this Land till at last after a personall Duel fought the Land was equally divided betwixt them A division wherewith both seemed neither were well pleased seeing the least whole head cannot be fitted with the biggest half Crown all or none was their desire Edm. Iron side teacherously slain Canutus at last with his Silver Hand was too hard for the other his Iron Side who by his promised Bribes prevailed with one Edrick to kill this his Corrivall which being performed he was fairely advanced with a h Others say he was beheaded Canutus his cruelty Halter It would spoil the Trade of all Traytours Canuti 1 if such Coyn onely were currant in paying their Rewards 5. Canutus or Knot the Dane from whom a Bird in Lincolnshire is so called 1017 wherewith his Palate i Draitons Poly-olbion pag. 112. was much pleased bathed himself in English Bloud whom at this distance of time we may safely term a Tyrant so many Murthers and Massacres were by him committed For his Religion as yet he was a Mungrel betwixt a Pagan and a Christian though at last the later prevailed especially after his Pilgrimage to Rome In his passage thither 14 he went through France 1031 where understanding that the people paid deep Taxes Converted into charity he disburst so much of his own money in their behalf that he brought their k Rodulph de Diceto column 468. Taxes to be abated to one l Iohannes Bromton in leg Canuti column 912. He goeth to Rome half An Act of Pitty in a Prince without Precedent done to Forrainers It is vain for the English to wish the like Curtesy from the King of France partly because England lies not in their way to Rome partly because they are fuller of Complements then Curtesie 6. Coming to Rome 16 Canutus turned Convert 1033 changing his Condition with the Climate shewing there many expressions of Devotion Much he gave to the Pope and something he gained from him namely an Immunity for Archbishops Returneth improved in devotion from their excessive Charges about their Pall and some other Favours he obtained for his Subjects After his return into his own Country he laid out all the remainder of his dayes in Acts of Charitie in founding or enriching of religious Houses Anno Dom. and two especially Anno Canuâ—i Saint Bennets in the Holm in Norfolk and Hyde Abbey near VVinchester 7. To this latter he gave a Crosse so costly for the Metall The paramount Crosse of England for richness and curious for the Making 1035 that one yeares a Camdens Briton in Hantshire revenues of his Crown was expended on the same 18 But the Crosse of this Crosse was that about the Reign of King Henry the sixth it was b Idem ibidem King Canutus his Humility burnt down with the whole Monastery in a Fire which was very suspicious to have been kindled by intentionall Malice This Canutus towards the latter end of his Reign never wore a Crown resigning up the same to the Image of our Saviour he was also famous for a particular act of Humility done by him on this occasion 8. A Parasite and sooner will an hot May want Flies Commands the Sea then a Kings Court such Flatterers sought to puffe up King Canutus with an opinion of his Puissance as if because England and Norway therefore Aeolus and Neptune must obey him In confuting of whose falsehood Canutus commanded his Chair of State to be set on the Sea-shore nigh South-Hampton and settled himself thereon Then he c Hen. Huntington in vita Canuti But in vain imperiously commanded the Waves as a Fence which walled that Land belonging unto him to observe their due Distance not presuming to approach him The surly Waves were so far from obeying they heard him not who listned onely to the Proclamation of a higher Monarch d Iob 38. 11 Hither shalt thou come and no further and made bold to give the Kings Feet so course a Kisse as wetted him up to the Knees 9. On this accident King Canutus made an excellent Sermon His Sermon thereon First adoring the infinite Power of God sole Commander of the Winds and Waves Secondly confessing the frailty of all Flesh unable to stop the least Drop of the Sea Thirdly confuting the Profanenesse of Flatterers fixing an infinite Power in a finite Creature As for the Laws made by King Canutus His Laws why omitted we have purposely omitted them not so much because many large and ordinarily extant but chiefly because most of Civil Concernment Haroldi Harefoot 1 10. Two of his Sons succeeded him Harold Harefoot succeeded him more known by their handsome Sur-names 1036 then any other Desert First his base Son taking advantage of his Brothers absence called from his Swiftnesse Hardy Canuti 1 Harold Harefoot belike another e 2 Sam. 2. 18 Then Hardy Canutus Asahel in Nimblenesse but Hares-heart had better befitted his Nature 1040 so cowardly his disposition Then his legitimate Sonne called Hardy Canute more truely bloudy Canute eminent for his Cruelty With him expired the Danish Royall Line in England leaving no Issue behind him and opening an Opportunity for the banished Sonne of King Ethelred to recover the Crown whose ensuing Reign is richly worth our description Mean time it is worth our observing in how few yeares the Danish Greatnesse shrank to nothing and from formidable became inconsiderable yea contemptible Indeed Canutus was one of extraordinary Worth and the Wheel once moved will for a time turn of it self Had Harold his Son by what way it skilled not been one of a tolerable disposition he might have traded in Reputation on the Stock of his Fathers Memory But being so very mean considerable onely in Cruelty his Fathers Worth did him the Disadvantage to render his Vnworthynesse the more conspicuous Besides when Hardy Canute his Brother succeeded him and though better born shewed himself no better bred in his inhumane Carriage it caused not onely a Neuseation in the people of England of Danish Kings but also an appetite yet a longing after their true and due Soveraign 11. Edward the Confessour Anno Regis Edvardi confessoris 1 youngest Son of King Etherlred Anno Dom. 1042 his elder Brethren being slain Edward the Confessour becomes King of England and their Children fled away came to be King of England I understand not the Ceremony which I read was used to this Edward whilest as yet saith a Monkish a Father Hierome Porter in the flowers of the lives of the Saints pag. 2. Authour properly enough in his own Language he was contained in the weak Cloisters of his Mothers VVomb at which time the Peers of the Land sware Allegiance unto him or her the Sex as yet being unknown before he was born Indeed I find that Varanes his Child was crowned King whilest yet in his
questionable vvhether you be more skilfull in knovving carefull in keeping or courteous in communicating your curious Collections in that kind Iustly therefore have I dedicated these severall Copies of Battel-Abbey Roll unto you first because I have received one of the most authentick of them from your ovvn Hand secondly because your ancient Name chargeth through and through most of these Catalogues Yea as the Archers came over vvith the Conquerour so the Conquerour may be said to come over vvith the Archers therefore placed in a List by themselves because their Valour atchieved the greatest part of his Victory PErusing the worthy Pains of grave and godly M r. Fox The Design propounded and asserred in his Book of Martyrs I find him in the Reign of VVilliam the first exemplifying a double Catalogue of such eminent Persons as came over at the Conquest Now seeing so Reverend a Writer accounted the inserting thereof no Deviation from his Church-History we presume accordingly by way of Recreation of the Reader to present him with a larger List of those Names with some brief Notes thereupon Here will I premise nothing about the ancient Original of Names Imposing of names denotes dominion which argued the undoubted Dominion of him who first gave them over those on whom they were imposed Thus Eve a Gen. 4. 1. named Cain to shew the command even of the Mother over the eldest and therefore over all her Children Adam b Gen. 2. 23. named Eve She shall be called VVoman to signifie the Husbands Sovereignty over his Wife God named c Gen. 1. 26. Adam Let us make Adam or Man to denote his Power and Authority over Man And God named himself d Exod. 3. 14. I am hath sent me unto you importing his absolute and independent being in and from himself But waving what may be said of the beginning of Names we shall digest what we conceive necessary for our present Purpose into the following Propositions The first is Fixt Surnames not long before the Conquest Surnames were fixed in Families in England at or about the Conquest I say fixed Formerly though men had Surnames yet their Sons did not as I may say follow suit with their Fathers the Name descended not hereditarily on the Family At or about Fourty years under or over will break no squares It began somewhat sooner in the Confessours time fetch'd out of France but not universally settled till some hundred years after When men therefore tell us how their Surnames have been fastened on their Families some Centuries of years before the Conquest we hear them say so His Chronology was no better then his Herauldry who boasted that his Auncestours had given the three Gun-holes which indeed were the three Annulets for their Armes these thousand yeares when Guns themselves have not been extant three hundred yeares in Europe The same soloecisme in effect is committed by such who pretend to the Antiquity of Surnames before the same were settled in rerum natura The second Surnames late in because not needfull to Kings Kings had fixed Surnames later then Common people Our four first Norman Kings had no Surnames Henry the second being the first of the Plantagenists Wonder not that a gentile Fashion should come later into the Court then into the Country and last to the Crown it self For Names being made to distinguish men they were more necessary for common people whose Obscurities would be lost in a Multitude were they not found out by the signe of their Surnames having no other Eminency whereby they might be differenced But Princes being comparatively few in respect of private persons are sufficiently discovered by their own Lustre and Sovereignty may be said to be a Surname to it self and therefore Kings not of Necessity but mere Pleasure have accepted additions to their Christian-names The third Many of the Normans most noble by birth Many who cameover out of Normandy were Noble in their native Country Especially such who are stiled from their Places as le Sire de Soteville le Sire de Margneville le Sire de Tancarville c. whereby we understand them Lords and Owners of such Mannours Towns and Castles from whence they took their Denomination However this particle de such a place when without le Sire going before it doth not always give Livery and Seisin and presently put the person so named into Possession of the Place sometimes barely importing that he was born there and not Owner thereof The fourth Yet some not so much as Gentlemen All that came over with the Conquerour were not Gentlemen untill they came over with the Conquerour For instantly upon their Victory their Flesh was refined Bloud clarified Spirits elevated to aâ— higher Purity and Perfection Many a Peasant in Normandy commenced Monsieur by coming over into England where they quickly got Goods to their Gentry Lands to their Goods and those of the most honourable Tenure in Capite it self What Richard the third said no lesse spitefully then falsely of the VVoodviles Brethren to the Wife of his Brother King Edward the fourth by whom they were advanced that Many were made noble who formerly were not worth a Noble was most true of some of the Norman Souldiery suddenly starting up honourable from mean Originalls These cruelly insulted over the Saxon ancient Gentry whom they found in England Thus on the new casting of a Die when Ace is on the Top Sise musts needs be at the Bottome The fifth Many of the neighbouring Nations under the notion of Normans Besides native Normans many of the neighbouring Countries ingaged in England ' s Invasion As Flemings which Baldwin Earle of Flanders and Father in law unto the Conquerour sent to aide him VValloons with many from Picardy Britain Anjou and the very Heart of France Thus when a Fair of Honour and Profit is proclaimed Chapmen will flock from all parts unto it Some will wonder that any would be such wilfull Losers as to exchange France for England a Garden for a Field Was not this degrading of their Souls in point of Pleasure going backward from VVine to Ale from VVheat to Oates then the generall Bread-corn of England Besides coming Northward they left the Sun on their Backs the Sun who is a comfortable Vsher to go before but bad Train-bearer to come behind one But let such know that England in it self is an excellent Country too good for the unthankfull people which live therein and such Forreiners who seemingly slight secretly love and like the Plenty and Profit thereof But grant England far short of France in Goodnesse yet such Adventurers hoped to atchieve to themselves a better Condition in a worse Country Many a younger Brother came over hither in hope here to find an elder Brothership and accordingly procured an Inheritance to him and his Posterity As for the great French Nobility Store was no sore unto them such Pluralists retained still their old Patrimonies in France with
Longevile P. Longesly I. Pouchardon R. de la Pomercy I. de Pountz R. de Pontlarge R. Estraunge Tho. Savage I presume the Reader sufficiently wearied with so many dull Prose-Catalogues and now we will refresh him a little with an Old Song as I find their Names metrically composed in the Chronicle of Iohn Brompton the Abbot Indeed the Rythms may be said to make themselves such is the like Cadency of many Norman-names and if the Verses do but chime and tinck in the Close it is enough to the purpose Vous que desyrez assaver Les Nons de grauntz de la la mer Que vindrent Od le conquerour William Bastard de graunt vigoure Lours surnons issi nous denys Com je les trova en escris Car des propres nons force ny a Purce qillis sont chaunges sa la Come de Edmond en Edwarde De Baldwyn en Barnard De Godwyn en Godard De Elys en Edwin Et issint de toutz autrez nons Come ils sont levez dufons Purce lour surnons que sont usez Et ne sont pas sovent chaungez Vous ay escript ore escotez Si vous oier les voylletz Maundevyle Daundevyle Ounfravyle Downefrevyle Bolvyle Baskarvyle Evyle Clevyle Morevyle Colevyle Warbevyle Carvyle Botevyle Sotevyle Deverous Cavervyle Mooun Boâ—â— Vipoun Vinoun Baylon Baylaun Maris Marmyoun Agulis Aguloun Chaumberleyn Chaumber soun Vere Vernoun Verdyers Verdoun Cryel Caroun Dummer Dammoun Hastyng Cammois Bardelse Botes Boys Warenne Wardeboys Rodes Devâ—rois Auris Argenten Botetour Botevelyn Malebouch Malemeyn Hautevyle Hauteyn Danvey Dyveyn Malure Malvesyn Morten Mortimer Braunz Columber Seynt Denis Seynt Cler Seint Aâ—byn Seynt omer Seynt Fylbert Fyens Gomer Turbevyle Turbemer Gorges Spenser Brus Boteler Crevequel Seynt Quinreyn Deverouge Seynt Martin Seynt Mor Seynt Leger Seynt Vigor Seynt Per Avynel Paynell Peyvere Perverell Rivers Rivel Beauchamp Beaupel Lou Lovell Ros Druell Mountabours Mountsorell Trussebot Trussell Bergos Burnell Bra Boterell Biset Basset Malevyle Malet Bonevyle Bonet Nervyle Narbet Coynale Corbet Mountayn Mounsychet Geynevyle Gyssard Say Seward Chary Chaward Pyryton Pypard Harecourt Haunsard Musegrave Musard Mare Mautravers Frenz Ferters Bèrnevyle Berners Cheyne Chalers Daundon Daungers Vessi Gray Graungers Bertram Bygod Traylliz Tragod Penbri Pypotte Freyn Folyot Dapisoun Talbote Sanzaver Saunford Vadu Vatorte Montagu Mounford Forneus Fornyvaus Valens Yle Vaus Clarel Claraus Aubevyle Seint Amauns Agantez Dragans Malerbe Maudut Brewes Chaudut Fizowres Fizde Lou Cantemor Cantelou Braybuffe Huldbynse Bolebeke Molyns Moleton Besyle Richford Desevyle Watervyle Dayvyle Nebors Nevyle Hynoys Burs Burgenon Ylebon Hyldebrond Holyon Loges Seint Lou Maubank Seint Malou Wake Wakevyle Condree Knevyle Scales Clermount Beauvys Beamount Mouns Mountchampe Nowers Nowchampe Percy Crus Lacy Quincy Tracy Stokes Somery Seynt Iohan Seynt Iay Greyle Seynt Walry Pynkeney Panely Mohant Mountchensy Loveyn Lucy Artoys Arcy Grevyle Courcy Arras Cressy Merle Moubray Gornay Courtnay Haustlayng Tornay Husee Husay Pounchardon Pomeray Longevyle Longespay Peyns Pountlarge Straunge and Sauvage Passe we now from Poetry to Painting seeing great the affinity betwixt them Fancy being predominant in both Present we here the Reader with the Names and Armes of fourty Souldiers of King William the Conquerour matched with as many Monks but how and on what occasion the ensuing Writing will acquaint us In the time of Thurston our Abbot of Ely born of worshipfull Parentage in the Village of Wichford near Ely King Harold Son of Godwin and together with him all the States of England almost were slain by the Souldiers of William Duke of Normandy Nephew to Saint Edward the King upon the Feast of S t. Calixt the Pope in the year of our Lord God one thousand sixty and six VVhereupon Egelwine Bishop of Durham Egfride Abbot of S t. Albans the Earle of Margary and Edward Byarn with sundry other chief of the Land together with their Friends laden with great Treasures fled unto us desirous to withstand so far as lay in them the enterprise of the Bastard by whose Aide we withstood the tempestuous Threats of the Normans seven yeares untill such time as Belase who at that time was General of the Kings Army and from whom the circuit of certain Hills at the South end of Alderhithe-Causey which at this day are corruptly called Belsar's Hills took their name being cast up on purpose that the Army in the Night time might lodge there safely astonied us by the means of an huge number of Boats gathered together upon a sudden à Councell then being called it seemed good to our Captains in convenient time to crave the Kings Mercy VVhereupon certain were sent to the Kings Court being then at Warwick carrying with them to the King a mighty Treasure a competent Price Satisfaction to pacify him concerning an unadvised Attempt VVhere with the Honourable King was appeased yet with this Covenant and Condition that so long as it pleased him fourty of the Kings Souldiers should be maintained at the charge of the Monastery For the King feared lest that whilest he bent his forces against the Scots not yet subdued the Isle of Ely being indeed a dreadfull Strength should again revolt to his great Danger The Souldiers with their Retinue are sent they come and here abide VVhereof each one is delivered to some principall Monk as a Captain to his Lieutenant or a Guest to his Host Now the King decreed that Bertwolde the Butler should minister Food to the Souldiers and Monks joyntly together one with another in the common Hall of the Monastery VVhat need many words These Captains to their Lieutenants these Guests to their Hosts these Souldiers to their Monks were most welcome for all of them entertained each one each one entertained all and every one mutually one another with all duties of Humanity At the length the Fire of the civil VVar being quenched and the King established according to his Hearts desire five yeares after his Severity in punishing being in godly manner pacified it pleased the King to withdraw this Yoke wherewith the Pride of the Monks was now sufficiently abated And the Conquerour reclaimed his Souldiers to punish the ungodly Insolency of his Son Robert who at that time in outragious manner kept Riot in Normandy But our Monks which is a wonder to report did not onely with Teares bewaile the departure of their dearest Mates the heroicall Souldiers and welcome Guests but howled out most fearfully and beat their Breast as destitute of Hope after the manner of a new-married Wife whose
