of greatest note since the Reformation were penn'd by Tho. White alias Woodhop a Monk of Doway where he dy'd of the Plague in 1654. A Manuscript Copy of this was in Mr. Wood's possession and I suppose is now among those Books that he Bequeath'd to the University in the Musaeum at Oxford But the chief of our Historians of this Order was Clement Reyner whose elaborate Book is Entitl'd Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia sive Decerptatio Historica de Antiquitate Ordinis Congregationisque Monachorum Nigrorum in Anglia His Business is to prove that the Order was brought hither by Augustine Arch-bishop of Canterbury and he is thought by some of our best Antiquaries to have effectually prov'd his Point and to have fairly Answer'd all the Objections against it He is said to have had great helps from the Collections made by John Jones or Leander de Sancto Martino as he nam'd himself Prior of St. Gregory's and Publick Professor of Divinity at Doway who sojourning sometime in England with his heretofore Chamber-fellow Arch-bishop Laud had frequent access to the Cotton-Library where he transcrib'd whatever he could find that related to the History aâ—d Antiquities of his own Order Others say that the most of the Collections out of this Library which were used by our Author Reyner were made by Augustine Baker another Monk of Doway who left several Volumes in Folio of Select Matters very serviceable towards the Illustrating of this and other parts of our English History However it was Sir Thomas Bodley's Library was thought the most proper Magazine to furnish out Artillery against the Man that had already seiz'd on that of Sir Robert Cotton and to this purpose Father John Barnes a Brother Benedictine but of different Sentiments with Reyner betakes himself to Oxford and there Composes a sharp Refutation of the Apostolatus This was very ill resented by those of the Fraternity and other Members of the Roman Church And they had some reason to be Angry at one of their own Body's using the Book more Scurvily than any of the Protestant Writers had done There are several Learn'd Foreigners in France and Flanders that have lately made very Voluminous Collections of the Acta Benedictinorum in General wherein are some Tracts written by English-Men and such as wholly treat on our own Historical Matters These have been occasionally mention'd in other parts of this Work And my Design will not allow me to consider them any further The Cistercians may be reckon'd one of our own Orders For tho' they came not into this Kingdom 'till almost a Hundred Years after their first Formation they were founded by Robert Harding an English-Man Hugh Kirkstede or rather Kirkstall was a Monk of this Order about the Year 1220. and collected the Memoirs of all the English that had been of it which he Dedicated to John Abbot of Fountains This is attested by Leland who acquaints us further that in the Library at Rippon he saw his Book entitl'd Historia rerum a Monachis Cisterciensibus gestarum Bale tells us that he was greatly assisted in this Work by Serlo Abbat of Fountains about the Year 1160. And because there appears to be a good distance betwixt the reputed Times of these two Writers he assures us that Hugh liv'd very near a hundred Year I am apt to believe that Serlo was the sole Author of another Treatise ascrib'd to this Monk De Origine Fontani Coenobij and that this is the true bottom of Bale's fine Contrivance The Canons Regular of St. Augustine pretend to be Founded by that famous Father and Bishop of Hippo whose Name they bear But they are of no great Antiquity Here all our Historians agreeing in this tho' they disagree about the precise time that they came into England since the Conquest The first of their Historiographers was Jeoffrey Hardib Canon of Leicester and Privy Councellour to King Edward the Third in the Year 1360. who was an eminent Preacher a great Divine and amongst many other things wrote De rebus gestis Ordinis sui The next and the last that I know of was John Capgrave who was sometime Provincial of the Order and he alotted one his many Volumes the Subject De Illustribus Viris Ordinis S. Augustini The Dominicans Franciscans and other Mendicant Friers having had no Lands had no occasion for Leiger-Books But I know not why we should not have better Remains of their History Penn'd by themselves since 't was no part of their Vow that they should so far renounce the World as not to have their good Works had in remembrance The Story of the settlement of the Order of St. Francis in England being confirm'd by Henry the Third in the Year 1224 is written by Tho. Ecleston whose Book De adventu Minorum in Angliam is in several of our Libraries Mr. Pits says he wrote also another Book De Ordinis impugnatione per Dominicanos Which I am afraid is only a part of the former for they had Battail given soon after their first Landing Their History afterwards is pretty well accounted for by Fran. a Sancta Clara and we have a formal Register of that Colony of them that was seated in London with some Fragments of those of other Places The Records of the University of Oxford with those in the Neighbourhood have afforded us a diverting View of their frequent Bickerings with the Dominicans in our publick Schools which for an Age or two make up a good share of the Annals of that Place The Carmelites have likewise had some few of their Fraternity who have taken the pains to enquire into the History of that Order of whom William of Coventry about the Year 1360. wrote de Adventu Carmelitarum in Angliam Bale quotes some of his Words and Writes as if he had seen his Book About a Hundred Years after this Will. Green a Cambridg-Man collected out of the most of the Libraries in England the noted Exploits of the great Men of this Order which he afterwards published under the Title of Hagiologium Carmelitarum And lastly Robert Bale a Carmelite Fryar at Norwich and afterwards Prior of Burnham where he dy'd A. D. 1503. wrote Annales Breves Ordinis sui 'T is much that this Gentleman's name-sake the famous Mr. John Bale never penn'd any thing of this kind For he was also a Carmelite of Norwich and assures us in the Account he gives of his own dear Self in the Tail of his Writers that the Libraries of that Order were the chief Treasury out of which he had his Riches Perhaps he did Write some such Thing but did not afterwards think fit to own the Respects he once had for those Antichristian Locusts as he there most greatefully calls them CHAP. VIII Of the Histories of our Vniversities and Writers WHAT Sir John Marsham says of the old
