delicacy for though that which Sir Henry Savil the great and eternally to be remembred Ornament of our University saith is most certainly true and confirmed not onely by his but by the Testimony also of Mr. John Selden the Lawyer a man not onely excellently versed in History but in all other sorts of ancient Learning that there was never yet any man who hath written an intire body of our History with that fidelity and dignity as became the greatness of the Subject yet the former of these confesseth that we have some particular parts of our History which are not ill written in former Ages and the latter Mr. Selden acknowledgeth and commendeth some others as written exceedingly well in this last Age. But be this as it will I shall with the greatest confidence assert that there are many noble Actions and things that are worthy of our Contemplation and Observation which will occur in the reading of the greatest part of our Histories this then is the order which I should recommend for the reading of our British History to the Studious in it First Let our Student begin with the famous Sir William Camden's Britannia in which besides a most accurate description of the whole Island he will find briefly represented the History of the first Inhabitants and an account given of the Origine of the Name the Manners of the Britains the History of the Romans in Britain and many other things infinitely worth our knowledge collected not out of mere fictions and fables which none but a vain man would write nor any but an ignorant man believe as he expresseth himself but out of the most sincere and uncorrupted Monuments of Antiquity my advice therefore is that this Book or rather treasury should in the very first place be most diligently perused nor will it be amiss here to call in the assistence of Mr. Selden's two Books of Collections of the Antiquities of the Britains and English either of which Books consists of eight Chapters in which he has collected what doth most properly belong to the ancient Civil Administration of that part of Great Britain which is now call'd England and in which he has most excellently described both from Ancient and Modern Writers our publick Transactions both Civil and Sacred and our State Catastrophes to William the Conquerour and then according to the method proposed by us in the beginning of our course of History the Reader may be pleased to reade over George Lilly's Chronicle or short Enumeration of the Kings and Princes who by the changes of Fortune in diverse and succeeding times have been possessed of the Empire of Britain or those Commentaries which J. Theodorus Clain Printed of the affairs of Great Britain in the year MDCIII under the Title of a Compendium of the British History which is Elegantly form'd and written An Addition to the former Section Besides these mentioned by the Authour Daniel Langhorn a Learned Divine now Living in the year 1673 published in Latine a short account of the Antiquities of Albion and the Origine of the Britains Scots Danes and English Saxons to the year 449 in which the English first Arrived in Great Britain with a short Chronicle of the Kings of the Picts in which is an excellent account of those times in which Britain was a part of the Roman Empire The same Authour in the year 1679 Published a Chronicle of the Saxon Kings from Hengist the first King of that Race to the end of the Heptarchy or the year 819 in which he has given an account of all their Actions Wars Civil and Sacred affairs together with a Catalogue of the Kings and their Pedigrees cut in Copper in this History he hath reduced into one body all the ancient Saxon Historians and represented them truly in their own Phrases and then promised also a Continuation of this History which is much desired by Learned men In the year 1670 Robert Sheringham Fellow of Caies College in Cambridge Published an History of the Origine of the English Nation in which their Migrations and various Seats and part also of their Actions are inquired into from the confusion of Tongues and the dispersion of the Nations thereupon till the time of their arrival in Britain in which some things are explain'd also concerning their ancient Religion Sacred Rites and their opinions of the immortality of the Soul after Death with an account of the Origine of the Britains in this piece are many curious Antiquities searched for in the most ancient Saxon German and Danish Authours and an excellent account given of them which will both invite and reward the Reader 's pains Lambertus Silvius a Learned Foreigner in the year 1652 Published in Latine an excellent Compendium of the English History from the arrival of the Saxons to the year 1648 where he ends it with the deplorable Murther of Charles the first he is exceeding short in his accounts of the Saxon Kings but at the Conquest he dilates himself and writes the Lives of our Kings very Elegantly and with great brevity Of more ancient times Gildas Sapiens who is the most ancient Writer of this Island Writ a piece of the Destruction of the Britains by the Saxons which is infinitely worth the reading he Lived in the times of Justinian and he was Born in the year of Christ 493 as Vossius makes it appear from his own Works Mathaeus Westmonasteriensis who flourished about the year of Christ 1376 has left a short Chronicle from the beginning of the World to the year 1037. Florentius Bravonius a Monk of Worcester who Lived about the year of Christ 1119 in the Reign of Henry the first wrote a History from the Creation to the year 1118 which was the year before his Death which is the more to be esteemed because the ancient Anglio Saxon Annals are inserted in it in their proper places as Vossius acquaints us either or both these Authours will very much contribute to the understanding of the History of the Saxon Kings before the Conquest SECT XXVIII Gulielmus Malmesburiensis Savil's judgment of him and also Camden's where he begins and ends his History Galfredus Monumethensis why passed by The censures of William of Newberry John of Withamsted Bales and John Twin Virunnius differs from all these Huntington follows Malmesbury and Hovedaen him BUt if the Reader had rather begin with the more ancient Writers of our History immediately after Camden's Britannia and Selden's Analecta in my judgment William of Malmesbury deserves to be first admitted because the fidelity of his Relations and maturity of his Judgment have set him above all the rest And this is also the Testimony of the Noble and Learned Sir H. Savil concerning him William of Malmesbury saith he was a man exquisitely Learned for the age in which he Lived and hath compiled the History of about seven hundred years with so
Chapter of the Gruterian Edition he will find the History intire from the Conquest of Perseus King of the Macedonians to the XVI th year of the Reign of Tiberius Caesar and he may all along as he pleases joyn the Lives I have mentioned above in their order with Vellejus to enlarge the History and so he may pass on to the Writers of the Caesarian times The Authour having in the end of the XVIII th Section made onely a short mention of Appianus Alexandrinus I think it not amiss here to give somewhat a larger account of him because there is an excellent Version of his Works in English whereas Dion Cassius to my knowledge was never translated into our Language Henry Stephens in his Dedicatory Epistle before Appianus calls him the Companion of Dion Cassius and saith that these two were of great use to all those who desired to know the flourishing times of the Roman Common-wealth and to understand many passages in Cicero and others concerning the State of the Roman Republick for those Latine Historians who have come down to us cannot so well satisfie their Thirst as Dion and Appianus but if they do not leave their Reader wholly Thirsty yet we cannot deny but he will remain very unsatisfied And a little after saith he I shall mention another thing in which he is the Companion of Dion that is he relates not a few things that concern the change of the Roman State and the institution of their Princes and there is one thing in which he excells Dion and all the other Historians which is his ascribing those miseries which are attributed by all the rest to Fortune to the Providence of God thus far that Learned man speaks of him Vossius saith he writ the Roman History in XXIV Books beginning at Aeneas and the taking of Troy but with great brevity till the times of Romulus and then he wrote more accurately of all the succeeding times till Augustus adding some things here and there to the Reign of Trajan but then the manner of his dividing his Works and the Titles and Arguments of his Books may be best Learned saith he from Photius and from his own Preface of this vast work we have now extant nothing but his Punick Syrian Parthian Mithridatick Iberian and Illyrian Wars and 5 Books of the Civil Wars of the Romans and a fragment of the Celtick or German War Henry Stephens prefers him also before Dion Cassius and all the rest of the Historians because he reduced his History into certain Classes that though the whole was a Roman History yet the variety of the Titles which he placed before each Book seemed to promise the Reader a kind of new Subject and by that hope alured him to proceed not to mention saith he how much more easily any thing sought after may be found in this method of Writing in this Appianus has been very ingeniously imitated by Dr. Howell in his late Learned Universal History Photius gives this account of Appianus his History of the Civil Wars of the Romans these things are saith he contained in them first the Wars betwixt Marius and Sylla then those betwixt Pompey and Julius Caesar who contended against each other and fought many great Battels till fortune favouring Caesar Pompey turn'd his back and fled then the Wars of Antonius and Octavius Caesar who was afterwards call'd Augustus against the Murtherers of the first Caesar in which many of the greatest Romans were contrary to all Laws and Justice proscribed and Murthered then the Wars betwixt Antonius and Augustus themselves who had several sharp Fights to the destruction of great Armies till at last Victory smiling upon Augustus Antonius fled into Egypt having lost his Army and there Murthered himself which being the last Book of the Civil Wars shews also how Augustus took in Egypt and the Common-wealth of Rome became a Monarchy under Augustus He gives us also this account of the Authour Appianus was by Birth an Alexandrian and at first a Pleader of Causes at Rome afterwards he was a Praefect or Governour of some Provinces under the Emperours his Style is moderate and restrain'd but as far as is possible he is a lover of truth and an exact relatour of Military Discipline apt to put Life into the desponding Souldiery and to appease them when enraged and well able to describe and imitate any passion He flourished in the Reigns of Trajan and Adrian thus far Photius speaks of him That which prevailed upon me chiefly to insert this Addition in this place was Appianus his History of the Civil Wars in V Books written with great Clearness Elegance and Accurateness In which beginning with the Gracchian Sedition about the Agrarian Laws A. V. C. 622 or there abouts and continuing it down through all the various Seditions and Civil Wars of the Romans to the Death of Pompey the younger Anno V. C. 718. which was but five years before the fatal Battel of Actium and Augustus his settlement in the Empire a story that is not writ at large and intirely by any other but this Authour and Dion Cassius and is one of the best Supplements that is extant of the last Books in the end of Livy and one of the best Introductions too to the History of the Caesars and is one of the most lively Representations that is to be found in any History of the disorders of Common-wealths and the miseries that attend great changes in Governments and so of great use in this our unsetled Age. It is certain this History has lost its end for Photius gives an account that it reached much lower down in his times than it doth now ☞ There is now in the Press an excellent History of these times written Originally in French but made English wherein all these Greek and Latine Historians which have related the History of this great change in the Roman State are reduced into one Elegant body Intituled the History of the first and second Triumvirate Printed for Charles Brome SECT XXI The History of the Caesars is first to be fetched from Suetonius and Tacitus the great Honour shewn to both of them by the testimonies of very Learned men the judgment of the most famous Criticks concerning Tacitus various or rather contrary Light afforded both to Suetonius and Tacitus by Dion Cassius AS to the Writers of the Caesarian times let the Reader begin with Suetonius Tranquillus a most correct and candid Writer as Vopiscus stiles him He flourished under Trajan and Adrian Anno Christi 127 and was Secretary to Trajan he was an intimate friend to Pliny Secundus and he deserved his esteem being as Pliny saith in a Letter to Trajan an honest sincere Learned man And thence I conclude that the Testimonies of the later Criticks concerning him are true as that of Ludovicus Vivis Suetonius is the most diligent and impartial of all the Greek or Latine Writers he seems to me to have written
or affairs require it For he as we have hinted already Wrote an History which is not to be despised concerning the Origine of the Goths and their Actions about those times And Procopius may also be here usefully Read who Wrote VII Books of the Persian Gothick and Vandallick Wars undertaken by Justinian and managed by Belisarius as his General For if we may believe Volteranus there is in his Books the knowledge of such things as will please the most curious and so many Windings and Turnings of Commanders as for the most part happeneth in such like Wars so many strategems consultations concerning the ordering alluring confuting delaying and mitigating men that they will render the most incapacitated fit for Publick and Private affairs And the Learned Casaubon calls him a Great Writer And Johannes Bodinus saith No Man can doubt whether he is not to be esteemed amongst the Principal Writers After Procopius follows Agathias a Florid and Prudent Writer he lived about the year of Christ 567. He was a Lawyer by Profession of Smyrna in Asia and Wrote V. Books of the Reign and Actions of Justinian and begins his History where Procopius ended his his Style is Terse and Florid and he was a Pagan But if the Reader should rather chuse to pursue and reade the III. Tome of Zonaras whom I have also recommended before Nicetas Choniates will then claim the next place and after him Nicephorus Gregoras which two Authours continuing the History especially of the Eastern Empire will bring the Reader down to the death of Andronicus Palaeologus the latter that is to the year of Christ 1341. The first of them flourished in the year of Christ 1300. and in XXI Books Wrote the History of LXXXV years that is from the death of Alexius Comnenus where Zonaras ended to the year of Christ 1203. the latter lived Anno Christi 1361. and Wrote a Bizantine History in XI Bâ—oks from Theodorus Lascares to the death of Andronicus in whose times he lived and therefore deserves the less credit in his History of that Prince's Reign and Cantacusenus severely corrects him for it and calls him a Light Person and a Liar his Style is much worse than that of Nicetas for it is too luxuriant and has other faults proper to that Age but he is for the most part a good Judge of the causes of things But we will not defraud any of them of that Commendation has been given them by very Learned Men. Christoph. Colerus saith the Oriental Writers pursue a florid way of Writing and affecting Elegance too much are sometimes the farther from it I confess Gregoras is almost the onely Politician Zonaras was very knowing in Publick Affairs and is especially usefull to Lawyers Choniates is often guilty of trifles yet he is Religious and sometimes discourseth prudently of the causes of Publick Calamities but we shall discourse of these again hereafter and perhaps in a more convenient place But if our Lover of History seems wearied with the reading of so many Authours and desireth to shorten his journey and reduce it to a Compendium After Dion Cassius or Suetonius he may then take Zosimus who as I have said Wrote the declining State of the Empire as he testifies concerning himself and continues the History from Augustus to the taking of the City of Rome by the Goths in the year of Christ 410 1162 years after it was built an Elegant Translation of which Authour was lately printed in English from which time to the Reign of Charles the Great which is worth our observation for the space of almost 400 years the City of Rome and all Italy which for many Ages before had been the terrour and dread of foreign Nations being now amazed either with the sense of present Miseries or apprehension of impending future Calamities never had any quiet From the time therefore in which Alaricus entred the City and Zosimus ended his History Blondus Forliniensis continues down the History of the Goths Vandals Longobards and other Nations a Thousand and thirty years to the year of Christ 1440. in which time he flourished and till 1450. Or if the Reader thinks fit when he has read Vopiscus he will not decline from the right Method of Reading History if he admits Carolus Sigonius his History of the Western Empire which he as he professeth collected with great and diligent accurateness and then in Writing consigned and commended it to Posterity with as much truth as was possible in that great obscurity of things and the darkness of times He begins in the year of Christ 284. in which Carinus being overcome by Dioclesian at Murtium perished and ends in the death of Justinian which hapned in the 39th year of his Reign Anno Christi 565. After this time saith he the Empire being wholly extinct the Roman State was divided into many distinct Kingdoms as those of the French and Burgundians in Gall of the Goths in Spain of the English and Scots in Britain of the Longobards and Normans in Italy of the Saracens in Africa and from thence the Reader may proceed to Blondus beginning at the VII or VIIIth Book of the first Decade and so go on with it to the end SECT XXV Johannes Cuspinianus Paulus Jovius and Augustus Thuanus will furnish the Reader with a much shorter course of History from the beginning of the Caesars to our present Age. BUt if the Reader desires a yet shorter course of History and will not indure to be oppress'd with such a burthen of Authours Johannes Cuspinianus hath Written the History of the Caesars or Emperours from Julius Caesar to the death of Maximilian the first Anno Christi 1518. who was a diligent searcher into Ancient Histories which is an excellent Work and worthy to be read by all In which setting down their Lives in order he hath not onely left to Posterity their Great Examples Sayings and Actions and whatever was well or ill done by them but also an uninterrupted series and thread of History which is intire and unmaimed for above One thousand and twenty years Cuspinianus flourished Anno Christi 1540. under Charles the Vth. Paulus Jovius begins almost where the other ends and Wrote not onely a History of the Caesars but an Universal History of Fifty years which is splendid and beautifull but some think he is not very faithfull in it for he is said to have Written many things very partially insomuch as Gorraeus of Paris confidently affirmed That his Romance of Amadis would not seem less true and credible to Posterity than the History of Paulus Jovius as Bodinus saith in his Method of History where he concludes thus He delivers many things concerning the Persians Abissines and Turks which he could not possibly know whether they were true or false where he could have no other foundation but rumours and publick fame having never seen the Letters Speeches Actions or Publick