setled them in London Norwich Cambridg Northampion c. In what capacity these Jews came over I finde not perchance as plunderers to buy such oppressed English mens goods which Christians would not meddle with Sufficeth it us to know that an invasion by Conquest such as King William then made is like an Inn entertaining all adventurers and it may be these Jewish bankers assisted the Conquerour with their coin These Jews though forbidden to buy land in England grew rich by usury their consciences being so wide that they were none at all so that in the barest pasture in which a Christian would starve a Jew would grow fat hee bites so close unto the ground And ever low down their backs is part of Gods curse upon the Jews And crook-back'd men as they eye the earth the center of wealth so they quickly see what straight persons pass by and easily stoop to take up that they finde thereon and therefore no wonder if the Jewish nation whose souls are bowed down with covetousness quickly wax wealthy therewith King William favoured them very much and Rusiu his Son much more especially if that speech reported of him be true that he should swear by S t Lake's face his common oath if b Slows Survey of London pag. 288. the Jews could overcome the Christians he himself would become one of their sect 25. Now was the time come of King Williams death 22. Sept. 9. ending his dayes in Normandy 1088 But see the unhappiness of all humane felicity The death of King Wilâ—â— with the difficulty of his burial for his breath and his servants forsook him both together the later leaving him as if his body should bury it self How many hundreds held land of him in Knights-service whereas now neither Knight nor Esquire to attend him At last with much ado his corps are brought in mean manner to be interred in Cane As they were prepared for the earth a private person forbids the burial till satisfaction was made unto him because the King had violently taken from him that ground on which that Church was erected Doth not Solomon say true A living dog is better then a dead lion when such a little curr durst snarle as the corps of a King and a Conqueror At last the Monks of Cane made a composition and the body was buried And as it was long before this Kings corps could get peaceable possession of a grave so since by a firm ejection he hath been outed of the fame When French souldiers c Stows Chron. at the death of King William Anno Domini 1562. amongst whom some English were mingled under Chattllion conducting the remnant of those which escaped in the battel of Dreux took the City of Cane in his way out of pretence forfooth to seek for some treasure supposed to be hid in his Tomb most baratously and cowardly brake up his coffin and cast his bones out of the same 26. William the Conquerour left three sons Sept. 9. Robert 1087 William The three sons of the Conqueror how denominated and Henry and because hereditary sir-names were not yet fixed in families they were thus denominated and distinguished 1. The eldest from his goods of fortune to which cloaths are reduced Robert Curthose from the short hose he wore not onely for fancy but sometime for need cutting his coat according to his cloath his means all his life long being scant and necessitous 2. The second from the goods of his body viz. a ruddy complexion William Rufus or Red. But whether a lovely and amiable or ireful and cholerick Red Anno Dom. 1087. the Reader on perusal of his life Anno Regis Ruf. 1. is best able to decide 3. The third from the goods of his minde and his rich abilities of learning Henry Beauclerke or the good scholar The middlemost of these William Rufus presuming on his brother Roberts absence in Normandy and pretending his Father got the Crown by Conquest which by will he bequeathed unto him his eldest brother being then under a cloud of his Fathers displeasure adventured to possess himself of the Kingdom 27. On the Twentie sixth of September King William Rufus crowned Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with good Wolstan Bishop of Worcester assisting him Crowned Rufus King of England though but his Fathers second son And indeed the known policy of the former and the reputed piety of the latter were the best supporters of his title Jacob we know acted with a prophetical spirit guiding his a Gen. 48. 14. hands wittingly laid his right on Ephraim the yonger and his left on Manasseth the elder brother but what warrant these Bishops had to invert and transpose natures method by preferring the yonger brother before the elder was best known to themselves Under Lanckfranck he had his education who b Mat. Paris pag. 14. made him a Knight though it had been more proper for his Tutors profession yea and more for his credit and his Pupils profit if he as the instrument had made him a good Christian 28. He began very bountifully His covetousness and inconstancy but on another mans cost 1088 not as a Donor Sept. 2. but a Dealer thereof and Executor of his Fathers Will. To some Churches he gave c Chronicon Johannis Brom. 〈◊〉 pag. 983. ten mark to others six to every country village five shillings besides an hundred pound to every County to be distributed among the poor But afterward he proved most parcimonious though no man more prodigal of never performed promises Indeed Rehoboam though simple was honest speaking to his Subjects though foolishly yet truly according to his intent that his d 1 King 12. 11. finger should be heavier then his fathers loins Whereas Rufus was false in his proceedings who on the imminence of any danger or distress principally to secure himself against the claim of his brother Robert instantly to oblige the English promised them the releasing of their taxes and the restoring of the English Laws but on the sinking of the present danger his performance sunk accordingly no letter of the English Laws restored or more mention thereof till the returning of the like Statestorme occasioned the reviving of his promise and alternately the clearing up of the one deaded the performance of the other 29. This year died Lanckfranck His enriching himself by Church livings Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 1089. after whose death 3. the King seised the profits of that See into his own hand and kept the Church vacant for some years knowing the emptiness of Bishopricks caused the fulness of his coffers Thus Arch-Bishop Rufus Bishop Rufus Abbot Rufus for so may he be called as well as King Rufus keeping at the same time the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury the Bishopricks of Winchester and Durham and thirteen Abbies in his hand brought a mass of money into his Exchequer All places which he parted with was upon present payment
of succession could be pleaded where no two links followed in order But others answered that such popular election of Stephen had been of validity if the electors had been at liberty whereas they being preingaged to Maud by former oath could not again dispose of those their votes which formerly they had passed away 32. Others conceived that the stain of Stephen his usurpation in getting the Crown A second party with theiropposers was afterward scoured clean out by his long more then eighteen years enjoying thereof For suppose Providence for a time may winke Anno Regis Steph. 〈◊〉 and connive yet it cannot be conceived in so long a slumber yea asleep yea a lethargie as to permit one peaceably so long to posses a Throne except heaven had particularly designed him for the same To this others answered that Stephen all that time rather possessed then enjoyed the Crown alarum'd all his life long by Maud and her Son so that he had as little quiet in as right to the Kingdom But grant his possession thereof never so peaceable what at first was foundered in the foundation could not be made firm by any height of superstructure thereupon An error by continuance of time can never become a truth but more inveterate error 33. A third of maintained that Subjects Loyaltie is founded on their Soveraigns protection A third with theirs so that both sinke together Seeing therefore Maud was unable to afford her people protection her people were bound to no longer allegiance But thus position was disproved by such who bottoming allegiance onely on conscience make protection but the encouragement not the cause thereof They distinguished also betwixt a Princes wilful deserting his people and his inability to protect them not through his own default but the forcible prevailing of others Thus the conjugal tie is onely dissolved by the parties voluntary uncleanness and not by his or her adventitious impotency to render due benevolence 34. A fourth party avouched A fourth with theirs that Maud though not actually and openly yet tacitly and interpretatively released the English from their allegiance unto her For what Prince can be presumed so tyrannical as to tie up people to the strict termes of Loyaltie unto him when the same is apparently destructive unto them and no whit advantagious to himself But others disliked this position for where did nay such relaxation appear It cancelleth not the obligation of a debtor to fancy to himself an acquittance from his creditor which cannot be produced 35. Some acted at the commands though not for the commands of King Stephen Some act at not for King Stephens commands namely in such things wherein his injunctions concurred with equity charity and order consistent with the principles of publike utility and self-preservation These having the happiness to be commanded by an Usurper to do that which otherwise they would have done of themselves did not discover themselves to act out of their own inclinations whilest it passed unsuspected in the notion of their obedience to King Stephen Thus many thousands under the happy conduct or at leastwise contrivance of Thurstan Arch-Bishop of York though in their hearts well affected to Maud her title unanimously resisted David King of Scots though he pretended recuperative armes in Queen Maud her behalf under which specious title he barbarously committed abominable cruelties till nettled therewith both Stephanists and Maudists joyntly bad him battle and overthrew him nigh Alerton in York-shire 36. All generally bare the burdens and no less politickly then patiently Politick patience paied all taxes imposed upon them Recusancy in this kinde had but armed King Stephen with a specious pretence to take all from them for refusing to give a part Nor scrupled they hereat because thereby they strengthened his usurpation against the rightful heir because done against their wills and to prevent a greater mischief Mean time they had a reservation of their loyaltie and erecting a throne in their hearts with their prayers and tears mounted Queen Maud on the same 37. Robert Robert Earl of Glocester singular Earl of Glocester the Queens half-brother may even make up a forme by himself finding none other before or after him of the same opinion Who conditionally did homage to King Stephen scilicet a Mat. Paris pag. 75 si dignitatem suam sibi servaret illibatam namely So long as he preserved this Roberts dignity for so I understand the Pronoune's reciprocation to be inviolated 38. A few there were Highly conscientious whose relucting consciences remonstrated against the least compliance with King Stephen whose high loyalty to Maud interpreted all passiveness under an Usurper to be activity against the right heir These even quitted their Lands in England to the tempest of time and secretly conveyed themselves with the most incorporeal of their estates as occuping in the least room in their wastage over into Normandy 39. The Clergie An honest revote of the Clergie perceiving that King Stephen performed little of his large promises unto them were not formerly so forward in setting him up 1136. but now more fierce in plucking him down and sided effectually with Maud against him An act which the judicious behold not as a crocked deed bowing them from their last but as an upright one streight'ning them to their first and bxest oath made to this Maud in the life time of her father But Stephen resolved to hold with a strong what he had got with a wrong hand fell violently on the Bishops who then were most powerfull in the land every prime one having as a Cathedral for his devotion so many manors for his profit parks for his pleasure and castles for his protection and he uncastled Roger of Sarisbury Alexander of Lincoln and Nigellus of Ely taking also a great mass of treasure from them 40. Most fiercely fell the fury of King Stephen on the Dean and Canons of Pauls for crossing him in the choice of their Bishop For he sent Canons of Pauls soundly paid and took their a Rad. de Diceto in huncanum Focarias and cast them into London Tower where they continued many dayes not without much scorn and disgrace till at last those Canons ransomed their liberty at a great rate 41. What these Focariae were we conceive it no disgrace to confess our ignorance What Focariae were the word not appearing in any Classical Author and we must by degrees scrue our selves into the sense thereof 1. It signifieth some female persons the gender of the word discovering to much 2. They were near to the Canons who had an high courtesie for them as appears by procuring their liberty at so dear a price 3. Yet the word speaks not the least relation of affinity or consanguinity unto them 4. All the light we can get in this Focariae is from some sparks of fire which we behold in the word so as if these shee s were nymphs
in the Sanctuary in Westminster and very pathetical he was in the perswading her to part with him haply on a point of conscience as fearing if denied some injury would be offered to the prejudice of the Church and therefore more willing himself to wooe him from her with eloquence then that others should wrest him thence with violence Yet he is generally conceived innocent here in as not as yet suspecting any fraud in the Duke of Glocester except any will say that it was a fault in him that so great a States-man was no wiser then to have been deceived by his dissimulation 3 But of the inferiour Clergie D r Shaw a popular preacher made himself infamous to all posterity Shaws shameless Sermon His Sermon at S t Pauls Cross had nothing but the text and that in the a Eccles 23. 25. Spuria vitulamina non agent radices alias Apocrypha good therein as consisting of two parts defaming of the dead and flattering of the living making King Edward far worse then he was and Duke Richard far better then ever he would be He made King Edward the fourth and the Duke of Clarence both to be bastards and Duke Richard onely right begotten so proclaiming Cicilie his Mother still surviving for a whore all being done by secret instructions from Duke Richard himself who hereby gave a worse wound to his Mothers credit then that which at his birth he caused to her body being as it is commonly reported cut out from her With Shaw we may couple another brawling cur of the same litter Pynkney the Provincial of the Augustinian Friâ—rs who in the same place used so loud adulation he lost his credit conscience and voice altogether These two were all and they too many of the Clergie whom I finde actively ingaging on his party whilest multitudes of the Lairy sided with him So that thorough the popularity of the Duke of Buckingham the Law-learning of Catesby the City-interest of Shaw then Lord Major of London and brother to the preacher the rugged rigor of Ratclifse and the assistance of other instruments in their several spheres the Queens kindred were killed Ric. 3 1. the Lord Hastings murdered King Edward and his Brother imprisoned and at last Richard Duke of Glocester elected King of England The sumptuous Coronation of King Richard 4. His Coronation was performed with more pomp then any of his Predecessours as if he intended with the glory thereof so to dazle vulgar eyes that they should not be able to see the shame of his usurpation Indeed some of our English Kings who by undoubted right succeeded to the Crown accounted their Coronation but a matter of course which did not make but manifest them to be Kings and so less curious in the pompous celebration thereof But this Usurper apprehended this ceremony more substantial and therefore was most punctual in the observation of it causing all the Nobility who held Lands in grand Soveraignty to do their service in state amongst whom Richard Dimock Esquire hereditary Champion by tenure with a safe piece of valour having so many to back him cast down his Gauntlet challenging any that durst oppose the title of King Richard and for ought I do know to the contrary he afterwards made his challenge good in Bosworth field And because sure binde sure finde he is said and his Queen to be Crowned again in York with great solemnity 5. Soon after followed the murder of King Edward King Edward and his brother stifled and his Brother Richard Duke of York It was high time they should set when another already was risen in the throne By a bloudy bloudless death they were stifled with pillows and then obscurely buried The uncertainty of their interment gave the advantage to Perkin Warbeck afterwards to counterfeit Richard Duke of York so like unto him in age carriage stature feature favour that he wanted nothing but success to make him who did but personate Duke Richard to pass current for the person of Duke Richard 6. After this bloudy act Anno Regis Ric. 3. 