with that of Dr. Fuller His Memory says he speaking of King Richard has met with a Modern Pen who has not only purg'd but prais'd it to the heighth and pity it is that so able an Advocate had not a more meriting Person to his Client Henry the Seventh having most fortunately and wisely united the Houses of York and Lancaster continu'd his Reign as prosperously as it began and is justly esteem'd one of the most Politick Princes that ever sat on the English Throne It appears Sir Thomas Moor had once some faint Thoughts of writing this King's Life whilst he was in hand with those of his immediate Predecessors But I know not whether he ever liv'd or not to digest them Sir James Ware has Industriously Collected and Published such Occurrences of this Reign as relate to the Affairs of Ireland And a Poetical History of the whole has been printed by Ch. Aleyn But this good Work was the most effectually undertaken and compleated by the Incomparable Sir Francis Bacon who has bravely surmounted all those Difficulties and pass'd over those Rocks and Shallows against which he took such Pains to caution other less experienc'd Historians He has perfectly put himself into King Henry's own Garb and Livery giving as spritely a View of the Secrets of his Council as if himself had been President in it No trivial Passages such as are below the Notice of a Statesman are mix'd with his Sage Remarks Nor is any thing of Weight or Moment slubber'd over with that careless Hast and Indifferency which is too common in other Writers No Allowances are given to the Author 's own Conjecture or Invention where a little Pains and Consideration will serve to set the Matter in its proper and true Light No Impertinent Digressions nor fanciful Comments distract his Readers But the whole is written in such a Grave and Uniform Style as becomes both the Subject and the Artificer Henry the Eighth was a Prince of great Vertues and Accomplishments and as great Vices So that the pleasing Varieties that were in his Life and Reign might have temptest many more Writers than we know of to engage in the Composure of so entertaining an History Edmund Campian wrote a Narrative of the most remarkable Passages relating to his Divorce of Queen Katharine which is printed at the end of Nich. Harpesfeild's Church-History and is written with the true Spirit and Heart as well as Eloquence of a Jesuit Fran. Godwin Bishop of Landaff who will be remember'd at large amongst our Ecclesiastical Historians compil'd also the Annals of this and the two following Reigns Whereof one of our Criticks gives this just Character That his Book is penn'd Non mâ—gis succinctâ quà m laudabili brevitate The Author was a perfect Master of the Latin Tongue and wrote in that Language But his Annals were translated into English and so have been
Kynder's Natural History of Derbyshire But 't is only as the Author himself there calls it a short Prolusion to an intended future History and has little in it worth the consulting or looking after P. 34. l. 12. Wantner who meeting with those Discouragements that were suitable to the Man 's busie medling in things beyond his Sphere was content to enjoy c. Nor is Corbet's Book worth the mentioning P. 37. l. 4. County But the late learned Publisher of Sir Robert's Life says 't is only probable from the great store of Collections that he had made out of Doomsday c. to that purpose that he had projected such an History He does not believe that he ever finish'd any thing of that Nature P. 50. l. 19. Spelman and was long since printed with the first Edition of his Treatise de Furoribus Norfolciensium Ketto Duce Sir Symonds D Ewes thought of making a Survey of Norfolk out of Original Deeds but we know not what Advances he had made in it P. 51. l. 9. Mr. Peter le Neve one of the Pursuivants at Arms is now preparing an accurate Description and History of this County which we hope to see published ere long Ibid. l. 10. Augustine Vincent P. 52. l. 20. For the Anonymous Author c. Read Ralph Gardiner in his England's Grievances c. Ibid. In the Notes d 40. Lond. 1655. P. 57. l. 1. Bathoniensibus as did also Dr. William Turner a famous Physician in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign P. 59. l. 12. Oxford A kind Friend of mine could not meet with them there But he tells me what is much better worth the hearing that Dr. Battely the present Arch-deacon of Canterbury has made a good Progress in the History of the Town and Abby of St. Edmondsbury I wish this Discovery of it may be a means to hasten its publishing P. 68. l. 21. The late Recorder of Heddon Mr. Christopher Hildyard which is now enlarging by Mr. Forr a Gentleman of good Industry and Abilities suitable to the Work P. 79. l. ult Historical Ballads Be that Matter as it will we ought here to observe that Sam. Beaulanius or Britannus was as himself owns Scholar to Beaulanus Presbyter who was the Genealogist and that neither of 'em liv'd in the beginning or perhaps any part of the Seventh Century Britannus as we shall see anon did certainly write Notes upon Nennius and therefore must have flourish'd after him 'T is likewise very improbable that he never medled with any of the Saxon Genealogies since in one of those Notes he says expresly Cum inutiles Magistro meo id est Beaulario it should be Beaulano Presbytero visae sunt Genealogiae Saxonum aliarum Genealogiae Gentium nolui ea scribere c. P. 81. l. 2. or nothing The most learned of the British Antiquaries agree that this Myrdhyn ap Morvryn call'd from the Country wherein he liv'd Caledonius and Sylvestris from his Humour of leading a retir'd Life in the Woods wrote a Poem call'd Avalleneu or the Apple-Trees to his Lord Gwendholen ap Keidio who was slain in the Battel of Arderith in the Year 577. Some Fragments of this Poem were found at Hengwrt in Meiriondyshire the last Summer by Mr. Lhwyd who very probably conjectures that from hence he had the Surname of Avalonius If so there 's a happy Discovery made of one of the many foolish Impostures of the old Monks of Glassenbury who to secure this famous Prophet to themselves have made King Arthur's Tomb and their own Monastery to stand in Insulâ Avallonia P. 82. In the Notes d 80. Lond. 1525. Basil. 1541. 120. Lond. 1568. Inter Orthodoxographa Patrum c. Angl. 120. Lond. 1638. P. 84. l. penult Mervini Regis Though here also there seems to be some Mistake For the first Mervin dy'd in the Year 843. and the second did not begin to reign till 885. It 's therefore most probable that the Words ought to be read Anno 828. Anno 40. Mervini Regis P. 85. l. 10. to Gildas John Leland mentions an ancient Copy of this History which he says he borrow'd from his Friend Thomas Solme Secretary for the French Tongue to King Henry the Eighth in the Margin whereof were the Additions of Sam. Beaulanius or Britannus He has transcribed several of these Marginal Annotations which it appears were afterwards inserted in the Body of the History and are so publish'd by Dr. Gale The Doctor indeed in his Notes mentions Samuel as the Scholiast upon his Bennet Copy but Leland has a great many other things as Excerpta out of Beulanius which are not there observ'd to be only in the Scholion There is also in Bodley's Library a MS. of this Nennius which cannot be less than 500 Years old wherein the Prefaces and all those Interpolations which are by Leland said to be this Samuel's are wanting P. 88. l. 11. His Reign It appears indeed from the Preface of this Hoel's Laws in most of the Latin and Welsh Copies that Blegorede or Blegwrt was one of the Commissioners appointed to draw up that Code or Abstract and 't is also probable seeing he was the only Ecclesiastick amongst them that he penn'd it But whether he did it in the Latin or British Tongue is wholly uncertain Ibid. l. 17. Augusto 1600. Sir William Dugdale reckons up seven Manuscript Collections of the old British Laws besides those we have aloeady mention'd As 1. Kyfnerth ap Morgan 2. Gronu vab Moreddig 3. Lhyfr hen y tuy Gwyn 4. Gwair mab Ruon 5. Lhyfr Prawf 6. Prawfyneit a Collection he says out of the four first 7. Lhyfr Kyghawssed The third of these is undoubtedly the same with Howel's Dha's as will easily appear from the Title of those Laws All the rest whereof the fifth and sixth seem to be the same are now at Hengwrt except only the fourth which is suppos'd to be in the hands of Sir William Williams amongst Mr. Maurice's MSS. There we are likewise to enquire for that eminent Antiquary's Dedhf-grawn or Thesaurus Juridicus wherein are the various Readings of above thirty ancient Copies of the British Laws To which we may possibly add the Liber Cardiffe being a Treatise upon the ancient Customs of Wales in the Welsh Language P. 96. l. 6. Sheringham who is always very loath if it c. P. 99. l. ult same Subject J. Bale makes Will. Caxton write King Arthur 's History in no less than One and twenty several Books which if they could have been found might have sav'd Rich. Robinson the trouble of translating Leland 's Assertio into English P. 100. l. ult Williams The foremention'd learned Primate made also some choice Collections in his Retirement at St. Donate 's relating to the British Antiquities which were afterwards in the hands of Dr. Parr his Grace's Chaplain And from the like Helps in the Library at Llantarnam Mr. Percie Enderby
collected his Cambria Triumphans or Ancient and Modern British and Welsh Histories from Brute to Charles the First Nic. Allen's Britanneis ten Books whereof are now in MS. in Bodley's Library comes no lower than the Conquest P. 107. l. 4. from the time of Claudius to that of Valentinian about five hundred he should say four hundred years the c. P. 104. * l. 20. Bodley 's Library But the Transcript of it in eleven Volumes at the Charge of the late pious Bishop Fell is not in the Musaeum Ashmoleanum as Dr. Hickes was inform'd P. 111. l. 20. Laur. Nowel P. 121. l. 19. the matter But I do know that there was a short Life of this great King publish'd by R. Powel a Lawyer who has been at no contemptible Pains to make up a Parallel betwixt Aelfred and Charles the First P. 128. l. 12. put together A short Chronicle of our English-Saxon Kings from Hengist to the end of the Heptarchy was written in Latin by Dan. Langhorn whose chief Authors are those publish'd by Sir Hen. Savil and Sir Roger Twisden He had formerly given us the Antiquities of this Island previous to the Arrival of the Saxons wherein amongst other Remains of those dark Times we have a Catalogue of the Pictish King 'T is said that the Continuation of this History is much desir'd by Learned Men And 't is pity but the Author if yet living should be prevail'd with to gratifie them P. 139. l. 15. Wormius 's use P. 140. l. 14. own Nation Some part of this fell happily into the hands of Tho. Bartholine 's Friend the Bishop of Scalholt who took care to have it printed A. D. 1689. P. 152. l. 23. Galfredi But in this I dare not be positive Leland saw this Author 's entire History which ended Anno 29 Hen. 1. He has made Collections out of it wherein as in some other Passages cited by R. Higden there are several things not found in Jeoffrey Which considering withal that Aelfred may probably be reckon'd as early a Writer as himself is one of the most cogent Arguments as far as I know to prove that this Monmouth was not the first Author of the whole British Story P. 159. l. 17. Judgment enough So much Encouragement we have to look after the whole that we are sure Leland had the perusal of an entire Copy the Prologue whereof he has transcrib'd as likewise many following Passages relating to the Affairs of the Britains and Saxons Ibid. l. ult Blockhead 'T is to be fear'd we shall hardly meet with this History till we find the Historian himself which is more than either Bishop Godwine or Mr. Wharton could do amongst the Bishops of Durham P. 161. l. 3. temporum Indices And indeed Leland himself was afterwards of the like Opinion For in his Book de