Inhabitants are clearly demonstrated from that Nation many old Monuments illustrated and the Commerce with that People as well as the Greeks plainly set forth and Collected out of approved Greek and Latine Authours together with a Chronological History of this Kingdom from the first traditional beginning untill the year of our Lord 800 when the Name of BRITAIN was changed into ENGLAND faithfully Collected out of the best Authours and disposed in a better method than hath hitherto been done with the Antiquities of the Saxons as well as Phoenicians Greeks and Romans Printed in Folio in London in the year 1676 Volume the first I know very well some Learned men have taken great exceptions to this Piece and have affirmed many things in it to be fabulous and I will not contest for the truth of the whole and every part of it but then I will presume to say that I have found good Authority for some of those things which some have pretended Mr. Samms invented and if we are to stay for an History which all the World approves of before we reade one our Lives will end with as little knowledge of past times as of those that are to follow us when we are dead I know any ingenious person who shall reade this piece must reap much satisfaction pleasure and delight from it John Milton who was Latine Secretary to Oliver Cromwell a Learned ingenious but a very factious man wrote the History of Britain that part especially that is called England from the first traditional beginning of it to the Norman Conquest Collected out of the ancientest and best Authours as he saith it was printed 1670 and 1671 in Quarto and in 1678 in Octavo The style and composure of this History is delicate short and perspicuous and it is of the greater value because few of our English Writers begin to any purpose before the Norman Conquest passing over all those times that went before it with a slight hand Doctour John Heyward writ the History of the first Norman Kings William the Conquerour William Rufus and Henry the first he lived in the times of King James and was a Civilian and a very candid true and Learned Writer Samuel Daniel writ the Collection of the History of England where in making some short reflexions on the State of Britain and the Succession of the Saxons he descends to William the Conquerour and the Norman Kings and ends with the Reign of Edward the third Anno Domini 1376. It is written with great brevity and Politeness and his Political and Moral Reflexions are very fine usefull and instructive John Trussel continued this History with the like brevity and truth but not with equal Elegance till the end of the Reign of Richard the third Anno Domini 1484. In that Period or interval of time which Daniel hath written there are two Lives writ by two several Pens the first is the Life of Henry the third writ by that Learned wise and ingenious Gentleman Sir Robert Cotton Knight in a Masculine style with great labour and pains and with a Loyal design The Second is a piece which was lately Printed with this Title the History of the Life Reign and Death of Edward the II King of England and Lord of Ireland with the Rise and Fall of his great Favorites Gaveston and the Spencers written by E. F. in the year 1627 and Printed verbatim from the Original in the year 1680. Who this E. F. was I know not but that he was under the Dominion of a mighty Discontent is apparent by his short Preface to the Reader his first words there are these To out-run those weary hours of a deep and sad Passion my melancholy Pen fell accidentally saith he on this Historical Relation which speaks A King our own though one of the most unfortunate and shews the Pride and fall of his inglorious Minions If this Book was really written when pretended it may be probably conjectured this Male-Content had a mighty Spleen against the then Duke of Buckingham who being baited this year by the Commons in Parliament fell a Sacrifice to popular discontent the year following which with some other things to me unknown might occasion the suppressing this History then and it had been as well if it had never been Printed being partial to the highest degree and designed to encourage rather than suppress Rebellion Sedition and Treason and now why it was raked up out of the Dust and Printed when it was I shall leave the World to guess onely I cannot for bear observing the Authour was more ingenuous than the Publisher not onely because he concealed it but also because he had undoubtedly set down the causes of his discontent in the beginning of his Preface which are omitted in the Print for those weary hours must relate to something before exprest to perfect the nse Within this Period of time belonging to Trussel falls in the Life of Henry the IV th written by Dr. Heyward and also the Life of Edward the IV th written very Elegantly and Prudently by William Habington Esquire and the Life of Richard the third written by George Buck Gent. Francis Bioâ—di and Italian Gentleman and of the Privy Chamber to King Charles the first hath written in the Italian Tongue the Civil Wars between the two Houses of Lancaster and York from King Richard the second to King Henry the VIII th translated Elegantly into English saith Sir Richard Baker by Henry Earl of Monmouth Sir Francis Bacon Viscount St. Albans writ the History of Henry the 7 th in a most Elegant style Edward Lord Herbert of Sherbury hath writ the Life of Henry the Eighth with great Exactness and Accuracy as he was a person of great industry and capacity He was put upon this Work by King Charles the first and consulted all our Records Dr. John Heyward wrote the Life of Edward the VIth very Elegantly and as much of that Prince's Reign and that of Queen Mary was spent in matters of Religion so Dr. Peter Heylin in his Ecclesia Anglicana Restaurata has given a very good account of their two Reigns and also Dr. Gilbert Burnet in his History of the Reformation in two Volumes in Folio which is excellently Epitomized by himself in Octavo Though these two chiefly intend the Ecclesiastical History of those times yet they have carefully intermixt the Civil History also especially Burnet who with his History hath published many Original Records of those times which do purely belong to the Civil History Sir William Dugdale one of the Kings of Arms in England hath writ two Books which he styles the Baronage of England being an excellent History of the Successions of all the noble Families of England which is of excellent use to the well understanding of the English History Sir Richard Baker hath written a Chronicle of the Kings of England from the times of the Romans Government unto the Death of King James to which the Reign of Charles the first
disfavour fled to Otton I. and at Franckford Wrote this History as he saith himself lib. 5. cap. 14. Beatus Rhenanus Published III Books of the German affairs excellently Composed Johannes Aventinus Wrote X Books under the Title of Germany illustrated and also the Annals of the Bavarians from the Flood to the year of Christ 1460 in VII Books how ill Baronius thought of this Authour appears To. 9. Ad Annum 772. Georgius Fabricius Chemnicensis Wrote the History of Great Germany and of all Saxony in two Books and to Conclude MAR QU ARDUS FREHERUS first put out in one Volume some very excellent German Historians which before were unknown ARTICLE III. The Historians of Austria FRanciscus Guillimannus Wrote VII Books of the ancient and true Origine of the House of Austria he flourished about the year of Christ 1500. Wolfangus Lazius of Vienna has comprehended the History of Austria in IV Books Gerhardus de Reo and Conradus Decius have Written Annals also of Austria there is Extant too a Chronicle of the Dukes of Bavaria and Suevia written by an uncertain Authour and to these may be added the Austriades of Richardus Bartolinus Perusinus in XII Books which concern the Wars between the Dukes of Bavaria and the Princes of the Palatinate which was illustrated with Notes by Jacobus Spigelius Selestadiensis ARTICLE IV. The Historians of the Hunnes and Hungarians JOhannes de Thwroz or Turocius so call'd from the Province of Thwrocz wrote a Chronicle of the Hungarian affairs from the very rise of that Nation under Attila their first King to the Coronation of Matthias which was in the year of Christ 1464 of this Authour Trithemius Writes thus Johannes Thuroth a Pannonian was a man excellently acquainted with and well exercised in Civil Literature and not ignorant in Divine knowledge of an exalted Ingenuity and a clear Eloquence this Authour lived Anno Christi 1494. Johannes Bonfinius Composed an Elegant History of the Kings of Hungary in four Decades and an half that is in XLV Books which reacheth to the Death of Matthias Hunniades and the beginning of Vladislaus or the year 1495 which he began at the Command of Matthias Bonfinius flourished about the year of Christ 1496. Petrus Ranzanus Wrote Indexes as he calls them of the Hungarian Transactions of which Joh. Sambucus who first rescued them from the Dust and Darkness in which they lay and Published them to the World writes thus It seems the ways of Writing Histories heretofore were very various this Authour having some Indexes of the Kings of Hungary given him at Vienna by Beatrix extracted out of the same Records from which Bonfinius described his he so well deduced and illustrated them that he is in nothing inferiour to the best Writers of the Hungarian History for in this brevity he has Comprehended what ever is required to render an History Elegant and usefull and he is the more valuable also that whereas there are some Gaps and mistakes by the faults of the Transcribers in Bonfinius his History we may here find directions for the rectifying all these Erratas and be assisted at the same time in searching out the sincere and perfect truth thus far Sambucus Philip Callimachus Experiens wrote an History of the Life and Reign of Vladislaus King of Poland and Hungary so elegantly and exactly that Paulus Jovius did not scruple to say of it that in his judgment it excell'd all that had been Written of that kind since Cornelius Tacitus through so many Ages as have since followed this Authour flourished Anno Christi 1490. Melchior Soiterus and Petrus Bizarrus have Written the History of the Hungarian Wars ARTICLE V. The Historians of the Goths Danes Sclavonians and Swedes PRocopius has Written III Books of the Gothick Wars and Agathias the Smyrnean V Books both of them in Greek and in Latine Jornandes the Bishop of the Goths who reduced into II Books the History of Aurelius Casiodorus who was Secretary to Theodoricus King of the Goths and Wrote a Gothick History in XII Books Isidorus Hispalensis Composed an History of the Origine of the Goths and of the Kingdom of the Sueves and Vandals Johannes Magnus a Bishop of Sweden wrote a History also of all the Kings of the Goths and Swedes Leon Aretinus Composed also an History of the Goths but which affords nothing more than what Procopius hath written so that he seems to be no more than his Paraphrast but he is more remarkable for another thing that is that be was the first Person who restored and communicated the Greek Tongue and Learning after it had lain several Ages oppressed and troden down by the tyranny of the insolent Barbarians as P. Jovius writes of him in his Elogies he flourished Anno Christi 1420. Hieronymus Rubeus wrote of the Goths and Lombards Saxo Grammaticus has deduced an History of Denmark from the utmost Antiquity down to his own times that is to Canutus the VI th and Waldemarus his Brother the Grandchildren of Saint Canutus that is almost to the year of Christ 1200. All he hath Written is not to be admitted hand over head without Examination yet neither is he so great a Fabler as some have fansied who have no esteem on that account for him amongst whom is Goropius Becanus which is the less worth our wonder because he himself doth not write so much Paradoxes as impossibilities as to Saxo's style the Elegance of it is so great saith the Learned Vossius that it exceeded the Capacity of the Age he lived in yea it is equal to many of the ancient Writers and to most of ours he flourished about the year of Christ 1220. Idacius his Chronicle of Denmark is from the times of Theodosius the Great to the year of Christ 400. Johannes Boterus and Erpoldus Lindenbruch have written accounts of the Kings of Denmark and in the year 1596 Plantin Printed a Compendious History of the Kings of Denmark to Christian the IV th Gaspar Ens wrote Commentaries concerning the Wars of Denmark both by Sea and Land in the Reign of Frederick the second containing the most memorable Dithmarsick and Swedish War The Learned Johannes Meursius hath comprehended in III Books the Reigns of Christian the first John his Son and Christian the second his Grandchild that is from the year of Christ 1448 to the year 1523. Albertus Crantzius hath Written an History of the Vandals in XIV Books and a Chronicle of the other Northern Nations as the Danes Norwegians Swedes which is call'd Gothia and Scandia he begins at the times of Charles the Great and comes down to the year 1504 he flourished to the year 1517 in which he Died. Gerardus Geldenhaurius writes thus of him He has almost onely seemed to me to deserve the Name of an Historian because he wrote the Transactions of his own times truely freely and for the good
But though his Modesty extorted this Complaint from him the Reader will scarce find it in this Oration In the year 1625 he first published this Piece in Latin which he reviewed and enlarged in the years 1635 and 1636 and Reprinted again in the year 1637. He was admitted Principal of Glocester-Hall in the same University the fourth of April 1626 where he continued till the day of his death which was the first of August 1647 and he was buried in the Chapel of that House So many years he managed this place whereas his Successour Mr. Robert Waring was chosen the 11th of August of that year and turn'd out for his Loyalty the 14th of September 1648 by the Parliamentary Visitors Besides this Piece he writ in the year 1623 a Funeral Oration containing an Historical Account of the Life and Death of Mr. Camden and a Dedication of the Statue of that Great Man in the History Schools there And also a Collection of Gratulatory Epistles Which three last Pieces were Printed together at Oxford in the year 1628. The Character given him by the Authour of the said History of Oxford is this Vir fuit Urbanus doctus Pius He was a Pleasant Learned and Pious Man To which give me leave to add that he was a Man of great Industry and Modesty as the Reader will see when he comes to read this Piece Nor is his Gratitude to the great Camden less vsible both in his Oration which he made when he entered upon the Reader 's place and also in the two others which were made and published after the death of his Benefactor Though it was his great calamity to live in times of Trouble and Confusion yet God was pleased to let him depart in peace before the execrable Murther of his Sovereign and before the Rebels had purged that University of whatever was Loyal and Constant. For though the Parliament had attempted this the June before he died yet they could not then effect their Ill Designs As to the Version I have done the best I could to make it true and smooth which was not so easie as at first I thought it would have been by reason of the great number of Quotations out of other Authours many of which are so very short and dark in their expressions that I could scarce if at all tell how to find English words that would represent their notions truely And besides this it is uneasie for a Man to accommodate himself so suddenly to such a variety of Styles as here occur in almost every Page and therefore it is not improbable I may have committed many errours and mistakes I have also presumed in some places to make Additions too when I thought it necessary but then I have given the Reader notice of them that he may know what is Added and what is the Authours A SHORT REPRESENTATION Of the several Lectures The Enterance THe Occasion of repeating these Lectures and Examples The scope of them and publick use Which yet is not to be rashly published The excessive confidence of the Writers of this Age. Modesty is recommended by the example of Pliny Secundus The Ancient Custome of reciting very usefull To be desired in this Age. No Argument of Ostentation but rather of Modesty The convenience of a living voice In what Hearing excell Reading The definition end division and several sorts of History