He was a choice Collector of the Flowers of former Historians from whence and from the Title of his Book he is usually styl'd Florilegus His chief Benefactoris Matthew Paris whom he so accurately transcribes that he cannot be perswaded to leave him even when he warmly treats of the particulars of his own Monastery of St. Albans Nay he sometimes refers in Paris's very words to that Author's Addilamenta as to a Work of his own composure and hence some have concluded that the whole even that part which precedes the Conquest was borrow'd from the same hand But I can hardly agree to that since the same heedless way of writing unbecoming the Accuracy of M. Paris runs through both of ' em Hence Vnde Reges Cantiae usque hodie Aeskynges vocantur with a thousand more of the like 'T is most likely as has been already observ'd that R. de Wendover was a common Parent to both the Matthews and the main of what is publisht under both their Names came from that hand There was an Edition of Westminster's history before that at Francfort but abominably corrupt and imperfect especially after the year 1245. the Author 's punctual Relation of the brisk behaviour of our Kings and Nobility in opposition to the Encroachments of the Roman See being wretchedly mangled and purloynâ—d Upon this bottom John Pits divides the History into two several Works whereof the former he calls Historia ampla which says he is that which was publish'd at London and the other Historiarum Flores The Distinction he had from Bale tho the Application be his own This Report seems to have had some slender Foundation since we are told that amongst my Lord Clarendon's Manuscripts there 's another historical Work which bears the Name of Flores Historiarum which is very different from the Printed Copy and is continu'd near forty years further But the Reader ought to know that there are many anonymous Historians in this Kingdom who beginning at the year 1307 manifestly shew that they chiefly intended to continue the Work of Matthew of Westminster The most eminent indeed of his Continuators was Adam Merimuth Canon Regular of St. Paul's and an eminent Civilian who in the latter end of his days gave himself wholly to the reading and writing of English History He begins his Work at 1302. and his first part reaches only to 1343. which I suppose makes the Enlargement in my Lord Clarendon's Copy but the second continues the Story to in all likelihood the year of his own Death A. D. 1300. 'T is observable that his History commences at Michaelmas and for that reason he always afterwards begins the New Year at that Feast A few more of an inferior Rank may probably be reckoned amongst the Historians of this Age. As 1. John Staffort a Franciscan â—â—iar who is supposed to have written an English History about the year 1800. Tho. Fuller observes very well that the exact time when he wrote or liv'd is not known 〈◊〉 only being a Francisean and that I doubt is not very certainly known neither he must have flourished after the year 1226. when that Order first came into England and being quoted by John Ross must come in before 1400. 2. William de Packington Secretary and Treasurer to the Black Prince in Gascoigne wrote a Cronique in French from the Ninth year of King John down to his own time 1380. out of which several Collections have been made by Leland Stow and others 3. Henry de Knyghton one of the Canons of Leicester whose History may be said to begin at the Conquest since he has only a short Abstract of the Saxon Affairs in his first Book It is continued down to the year 1395. He fairly owns what he transcribes from Ralph Higden whom he imitates also in the Crotchet of making the fifteen first Chapters of his Second Book give his Name in their Initial Letters thus HENRICVS CNITTON 'T is plain that neither Leland Bale nor Pits had ever seen this Work An Encouragement to the industrious Antiquaries of this Age to continue their Enquiries after such Histories as are presum'd to be irrecoverably lost 4. Galf Lingius a Franciscan of Norwich about the year 1390. is also said to have compil'd a History of this Kingdom from the coming in of Brutus down to his own Time 1401. The fifteenth Century was one of the most rude and illiterate Ages and therefore we are not to look for a large Harvest of Historians in a Dearth and Scarcity of Persons eminent in other parts of Learning Sir John Froissart sometime Canon and Treasurer of Chimay in the Diocess of Liege justly deserves to be placed first as having ended his Life and Story about the beginning of it His Work contains a General History of the Affairs of France Spain and other parts of Europe as well as England tho it chiefly insists on those of this Nation The Author was a Frenchman born but was brought up in his Youth in the Court of our King Edward the Third and many years after familiarly conversant in King Richard the Second's He wrote in his own Native Language which was also in his Time the Court-Language of England The Copies that were taken of him in French as well Manuscript as in Print are generally faulty and corrupt in Names and Numbers whereas the Author himself being perfectly acquainted with the English Court and Customs could not well mistake Most of these Errors are corrected in the English Edition which was published by Sir John Bourchier Deputy of Calais at the Command of King Henry the Eighth towards the latter end of his Reign His Account of matters seems to be plain and honest and perhaps none gives a better of the Affairs of Edward the Third and his unfortunate Successor Richard the Second Sleidan epitomiz'd his History in Latin but has not done it with that impartiality and fairness that might have been expected from a Man of his great Name Take the Censure which our learned Humphry Lhuid long since gave of that piece and its Author Dum Gallico Nomini nimium faveret Anglorum Nobilissima Gesta aut Silentio praeteritt aut ab Authore dissentiens aliter quam á Froissardo scriptum est literis commendavit After him follow down to the middle of the Century a set of very ordinary Scriblers such as 1. Tho. Otterburn a Franciscan Friar of some of our English Monasteries about the year 1411. whose MS. History is said to be in our publick Library at Oxford 2. Tho. Radburn Bishop of St. Davids and Câ—ancellor of the University of Oxford A. D. 1420. He is usually quoted by the Name of Radburn â—enior to distinguish him from another little Chronicler of both his Names who was a Monk of St. Swithin's in Winchester and Joh. Ross's great Acquaintance This latter wrote two Books of our General History
Work And hardly a private Family of any Consideration in the Kingdom but will here meet with something of its Genealogy and Pedigree He is most scrupulously exact in transcribing the ancient Records So that the bald Latin barbarous Expressions and other Deformities of the Monkish Stile are to be reckon'd Beauties in him By the Catalogue of the Monasteries in the end of the First Volume it appears how far the Industry of this Writer has exceeded that of the People employ'd by Henry VIII to bring in a List of all the Religious Houses in this Nation many being added as more might have been in almost every County to the Schedule by them transmitted into the Exchequer And yet the old Register-Books that are cited in the Monasticon have a deal more in them than is there made use of Sir William Dugdale on second Thoughts transcrib'd many Things into the Additamenta of the latter Tome which both he and Mr. Dodsworth had overlook'd or did not at first think Material enough The Third Volume was publish'd under the sole Name of Sir William though Mr. Wood does not question he says but in this also he was very much indebted to Dodsworth's Collections He seems the rather to suspect such a thing because many Records were communicated by himself which are not duly acknowledg'd as they ought to have been and he verily believes the like good Assistance was given him by Sir Tho. Herbert tho' his Benefaction is also disregarded These Three Tomes were lately Epitomiz'd or Abridg'd by some modest Gentleman or other that did not think fit to put his Name to his Work which might have been of some good use if a little more care had been taken of the Numerals which direct to the Pages in the Monasticon it self and being frequently mistaken do not only render the Book useless but very dangerous Besides we are so far from wanting any Abridgment of these Tomes that we rather complain of their too great Conciseness and could wish there were some