Scriptoribus he says nothing of his being a Plagiary but gives him this great Character Mortuo Henrico Rege sc. ejus nominis secundo omne studium suum ad Historiam scribendam contulit in quo Negotio si diligentiam si Antiquitatis cognitionem si sanctam fidem spectes non modo quotquot seculis rudibus quidem praecesserunt Scriptores verum etiam seipsum superavit P. 163. l. 3. Library This British Chronicle is probably the same that 's printed by Dr. Gale and seems to be wholly transcrib'd out of the Works of a former Author whom he calls Brome This may be the same with Jo. Bromius or Bramus quoted sometimes by Dr. Caius and Franc. Thynne but must be different from Jo. Bramis the Friar of Gorleston with whom he is confounded by Bale and Pits because the Friar did not flourish till 1440. and the Historian must live before Ralph de Diceto and was moreover as Thynne observes a Monk of Thetford P. 164. l. 19. the Fourth Here likewise notice ought to be taken of Joh. Wallingford's Chronicle publish'd by Dr. Gale if the Abbot of St. Albans of that name who dy'ds in the Year 1214. was as the learned Editor guesses the Author of it But he seems to be a different Person from the Historian who carries down his Work forty years after the Abbot's Death The Doctor indeed makes R. Wendover Author of the latter Part of that History But if he had look'd into the next Treatise to this Chronicle in the Cottonian MS. from whence he had it he would have met with another John Wallingford who was made Monk of St. Alban's in the Year 1231. and so might bring down the History till 1258. without the Assistance of Wendover P. 172. l. 15. flourish'd Or it may be the Chronicle that was written by John de Taxston a Monk of Bury which ends at the Reign of Edw. 3. is the same thing with these Annals John de Oxenedes a Monk of Hulm mention'd by Mr. Wharton liv'd about the same time P. 175. l. 7. Years more 'T is probable the Chronicle of Joh. Londinensis who liv'd about the same time is still extant For 't is quoted in Lambard's Preface to his Archaionomia and among R. James's Collections there are several things extracted out of it P. 184. l. 21. To these we may probably add the Author of the MS. Eulogium who begins his Work at Bruâ—e and ends at the Year 1367. The beginning of the Book 't is likely may be Nennius's but the rest seems to have been penn'd by a Monk of Canterbury by his calling St. Thomas Becket his Patron P. 194. l. 23. the Year 1530. P. 185. * l. 15. their Countrey Bale reports that Sir Brian Tuke wrote a Chronicle purposely to vindicate the Honour of the English Nation against those Aspersions which Virgil had cast upon it in this History P. 190. * l. 2. and others To these we may add two Poetical Historians of this Age Chr. Ocland who wrote Anglorum praelia in Latin Verse and Will. Warner an English Rhimer Author of the Romantick Story of Albion's England in twelve Books containing the Occurrences of our Land from Noah to the 39th of Queen Elizabeth P. 194. * l. 19. Queen Elizabeth Cotemporaries with these were John Clapham Edward Ayscue and Will. Slatyer the first whereof left us the History of Great Britain the second that of the Wars Treaties and Marriages with Scotland and the third his Palae-Albion in ten Books of Latin and English Verse P. 198. l. 9. Arms c. 3. Dr. R. Brady's Complete History of England wherein he endeavours to prove and no Man ever did it more effectually that all our adored Liberties are deriv'd from the Crown and owing to the Concessions of our Princes He shews that the Normans themselves weary of the Tenure of Knight-Service and other Drudgeries of the Feudal Law rais'd all our old Civil Commotions in England And that no ancient Rights and Properties of the Subject were any part of the true
Controversie He very well illustrates many dark Passages in our English-Saxon Laws by comparing them with those of the old Germans Francs Lombards c. His Preface to the Norman History largely accounts for the Customs of that People and shews what sort of Government and Laws they brought with them into this Kingdom Afterwards we have a good view of the seven first Reigns after the Conquest His chief Author is M. Paris well epitomiz'd and confirm'd and enlarg'd with authentick Evidence from Records a great many whereof are printed at large in his Appendix He has also publish'd an Introduction to the English History which treating chiefly of Matters of Law and Government shall be consider'd elsewhere 4. Let me add c. P. 202. l. 17. great Man Sir John Hayward's History of the three Norman Kings was undertaken at the Request of Prince Henry who hardly liv'd to read it and not to requite the Author's Pains He calls his Lives of these Monarchs Descriptions rather than Histories And so indeed they are being only short Portraictures of 'em in such a witty and humour some Style and Method as might better serve to divert the young Prince than instruct him I shall give the Reader but one Instance of the Care he took of the Chronological part of his Story He says Hen. 1. was crown'd the second of August which is the same day whereon he acknowledges King William II. was slain a little before Sun-set in the New-Forest A small Fragment of the Conqueror's History is among Cambden's Anglica Normannica c. and some Particulars relating to the Reigns of this and the two following Kings may be pick'd out of Guil. Gemeticensis and others publish'd by the learned And. du Chesne But above all c. P. 203. l. 21. the second There 's an old English History in Saxon Letters of the Transactions of some few years of his Reign after 1123 in Sir John Cotton's Library P. 204. l. 3. voluminous Author In Du Chesne's Collection there 's a pretty large Life of this King whose Author though Anonymous seems to have flourish'd in the latter end of this or the beginning of the next Reign And Pits assures us that Ralph de Diceto's Annals of King Stephen are in the Library at Bennet-College P. 205. l. 18. Benedictus whose Book we are since told is full of notable and politick Remarks and is much follow'd by Hoveden and Brompton Pet. Blesensis certainly wrote his Life tho' we know not what 's become of it Tho. May the Translator of Lucan has given us seven Books in English Poetry on this Subject to which is annex'd his Character in Prose with a short Survey of the Changes in his Reign and a comparative Description of his two Sons Henry and Richard P. 207. l. 5. Antiocheis P. 208. l. 8. But perhaps he 's mistaken in that Conjecture since Rich. Devisiensis was certainly a Monk of Winchester However to make up the Number the Reader is to know that an old printed Life of this Ceur du Lyon is in English Meeter tho' I cannot inform him who was its Author P. 211. l. 15. several Parts Peter de Langetoft who drew up an Epitome of our Chronicles in old French Rhimes bestows one whole Book upon Edward the First Ibid. l. 21 1320. The Annals of the greatest and best part of his Reign from 1307. to 1323. were digested by John de Frokelow a Monk as the History of his Treaty of Peace in the Sixteenth Year of his Reign with Robert King of Scots was by Henry de Blaneford Walter de Heminford's Life of Edw. II. is said to have been in the Library of Bennet-College which we are not so sure of as that his Life of Edw. III. is in that of Magdalene-College in Oxford as well as in Sir John Cotton's at Westminster P. 212. l. 22. Deleantur I doubt whether c. usque ad Old Manuscript Historians p. 213. l. 7. inclusivè P. 214. l. 11. a Friend R. James in some Volume of his MS. Collections reports that Rob. Avesbury Registrary of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Court wrote Mirabilia gesta R. Edwardi III. post Conquestum procerúmque suorum tractis primitùs quibusdam gestis de tempore Patris sui D. Edv. II. quae in regnis Angliae Scotioe Franciae in Aquitaniâ Britanniâ non humanâ sed Dei potentiâ contigerunt Tho. May the Poet has likewise some English Raptures upon this King 's Life Nor ought I to forget that Sir John Froissard is said to have written two Books on that of Queen Philippa the first glorious Patroness of Queen's College in Oxford Above all Mr. Joshua Barnes has diligently collected whatever was to be had far and near upon the several Passages of this great King's Reign His Quotations are many and generally his Authors are as well chosen as such a Multitude can be suppos'd to have been His Inferences are not always like a Statesman and sometimes his Digressions are tedious His deriving of the famous Institution of the Garter from the Phaenicians is extremely obliging to good Master Sammes But came too late it seems to Mr. Ashmole's Knowledge or otherwise would have bid fair for a choice Post of Honour in his Elaborate Book In short this industrious Author seems to have hasten'd his Work too much to the Press before he had provided an Index and some other Accoutrements which might have made it more serviceable to his Readers P. 215. l. 6. untimely Death Deleantur which it may be contains the whole Chronicle Et adde Richard Maidstone a learned Carmelite wrote also in Latin Verse Concordiam inter Ricardum II. Cives Londâ—nenses And Henry Knighton's History of his Deposition is among the Decem Scriptores as another short History of his Reign by an anonymous Monk of Evesham it in the Coâ—tonian Library Amongst later Pamphlets on this Subject the Idol of Clowns or the Insurrection of Wat Tyler as a Parallel with some Occurrences in our late Days of Rebellion may balance the Exact Ac-Account of the Articles and Proceedings c. P. 216. 1. 5. those Reigns There is an old French MS. in Verse which treats of the Affairs of this Reign the Title whereof in a hand more modern than the Book it self is this Histoire du Roy D' Angleterre Richard traictant particulierement la Rebellion des sus Subjects prinse de sa personne c. Composée par un gentilhomme François de Marque qui fut à la suité du dict Roy avecque permission du Roy de France At the end in a hand as old as that of the Book is written Ce livre de la prinse du Roy Richart d' Angleterre est à Monseigneur Charles Damon Conte du Maine de Mortaing Gouverneur de Languedoc This was lately in the Possession of the learned Dr. Hickes who