Part the First The Heads of the SECTIONS SECT I. THree things are required to the Advantagious Reading of History Upon occasion of which the three parts of this Discourse are propos'd SECT II. What Order of Historians is to be observed And how to be entered upon Three Intervals of time to be observed What an Epocha is and of how many sorts The several Flouds In what times they happened The Unwritten Interval The Fabulous The Olympiads The Historical Interval SECT III. The Series of the Great Monarchies and their fatal Succession That there was four Eminent Monarchies That the Empire of the Medes and Persians was but one That these Empires were foretold by the Prophets The Name of Great Monarchies in vain quarrell'd by Bodinus That that of the Romans was the Greatest SECT IV. The Rise and Duration of the Assyrio-Chaldaean Empire and also of the Medio Persian then of the Grecian The beginning of the Roman Empire before Julius Caesar. How many years interven'd betwixt him and Charles the Great and betwixt the Latter and Charles the Fifth SECT V. Why these Four Empires were by way of Eminence call'd the Four Monarchies SECT VI. How the Reading of History is to be entered upon Good Epitomes are not to be condemn'd Synopsis of Histories Chronologies Some Compendiums are by name recommended What Authours concerning the Universal History are to be consulted Rauleigh is especially to be esteem'd The History of the Bible is the most Ancient and first to be Read SECT VII From whence the History of the Assyrio-Caldean Empire is to be derived Of Berosus Ctesias Megasthenes and their Counterfeited Writings That in the defect of them we must have recourse to Josephus The great loss of Diodorus Siculus to be supplied from others Especially from Josephus and the Prophetick Story Diogenes Laertius commended SECT VIII Herodotus where he began his History and where he ended His Commendation In what time he flourisht The beginning of the Second General Monarchy The Arguments of the several Books of Herodotus Why the Names of the Muses were put before the several Books In which Herodotus is excused against Lodovicus Vives From what Authours this History may be enlarg'd and illustrated SECT IX Thucydides His Elogie From whence and how far he deduces his History which he contain'd in eight Books Their Arguments shortly and distinctly laid down And what Authours writ of the same Times and Wars with him SECT X. Xenophon His Commendation and Elogie When and in what order he is to be Read That he writ the History of 48 years Which again may be enlarged out of Plutarch Justin and Diodorus Siculus SECT XI Diodorus Siculus his beautifull Elogie He travelled over several Countries before he writ his History He continues Xenophon's Story in the end of his 15th Book And in the 16th gives an Account of the Actions of Philip of Macedon And so goes on to Alexander the Great and describes the Rise of the Third general Monarchy SECT XII Divers Authours have written the Action of Alexander the Great Arrianus Q. Curtius Their Elogies In what times they lived Diodorus Siculus prosecutes the History of the Successours of Alexander the Great Other Authours afford usefull Additions SECT XIII Polybius when to be read Of what times he writ How he applied his mind to History How great a Man he was How much admired The greatest part of his History lost or reduced to fragments The Contents of the Existing Books SECT XIV Of the Fourth Monarchy the Roman A Transition to its Story The Praise of both and the loss of its Historians
it from us who in his Book de Methodo cap. 70. Affirms that the famous division of the Kingdoms of the old World into IV Monarchies was built upon the Modern Authority and insipid Conceit of some late Writers But from what has been said it clearly appears to us on the contrary that these IV great Empires were anciently observed and designed of which two flourished successively in Asia and are therefore call'd the Asiatick and for the same reason the two others are call'd the European which succeeded in Europe Vellejus also in the place I have cited above seems to me to prove and confirm both these Names and several Successions of the great Empires in the following times saith he the Empire of Asia was translated from the Assyrians who had held it a thousand and seven hundrd years to the Medes but the truth is it is not worth our while to contend any longer about either the Names or the distinctions of the Monarchies In short then I say that it is most certainly true and incontestably known to all Antiquity that the Assyrians and Chaldeans first and after them the Medes and Persians did heretofore Rule over so great a part of Asia that they might well be call'd the Supreme Monarchs of the World as it was then peopled and the same may be said of the Grecians in their times and much more of the Romans by whom if not the greatest yet certainly the best part not onely of Asia but also of Europe and Africa was Conquered as Histories inform us which made Polybius thus express himself The Romans having forced not onely some considerable parts but almost the whole inhabited World to submit to their Authority and Empire have raised their greatness to such a prodigious height that the present Age may very rationally Extoll their happiness but no succeeding Ages will ever be able to excell them SECT IV. The Rise and duration of the Assyrio Chaldean Empire and also of the Medio-Persian then of the Grecian and lastly the beginning of the Roman Empire before Julius Caesar how many years betwixt that and the times of Charles the Great and from thence to Charles the fifth BUt to go on that first Assyrio-Chaldean Empire for so I am inclin'd to call it was begun by Nimrod who is by some others call'd Belus in the year of the world 1717 or there abouts it continued a very long time that is almost one thousand and seven hundred years for this Empire lasted almost the whole time of Censorinus his second interval and after that too it ran out into the third the Historick interval 238 years It is true as the Learned Scaliger has observed it was not always in the same State of power and greatness but at times was broken and diminished For in the beginning it was of a vast Extent but afterwards the Nations that were subject to it made defections till it was torn into several shreds or parcels the Kings of Assyria giving up themselves to Luxury and thinking of nothing less than Arms and the preservation of their Kingdom but notwithstanding from the first Foundation of it to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus when it was transferred to the Medes and Persians there passed almost 1700 years For though Justinus and Georgius Monachus affirm the Assyrians were Masters of the World but one thousand and three hundred years the latter 1060 years and Diodorus Siculus 1400 years Yet I suppose they are to be understood of the time iu which the Posterity of Nimrod or Ninus Reigned who laid the Foundations of that Empire A. M. 1717 and particularly of Sardanapalus who according to Vellejus was the last that Reigned of XXXIII descents in which till then the Son had succeeded his Father But Phul Belochus and his Posterity first and then Merodach Baladan and his Progeny followed the Family of Ninus and kept up that Monarchy in the Assyrian Nation to Baltazar who was the last of their Kings and perished when Babylon was taken by Cyrus for so Funccius Reinerus Reineccius Viginerius and others do seem to collect out of Scripture But Josephus Scaliger Dionys. Petavius Jaco Capellus and others contend against this and endeavour to prove out of Berosus Megasthenes and Ptolemy that the Death of Baltazar by the treachery of his own Servants whom he had enraged against him by his ill Nature happened about seventeen years before the taking of Babylon by Cyrus So he being slain in the 55th Olympiad one Nabonidus by Nation a Mede call'd by Daniel Darius the Mede by the common consent of the Conspiratours succeeded him and he by the chance of War being overcome by Cyrus King of Persia in the XVII year of his Reign and Babylon taken had his Life and the Government of Carmania given him and so the Empire was translated to the Persians in the second year of the 60 Olympiad and A. M. 3412. 2. It is not therefore difficult from what has been said to shew that the Assyrio-Chaldean Monarchy from its first Rise to that period we have given it lasted almost 1700 years which may also be confirm'd by what Calisthenes the Scholar of Aristotle is said to have related for he following Alexander the Great in his Asiatick Expedition upon the request of his Master after Babylon was taken diligently enquired of those who were skilfull in the Babylonish Antiquities concerning their Astronomical Observations the successions of the Kings of that most ancient Monarchy and of the Number of their years and what ever Chaldean Antiquities or Astronomical Observations he could get he sent them into Greece which Simplicius somewhere avers contained 1903 years 3. The Second Empire call'd the Medio-Persick is said to have lasted from the taking of Babylon by Cyrus to the taking the same City by Alexander the Macedonian Darius Codomanus the tenth and last King of the Persians being Conquered not above 210 years for Alexander entered Babylon in the III year of the 112 Olympiad A. M. 3620. 4. The third Monarchy call'd the Grecian and begun by Alexander the Great after the Conquest of Darius is thought to have lasted to Perseus the Son of Philip the Second King of Macedonia who was overcome by Paulus Aemilius and his Kingdom reduced into a Roman Province which space of time comprehends somewhat more than two hundred and sixty years for Perseus was overcome taken and led in Triumph to Rome by P. Aemilius in the year of the Building of Rome 586 A. M. 3782. and about that time it was that the Roman Empire attained that so much admired Greatness which Polybius hath so much extoll'd in the former Section which yet afterwards encreased but from this time was esteem'd the IV Monarchy for to this time that Aemilius Sura whom we have cited from Paterculus in plain words refers the beginning of its Empire Two Kings Perseus and Antiochus being overcome the Empire of the World saith he was translated to the Romans which Polybius also avers
good Commander the truth is he left the Profession of Philosophy and wrote his History when he was a Commander I shall omit that Elegant piece of his concerning the Institution of Cyrus because it belongs to the foregoing times of which Herodotus wrote nor is it as is supposed penned as a true History but as a representation of a just Empire or Government yet Scipio Africanus that admired Personage had so great an Esteem for this Piece that he never went without it about him but to return he Composed the History of his own times in seven Books the two first of which are to be read immediately after Thucydides because they contain the residue of the Peloponnesian War and where Thucydides ends there Xenophon as it were carrying on the Web begins and relates what passed betwixt the Athenians and Lacedemonians after that Naval Victory that was obtained at Abidus by Thrasybulus against Mindarus in the 2 year of the 92 Olympiad of which we have spoken before to the taking of Athens by Lysander in the 4 th year of the 93 Olympiad and in these Books here and there he represents some of the Medio-Persian affairs as how the Medes rebell'd against Darius King of Persia and afterwards submitted again to his Empire how Cyrus the younger Son of Darius went to his Father who was then sick in the Higher Asia having first sent money to Lysander for the use of the War against the Athenians how Darius Nothus Died and Artaxerxes Mnemon his Elder Son became his Successour In the end of the second Book he gives an account of the suppressing the XXX Tyrants who had raged for two years at Athens by Thrasybulus and also the Peace and Act of Oblivion which was confirmed by the Athenians amongst themselves by an Oath by which an end was put to the Peloponnesian War which Thucydides calls the most memorable War that had ever happened and the longest and so in truth it was for it was prolonged to the XXVII th or XXVIII th year as is manifested by Xenophon these things are contained as I said in the two first Books of the Grecian History of Xenophon which being read the Reader may pass to his seven Books of the Expedition of Cyrus the younger against Artaxerxes Mnemon his Elder Brother written by Xenophon also in which we have an account how Cyrus gathered Grecian Forces and went up with them against his Brother How he fought and was Slain then how the Grecian Captains were Massacred after the Fight contrary to the Faith given and how Xenophon who followed Cyrus in this Expedition after his Death was chosen General by the Grecian Souldiers and had the felicity to conduct them from the very heart of Persia though continually assaulted by the Barbarians and harassed with other miseries and inconveniencies into their own Countrey in the first year of the 95 Olympiad When the Reader has finished these he may then proceed to the rest of the Grecian History in which the affairs both of the Grecians and Persians are continued to the Mantinensian Battel in which the Thebans beat the Lacedemonians under the Conduct of Epaminondas who whilst he perform'd the parts not onely of a Commander but private Souldier being grievously wounded died soon after and with him the Glory and power of the Theban Common-wealth Expired in the second year of the 104 Olympiad So that the Son of Gryllus will furnish the Reader with an Elegant and rich History of the affairs of XLVIII years but this the Reader may enlarge and enrich too if as in reading Thucydides he took in Plutarch's Pericles Nicias and Alcibiades so here he take in the Lives of Lysander Agesilaus Artaxerxes Thrasybulus Chabrias Conon and Datames written by Plutarch and Nepos for all these flourished in that interval of time which is represented by Thucydides and Xenophon and afford a considerable addition to the Histories of those times the IV th V th and VI th Books of Justin and the XIII th XIV th and XV th Books of Diodorus Siculus belong to the same times and as to Diodorus he is the next Authour I shall commend to the Reader SECT XI The fair Elogie of Diodorus Siculus that he travelled over several Countries before he writ his History He continues the History of Xenophon about the end of his XV th Book then he gives an account of the actions of Philip King of Macedonia in his XVI th and from thence passeth to Alexander the Great and describes the Rise of the third Monarchy FOr though Diodorus Siculus is some centuries of years younger than Xenophon as who flourished in the times of Julius Caesar and Augustus about the CLXXXIII Olympiad yet in this our Series of Authours I desire he may immediately follow Xenophon being not one of the many but a celebrated Writer and so expert in Antiquities that Greece can scarce shew another that is his Equal which Judgment may be confirm'd by the Elogie which a Learned Divine of our Countrey a Reverend Bishop and excellently versed in this and all other sorts of Learning is pleased to bestow upon this Authour Diodorus Siculus saith he is an excellent Authour who with great Fidelity Immense Labour and a rare both diligence and ingenuity has collected an Historical Library as Justin Martyr calls it in which he has represented his own and the Studies of other men being the great reporter of humane Actions but as Diodorus himself stiles it the Common Treasury of things and an harmless or safe Mistress or Teacher of what is Usefull and Good Our Reverend Bishop might well call it an Immense Labour for he spent XXX years as he himself confesseth in writing this History travelling in the mean time over several Countries to inform himself running through many Dangers as usually happens Diodorus also does rightly stile it a Common Treasury of things for we have in his first five Books the Antiquities and Transactions of the Egyptians Assyrians Libyans Persians Grecians and other Nations before the Trojan War as we have noted above the five following Books that is from the V th to the XI th are lost but from the beginning of the XI th to the XVI th we have the History of the times written by Thucydides and Xenophon as I have already said written in a continued thread but then in the end of the XV th Book he seems to design a Continuation of Xenophon's History for he speaks expresly thus in the end of the second year of the 104 Olympiad In this year saith he Xenophon the Athenian concludes his Grecian History with the death of Epimanondas and so the Sicilian passeth to the III year of the same Olympiad in which he briefly unfolds the Story of the War of Artaxerxes with the Rebel Persians and Egyptians and the rest of the great Atchievements of Agesilaus together with the Deaths both of Agesilaus and Artaxerxes to whom Ochus succeeded in the Kingdom