more added out of such Leiger-Books and Records as never came to the knowledge of either of the worthy Authors of these Three Towards the furtherance of such an acceptable Service as this we have had an excellent Manual given us by Mr. Tanner whose Notitia Monastica does not only afford us a short History of the Foundation and chief Revolutions of all our Religious Houses but presents us also with a Catalogue of such Writers noting the Places where we may find them as will abundantly furnish us with such further Particulars as we shall have occasion for The foremention'd Compilers of the Monasticon Anglicanum took care to make the like References and to let the World know from whose Hands they had the perusal of the Records of this or the other Monastery But as many new Discoveries have been made since their Time so several of the Books they met with have changed their owners and therefore their Defects are not only here supply'd but the present Proprietors of what they mention much better ascertain'd Some Volumes indeed and several single Charters and other Instruments are still appropriated to their old Masters where 't is not known how or to whom they have been lately transfer'd And this may possibly prove an obliging piece of Service to the Executors Administrators or Legatees of the Persons so mention'd who will be hereby directed and encouraged to make Enquiry after their unknown Chattels and to claim them where-ever they shall find them This industrious Author has superseded some Pains I had long since taken to the like purpose and whereof I should have given the Reader an Account in this Chapter The Informations he has here are beyond what I could have afforded him and I hope upon a second Edition of the Book which I much long for will be yet a great deal fuller 'Till that can be had give me leave to offer a slender Tast of the large Editions we may look for from the Author himself In the Cottonian Library alone there are Histories and Register-Books of the following Monasteries which for want of such a Catalogue as we now have had not come to his Knowledge ABINGDON Julius A. 9. Claudius C. 9. St. ALBANS Otho D. 3. Nero D. 1. 7. Julius D. 3. Claudius D. 1. BARDNEY Vespasian E. 20. BINHAM Claudius D. 13. CANTERBURY Christ's Galba E. 4. St. Augustine's Tiberius A. 9. Otho B. 15. DAVENTRY Claudius D. 12. DELACRES Nero C. 3. DERBY Titus C. 9. DUNSTABLE Tiberius A. 10. St. EDMUNDSBURY Tiberius B. 9. Claudius A. 12. ELY Tiberius A. 6. Vespasianus A. 6. GLASTONBURY Vespas D. 22. HULM Nero D. 2. HUNTINGDON Faustina C. 1. KIRKSTEDE Tiberius C. 8. 〈◊〉 E. 18. LEICESTER Vitellius F. 17. LENTON Otho B. 14. MALMESBURY Faustina B. 8. PARCO-STANLEY Julius C. 11. Vespas E. 26. PIPEWELL Caligula A. 13 14. RAMSEY Vespasian E. 2. READING Vespasian E. 5. 25. Domit. A. 3. ROCHESTER Domitian A. 9. Vespasian A. 22. Faustina C. 5. SELBY Vitellius E. 16. SMITHFIELD Vespasianus B. 9. SOUTHWARK Faustina A. 8. STONE Vespasianus E. 24. WALSINGHAM Nero E. 7. WESTWOOD in Com. WIGORN Vespasian E. 9. These are the most Eminent of those Writers that instruct us in the general History of our Monasteries tho' as a very learn'd Person has observed we still want a more copious Notitia than any of them have hitherto seem'd to have thought on such an one as should give us a just account of the Foundation of those Houses the Men of Learning that flourish'd in them their Rules Interests Contests c. There are others that have taken great Pains in writing Histories of some particular Orders of Monks to which themselves have had some special Relation and these moving in a lesser Circle had leisure to make more nice Enquiries and more ample Discoveries Amongst them the Benedictines may justly claim the Precedence as being so much the Darlings of Saint Dunstan and St. Oswald that perhaps 't is true what one of them asserts that from King Edgar's Reign to the Conquest there was not a Monastery in England but what was Model'd according to this Rule Will. Gillingham of Canterbury about the Year 1390. is said to have written De Illustribus Ordinis sui Scriptoribus and if we could meet with this Treatise we should not much lament the loss of his other De Rebus Cantuariensibus Edward Maihew sometime Scholar to John Pits publish'd a little Book under the Title of Congregationis Anglicanae Ordinis St. Benedicti Trophaea wherein he takes frequent occasion to quote his Master's Manuscript Treatise of the Apostolical Men of England now kept as a pretious Rarity in the Archives of the Church of Liverdune He is commended for his Modesty in the Account he gives of their Writers honestly quitting his Inclinations to serve a Party where he observes Truth to be on the other side The Obits and Characters of the English Benedictines
endear'd themselves to Posterity and to have made their Labours for ever valuable We are extreamly indebted to those pious Princes and generous Heroes that either in the East or Western Parts of the Kingdom have afforded us such noble advantages of Education in all sorts of Learning as no other Nation can pretend to and perhaps we cannot be more injurious to their Memories than by clogging their true Story with Fables Fancies and Forgeries Instead therefore of raking in their Ashes and rifling their Sepulchres to prove them Men of Gigantick Stature instead of refineing upon their History till we have turn'd it into Romance we should pay them more grateful and real Honours if being content with such Remains of them as we know are Genuine we employ'd more of our Time in letting the World see what use has been made of their Benefits how much the several Branches of the unforbidden Tree of Knowledge have thriven under the Influences of their Charity what mighty Numbers of great Doctors and Masters in all Faculties have been fed at their Expence and flourish'd by their Bounty 'T is true our Universities were not always the sole Fountains of good Literature in this Island many of our eminent Writers having had their Education in Monasteries But since St. John of Beverly has been made a Member of that at Oxford and venerable Bede a Student at Cambridge I wish they had rank'd all our antient Men of Knowledge on one Hand or the other provided they had given us full Accounts of their Persons and Labours I think we may without Vanity affirm that hardly any Kingdom in the World has outdone England either in the Number or Goodness of her Authors and that even in the darkest Ages our Lamps shone always as bright as any in our Neighbourhood When School-Divinity was in Fashion we had our Doctores Subtiles Irrefragabiles c. and as Learning grew to a better Ripeness and Stature we had plenty of good Books in other as useful Sciences The first that attempted the History of our Writers was John Boston a Monk of St. Edmundsbury A. D. 1410. who having view'd most of the Libraries in England drew a Catalogue of all the British Authors and gave short censures upon them He could hardly have flourish'd so early as Pits here speaks of if his Progress was as a later Writer informs us in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh But we shall not quarrel with him for such small Mistakes as this He ought indeed to have been a little better vers'd in the Story of his great Grandfather for the three following Johns Leland Bale and Pits handed from one another what was first borrow'd from him Arch-bishop Vsher had the most curious MS. Copy of his Book And our Oxford Antiquary cites another smaller Catalogue of the same Author's Composure Whether Alanus de Linna Prior of a Carmolite Monastery