finding many Passages in it not touch'd on by other Writers and others differently related had once Thoughts of publishing it with a Translation and Notes of his own But being afterwards acquainted that Dr. Brady had written the Life of this King and knowing that nothing could escape the Diligence of that Historian he lay those Thoughts aside Here rather than it should be wholly forgotten let me put the Reader in mind of the elegant History of our old Civil Wars written in Italian by Sir Francis Biondi of the Bed-Chamber to King Charles the First and translated into English by the Earl of Monmouth Ibid. l. ult too Dramatical This Piece is certainly the least liable to that Censure of any this Author ever wrote being the most elaborate of all his Works and what looks like a part of what he design'd for a just History But the little that 's published should rather be entitl'd the Reign of Richard the Second since it reaches no farther than his Death and the Settlement of his Successor in the Throne P. 218. l. 14. their hands There 's a very fair Ms. in Bodley's Library entitl'd a Translation of Titus Livius 's Life of K. Hen. V. dedicated to Hen. VIII But 't is more truly a History of that Prince's Life compiled out of a French Book call'd Enquerrant which of all the French Chronicles is said to treat most copiously of the Wars betwixt England and France and out of Titus Livius To which Book says the Author or Translator in the Prologue I have added divers Sayings of the English Chronicles and to the same Matter also divers other Opinions that I have read of the Report of a certain Honourable and Ancient Person and that is the Honourable Earl of Ormond There are likewise two several Lives of this King in Cotton's Libary whereof the one was written by Tho. Elmham Prior of Lenton and the other by an Anonymous Author Fran. Thynne in the Conclusion of Holinshead's Chronicle mentions one by Roger Wall a Herald P. 220. l. 10. Original Dr. John Herd was employ'd by the great Lord Burleigh to write the History of England during the Reigns of Edw. IV. V. Rich. III. and Henry VII which he did in Latin Verse and his Book is still extant in several hands P. 222. l. ult his Client They that are dissatisfyd with any Passages in this Book may have recourse to a Copy corrected and amended in every Page P. 223. l. 7. Throne He is mightily extoll'd by Bern. Andreas of Tholouse his Poet Laureat and Historiographer who has written two good Volumes on the most eminent Transactions of his Reign P. 228. l. 20. do it A slender historical Account of Wiat's Rebellion was publish'd by one John Proctor School-Master of Tunbridge who for any thing I have yet learn'd must be look'd upon as the only particular Historian of this Reign P. 232. l. 5. good value There are several other Treatises which will be useful in furnishing out a complete View of her long and prosperous Reign As 1. Eliza or the Life and Troubles of Queen Elizabeth from her Cradle to her Crown by Tho. Heywood 2. Elizabetha or a Panegyrick on the most considerable Occurrences of her Reign in Latin Verse by Chr. Ocland 3. The Felicity of her Time by Sir Francis Bacon 4. Sir Dudley Digge's Compleat Ambassador containing all the Letters Instructions Memoirs c. relating to the French Match with that Queen 5. Some good Materials may be had from the Itinerary of F. Moryson Secretary to the Lord Montjoy General and Governour of Ireland They are given us in that useful Method which is now generally allow'd to be the most pleasing and instructive giving us at large all those Original Evidences whereby the Author justifies his Narrative 6. Sir John Hayward acquaints us likewise that he presented Prince Henry with some Years of this Queen's Reign drawn at length and in full proportion But these I think were never publish'd 7. Dr. Barth Clerke Dean of the Arches was put upon the writing of her History by my Lord Buckhurst and he seems to have been every way fit for the Undertaking But whether he might not afterwards be prevented by Death or Mr. Camden's engaging in the same Design I know not These are the chief of those Errors and Defects that have either been remark'd by others or hitherto observ'd by my self in the former part There are several others of lesser Note which an intelligent Reader will easily correct without my Directions As particularly the frequent References to some following Chapters which are here digested in a different manner than was at first projected They that have any Acquaintance with the Drudgery of preparing Books for the Publick View know very well how apt an Undertaking of this kind is to grow upon the Author's hand and how little 't is we see of our Work when we first begin to engage in it With these I shall need no Apology and the rest must excuse me if I make none I am now in haste And can only stay to tell them that I have as many Papers that treat on our Law-Books Records c. so far as they are serviceable to History all which I once thought to have crowded into a Chapter or two as will furnish out a Third Part if they and the Bookseller think it worth their while to call for it For the present I am resolv'd to keep my self within the Verge of the Church and shall only in this Second Part give the Reader the best Account I can of our Ecclesiastical Historians in the following Chapters 1. Of the Affairs of the British Church 2. Historians of the English-Saxon Church from the coming in of Augustine the Monk to the Conquest 3. Church-Historians from the Conquest to the Reformation 4. Histories of the Reformation and our Church-Affairs to the End of Queen Elizabeth's Reign 5. Accounts of our Bishops in general and their several Sees 6. Lives of particular Bishops and other eminent Church-men 7. Histories Chronicles Cartularies c. of our Ancient Monasteries 8. Histories of our Universities and Writers CHAP. I. Of the Writers of the Affairs of the British Church IF Gildas had cause to complain That in treating of the Civil History of Britain he had no Assistance from any Monuments or Records of his own Country but was forced to seek his whole Information from Forreigners they that take upon them to write the Church-History of the first British Christians will find themselves much more oblig'd to Strangers and must look abroad for their Intelligence 'T was Happiness enough to enjoy the Gospel-Light as long as the Heathen Romans were our Masters without the rejoycing in it so openly as to have had our Publick Notaries registring the Acts of our Councils Convocations and Synods even amongst such of our Ancestors as had at once learn'd to write and to obey And they
that either in the North or West had shun'd the Roman Yoke and enjoy'd their Liberty and Traditional Christianity in the Woods and Mountains are generally believed to have been so much unacquainted with Letters as not to have been able to transmit their own Story to Posterity Some Remains there are of those ancient Times and the State of Christianity in them and our Church has not wanted Men of Learning and Industry who even at this distance have successfully imploy'd themselves in gathering up the scatter'd Fragments that no part of so valuable a Treasure might be lost Master Bale tells us there are some that with a deal of probability on their side have guess'd That Joseph of Arimathea wrote several Epistles to the Churches of Great Britain And for the better strengthening of such a Conjecture he assures us 't was usual for the Primitive Fathers to send such Letters to those Churches to which they were some way or other specially related He might as well have told us of some Epistles sent hither by St. Peter or St. Paul since 't is likely that one or both of those Apostles were as instrumental in planting Christianity in this Island as this Joseph himself and we are also very sure that they used to write such Epistles Our next Ecclesiastical Writer is said to be King Lucius who about a hundred Years after Joseph's Death wanted somebody it seems to instruct him in the First Rudiments of Christianity And thereupon sent a Letter to Pope Eleutherius desiring that some Persons in Holy Orders might be sent hither to Baptize Him and his People There is not any Copy of this Epistle now extant and yet I dare not say the Original is lost Not to mention the Inconsistences that are among the several Authors upon whose Credit this whole Story rests 〈◊〉 observable that the pretended Epistle in return from Eleutherius seems to intimate that Lucius's Request was quite of another Nature and that his Enquiry was after the Imperial Civil Law and not after the Precepts of the Gospel So that I know not how we shall be sure of such a Royal Church Historian But in short the Pope's Letter has so many undeniable Marks of Forgery upon it that we cannot think it worth our while to be very inquisitive after the Kings and tho' a genuine Piece of this kind were highly to be prized we do not desire to build upon Shadow and Fable This Story of King Lucius has help'd us to a Couple more of Ecclestiastical Historians Eluanus and Medvinus who forsooth were first imploy'd in the foremention'd Embassy to Rome After their Return Eluanus was made AB of London and wrote a Book De Origine Ecclesiae Britanniae Medvinus had not the luck to mount equally in Preferment with his Fellow-Ambassador but he rival'd him in the publick Services of his Pen having written Fugatii Damiani gesta in Britannia These were Pope Eleutherius's Legates and are by others call'd Faganus and Derwianus The most probable part of this Account is That this latter Book was found in the Rubbish at Glassenbury 'T is no matter whether at the repairing of that Monastery by St. Patrick or at some other time After these we hear no more of the Writers of our British Church-History before the coming in of a more famous and true Legate Augustine the Monk who is believed to have written something of the state of Christianity in these parts even before his own Arrival If we could be assured of this we could not have a better Authority in some of our Modern Disputes with the Court of Rome But 't is more than probable that those Learned Men that assert such a thing mistook the meaning of William of Malmesbury who seems to have been their Informer in that Matter That Historian speaking of something relating to the first Foundation of the Monastery at Glassenbury which he had met with Apud Sanctum Augustinum Anglorum Apostolum his unwary Readers presently concluded that he quoted some latent MS. Work of that Monk Whereas in truth he meant no more than that he had met with such an Account in the Library at St. Augustine's in Canterbury The like Phrase is common with him and in the same Paragraph Apud Sanctum Edmundum is to be English'd in the Library at St. Edmundsbury The Remonstrance of Dinoth Abbot of Bangor against the Pretensions of this Legate Augustine challenging a Supremacy for his Master in this Isle is of some better Credit since even John Pits himself owns that he stoutly opposed such Encroachments and that he has left to Posterity his Thoughts on that Subject having written among other Things two Books entitled Defensorium Jurisdictionis sedis Menevensis and De Conservandis Britannorum Ritibus Both these Treatises have certainly been fram'd out of that Answer of the Abbots which Sir H. Spelman has given us in Welch English and Latin having found it in an old Transcript out of a more ancient Manuscript in the two former Languages and adding a Translation of his own in the last The Critique that our Learn'd Stillingfleet gives upon this Piece and its Publisher is what I dare not add to There is he says all the appearance of Ingenuity and Faithfulness that can be expected and he was a Person of too great Judgment and Sagacity to be easily imposed upon by a Modern Invention or a new-found Schedule I know some Romanists have endeavour'd to persuade the World That this Monument bears no great Age and was probably forg'd since the Reformation But since Venerable Bede himself who was as great a Favourer of Augustine and as profess'd an Enemy to the ancient British Church as they could wish confirms the main of the Story they will not easily persuade us that the whole is improbable I can hear of no more ancient Treatises relating to the Ecclesiastical State of Old Britain save only the Sanctum Graal Which says trusty Iohn Pits was written by an Anonymous Hermit about the Year 720. and gives an ample Account of the Miracles wrought by Joseph of Arimathea Indeed Vincentius of Beauvais mentions such a French Legend which as he observes had the Name of Graal or Gruel because it likewise treated of a Dish of Meat miraculously preserved since our Saviour's last Supper But the Book he confesses was somewhat hard to be met with In this Dish which was to be seen among the sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at Glastonbury they pretended to have part of the true Blood of our Redeemer But whether 't was of that shed on the Cross or of that which was at the said last Supper after Consecration the Historian dares not be positive However from hence the same Person gives the Relick the Name of Sanegreal i.e. Sanguis Realis And from him 't is probable the following Writers gave that Title to the