of Theodosius and Justinian yet I would not have any man thence conclude that he shall gain small advantage by the reading of them let him rather hear Justus Lipsius and Casaubon's Judgment of them of which the first thus briefly One Writer is usefull for one purpose and another for another Spartianus Lampridius Capitolinus and Vulcatius and the rest of the Writers of the second form have indeed not much Eloquence but it is possible to extract out of them a vast plenty of Antiquities and of the forgotten Customes The latter is yet more large in their Commendations The reading of these Authours saith he is not onely usefull but necessary for all men but especially for all those who are Studious of the ancient manners and History and especially for those who love the Roman Civil Law For how many things will you find dispersed in the whole Work which belong properly to the study of Law how often is it there observed that a new Law was introduced or an ancient Law abrogated that I may not mention this that if it were not for these Writers many of the great Civilians whose names and fragments are extant in the Pandects would have been altogether unknown to us not to mention also the Style which is common with these Authours to the ancient Lawyers in short what esteem ought we to have for the excellent Letters of so many Princes so many grave Decrees of the Senate and so many other publick Monuments transcribed out of the Cabinets of the Caesars out of the Acts or Registers of the Senate and People or out of I know not what other secret and concealed Records or whom will you assign out of all the number of the ancient Writers to whom we are indebted for a like Fidelity or Industry nor ought I to pass by those Learned and not far fetched but Domestick Digressions with which these Books are inriched as with so many studds of true and Radiant purple in very many places thus far Casaubon These Historians will furnish the Reader with the History if the Chronologers deceive me not of an Hundred Sixty and Seven years it is however certain they will give him the names of LXX and upwards who in the course of these times by right or injury obtained the name of Emperour or Caesar. The Lives of some of which also are written in VIII Books by Herodian an Authour of good Judgment Discreetly and Elegantly therefore if the Reader please to joyn him to the other six Writers of the Lives in his due time he will have a fuller and more illustrious History of Commodus the Emperour and of the other seven that succeeded him to the Gordians for he will find in that Writer a great variety of both things and men and frequent examples of Fortune's Frowns and Smiles as she is ever changing and he will observe strange and wonderfull Counsels and unexpected Events he will find as occasion serves grave Sentences and a style full both of dignity and sweetness to conclude he will find plenty of necessary Utensils for the improvement of his Manners and as it were the Looking-Glass of Humanity which he may inspect all his Life time and from whence he may draw instructions for the better management of publick or private affairs Let him then reade this Authour either in Greek or Latine for I know not whether Herodian deserves more Honour who in his own Language flows with a plentyfull vain or Politian who has translated him so happily that he doth not seem so much to have rendered as writ that History However these six Writers the last of which is Vopiscus who is yet learned and accurate beyond any of the rest will bring the Reader to the thousand thirty and sixth year after the building of Rome that is to the Death of Carinus Caesar who with Numerianus is said to have reigned or affected the Empire after Carus it is to be confess'd that in this Series which these six Writers of Lives have left us there is a gap betwixt Gordianus the third and Valentinian the Emperour for Valerianus did not succeed immediately after Gordian but first the two Philippi and to them the Decii and then Vibius Gallus with his Son Volusianus then Aemylianus Libycus who was immediately succeeded by Valerianus and the Learned Casaubon reckons some others to the number of Fifteen between Caesars and Emperours within the space of nine or at most ten years none of whose Names are mention'd any where in these Writers a supply is therefore to be made of this defect from Aurelius Victor a discreet and prudent Writer of whom Ammianus Marcellinus saith That for his sobriety he is much to be commended and Casaubon calls his small Piece of the Lives of the Emperours An Elegant Discourse or from Pomponius Laetus A Man for the Age in which he Wrote rarely acquainted with Antiquities and good Learning and very conspicuous amongst the most Excellent Wits of his time who hath Written a Compendium of the Roman History from the death of Gordian the younger a little beyond the time of the death of Heraclius This Authour flourished about the year after Christ 1488. In this History of the Caesars you may reade many things which are not to be found in any of the Historians which for the most part he extracted from the Ancient Panegyrists SECT XXIII After the times of Constantius Chlorus and a little before the History seems a little perplex'd especially in the Latin Writers Eusebius Zosimus and Zonaras will render it more plain of Zosimus and Zonaras and their Writings and also Jornandes and Ammianus Marcellinus who is here to be Read the Opinion of Lipsius and Balduinus the Lawyer concerning him BUt because the History of those times is very confused especially if we consult none but Latin Writers to the Succession of Constantine's Children It will well requite the trouble to seek assistence from the Greek Authours Eusebius Zosimus Zonaras or some other Authour as well in relation to the asoresaid Emperours as also to them that follow Dioclesian Constantius Chlorus Galerius and Constantine the Great whose Histories may be thus illustrated For in this Age Eusebius flourished under Constantine and his Children about the year of Christ 325. and for his great Learning and Extraordinary Knowledge of History was very famous of whom more will be spoken when we come to the Church-Historians Since the death of our Authour there has been published first by Baluzius a Learned Frenchman and since that at Oxon a History of all the Roman Emperours from the 20th year of the Reign of Dioclesian Anno Christi 303. to the year 313. which was the 7th year of the Reign of Constantine the Great Written by Lucius Coelius Lactantius and stiled De mortibus persecutorum This Authour was contemporary with Eusebius and was Tutour to Crispus one of the Children of Constantine the Great and though this History is
of but a short space of time yet it gives a great light to the most intricate part of that History and is of great credit as being Written by a Person of great fidelity who was an Eye-witness of all those Transactions and a very Elegant Writer Zosimus Writ the declension of the Empire in VI. Books beginning with Octavianus Caesar and ending in the taking of Rome by the Goths under Alaricus In the first Book he runs through all the first Emperours to Dioclesian with great brevity but in the other V. Books he gives a larger and fuller account He lived in the time of Theodosius the younger who began his Reign Anno Christi 407. and ended it Anno 449. his Style is short and clear pure and sweet as Photius represents it He was a Pagan and therefore reflects very often upon the Christian Princes and yet Leunclavius a Learned German doth not think it is fit for all that to call his fidelity too easily in question and he adds moreover That if any Man Reade him without prejudice he will find that his History which is almost totally made up of those things that were passed by and not taken notice of by the rest of the Historians is very pleasant and usefull to all Men who are employed in State Affairs Henry Stephens was of opinion That he industriously sought into the truth of Conceal'd things and carefully discover'd it This History is for the most part of it an Epitome of Eunapius who Wrote an History of the Caesars beginning where Herodian ends and continuing it to his own times he lived under Valentinian Valens and Gratian about the year of Christ 370. His History though said to be extant at Venice was never Printed But Photius saith Zosimus did almost Transcribe Eunapius as differing from him onely in this that he doth not reproach Stilicon as Eunapius did and that his style is shorter and more easie and that he rarely makes use of any Rhetorical Figures but Zosimus begins his History much Higher and continues it down much Lower Johannes Zonaras Wrote a General History from the beginning of the World to the death of the Emperour Alexius Comnenus Anno Christi 1118. in whose time he lived he divided it into Three Tomes in the First Tome he briefly Writes the History of the World from the Creation to the destruction of Jerusalem In the Second Tome he Writes the Roman History from the building of Rome to Constantine the Great but with great brevity The Third Tome gives an account of the Actions of all the Christian Emperours from Constantine the Great to the death of Alexius Comnenus From some or all of these therefore the History of the foresaid Emperours may be made more full and clear especially if to those things which are related by Zosimus as done by the Goths under Gallienus and the succeeding Emperours of Rome Jornandes may be called in as a Witness who will assure us That all which Zosimus hath related is true For as Leunclavius assures us What both these Historians have Written concerning the Goths do most exactly agree nor is there any other difference betwixt them but this that Jornandes is a little more full as not omitting the circumstances of things nor is it to be wondred at that these were not so well known to Zosimus as they were to Jornandes for the latter was a Goth or an Alan which Nation was nearly related to the Goths and understood the affairs of the Goths who were his own Countreymen much better than the Grecians did and joined the Gothick Historians with the Greek and Latin Writers as he himself confesseth Jornandes flourished about the year of Christ 540. and here let the Reader proceed immediately to the reading of Ammianus Marcellinus a Man of a clear Fidelity and Judgment in the esteem of the most rigid Censors By his own confession his Language is Military and Unpolished he was very famous about the year of Christ 375. He diligently prosecutes as a Souldier the account of Military Affairs and doth often digress in Relations and doth not seldom intermix Sentences as Justus Lipsius acquaints us And Balduinus goes on thus He is indeed a Souldier but a very Learned Souldier and so studious of Antiquities that there is scarce any thing which he hath not searched out To speak in one word he is a most diligent Writer his Latin indeed is rough for he was a Constantinopolitan but he is full of Learning and has included in his History a various manifold and uncommon Literature and has largely Wrote an History of those times that are not so well Written by any other thus and much more Balduinus relates of him Marcellinus Wrote XXXI Books from the beginning of Nerva to the death of Valens in whose Court he lived but of these the first XIII have perished in the common Shipwreck in those which are extant he begins with Gallus Caesar about the year of Christ 353. and largely describes the Actions and Lives of Constantius Caesar Julian Jovian Valentinian and Valens an Eye-witness of a great part of which things he was and he will bring down the Reader to the year of Rome 1128. which is the 378th year of Christ. His History was Translated into English by one Philemon Holland a Dr. of Physick and Printed at London in Folio in 1609. who before had Translated Livy Suetonius and L. Florus but this Authour was not then so well understood as he is now by the indefatigable industry of Henry and Hadrian Valesius and therefore 't is fit there should be a second and a more pleasant Version made of this excellent Authour SECT XXIV Paulus Diaconus his Miscellan History Jornandes his History of the Goths and Agathias may be here read or if the Reader please the III. Tome of Zonaras whom Nicetas Choniates follows and after him Nicephorus Gregoras or if this seems too long then the Reader may immediately after Zosimus begin Blondus Fortiniensis or after Vopiscus Carolus Sigonius his History of the Western Empire and from thence pass on to the VIIth or VIIIth Book of the first Decade of Blondus IF after Ammianus the Reader proceeds to Paulus Diaconus his Miscellan History and joins as companion with him Jornandes whom I just now mention'd his History of the Succession of Kingdoms and Times and also his History of the Goths he will observe from these not onely the Declining of the Roman Empire which Zosimus undertook to shew him but also the intire Ruine and Destruction of it And lest the repetition of what he was well acquainted with before should prove tedious and troublesome to him he may if he please begin with the XIIth Book and so go thorough with the rest in which he shall have a perfect History from Valentinian to the Deposition of Michael Curopolates that is to the year of Christ 812. and may also take in Jornandes when the times
much fidelity and industry that he seems to be the onely man amongst all our Writers who hath performed the part of a good Historian and the famous Camden speaks thus of him both the Civil and Church History of England is much in debt to that man He writ in V Books the History of the Actions of the Kings of England from the year of Christ 449 in which the English and Saxons entered Britain to the year 1116 which was the XVI th year of the Reign of Henry the first to which he afterwards added two Books more from the XX th year of that Kings Reign to the 8 th year of King Stephen which was the year of Christ 1143 in which times he Lived There are some who advise the beginning with Jeffery of Monmouth because he begins his History much higher and affirms that one Brutus a great Grandchild of Aeneas and LXVIII Kings besides Reigned here for about one thousand years before Caesar entred Britain but we thought it very fit to pass him by because he seems to write of things that are very obscure and dark by reason of their Great Antiquity and are involved with mere fabulous Stories nor have we done or spoken this upon our own private judgment onely many Learned men having said the same thing before us Neubrigensis who Lived not long after Jeffery of Monmouth speaks thus In our times saith he there Sprung up a certain Writer who to Expiate the faults of the Britains set forth a number of ridiculous inventions extolling their Vertue and Valour with an impudent Vanity above the Macedonians and Romans his Name was Jeffery and he was Nicknamed Arthur because taking the Fables of the ancient Britains concerning Arthur out of their old Romances and encreasing them with his own Additions and giving them the Varnish of the Latine Tongue he Cloathed them with the Honourable Name of an History He also with greater boldness published the fallacious divinations of one Merlin which he hath also improved by his own Additions whilst he turned them into Latine for Authentick Prophecies which were grounded upon unmoveable truth John of Withamsted who flourished in the time of Henry the VI th doth in part agree with William of Newbury According to other Histories saith he which in the judgment of some deserve more Credit this whole process concerning Brute is rather Poetical than Historical and for many causes seems to be founded in fancy rather than in any Reality and Bale confesseth that there are many things in his History which exceed belief and John Twin a diligent searcher out of the British Antiquities calls him the British Homer the Father of Lies but Ponticus Virunnius a very Learned man in the esteem of Vossius who lived above 130 years since and reduced Jeffery's History into an Epitome passing by the fabulous parts of it bestows this Elogy upon him Jeffery of Monmouth was a famous Historian and a Cardinal a man of much Authority with Robert Duke of Gloster Son of Henry II King of England he was a great favourer of his Countrey and Collecting a History of the most ancient times from the Records of their Kings and out of their highest Philosophy he continued the same in an uninterrupted Series from the times of the Trojans That his History is most true will appear from the Custome of the Western Kings which was to have always some with them who should faithfully relate their greatest Actions and John Leland also defends him against Newbury and Polidore Virgil he flourished about the year of Christ 1160 under Henry the II. But however as I said before for these reasons we have passed him by and rather put our Reader upon William of Malmesbury Henry Archdeacon of Huntington follows next who in VIII Books shewing the Origine of our Nation and continuing the History of King Stephen and his Successours goes on to the year 1153 he wrote many other excellent Pieces which would enrich our History but that they lie concealed from the World in Manuscripts in Libraries Polidore Virgil styles him an excellent Historian and John Leland an approved writer he flourished about the year of Christ 1160. William of Newbury beginning with the Death of Henry the first continues the History a little farther to wit to the year 1197 he is a great lover of truth in the opinion of Polydore Virgil but he is sharply reprehended by John Leland because in reprehending Jeffery of Monmouth he kept no mean he flourished about the year of Christ 1220. To Conclude Roger Hoveden deduced our History to the year of Christ 1202 in his Annals which he hath divided into two parts that is to the IV th year of King John's Reign in whose time this Authour flourished An ADDITION There is a passage cited by Mr. Selden concerning this last Authour out of John Leland which I think worth the inserting here Simeon Dunelmensis is to be deservedly reckoned with the principal Monks of his Age He very well understanding that the things which had happened beyond the Severn both by reason of the sloath and negligence of their Writers in the fury of so many Danish Wars and also by the injury of time were so obscured and oppressed that in a short time the memory of them would be lost except the diligence of some Learned man repaired the memory of them by Collecting them together and digesting them into order entered into a serious Consultation with himself how he might prevent this mischief deliberating a long time with himself that which was most necessary and usefull offered it self at last to him which was carefully to search out the remainders of those ancient Libraries which had been Ruined by the Danes c. for the Monks had preserved some fragments of them whilst they fled from the fury of their Enemies c. All these the curious diligence of Simeon sought out found and examined so that his ardent Care had no remission till he had brought the History of the Northumbrian Kingdom from the times of Bede to the Reign of King Stephen the Usurper I design not saith he in this place to write the praises of Simeon his work is immortal and will Live though I say nothing of it onely I would have the Reader take notice that there was one Roger Hoveden a not unlearned man who in the same order with Simeon hath deduced the History from Bede to the Reign of King John whom as I cannot but commend for his History of our Ancestours so I must needs blame him that he rifled the Flowry Meads of Simeon ' s History without ever mentioning his Name the same Leland calls him in another place as Mr. Selden acquaints us a Commendable person with the former exception notwithstanding and Mr. Selden tells us hereupon that many men thought these two works were the same but saith he as it is most certain that R. Hoveden made use of Simeon ' s Annals