at Lyn in Norfolk A. D. 1420. did enlarge this Catalogue or the other I dare not determine Possibly he only made an Index to them as he did to forty other Volumes in the Library at Norwich The next that thought this Matter worth his consideration was John Leland who was indeed an extraordinary Person having besides his being a great Master in Poetry attain'd to a good share of Knowledge in the Greek Latin Welsh Saxon Italian French and Spanish Languages In the Year 1534. King Henry the Eighth gave him a Commission to Search all the Libraries of England and to make what Collections he thought Good in which Employment he Spent Six whole Years He afterwards turn'd Protestant and was siez'd with a Frenzy losing says my Author very uncharitably his Understanding with his Faith In this Condition he dy'd at London A. D. 1552. leaving a vast number of Historical Treatises behind him Amongst these the most valuable at least that which we are now chiefly concern'd to enquire after is said to have been entitl'd De Illustribus Britanniae Scriptoribus containing the Lives and Characters of most of the eminent Writers of this Kingdom This Work is now in the publick Library at Oxford where it makes the fourth Volume of his Collectanea being 354 Pages in Folio given by Will. Burton to that University John Bale was a Suffolk-Man sometime Scholar in Jesus College in Cambridge and afterwards a Carmelite Friar in Norwich He was as he says converted from Popery by the procurement of Thomas Lord Wentworth tho' in truth his wife Dorothy seems to have had as great Hand in that happy Work In the Year 1552. he was made Bishop of Ossory in Ireland But returning from Exile in Queen Elizabeth's Reign he did not think it advisable to go any more into that Kingdom contenting himself with a Prebend of Canterbury where he dy'd A. D. 1563. His Summarium Illustrium Majoris Britanniae Scriptorum was first presented to King Edward the Sixth and contain'd only five Centuries of Writers To these he afterwards added three more and made several Corrections and Additions throughout the whole Book The Ground-plot of this Work as has been observ'd was borrow'd from Leland and the chief of his own Superstructure is malicious and bitter Invectives against the Papists The Character which a late learned Person gives of him and his Writings is too just Veritas Balaeo Parum curae erat dummodo Romanae Ecclesiae Inimicorum Numerum augere posset And again Clausis plerunque oculis Scriptorum Anglicorum aetates definivit Some have thought his making Books of some little Saxon Epistles excusable and what would admit of an Apology But if we mark him well he 's continually multiplying the Writings of all his Authors at a very unsufferable and unjustifiable rate In Opposition to Bale's hard Treatment of the Romanists came forth J. P's Relat. Histor de rebus Anglicis Tom. 1. c. which is the same Book with that usually quoted by the Name of Pitseus de Scriptoribus This Author Stuy'd in New-College in Oxford and was at last Dean of Liverdune in Lorain where he dy'd A. D. 1616. Tho' he quotes Leland with great Familiarity and Assurance 't is very probable he never saw any such thing as his Collectanea de Scriptoribus but that his only true Author for all he pretends to bring out of that Store-house was John Bale himself His Latin is clean enough and his giving an Account of some eminent Popish Writers that liv'd beyond Sea in the beginning of the Reformation is an acceptable Piece of Service Mr. Wood has taken the pains to Correct a great many of his Mistakes and might have noted some hundreds more He must needs have been too much in hast to write accurately who even in the Catalogue he gives of his own Uncle Nich. Sanders's Writings is guilty of so gross an Error as to reckon the Treatise entitl'd Fidelis Servi subdito infideli responsio
Abilities sufficient to go through with any Undertaking wherein his singular Modesty will allow him to engage Mr. Beaumont ought also to be reminded of the thoughts he once had oâ— setting forth a particular Tract to this purpose No Man being better qualify'd for such a performance Mr. Ray has put our Botanists upon daily searches after new Plants since his Synopsis has told them what numerous Discoveries have been lately made by Mr. Lhwyd in Wales Mr. Lawson in the Northern Counties of England c. The like Encouragements our Naturalists have from his and Mr. Willughby's Ornithology to make further Enquiries after the many hitherto undiscover'd Species of Birds since 't is easily observable that the Authors of that Work having had the greatest Assistance from Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jessop both Yorkshire Men there are in it more Discoveries of new kinds from the North than any other Quarter of the Kingdom To all these must be added the many Ingenious Informations communicated from most parts of the Nation in our Philosophical Transactions especially from some of the forementioned chief Naturalists of this Age Dr. Plott Dr. Lister and Mr. Ray. Some general Accounts have been given of our English Policy and Frame of Government wherein our Historian ought to be well vers'd and conversant especially in those that are written by Statesmen and such as may be presum'd to have well understood the Affairs they treat on Sir Thomas Smith's Commonwealth of England has met with good Applause having been frequently printed both in English and Latin There was also another small Treatise entitul'd The Authority Form and Manner of holding Parliaments lately publish'd in his Name but some have question'd whether it be rightly father'd Upon this latter Subject we have a printed Account of the Opinion of Mr. Camden together with those of J. Doderidge Arthur Agard and Francis Tate Sir Walter Raleigh has likewise written as he used to do on all other Subjects most judiciously and acutely upon the Prerogatives of our Parliaments and Sir Robert Cotton's Posthuma are full of Learning on the same Topick Dr. Chamberlain's present state of England has been so well receiv'd as to admit of a new Edition almost yearly ever since 't was first publish'd It has been indeed of late very coursly treated by a nameless Scribler of Observations on the Times But he seems to have been hir'd to the Drudgery of penning such unmannerly Reflections by a Gentleman who had newly publish'd another Book much fuller of Mistakes under the like Title As to what concerns our Nobility and Gentry all that come within either of those Lists will allow that Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour ought first to be well perus'd for the gaining of a general Notion of the Distinction of Degrees from an Emperour down to a Country-Gentleman And after this the three Volumes of Sir William Dugdale's Baronage of England which gives an Account of the Lives and Prowess of all our English Nobility from the coming in of the Saxons down to the Year 1676. Whatever relates to the Knights of the most Noble Order of the Garter is completely shewn us by Mr. Ashmole in his most elaborate and perfect Work on that Subject For inferiour Ranks we have 'em in the Books of Heraldry that have been publish'd by Wyrley Brooks Vincent Dugdale and especially Guillim of the two last Editions of whose Book 't is observ'd that R. Blome has so disguis'd and spoil'd it that if the Author or Authors of it were living they could scarce know it What is missing in these will be abundantly supply'd out of the great Treasury of MS. Collections in the Heralds Office at London wherein are innumerable Inscriptions Arms Epitaphs