to be out-vy'd by the choice Adventures of St. Vrsula and her Train To furnish the Reader with an exact List of all the ancient Saints of this Island would be as edifying as to present him with a Catalogue of the Parishes of Wales most of which bear the Inscription and Name of some one or other of Them Besides the general Pains taken by Surius and others in this Matter there are some who have more particularly treated of our British Saints and others that have apply'd themselves to the History of the Life Actions and Sufferings of some special Hero John Pits tells us of Johannes Anglicus who seems to have been a Welch Man notwithstanding his Name that wrote a Book De Vitis Sanctorum Wallensium And we are also told by a Brother of his of somewhat better Authority that there is now in the Library of the English College at Rome a Manuscript Treatise of the like import by William Good a Fugitive Papist under the Reign of Queen Elizabeth 'T is likewise certain that Ricemarchus whether Bishop of St. Davids himself or only Son to Sulgenus Bishop of that Place or both wrote such a Martyrology tho' perhaps in the Manuscript Lives of the British Saints which are now in the Cottonian Library the Life of St. David is only to be ascribed to that Author In perusing those of the several other Writers who have made it their Business to collect or invent Matter for the magnifying of some single Martyr the Reader will be cautious in separating the Chaff and good Corn And so by distinguishing the Monk from the Historian a good use may be made of these Romantick ones that follow St. Alban is our Proto-Martyr and might therefore justly challenge the first place in our Catalogue if the method of the Alphabet which shall be our Guide had not given it him His Life has been the Subject of some learn'd Pens and of some that were otherwise The first that we hear of was a Person of good Abilities who wrote about the Year 590. but had the modesty to conceal his Name This Work was translated into Latin by Will. Albanensis a Monk of St. Albans who afterwards prevail'd with his Brother Ralph de Dunstable to turn it into Heroic Verse Vnwon an old Priest well skill'd in the ancient British Language translated another such Volume but of much greater Antiquity at the Request of Abbot Aedmar about the Year 970. whereof we have an notable Account given by Matt. Paris who is also reported to have written two Books of the Martyrdom of St. Alban and St. Amphibalus Dr. Wats could not meet with them and indeed Pits is not very consistent in the Account he gives of them For he elsewhere tells us That a certain modest Gentleman who calls himself Miserorum Simplicissimus wrote these same Books which were translated into French Verse by M. Paris as they were afterwards into English Meeter by John Lydgate The latest Writer of his Life is Stephen Gourmeline a Cornish Man who is said to have published something of that kind about the Year 1585. St. Columba's Life translated out of Cornish was in the Hands of Mr. Roscarrock who communicated it to Mr. Camden and thereby convinced him of an Error which he had advanced in some of the first Editions of his Britannia that St. Columb's a Market-Town in Cornwal had its Name from Columbanus the famous Scotch Apostle St. David's had almost as many Pen-men as St. Albans The oldest says Bollandus is the Vtrecht-Manuscript which he publishes The next to this he thinks that in Colganus which he believes to be that which was written by Ricemarchus and is now publish'd by Mr. Wharton This industrious Person observes that out of this all the latter Writers of his Life have transcribed their Treatises particularly Giraldus Cambrensis who omits some Miracles but gives new ones in lieu of them and is with the like freedom epitomized by John of Tinmouth and Capgrave For this Reason he has thought it sufficient to give us Giraldus entire adding only what he was pleased to omit in that of Ricemarchus St. Dubricius Arch-Bishop of Caerleon is beholden to one Benedict Monk of Glocester who is supposed to have written his Life about the middle of the Twelfth Century This is also publish'd by the same Learned Person who acknowledges he pass'd over some fulsome Miracles and guesses that its Author borrowed his best Materials from Geoffrey of Landaff whose Manuscript-History of this Saint was in the same Volume out of which this is given us St. Germanus's Embassies under Pope Celestine have been treated on at large by some Forreigners and others of our own Nation of whose Performances the inquisitive Reader will have a better Account from our great AB Vsher than I can pretend to give him St. Kentigern better known to our Northern Borderers by the Name of St. Mungo had his Life largely written by Josceline a Monk of Fournes in Lancashire whose Book is now in Sir John Cotton's Library But whether that which was written by his Scholar St. Asaph be any where extant I dare not take upon me to determine S. Lupus was Germanus's Collegue in the notable Undertaking for confounding of the Palagian Heresy and re-establishment of Catholicism in this Island and has been particularly obliged by an anonymous Writer of his Life St. Ninian who by our Neighbours on the Borders of Scotland is corruptly call'd Ringen and is remembred in our Nine Churches in Cumberland is reported to have had his Wonders recorded by Ealred Abbot of Rievaulx which is not so certain as that his Life was some time extant and pretty common in Ireland St. Patrick the great Apostle of Ireland is challenged by the Monks of Glassenbury and therefore may be reckon'd indifferently either a British or Irish Saint Under the former Denomination we must believe that his History was written by Gyraldus Cambrensis and under the latter by Joceline and Rich. Stanyhurst St. Teliau or Eliud St. David's Successor in his Arch-bishoprick had his Life penn'd by Geoffrey of Landaff Brother to Vrbane Bishop of that See about the beginning of the Twelfth Century whose Treatise is still to be had at large in an old Register-book of that Church St. Vrsula and her Eleven thousand Companions had reason to expect to have their Story handed down to Posterity in a Method peculiar to themselves and therefore about Thirteen Ages after their Martyrdom they deputed one Verena to bring hither a true Relation of their Sufferings This she punctually revealed to one Elizabeth a Nun of Schaffhausen who publish'd with the great Applause of the Monks of Cologn who set her on Work her Visions on this Occasion St. Winefride's Miracles and the many glorious Cures done
Additions and to insert them appositely translated in their proper places He 'll finish the Pains which Mr. Somner long since took to collate all the Saxon Pieces already printed with the Original MSS. and to correct the Translation He 'll give us necessary Prefaces to the whole subjoin a convenient Glossary and in a word do all that 's requisite to the rendring of such a Work as compleat as we can wish it When this is done we shall have no occasion to search any further for the History of our English-Saxon Church unless the Lives of the Saints of those Times which are very numerous will afford us some little Supplies together with what the Reader will find consider'd in other Chapters I pretend not to any certain Account of the Vitae variorum Sanctorum written by Egwine Bishop of Worcester and Founder of the Abby of Evesham those of Osbert Clarentius Prior of Westminster A. D. 1136. are said to be in the Library of Bennet College and Henry of Huntingdon's in that of the Jesuits at Antwerp There are two Books of these Lives in the Saxon Language in Sir John Cotton's Library whereof the one was written by Aelfric and the other by an Anonymous Author I know not but they may be the same with two small Treatises amongst Junius's Saxon Transcripts de Sanctis in Anglia sepultis His Menologium also which is a Kalender of those ancient Saints and was transcrib'd by him out of two old Copies in the Cottonian and Bennet Libraries is a Piece which he thought highly valuable and which he sometimes refers to under the Titles of Martyrologium and Fasti Anglo-Saxonici Some of their Lives are describ'd at large in the Old Homilies tho' the main of all those Stories comes usually out of Bede's Shop This is observable in the Homilies on St. Edmund and St. Cuthbert in Bodley's Library on St. Cuthbert St. Aetheldrytha St. Bennet junior and St. Oswald in the publick Library at Cambrige on St. Ceadda amongst Mr. Junius's Manuscripts and on St. Cuthbert St. Swithin and St. Ethelgetha in that of Bennet College Other general Historians of this kind besides John of Tynmouth and Capgrave already mention'd we have not many John Wilson's Martyrology is not much to be heeded since an unquestionable Judge of these Matters has thought fit to bestow the Epithet of Nugivendulus upon its Author And I know not what greater regard can be had to Tho. Fuller's great Friend Father Jerome Porter and his Flowers of the Saints Particular Lives may be rank'd in the following Order St. Aldhelm's is most copiously written by W. of Malmesbury whose Fifth Book of the English Bishops is almost intirely upon this Subject It has been lately publish'd both by Dr. Gale and Mr. Wharton whereof the former is said to have imploy'd a careless Amanuensis and the other confesses he transcribed a very faulty Copy Be that Matter as 't will betwixt the two we may hope for an intire Book whereas Father Mabillon gave us only an imperfect Abstract Of what Authority this Writer is to be reckon'd we have already been acquainted 'T is in this Treatise chiefly that this Credit flags and that he falls below himself Pervenisset ad summam Laudem says Dr. Gale si carbasa sua non implesset Poetico farore si veritatem Historia Fabulis officiosis non contaminasset si de splendore dulcedine Aldelmi minus prolixe judicasset We are not sure the like was done for this renown'd Prelate by Egwine Daniel his Cotemporary Bishop of Winchester and Alfred Abbot of Malmesbury tho' Pits affirms it Nor can we tell what 's become of those that were written by Ofmund of Salisbury or Eadmerus which Mabillon vouches for with the same assurance St. Augustine's is reported to have been treated on by Venerable Bede in a very large Volume the Manuscript Copy whereof is said to be in Walter Cope's Library Bede himself says he corrected a false Translation of the Life of St. Anastasius which I am apt to think is the Ground-work of this Story There 's hardly so good an one for Nothelmus's three Treatises of his Life Miracles and Translation which were undertaken at the joint Instances of Bede and Alcuinus 'T is enough that we have a bigger and a less History of him as well as two other like Treatises on his Miracles written by Gotseline sometime Monk of Canterbury the former whereof is publish'd by Mabillon and the latter by Mr. Wharton St. Cedda's was either penn'd by Daniel Bishop of the West-Saxons or which is the same thing to Bale and Pits some Particulars of it were by that Prelate communicated to Bede who took care to transmit them into his Ecclesiastical History St. Cuthbert's has been treated on at large by a great many Hands 'T was first engaged in by Venerable Bede himself in a particular Tract wherein he has omitted no Miracle that could well be swallow'd even by the greedy Faith of his own Age. He wrote it first in Heroic Verse and afterwards in Prose It is also said to have been compiled by Laurence Monk and Precentor of Durham as it certainly was by Reginald another Monk of that Church AB Vsher quotes a Manuscript Life of this Saint collected out of the Irish Histories and there 's another in English Meeter answerable to the foremention'd Latin Poetry in the Right Honourable the Earl of Carlisle's Library at Naworth Many more are in other Libraries But that which I would especially recommend to my Reader for his Diversion and a pleasant Entertainment is the printed Legend of St. Cuthbert with the Antiquities of the Church of Durham which was publish'd by B. R. a Gentleman of the old Lord Fairfax's Retinue but written by one Robert Hegge sometime Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford The latter part of the Title might have been spar'd since there 's not much in it that will any way illustrate the Antiquities of that Church But the Saint's own History is prettily composed in a good orderly Method and handsome Stile intermix'd with great variety of Learning and witty Reflections The Publisher did not do his Author Justice For besides the concealing his Name he omitted a great many considerable Passages all his Quotations and a Learn'd Preface All these Defects have been lately supply'd from the Author 's own Manuscript by Mr. Tanner who has also added some curious Notes and Observations of his own This Piece he has had for some time ready for the Press and methinks the Members of that great Cathedral which owes so much to the Memory of this Saint should encourage and countenance his Pains St. Dunstan's Wonders were as famous in the West as St. Cuthbert's in the North and have been as duly recorded This was first done by Bridferth Monk of Ramsey who was his