2. King Richard endeavoured to render himself popular Anno Dom. 1484 First by making good Laws in that sole Parliament kept in his Reign King Richard vainly endeavoureth to ingratiate himself by makeing good Laws Benevolence malevolence which formerly the subjects unwillingly willing had paid to their Soveraign power where it requests commands it not being so much thank-worthy to grant as dangerous to deny it he retrenched and reduced to be granted onely in Parliament He regulated Trading which the Lombards and other foraigners had much ingrossed to the detriment of the English Nation Now although all people carry much of their love and loyaltie in their purses yet all this would not ingratiate this Usurper with them the dullest nostrils resenting it done not for love of vertue but his own security And that affects none which all palpably discover to be affected 7. Next he endeavoured to work himself into their good will As also by building of Monasteries by erecting and endowing of Religious Houses so to plausiblelize himself especialy among the Clergy Thus he built one far North at Middleham and and a College in the Parish of a Stows Survey of London in Tower street Ward Alhallows-Barking hard by the Tower as if he intended by the vicinity thereof to expiate those many murders which he therein had committed Besides he for his time dis-Forested Whichwood in Camâ—dens Bâ—â—â—â—an Oxford shire pag 374. out of John Rouse Oxford-shire then far more extended then in our Age which his brother Edward had made Forest to the great grievance of the Country thereabouts Yet all would not do the people being more patient for an injury done by King Edward then thankful for the favour this Richard bestowed upon them He is said also to have given to Queens College in Cambridg c Stow in his Annals p. 470. five hundred marks of yearly rent though at this time I believe the College receives as little benefit by the Grant as Richard had right to grant it For it was not issued out of his own purse but given out of the lands of his enemy the unjustly proscribed Earl of Oxford who being restored by Henry the seventh made a resumption thereof 8. Duke Richard was low in stature Art hath done more for King Richard then ever nature did crook-backed with one shoulder higher then the other having a prominent gobber-tooth a war-like countenance which well enough became a souldier Yet a modern d e George Buck Esqu a claw-back to Crook-back Author in a Book by him lately set forth eveneth his shoulders smootheth his back planeth his teeth maketh him in all points a comly and beautiful person Nor stoppeth he here but proceeding from his naturals to his morals maketh him as vertuous as handsome which in some sense may be allowed to be true concealing most denying some defending others
pay and reward some of his poorest servants giving them money on this condition that hereafter they should serve no subject but onely the b Rex Platonicus pag. 43. King himself as if this had been suscipere gradum Simeonts for those who so long had attended on a Lord-Cardinal But this happened many years after we return to this proud Prelate while he flourished in the height of his Prosperity 36. Their heads will catch cold Wolsey turns his waiting into revenge which wait bare for a dead Popes Tiple-Crown Wolsey may be an instance hereof who on every avoidance of S t Peters Chaire was sitting down therein when suddenly some one or other clapt in before him Weary with waiting he now resolved to revenge himself on Charles the Emperour for not doing him right and not improving his power in preferring him to the Papacy according to his promioses and pretences He intends to smite Charles through the sides of his Aunt Katharine Queen of England endeavouring to alienate the Kings affections from her And this is affirmend by the generality of our Historians though some of late have endeavoured to acquit Wolsey as not the first perswader of the King divorce 37. Indeed he was beholding The scruple of the Kings marriage for the first hint thereof to the Spaniards themselves For when the Lady Mary was tendered in marriage to Philip Prince of Spain the Spanish Embassadours seemed to make some difficulty thereof and to doubt her extraction as begotten on a mother formerly married to her husbands elder brother Wolsey now put this scruple into the head of Bishop Longlands the Kings Confessour and he insinuated the same into the Kings conscience advising him hereafter to abstain from the company of his Queen to whom he was unlawfully married Adding moreover that after a divorce procured which the Pope in justice could not deny the King might dispose his affections where he pleased And here Wolsey had provided him a second Wife viz Margarite Countess of Alenzon sister to Francis King of France though heavens reserved that place not for the Mistress but her Maid I mean Anna Bollen who after the return of Mary the French Queen for England attended in France for some time on this Lady Margarite 38. Tunder needs no torch to light it The King willingly embraceth the motion the least spark will presently set it on flame No wonder if King Henry greedily resented the motion Male issue he much wanted and a young Female more on whom to beget it As for Queen Katharine he rather respected then affected rather honoured then loved her She had got an habit of miscarrying scarce curable in one of her age intimated in one of the Kings private papers as morbus incurabilis Yet publickly he never laid either fault or defect to her charge that not dislike of her person or conditions but onely principles of pure conseience might seem to put him upon endeavours of a Divorce 39. The business is brought into the Court of Rome The Pope a Captive there to be decided by Pope Clement the seventh Bnt the Pope at this time was not sui juris being a prisoner to the Emperour who constantly kept a guard about him 44. As for the Queens Councel Fishers short plea. which Anno Dom. 1529 though assigned to her Anno Regis Hen. 8 25. appear not dearly accepted by her as chosen rather by others for her then by her for her self I finde at this present little of moment pleaded or performed by them Onely Bishop Fisher affirmed that no more needed to be said for the validity of the marriage then Whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder A most true position in it self if he could have cleared the application thereof to his Royal Client but Hoc restat probandum the contrary that God never joyned them together being vehemently urged by her adversaries 45. Notwithstanding the Queens absence The pleas of the Kings Councel the Court proceeded And first the Kings Proctors put in their exceptions against both Bull and Breve of Pope Julius the second dispensing with the Kings marriage with his brothers wife viz. 1. That they were not to be found amongst the Original Records in Rome 2. That they were not extant in Chartaphylacio amongst the King of Englands papers most concerned therein but found onely in Spain amongst the writings of a State-Officer there 3. That in them it was falsely suggested as if the same were procured at the instance of Henry Prince of Wales who then not being above thirteen years old was not capable of such intentions 4. That the Date thereof was somewhat discrepant from the form used in the Court of Rome 46. After this Secrets sub sigillo thalami many witnesses on the Kings side were deposed July 12. and though this favour is by custome indulged to the English Nobility to speak on their Honours yet the Canon-Law taking no notice of this their municipal priviledg and for the more legal validity of their restimonies required the same on oath though two Dukes one Dutchess one Marquess many Lords and Ladies gave in their depositions These attested 1. That both were of sufficient age Prince Arthur of fifteen years the Lady Katharine somewhat elder 2. That constant their cohabitation at board and in bed 3. That competent the time of the same as full five moneths 4. That entire their mutual affection no difference being ever observ'd betwixt them 5. That Henry after his Brothers death by an instrument produced in Court and attested by many witnesses refused to marry her though afterwards altered by the importunity of others 6. That by several expressions of Prince Arthur's it appeared he had carnal knowledg of the Lady Katharine The beds of private persons are compassed with curtaines of Princes vailed also with canopies to conceal the passages therein to which modesty admitteth no witnesses Pitty it is that any with Pharaoh should discover what is exchanged betwixt Isaac and Rebekah all which are best stifled in secrecy and silence However such the nature of the present cause that many privacies were therein discovered 47. Observe by the way A shrewd retortion that whereas it was generally alledged in favour of the Queen that Prince Arthur had not carnal Knowledg of her because soon after his marriage his consumptionish body seemed unfit for such performances this was retorted by testimonies on the Kings side his witnesses deposing that generally it was reported and believed the Prince impaired his health by his over liberal paiment of due benevolence 48. It was expected that the Cardinals should now proceed to a definitive sentence An end in vain expected according as matters were alledged and proved unto them The rather because it was generally reported that Campegius brought over with him a Bull Decretal to pronounce a nulsity of the match if he saw just cause for the same Which rumor like
there to perform their Acts and pay the Beadles their sees which formerly they refused and this was some years before the coming of the Crowland-Professors hither 3. Probably some emulation not to say envie a canker we finde fretting the fairest flowers might make some distance betwixt the old stock of standing Scholars in Cambridge and this new addition of Professors Our Aunt Oxford may easily remember what little love yea how great grudging there was betwixt her ancient Students and that new plantation of Scholars which S t. * Vide suprà Bo. 2. Centur 8. Grimbal under King Alfred first placed there 4. The marvellous increase of learning in Cambridge in so short a time after the coming of the Crowland Professors thither is justly imputed to this cause for that Cambridge had formerly been a place of learning Thus when green-wood is long is kindling brands which before were half burnt and then quenched doe quickly take fire and presently blaze into a bright flame In a word such men who have made remarkable additions to what was begun long before oftentimes as proudly as falsly conceit themselves the first Founders thereof Thus p Dan. 4. 30. Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babylon that I have built whereas he and all the world knew that Semiramis built it a thousand yeers before his cradle was made though he no doubt might strengthen enlarge and beautifie the same And as Restorers are apt to mistake themselves for the Founders so by infection of the same error the Spectators of such Repairers are prone to mis-interpret them for Beginners as here these Crowland-Professors are erroneously apprehended the Founders of Cambridge Thus the river Anas in Spain after it hath runne above sixty miles under ground may be by ignorant people conceived to have his Birth his fountain there wherein truth he hath but his Resurrection at his springing out of earth the second time And thus sluggards in the morning count the Sunne but then to arise when it newly breaks forth of a cloud and was risen some hours before 16. Pain Peverell Stander-bearer to Robert Duke of Normandy in the Holy-Land 13 removed Picot his foundation from S t. 1112 Giles in Cambridge where they were pent for room to a larger place of thirteen acres at Barnewell Pain Peverel foundâ— Barnewell Priorie about a mile off where one Godesonn formerly led an Eremitical life This Peverell encreased the number of those Canons from six to thirty because forsooth at that time he was just thirty yeers old and endowed them with large revenues Afterwards in process of time Barnwell became a prime Priorie through the bounty of many Benefactors and able at the dissolution of Abbies to expend of old rents low rated three hundred fifty one pounds fifteen shillings four pence Insomuch that the Prior thereof in the fourty ninth year of King Henry the third by Writ bearing date at Woodstock the twenty fourth of December was with many moe voluntariè summonitus freely summoned saith the Record to be present as a Baron in Parliament But let him make much of this favour which never before or after was bestowed upon him or his successors These Black-Canons of Barnewell were generally kind neighbours to the Scholars and their Prior did sometimes good offices unto them 17. Now amongst the eminent Scholars Alphred of Beverlie Student in Cambridge who at this time studied in Cambridge 1129 Alphred of Beverley was of especial note 30 He was born in Yorkshire lived many yeers in Cambridge to gain learning q Bale De Scriptor Britan Cent. 2. pag. 157. where he attained to be an excellent Philosopher Divine and Historian Returning into his native countrey at Beverlie he wrote the History of the British Nation from the beginning of the world unto his ownage which work was by him truly and elegantly composed He is commonly surnamed the Treasurer a title given him as I conceive not for bearing that office in his Covent but from his diligent searching discreet selecting methodical compiling and carefull preserving or treasuring up pretious passages of former ages for the use of Posterity This Alphred when living in Cambridge maintained himself as the rest of the Students there on his own cost every Scholar in that age being his own Founder and Benefactor For as yet no publique Halls or Hostles were built for to receive them but each one lived as r Acts 28. 30. S t. Paul at Rome in his own hired house as they could contract with the Townsmen who unconscionably improving themselves on the Scholars necessities extorted unreasonable rents from them as hereafter God willing shall appear 18. And here I must admire one thing and shall be thankful to such who will cure my wonder Unwonder me this wonder by shewing me the cause of that I wonder at What might be the reason that Monks and Friers in this age had such stately houses rich endowments plentifull maintenance whilest Students in the Universitie had poor chambers hard fare short means and that on their own or parents charges and yet there was more honesty industry painfulnesse and piety within the study of one Scholar than the cells of an hundred Monks Some perchance will impute this to the fancie of men lapping dandling and feeding Monkies and Marmosets whiles Creatures of more use are lesse regarded Others will say It was becauuse Scholars studied the liberall Monks the lucrative Sciences University men were more busied in reading Books than numbling of Masses and praying for the dead the main matter which brought grift to the Monks mill Whatever was the secret cause this was the apparent effect thereof Scholars as they were lean so they were lively attracted less envie procured more love endured more labour which made them to last and to live after the destruction of the other 19. William Meschines The first Earle of Cambridge brother to Ranulph Earl of Chester 1139 was by King Stephen made the first Earl of Cambridge Steph. 4 And it is no small credit to Cambridge that after this William none were ever honoured with that title but such who were Princes of the Blood Royall either actuall Kings of Scotland or Kings sons or nephews of England or forain and free Princes of their next alliance as hereafter God willing will appear at their several creations So carefull were our English Kings in choosing such persons for the place who receiving honor from so famous an Universitie might also by their high birth and honourable demeanor return lustre thereunto 20. For after the death of this Meschines David King of Scoâ—s Earl of Cambridge one may confidently pronounce that David King of the Scots commonly called S t. David was Earl of Cambridge And although his Chatter cannot be produced with the formalities used at his creation modern ceremonies at the investing of Counts not being used in that age yet Anno Regis Steph. that he was