as he did of many other written in Latine and Saxon and that he begins where Bede ends as Simeon doth but yet it will appear to any person who shall compare these two together that Hoveden has an innumerable number of things which Simeon hath not and that there are some things again in Simeon which R. Hoveden passed by so that he is not to be esteemed a plagiary in relation to Simeon but rather a very diligent Writer who hath Collected from Simeon and many others who went before him and made out of all a copious single work which is usually done by the best Historians of all Ages When our Authour wrote this method of Reading Histories this Simeon Dunelmensis was not Printed but in the year 1652 this and nine other ancient Historians were first published together and out of Mr. Selden's Prolegomena's to them I have transcribed the passage above which will give the Reader a fuller account of R. Hoveden and at the same time present Simeon Dunelmensis to him as a person worthy of his observation This History begins as the Title tells us after the Death of Bede Anno Domini 732 and it ends Anno Domini 1129 it contains the History of CCCCXXIX years and IV months Joannes Hagustaldensis continued this History XXV years that is from the year 1130 to the year 1154 which was the 19 th and last year of King Stephen's Reign he flourished under Henry the Second and Richard the first he was a very good witness of what he Wrote as Living in or very near those times he represents he was a most excellent and a most diligent Writer as Mr. Selden styles him Richardus Hagustaldensis wrote the IV first years of the Reign of King Stephen which are Printed immediately after the former Ailredus Rievallis Abbas wrote amongst other things a Genealogie of the Kings of England to Henry the Second Radulphus de Diceto Dean of St. Paul's in London wrote an Abbreviation of the Chronicles from the year 589 to the year 1147 where he begins another work which he calls the Images of History which he continues to 1199 or the beginning of King John's Reign Joannes de Brompton wrote a Chronicle from the arrival of Augustine the Monk Anno Christi 588 to the beginning of King John's Reign 1199 which is especially valuable for a Collection and version of the Saxon Laws in Latine made in the time of Edward the third at the least he was an industrious Student as Vossius speaks of him and wrote in the Reign of Edward the third Gervasius Dorobernensis wrote a Chronicle from the year 1112 to the year 1199 which was from the 12 th year of Henry the first to the Death of Richard the first he was made a Monk about the year 1142 he was as Leland saith of him Studious of Antiquities above belief and for that end Collected a vast number of Historians especially of those who accurately handled the British and Saxon affairs till at last he himself entred the Lists and made tryal of his own parts by publishing an excellent Volume in which he deduced the History of the Britains from their Original together with that of the Saxons and the valiant atchievements of the Normans to the Reign of King John thus far Leland of him but whether the beginning of this History is lost I cannot say but we have onely this Printed which I have mentioned of the particular English History Henricus Knighton Leicestrensis wrote a Chronicle of the Events of England as he styles it in his first Book he gives a short account of some Saxon and Norman affairs from the time of Edgar who began his Reign Anno Christi 958 to the Reign of William the Conquerour and then he writes more largely to the year 1395 which was the 19 th year of Richard the Second in whose times this Historian flourished All these Authours were Printed in one body by Cornelius Bee in the year 1652 under the Title of the ten Writers of the English History before which time they were onely Extant in Manuscripts in Libraries and so could not possibly be taken into our Authour's method as I observed before SECT XXIX Asser Menevensis his History commended in what time to be read with the former as also Eadmerus his History Matthew Paris his History Baronius his judgment of him Thomas of Walsingham his Chronicle the actions of King Stephen written by an unknown Authour the Life of Edward the Second by Sir Thomas de la Moore Knight is also to be taken in due time I Must confess those latter Historians do not make any great addition of years to Malmesbury's History yet they will illustrate it and sometimes perhaps make it more full and perfect of this the Reader will have a great Experience if about the year of Christ 849 he take in the Life of Alfred written by Asser Menevensis which History as the famous Camden saith will afford no small pleasure to thy mind nor will it bring less profit than pleasure if whilst the mind is fixed on the Contemplation of those great things you endeavour wholly to conform your self to the imitation and as it were representation of them Asser Menevensis flourished about the year of Christ 910. This great Prince who was the wonder of the age in which he Lived has found many admirers since but none have so well deserved of his Memory as the Learned Sir John Spelman Son of the Great Sir Henry Spelman who wrote the Life of this Alfred King of England in three Books in English which I suppose was never Printed but an Elegant version of it in Latine with very excellent marginal Notes by the Students of Great Hall in Oxon with a great Collection of our Coins and several other great rarities was put out in Folio at the Theatre there in the year 1678 I wish we might yet have the Original English also printed And then if about the year of Christ 1060 the Reader please he may also take in Eadmerus his History which was lately brought to light and illustrated with Notes and excellent Collections by the Learned John Selden a Lawyer of rare Erudition This History contains the Reigns of William the first and second and Henry the first to wit from the year of Christ 1060 to the year 1122 in which time the Authour Lived he was very dear to Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury in those times and died Archbishop of St Andrews in Scotland himself after he had been Abbat of St. Albans in England a preferment in those days of great honour To these the Reader may add that true and faithfull History written by Matthew Paris which beginning with the Coronation of William the Conquerour Anno Christi 1067 is continued by him to the year 1253 and by another as Bale assures us to the year 1273 that is to the Death of Henry
the third what Baronius his opinion of this Authour was appears in these words Any man saith he may easily see how much his mind was exasperated against the Holy Seat except those Reproaches were inserted by the Publisher which if they be taken out or excepted you may call the rest a Golden Commentary it being onely a transcript word for word of the publick Records most admirably put together and consolidated After Matthew Paris I desire Thomas Walsingham his Chronicle may follow he also was a Monk of St. Albans and began his History from Edward the first where the former ends and continues it down to the end of Henry the fifth or the year of Christ 1422. But as whilst we are reading Matthew Paris there is an History of Stephen written by an unknown hand which will amplifie and illustrate the History if taken in so if after the first Book of Walsingham's History about the year 1306 the Life and Death of Edward the Second written by Sir Thomas de la Moore Knight a Servant of that King be also admitted it will enlarge that History As this Authour was dignified with the honour of Knighthood so he deserves no less esteem for his kindness to Posterity express'd by this History which deserves the more credit because he was intimately acquainted with that Prince and served under him in the Wars ADDITIONS As I took in in the end of the last Section an excellent Collection of ancient Latine Historians of the English Nation none of which are mentioned by our Authour so with the Reader 's permission I will here take in another which was printed this year at Oxon under the Title of the first Volume of the ancient Writers of the English affairs The first Authour in it is Ingulfus Croylandensis who though not taken notice of by our Authour was printed before but imperfect he wrote the History of his Monastery and in it relates many things concerning the Kings of England he begins at the year of Christ 626 with Penda King of Mercia and in the former impression it ended with the beginning of the Reign of William the Conquerour but in this latter Edition besides many Gaps in the body of it now supplied from a better Copy his History is continued by himself to the year 1089 which was the third year of William the second or William Rufus as he is commonly called This Authour was the Son of a Courtier of Edward the last King of the Saxon Race and he himself takes notice of some disputes he had in his Infancy with Edgitha the Noble Queen of King Edward he Studied first at Westminster and then at Oxon where he became an excellent Aristotelian Philosopher he was afterwards a Counsellour to William Duke of Normandy by whose good leave he went to Jerusalem in his way at Constantinople he waited upon Alexius the then Emperour and Sophronius the Patriarch returning into Normandy he became a Benedictine Monk and after William Duke of Normandy had Conquered England Ingulfus was made Abbat of Croyland he died in the year 1109 in the time of Henry the first I have transcribed all this out of Vossius onely to shew the Reader how great a man he was and how excellently qualified for an Historian The next Authour in the said Collection is Peter Blesensis his continuation of Ingulfus his History to the year 1117 which was the 17 th year of Henry the first though he mentions some things scatteringly done after that time this continuation is imperfect at the end and therefore the Publisher supposeth it to extend onely to the beginning of the Reign of King Stephen this Authour was not for Learning inferiour to Ingulfus he was first Archdeacon of Bath and afterwards of London and Vicechancellour to the King he wrote about the year 1190 and he died in the year 1200 his Life has been writ by those that published his other Works but this History was never printed before Thus far the Publisher goes in his account of him The next in this new Collection is the Chronicle of Mailros begun as the inscription tells us by the Abbat of Dundraynan from the year 735 and continued by several hands to the year one thousand two hundred and seventy which was the LIV th year of the Reign of Henry the third who this Abbat or who these Continuers were is not certainly known but this Abbie of Mailros from which this Chronicle has its Name was not that ancient Monastery placed upon the Banks of the River Tweed often taken notice of by Venerable Bede which as it seems was destroyed by the Danes who oppressed the Kingdom of Northumberland a great while but of a later date built in the same place by the Scots who under David their King had got possession of it about the year 1136 from whence perhaps a Colony of Monks were sent to Dundraynan in Galloway in Scotland in the year 1152 in which year also that Monastery was founded as this Chronicle bears witness which though for the most part it is very brief yet it affords many things that are worth the knowing especially the Series of the Kings of Scotland as also the Successions of the Princes Nobles Bishop and Abbats in those Northern parts thus far the Publisher In the year 1252 another silly Monk of Mailros began a new Collection in which he would needs bestow an Encomium upon Simon de Montefort the turbulent Earl of Leicester which is not continued for the rest is perhaps done by another hand but concludes with the Death of Henry the third so that there is onely two years added The next is the Chronicle of Burton in the beginning of which with the Reign of King John the Authour who is not known seems to have a design to continue Roger de Hoveden whom yet he calls Hugo and by his example hath collected many of the most memorable passages of that age and though some of them are also set forth by Matthew Paris yet there are many and those not common things which are not to be found either in Paris or any other printed Historian but this and the Authour whoever he was lived in the same time with Matthew Paris and so they two do mutually afford Light each to other and also at the same time bear witness to the same things onely let the Reader take notice we follow the impression of Paris printed at London in 1650 thus far the Publisher it begins Anno 1004 and it ends Anno 1263. The Last which is the continuation of the History of Croyland though in some places imperfect which the Transcriber perhaps observed not yet we saith the Publisher thought fit to add it not onely because the Authour or rather perhaps Authours designed a continuation of Ingulfus and Peter Blesensis but chiefly because the latter end of the Reign of Henry the sixth and the whole Reign of Edward
and the first 13 years of Charles the second were added by one Mr. Edward Phillips which ends with the Coronation of that Prince being the 23d of April 1661. The former Sir William Dugdale as is supposed hath writ a short account of the late troubles of England wherein all the proceedings of the Rebellion are excellently laid together James Heath Gent. hath also written the History of the same times very well as it is said to the Restitution of Charles the second continued since to the year 1675 by J. Phillips William Sanderson hath written not onely the Reigns of Queen Mary of Scotland and King James but also another piece which he calls a complete History of the Life and Reign of King Charles the first from his Cradle to his Grave but as this was written and published during our horrid Confusions here in England and before his late Majesty's Restitution so there are many things in it as it is said which will need amendment The truth is there hath been never a good History writ since Camden's Annals of our affairs that ever yet came to my knowledge nor perhaps have the times been such as to bear one that of Tacitus is considerable the prosperous and unfortunate Events of the ancient People of Rome are delivered by great Writers in the times of Augustus there was no want of generous Pens till they were supprest by the rising flattery of the times the accounts of Tiberius Caligula Claudius and Nero whilst these Princes flourished were out of fear false and after they were gone whilst the hatred of men was fresh were as much too sharp from which considerations I resolved saith he to deliver a few and those of the last Actions of Augustus when the flattery he hints at began and then the Reign of Tiberius and the rest without Anger or affection as having by reason of the distance of the time had no concern with any of them I need not make any application nor will the case bear one But yet I should have excepted one Historian and that is Johnstonius but though he did not publish his History in his Life and so by that and putting it into such hands as Printed it beyond the Seas secured his History from all suspicion of a necessitated Compliance yet then he being a Stranger to our English Laws and Constitutions has committed some faults which an English man would have easily avoided and speaks too contemptuously of some of our Greatest Lawyers whom he styles every where Leguleii as if they had been some little snarling Countrey Attornies If now our Reader desires a short course of English History he may begin with Milton first then take Daniel and Trussel and then Sir Francis Bacon's Henry the 7 th and Bishop Godwin's Annals which will bring him down to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth where Camden's Annals such as they now are in English fall in and for the rest he may take his Choice according to his fancy There is an excellent Catalogue of the Historians of England in Baker's Chronicle which the Reader may Consult too if he please MANTISSA OR An Addition Concerning the Historians of particular Nations as well Ancient as Modern by Nicholas Horseman ARTICLE I. The design and method of this Appendix in what order we should proceed in relation to particular Historians the principal Writers of each Countrey are to be selected the Historians of the latter Ages compared with the more Ancient THus far our Authour Mr. Deg. Wheare has proceeded concerning the Civil History and was just now going to lead his Reader to the Church History and yet we will presume to stop him here a small time and I will not despair neither of obtaining an easie pardon for this my unseasonable interposition from those who desire to run through a perfect Collection of Historians especially if they shall be sensible that these Endeavours of ours may in any degree promote their Studies The Roman Empire long since sinking under its own weight and being at last torn in pieces and divided each distinct Nation began to rely upon its own Forces and administred its own affairs both at home and abroad and from thence the particular Histories of particular Nations have sprung up which our Authour hath left untouched and unsaluted the British onely excepted and this Field I will presume to Reap by adding here an Appendix concerning the Histories of those Nations who are now possest of some part of the ancient Roman Empire or were never subject to it in which we will represent or at least inartificially describe those ancient and Modern Writers who have illustrated the affairs and Actions of the more considerable people by their Pens 'T is not indeed our purpose to seek curiously after and name all these Historians as indeed who can pretend to know them or solicitously to digest and accurately treat of them which is a very troublesome business and above our Abilities But I think it reasonable here to advise all the lovers of History in the very entrance of the Work that they should begin with the Antiquities of their own Countries as for instance the Britains with the British and so proceed to those of other Countries and in the first place to those Nations which have had frequent Leagues Wars or Commerce with their own And it will also be very advantageous to chuse some principal Authour who may seem to excell all other in writing the History of that Countrey as in the German History Lambertus Schafnaburgensis in the Austrian History Lazius in the Hungarian Bonfinius in the Gothick Jornandes in the History of Denmark Saxo Grammaticus in the Sclavonian Helmoldus in the Longobardian Paulus Diaconus in the Polonian Chromerus in the Prussian Stella in the Bohemian Aeneas Sylvius in that of Switzars Simlerus in the Burgundian Heuterus in that of Saxony Crantzius in the Bavarian Aventinus in the Flandrian Mejerus in the Dutch Grotius in the French P. Aemylius in the Spanish Mariana and so for the rest But here our Reader of the Barbarian History may be pleased to understand that the Authours for the most part with which he is now to Converse do sink very much beneath the Eloquence of those of the greater Nations the Greeks and Romans and that they are very much inferiour both in Ability and Dignity to those who with their Pens have adorn'd the Stories of those once potent People not onely in many other things but especially in the purity of their Styles for in the darkness of that decrepit Age they use a style which by reason of the Barbarity and harshness of it cannot but offend those whose Ears have been used to a terse and delicate phrase and the Historians of those times which affected Elegance chose to imitate those of the middle Ages Eutropius Paulus Diaconus Orosius and the like who were as remote from the Roman Eloquence as they were from the times in which it flourished rather