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
14. Thomas Stapleton the Translator of Bede in whose Pair-royal of Thomas's this Gentleman makes as considerable a Figure as either Thomas the Apostle or Thomas Aquinas 15. Laurence Vade or Wade a Benedictine Monk of Canterbury who liv'd and dy'd we know not when or where unless perhaps he be the same Person with 16. An Anonymous Writer of the same Life who appears to have been a Monk of that Church and whose Book is now in Manuscript in the Library at Lambeth 17. Rich. James Nephew to Dr. Tho. James our Bodleyan Library-keeper a very industrious and eminent Antiquary who endeavour'd to overthrow the great Design of the foremention'd Authors in his Decanonizatio Thomae Cantuariensis suorum which with many other MSS. of his Composure is in the Publick Library at Oxford CHAP. IV. Histories of the Reformation and of our Church-Affairs down to the end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign THE first Man that engaged in the History of our Reformation was Mr. John Fox sometime Prebendary of Salisbury who dy'd at London in the Year 1587. His Acts and Monuments were first written in Latin for the Instruction of Foreigners and were so publish'd during his own Exile in the Reign of Queen Mary They afterwards grew into two large English Volumes which have had several Impressions and have at last been publish'd in three with fair Copper-Cuts In behalf of this last Edition the Publishers had well nigh prevail'd with King Charles the Second to revive Queen Elizabeth's Order and AB Parker's Canon for the having a Set of these Volumes in the Common Halls of every Archbishop Bishop Dean Archdeacon c. But that Project fail'd and came to nothing And indeed it would have look'd a little odly to have paid such a respect to the Works of an Author Qui Matri Ecclesiae Anglicanae non per omnia Amicus deprehenditur ut pote qui Puritanis faveret Ritibus Ecclesiae se non Conformem praestiterit The Design of the Author is to discover the Corruptions and Cruelties of the Romish Clergy together with the Sufferings and Constancy of the Reform'd and of the Maintainers of their Doctrins in all Ages of the Church which he has done so throughly that 't is no wonder to find those of the Papal Communion very much gall'd with his Writings Hence the Jesuite Parsons took such Pains to represent him as a Corrupter of Antiquity an impertinent Arguer c. And Nich. Harpsfield treated him as coursely in those six Dialogues of his which were printed beyond Seas in his Friend Alan Cope's Name during their true Author's residing in England It must be confess'd that these Volumes being large and penn'd in haste have some Mistakes in them that are not to be dissembl'd But in the main 't is an Honourable Character that one of the greatest Historians of our Age gives of them That having compared these Acts and Monuments with the Records he had never been able to discover any Errors or Prevarications in them but the utmost Fidelity and Exactness Indeed where his Stories are of a more modern Date and depend on common Reports or such Informations as were sent him from distant parts of the Kingdom the like exactness is not always to be look'd for since the Author 's hasty Zeal against the Papists furnish'd him with a large Stock of Faith and a readiness to avouch any thing that might effectually blacken them and their Religion One unlucky Tale occasion'd a deal of Trouble to a Clergy-man who very innocently reporting from him that one Greenwood had by Perjury taken off a Martyr in Queen Mary's Reign and came afterwards to a shameful End the said Greenwood was it seems present at the Sermon and brought an Action of Scandal against the Preacher However the Judge clear'd him at the Trial as only harmlesly quoting an Author without any malicious intent of slandering his Neighbour Such Slips as these were pretty numerous in some of the first Editions But as many of them as came to the Author's knowledge were rectified by himself and others have been corrected since his Death Several Papists were provok'd to write Counterparts to these Volumes wherein they pretended to set forth the Reformers in as bloody a Dress as Fox had painted Them and to draw up as large Kalendars of their own Martyrs The chief of these were 1. Maurice Chancey by some call'd Chamney and by others Chawney a famous Carthusian Friar in the Monastery of that Order near London who fled upon starting the Question of the King's Supremacy and dy'd in a voluntary Exile A. D. 1581. He wrote a large Account of the Sufferings of Sir Thomas Moor Bishop Fisher and others as also of Eighteen Monks of his own Order This Work bears the Title of Historia aliquot nostri saeculi Martyrum and is falsly subdivided into three several Books by John Pits 2. John Fenn sometime a Civilian of New College in Oxford and afterwards a Member of the University of Lovain who clubb'd with one John Gibbon a Jesuite for such another Martyrology which they publish'd under the Title of Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholicae in Anglia adversus Calvino-Papistas Puritanos This Book was afterwards enlarg'd by John Bridgwater or Aquaepontanus as he stiles himself another Jesuite who having corrected many faulty Particulars and added about a hundred new Martyrs dedicated his Edition to the AB of Triers 3. Thomas Worthington Doctor in Divinity and sometime President of the English College at Doway who dy'd in England A. D. 1626. His Book or Pamphlet for it consists only of Four Sheets bears the Name of Catalogus Martyrum pro Religione Catholica in Anglia occisorum ab Anno 1570. ad Ann. 1612. and is mostly taken out of the Book last mention'd 'T is chiefly valuable upon the Account of a Preliminary Discourse wherein the Author gives the History of our English Seminaries beyond Seas and the Success that has attended several Missions out of them 4. John Musheus sent from Doway into England where he liv'd A. D. 1612. somewhere in his Native County of York He is said to have drawn a Register of the Sufferings of all the Roman-Catholicks in the Northern parts of this Kingdom Nicolas Sanders deserves a peculiar Respect and ought to be consider'd by himself The short of his Story as we have it from his Nephew Pits is this He was born in Surrey Educated at Winchester and New College in Oxford where he was sometime Regius Professor of the Canon-Law He afterwards fled to Rome whence he attended Cardinal Hosius to the Council of Trent as also into Poland Russia c. At last Pope Gregory the 13th sent him as his Nuncio into Ireland where he dy'd about the Year 1580. He was an indefatigable Writer as well as Warrior for the Roman Cause and stuck at nothing that he thought might advance it Amongst
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
short Letter to the Bishop of London His Quarrel with Doctor Burnet is wholly about Method and the Art of Composure wherein most certainly these two Authors have extreamly differ'd And yet notwithstanding the awkardness of Mr. Lowth's Stile 't is thought the Man himself was not Master of so much Venome and Ill-Nature as appears in his Book But that he had a great share of his spiteful Language put into his Mouth by a warm Neighbour who is now dead and ought to be forgotten The next Assailant was a peevish Gentleman in Masquerade who under the feign'd Name of Anthony Harmer publish'd a Specimen of some Errors and Defects in the History of the Reformation c. As if what he there gives were only a Sample of what he had in store for us when it appears that he has stoop'd to such mean and pitiful Remarks as sufficiently shew that he had pump'd himself to the bottom and that his Malice was upon the Lees. 'T is a great Indignity which some have put upon the Memory of a late most Reverend Learn'd and Pious Prelate in reporting him to have been the Author of that malicious Libel For whatever other unhappy Mistakes he might be guilty of he could never fall so low as to write at such an unmanly and uncharitable Rate The Historian vouchsaf'd this Book a short Answer in a Letter to the Bishop of Litchfield to which the Animadverter made no Reply To those that are still inclin'd to favour the Specimen I shall only say that the whole 150 Particulars therein summ'd up will fall under these six Heads as being either 1. Such aery and superficial Matters as we usually call Impertinencies 2. Some inconsiderable Mistakes of the Printer's or Copiers 3. Others that have a little Weight but might have been corrected without Noise and do not affect the Reformation 4. Some few a very few that do touch upon its Justice and Honour In most of which 't is easie to discern the Affection which the Animadverter pretends to bear it if Apologies for the old Monks and N. Sanders be any Argument of such Affection 5. Others wherein he himself is mistaken 6. Several Objections are raised purely for the sake of Calumny and Reflection These are the Thoughts I had of this Piece upon my first perusal of it and I am throughly confirm'd in them from the successful Pains that has been since taken with it by my modest and industrious Friend Something of a fresh Attaque was afterwards made by one who had set himself to discredit whatever had been publish'd by this Historian And yet all that even such a Writer could find chargeable on his History of the Reformation was only that In a Matter of no great Consequence there was too little Care had in Copying or Examining a Letter writ in a very bad Hand and that there was since probability that Dr. Burnet was mistaken in one of his Conjectures I think I may justly observe thus much of all those that have hitherto endeavour'd to lessen the Repute of this History That they have apparently shewn their Inclinations rather to bespatter the Author than his Work And whatever Success such Persons may meet with in their Attempts they have commonly the Misfortune to discover themselves to be at least Men of like Passions with their Adversary The Reverend Author of these Volumes publish'd also an Abridgment of them wherein the Reader has a full and clear View of the Reformation without any of those Obscurities or Defects that usually attend Works of this kind Take an Account of it in his own Words I have wholly wav'd every thing that belong'd to the Records and the proof of what I relate or to the Confutation of the Falshoods that run through the Popish Historians All that is to be found in the History at large And therefore in this Abridgment every thing is to be taken upon Trust and those that desire a fuller Satisfaction are to seek it in the Volumes I have already published The Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer which were lately publish'd by Mr. Strype shall conclude this Chapter tho' were it not that the Subject rather than the Title of the Book inclines me to bring them in here they would more properly belong to another Place The Writer of them has adhered to Dr. Burnet's Method giving us his own Historical Account in Three Books ending with the several Deaths of Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary and in the Conclusion a good Collection of Records Several