effectually Earle of Cambridge Anno Dom. by the ensuing evidence doth sufficiently appear It is a Å¿ Extant among the Records of the Earls of Oxford cited at large by Augustine Vincent in hâ— Correction of Bâ—â—â—ks errours pag. 393. Grant made by Mâ—uld the Emperesse Daughter of King Henrie the first unto Aubery de Vere afterward Earl of Oxford part whereof so much as concerns the present point we have here transcribed translated and commented on conceiving it to contain some criticisms in History and Heraldry worthy observation Concedo quòd sit Comes de Cantebruggescire 10 habeat inde tertium denâ—ium sicut Comes debet haberâ— 1144 Itâ— dico si Rex Scotiae non habet illum Comitatum Et si Rex habuerit perquiram illud ei ad posse meum per Escambium Et si non potero tunc do 〈◊〉 concede quòd sit Câ—mes de quolibet quatuor Comitatuum subserptorum viz. Oxenfordscire Berkscire Wiltscire Dorsetscire per consilium considerationem Comitis Glocestriae frairis mei Comitis Gaufridi Comitis Gilberti I grant that he be Earl of Cantbruggshire and that he have from thence the third penny as the Earl ought to have So I say if the King of Scotland hath not that Earldom And if the King hath it I shall to my power procure it him by exchange And if I cannot then I give and grant unto him that he be Earl of which he will of the four Earldoms subscribed namely Oxfordshire Berkshire Wiltshire and Dorsetshire by the counsel and advise of the Earl of Glocester my brother and of Earl Geofrey and of Earl Gilbert The date of this Grant is uncertain but from the hand of her brother the Earl of Glocester subscribed thereunto we collect that it must be before the yeer 1146 wherein the said Earl ended his life 21. Out of this Grant observe Observations collected from this Grant First That though Steven de facto was King of England yet the right was in this Mauld the Emperesse Betwixt these two for many yeers it was catch who catch may both in gaining of places and giving of Honours as successe befriended them Secondly That Earls in that age were Earls indeed not meerly titular but substantiall as receiving the third penny I humbly conceive it of the Crown-revenues therein of the County whence they had their honour Thirdly Kings of Scotland accounted it no abatement to their Crown-Royall to we are with it an English Coronet holding in Commendam as I may say with their own Crown one or moe of English Earldoms As here King David held Cambridge in his own and Huntingdon in right of his Wife Fourthly As the Counties of Cambridge and t See Câ—mdens Britan. in Hunting donshire Huntingdon soon after the Conquest were united under one Comes or Earl so they two onely of all Shires in England remain under one Vicecomes or Sheriff at this day Fifthly Queen Mauld earnestly endeavoured in compliance no doubt with the desires of her favorite Aubery de Vere to confer the County of Cambridge upon him as a place of principal honour above the four other Counties proffered unto him Sixthly The honour of the title of Cambridge arose from the famous University therein otherwise the foresaid Aubery if consulting his profit would cleerly have preferred either Oxfordshire Berkshire Wiltshire or Dorsetshire as greater in extent and therefore returning by the third penny therein larger revenues Lastly Seeing a good title of Cambridge could not be made to him as prepossessed by the Scotch King Aubery was contented with and thankfull for Oxford as the other famous University in England which title his noble and most ancient family enjoyeth at this day 22. Nigellus or Neale 11 second Bishop of Ely 1145 having first obtained a faculty from the Pope Nigellus his foundation in Cambridge â—ounded â—n Hospitall for u Godwin in Epist. â—â—ie pag. 3â—6 Canons regular in Cambridge in the place where now S t. John's Colledge is erected Hee is said to have endowed the same with an hundred and fourty pound by the yeer Anno Dom. yeerly rent Anno Regis Hen. 2 which it so in that age was a vast proportion 23. Roger of Hereford Roger of Hereford Student in Cambridge so named because born there 1170 studied at this time in Cambridge 16 became an admirable Astronomer Philosopher and Chymist diving much into the mysteries of metals He wrote many books of Astronomy and Astrologie which for a long time were kept in Cambridge Librarie but not extant I fear at this day Yet the Oxford w â—â—ri Twine Apolog. lib. 2. pag. 219. Antiquarie will by no means allow this Roger a Student in Crambridge as who flourished before the coming of the Crowland Professors thither but whether more credit may be hung on this single Twine than on the twisted testimonie of Leland Bale and Pitz all agreeing both in his education at Cambridge and flourishing in this Age be it reported to any ingenuous Reader 24. There happened a merciless fire in Cambridge A merciless fire onely so pitifull as to goe out when no more fewell was left to feed the furie thereof 1174 Most of the Churches in the town then built of wood 20 and therefore the more combustible were burnt in part and Trinity-Church wholly x Caius Hist Contab consumed Hence it was that for time to come the Steeple thereof was firmly built of free-stone to prevent by Gods goodnesse the return of the like casualty 25. A sad accident happened this yeer at y Matth. Paris in Anno 1209 pag. 228. Oxford Oxford deserted and partly removed to Cambridge A Clergie-man 1208 and Student in that University K John 9 casually kill'd a woman and fled upon it The Maior of the City with other officers search after him light on three of his Chamber-fellows both innocent and ignorant of the fact committed These they injuriously thrust into Prison and some dayes after King John a back friend to the Clergie as continually vexed with their constant opposition commanded them to be executed in contempt saith my Author of Ecclesiastical libertie Offended hereat three thousand Students at once left Oxford as well Masters as Scholars It a quòd nec unus ex omni Universitate remansit So that not one remain'd of all the Universitie Of these some removed to Cambridge some to Reading so that in this total eclipse of learning therein Oxford was left emptie for a season 26. John of S t. John of St. Omers a Poet bred in Cambridge Omers studied about this time at Cambridge 1209 By his surname I should have conjectured him a Forainer of Artois 10 had not my z Baleus Cent. 3 pag. 261. Author assured me that he was born in Norfolk Yea when a Monk of Peterburgh bred also in Cambridge had with his Iatyrical
at London Robert Gilbert VVarden of Merton Colledge Doctor of Divinity in the behalf of Oxford and Thomas Kington Doctor of Law Advocate of the Arches in the behalf of d Ex Registro Cantuar. Hen. Chichely Cambridge made two eloquent Orations that the worth of Scholars in the Vniversity might be rewarded and preferment proportioned to their Deserts Hereupon it was ordered that the Patrons of vacant Benefices should bestow them hereafter on such as were Graduated in the Vniversity Gradus Professionis ratione juxta Beneficiorum census valores habita So that the best and most Livings should be collated on those of the best and highest Degrees 39. Doctor Kington returning to Cambridge Refused by their own folly instead of Thanks which he might justly have expected for his successfull industry found that the favour he procured was not accepted of The Regent-Masters in the Congregation out of their e Ant. Brit. pag. 278. Youthfull Rashnesse rejected the kindness merely out of Spleen and Spite because the Doctors would be served with the first and best Livings and the Refues onely fall to their share Iohn Riken d ale 1419 7 Chancellour g p 40. The Regent-Masters being grown older and wiser But on second thoughts accepted were perswaded to accept the profer sending their thanks by the Chancellour to another Synod now kept at London And now when the bestowing of Benefices on Vniversitymen was clearly concluded the f Ant. Brit. ut prius unlearned Friars whose interest herein was much concerned mainly stickled against it untill by the Kings interposing they were made to desist The same year it was ordered in Parliament that none should practise g Rob. Hare in Archivis Physick or Surgery except approved on by one of the Vniversities Hen. 6. 1 Thomas de Cobham 1422 1423 Chancellour Robert Fitzhugh Master of Kings Hall Chancellour afterward Bishop of London 2 Marmaduke Lumley Anno Regis Hen. 6. 7 8 9 Anno Dom. 1428 1429 1430 Chancellour afterwards Bishop of Lincoln VVilliam VVimble Chancellour Iohn Holebroke Chancellour 41. Difference arising betwixt the Vniversity Differences betwixt the Bishop of Ely and the University and Philip Morgan Bishop of Ely Pope Martine the fifth at the instance of the Vniversity appointed the Prior of Barnwell and Iohn Deeping Canon of Lincoln his Delegates to enquire of the Priviledges of the Vniversity 42. The Prior undertook the whole businesse Remitted by the Pope to the Prior of Baâ—nwell examined seven witnesses all Aged some past threescore and ten and perused all Papal Bulls Priviledges and Charters wherein he found that the Chancellours of Cambridge have all a Rob. Hare 〈◊〉 Archivis vol. 2. fol 103 Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction viz. Excommunication and suspension over Scholars and their servants probates of VVills granting of Administration and taking their accounts the aged witnesses deposing it on their own sight and knowledge 43. This being returned by the Prior The Pope giveth his sentence for Cambridge it's exemtion Pope Martine pronounced his sentence wherein he declareth that the Vniversity time out of mind was in the Possession use and exercise of Ecclesiasticall and spirituall Iurisdiction without any disquieting of Arch-bishops Bishops or their Officers and for the time to come he confirmed their b Hare in Archivis vo 2. fol. 115. Immunities which his Successour Eugenius the fourth re-confirmed unto them This strengthens our former Conjecture that the Vniversity willingly receded from their own Priviledges in Arundel's visitation VVilliam Lassells 10 1431 Chancellour Richard Caudrey 11 1432 Chancellour Iohn de Langton 15 1436 Chancellour 44. Richard Duke of York was at this time Earle of Cambridge A constant Tenure of Princely Earles the last that ware that Honour for many years in whose death it was extinct And now let the Reader at one view behold the great Persons dignified with the Earledome of Cambridge Scotch Kings Germane Princes English Dukes 1. David 2. Henry 3. Malcolm 4. Iohn Earle of Henault 5. VVilliam Marques of Iuliers 6. Edmond of Langly fifth Son to Edward the third 7. Edward his Son 8. Richard Duke of York his Brother Father to King Edward the 4 th No City Town or place in England was ever honoured with so many and great persons as Cambridge was whose Earledome sleeping for almost two hundred yeares was at last conferred by King Iames on the royallyextracted Marques Hamilton whereof in due place 45. About this time the many Chests of Money formerly well filled The Universities money embezeled and worthily employed for the good of the University and eminent Scholars therein were squandered away and embezeled to private mens profit I cannot particularize in their names nor charge any single person but it appeared too plainly that of 14. or 15. Chests not four were left and the summes in them inconsiderable so that Cambridge never recovered her Bank nor recruited her Chests to the former proportion Anno Dom. 1436 Yet afterwards she met with two good Benefactours Anno Regis Henri ci 6. 15 the one Thomas Bourchier Never reâ—lored to the same degree Arch-bishop of Canterbury who bestowed on her an hundred pounds the other the Lady Elizabeth Cleere Dutchesse of Norfolk which put the Vniversity in stock again bestowing no lesse then a thousand Marks at severall times on the publick Treasury though within few yeares little was left thereof 46. I know it is pleaded Vehement suspition of corruption that the expensive Suites of the University against the Towns-men in the Reigns of King Henry the seventh and King Henry the eighth much exhausted their Coffers But when all is audited a strong suspition still remaines on some in publick employment of unjust dealing Sure it is in the Reign of King Edward the sixth the Treasury was so empty it wanted wherewith to defray necessary and ordinary Expences SECTION V. Anno Regis RADULPHO FREEMAN Anno Dom. in Comitatu Hertfordensi Armigero SOlon interrogatus à Croeso Regum opulentissimo Plutarch in vita Solon quem ille mortalium agnosceret Beatissimum Tellum quendam Atheniensem civem privatum nominavit Huic res nec augusta nec angusta cum inter Invidiam Inoptam pari fere distantia collocaretur Si Solon nunc in vivis Te faelicissimis hujus Seculi annumeraret cui Mens composita Corpus licet tenue integrum Domus elegans Supellex nitida Patrimonium satis amplum Soboles numerosa ac ingenua Nec nimiis Titulis tumescis necte Obscuritas premit cui talis obtigit Conditio qua melior haud facile fingi potest Quod si tibi suppetat hora succisiva quae non sit fraudi serioribus tuis Negociis perlegas quaeso hanc Historiae meae portiunculam cujus pars majuscula in Collegio Regali describendo consumitur in quo
consecrated by Ithamar alone Bishop of Rochester the first English Bishop consecrating the first English Arch-Bishop Let no Sophister cavill with his thread-bare Maxime Nihil dat quod non habet and therefore a single Bishop could not conferre Archiepiscopal Power but leave it to the Canon-Lawyers to decide what may be done in case of Extremity Mean time how causelesse is the Caption of the Papists c Sanders de Schism pag. 297 at the Consecration of Matthew Parker because no Arch-Bishop though four Bishops was present thereat Seeing though an Arch-Bishop be requisite ad Dignitatem Bishops will suffice ad Honestatem and a single Bishop as d Bede Hist lib. 3. p. 217. Ithamar here may be effectuall ad essentiam of an Archiepiscopal Consecration No wonder therefore if Evagrius was acknowledged a legitimate Bishop by the e Binnius Tom. 1. p. 579. in Notis in Epist 17. Innocentis primi Wolphere's murther of his two Sons Pope himself though contrary to the Rigour of the Canon consecrated by f Theodoret. lib. 5. cap. 23. Paulinus alone Deus-dedit answered his Name A good Arch-Bishop is Gods Gift and for nine yeares and more ruled the Church to his great Commendation 86. A barbarous Murther was committed by Wolphere 662 King of Mercia who understanding that his two Sons Wulfade and Rufine had embraced Christianity cruelly slew them with his own Hands But afterwards repenting of so soul a Fact he himself turned Christian and in Testimony thereof finished the fair Fabrick of the Monastery at Peterborough begun by Peada his Brother The whole Story thereof was till lately set forth in Painting and Poetry such as it was in the Glass-windows round about the Cloisters of Peterborough Wulfade pray'd Chad that ghostly Leach The Faith of Christ him for to teach 87. And now The making of Glasse brought first into England having fallen on the mention of Glasse be it seasonably remembred that just at this time one Benault a forrain Bishop but of what place I find not brought the Mystery of making Glasse into England to the great Beautifying of our Churches and Houses the Eyes being the Grace of the Body as Windows are of Buildings I conceive his Invention was White Glasse alone more ancient then Painted Glasse in this Island as Plain-song is much seniour to all Descanting and running of Division 88. The Paroxisme continued and encreased Scotish Bishops dissent from others in keeping Easter betwixt the Scotish Bishops headed after Aidan's Death by Finan Bishop of Holy-Island and such who celebrated Easter after the Roman Rite The later so bitterly detested the former Anno Dom. 662 that they would not receive Consecration of them or Imposition of Hands as if their very Fingers ends were infected with Schisme for dissenting from Rome Yea they would neither give the Sacrament of the Euacharist to them nor receive it from them and yet they never quarrelled at or questioned the validity of Baptisme conferred by them seeing Bishop Finan christened the King of the East-Saxons and all his Subjects Some what more moderate were the Scots or Quartadecimans in their Cariage to the other seeing S t. Chad Scotized in his Judgement refused not Consecration from Wyni Bishop of Winchester though one of the contrary Opinion 89. Nor was this Controversie consined to Cloisters and Colledges This controversy spreads into private families but derived it self from the Kings Court down into private Families Thus Oswy King of Northumberland was of the Scotish Perswasion whilest his Queen and eldest Son were of the Romish Opinion in Celebration of Easter One Board would not hold them whom one Bed did contain It fell out so sometimes that the Husband 's Palm-Sunday was the Wife's Easter-day and in other Families the Wife fasted and kept Lent still whilest her Husband feasted and observed Easter Say not that Wife deserved to fast alwayes who in so indifferent a Ceremony would not conform to her Husband's Judgement For Consciences in such kinds are to be led not drawn Great was the Disturbance in every great Family onely the Poor gained by the Difference causing a Duplicate of Festivalls two Easters being kept every year in the same House 90. To compose this Controversie if possible a Councill was called at Streanch-Hall now Whitby in Yorkshire by the procurement of S t. Hilda 663 Abbess therein A Councell is called to compose this controversie Here appeared amongst many others For the Romish Easter VVilfride an Abbot a zealous Champion Romanus a Priest very hot in the Quarrel And others Moderatours Hilda the Abbess of Streanch-Hall S. Cedd Bishop of London propending to the Scotish but not throughly perswaded For the Scotish Easter S t. Coleman Bishop of Holy-Island who succeeded Finan in that place But Baronius and Binnius will in no case allow this for a Councill though elsewhere extending that name to meaner Meetings onely they call it a Collation because forsooth it wanted some Council-Formalities all Bishops not being solemnly summoned but onely some Voluntiers appearing therein Besides as there was something too little so something too much for a Canonicall Councill Hilda a Woman being Moderatresse therein which seemed irregular 91. In this Councill Wilfride his prevailing argument or Collation call it which you please after much arguing pro and con VVilfride at last knockt all down with this Argument That the Romish Celebration of Easter was founded on the Practice of S t. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Porter of Heaven King Oswy hearing this was affrighted who had rather anger all the other eleven Apostles then offend S t. Peter one so high in Power and Place for fear as he said left coming to Heaven-gate S t. Peter should deny him a Cast of his Office and refuse to let him into Happinesse S t. Coleman being on the other side was angry that so slight an Argument had made so deep an Impression on the King's Credulity And to manifest his Distaste after the Councill was broken up carried all those of his own Opinion home with him into Scotland One Tuda succeeded him in his Bishoprick of Holy-Island the first of that See that conformed himself in this Controversie to the Romish Church and died in the same year of the Plague 92. As for VVilfride His intended but disappointed preferment he was well rewarded for his Paines in this Councill being presently promoted to be Bishop of York which since Paulinus his Death was no longer an Arch-Bishop's but a plain Bishop's See But though appointed for the place by King Oswy Anno Dom. 663 he refused Consecration from any English Bishops being all irregular as consecrated by the schismaticall Scots onely VVyni late Bishop of VVinchester now of London was ordained canonically but lately he had contracted just Shame for his Simony in buying his Bishoprick Over goes VVilfride therefore to Rome for Consecration and stayes there so long that in his Absence the King put S t.