Pyrenean Mountains THe principal Writers of the History of Gallia which the French now possess that I may say nothing of the most ancient Julius Caesar his VII Books of the Gallick War And Hirtius who continues him nor of Appianus his Celirks which belong to this Story are these Gregorius Turonensis Bishop of Tours in his first Book brings down the History from the beginning of the World to the Reign of Theodosius the first in the other nine Books he sets forth the Lives and actions of the Kings of France to his own times and the year of Christ 594 but the XIth Book which is supposed to have been added by Fredegarius ends in the Death of Charles the Great which happened Anno Christi 814. Paulus Aemilius Veronensis a man of a Livian style of whom mention is made above Sect. XXV as Reinerus Reineccius bears witness spent XXX years in the compiling his History of France after the Dissolution of the Roman Dominion and comes down to Philip and Charles his Brother Children of Luis that is from the year 420 to the year 1488 the opinion of J. Lipsius concerning this History is that if a few things were lightly Corrected he would be a person above the Learning of our Age and deserve the Commendations given to ancient Authours and Ludovicus Vivis saith his History is written with more Fidelity and truth than that of Gaguinus who has disclosed and intermixt his own affections in his History Paulus Jovius hath written the Reigns and Lives of Charles the 8th Luis the 12th and Francis the first King of France splendidly and elegantly Arnoldus Ferronius Burdegalensis hath continued the History of Aemilius to Henry the second Philippus Comines of whom mention is made above Sect. the 25th has woven the History of Luis the XIth and Charles the VIIIth his Son in a clear and elegant style and although Jacobus Mejerus avers in many places that he is mistaken yet he is in the judgment of the Learned Vossius a true and a prudent Historian and Johannes Sleidanns gives him this Elogie This Authour is in my judgment the nearest to the ancient Historians of all those that have wrote in or near our times both in prudence and veracity for he lays before us the grave deliberations that passed in the Closets of Princes before they appeared in their Events abroad which very few have attempted to do fewer have been able to do it effectually and even those who could have done it have yet not dared to do it lest they should offend their Princes Johannes Frossardus has splendidly and elegantly written the History of those dreadfull Wars which passed betwixt the English and French from the year 1335 to the year 1400 who deserves the greater faith because he was a follower of the Courts of Kings and Princes especially of Philippa Daughter of the Count of Heynault Queen to Edward the third King of England nor did he relate any thing in his History but what he had seen with his own Eyes or heard from others who had seen them or had the chief Commands in the Wars Johannes Sleidanus hath excerpted the most material passages out of this History and turned them into Latine for it is Originally written in French and Sir John Bouchier Knight translated this intire History into English Enguerus Monstreletus hath continued Frossardus and brought down the French History to the Reign of Luis the XIIth Martinus Longaeus wrote a Commentary in X Books of the actions of Francis I. of Valoise King of France and Stephanus Doletus and Galeacius Capella have written the History of the Wars betwixt Charles the fifth and this Prince for the Dutchy of Milan from the year 1520 to the year 1530 the latter is followed by Gulielmus Paradinus who hath added the story of the succeeding years to the year 1555. A nameless person perhaps Franciscus Hottomanus has written the History of France during the Reigns of Henry the second Francis the second and Charles the IXth Rabutinus hath written the Expedition of Henry the second against Charles the Vth undertaken in the year 1552 on the behalf of the Princes of Germany Eusebius Philadelphus that is Theodorus Beza who by the Cloudiness of this name obscured himself has wrote the History of Charles the IXth and of his Mother Petrus Matthaeus a Lawyer the Royal Historian has writ the History of Henry the IV th King of France and of Navar in VII Books BESIDES these which we have mentioned there are several others which ought to be perused as Carolus Molinaeus who hath writ of the Rise and Progress of the French Kingdom and Monarchy and Hubertus Leonardus of the Origine of the French â—â—tion but then Hunibaldus Francus who has wrote the affairs of the Franks from the Wars of Troy to the times of Clodoneus is to be esteemed of the same nature with Annius his Berosus and the rest of those fabulous Writers in the judgment of the famous Vossius de Hist. lat lib. 2. c. 22. Aimoinus the Monk is to be better thought of who is an excellent Historian as the Authour de Regimine Principatus lib. 3. c. 21. calls him which work is commonly but very falsely ascribed to Aquinas he wrote the actions of the French from the year 420 to the year 826 in V Books for the proof of whose Fidelity these words of his make very much there was another Monk in the same Monastery a Priest and a professed Monk as well as he and his name was Audoaldus he was of the same age and in his Manners and Conversation very like him from whose Mouth we have received what is delivered and much more which we are confident is faithfully related Nor is Joannes Trithemius though a German to be lightly passed by who has writ III Books of the Origine Kings and affairs of France from the year of Christ 433 to the year 1500 which was the III year of Charles the VIII th Nor Nicholaus Gilius who hath Composed the Annals of France Hermannus Comes who writes of their affairs to the year 1525 or Robertus Gaguinus who has deduced their History from the most remote Antiquity to the time of the Expedition of Charles the VIII th into Italy Anno Christi 1493 though he has mixed his own affections with the History as Vivis saith and yet Mejerus is not to be admitted neither who calls him a frivolous Writer which is to be attributed to his disaffection to the French Nation and all their Historians for he saith of them in general the French do not use to relate their actions with more fidelity than they transact them and besides as Mejerus out of his too great affection to his Countrey has delivered many things done in his own times there very partially so in Foreign affairs he is not over much to be Credited Paulus Jovius affirming of
him that in the affairs of Italy he does blunder and mistake so strangely that those who did not regard the Elegance of his style were apt to be much incensed against him There are also several Authours who have written of the Expeditions of the French Nation into the East and of the Kingdom Erected by them in Jerusalem almost all which the Learned Jacobus Bongarsius has collected together and rescued from the Moths and Dust of the Libraries in which they before lurked by publishing them after he had with great study and pains Corrected them of these the first is Robertus a Monk who wrote the History of Jerusalem A nameless Italian who wrote the Actions of the French and others at Jerusalem in which actions he was present and therefore deserves the greater Credit Baldericus Aurelianensis who wrote the History of the same V years with the last named Italian that is from the year 1095 to the year 1100 and Raimundus de Agiles Canon of Le Puy wrote the History of the same time Albertus Steward of the Church of Dax who wrote XII Books from the beginning of the Expedition of Godfry of Bulloin and other Princes to the second year of King Balduin the Second and so has as Vossius saith accurately written the History of XXIV years after him follows Fulcherius Carnotensis who writes from the beginning of that Expedition to the year 1124 and Gauterus Cancellarius who described what passed at Antioch where he was present after these comes William Archbishop of Tyre the Prince of all these Historians a man of no vulgar Learning pleasant above what that Age afforded as the Learned Bongarsius saith of him He wrote in XXIII Books beginning at the year 1095 and ending at 1180 the â—istory of LXXXIV years of what ever had passed in the Holy Land and in all Syria which the Bishop of Accon his Suffragan continued and thus far of the French Historians ARTICLE X. The Historians of the Dutch and Flandrians c. THere is scarce any thing delivered concerning the Flandrians worthy of Credit before the year 445 from which time Mejerus begins his Annals of Flanders which he has included in XVII Books in which he hath also given a large account of the Earls of Flanders from Lydericus Harlebacanus who flourished about the year 800. to Charles the Hardy Duke of Burgundy's Death in the year 1476. Hadrianus Barlandus hath compiled a Chronicle of the Dukes of Brabant from Pipin the first Duke of that Province Grandchild of Caroloman Son of Braban the third Prince of Brabant before this Province had the name or title of a Dukedom given it to Charles the Vth Emperour of Germany the Son of Philip. Jacobus Marchantius hath written IV. Books of the Memorable affairs of Flanders Aemundus hath Writ of the Dukes of Burgundy from the Trojan War to Charles the Vth. Beisscllus also of the Actions of the Flandrians and of late Olivarius Uredus J. C. Brugensis has with infinite study and labour written the Flandrian Genealogies and the History of the Earls of Flanders Hadrianus Junius his Batavia unfolds the History of the Dutch Nation the Antiquities of their Island their Origine Manners and many other things belonging to their History Noviomagus his History of Holland gives an account of their Princes from Bato their first King to Charles the Vth Emperour and to Charles of Gelders Nor is Gerhardus Geldenhaurius to be omitted who hath drawn an History of Holland with an Appendix concerning the most ancient Nobility Kings and Actions of the Germans Johannes Isaacus Pontanus Historian to the King of Denmark and State of Gelders by the command of the States hath Written an History of that Province from their beginning to the year 1581 which is a vast Work Ubo Emmius and Winsemius have both written the History of Frisland and Jacobus Revius that of Daventry Ludovicus Guicciardinus hath written a brief History of all the Transactions of Europe especially what relates to the Low-Countries from the year 1529 to the year 1560 that is from the Peace of Cambray betwixt Charles the Vth Emperour of Germany and Francis the First King of France This last Age hath afforded several most elegant Writers of the Dutch History as first Johannes Meursius who in X. Books hath writ the Life of William Prince of Orange and the Transactions of those Countries during all his time to the end of the Government of Ludovicus Requesenius that is from the year 1550 to the year 1576 and in another Work in IV. Books the beginning of the Low-Country-War or Six years Government of Ferdinand Duke de Alva to which he added a Vth Book in which is the History of the Truce Famianns Strada who in XX. Books wrote the History of those Wars from the Resignation of Charles the Vth that is from the year 1558 to the year 1590. Hugo Grotius who wrote V. Books of the Annals of Holland and XVIII Books of History in which he hath given an Account of all the Affairs of the Low-Countries from the departure of Philip the Second into Spain to the Truce that is from the year 1566 to the year 1609. ARTICLE XI The Historians of Spain THe Writers of Spanish History may perhaps not unfitly be ranked according to the four different ages of that Kingdom So the Infancy of Spain is lightly touched by Pomponius Mela who was a Native of Spain The youth of Spain as I may call it which was under the Roman and Gothick Dominion is described by Tacitus Dion Vopiscus Suetonius Appianus in his Iberica Procopius Eusebius and some others It began to arrive at Manhood in that Age in which it began to shake off the yoke of the Moors in which War 700 years were spent this then may be call'd the time of their Manhood And then their Ripest Age began under the Reign of Ferdinando the Catholick who expelled the Moors out of the whole Kingdom of Spain the most of those Writers I shall here mention Wrote of this last and the preceding Age. Isidorus Pacensis who is supposed to be the Authour of the Chronicle of Spain of whom Vasaeus Wrote thus rigidly in the Fourth Chapter of his Chronicle Isidorus Bishop of Badajoz or Baxagus Wrote a Chronicle of Spain whose Chronicle if that which bears this name be his I should rather call a Monster than a Chronicle he Writes so prodigiously ill and rather in the Gothish than Latine Tongue Rodericus Ximenes Archbishop of Toledo acquired much Glory by IX Books which he wrote of the Spanish History which he brought down to the times of Ferdinand the third the censure of Rodericus Sanctius is that the style of it is short but very pleasant and the Learned Lipsius saith it is as good as it was possible it could be in such an Age and Mariana gives him high Commendations in several places nor will I
pass by the opinion of Johannes Gerundensis in the History of Spain Trogus Pompejus Orosius and Isidorus Hispalensis are worthy of great esteem Roder of Toledo is tolerable the rest are mere Dreams The last cited Authour Johannes Margarinus Bishop of Girona wrote an History of Spain in X Books from the Arrival of Hercules to the Reigns of Arcadius and Honorius the Children of Theodosius the Elder in the times of which Princes the Goths entred Spain he styles it the omitted History of Spain because in it he relates what had been omitted by the Writers of the latter Ages Johannes Mariana has writ the History of Spain from the first times of it to the Ruine of the Moors in XX Books which in X Books more is continued to the Death of King Ferdinand that is to the year 1516. Franciscus Tarapha brings down an History of Spain to Charles the V th Rodericus Sanctius Palentinus who was Chaplain and Counsellour to Henry the IV th King of Castile and Leon hath consigned to paper in a very great Volume an uninterrupted History of Spain down to his own times that is to the year 1467 concerning whom and two other more ancient Historians of that Nation Luca Tudiensis and Rod. Ximenius Alph. Garsias a Rhetorician of Alcala an University in Spain gives this judgment because they did not seek to please the Ears of men but to inrich the memories and judgments of Posterity as they sought not after pleasing Language so neither have they entertained their Readers with trifles and falsehoods Marineus Siculus wrote an History of the memorable affairs of Spain in XXII Books which ends in Charles the 5 th Laurentius Valla wrote the Reign of Ferdinand King of Aragon in III Books but as P. Jovius justly thought he wrote this work in such a style as no man can conceive that it was penn'd by him who gave the precepts of Latine Elegance to others and you may there find several other things concerning this Historian Carolus Verardus who flourished under Innocent the VIII th about the year 1484 wrote the History of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Granada and the History of Andaluzia Hieronymus Conestagius wrote the History of the Union of Portugal to the Kingdom of Castile in X Books in which he gives an account of the State of that Nation from the time in which Sebastian the first passed with a vast Fleet into Africa to fight against the Moors to the times when it was by the Conduct of Philip the second united to the rest of the Spanish Provinces Damianus à Goes has writ the actions of the Portuges in the Indies Aelius Antonius Nebrissensis hath written the History of the affairs under Ferdinando and Elizabeth in XX Books and he hath also writ the War of NAVAR in II Books Vasaeus in his Chronicle of Spain Chap. 4 th saith it is an History worthy of so great a man and he is commended by Erasmus as a man of various Learning and that deservedly there is also an high Commendation given him by Alphonsus Garsia in the Book which he wrote of the Learned men and Universities of Spain to these may be added Hieronymus Osorius a Polite Writer of the memorable things of Spain Johannes Brucellus of the Spanish War in V Books and Florianus Ocampus who by the Command of Charles the V th published a general Chronicle of Spain the rest