Things relating to the State of the Church during that Primacy are well Illustrated by him and some Authentick Letters and other Original Papers of Value are discover'd and made publick The only Blemish I know in this Book is what it may be the Author will think its most comely Feature the crowding so much of his other Learning into the Body of his History which instead of entertaining his Readers answerably to his good Design is apt to distract and amuse them Where the Subject is dry and barren a few choice Flowers out of a right Common-place-book are very refreshing provided they are sprinkled with a sparing Hand and a steady Judgment But where the Matter it self is pleasant and diverting all those Embellishments are nauseous and even Tully and Tacitus themselves are troublesome CHAP. V. Histories of our Bishops in general and those of their several Sees THAT Joceline de Fourness an Historian quoted by Stow and Fitzherbert wrote several Books concerning the ancient British Bishops John Pits is very certain But whether he was an English-man or as he rather fancies a Welch-man he dares not be positive One Book indeed of that kind was written by Joceline a Monk of Fourness in Lancashire and is still extant But as the Author himself could not be of any great Age so his Collections seem to have been made out of Histories that were penn'd since the Conquest Of somewhat less Account I fear is that of the Saxon Prelates whereof Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester is said to be the Author whereof a MS. Copy is likewise reported to be in the publick Library at Cambridge After the Conquest the Memoirs of our Bishops were taken by a great many Hands Geoffrey Prior of Winchester about the Year 1100. wrote a Panegyrical Account of them in elegant Verse says Will. of Malmesbury who himself more largely commented upon them in Prose His four first Books were publish'd by Sir Henry Savil from a very faulty Manuscript and his Edition was Copy'd more faultily in that of Francfurt In these we have all that could be had out of the many old Catalogues which swarm'd in our English Monasteries together with what the Author was able to inform us of his own Knowledge touching his Cotemporaries Henry of Huntingdon's Letter to his Friend Walter describes the Prelates of his own Time which immediately succeeded
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
turn'd into a common Stable by the Rebel Army as it was within ten Years after that into a heap of Rubbish by the dreadful Fire of London NORWICH There are not many Histories of this Diocess All that Mr. Wharton could pick up was out of a couple of General Histories of England written by Bartholomew de Cotton and another anonymous Monk of that Church He quotes indeed a short Chronicle of Norwich in the same Library whence he had the former of these But the late Publisher of the Catalogue of those Manuscripts is mistaken if there be any such Book in the Place referr'd to There is indeed in another Class a piece which bears the Title of Festa synodalia Norwicensis Dioeceseos which begins with St. Foelix the Burgundian their first Bishop The oldest Register-Book which I have yet heard of in this See is that of Bishop Bateman the Magnanimous Founder of Trinity Hall in Cambridge A short Account of the Bishops and Deans of this Church by Tho. Searle A. D. 1659. is among the MSS. of the present worthy Bishop of the Diocess OXFORD is of so late an Erection that it cannot want an absolute and entire History of all its Prelates since its Foundation by Henry the Eighth And we have already observ'd that its Parochial Antiquities preceeding that Time are happily preserv'd by an Ingenious and Learn'd Person who has spar'd no Pains in Collecting out of a vast number of Neighbouring Records and Evidences whatever was worth the Treasuring up and transmitting to Posterity Anth. Wood Collected the Sepulchral and Fenestral Inscriptions of the several Parishes in the County of Oxford which are now amongst those many Papers he left to the University PETERBVRGH was one of the most Rich and Flourishing Monasteries in this Kingdom and was turn'd into one of the poorest Bishopricks by Henry the Eighth The most of those many excellent Histories that concern this Place in its Pristine State have been noted by Mr. Tanner tho' some few have escap'd his great Diligence He has taken no notice of two old Registers given by my Lord Hatton to the Cottonian Library nor of some ancient Grants and Donations to that Monastery He has also omitted Hugh White Abbot of Peterburgh who in Leland's Character is Rerum Petroburgi gestarum luculentus plane Scriptor To these there 's little to be added since the Foundation of the Episcopal See of any great value saving what has been carefully preserv'd in St. Gunton's History which will be this Churches everlasting Monument Some Inscriptions are said indeed to have been defaced before the Survey taken by this Author but those we are told were also to be had amongst the Manuscripts of Franc. Thynne who Collected them in the Year 1592. 'T was happy that Sir William Dugdale and Mr. Gunton drew up their Collections at so seasonable and lucky a time as the Year 1641. For within two years after that in April 1643. this Cathedral was most miserably abused by Cromwell's Regiment who among other shameless outrages broke into the Chapter-House ransack'd the Records broke the Seals tore the Writings and left the floor cover'd over with torn Papers Parchments and Seals ROCHESTER The most venerable Monument of Antiquity that belongs to this Church is the Textus Roffensis which may justly challenge a Respect more than ordinary It was written by Bishop Ernulf who dy'd in the Year 1124. And besides the Affairs of this Cathedral which are accounted for by Mr. Wharton furnishes us with the Laws of four Kentish Kings Ethelbert Hlothere Eadred and Withred omitted by Lambard together with the Saxon Form of Oaths of Fealty and Wager of Law the old Form of cursing by Bell Book and Candle of Ordale c. I suppose this Book was wisely committed to the care of Sir Roger Twisden during the confusions of our late Civil Wars For in his Custody I find it often referr'd to by Sir William Dugdale in a Work which he Compos'd during those Troubles Hadenham and Dene's Histories have been pickt and their choicest Flowers are preserv'd in the Anglia Sacra And the Chronicon Claustri Roffensis is the same with the Textus SALISBVRY Somewhat of the History of the ancient Bishops of Sherburn may be had among L. Noel's Collections and the defects of those down to the Year 1357. may be supply'd from the Chronicle of the Church of Sarum This Chronicle begins at the Creation and has some special Remarks touching the Affairs of our ancient British Church wherein it seems to be singular The Registers also of several of their Bishops as Mortival Wivil Waltham Medford Aiscough and Beauchamp are still extant WINCHESTER There can hardly be any more said of this Ancient and Famous See than what we have from Tho. Rudburn and other Authors lately publish'd out of Sir John Cotton's inexhaustible Treasury Unless for the more modern Times we had that Continuation of the Bishops which was made by John Trussel who brought their History as low as the Sufferings of Bishop Curl and his Order in the beginning of our English Anarchy WORCESTER As this Church was one of the most flourishing in the whole Island under the Government of our Saxon Kings so it had the fortune to preserve its Charters and other Instruments relating to those Times much better than its Neighbours In the Year 1643. Sir William Dugdale drew a Catalogue of no less than 92 such original Donations none whereof fell lower than the Reign of Henry the First To these there have been fifteen more now in the Archives of that Church and not mentioned in the Monasticon added by Dr. Hickes who also believes that among Mr. Lambard's MSS. now in the Archives at Canterbury there are several Saxon Grants belonging to the Church of Worcester After these we are to have recourse to the Anonymous Compilers of the Annals of this Cathedral and the continuation of them by their learn'd Publisher who by the way tells us that Hemming's Book has much more in it than either he or Sir W. Dugdale have given themselves the trouble of transcribing John Rosse the Renown'd Hermit of Guy's Cliff is said to have written a Treatise de Episcopis Wigorniae which I should not much have believed upon the single Credit of my first Author had I not seen the Book it self quoted by our late industrious Naturalist Doctor Plott Some part of Mr. Abingdon's Collection of the Antiquities of Worcestershire mention'd in the former part of this Historical Library is also reported to bear the Title of A History of the Bishops of Worcester which I cannot but once more heartily wish were committed to the Inspection and Care of the Learn'd Dr. Hopkins Prebendary of that Church who we know is throughly versed in the Antiquities of his own
to counterfeit Acts when they have none that are true Mr. Wheloâ— quotes an old Saxon Schedule of the endowments of our ancient Monasteries before the Conquest which he says is in the same Volume with King Aelfred's Paraphrastical version of Bede's History in the Cottonian Library and yet the learned Publisher of the Catalogue of those Manuscripts takes no notice of any such Tract in the place where if at all it ought to have been mention'd We are also told of an Historical Account of the Benedictines in England from King Edgar's time to the Conquest which is as high as that Order could be traced in this Kingdom For whatever may be argued to the contrary 't is very plain that our first Saxon Monks knew nothing of St. Bennet's Rule but lived under the Discipline brought from Ireland which was very much different from what was afterwards introduced by St. Dunstan If Augustine himself was of this Order and planted it at Canterbury which is much questioned by very Learn'd Men 't is demonstrable the Rules were soon forgotten or laid aside even in the southern Parts of the Island and in the North Columbanus and the Men of Hy were the Founders of all our Monastic Schemes After the Norman Invasion we had several Members of particular Monasteries that apply'd themselves to write the Histories of their own Houses but few that had any such concern for the Honour of their Orders in general The first I can hear of was Henry Crump a Cistertian Monk about the Year 1380 and Dr. of Divinity in the University of Oxford who wrote an Account of the Foundation of all the Monasteries of England from the time of St. â—irin the first Bishop of Dorchester down to that of Bishop 〈◊〉 But 't is to be fear'd this is now lost since it could not be found by one whom hardly any thing of that kind could escape After him John Boston a Monk of St. Edmondsbury who will be remember'd hereafter on another Occasion Collected the Histories of the Foundations of his own and some other Religious Orders which I suppose was done in those three Books which bore the Title of Speculum Coenobitarum The next Writer on this Subject was William Buttoner who is also named Buttonius and William of Worcester who is said to have written De Civitatibus Monasteriis Abbatiis deque Longitudine Latitudine eorum which Treatise we are assured is in the Library of Bennet College I am very confident that the Topographical Description of England which has been already mention'd in the first part is the whole of this Gentleman's Labours and that this Treatise has been sub-divided into 〈◊〉 deal of lesser Tracts such as his Itinerary of Bristol History of Osney c. by the same Powers that sliced the Man himself into three several Authors Sir Henry Savile did certainly make a draught of a future History of the English Monasteries but is supposed to have laid aside those Thoughts upon John Speed's intermixing something of that Nature in his General History The Annual Revenues