to the Observation of the English b Malemesburiensis ut prims King Alfred's exemplary Character Historian that the Saxon-Kings in this Age magis optabant honestum Exitum quam acerbum Imperium 25. In this sad condition God sent England a Deliverer namely King Alfred or Alured born in England bred in Rome where by a Prolepsis he was anointed King by Pope Leo though then but a private Prince and his three elder Brothers alive in auspicium futuriregnt in hope that hereafter he should come to the Crown Nor did this Vnction make Alfred ante-date his kingdome who quietly waited till his foresaid Brothers successvely reigned and died before him and then took his Turn in the Kingdome of the VVest-Saxons The worst was his Condition was like a Bride-groom who though lawfully wedded yet might not bed his Bride till first he had conquered his Rival and must redeem England before he could reign over it The Danes had London many of the in-land moe-of the maritime Towns and Alfred onely three effectuall Shires Somerset Dorset and VVilts yet by Gods Blessing on his Valour he got to be Monarch of all England Yea consider him as a King in his Court as a Generall in his Camp as a Christian in his Closer as a Patron in the Church as a Founder in his Colledge as a Father in his Family his Actions will every way appear no lesse excellent in themselves 872 AIfredâ— sen Aâ—luredi 1 then exemplary to others 26. His most daring Design was Alfred as a fidler discovereth the Danish designes when lying hid about Athelney in Somerset-shire 876 and disguised under the habit of a Fidler being an excellent Musician he adventured into the Danish Camp Had not his spirit been undaunted 5 the sight of his armed Foes had been enough to have put his Instrument out of Tune Here going unsuspected through their Army he discovered their Condition and some of their Intentions Some would say that the Danes deserved to be beaten indeed if they would communicate their Counsels to a Fidler But let such know Alfred made this generall Discovery of them that they were remisse in their Discipline lay idle and carelesse and Security disarmes the best-appointed Army Themistocles said of himself that he could not fiddle but he knew how to make a little city great But our Alfred could fiddle and make a little City great too yea enlarge a petty and contracted Kingdome The Danish ships left water-bound into a vast and absolute Monarchy 27. But as the Poets feign of Anteus the Son of the Earth who fighting with Hercules Anno Regis Alfredi seu Aluredi 5 and often worsted by him recovered his Strength again every time he touched the Earth Anno Dom. 876 revived with an addition of new Spirits so the Danes which may seem the sons of Neptune though often beaten by the English in land-Battels no sooner recovered their Ships at Sea but presently recruiting themselves they returned from Denmark more numerous and formidable then before But at last to follow the Poeticall Fancy as Hercules to prevent Antaeus his farther reviving hoised him aloft and held him strangled in his Armes till he was stark dead and utterly expired so to secure the Danes from returning to the Sea who out of the Thames had with their Fleet sailed up the River Ley betwixt Hartfordshire and Essex Alfred with Pioneers divided the grand Stream of Ley into severall Rivulets so that their Ships lay Water-bound leaving their Mariners to shift for themselves over land most of which fell into the hands of their English Enemies so that this proved a mortal Defeat to the Danish Insolence 28. Alfred having thus reduced England to some tolerable terms of Quiet The general ignorance in England made most of the Danes his Subjects by Conquest the rest his Friends by Composition encountred a fiercer Foe namely Ignorance and Barbarisme which had generally invaded the whole Nation Inso much that the writeth that South of Thames he found not any that could read English Indeed in these dayes all men turned Students but what did they study onely to live secretly and safely from the Fury of the Danes And now that the next Age might be wiser then this Alfred intended the founding of an University at Oxford 29. Indeed Ancient Schools at Crekelade and Lechlade there were anciently standing on the Banks of Isis which in due time commenceth Thamisis two Towns one Crekelade or Greeklade in Wiltshire the other Lechlade or Latinlade in Gloucestershire In the former of these many yeares since things time out of mind must not be condemned as time out of truth the Greek Tongue as in the later the Latine Tongue are said to be publickly professed by Philosophers But where was Hebrew-lade the Hebrew Tongue being more necessarie then both the former for the understanding of the Old Testament Alas in this Age it was banished not onely out of England but out of Christendome As in the ordinary method of Nature the more aged usually die first so no wonder if Hebrew generally presumed the oldest Language in the world expired first in this Age of Ignorance utterly abolished out of the Western Countries Yea it is well the other two learned Tongues were preserved in these places Grekelade and Lechlade being then Cities of eminent Note shrunk now to mean Towns and content with plain English where Latine and Greek were formerly professed 30. But now the Muses swam down the Stream of the River Isis 11 to be twenty miles nearer to the rising Sun 882 and were by King Alfred removed from Crekelade and Lechlade The University first founded by Alfred at Oxford to Oxford where he founded an University Yet some say Alfred did find and not found Letters therein seeing there was a sprinkling of Students therein before though Learning was very low and little therein till this considerable Accession when Alfred founded therein three Colledges one for Grammarians a second for Philosophers a third for Divines Take a List of their primitive Professours In Divinity S t. Grimbal S t. Neoth In Grammar Asserius a Monk In Logick Iohn of S t. Davids In Mathematicks Ioannes Monachus It is credibly reported that what is now called Vniversity-Colledge was then one of King Alfred's Foundations as the Verses written in their Hall under his Armes do attest Nobilis Alfredi sunt haec Insignia cujus Primum constructa est haec pietate domus And from this time Learning flourished here in great Plenty and Abundance though oft-times abated Anno Dom. 882 the Universities feeling the Impressions of the Common-wealth Anno Regis Alfredi seu Aluredi 11 31. At the same time wherein King Alfred built Vniversity Colledge in Oxford Kings-Hall founded by King Alfred he also founded Another House called Kings-great-Hall intimating a lesser hard by now included within the compasse a Rex Platonicus pag. 211. of
last bee let in when they had paid dear for a dispensation 19. Lanckfranck likewise charged Remigius And against Remigius elect of Lincoln elect of Lincoln as irregular because guilty of Simony Yet he did not tax him with a penny of money either paid or contracted for onely charged him that officio b Eadmerus ibid. emerar by service-Simony he had purchased the place of King William so that his officiousness to comply with the Kings pleasure had made him injurious and vexatious unto the people Here all things were referred to Lanckfrancks own arbitration whom the Pope of an accuser made a Judg so far as either to admit or exclude the aforesaid Prelates affirming that if any unworthiness crept into English preferment be it charged on Lanckfranck his account whom he made sole judg of mens merits to any promotion 20. But all is well Lanckfranck his return and imployment that ends well and so did this contest Lanckfranck having first given them a taste of his power did afterwards give them a cast of his pitty and favourably accepted them both into their places Hence they all post homewards where we leave Lanckfranck safely arrived and foundly employed in variety of business 1. In asserting the superiority of his See above York 2. In defending his Tenants in what Diocess soever from the visitations of their respective Bishops which gave the first original to Peculiars 3. In repairing his Church of Canterbury lately much defaced with fire 4. In casting out Secular Priests and substituting Monks in their room 5. Lastly in recovering lands long detained from his See Nor was he affrighted with the heighth and greatness of Odo Bishop of Bayeux though half-brother to King William and Earl of Kent but wrestled a fair fall with him in a legal trial and cast him flat on his back regaining many Lordships which Odo had most unjustly invaded Such as desire more of Lanckfranck his character let them consult Eadmerus a Monk of Canterbury and therefore prodigal in Lanckfrancks praise an Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and great promoter of monastical life Indeed there was a design driven on by Walkeline Bishop of Winchester who had privately wrought the King to abet it to reinduce Secular Priests into Monks places till Lanckfranck getting notice defeated the plot procuring that all such Monks whom he had first fastened in their Covents were afterwards riveted therein by Papal authority 21. About this time a constitution was made Bishops Sees removed from villages to cities that Bishops should remove their Sees from petty towns to populous places This reason being rendred for their removal Ne vilesceret Episcopalis dignitas by their long living in so little villages Such Bishops Churches could not properly be called Cathedrals who fate not upon chairs but low stools so inconsiderably small were some places of their residences A fair candle-stick advantagiously set in some sense may be said to give light to the candle it self and Episeopal lustre will be the brighter if placed in eminent Cities Besides Bishops having now gotten Canon-Law and distinct Courts by themselves much people repaired unto their Consistories which conveniently could not be accommodated in little villages but required bigger places for their better entertainment In order to this command the Bishop of Dorchester near Oxford removed to Lincolne as somewhat before Selsey was translated to Chichester and Sherborne to Sarisbury and not long after Thetford to Norwich Now as these Cities to which they removed being great before grew greater afterwards so those places which they left Dorchester and Selsey especially decayed to contemptible villages it faring with places as with persons the rich grow richer still and the meaner are daily diminished 22. As these Bishops accounted themselves well busied Wolstans sunplicity faveth his Bisho prick in removing their Bishopricks so some I am sure were ill imployed in endeavouring to remove a good Bishop I mean Wolstan from his Church of Worcester As the Poëts saign of Janus that he had two faces because living before and after the flood so this Wolstan may be charactered accordingly made Bishop before but continuing his place long after the Norman inundation But in what sense soever he may be said to have two faces he had but one heart and that a single and sincere one to God and all goodness yet his adversaries heaved at him to cast him out of his Bishoprick because an Englishman of the old stamp but he fate safe right-poised therein with his own gravity and integrity And being urged to resign his staff and ring ensignes of his Epifcopacy he refused to surrender them to any man alive but willingly offered them up at the Tomb of Edward the Confessor from whom he received them This his gratitude to his dead Patron and candid simplicity in neglecting the pomp of his place procured him much favour and occasioned his peaceable confirmation in his Bishoprick 23. At this time several Liturgies were used in England The original of Secundum usum Sanum which caused confusion and much disturbed mens devotions Yea which was worse a brawle yea a battel happ'ned betwixt the English Monks of Glassenbury and Thurstan their Norman Abbot in their very Church obtruding a Service upon them which they dislik'd Unfit persons to fight being by their profession men of peace and unfitter the place for a quarrel * 1 Cor. 11. 22. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in saith S t Paul to the Corinthians or despise ye the Church of God Was there no other room in their Covent for them to fall out and fight in but their Church alone Here was an Holy War indeed when Church-forms candle-sticks and Crucifixes were used for shields by the Monks against the Abbot's armed-men brought in against them Nor was Holy-water onely but much bloud spilled in the place eight Monks being wounded and * Fulegium an ancient and authenick Chronicle cited by Mr. Fox pag. 233. two slain or if you will sacrificed near the steps of the High Altar But this accident ill in it self was then conceived good in the event thereof because occasioning a settlement and uniformity of Liturgie all over England For hereupon Osmund Anno Dom. 1081 Bishop of Salisbury devised that Ordinary or form of Service which hereafter was observed in the whole Realm his Churches practice being a precedent and the devotion therein a direction to all others Hence forward the most ignorant Parish-Priest in England though having no more Latin in all his treasury yet understood the meaning of Secundum usum Sarum that all Service must be ordered According to the course and oustome of Salisbury Church 24. I finde no Jews in England no deviation I hope from Church-History The first coming of the Iews into England to touch at the Synagogue before the Reign of the Conqueror who a Srows Survey of London in Coleman street Ward brought many from Roan in Normandy and
places which time out of minde hath decided the precedency to Canterbury Yorks Title 1. When Gregory the great made York and Canterbury Archiepiscopal Sees he affixed precedency to neither but that the Arch-Bishops should take place according to the seniority of their consecrations Until Lanckfranck Chaplain to King William thinking good reason he should conquer the whole Clergie of England as his Master had vanquished the Nation usurped the superiority above the See of York 2. If Antiquity be to be respected long before Gregories time York was the See of an Arch-Bishop whilest as yet Pagan Canterbury was never dream'd of for that purpose Lucius the first Christian Brittain King founding a Cathedral therein and placing Sumson in the same who had Taurinus Pyrannus Tacliacus c. his successors in that place 3. If the extent of jurisdiction be measured York though the lesser in England is the larger in Britain as which at this time had the entire Kingdom of Scotland subject thereunto Besides if the three Bishopricks viz. Worcester Lichfield Lincoln formerly injuriously taken from York were restored unto it it would vie English Latitude with Canterbury it self This controversie lasted for may years it was first visibly begun passing by former private grudges betwixt Lanckfrank of Canterbury and Thomas of York in the Reign of the Conqueror continued betwixt William of Canterbury and Thurstan of York in the dayes of King Henry the first increased betwixt Theobald of Canterbury and William of York at the Coronation of Henry the second and now revived betwixt Richard of Canterbury and Roger of York with more then ordinary animosity 4. Some will wonder that such spiritual persons should be so spiteful How much carnality in the most spiritual that they who should rather have contended de pascendis ovibus which of them should better feed their flocks should fall out de lana caprina about a toy and trifle onely for Priority Yet such will cease to wonder when they consider how much carnality there was in the Disciples themselves Witness their unseasonable contest just before our Saviours * Luke 22 24. death quis esset major which of them should be the greater when then the question should rather have been quis esset maestior not who should be the highest but who should be the heaviest for their departing Master 5. Here the Pope interposed The Popes decision gives final satisfaction and to end old Divisions made a new distinction Primate of all ENGLAND and Primate of ENGLAND giving the former to Canterbury the latter to York Thus when two Children cry for the same apple the indulgent father divides it betwixt them yet so that he giveth the bigger and better part to the Childe that is his Darling York is fain to be content therewith though full ill against his will as sensible that a secondary Primacy is no Primacy and as one stomaching a Superiour as much as Canterbury disdained an Equal Yea on every little occasion this controversie brake out again The last flash which I finde of this flame was in the Reiga of King Edward the first when William Wickham Arch-Bishop of York at a Councel at Lambeth for Reformation would needs have his Cross carried before him which John Peckam Arch-Bishop of Canterbury would in no case permit to be done in his Province Wherefore the said Peckam inhibited all from selling b Mr Jackson out of Florilegus in his Chronologie Anno 1280. victuals to him or his family so hoping to allay his stomach by raising his hunger and starve him into a speedy submission which accordingly came to pass Since York was rather quiet then contented pleasing it self that as stout came behinde as went before But at this day the Clergie sensible of Gods hand upon them for their Pride and other offences are resolved on more humility and will let it alone to the Layetie to fall out about Precedency 6. To return to King Henry The far extended English Monarchie in this Kings Reign never did the branches of the English Monarchy sprout higher or spread broader before or since as in the Reign of this King so large and united his command though in several capacities For by right of inheritance from his Mother Maud he held England and the Dukedom of Normandy Anno Dom. 1277. by the same title from his Father Anno Regis Hen. 2. 23. Geffery Plantagenet he possessed fair lands in Anjou and Maine by Match in right of Queen Elranor his Wife he enjoyed the Dukedoms of Aquitane and Guien even to the Pyrenean Mountains by Conquest he lately had subdued Ireland leaving it to his successors annexed to the English Dominions and for a time was the effectual King of Scotland whilest keeping William their King a Prisoner and acting at pleasure in the Southern parts thereof The rest of Christendom he may be said to have held by way of Arbritration as Christiani orbis arbiter so deservedly did Foreign Princes esteem his wisdom and integrity that in all difficult controversies he was made Vmpire betwixt them 7. Yet all this his greatness could neither preserve him from death Could not make him fortunate in his own Family nor make him when living happy in his own house so that when freest from Foreign foes he was most molested in his own Family his Wife and Sons at last siding with the King of France against him the sorrow whereat was conceived to send him the sooner to his grave I meet with this Distick as parcel of his Epitaph Cui * Mat. Paris pag. 151. satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae Climata terra modo sufficit octo pedum He whom alive the world would scarce suffice When dead in eight foot earth contented lies He died at Chinon in Normandy 1289. and was buried with very great solemnity 39. Rich. 1. in the Nunnery of Font-Everard in the same Countrey A Religious House of his own Foundation and Endowment 8. It is confidently a Mat. Paris at prius reported Disobedience endeavoured to be expiated by superstition that when Richard Son and Successor to King Henry approached his Fathers dead Corps they bled afresh at the Nostrils whence some collected him the cause of his death But whilest natures Night-councellors treading in the dark causes of hidden qualities render the reason of the salleying forth of the bloud on such occasions let the learned in the Laws decide how far such an accident may be improved for a legal evidence For surely that Judg is no better then a Murderer who condemneth one for Murder on that proof alone However on the bleeding of the Fathers Nostrils the Sons heart could not but bleed as meeting there with a guilty Conscience And therefore according to the Divinity and Devotion of those dayes to expiate his disobedience he undertook with Philip Augustus King of France a long Voyage against Sultan Saladine to recover CHRIST his grave