I omit ARTICLE XII The Historians of the Turks and Arabians who heretofore were possessed of the Dominions of Africa Syria Persia and Spain and are commonly call'd Saracens THe History of the Saracens is to be sought in Harmannus Dalmata Leo Africus Robert the Monk William of Tyre and Benedictus de Accoltis a famous Elogie upon whom is Extant in Lilius Gyraldus his second Dialogue of the Poets of his time and in those other Authours which we have mentioned above when we discoursed of those Historians who had given an account of the affairs of the French in the East Caelius Aug. Curio wrote also an History of the Saracens in III Books and he also wrote a particular History of the Kingdom of Morocho Erected by the Saracens in Barbary There are several who have given accounts of the Origine of the Turks for there it is fit to begin the reading of their History as Baptista Egnatius Theodorus Gaza and Andrea Combinus Martinus Barletius in his Chronicle has excellently described the Origine of the Turks their Princes Emperours Wars Victories Military Discipline c. And he hath also writ the Life and Actions of George Castriot who by Amurath for the greatness of his actions was Sirnamed Scanderbeg very elegantly in XIII Books whose fidelity will appear from that passage in his Preface I have saith he committed to writing what hath been related to me by my Ancestours and by some others who were present and saw what passed Laonicus Chalcocondylas an Athenian wrote an History of the Turks in X Books he is the onely Grecian Historian who wrote since the barbarous Turks possessed themselves of Constantinople with any applause he flourished in the end of the fourteenth Century about the year of Christ 1490 he begins from Ottoman the Son of Orthogul who began his Reign about the year of Christ 1300 and he ends in the year 1363 in which Mahomet the II stoutly repell'd the invasion made upon him by Mathias King of Hungaria and the Venetians Johannes Leunclavius also hath collected and published an History of the Musulmen out of their own Monuments with great industry in XVIII Books about the year 1560. Paulus Jovius ought here to be taken in too who has accurately and elegantly represented their affairs especially from the XII th to the XVII th Book and again from the XXXII to the XXXVII th Book of whom the Authour writes above Sect. 25. Henricus Pantaleon has collected an History of all the memorable Expeditions both by Sea and Land which have been undertaken for 600 years by the Christians in Asia Africa and Europe against the barbarous Saracens Arabians and Turks to the year 1581 to which you may add Reinerus Reineccius his Oriental History Martinus Stella hath written concerning the Wars of the Turks in Hungaria Petrus Bizarus hath written of the War made by Solyman against Maximilian the Emperour Melchior Soiterus hath writ the War made upon the Turks by Charles the V th and Ferdinand his Brother Nicholaus Honnigerus hath writ of Solyman the XII th and Selym the XIII th Emperour of the Turks against the Christians Ubertus Folietta hath writ the Siege of Malta and of several Expeditions into Africa and also of the War in Cyprus betwixt the Turks and the Venetians Ubio Esinus and Caelius Cec. Curio have also both of them writ of the Cyprian War and the latter of them of the Siege of Maltha too the taking and Sacking of Constantinople
this History out of Greek into Latin added two Books of his own and continued the History to the death of Theodosius the Emperour An. Christi CCCC But then in his Translation he took too great a liberty and in his own Addition he borrowed much from Eusebius and therefore Joseph Scaliger in the Appendix of his incomparable Work de Emendatione Temporum calls him a most silly Authour and perhaps no hurt will be done if our Student pass him by for the History of the same times is written more largely and accurately by Socrates Sozomen and Theodoret. These three were translated by Epiphanius Scholasticus into Latin at the request of the Great Aurelius Cassiodorus who made of these three one body of History and put it out under the name of the Tripartite Story But then David Chytraeus a famous Man who hath done great service to the World in relation both to the Civil and Ecclesiastical History doth admonish and exhort all studious Men that they should not onely reade those fragments which are thus patch'd together by Cassiodorus but also the intire Authours which are extant and carefully Printed both in Greek and Latin and that they should begin with Eusebius his Panegyrick on the Life of Constantine in which they will find an uninterrupted History of XXX years and the chief Edicts and Laws of that Prince concerning the Christian Religion carefully expounded in the IId IIId and IV th Books which are the Fountains whence Socrates Theodoret and Sozomen have drawn many things in the beginning of their Histories SECT XXXV In what times Socrates lived from whence and how far he has brought his History and of Theodoret also and what is contain'd in each of his Books The Censure of Photius on him Sozomen the Salamine continues the History to the year of Christ CCCCXXIII A place of St. Gregorie's against Sozomen consider'd and an Answer made to it The Candor of Sozomen the Testimony of Euagrius concerning him Euagrius follows the Tripartite History and continues it to the year DXCVII Theophilactus Simocatus continued it to the year DCI. SOcrates Born at Constantinople under Theodosius Junior the Son of Arcadius beginning his History about the end of that wrote by Eusebius with the Victory obtain'd by Constantine against Maxentius Anno Christi CCCXIII. or rather from that year in which he was first declared Emperour openly in Britain that is from the year of Christ CCCIX he deduced it to the XVII th Consulship of the aforesaid Theodosius Junior that is to the year of Christ CCCCXLI in VII Books written in a style that is not extraordinarily splendid the first of which Books contains the times of Constantine the Emperour the second those of Constantius the third the Reigns of Julian and Jovian the fourth those of Valentinian and Valens the fifth those of Gratian and Theodosius the first the sixth the times of Arcadius the seventh contains XXXII years of the Reign of Theodosius the younger the whole History represents the Church affairs of CXL years as he himself tells us in express words in the last Chapter of the VII th Book This last Boak saith he contains the space of XXXII years but the whole History which is divided into VII Books contains CXL years which begins with the first year of the Two hundereth seventy and first Olympiad in which Constantine was declared Emperour and ends in the second year of the Three hundreth and fifth Olympiad at the XVII th Consulship of Theodosius the Emperour It is clear from several places that he favoured the Faction of the Novatians for which is observed by the most Learned Jacob Billius he is extremely pleased not onely when he meets but when he can but pretend to have found an occasion of speaking much in favour of the Novatians and if any Man had out of a Pious Zeal more sharply treated the Novations Socrates would be sure to find some opportunity or other to traduce his Name and Reputation but so cunningly that to a Reader of an ordinary capacity he will seem rather to have done it out of a desire of speaking truth than out of a compliance with his own Anger and Resentment This I say is the Censure of J. Billius a very Learned Man upon Socrates the Authour of the Church History which I thought fit to insert here that our Lover of History might make use of the greater caution in the reading him Theodoret lived in the same times and was Bishop of Cyrus a City of Mesopotamia or Syria He wrote an Ecclesiastical History from the end of Eusebius his History and the rise of the Arrian Heresie which he hath also brought down to the times of Theodosius Junior wherein he gives somewhat a larger account of the Actions done in the second General Council than any other Historian that is extant In the first Book of his History he gives us the History of the Church under Constantine the Great in the second he expounds what happened under Constantius in the third he tells us the Church affairs under Julian the Apostate the fourth Book he attributed to Jovian Valentinian and Valens the fifth to Gratian Theodosius the Great and Arcadius and in the same Book he toucheth the beginning of the Reign of Theodosius the younger the Censure of Photius concerning the style of Theodoret is this That it is fitter for an History than that used by Socrates or that of Hermias Sozomen or that of Euagrius Ponticus and of the same opinion is that most Learned Man Gerardus Johannes Vossius Hermias Sozomenus was Bishop of Salamine a City of Cyprus and flourished also under Theodosius to whom he dedicated his History beginning at the Consulate of Crispus and Constantinus Anno Christi CCCXXIII he continued it to the death of Honorius An Christ. CCCCXXIII which space of time he comprehends in IX Books the two first of which repeat the things done in the times of Constantine the Great the third and fourth contain the transactions under the Three Children of Constantine the fifth and sixth comprehend the times of Valentinian and Valens the seventh those of Gratian and Theodosius the First the eighth the times of Arcadius the ninth runs through the times of Theodosius the Second as far as the death of Honorius Anno Christi CCCCXXIII which was the XVI year of the Reign of Theodosius Junior But then the See of Rome refuseth to receive this Historian too and these are the words of Gregory the Great that because he tells many Lies and commends Thedorus Mopsuestia too much and saith he was a Great Doctor of the Church to the day of his death I was directed to this place by George Hackwill Professor of Divinity a person of a various erudition and of a singular both piety and prudence But to this Melchior Canus long since replied That there is no such thing to be found in Sozomen concerning Theodorus Mopsuestia And that Gregorie ' s
Church and overflowed it which were then sent out of all and every Cloister Hospital Church-yard Xenodoch or Hospital for Travellers and Strangers and out of every Thole Cave and â—upelo And almost the same thing is said by the famous Casaubon In the Historical Monuments saith he of those Ages the Accounts of the Miracles wrought by the Saints or their Images or Relicks filled the whole Book c. Upon which account a Learned Man said He doubted whether those Ages were to be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Times of Rotomantados or Wonder-making or of Ignorance And he will not seem to me to err much who shall affirm both things of these times especially if he has respect to the Western Empire and the Latin Church and Writers under that Empire For after these horrible inundations of the Barbarous Nations the Roman Empire falling into ruine together with it all the Knowledge of good Learning fell also and an amazing Barbarity and Ignorance poured in upon the Western parts and all the cultivation of Arts and Wits withered away as if they had been strucken with a Pestilential vapour and lay both neglected and despised insomuch that as to Learning they are the words of the Learned Bishop of Chichester after Isodorus Hispalensis who died in the year of our Lord 636 or thereabouts to Venerable Bede our Countreyman who lived about the year 731 those who were but moderately versed in the more Polite Literature were scarce so many in number as the Gates of Thebes or the Mouthes of the Nile And I will add those that followed in the two next Centuries amongst the Latins were not much more numerous But you will say perhaps then Greece will yet afford us some And therefore let us now proceed and take a view of them SECT XXXVII Nicephorus of Constantinople may follow Simocatus Nicephorus Callistus full of Errours Georgius Cedrenus and the Censures of Scaliger and Vossius on him LEt therefore Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople follow Simocatus he lived in the times of Copronymus about the year of Christ DCCL and wrote a Breviary or short History of Affairs from the Murther of Mauritius where Simocatus ended to the year of Christ DCCLXIX which Authour was first published together with a Latin Translation by that famous Man Dionysius Petavius There is indeed another Nicephorus known by the Sirname of Callistus who lived long after the former for he was born MCCC years after Christ and flourished under Andronicus the Greater and Andronicus the Lesser his Nephew This latter Nicephorus begins his History with the beginning of the Christian Religion and continues it to the death of Phocas who succeeded Mauritius that is to the year of Christ DCXXV But all the peculiar errours of the Greeks are to be found in this Authour as Bellarmine saith especially such as are Historical And the Reverend Bishop of Chichester numbers him amongst those Authours who out of foolish superstition were extremely prone to believe and put out or rather obtrude upon the World prodigious and nauseous Fables Georgius Cedrenus the Monk was a little more ancient than Callistus he wrote a Compendium of Histories from the beginning of the World to Isacius Comnenus that is to the year of Christ MLVII in which times he seems to have flourished But then neither is this Authour said to be of any great credit It is apparent by these words of his what the great Scaliger thought of him The whole Work of Cedrenus saith he is a heap of Chaff or a Collection made up of many Pieces some base some noble some good some bad some intire some torn The Judgment of the Learned Vossius concerning him is a little more favourable for thus he represents him He is a little more diligent than Zonaras in the Bizantine affairs but then in those things which fell before the division of the Empire he is less exact than Zonaras Nor is his style equal to his or that of Nicetas or Gregoras or many others and yet in this Rhapsody I had almost called it a Chaff heap it is possible to find some noble pieces And to conclude they both tell us that he transcrib'd to a word Georgius Syncellus and Theophanes who continued him and Gesner tells us the whole History of Cedrenus from the death of Nicephorus the Emperour commonly call'd Botonias to the Reign of Isaac Comnenus a very few things excepted is extant under the name of Johannes Curopalata which is also confirm'd by the most Learned Casaubon so that one of them must of necessity steal out of the other SECT XXXVIII The Third Tome of Zonaras commended to the Reader And at the year 1118. Anna Comnena her Alexiades The high Commendations of that Lady JOhannes Zonaras flourished above Fifty years after Cedrenus about the year of Christ MCXX. he as is observed above amongst the Civil Historians wrote an Universal History which he divided into three Tomes the last of which is thought fit in this place to be recommended to the Reader For in this he laboured to describe more exactly whatever had been done in the East from Constantine the Great and his Successours to the times of this Authour that having been till then attempted by few men A very learned Man observes that in both his two first Tomes there are many things not mention'd by any other Authour but that in his third Tome for the most part he gives account of those Bizantine affairs which are not mentioned by any other Historian besides himself and were it not for him we should have been ignorant of a great part of the Actions of the latter Emperours of the East Besides he interwove the History of the Church of Constantinople and of the Controversies in Religion that were moved in the Eastern Church and continued it down to the death of Alexius Comnenus an Emperour who Reigned in his own times But that is much to be observed which is remarked by the Learned Vossius that in the affairs of his own times he is very careless and contracts the Life of Alexius Comnenes into a very narrow compass But then Anna Comnena the Daughter of this Emperour supplied this defect who wrote several Books on the Life of her Father and call'd them by the name of Alexiada's Zonaras in his third Tome near the end doth much commend the erudition of this Lady where he speaks of the Learning and Power of Bryennius Caesar her husband in these words And he also was given much to study and his Lady did not take less but rather more pains in Learning speaking the Attick Dialect perfectly and having a very sharp wit for the Contemplation of the most abstruse things Nor doth the Historian stop here but goes on and shews how she became so very Learned Having saith he by the benignity of Nature obtained great faculties and improv'd them with industry she spent much time in reading