of the Abbies c. in Speed were had from Sir Robert Cotton whose Copy has a double Valuation of computed and clear Profits whereof the former is only given by Speed and the latter by Dugdale The Reason why the former of these Writers is so frequently mistaken in assigning the right Counties to the several Monasteries was because he follow'd the List brought in by Cromwell's Commissioners who were chiefly sollicitous in learning the Value and Income without being too nice in the Topographical part of their Account This is what we have from a very learn'd Pen To which let me add what another worthy Person who has been very happy in his searches into these Matters has further told us That Catalogue he observes was drawn up by William Burton out of Leland's Papers and the Original Book of Valuations which Book differs indeed from that ancient Copy which Sir William Dugdale transcrib'd from the Cottonian Library Nor are these to be reconcil'd by deducting of Reprises as appears from the History of those in Dugdale's Warwickshire where all those common Burthens of Pensions Corrodies Alms c. are summ'd up so that he inclines to the Opinion that there were several Rates taken of our Monasteries upon various Surveys and at different Times especially since he meets with some Valuations in Leland's Notes that will not agree with either of these Richard Broughton who has been once remember'd before wrote a small Book of indigested Tales which he entitl'd Monasticon Britannicum or A Historical Narration of the first Founding and flourishing State of the Ancient Monasteries Religious Rules and Orders of Great Britain in the Times of the Britains and Primitive Church of the Saxons c. This was printed a dozen Years after the Death of the Author by some of his Friends so that 't is probable we have it much more imperfect than he intended and in such an unfinish'd Condition as the mistaken Kindness of Executors too frequently send things abroad The same Year was publish'd the First Volume of the famous Monasticon Anglicanum to which a Second and Third were afterwards added The two former of these were as the Title-Pages will inform us owing to the joint Labours of Sir Will. Dugdale and Mr. Dodsworth who had also the Assistance of a great many other eminent Antiquaries and Well-wishers to our English History These were indeed chiefly the Work of R. Dodsworth whose Father was Register at York and Dugdale had only so much share in it Vt Authoris alterius Titulum optime meritus sit as Sir John Marsham expresses it That is as the Oxford-Antiquary explains it to us He took care in the Methodizing and Publishing of them in Correcting the Sheets at the Press and in Composing very useful Indexes Accordingly tho' Dodsworth was dead before the printing of the First Volume yet he has the glory given him in the Title of the principal Author of both Tomes The former of these gives us the Records of the Benedictine Monasteries and their Off-spring the Cluniacenses Cistertians and Carthusians And the latter affords those of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine Hospitalers Templars Gilbertines Praemanstratenses and the Maturines or Trinitarians We have in them the Remains of all those Orders digested into a good Method without any thing intermix'd either by the Collector or Publisher The Latin Pieces are printed off exactly as they found them and those in Saxon as also Leland's English Notes were translated by Will. Somner The Collector ought to be reckon'd amongst those worthy Benefactors to the Publick that have made it their Business to preserve our ancient Historians such as Twisden Fell Gale c. Great and many are the Advantages which all the several Branches of our History not only in Ecclesiastical but Civil and Martial Occurrences will derive from this
Work And hardly a private Family of any Consideration in the Kingdom but will here meet with something of its Genealogy and Pedigree He is most scrupulously exact in transcribing the ancient Records So that the bald Latin barbarous Expressions and other Deformities of the Monkish Stile are to be reckon'd Beauties in him By the Catalogue of the Monasteries in the end of the First Volume it appears how far the Industry of this Writer has exceeded that of the People employ'd by Henry VIII to bring in a List of all the Religious Houses in this Nation many being added as more might have been in almost every County to the Schedule by them transmitted into the Exchequer And yet the old Register-Books that are cited in the Monasticon have a deal more in them than is there made use of Sir William Dugdale on second Thoughts transcrib'd many Things into the Additamenta of the latter Tome which both he and Mr. Dodsworth had overlook'd or did not at first think Material enough The Third Volume was publish'd under the sole Name of Sir William though Mr. Wood does not question he says but in this also he was very much indebted to Dodsworth's Collections He seems the rather to suspect such a thing because many Records were communicated by himself which are not duly acknowledg'd as they ought to have been and he verily believes the like good Assistance was given him by Sir Tho. Herbert tho' his Benefaction is also disregarded These Three Tomes were lately Epitomiz'd or Abridg'd by some modest Gentleman or other that did not think fit to put his Name to his Work which might have been of some good use if a little more care had been taken of the Numerals which direct to the Pages in the Monasticon it self and being frequently mistaken do not only render the Book useless but very dangerous Besides we are so far from wanting any Abridgment of these Tomes that we rather complain of their too great Conciseness and could wish there were some more added out of such Leiger-Books and Records as never came to the knowledge of either of the worthy Authors of these Three Towards the furtherance of such an acceptable Service as this we have had an excellent Manual given us by Mr. Tanner whose Notitia Monastica does not only afford us a short History of the Foundation and chief Revolutions of all our Religious Houses but presents us also with a Catalogue of such Writers noting the Places where we may find them as will abundantly furnish us with such further Particulars as we shall have occasion for The foremention'd Compilers of the Monasticon Anglicanum took care to make the like References and to let the World know from whose Hands they had the perusal of the Records of this or the other Monastery But as many new Discoveries have been made since their Time so several of the Books they met with have changed their owners and therefore their Defects are not only here supply'd but the present Proprietors of what they mention much better ascertain'd Some Volumes indeed and several single Charters and other Instruments are still appropriated to their old Masters where 't is not known how or to whom they have been lately transfer'd And this may possibly prove an obliging piece of Service to the Executors Administrators or Legatees of the Persons so mention'd who will be hereby directed and encouraged to make Enquiry after their unknown Chattels and to claim them where-ever they shall find them This industrious Author has superseded some Pains I had long since taken to the like purpose and whereof I should have given the Reader an Account in this Chapter The Informations he has here are beyond what I could have afforded him and I hope upon a second Edition of the Book which I much long for will be yet a great deal fuller 'Till that can be had give me leave to offer a slender Tast of the large Editions we may look for from the Author himself In the Cottonian Library alone there are Histories and Register-Books of the following Monasteries which for want of such a Catalogue as we now have had not come to his Knowledge ABINGDON Julius A. 9. Claudius C. 9. St. ALBANS Otho D. 3. Nero D. 1. 7. Julius D. 3. Claudius D. 1. BARDNEY Vespasian E. 20. BINHAM Claudius D. 13. CANTERBURY Christ's Galba E. 4. St. Augustine's Tiberius A. 9. Otho B. 15. DAVENTRY Claudius D. 12. DELACRES Nero C. 3. DERBY Titus C. 9. DUNSTABLE Tiberius A. 10. St. EDMUNDSBURY Tiberius B. 9. Claudius A. 12. ELY Tiberius A. 6. Vespasianus A. 6. GLASTONBURY Vespas D. 22. HULM Nero D. 2. HUNTINGDON Faustina C. 1. KIRKSTEDE Tiberius C. 8. 〈◊〉 E. 18. LEICESTER Vitellius F. 17. LENTON Otho B. 14. MALMESBURY Faustina B. 8. PARCO-STANLEY Julius C. 11. Vespas E. 26. PIPEWELL Caligula A. 13 14. RAMSEY Vespasian E. 2. READING Vespasian E. 5. 25. Domit. A. 3. ROCHESTER Domitian A. 9. Vespasian A. 22. Faustina C. 5. SELBY Vitellius E. 16. SMITHFIELD Vespasianus B. 9. SOUTHWARK Faustina A. 8. STONE Vespasianus E. 24. WALSINGHAM Nero E. 7. WESTWOOD in Com. WIGORN Vespasian E. 9. These are the most Eminent of those Writers that instruct us in the general History of our Monasteries tho' as a very learn'd Person has observed we still want a more copious Notitia than any of them have hitherto seem'd to have thought on such an one as should give us a just account of the Foundation of those Houses the Men of Learning that flourish'd in them their Rules Interests Contests c. There are others that have taken great Pains in writing Histories of some particular Orders of Monks to which themselves have had some special Relation and these moving in a lesser Circle had leisure to make more nice Enquiries and more ample Discoveries Amongst them the Benedictines may justly claim the Precedence as being so much the Darlings of Saint Dunstan and St. Oswald that perhaps 't is true what one of them asserts that from King Edgar's Reign to the Conquest there was not a Monastery in England but what was Model'd according to this Rule Will. Gillingham of Canterbury about the Year 1390. is said to have written De Illustribus Ordinis sui Scriptoribus and if we could meet with this Treatise we should not much lament the loss of his other De Rebus Cantuariensibus Edward Maihew sometime Scholar to John Pits publish'd a little Book under the Title of Congregationis Anglicanae Ordinis St. Benedicti Trophaea wherein he takes frequent occasion to quote his Master's Manuscript Treatise of the Apostolical Men of England now kept as a pretious Rarity in the Archives of the Church of Liverdune He is commended for his Modesty in the Account he gives of their Writers honestly quitting his Inclinations to serve a Party where he observes Truth to be on the other side The Obits and Characters of the English Benedictines
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