1238. Ran. Cistrensis l. ult c. 34. T. Walsingham in Hypodigm Nenstriae Oxford took up his Lodging in the Abbey of Osney To him the Scholars in Oxford sent a Present of Victuals before dinner and after dinner came to tender their attendance unto him The Porter being an Italian demanded their business who answered him that they came to wait on the Lord Legate promising themselves a courteous Reception having read in b Prov. 18. 16. Ill requited Scripture A man's gift maketh room for him though here contrary to expectation they were not received Call it not Clownishness in the Porter because bred in the Court of Rome but carefulnesse for the safety of his Master 13. But whilst the Porter held the Doore in a dubious posture betwixt open and shut the Scholars forced their entrance In this juncture of time it unluckily happened that a poor Irish Priest begged an Almes in whose face the Clark of the Kitchin cast scalding-water taken out of the Caldron A Welsh Clerk beholding this bent his Bow by this time the Scholars had got VVeapons and shot the Clark of the Kitchin stark dead on the place 14. This Man thus killed The Legate's Brother kill'd by the Scholars of Oxford was much more then his plain place promised him to be as no meaner then the Brother of the Legate himself who being suspicious O how jealous is guiltinesse that he might find Italy in England and fearing to be poisoned appointed his Brother to over-see all food for his own eating And now the three Nations of Irish Welsh and English fell down-right on the Italians The Legate fearing as they came from the same VVombe to be sent to the same Grave with his Brother Anno Dom. 1238 secured himself fast locked up in the Tower of Osney Church Anno Regis Henrici 3. 22. and there â—at still and quiet all attired in his Canonicall Cope 15. But he it seems The Legate flies to the King trusted not so much to his Canonicall Cope as the Sable Mantle of Night under the Protection whereof he got out with a Guide to make his escape not without danger of drowning in the dark being five times to crosse the River then swelling with late rain as much as the Scholars with anger He made Fordes where he found none all known passages being way-laid and heard the Scholars following after railing on and calling him Vsurer Simoniack Deceiver of the Prince Oppressour of the people c. whilst the Legate wisely turned his Tongue into Heeles spurring with might and main to Abington where the Court then lay Hither he came being out of all breath and Patience so that entring the King's presence his Tears and Sighs were fain to relieve his Tongue not able otherwise to expresse his Miseries whom the King did most affectionatly compassionate 16. And now Woe to the poor Clergy of Oxford Oxford in a sad condition when both temporall and spirituall Armes are prepared against them Next day the King sent the Earle Warren with Forces against them and a double Commission Eripere arripere to deliver the remainder of the Italians little better then besieged in Osney Abbey and to seize on the Scholars of whom thirty with one Othe Legista forward it seems in the Fray against the Legate his Name-sake were taken Prisoners and sent like Felons bound in Carts to VValling ford-prison and other places of Restraint 17. Nor was the Legate lazy the while Interdicted by the Legate but summoning such Bishops as were nearest him interdicted the Vniversity of Oxford and excommunicated all such as were partakers in the Tumult which were not the young fry of Scholars but Clerks in Order and many of them Beneficed and now deprived of the profit of their Livings 18. From Abington the Legate removed to London Who returns to London lodging at Durham-house in the Strand the King commanding the Major of London to keep him as the Apple of his eye with watch and ward constantly about him Hither he assembled the Bishops of the Land to consider and consult about Reparation for so high an Affront 19. The Bishops pleaded hard for the Vniversity of Oxford as being the place wherein most of them had their Education The Bishops interecede for the University They alledged it was Secunda Ecclesia a second Church being the Nursery of Learning and Religion They pleaded also that the Churlishnesse of the Porter let in this sad Accident increased by the Indiscretion of those in his own Family adding also that the Clerks of Oxford had deeply smarted by their long Durance and Sufferings for their fault therein 20. Mollified with the Premisses All are reconciled the Legate at last was over-intreated to pardon the Clergy of Oxford on their solemn Submission which was thus performed They went from S t. Paul's in London to Durham-house in the Strand no short Italian but an English long Mile all on foot the Bishops of England for the more State of the Businesse accompanying them as partly accessary to their fault for pleading in their behalf When they came to the Bishop of Carlile's now VVorcester house the Scholars went the rest of their way bare-foot sine Capis Mantulis which some understand without Capes or Cloaks And thus the great Legate at last was really reconciled unto them 21. The mention of the house of the Bishop of Carlile Bishops ancient Innes in London minds me how anciently every Bishop as all principall Abbots had a House belonging to their See commonly called their Inne for them to lodge in when their occasions summoned them to London Not to mention those which still retain their Names as VVinchester Durham Ely c. We will only observe such which are swallowed up into other Houses conceiving it charitable to rescue their Memory from Oblivion House Salisbury S t. Davids Chichester Exeter Bath and Wells Landaf VVorcester Lichfi Convent Carlile Norwich York Hereford Place Fleet-street North of Bride wel Chancery lane By Temple-bar Strand Strand Strand Strand Strand Strand VVestminster Old Fish-street hill Built by Ralph Nevil Bishop of Chichester Walter Stapleton Bishop of Exeter Walter Lancton Bishop of Chester Ralph de Maydenction B p. of Heref. Turned into Dorcet House Small Tenements Lincolns Inne Essex House Arundel House Somerset House Somerset House Somerset House VVorcester House York House VVhite-hall A Sugar-maker ' s House I question whether the Bishop of Rochester whose Country-House at Brumlay is so nigh had ever a House in the City Let others recover the rest from Oblivion a hard task I believe they are so drowned in private Houses O let us secure to our selves a Luke 16. 9. everlasting habitations A valiant offer seing here no abiding mansion 22. Come we now to present the Reader with another offer of the Kings I fear it was not much more to represse Papal oppression b Pat. 25. of Henry the third mem
into Lothbury After their expulsion their Synagogue was turned into the Covent of the Friers of the Sack or De Poenitentia Jesu and after their supression it became successively the house first of a Lord then of a Merchant since of any man for his money being turned into a Tavern with the sign of the a Stow his Survey of London pag. 288. Wind-mill A proper sign to express the moveableness of that place which with several gales of success hath been turned about from so many owners and to so many uses 34. As for the civil government of Jews in England The Justicer of the Jews the King set over them one principal Officer called the Justicer of the Jews whose place in honor was next to the Barons of the Exchequer His office was to be the Patron Protector of the Jews in their just rights to decide all suits betwixt Christians and them and to keep the seal of the Jews their Corporation with the keys of their Treasury I conceive of such moneys as they paid as Tribute to the King otherwise the Jews had age enough to keep the Keys of their own coffers themselves and wit too much to trust them with others S r Robert de Hoo and S r Philip Luvel afterward Treasurer of England men of signal Nobility successvely discharged this place These Justicers often acted very high in defence of their Clients the Jews insomuch as I finde it b Additamenta Matthaei Parisiensis p. â—02 complained of by the English Clergy as a great grievance that when a Jew was convented before the Ecclesiastical Judg for his misdemeanours as Sacriledg violence offered to some Priest adultery with a Christian woman c. their own Justicer would interpose and by a Prohibition obtained from the King obstruct all legal proceedings against such a Jew as onely responsible in his own jurisdiction 35. In their spiritual government they were all under one Pontifex The High Priest or Presbyter of the Jews or High Priest We finde his name was Elias who Anno 1254. had that office He was also called the Presbyter of the Jews whose place was usually confirmed at least if not constituted by the King who by his Patent granted the same as may appear by this copie of King Johns as followeth REX a Ret. Cart. 1 Reg. Joh. part 1. memb 28. Cart. 171. omnibus fidelibus suis Anno Regis Ed. 1. 18. omnibus Judaeis Anno Dom. 1290. Anglis salutem Soiatis Nos concessisse praesenti Chartâ nostrâ confirmasse Jacobo Judge de Londoniis Presbyterio Judaeorum Presbyteratum omnium Judaeorum totius Angliae babendum tenendum quamdiu vixerit liberè quietè bonorificè integre its quòd nemo ei super hoc molestiam aliquam aut gravamen inferre praesumat Quare volumus firmiter praecipimus quod eidem Jacobo quoad vixerit Presbytoratum Judaeorum per totam Angliam garantetis manu teneatis pacificè defendatis si quis ei super eo foriffacere praesumserit id ei sine dilatione salva nobis emenda nostra de forisfactura nostra emendari faciatis tanquam Dominico Judaeo nostro quem specialiter in servitio nostra retinuimus Prohibemus etiam ne de aliquo ad se pertinente ponatur in placitum nisi coram Nobis aut coram Capitali Justitia nostra sicut Charta Regis Richardi fratris nostri testatur Taeste S. Bathomensi Episcopo c. Dat. per manus H. Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi Chancellarii nostri apud Rothomagum 31. die Julii Anno Regni nostri primo I have transcribed this Patent the rather for the rarity thereof it being a strange fight to see a Christian Arch-Bishop date an Instrument for a Jewish Presbyter 36. Their livelihood was all on Usury Jews griping Usurers One Verse in b Deut. 23. 20. Deuteronomy with their Comment thereon was more beneficial unto them then all the Old Testament besides Vnto a stranger thou maiest lend upon usury but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury Now interpreting all strangers who though neighbours at the next door were not of their own nation they became the universal Usurers of all England and did our Kingdom this courtesie that because all hated the Jews for their Usury sake all also hated Usury for the Jews sake so that Christians generally disdained to be guilty thereof Now seeing there are two wayes to wealth one long and sure by saving at home the other short but not so certain because probably it may meet with detection and punishment by oppressing abroad no wonder if the Jews using both wayes quickly arrived at vast estates 37. For Their rapaciousness and tenaciousness first for their fare it was course in the quality and yet slender in the quantity thereof Insomuch that they would in a manner make pottage of a flint Swines-flesh indeed they would not eat but dogs-meat they would I mean beef and mutton so poor and lean that the refuse of all Christians was the Jews choice in the Shambles Clothes they wore so poor and patch'd beggars would not take them up to have them Attendants they kept none every one waiting on himself No wonder then if easily they did over-grow others in wealth who basely did under-live themselves in all convenient accommodations Nor were they less gripple in keeping then greedy in catching of goods who would as soon lose their fingers as let go what they had clutched therein 38. I was of the opinion and perchance not without company in my mistake that the Jews were not permitted to purchase Lands in England Jews might purchase houses I thought onely the ground of their graves generally buried without Cripplegate in the Jews garden on the West side of S t Gyles's Church-yard now turned into Tenements in Red-cross-street could be termed theirs But since I am informed that Benomy c Stows Survey pag. 288 and 289. Mittun a Jew as certainly many moe besides him was possessed of much Land and many houses in several parishes in London Surely their purchases were limited within some restrictions But the Jews generally more fancied letting-out of money then buying in of Land as which made their estates less subject to discovery more plentiful in their encreasing and more portable in the removing thereof 39. It was an usual punishment legally inflicted on these Jews Lay-excommunication what it was for their offences not capital to Excommunicate them Thus such Jews should be Excommunicated who contrary to the Laws kept Christian-nurses a Additamentaâ— Matthaei Pari. pag 202. in their houses or who cast off that badg or cognizance which they ought to have worn over their upper garment Anno Dom. 1290. to be distinguished from Christians Anno Regis Ed. 1. 18. Surely such Excommunication was no Ecclesiastical censure needless to keep the Jews out of our Churches who hated all coming into them Rather it
our leave of this Bishop whosoever considers the vast buildings and rich endowments made by this Prelate besides his expence in repairing the Cathedral at Winchester will conclude such atcheivements unpossible for a Subject until he reflect on his vast Offices of preferments being Bishop of Winchester Rector of S t Martins Le Grand holding twelve Prebends in Comendam with it Anno Dom. 1392. Lord Privy-Seal Chancellor and Treasurer of England besides other places of meaner consequence Anno Regis Ric. 2. 16. Wardens Rich. Toneworth Nich. Wickam Tho. Cranely Rich. Malsorde Jo. Bouke Will. Escot Nich. Osylbury Tho. Chaundler Walt. Hill Will. Porter Jo. Reade Jo. Younge Jo. London Hen. Cole Ral. Skinner Tho. White Mart. Culpepper George Rives Arth. Lake Pink. Stringer Marshal Benefactors M r Rawlins S r Rich. Read K t. D r Newman D r Reeve Ward D r Martin Rob. Bell. D r Smith Bishops Will. Warham Arch-Bish of Cant. Will. Wainffet Bish of Winchester Jo. White Bish of Winchester Tho. Bilson Bish of Winchester Will. Knight Bish of Bath Wells James Turbervil Bish of Exeter Rob. Sherbourne Bish of Chichester Arth. Lake Bish of Bath and Wells Learned Writers Tho. Harding Tho. Nele Nich. Sanders Nich. Harpsfield Will. Reynolds * He was brother to Doct John Reynolds the great protestant Tho. Hide Jo. Marshall Tho. Stapleton Jo. Fenne Rich. White * He wrote a History of England Jo. Pits All violent maintainers of the Popish Religion S r HEN. WOOTTON D r Tooker Dean of Lichfield D r James Cook Arch-Dec of Winch. S r. Tho. Rives besides other elegant works for his VICARS PLEA S r James Hassee S r Hen. Martin D r Merideth Dean of Wells ARTHUR LAKE Bish of Bath and Wells William Twisse John White One may defie the suspicion of flattery if adding D r Harris the reverend Warden of Winchester D r Rich. Zouch not beholden to his Noble extraction for his Repute founded on his own worth and Books reprinted beyond the Seas D r Merick late Judg of the Prerogative but it is better to leave the characters of their worth to the thankfullness of the next Age to describe 32. Lately the Popes usurpation was grown so great Good Laws in due season in intrenching on the Crown that there was an absolute necessity seasonably to retrench his usurpation For albeit the Kings of England were as absolute in their demeans their Prelacy and Clergie as learned their Nobility as valiant and prudent their Commons as free and wealthy Anno Dom. 1393. as any in Christendom Yet had not some Laws of Provision now been made England had long since been turned part of S t Peters Patrimony in demeans Yea the Scepter wrested out of their Kings hands her Prelates made the Popes Chaplains and Clerks Nobility his servants and vassals Commons his slaves and villaines had not some seasonable Statutes of Manumission been enacted 33. For now came the Parliament wherein the Statute was enacted The Maul-Popes Statute of premunire which mauled the Papal power in England Some former laws had pared the Popes nailes to the quick but this cut off his fingers in effect so that hereafter his hands could not grasp and hold such vast summes of money as before This is called the Statute of PREMUNIRE and let not the Reader grudg the reading therof which gave such a blow to the Church of Rome that it never rcovered it self in this Land but dayly decayed till its finall destruction VVHereas the Commons of the Realm in this present Parliament have sued to our redoubted Lord the King grievously complaining that whereas the said our Lord the King and all his liege people ought of right and of old time were wont to sue in the Kings Court to recover their Presentments to Churches prebends and other benefices of holy Church to the which they had right to present the Conisance of Plea of which Presentment belongeth onely to the Kings Court of the old right of his Crown used and approved in the time of all his Progenitors Kings of England And when judgment shall be given in the same Court upon such a Plea and Presentment the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Spiritual persons which have Institution of such Benefices within their jurisdictions be bound and have made Execution of such Judgments by the Kings commandements of all the time aforesaid without interruption for another Lay person cannot make such execution and also be bound of right to make execution of many other of the Kings commandements of which right the Crown of England hath been peaceably seised as well in the time of our said Lord the King that now is as in the time of all his Progenitors till this day But now of late divers Processes be made by the Bishop of Rome and censures of Excommunication upon certain Bishops of England because they have made execution of such commandements to the open disherison of the said Crown and destruction of our said Lord the King his Law and all his Realm if remedie be not provided And also it is said and a common clamor is made that the said Bishop of Rome hath ordained and purposed to translate some Prelates of the same Realm some out of the Realm and some from one Bishoprick into another within the same Realme without the Kings assent and knowledg and without the assent of the Prelates which so shall be translated which Prelates be much profitable and necessary to our said Lord the King and to all his Realme By which translations if they should be suffered the Statutes of the Realm should be defeated and made void and his said liege Sages of his Councel without his assent and against his will carried away and gotten out of his Realm and the substance and treasure of the Realm shall be carried away and so the Realm destitute as well of Councel as of substance to the final destruction of the same Realm And so the Crown of England which hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the realitie of the same Crown and to none other should be submitted to the Pope the Laws Statutes of the Realm by him defeated avoided at his will in the perpetual destruction of the Soveraigntie of the King our Lord his Crown his Regalitie of all his Realm which God defend And moreover the Commons aforesaid say that the things so attempted be clearly against the Kings Crown and Regality used and approved of the time of all his Progenitors Wherefore they and all the liege Commons of the same Realm will stand with our said Lord the King and his said Crown and his Regalitie in the cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against him his Crown and his Regalitie in all points to live and to die And moreover they pray the King and him require by way of justice that he would