Pedigrees Lists of Precedence at Coronations and Funerals c. CHAP. II. Of particular Descriptions of Counties with their Cities and great Towns 'T IS so much the general Humour of Mankind to be fond of their Native Soil and Places of chief Residence and Abode that Historians must not pretend to be so far of a different Composition from their Neighbours as not to be subject to the common Frailty They are as liable to discover their Dotage in this Particular as other ordinary Mortâ—ls and thence it comes that Ingulfus's History is so full of Crowland W. Neubrigensis's of Yorkshire M. Paris's of St. Albans c. whenever any shadow of an opportunity is offer'd 'T is from the same Principle that we have sew Counties in England whose Records have not been carefully sought out and Endeavours used to preserve them by some of their Sons who have usually prov'd more happy in such Undertakings as having gone about them with most hearty Zeal and Application than any of our more general Writers Those that I have met with of this kind are here drawn into Order and Rank according to the following Alphabetical Lists of our several Counties BARKSHIRE has not hitherto that I know of had its general Antiquities nor it s Natural History collected by any Body Only the Castle and Chapel of Windsor have been at large treated on by the excellent Pen of Elias Ashmole Esquire in his History of the Knights of the Garter before mention'd BEDFORDSHIRE is under the like Misfortune tho' the History of Dunstable of which in its proper place and other Records are not wanting to furnish out Materials for such a Work BVCKINGHAMSHIRE has had the happiness to have some of its Borders about Ambrosden c. curiously describ'd and its Antiquities preserv'd by the Ingenious Mr. Kennet CAMBRIDGESHIRE A little of both the Natural History and Antiquities of this County is touch'd on by Sir William Dugdale in his History of the Imbanking and Dreining of divers Fenns and Marshes both in Foreign Parts and in this Kingdom Dr. Hickes in the Appendix to his Saxon Grammar mentions a Manuscript in Sir John Cotton's Library entitul'd Statuta de Gildâ quâdam in Cantabrigiâ which seems to relate to the Town of Cambridge The Writers upon the Affairs of the University belong to another place CHESHIRE was long since describ'd by Lucian a Monk soon after the Conquest whose Work is cited by Camden as a piece of great Rarity and good Value S. Erdeswick the great Antiquary of Staffordshire seems to have written also something of the History of this County as is intimated by his MS. Book in the hands of several Gentlemen of Staffordshire which begins thus Having disposed with my self to take a further View of the Shires of Staffordshire and Chester c. A third Description of this County Geographical and Historical was written by W. Smith Rouge-dragon Pursuivant at Arms and left in the hands of Sir Ranulph Crew sometimes Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench whose Grandchild Sr R. Crew afterwards publish'd it A Fourth was compil'd by W. Webb M. A. and sometime Town-Clerk of
under his Name nor for those of Worgresius and Mawornus Abbot and Monk of Glassenbury nor for the Genealogies drawn up by the Famous Bard in King Edgar's daies Saliphilax When these are retriev'd I would have them all carefully bound up with the Deflorationes Historiae Britannicae which as Jo. Caius has learnedly prov'd from Stow and Lanquet were written by King Gurguntius about 370 years before Christ. The Welsh MS. cited frequently in Camden's Britannia by the name of Triades seems not to carry Age enough to come within this Class 'T is the same I suppose which he elsewhere calls the British old Book of Triplicities running all upon the number three as appears from his Quotation out of it Welshmen love Fire Salt and Drink Frenchmen Women Weapons and Horses Englishmen Good cheer Lands and Traffick We are not to expect any such Assistances for the ascertaining the History of these Times as After-Ages afford us from Charters Letters Patents c. And yet 't is too forward an Assertion to say there were no such things in the days of our British Kings if all be true that Leland tells us of King Arthur's Seal But I am not I confess so much in Love with that Venerable Relique as he seems to have been It might indeed be brought as he guesses from Glassenbury where I do believe 't was hung at a forg'd Charter by some Monk who was a better Mechanick than Antiquary The Inscription easily discovers the Cheat PATRICIVS ARTVRIVS BRITANNIAE GALLIAE GERMANIAE DACIAE IMPERATOR He is certainly call'd Patricius here and no where else out of the abundant Respect that Monastery had for their Guardian Saint Patrick and not as Leland fansies upon any Account of a Roman Fashion Another Help is here wanting which exceedingly Conduces towards the Illustrating the Antiquities of other Nations and that is the Light that is often gain'd from the Impresses and Inscriptions upon their old Coins and Medals The money used here in Caesar's Time was nothing more than Iron Rings and shapeless pieces of Brass nor does it well appear that ever afterwards their Kings brought in any of another sort Camden says he could not learn that after their retirement into Wales they had any such thing among them none of the Learned Men of that Principality having yet been able to produce so much as one piece of British Coin found either in Wales or any where else And is it likely that a Royalty of this Nature of so great Benefit to their Subjects as well as Honour to themselves would have been laid aside by the Cambrian Princes if formerly enjoy'd by any of their Ancestors J. Leland tells us he never in all his Travels throughout the whole Kingdom of England could meet with one British Coin among the many Millions of those of the Romans found in this Nation And the Reason he says was because as he proves out of Gildas the Romans would not allow any of our Metal to be stamp'd with any other Image or Superscription save only that of Caesar's that is some of their own Emperours However we now have several ancient Coins in our publick and private Libraries which are generally reputed to be British tho' 't is very hard to determine in what Age of the World they were minted My very Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Lwhyd believes that before the coming in of the Romans they had Gold Coins of their own because there have been frequently found both in England and Wales thick pieces of that Metal hollow'd on one side with variety of unintelligible Marks and Characters upon them These he is sure cannot be ascrib'd either to the Romans Saxons or Danes and therefore 't is reasonable we should conclude them to be British And the Reason why he thinks they were coin'd before the Romans came is this If the Britains had learn'd the Art from them they would tho' never so inartificially have endeavour'd to imitate their manner of Coining and in all likelyhood have added Letters and the Head of their Kings Here 's a fair and probable opinion against the express Testimony of Julius Caesar who could hardly be impos'd on in this part of the Account he gives of our Isle Camden rather thinks that after the Arrival of the Romans the Britains first began to imitate them in their Coining of both Gold and Copper But his Stories of Cunobeline and Queen Brundvica are much of a piece with those of Doctor Plott's Prasutagus all of 'em liable to very just and to me unanswerable Objections For my own part I am of Opinion that never any of the British Kings did Coin Money But that even