and the conversation of Learned Men which she heard diligently But many have a great suspicion that this Royal and Learned Lady out of her great Love for her Father is a little too partial in this her History SECT XXXIX Nicetas Acomiatus follows immediately after Zonaras after Nicetas Gregoras Lipsius his Judgment of both these Writers The fidelity of Gregoras call'd in question Johannes Cantacuzenus is in this place commended to the Reader by the Learned Vossius after the former follows Laonicus Calcochondylas AFter Zonaras Nicetas Acomiatus or Choniates immediately follows in order and subjoins his History For where Zonaras ends there Nicetas begins and prosecutes the Story somewhat largely and freely for LXXXV years to the taking of Constantinople by Baldwin the Flandrian and the year of Christ 1203. He was born at Chonis a Town of Phrygia from whence he took his Sir-name The Chronicle of Gregoras Logothetes may here also have its place he has the History of the taking of Constantinople and of the events that followed for almost LX. years that is from Baldwin the Flandrian to Baldwin the last Emperour Both Zonaras and Choniates had great employments in the Constantinopolitan Empire which made them the fitter to write their Histories the first was the great Drungar and prime Secretary and the Latter was the great Logothetes and Lord Chamberlain of the Sacred or Presence Chamber After Nicetas follows also Nicephorus Gregoras who wrote an History of CXLV years to wit from Theodorus Lascares the First to his own times or to the death of Andronicus Palaeologus the latter which falls in the year of Christ 1341. We must confess these two last did not make it so much their business to describe the History of the Church as that of the Empire or Civil State yet because they sometimes intermix things belonging to the Church briefly as occasion serves and are therefore reckon'd by others amongst the Ecclesiastical Writers and also because Choniates connects his Narrative to the History of Zonaras and Nicephorus makes it his business to supply or fill up what haniates had omitted as if he had designed to perfect the body of the History therefore I could not omit them and that the rather because amongst the latter Greeks there are no Authours of better note than these for the inforcing which last reason to the Lovers of History and that we may with the greater facility induce them to the Reading of these Authours I will here paint out the judgment of Justus Lipsius upon them I confess saith he that Nicetas is not yet publickly and commonly much taken notice of but he is worthy to be more known being of a pure and right judgment if there were any such in that Age his style is laboured and tastes of Homer and the Poets very often but then the subject and relation it self is distinct clear without vanity or trifles as short as is fit and faithfull there is in him frequent and seasonable reflexions or advices his Judgments of things are not onely free but sound In short I wish all Statesmen would reade him and then I shall not question but some of them will pay me their thanks for this judgment of him at least I am sure they will owe me thanks Thus much of Choniates and of Gregoras he gives this judgment Nicephorus Gregoras takes up the History where Nicetas ends it and brings down the thread of his Narrative but he doth not deserve the same commendations for though he wrote the History of affairs from the taking of the City of Constantinople to the death of Palaeologus the latter yet he did it not with the same correctness or industry and has more of the faults of his Age than the former he is redundant and wandering and indecently and sometimes imprudently mixeth his own onceits and Harangues Yet his Judgments are thick sown and for the most part right the causes of events are curiously inquired into and represented Piety is inculcated and many things are seasonably assigned and turn'd over to the first cause that is to God In truth no Writer has more asserted PROVIDENCE and FATE He is to be read for this cause and also for another that is that the greatest part of his History represents a state of affairs not much unlike our own times for you will find in him Contentions and Quarrels concerning Religion not much unlike those in our days Thus far goes Justus Lipsius in his Accounts of this Authour But then there are some Men of great skill in History who have some scruples concerning the fidelity of this Nicephorus especially in the affairs of Andronicus Palaeologus where he ends as I have said above And therefore if the Reader please he may there take in Johannes Cantacuzenus who of an Emperour became a Monk and wrote an excellent History under the Title of Christodulus of the Reigns of Andronicus the younger and his own The Learned Vossius commends this History on many accounts to those that are conversant in the study of History This History saith he ought to be the more esteemed because it was written by a Person who had not always led an obscure private life but who was first a great Officer in the Family and Court of Andronicus Junior and after his death had the tutelage of his Children and afterwards the Senate desiring and the affairs of the Empire requiring it he was elected Emperour and behaved himself prudently and valiantly in that Royal station To this may be added that he did not write of things which were scarce known to him but of such transactions as he was present at and had the chief conduct of and in truth I think there is hardly any one amongst the Modern Greeks who ought to be preferr'd before him This Royal Historian flourished about the year of Christ 1350. this History consists of VI. Books as Vossius there saith whereof the two first treat of the Reign of Andronicus the remaining IV of his own Reign and what he did after the death of Andronicus He was made a Monk in the year of Christ 1360. when he took the Name of Josaaphus Thus far the Learned Vossius And that our Historian may not here be at a loss or interrupt the thread of his Reading till he have seen the last period of the Eastern Empire And the deplored state of the Church there upon that revolution he may be pleased to subjoin to the former the History of Laonicus Chalcocondylas the Athenian For he will diligently shew what followed and how at last that August or Royal City which was not content to be the second City of the World but greatly emulated Rome the Sovereign of the Earth fell into the Power of that Potent Tyrant the Turk the bitter Enemy of our Faith and of the most Sacred Cross. And he doth also most excellently describe the Rise Encrease and Progress of this Tyrant
and his Nation He begins his History from Ottoman the Son of Orthogulis who began to Reign about the year of Christ MCCC which he has compos'd in X. Books and in it he has comprised the Story of the Eastern Church and Empire And he continues it not onely to the year MCCCCLIII in which Constantinople was taken by Mahomet but also as Vossius assures us to the year 1463. in which this Mahomet the IId stoutly defended himself against Matthias King of Hungary and the Venetians who invaded his Kingdom And Vossius saith also Blasius Vigenerius of Bourbon put out this History in French with Notes which was Printed at Paris in the year 1620. SECT XL. Blondus Foroliviensis may supply the want of the Greek Writers as to the Church History with some others Sigebertus Gemblacensis The opinion of Cardinal Bellarmine concerning him Robertus the Abbat continues Sigebert to the year 1210. The Hirshavan Chronicle to the year 1370. and the Additions to that Chronicle to the last Century The Cosmodromus of Gobelinus Person where to be Read its commendation In the stead of it may be read Albertus Crantzius his Metropolis into which many things are transcribed out of the Cosmodromus and the History brought down from the times of Charles the Great to the year 1504. Nauclerus also may supply this defect And that the Reader may avoid Repetitions he may begin with the middle generations of the Second Tome Johannes Sleidanus wrote Ecclesiastical Commentaries from the year 1517. to the year 1556. which are continued to the year 1609. by Caspar Lundorp THe Authours I have given account of in the three last Sections have written altogether of the Eastern affairs and do scarcely at all touch the state of the Western Church This defect may be supplied out of Blondus Foroliviensis who will serve in stead of many who has as is above observed comprehended in his Decads an intire and continued series of affairs from the declension of the Empire and the year of Christ CCCCVII to the year MCCCC and what he wants the following Authours will make good And in the first place I shall begin with Sigebert a Monk of Gemblours a celebrated Abbey in Brabant who was famous about the year of Christ MXCIV. he begins his Chronicle in the year CCCLXXXI that is a little before the end of the Tripartite History and continues it to the year M. C. XIII Bellarmine accuseth him of bearing ill-will to Gregory the VII th Pope of Rome out of a great affection to Henry the IV th Emperour of Germany and perhaps he might favour the Emperour the Cardinal goes higher and reproacheth him for Lying in his account of the death of that Pope but how truely let the Cardinal Answer for himself Robertus Abbat of Mons continued Sigebertus his Chronicle to the year MCCX and the Hirshavan Chronicle of Trithemius to the year MCCCLXX and to conclude the Paraleipomena or Additions of the Abbat of Ursperg brought down this Story to our Age almost Or if these do not please the Reader we can furnish him with other which deserve as well to be read as these And the first in this set shall be Gobelinus Person an Authour not to be despised in the opinion of Learned Men who wrote an Universal Chronicle which he call'd the Cosmodromus in which he has given an account both of the Civil and Sacred or Church History from the Creation of the World to the year of Christ 1418. in which time Sigismund the Son of Charles the IV th was Emperour He divided his whole Work into six Ages and it appears in every one of them that according to the capacity of the times in which he liv'd he was a person of no vulgar either learning or diligence and study in the searching out of what pertains to History But if the Reader be not willing to give himself the trouble of a repetition of what passed before the Birth of Christ when he comes to this Authour he may begin with the VI th Age which takes its Rise at the Nativity of our Lord. And if he is not at all pleased with this Authour he may then pass on to Albertus Crantzius who wrote an History which he stiles the Metropolis or an Ecclesiastical History of the Churches built or restor'd in the times of Charles the Great In the Writing of which History he made great use of Gobelinus his Cosmodromus and transcribd sometime intire Pages out of it into his own work which was afterwards done by many others as the Learned Vossius bears witness Crantzius begins at the times of Charles the Great and goes on to the year MDIV. Johannes Nauclerus also a Noble Schwaben wrote a Chronicle in two Tomes from the beginning of the World to the year MD. the first Volume contains LXIII Generations that is all the Generations of the Old Testament the second Volume with the Appendixes comprehends in LII Generations all those of the New Testament And before this Work was published Philip Melancthon partly by new Methodizing and partly by encreasing and changing it made it much the more desired and the more usefull and delightfull also when it came out And here too the Reader may begin with the second Volume or from the Middle Generations of the second Volume if he be desirous to avoid the repetition of those things which he had before read in other Authours Johannes Sleidanus also in the memory of our Fathers wrote Commentaries concerning the state of Religion from the year MDXVII to the year MDLVI wherein is the History of the Rise of the Reformation throughout all Christendom which is continued in III. Volumes by Caspar Lundorpius to the year MDCIX SECT XLI Venerable Bede and Usuardus are by no means to be neglected nor the Writers of the Lives of the Popes of Rome as Anastasius Bibliothecarius and Bartholomaeus Platina their great Elogies Onuphrius corrected and continued Platina to the year 1566. Sigonius interwove the affairs of the Church with his Civil Histories and so deserves to be esteem'd a Church Historian the Elogies of Sigonius and Onuphrius BEsides these there are extant not a few other Historians which are not less to be valued than those we have mention'd Amongst which in the first place I reckon Venerable Bede our Countrey-man who wrote Annals from the beginning of the World to the Reign of Leo Iconomachus in whose times he flourished Anno 730. when this diligent and pious Writer comes near his times he gives a larger account of affairs than in the former Ages Usuardus a Monk of Fuld in Germany but a Frenchman by birth and the Scholar of Allwin our Countreyman by the command of Charles the Great put out a Martyrologie in which he described the Lives of the Confessours and other Saints in few words and this is now extant to the no small advantage of
And yet O Vinici saith Vellejus I do not doubt but you will think it had been more for the interest of the Commonwealth that we had still remain'd thus ignorant of these Corinthian Works rather than to have overvalued them as now we do and that this folly of his was more consistent with the Publick Good than our skill Thus runs the 13 th Chapter of the first Book of Vellejus Paterculus in which there are many things worthy of a Philologer's observation As first the time when the great Censor Cato died for we should ever think the Births and Deaths of Great Men worthy of our observation But then how great a Man this Cato was may be known from the three-fold Elogie attributed to him by Pliny the Elder for thus he writes of him Cato the first of the Porcian Family is thought to have attain'd three of the greatest things a Man is capable of being an excellent Commander a great Oratour and a wise Senatour And there is a noble Commendation of him in Livy his History which you may see the year of his death also is set down which was the 604 th year of the City of Rome in which L. Marcius Censorinus and M. Manlius were Consuls three years before the Rasing of Carthage which Cato so eagerly desired and which happened in the IIId year of the CLVIII Olympiad if we follow truth and the Assertor of it Eusebius that is according to the computation of Scaliger Anno Mundi 3804. As concerning the Age of Cato there is a small disagreement betwixt Cicero and Titus Livy for the first of these saith he lived to the XC year of his Age and the latter seemeth to say that he did not survive the LXXXV th year of his Life Nor is it to be passed by without regard that he was a perpetual instigator of the Ruine of Carthage as is affirm'd by Vellejus with whom Florus doth agree in this particular Cato saith he ever pronounced with an implacable hatred that Carthage was to be Rased even then when he gave his opinion in any other case whatsoever and Scipio Nasica that it was to be preserved But then this consideration is rather Philosophical or Political and belongs to another place where the causes of these contrary Advices are to be enquired into and which of them was the more prudent In the second place the Philologer will observe the Age and duration of the City of Corinth and the time in which it was built for it continued saith the Historian 952 years And it was destroyed in the same year with Carthage that is in the year of Rome 607. Anno Mundi 3804. therefore it was built Anno Mundi 2852. about 300 years before the Olympiads in which time Samuel the Prophet and Judge of Israel flourished In the third place he will observe not onely when but who was the Builder of this City Vellejus tells us it was Aletes the Son of Hippotis Josephus Scaliger in his Eusebian Animadversions saith that Vellejus trifles here for Apollodorus saith it was first call'd Ephyra and that it was built by one Sisyphus who lived about 60 or 70 years before the times of the Trojane Wars And that consequently the Origine of this City was to be placed much higher But Pausanias saith the Name was changed in honour of Corinthus the Son of Jove And that some Generations after that Aletes the Great Grandchild of Hercules led an Army of the Doricks against the Corinthians and obtain'd that Kingdom which his Posterity as Pausanias saith enjoyed after this five Generations In the Fourth place he will observe that this Age was in a sort fatal to great Cities For to speak nothing of Saguntum Syracuse Numantia and others besides those two Eyes as Cicero calls them of the Sea-shore Carthage and Corinth which were both put out in one year Thebes in Boeotia and Chalcis in Euboea were both taken by the Romans oppress'd subverted and ruin'd Whence the Philosopher concludes that Cities and Commonwealths have their Periods and Determin'd times and much more Men. But then this consideration which this place affords is Moral too as well as the former that is that Periods of VII hundred years have for the most part brought great changes to Kingdoms and Common-wealths Of which you may see more in Bodinus his 4 th Book de Repub. and Peucerus de divinatione lib. VI. Of which Doctrine there was an ill use made in the time of the Holy League in France as Thuanus acquaints us In the V th place whereas he saith the two Generals Mummius and Scipio were honoured with the Names of the two Nations they had Conquered and the latter was call'd Africanus and the former Achaicus from hence I say we may observe the Ancient Custome of giving Sir names and the reason of it both amongst the Grecians and Romans for they took them from their Actions from the shapes of their Bodies from some peculiar Vertue or Vice and from some notable Accident or Fortune So Tarquinius the Second was Sirnamed Superbus the Proud from his Pride and Contempt of others C. Martius from the taking of Coriola was call'd Coriolanus Manlius was call'd Torquatus because he slew a Gall in a Duel who challeng'd him and took a Chain from him and put it about his own neck So the Sir-names of 1. Soteris 2. Callinicus and 3. Gryphus signifie the first to have been a Saviour the second to have obtain'd a glorious Victory and the third to have had a Hooked or Roman Nose as we call it of which you may see Appian Alexandrinus in his Preface Plutarch in his Life of Coriolanus and Alexander ab Alexandro lib. 1. c. 9. And from hence also some Political observations might be raised which I will for the present omit In the VI th place the Philologer will observe from this remark that Mummius was the first of the New Men who merited a Sir-name by his Valour that the Roman Citizens were discriminate into three orders the Nobles the New Men and the Ignobles or Plebeians for those who had the Images of their Ancestours were Nobles those who had onely their own Statues were New Men and they who had neither were call'd Ignobles And now in the remainder of this Chapter is contain'd the comparing of Scipio and Mummius in which is initated both their Manners Tempers and Orders or ways of Living all which together with the observations which spring from thence are to be referred to the other head of Philosophical Observations to which they are here to be left But then as to the Critick Observations if there be any they are not to be omitted for all these and whatever concerns Grammar and Rhetorick and all other observations of the like nature do belong to Philologie and therefore I cannot here forbear shewing that I do wholly dissent from Justus Lipsius the Prince of Criticks who will not allow Scipio to be call'd