resolves revenge and because he could not make her Queen whom he desired he would make him King whom he pleased 31. Take hereof this cursory account 8. After many bloudy battles 1468 King Edward was taken Prisoner at Wolney in Warwick-shire King Edward taken prisoner and King Henry enlarged and committed by the Earl of Warwick to the custody of his Brother George Nevil Arch-Bishop of York Henry is brought out of the Tower shall I call him the sixth or the seventh because dead though not in Law in dignity and once Deposed he is now restored again to wear the Royal Robes not so much as his own garments but as the Livery the Earl of Warwick his liberality However he acted a very short part of Soveraignty wherein he revenged not any personal wrongs offered unto him in his restraint For one who thrust him into the side with a sword when he was Prisoner in the Tower was afterwards pardoned by him when restored to his former dignity 32. Mean time the Arch-Bishop allowed King Edward liberty to ride abroad and follow his pleasure Edward escaped flieth beyond sea and returneth now a careless Keeper giveth his Prisoner a warning and sheweth him a way to make his escape King Edward followeth his hawking so long that he taketh his own flight at last Over he gets beyond the Seas to his Brother in law Charles Duke of Burgundie by whom he was supplied to the proportion of a competent subsistence but not enabled for the recovering of a Crown However he returned into England landed in the North marched to York desired to be received therein as into the place whence he received his Title but in no other notion then a Subject to King Henry taking the Sacrament on the truth thereof but having gotten the City as Duke he kept it as King contrary to his oath for which his Children are conceived to fare no whit the better 33. Let the State-Historians inform you with what various changes K. Edward made hence into the South Recovereth the Crown by Conquest and at last near Barnet bid battle to and defeated the Earl of Warwick 10. slain with his Brother the Marquess Montague on the place 1470 Learn also from them how King Henry was cruelly put to death and his Son and Queen Margaret soon after overthrown at Tewxbury For when a Royal Family is once falling all things conduce to expedite their destruction Henceforward King Edward saving the differences of his own with his Wives Kindred passed the remnant of his dayes in much peace plenty and pleasure 34. In most of the Battles we may observe Why most Armies make for London it was the word general of the weaker side for London for London as the most martial thrift to Conquer a Kingdom in a City For such whose necessities can allow their Armies but little time to stay do burn day light in pelting against petty Towns in the out skirts of a Land especially if all other humane hopes be in one desperate push Hence was it that so many Battles were fought about Barnet and S t Albans the Cock-pit of War the lines of all Armies drawn from the circumference of the Land being the closer together the nearer they approched London the Center in Trade and Wealth though not in exact position thereof 35. Come we now to a tamer contest Brawls betwixt Mendicants and Secular Priests and more proper for our pen continuing all this Kings time betwixt the Begging Friers and Secular Priests the former not content to cry up the dignity of their own Order Anno Dom. 1470. but cast contempt on the rest of the Clergie Anno Regis Ed. 4. 10. But these bold Beggers met with as bold sayers â—ay I mean these Mendicants found their matches in the Secular Priests effectually humbling their pride herein For it was beheld as a most pestiferous doctrine the Friers so heightning the perfection of begging that according to their principles all the Priesthood and Prelacy in the Land yea by consequence the Pope himself did fall short of the sanctity of their Order Yet hard was it for them to perswade his Holiness to quit Peters Patrimony and betake himself to poverty although a Fryer Thomas Holden by name did not blush to preach at Pauls Cross that a Fox Acts and Mon. p. 717. Christ himself as first Founder of their Society was a Beggar a manifest untruth and easily confuted out of Scripture 36. For vast the difference betwixt begging Christ falsely traduced to be a beggar and taking what the bounty of others doth freely confer as our Saviour did from such who b Luke 8. 3. ministred unto him of their substance We never read him begging any thing save when from the c John 4. 7. Woman of Samaria he asked water a creature so common and needful that it was against the law of nature to deny it him Nor is it probable he was a Mendicant who was rated in the Publicans Tole-Book and paid Tribute unto d Mat. 17. 24. Caesar Not to say that he was so far from begging John 13. 29. that it was his custom especially about the time of the Passeover to relieve others and Judas his Purse-bearer was his Almoner to distribute to the poor 37. Here it will not be amiss to reckon up the principal Champions on both sides Writers pro con in the cause whose pens publickly appeared For Mendicants Against Mendicants 1. Henry f Piz p. 660. Parker a Carmelite bred in Cambridg living afterwards in Doncaster Covent imprisoned for preaching 2. Jo. g Idem p. 673 Milverton bred in Oxford Carm. of Bristol being excommunicated by the Bishop of London and appealing to the Pope found no favour but was kept three years captive in S t Angelo 1. Thomas h Idem p. 659 Wilton Doctor of both Laws and say some Dean of Saint Pauls most zealous in his preachings and disputings 2. William Ivie i Idem p. 654. Canon of S t Pauls in London who wrote very learnedly in the defence of Rich. Hill Bishop of London who imprisoned two Mendicants for their proud preaching But after Pope Paul the second had interposed herein concluding quod Christus publicè mendicavit pro damnata haeresi undique declarandam conculcandam esse the Mendicants let fall their Bucklers and the controversie sunk in silence nevermore revived 38. Never had England at once two Arch-Bishops of so high extraction as at this time A prodigious fear at an Arch-Bishops installation namely Thomas Bourchier Son of Henry Earl of Essex and George Nevil Brother to the Great Earl of Warwick The latter is famous for a prodigious Feast wherein whoso noteth the number and quality of the Guests all the Nobility most of the prime Clergie many of the Great Gentry will wonder where he got meat for so many mouthes whilest such who number the dishes thereof
two hundred and fifty Writers of Name and note as Pitzeus * Catalogue p. 966. accounteth them 4. What this S. Equitius was Hâ—e and Crie after S. Equitius pretended Founder of our first English Monks is worth our enquirie Sure he could not be that Equitius of whom the African Bishops complained in the Councell of Carthage That by indirect courses he had invaded the Priesthood desiâ—ing by their b Acta Concil sect 32. 60. Legats whom they sent to the Emperour That he might be expelled that Office Yet he in defiance of their endevours went about to disturb the peace of the Church More probable it is he was either Equitius a Deacon in the Apamean Church flourishing in the fourth Century and famous for his faith and fervency in Religion in c Theodoret. lib. 3. cap. 27. assisting Marcellus Bishop thereof to demolish the Temple of Jupiter or else his contemporary Equitius Consul of Rome with Gratian An. 378 or some other unknown unto us But be he who he himself or any other pleaseth brother if they will to S. George on Horse back he was never father of any Monks in England 5. I intended to present the Reader Why habits of Monks not here presented with the habits of Benedictines and all other Orders for the fashion matter and colour thereof But understanding the industrious work called Monasticon is comming sorth which hath the speed of this my Book for a Term or two wherein that Subject is handled at large I thought better to forbear Partly because I presume Master Dadsworth an eminent instrument in that usefull work better acquainted than I am with their Taylors partly because my wardrobe of their clothes coming so long after his will be beheld but as from the second hand fetched from Long lane and his new bought out of the Draper's shop 6. The Augustinian Monks succeed Augustinian Monks younger than the Benedictines in England though older in Europe For S. Augustine of Hippo on whom these Monks would willingly recover themselves was S. Benet's Senior by sixty years I cannot believe that they came over into England what some affirm precise Anno 636 others 640. when Birinus was Bishop of Dorchester or that d Josephâ—â— Pamphilâ—â— in his Cronicon Augustin 1059 they were seated in London being rather inclined to believe that Eudo the Dapifer Sewer if you please to King Henry the first first brought them into England Anno 1105 and that S. John's at Colchester was the prime place of their residence However I finde that Waltham Abbey for Benedictines at the first had its Copie altered by King Henry the second and bestowed on Augustinians 7. These Augustinians were also called Canons Regular Whether H be a letter where by the way I meet with such a nice distinction which dishearrens me from pretending to exactnesse in reckoning up these Orders For this I finde in our English e Cbaucer in the Plow-mans Tale. Ennius And all such other Counterfaitours Chanons Canons and such disguised Boen Goddes enemies and Traytours His true religion hau soule despised It seems the H here amounteth to a letter so effectuall as to discriminate Chanons from Canons though both Canonici in Latine but what should be the difference betwixt them I dare not interpose my conjecture I have done with these Augustinians when I have observed that this Order in England afforded * Reckoned up by Piâ—zeus in Iudicâ— p. 974. threescore and ten eminent Writers and one in Germany worth them all in effect I mean Martin Luther who by his writings gave a mortall wound to all these Orders yea and to the root of the Romish Religion 8. Gilbertine Monks Gilbertine Monks may be the third a mongrel Order observing some select Rules partly of S. Bennet partly of S. Augustine So named from Gilbert son to Joceline a Knight Lord of Sempringham in Lincoln-shire where 1148 first they were planted Whereupon this Order may boast that it alone is a native and Indegena whereas Benedictines are by original Italians Augustinians Affrican Carthusians French Dominicans Spanish c. pure English by the extraction thereof This Gilbert unhandsome but not unlearned erected this Order contrary to Justinians constitution who forbad double Monasteries wherein men and women lived together though secluded under one roof He survived to see thirteen Houses of this his own Order and in them seventeen hundred Gilbertine Brothers and Sisters Yet I finde no Writer of this Orâ—er conceiving them so well busied with their Company in their Convent they had little leisure for the writing of Books 9. Carthusian Monks make up a Messe Carthusian Monks much famed for their mortified lives and abstinence from all flesh one Bruno first founded them in the Dolphinate in France Anno 1080 and some 60 years after they were brought over into England I wonder men fasting so much should have so high spirits no Order standing more stoutly on their priviledges insomuch when the means of all Covents were valued in the Reign of * Some years before the dissolution of Abbeys King Henry the eighth a peculiar clause was added to the Patent of the Commissioners impowering them particularly to rate Charter-house in London However their Books there being eleven * Pitzeus in Indice p. 973. learned Authors of English Carthusians contain much tending to mortification and out of them Parsons the Jesuite hath collected a good part of his Resolutions 10. So much of Monks Monks and Fryers how they differ come we now to Fryers and it is necessary to premise what was the distinction betwixt them For though some will say the matter is not much if Monks and Friers were confounded together yet the distinguishing of them condueeth much to the clearing of History Some make Monks the Genus and Friers but the Species so that all Fryers were Monks but è contra all Monks were not Fryers Others that Monks were confined to their Cloisters whilst more liberty was allowed to Fryers to goe about and preach in neighbouring Parishes Others that Monks were in those Convents who had a Bishop over them as Canterbury Norwich Durham c. but never any Fryers in such places where the Bishop was the supreme and they in some sort had the power of his Election I see it is very hard just to hit the joynt so as to cleave them asunder at an hairs bredth Authors being so divided in their opinions But the most essentiall difference whereon we most confide is this Monks had nothing in propriety but all in common Fryers had nothing in propriety nor in common but being Mendicants begg'd all their subsistance from the charity of others True it is they had Cells or Houses to dwell or rather hide themselves in so the Foxes have holes and the Birds of the aire have nests but all this went for nothing seeing they had no means belonging thereunto Yea it hath borne a tough debate
well as the single Arrows seeing perchance other Societies led lives not more religious but lesse examined 4. But the first terrible blow in England given generally to all Orders The first stroke at the root of Abbeys was in the Lay Parliament as it is called which did wholly Wicclifize kept in the twelfth year of King Henry the fourth wherein the c Thomas Walsingbam Nobles and Commons assembled signified to the King that the temporal possessions of Abbots Priors c. lewdly spent within the Realm would suffice to finde and sustain 150 Earls 1500 Knights 6200 Esquires 100 Hospitals more than there were But this motion was maul'd with the King 's own hand who dashed it personally interposing Himself contrary to that character which the jealous Clergie had conceived of Him that coming to the Crown He would be a great d Being heard to say That Princes had too little and Religious men too much Holinshed pag. 514. enemy to the Church But though Henry Plantagenet Duke of Lancaster was no friend to the Clergie perchance to ingratiate himself with the people yet the same Henry King of England His interest being altered to strengthen Him with the considerable power of the Clergy proved a Patron yea a Champion to defend them However we may say that now the Axe is laid to the root of the tree of Abbeys and this stroke for the present though it was so farre from hurting the body that it scarce pierced the bark thereof yet bare attempts in such matters are important as putting into peoples heads a feasibility of the project formerly conceived altogether impossible 5. Few yeares after The objection of covetousness against Abbeys though not answered â—vaded by Archb. Chichesly namely in the second year of King Henry the fift another shreud thrust was made at English Abbeys but it was finely and cleverly put aside by that skilfull State-Fencer Henry Chichesly Archbishop of Canterbury For the former Bill against Abbeys in full Parliament was revived when the Archbishop minded King Henry of His undoubted Title to the fair and flourishing Kingdome of France Hereat that King who was a spark in Himself was enflamed to that designe by this Prelates perswasion and His native courage ran fiercely on the project especially when clapt on with conscience and encouragement from a Church-man in the lawfulnesse thereof An undertaking of those vast dimensions that the greatest covetousnesse might spread and highest ambition reach it self within the bounds thereof If to promote this project the Abbeys advanced not onely large and liberall but vast and incredible summes of money it is no wonder if they were contented to have their nails pared close to the quick thereby to save their fingers Over goes K. Henry into France with many martiall spirits attending him so that putting the King upon the seeking of a new Crown kept the Abbots old Mitres upon their heads and Monasteries tottering at this time were thank a politick Archbishop refixed on the firm foundations though this proved rather a reprieve than a pardon unto them as will afterwards appear Of the suppression of alien Priories NExt followed the dissolving of alien Priories The originall of Pâ—ioâ—â—es aliens of whose first founding and severall sorts something must be observed When the Kings of England by Conquest or Inheritance were possessed of many and great Territories in France Normandy Aquitaine Picardy c. many French Monasteries were endowed with lands in England For an English kitchen or larder doth excellently well with a French hall And whilst forreigners tongues slighted our Island as barren in comparison of their own Countrey at the same time they would lick their lips after the full-fare which our Kingdome afforded 2. Very numerous were these Cells in England relating to forreign Abbeys scattered all over the Kingdome One John Norbury erected two for his part the one at Greenwich the other at Lewesham in Kent Yea e Cambd. Brit. in Lancashire Roger de Poictiers founded on in the remotest corner of the Land in the Town of Lancaster the richest of them all for annuall income was that which f Idem in Lincoln-shire Tuo Talbois built at Spalding in Lincoln shire giving it to the Monks of Angiers in France g Harpsfield in Catal. religiosarum â— Edium fol. 761. valued at no lesse than 878 lib. 18s 3d. of yearly revenue And it is remarkable that as one of these Priories was granted before the Kings of England were invested with any Dominion in France namely Deorhirst in Glocester shire h Camb Brit. in Glocester-shire assigned by the Testament of Edward the Confessour to the Monastery of S. Denis neer Paris so some were bestowed on those places in forreign parts where our English Kings never had finger of power or foot of possession Thus we read how Henry the third annexed a Cell in Thredneedle-street in i Harpsfield ut priùs pag 763. London to S. Anthony in Vienna and neer Charing-Crosse there was another annext to the Lady Runciavall in Navarre Belike men's devotion in that Age look'd on the world as it lay in common taking no notice how it was sub-divided into private Principalities but proceeded on that rule k 1 Cor. 10. 28. The earth is the Lord's and the fulnesse thereof and Charity though wandring in forreign parts counted it self still at home because dwelling on its proper pious uses 3. These alien Priories were of two natures some had Monks with a Prior resident in them Alien Priories of two natures yet not Conventuall but dative and removable ad nutum of the forreign Abbey to which they were subservient Others were absolute in themselves who though having an honorary dependence on and bearing a subordination of respect unto French Abbeys yet had a Prior of their own being an intire body of themselves to all purposes and intents The former not unlike Stewards managing profits for the behoof of their Master to whom they were re sponsible The later resembling retainers at large acknowledging a generall reference but not accomptable unto them for the revenues they received Now both these kindes of Priories peaceably enjoyed their possessions here even after the revolt of those Principalities from the Crown of England yet so that during open hostility and actuall warre betwixt England and France their revenues were seised and taken by the King and restored again when amity was setled 4. But King Richard the second and King Henry the fourth not so fair as their predecessours herein not onely detained those revenues in time of peace but also diverted them from their proper use and bestowed them on some of their Lay-servants So that the Crown was little enriched therewith especially if it be true what Arundell Archbishop of Canterbury averred in the house of Commons to the face of the Speaker That these Kings l Antiq. Brit. pag. 274. were not half a mark the wealthier for those rents thus