Prelate of our Church who is a little too severe in his Reflections upon the chief Publisher of these Antiquities The Author himself complain'd of several Additions and Alterations made without his Privity and Consent and seem'd to hope that his own English Copy the Language whereof I dare say was not over Charming would sometime or other hereafter be Publish'd The Black Book at Cambridge makes as considerable a Figure there as any of our old Statute-Books can do at Oxford and it has also its Historiola which is equal both for Matter and Authority with ours The whole Volume is a Collection of ancient Charters and Priviledges amongst which this short History was in the last Age inserted by William Buckenham Master of Caius College and Vice-Chancellor of that University In this we have the Story of King Gurguntius's bestowing the Eastern part of Great Britain upon Cantaber a Spaniard who forsooth had sometime study'd at Athens and after Caer-Grant was built by his Son Grantanus invited thence his old Friends Anaximander and Anaxagoras to teach Philosophy in this City Centum sunt ibi says John Leland praeterea ejusdem farinae Fabulae Profecto nihil unquam legi vanius sed neque Stultius aut Stupidius Missas igitur facio has Antiquitatis delicias Out of the same Book Robert Hare borrow'd his Catalogue of the Chancellors or Rectors if the other Word should prove too young for the purpose of this University which are most exactly continu'd from St. Amphibalus who was Rector A. D. 289. down to the Conquest 'T is reported that a certain Historia Cantabrigiae was written by Nicholas Cantelupe a Welch Gentleman who dy'd Prior of a Monastery of Carmelites at Northampton A. D. 1441. Archbishop Vsher takes this to be the same with what we have already observ'd to be in the Black Book and therefore he frequently quotes Cantelupe's Historiola for the Benefactions of King Lucius and King Arthur to the University of Cambridge Pelagius's studying there c. Our later Antiquaries agree with this learned Primate and allow this Author and that very Work to be the first that appear'd in defence of the British part of her Story And they further tell us that here began the Quarrel betwixt the two Sisters and that John Ross professedly engag'd on the behalf of Oxford Indeed Tho. Fuller speaks of a Treatise concerning the ancient Priviledges of this University which seems to carry a little more Age being written by one Thomas Markant Fellow of Peter-House and Junior-Proctor A. D. 1417. This Book he says was bestow'd on the University by the Author himself and at his request carefully kept for some time in a lock'd Chest. It was afterwards lost or stoln but recover'd and restor'd by R. Hare It was again lost and recover'd by Matt. Wren Bishop of Ely A third time 't is lost And this Relapse says he I suspect to be mortal The Life of King Sigebert was amongst John Leland's many Designs and broad Hints he gave that in it he would discover the true Original of the University of Cambridge But the bulkiest Promises of such noted Writers commonly prove the most abortive Despair of answering the World 's rais'd Expectations very much contributing to their Miscarriage The most learn'd Cantabrigian Antiquary that has yet appear'd was John Caius Doctor of Physick and Physician in Ordinary to Queen Mary who was born at Norwich and was the generous Founder of Caius College out of Gonvil-Hall His two Books De Antiquitate Cantabrigiensis Academiae were written in defence of the Cambridge-Orator against Tho. Key The former Edition of them was under the feign'd Name of Londinensis But in the second the Author himself thought it no disparagement to own his Work His first Attempt is to establish the lately advanc'd Doctrin of his Mother's great Age and Seniority which he endeavours to do from the exemplify'd Charters of King Arthur and King Cadwallader together with those of the Popes Honorius and Sergius This done his next Business is to overthrow the pretended Antiquity of Oxford which in his second Book he dispatches as effectually as he had done his former Argument He seems to have intended a much larger History of this University than is here given us For speaking of the frequent Depopulations and Miseries of the Town during the Wars betwixt the Saxons and the Danes he concludes De quibus in libris nostris de Historia Cantabrigiensis Academiae explicatius egimus I am very confident that a good part of the Collections which he made for this purpose are still in Sir John Cotton's Library where we are told of a Volume of Collectanea ex antiquis Rotulis variis Auctoribus de Academia Cantabrigiensi ejus Antiquitate Privilegiis cum multis Literis Originalibus ejusdem Academiae ad Regem Henricum VIII Thomam Cromwellum c. The same Year with the first Edition of Dr. Caius's Book was publish'd Regina Litera sive De Adventu Elizabethae Reginae Angliae ad Academiam Cantabrigiensem a Treatise of the same Nature with that of Rex Platonicus afterwards at Oxford In the same Queen's Reign wherein the Civil Wars betwixt our two Universities were the most violent was Printed a Catalogue of the Rectors and Chancellors of Cambridge from Mauritius in the Time of Constantine the Great to the Year 1585. written by Matt. Stokys Beadle and Registrary of that University Since his Time the only Person as far as I know that has publish'd any History of this place for I do not think Sir Simonds D'Ewes's Speech deserves such a Name is Tho. Fuller who was pleas'd to annex his History of the University of Cambridge to that of the Churches of Great Britain and most People think they ought not to be separated He begins modestly at the Conquest and ends at the Year 1643. for the like Reasons that prevail'd with our Oxford-Antiquary to break off Five Years after The Foundation of the University by King Sigebert he had discuss'd before in the Body of his Church-History And the potent Arguments he there produces have been nicely examin'd and consider'd by Mr. Wood. Parker's Sceleton Cantabrigiense does not promise any great Matters in its Title and Mr. Hatcher's Catalogue of the Fellows of King's College tho it may have some things of Note in it yet is of too confin'd a Subject to deserve any more than the bare nameing in this Place It had been a happy thing if all those that with so much Industry and Application have enquir'd into the first Originals of our two Universities had bestowed as much of their learned Pains in following down the Histories of such eminent Writers as have flourish'd in either of them For as hereby they might severally have done as much Honour to their respective Mothers so this had been the most effectual Course to have
endear'd themselves to Posterity and to have made their Labours for ever valuable We are extreamly indebted to those pious Princes and generous Heroes that either in the East or Western Parts of the Kingdom have afforded us such noble advantages of Education in all sorts of Learning as no other Nation can pretend to and perhaps we cannot be more injurious to their Memories than by clogging their true Story with Fables Fancies and Forgeries Instead therefore of raking in their Ashes and rifling their Sepulchres to prove them Men of Gigantick Stature instead of refineing upon their History till we have turn'd it into Romance we should pay them more grateful and real Honours if being content with such Remains of them as we know are Genuine we employ'd more of our Time in letting the World see what use has been made of their Benefits how much the several Branches of the unforbidden Tree of Knowledge have thriven under the Influences of their Charity what mighty Numbers of great Doctors and Masters in all Faculties have been fed at their Expence and flourish'd by their Bounty 'T is true our Universities were not always the sole Fountains of good Literature in this Island many of our eminent Writers having had their Education in Monasteries But since St. John of Beverly has been made a Member of that at Oxford and venerable Bede a Student at Cambridge I wish they had rank'd all our antient Men of Knowledge on one Hand or the other provided they had given us full Accounts of their Persons and Labours I think we may without Vanity affirm that hardly any Kingdom in the World has outdone England either in the Number or Goodness of her Authors and that even in the darkest Ages our Lamps shone always as bright as any in our Neighbourhood When School-Divinity was in Fashion we had our Doctores Subtiles Irrefragabiles c. and as Learning grew to a better Ripeness and Stature we had plenty of good Books in other as useful Sciences The first that attempted the History of our Writers was John Boston a Monk of St. Edmundsbury A. D. 1410. who having view'd most of the Libraries in England drew a Catalogue of all the British Authors and gave short censures upon them He could hardly have flourish'd so early as Pits here speaks of if his Progress was as a later Writer informs us in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh But we shall not quarrel with him for such small Mistakes as this He ought indeed to have been a little better vers'd in the Story of his great Grandfather for the three following Johns Leland Bale and Pits handed from one another what was first borrow'd from him Arch-bishop Vsher had the most curious MS. Copy of his Book And our Oxford Antiquary cites another smaller Catalogue of the same Author's Composure Whether Alanus de Linna Prior of a Carmolite Monastery at Lyn in Norfolk A. D. 1420. did enlarge this Catalogue or the other I dare not determine Possibly he only made an Index to them as he did to forty other Volumes in the Library at Norwich The next that thought this Matter worth his consideration was John Leland who was indeed an extraordinary Person having besides his being a great Master in Poetry attain'd to a good share of Knowledge in the Greek Latin Welsh Saxon Italian French and Spanish Languages In the Year 1534. King Henry the Eighth gave him a Commission to Search all the Libraries of England and to make what Collections he thought Good in which Employment he Spent Six whole Years He afterwards turn'd Protestant and was siez'd with a Frenzy losing says my Author very uncharitably his Understanding with his Faith In this Condition he dy'd at London A. D. 1552. leaving a vast number of Historical Treatises behind him Amongst these the most valuable at least that which we are now chiefly concern'd to enquire after is said to have been entitl'd De Illustribus Britanniae Scriptoribus containing the Lives and Characters of most of the eminent Writers of this Kingdom This Work is now in the publick Library at Oxford where it makes the fourth Volume of his Collectanea being 354 Pages in Folio given by Will. Burton to that University John Bale was a Suffolk-Man sometime Scholar in Jesus College in Cambridge and afterwards a Carmelite Friar in Norwich He was as he says converted from Popery by the procurement of Thomas Lord Wentworth tho' in truth his wife Dorothy seems to have had as great Hand in that happy Work In the Year 1552. he was made Bishop of Ossory in Ireland But returning from Exile in Queen Elizabeth's Reign he did not think it advisable to go any more into that Kingdom contenting himself with a Prebend of Canterbury where he dy'd A. D. 1563. His Summarium Illustrium Majoris Britanniae Scriptorum was first presented to King Edward the Sixth and contain'd only five Centuries of Writers To these he afterwards added three more and made several Corrections and Additions throughout the whole Book The Ground-plot of this Work as has been observ'd was borrow'd from Leland and the chief of his own Superstructure is malicious and bitter Invectives against the Papists The Character which a late learned Person gives of him and his Writings is too just Veritas Balaeo Parum curae erat dummodo Romanae Ecclesiae Inimicorum Numerum augere posset And again Clausis plerunque oculis Scriptorum Anglicorum aetates definivit Some have thought his making Books of some little Saxon Epistles excusable and what would admit of an Apology But if we mark him well he 's continually multiplying the Writings of all his Authors at a very unsufferable and unjustifiable rate In Opposition to Bale's hard Treatment of the Romanists came forth J. P's Relat. Histor de rebus Anglicis Tom. 1. c. which is the same Book with that usually quoted by the Name of Pitseus de Scriptoribus This Author Stuy'd in New-College in Oxford and was at last Dean of Liverdune in Lorain where he dy'd A. D. 1616. Tho' he quotes Leland with great Familiarity and Assurance 't is very probable he never saw any such thing as his Collectanea de Scriptoribus but that his only true Author for all he pretends to bring out of that Store-house was John Bale himself His Latin is clean enough and his giving an Account of some eminent Popish Writers that liv'd beyond Sea in the beginning of the Reformation is an acceptable Piece of Service Mr. Wood has taken the pains to Correct a great many of his Mistakes and might have noted some hundreds more He must needs have been too much in hast to write accurately who even in the Catalogue he gives of his own Uncle Nich. Sanders's Writings is guilty of so gross an Error as to reckon the Treatise entitl'd Fidelis Servi subdito infideli responsio