their Tribute-Money like the Dane-Gelt and Peterpence afterwards was the ordinary Current Coin which was brought in or minted here by the Romans themselves as long as this Island continu'd a Province The most if not all of the foremention'd pieces which are not Counterfeits I take to be Amulets whereof Tho. Bartholine gives this sensible Account Habuere Veteres in Paganismo res quasdam portatiles ex Argento vel Auro factas Imaginibus Deorum facie humanâ Expressorum signatas quibus Futurorum Cognitionem explorabant quarum possessione felices se quodam quasi Numinis praesidio tutos judicabant These were in use among the Romans a good while after they came into Britain and the Amula from whence they had their Name was a little drinking Cup most probably of this very Fashion If any man dislikes my Conjecture I am willing Sir John Pettus should Umpire the matter between us and his Supposition that Coin is an Abstract of Coynobeline who first coin'd Money at Malden will for ever decide the Controversie After the Conquest The first man that attempted the Writing of the old British History was Geoffery Archdeacon of Monmouth and he did it to some purpose This Author liv'd under King Stephen about the year 1150. He had a peculiar fancy for Stories surmounting all ordinary Faith which inclin'd him to pitch upon King Arthur's feats of Chivalry and Merlyn's Prophecies as proper subjects for his Pen. But his most famous piece is his Chronicon sive Historia Britonum which has taken so well as to have had several Impressions In this he has given a perfect Genealogy of the Kings of Britain from the Days of Brutus wherein we have an Exact Register of above Seventy glorious Monarchs that rul'd this Island before ever Julius Caesar had the good fortune to be acquainted with it The first stone of this fair Fabrick was laid by Nennius but the Superstructure is all Fire-new and purely his own They that are concern'd for the Credit of this Historian tell us that he had no further hand in the Work than only to translate an ancient Welsh History brought out of Britany in France by Walter Calenius Archdeacon of Oxford who was himself
very probable that good Master Sammes never read so much as the Preface to his Book Or else either he or Mr. Wood must be under the misfortune of a very treacherous Memory Something of value might have been expected from the many Years Labours and Collections of that excellent Antiquary John Aubrey Esquire Fellow of the Royal Society if the Proposals he lately made for the publishing of his Monumenta Britannica had met with a suitable Reception The World is not come to that Ripeness we hope for as duely to relish Works of this Nature but how well his have deserv'd a better Encouragement than hitherto they have met with is apparent from the little Tasts we have of 'em in the late Edition of the Britannia especially in Wiltshire Herefordshire and Wales He would have given us if we had been so kind to our selves as to have accepted his Pains a good view of the Temples Religion and Manners of the Ancient Druids of the Camps Castles Military Architecture c. of both Britains and Romans But we rejected his offers and may possibly too late repent of our Folly As to the Roman Writers there are hardly any that treat of the Affairs of this Isle any otherwise than occasionally only and by the bye The Design of Caesar's Commentaries is to give the World an Account of the most glorious Passages of his own Life and what he says of Britain as well as Germany is apparently what he could pick up from uncertain Tattle and Hear-say Something better bottom'd are the Stories we meet with afterwards in Tacitus Dio Cassius Suetonius Eutropius Spartianus Capitolinus Lampridius Vopiscus c. who may all be suppos'd to have had the perusal of such Memorials as were from time to time sent to the Emperours from their Lieutenants and other chief Officers in this Province In the use of these the Reader ought to take a deal of Leisure and Caution For most of 'em seem to have been loose Indigested Adversaria such as had not the last Examination and Thoughts of their Authors and do therefore want the Regard that should be had to Order and Time Besides the several Tracts are not well ascertain'd to their Genuine and Proper Writers the not heeding whereof may draw one unawares into very dangerous mistakes These Defects are happily supply'd by the famous Mr. Dodwell in his late Learned Praelectiones Camdenianae which will be highly serviceable to all such as shall hereafter engage in these Studies Indeed Tacitus's Life of Agricola especially as improv'd by Sir Henry Savil's most admirable Translation and Learned Notes looks something like a Just Treatise upon that great General 's Conduct here and is done with that Fairness and Respect to the Natives that I cannot see but Galgacus is made to talk as Bravely Gracefully and Eloquently as the best of his Enemies Many Defects in these Accounts have been likewise supply'd as well as good store of Conjectural Mistakes in more Modern Authors rectify'd by the Roman Inscriptions and Coins found in several parts of our Island and there are daily new Discoveries of both these sorts Since the acceptable Services done to the Students of Antiquities by Gruterus and Reynesius the Inscriptions on Altars and other Monuments have carry'd a very high price and among others the Antiquaries of our own Nation have fansy'd that our History has had great Improvements from such as have been discover'd here Those that Mr. Camden met with were all preserv'd as choice Ornaments in his Britannia and some few have been added in the late Edition of that Work Many more might undoubtedly be had for seeking after And 't is no small Unhappiness that among the many Advancements of Learning in this Age the Recovery of these precious Treasures should be so much neglected The Persons employ'd in these Searches ought to be Men of Probity as well as Knowledge Religiously scrupulous in obtruding any thing upon the World under the Venerable Name of Antiquity which has not an honest Title to that Character Annius of Viterbo's scandalous Project of raising the Credit of that City by some forg'd Inscriptions which he had caus'd to be hid in the Neighbouring Fields and afterwards discover'd in a Boasting Triumph has been justly resented and exploded by all true Lovers of ancient Learning But the Inclinations of all Men are so naturally bent upon doing Honour and Service to their Native Country in their own way and the Temptations that we meet with in these Studies are so many and strong that a very great share of Integrity is requisite to the making of a Complete Antiquary Mr. Camden tells us that from the Time of Claudian to that of Valentinian about five hundred years the Roman Coin only was current in this Nation And that whereas all Money for this part of the World was for a long time coin'd either at Rome Lions or Treves Constantine the Great erected a Mint at London Some of his Pieces which were there coin'd I have in my poor Collection and they are not uncommon in many of the Musaea in England But long before his Days his Predecessors took occasion to magnify their Exploits in this other World of Great Britain on the Reverse of their Coins from whence several good Illustrations of that part of our History may be had What are given us of this kind in the Britannia are very valuable But their Numbers might be further enlarg'd and we are the more encouraged to look after those we want because I have not yet heard that our Trayterous English Money-makers have hitherto