conscience is grounded upon the word of God and the word of God worketh his effect by preaching so as generally where preaching wanteth obedience faileth No Prince ever had more lively experience hereof then your Majesty hath had in your time and may have daily if your Majesty comes to the City of London never so often what gratulations what joy what concourse of the people is there to be seen Yea what acclamations and prayers to God for your long life and other manifest significations are there to be heard of inward and unfeined love joyned with most humble and hearty obedience are there to be heard Whereof commeth this Madam but of the continuall preaching of Gods word in that City whereby that people hath been plentifully instructed in their duty towards God and your Majesty On the contrary what bred the Rebellion in the North was it not Papistry and ignorance of Gods word through want of often preaching in the time of that rebelling were not all men of all states that made profession of the gospel most ready to offer their lives for your defence in so much that one poore parish in York-shire which by continuall preaching hath been better instructed then the rest Halifax I mean was ready to bring three or foure thousand able men into the field to serve you against the said rebels How can your Majesty have a more lively triall and experience of the effects of much preaching or little or no preaching the one worketh most faithfull obedience the other working most unnaturall disobedience and rebellion but it is thought that many are admitted to preach and few able to do it well that unable preachers be removed is very requisite if ability and sufficiency may be rightly weighed and judged and therein I trust as much is and shall be done as can be for both I for my own part let it be spoken without any ostentation I am very carefull in allowing of such preachers only as be able both for the knowledge in the Scriptures and also for testimony of their godly life and conversation and besides that I have given very great charge to the rest of my brethren the Bishops of this Province to do the like we admited no man to the office of preaching that either prosesseth Papistry or puritanisme the graduats of the Vniversities are only admitted to be preachers unless it be some few which have excellent gifts of knowledge in the Scriptures joyned with good utterance and godly perswasions I my self procured above 40. learned preachers and graduats within less then these six years to be placed within the Diocess of York besides those I found there and there I left them the fruits of whose travell in preaching your Majesty is like to reap daily by most assured dutifull obedience of your subjects in those parts But indeed this age judgeth hardly and nothing indifferently of the ability of preachers of our time judging few or none to be able in their opinion which hard judgement groweth upon divers ill dispositions of men St. Paul doth command the preaching of Christ crucified be absque eminentia sermonis but in our time many have so delicate eares that no preaching can satisfie them unless it be sauced with much sweetness and exornation of speech which the same apostle utterly condemneth and giveth this reason ne evacuetur crux Christi Some there be also that are mislikers of the godly reformation in religion now established wishing indeed that there were no preachers at all and so by depraving of ministers impugne religion non aperto Martis sed in cuniculis much like to the Popish Bishops in your fathers time who would have had the english translation of the Bible called in as evill translated and the new translation thereof to be committed to them which they never intended to performe A number there is and that exceeding great whereof some are altogether worldly minded and altogether bent covetously to gather worldly goods and possessions serving all carnall vain dissolute and lascivious life Voluptatis amores magis quam Dei semetipsos dediderunt ad patrandum omnem immunditiem cum aviditate Eph. 4. 19. and because the preaching of Gods word which to all Christians conscience is sweet and delectable to them having cauterizatas conscientias is bitter and grievous for as St. Ambrose saith super Psal 119. quomodo possunt verba Dei dulcia esse in faucibus tuis in quibus est amaritudo There they wish also that there were no preachers at all but because they dare not directly condemne the office of preaching so expressly commanded by Gods word for that the same were open blasphemy they turne themselves altogether and with the same meaning as others do to make exceptions against the persons of them that be admitted to preach But God forbid Madam that you should open your eares to any of these wicked perswasions or any way to diminish the preaching of Christs gospell for that you would ruinate altogether at length Cum defecerit propheta dissipabitur populus Pro. 27. saith Solomon Now where it is though that the reading of godly Homilies set forth by publick authority may suffice I continue in the same minde I was when I attended upon your Majesty the reading of Homilies hath his commodities but it is nothing comparable to the office of preaching The godly preacher is learned in the gospell Fidelis servus qui novit who can apply his speech to the diversity of times places and hearers which cannot be done in homilies Exhortations reprehensions and perswasions are uttered with more affections to the moving of the hearers in sermons then in Homilies Besides Homilies were devised by godly Bishops in your brothers dayes only to supply necessity by want of preachers and are by the statute not to be preferred but to give place to sermons wheresoever they may be had and were never thought in themselves to contain alone sufficient instruction for the Church of England for it was then sound as it is sound now that this Church of England hath been by appropriations and that not without sacriledge spoiled of the livings which at the first were appointed to the office of preaching and teaching which appropriations were first annexed to Abbyes and after came to the crown and now are disposed to private mens possessions without hope to reduce the same to the originall Institution So that at this day in my opinion where one Church is able to yield sufficient living to a learned preacher there are at the least seven Churches unable to do the same where there be * * The word nor being easily legible I have 〈◊〉 â—â—ink as sometimes before and after prefering to refer the sence to the Judicious Readers own coniecture then to impose my guess upon him soules the more is the pitâ—y there are not seven pounds a year reserved for the Minister In such parishes as it is not possible to place able preachers for want of convenient
as at London at Terms and Parliament times in Oxford at the Act in Cambridg at the times of Commencement and Sturbridge-fair and also more particular and Provinciall Synods and at Classes or Conferences of certain selected Ministers in one or moe places of sundry severall shires as Warwick Northampton Râ—tland Oxford Leicester Cambridge Norfolke Suffolke Essex and others 27. Item that at such Synods and Conferences it hath been concluded that all the Ministers which should be received to be either of the said generall Synods or of any more particular and Provincial or of a Classis or Conference should subscribe to the said Discipline that they did allow it would promote it practise it and be governed by it And according to the form of a schedule hereunto annexed or such like both he the said Thomas Cartwright and many others at sundry or some generall Assemblies as at Provincial and at several conferences have within the said time subscribed the same or some part thereof 28. Item that at such Synods and all other Assemblies a moderator of that meeting was first by him and them chosen according to the prescription of the said book And at some of such meetings and Assemblies amongst other things it was resolved and concluded that such particular conferences in severall Shires should be erected how many persons and with what letters from every of them should be sent to the generall Assembly and that one of them at their coming home to their Conference should make known the determinations of the generall Assembly to be by every of them followed and put in practice which course in sundry places of this Realm hath within the time aforesaid been accordingly followed and performed 29. Item that he with others in some such Classis or Conference or in a Synod Anno Dom. 1590. Anno Regin Eliza. 33. or more generall Assembly holden did treat and dispute among other points these six Articles conteined in another schedule annexed and set down their resolution and determination of them 30. Item that he with others assembled in such a generall Assembly or Synod at Cambridge did conclude and decree as in another schedule annexed or in some part thereof is conteined which decrees were made known afterwards at Warwick to sundry Classes there by his means assembled and allowed also by them then met together in the same or like form 31. Item that all such severall meetings Synods and Conferences within the said time many other determinations as well what should be done and performed or omitted as also what should be holden consonant to Gods word or disagreeing from it have been set down by the said Thomas Cartwright and others As namely that all admitted to either Assembly should subscribe the said book of Discipline Holy and Synodicall that those who were sent from any Conference to a Synod should bring letters fiduciarie or credence that the last Moderator should write them that the superscription thereof should be to a known man of the Assembly then to be holden that no book made by any of them should be put in print but by consent of the Classis at least that some of them must be earnest and some more milde and temperate whereby there may be both of the spirit of Elias and Elizeus that all admitted amongst them should subscribe and promise to conform themselves in their proceedings administration of Sacraments and of Discipline to the form of that Book and that they would subject themselves to the censuring of the Brethren both for doctrine and life and lastly that upon occasion when any their brethren shall be sent by them upon affairs of the Church as to the great meetings Parliament c. they all would bear their charges in common that there might be no superiority amongst them and that the Moderatorship as it happ'ned is not a superiority or honour but a burden that no profane writer or any other than Canonical Scripture may be alledged in Sermons that they should all teach that the ministry of those who did not preach is no ministry but a meer nullity that it is not lawfull to take any oath whereby a man may be driven to discover any thing penal to himself or to his brother especially if he be perswaded the matter to be lawfull for which the punishment is like to be inflicted or having taken it in this case need not discover the very truth that to a Bishop or other Officer ecclesiasticall as is used now in the Church of England none obedience ought to be given neither in appearing before them in doing that which they command nor in abstaining from that which they inhibit that in such places as the most of the people favoured the cause of sincerity Eldership should warily and wisely be placed and established which Consistory in some places hath been either wholy or in part erected accordingly yea in some Colledges in the University as he knoweth hath heard or verily beleeveth These Articles were tendered to M r. Cartwright in the Consistory of Pauls before John Almare Bishop of London the two Lord Chief Justices Justice Gawdy Sergeant Puckering afterwards Lord keeper and Attorney-Generall Popham 28. Mr. Cartwright refuseth to answer an oath These Commissioners did move him to give in his answer the rather because the chief points in the Jnterrogatories were delivered in general terms unto him and they severally assured him on their credits that by the Laws of the Realm he was to take his oath and to answer as he was required But M r. Cartwright desired to be born withall pleading that he thought he was not bound by the laws of God so to do Hereupon he was sent to the rest of his brethren to the Fleet where he secretly and silently took up his lodging many admiring at the pannick peaceableness and so quiet a calm where so violent a tempest was feared to arise 29. Wigington his ridling words Some soon after expected the appearance of the Presbyterian party Nov. 6. accounting it more valour to free than to keep their friends from prison The rather because of a passage in a letter of M r. Wigingtons to one M r. Porter at Lancaster M r. Cartwright is in the Fleet for the refusall of the oath as I hear and M r. Knewstubs is sent for and sundry worthy Ministers are disquieted who have been spared long So that we look for some Bickering ere long and then a Battle which cannot long endure Words variously expounded as mens fancies directed them Some conceived that this Bickering and Battle did barely import a passive conflict wherein their patience was to encounter the power of their adversaries and to conquer by suffering Parallel to the Apostles a 2 Cor. 7. 5. words Without were fightings meaning combats to wrastle with in many difficulties opposing their proceedings Others expounded the words literally not of a tame but wilde Battle and of some intended violence as if shortly they would
the additions of their new Possessions in England The sixth W-names Walloons Names coming over with the Conquest beginning with VV. were not out of France but the Vicinage thereof As the Britans disclaim X. the Latines Y. save when the badge of a Greek word Latinized so the French disown VV. When we find it therefore the initiall letter of a Name whereof many occur in the ensuing Catalogue it argueth the same Walloon or Almain Yea I am credibly informed that some of the English here wearied with Harold's Usurpation fled over into Normandy to fetch in the Conquerour so that when King William entred they returned into England And this particularly hath been avouched of the noble Family of the Wakes who were here before the Conquest yet found among the Norman Invaders The seventh The twilight credit of Battel-Abbey Roll. Battel-Abbey Roll is the best extant Catalogue of Norman Gentry if a true Copy thereof could be procured 1. Battel-Abbey Roll. Because hung up in that Abbey as fixt to the Freehold thereof where the Names of such as came over with the Conquest were recorded 2. Best extant Otherwise Industry with Honesty Leisure and Liberty to peruse Dooms-day-book might collect one more perfect out of impartiall Records which neither fear nor flatter Such a Catalogue were to be believed on it's Word before Battell Roll on it's Oath 3. Yet that Abbey Roll deserved Credit if a true Copy might be procured One asked which was the best S t. Augustine To whom this Answer was given generally true of all ancient Authours even that Augustine which is least corrected For Corrections commonly are corruptive as following the Fancy and Humour of the Correctour Battel-Abbey Roll hath been practiced upon with all the Figures of Diction Prothesis Aphaeresis c. some names therein being augmented subtracted extended contracted lengthened curtailed The same Scruple therefore which troubleth Sophisters Whether Jason ' s weather-beaten Ship so often clouted and patched with new Boards were the same numerically with the first may be propounded of Battel-Abbey Roll whether that extant with us after so many Alterations be individually the same with the Original See what a deadly Gash our great a Camden in his Remaines p. 152. Antiquary gives to the Credit thereof VVhosoever considereth it well shall find it to be forged and those Names to be inserted which the Time in every Age favoured and were never mentioned in that Authenticall Record Obj. If such be the depraving of Battel-Abbey Roll Obj. Then it is of no credit then no Credit at all is due unto it Let it be pilloried for a mere Cheat and be suffered no longer to go about to deceive the honest Reader thereof seeing we cannot hear the true Tone of Names therein Monks have so set them to the Tune of their present Benefactours and Minions of the Age they lived in Ans Though there be much Adulteration therein Ans How credit thereunto is to be cautioned yet I conceive the main Bulk and Body thereof uncorrupted As they therefore overvalue this Roll who make it the Grammer of French-Gentry the Heraulds Institutes and of Canonicall Credit amongst them so such too much decry the same who deny all trust thereunto Yea we may confidently relie on this Roll where we find a Concurrence of ancient English Historians therewith and this will appear in the generality of Names which that Roll presenteth unto us We find in our English Chroniclers two printed Copies a Manuscript thereof worth mentioning I have not met with of Battel-Abbey Roll. Wherein such various Lections they agree neither in Number Order nor Spelling of the Names which though generally digested in an Alphabeticall way are neither of them exactly ordered according to the same But behold both Holinshead pag. 3. Stow pag. 105. Aumarle Aumeic Aincourt Audley Audeley Angilliam Angilliam Argentoun Argentoun Arundell Arundéll Avenant Abell Abell Auverne Awgers Aunwers Angenoun Angiers Archer Angenoun Aspervile Archere Amonerduil Anvay Arey Aspervile Albeny Albevile Akeny Andevile Asperemound Amoverduile 16 Arcy  Akeny  Albeny  Aybevare  Amay  Aspermound  Amerenges  24  Bertram Bertram Buttecourt Butrecourt Brehus Braehus Byseg Byseg Bardolfe Bardolf Basset Basset Bigot Bohun Bohun Baylife Bailif Bondevile Bondevile Barbason Brabason Beer Baskervile Bures Bures Bonylayne Bounilayne Barbayon Bois Berners Botelere Braybuf Bourcher Brand Brabaion Bonvile Berners Burgh Braibuf Busshy Brande Blundell Bronce Breton Burgh Belasyse Bushy Bowser Banet Bayons Blondell Bulmere Breton Broune Bluet Beke Baious Bowlers Browne Banistre Beke Belomy Bickard Belknape Banastre Beachamp Baloun Bandy Beauchamp Broyleby Bray Burnell Bandy Belot Bracy Beufort Boundes Baudewine Bascoun Burdon Broilem Bertevyley Brolevy Barre Burnell Bussevile Bellet Blunt Baudewin Beawper Beaumont Bret Burdon Barret Bertevilay Barnevale Barre Barry Bussevile Bodyt Blunt Bertevile Beaupere Bertine Bevill Belew Bardvedor Bushell Brette Beleneers Barrett Buffard Bonret Boteler Bainard Botvile Barnivale Brasard Bonett Belhelme Barry Braunch Bryan Bolesur Bodin Blundel Bertevile Burdet Bertin Bagot Berenevile Beaupount Bellewe Bools Bevery Belefroun Busshell Barchampe Boranvile 69 Browe  Belevers  Buffard  Botelere  Bonveier  Botevile  Bellire  Bastard  Bainard  Brasard  Beelhelm  Braine  Brent  Braunch  Belesuz  Blundell  Burdet  Bagot  Beauvise  Belemis  Bisin  Bernon  Boels  Belefroun  Brutz  Barchamp  96  Camois Camos Camvile Canville Chawent Chawent Chauncy Chancy Conderay Couderay Colvile Colvile Chamberlaine Chamberlain Chamburnoun Chambernoune Comin Cribet Columber Corbine Cribet Corbet Creuquere Coniers Corbin Chaundos Corbett Coucy Chaundos Chaworth Chaworth Claremaus Cleremaus Clarel Clarell Camuine Chopis Chaunduyt Chaunduit Clarevays Chantelow Chantilowe Chamberay Colet Cressy Cressy Curtenay Courtenay Conestable Constable Cholmely Chaucer Champney Cholmelay Chawnos Cornevile Comivile Champeney Champaine Carew Carevile Chawnos Carbonelle Clarvaile Charles Champaine Cherberge Carbonel Chawnes Charles Chaumont Chareberge Caperoun Chawnes Cheine Chawmont Curson Cheyn Coville pag. 4. Cursen Chaiters Conell Cheines Chayters Cateray Cheynes Cherecourt Cateray Cammile Cherecourt Clerenay Chaunvile Curly Clereney Cuily Curley Clinels Clifford Chaundos 49 Courteney  Clifford  52  Denaville Deanvile Dercy Dercy Dive Dine Dispencere Dispencer Daubeny Daniel Daniell Denyse Denise Druell Druel Devaus Devause Davers Davers Dodingsels Doningsels Darell Darel Delaber De la bere Delapole De la pole Delalinde De la lind Delahill De la Hill Delaware De la ware Delavache De la watch Dakeny Dakeny Dauntre Dauntry Desny Desny Dabernoune Dabernoun Damry Damry Daveros Daveros Davonge De la Vere Duilby De liele Delavere De la ward Delahoid De la plance Durange Danway Delee De Hewse Delaund Disard Delaward Durant Delaplanch Drury Damnot 32 Holinshead pag. 4. Stow pag. 105. Danway  Dehense  Devile  Disard  Doiville  Durant  Drury  Dabitot  Dunsterville  Dunchampe