busy'd themselves in Counterfeiting any Coin of so ancient a Date Such Rogueries are common in France and Germany where most of their old Medals have been Copy'd and many New Ones of the first Caesar's stamp'd and minted by Modern Artists And yet even there those that relate to the Affairs of this Isle are always allow'd to be True and Genuine CHAP. IV. Of the Histories and other Monuments that relate to the Times of the Saxons and Danes THe Dispatch that Sir William Temple makes of the Saxon times is very short and pithy and the Character he gives of their Writers is so full of Contempt that if we were sure it came from a proper Judge 't would save an Antiquary a great deal of trouble and pains The Authors he says of those barbarous and illiterate Ages are few and mean and perhaps the rough course of those Lawless Times and Actions would have been too ignoble a subject for a good Historian The times were not so lawless nor the Authors so few and mean as he imagines A great many of the Records of those days we own are lost but there are still more remaining than any of our Neighbour-Nations can pretend to shew relating to the Transactions of those Ages We know not what 's become of the Book King Aelfred wrote against Corrupt Judges of his Collection
severest Enemy he had has acknowledg'd of him and on this score alone some have unreasonably extoll'd him But there 's so little of the other more Necessary Qualifications of a good Historian Truth and Fair Dealing in all his Twently-six Books that he has been justly condemn'd by our Criticks and 't is no wonder that some of them have express'd an Indignation suitable to the Abuses put upon their Country Sir Henry Savil is warmer on this occasion than is usual with him Polydorus says he ut homo Italus in rebus nostris Hospes quod Caput est neque in Republicâ versatus nec magni alioqui vel Judicii vel Ingenii pauca ex multis delibans falsa plerumque pro veris complexus Historiam nobis reliquit cùm coetera mendosam tùm exiliter sanè jejunè conscriptam Some have fansy'd that the severe Character which Sir Henry is here pleas'd to give of this Author might chiefly by apply'd to the History of Henry the Eighth And that a great many Passages in that Reign may be darkly or falsly represented by him by reason of his being unacquainted with the English Tongue which could not but very much obstruct his Knowledge in Modern Transactions Other things say they have fallen from him under a borrow'd Light and Colour out of the Respect he had for Queen Mary and his great Inclinations to serve the Interests of that Princess But does not even this Apology carry a deal of Invective in it Sir Henry Savil is far from being singular in the severest part of his Censure Some of our late Writers have agreed to it and his Cotemporary Humph. Lhuyd out-throws him a Bar or two For what think you of these Expressions Nominis Britannici gloriam non solum obfuscare sed etiam Britannos ipsos mendacissimis suis Calumniis infamare totis viribus conatur Homo Ignotus Exterus Vir perfrictae frontis Invidiâ odio tumens Infamis Homunculus Os Impudens Nor ought any thing of this to be attributed to an over-boyling of honest Humphrey's Welsh Blood if the other Matters he 's accus'd on be true He is said to have borrow'd Books out of the publick Library at Oxford without taking any Care to restore them Upon which the University as they had good reason declin'd lending any more till forc'd to it by a Mandate which he made a shift to procure from the King In other places he likewise pillag'd the Libraries at his pleasure and at last sent over a whole Ship-load of Manuscripts to Rome And yet when this Publican himself left England when there was no further occasion for his Collecting the Papal Revenues King Edward the Sixth is said to have dismiss'd him with several handsome Presents Which we are not to look upon as a Reward as a certain late Writer expresses it but rather to consider that the young King being about to take his final leave of the Pope and all that belong'd to him resolv'd to do it as courteously as was possible The other Historians of his Time have been much Eclips'd by the glaring Lustre of this Foreigner insomuch that some of their Writings have hardly ever seen the Light John Rastal a Citizen and Printer in London who marry'd Sir Thomas Meer's Sister and died A. D. 1536. wrote an English Chronicle but I know no more where to find it than another of the same Age written by Richard Turpin a Leicestershire Gentleman and an Officer in the Garrison at Calais which I find quoted by his Countryman Tho. Lanquet who died at London in the twenty-fourth year of his Age A. D. 1545. began an Abbreviation of our Chronicles but brought it no lower than the Birth of our Saviour Its third part which chiefly relates to this Kingdom was written by the Learned Tho. Cowper afterwards Bishop of Winchester and by him published He calls it as justly he may an Epitome of our Chronicles and 't is a Meagre one too far short of the Performances of the same Author on other Subjects The like slender Abstract of our English History was about the same time penn'd by George Lily son of William the Famous Grammarian which together with his short Account of the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster and his Genealogy of our Kings has had several Impressions Somewhat bulkier is the Work of Edward Hall who was some time Recorder if I understand my Author right of London where he died A. D. 1547. He wrote a large Account of the foremention'd Wars which in a very flattering Epistle he dedicates to Henry the Eighth If the Reader desires to know what sort of Cloaths were worn in each King's Reign and how the Fashions alter'd this is an Historian for his purpose but in other Matters his Information is not very valuable A great Borrower from this Hall was Rich. Grafton who as Buchanan rightly observes was a very heedless and unskilful Writer and yet he has the Honour done him to be sometimes quoted by Stow and others Of much better Note are the joynt Labours of Will. Harrison and Ra. Holinshead whose Chronicle has been well receiv'd and still bears a good Port among our Books of that kind These Authors are suppos'd to have been both Clergy-men but 't is not certainly known where they spent the most of their days So remarkably careful have they been to benefit the Publick without the Vanity of making their own Story known to Posterity Holinshead frequently owns the great Assistance he had from Fran. Thynne sometime in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Lancaster-Herald and an eminent Antiquary He has been severely treated by Sir Thomas Craig for some Insolencies which that Learned Gentleman suppos'd him guilty of in Relation to the Kingdom of Scotland Whereas in Truth that part of the Book no farther concern'd poor Mr. Holinshead than as the whole was sheltered under his Name In the second Edition the History was continu'd to the year 1586. by John Hooker alias Vowel of whom we shall have occasion to make some further mention hereafter 1601. Industrious John Stow leads the Van in the present Century which is now brought near its Conclusion And he well deserves to be remember'd with Honour He was a Member of the Merchant-Taylors Company in London and as has been already observ'd a special Benefactor to that City in enquiring after and preserving its Antiquities and Records He travell'd on foot through a good part of England in search after the Manuscript Historians in the Libraries of our Cathedral Churches and was very exact and Critical in his Collections Having spent above Forty Years in these Studies he was put upon the Correction and Publishing of Reyne Wolf's Chronicle by Archbishop Whitgift and he had fairly transcrib'd his Work and made it ready for the Press when he died A. D. 1605. He
always protested and we may take his honest word for it that he never was sway'd by Favour or Fear in any of his Writings but that he had impartially to the best of his Knowledge deliver'd the Truth This good Opinion the greatest of our later Historians seem to have of him since even Sir Francis Bacon and Mr. Camden not to mention others of a less Repute have boldly taken several things upon his single Credit and sometimes without being so just as to own their Benefactor Upon his Death the Revising and Continuation of his Book was committed to Ed. Howes who says he bestow'd thirty Years in bringing it into that good Order and Method in which we now see it He is very Unfortunate if after so great Pains he be justly liable to the sharp Sentence that one has pass'd upon him That he 's as far short of Mr. Stow in Goodness as 〈◊〉 Age is of the Integrity and Charity of those that went before it I am abundantly sensible of the Degenetacy of our Age and how Corrupt our Morals are beyond the Precedents of former Times But how applicable this grave Comparison may be to Mr. Howes I know not He does indeed say some great things of King James and King Charles and if that be a Fault in him 't is transgressing with a Multitude Not long after Mr. Stow died R. White Vitus he calls himself Canon of Doway who left nine Books of our English or rather British History in a pretty elegant Latin Style His business is to assert the Rights of the Papacy in this Kingdom and therefore having setled Religion by Augustine the Monk and other Emissaries he ends his Story A. D. 800. Our next Historian of Eminence was Sam. Daniel some time Groom of the Privy-Chamber to Queen Anne He was a Person of great Wit a notable Poet and of an Affable and Winning Conversation His first and second Part of the History 〈◊〉 England fell no lower than the end of Edward the Third's Reign but was penn'd in so accurate and copious a Style that it took mightily and was read with so much Applause that it quickly had several Impressions It was afterwards enlarg'd and continu'd to the end of King Richard the Third's Reign by John Trussel Alderman of Winchester who has not had the Luck to have either his Language Matter or Method so well approv'd as those of Mr. Daniel About the same time Will. Martyn Recorder of Exeter wrote his History and Lives of the Kings of England from William the Conqueror to Henry the Eighth This came recommended to the World by the Author 's own Sons But I cannot learn that any other Family in the Nation could ever discover so much Worth and Beauty in the Book as they pretended to see in it Upon a second Edition it was enlarg'd by R. B. Master of Arts with the Reigns of Edward the Sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth John Speed who 〈◊〉 London A. D. 1619. must be acknowledg'd to have had a Head the best dispos'd towards History of any of our Writers and would certainly have out-done himself as far as he has gone beyond the rest of his Profession if the Advantages of his Education had been answerable to those of his Natural Genius But what could be expected from a Taylor However we may boldly say that his Chronicle is the largest and best we have hitherto Extant It begins with the first Inhabitants of the Island and ends with the Union of the Kingdoms under King James to whom it is Dedicated Tho' some say he spent twice seven years in compiling the whole he himself owns he made more haste than he ought to have done and that he was forced to trust a deal of his Work in the hands of his Friends and Journey-men And the Truth of this honest Acknowledgment and Confession is obvious enough to a discerning Reader who will easily find a mighty Difference in the Style as well as Matter of several of the Reigns Those of King John and Henry the Second were written by Dr. Barcham Dean of Bocking a curious Antiquary who has done them answerably to the good Opinion which Men of Learning had of him Several Remarkables in that of Henry the Fifth were Collected by George Carew Earl of Totnes as was his Catalogue of the Monasteries by Will. Burton c. Sir Richard Baker who died in the Fleet A. D. 1644. was a Person of those Accomplishments in Wit and Language that his Chronicle has been the best Read and Liked of any hitherto publish'd which looks as if almost every Body in the Kingdom as well as himself believ'd it to be Collected with so great Care and Diligence that if all other of our Chronicles were lost this only would be sufficient to inform Posterity of all Passages Memorable or Worthy to be known His Method is New and seems to please the Rabble But Learned Men will be of another Opinion for 't is the same with that of Sueronius which is justly complain'd of by Mr. Dâ—dwell In the first and second Editions we had nothing more than the Author 's own Work containing the History of our Kings from the Roman Government down to the end of King James the First 's Reign But afterwards it was continu'd to the Restoration of Charles the Second by Edward Philips who having the perusal of some of the Duke of Albâ—â—arle's Papers might have set that great Revolution in its true Light had not Ambition and Flattery carry'd him beyond Truth and his Copy Soon after these Additions were publish'd the whole Book was examin'd by Tho. Blount a Barrister of the Inner-Temple who printed his Animadversions upon it and gave the World such a Specimen of its many and gross Errors as ought to have shaken its Credit And yet so little Regard have we for Truth if a Story be but handsomly told the Chronicle has been Reprinted since that Time and Sells as well as ever notwithstanding that no notice is taken of the Animadversions but all the old Faults remain uncorrected Mr. Blount himself spent some Years in writing an English Chronicle which we may believe would at least want those Errors which he had descry'd in the Labours of other Men But where 't is to be had I know not There are some later Histories which are so well known to all that are any thing Curious in these Matters that I need do little more than mention them Such are 1. Sir Winston Churchill's Diâ—i Britannici which gives the Reader a diverting View of the Arms and Exploits of our Kings down to the Restoration in 1660. 2. Fr. Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of England and Monarchs of Great Britain from the Norman Conquest to the year 1677. with their several Effigies Seals Tombs Arms c. 3. Let me add Dr. Hoel's Medulla
been translated into the old English-Saxon Tongue that took the Story higher The like says Pits was penn'd by Wolstan the same famous Monk of Winchester who about the Year 1000 did as much for St. Ethelwald but I can hear of this piece no where else St. Wilfrid's uneasie Life and Sufferings were first regester'd by Eddius or Heddius a noted Monk of Canterbury whence he was brought by Wilfrid himself to instruct his Quire-men of the Kingdom of Northumberland in the Art of Singing Out of this which is lately publish'd by Dr. Gale there was a second Account taken in Latin Rhime by Fridegod another Monk of the same Church who was put upon the Employment by Odo Archbishop of Canterbury The Arch-bishop himself wrote a Preface to the Book which was omitted by Mabillon but is since published by another and for this Mr. Pits makes him a distinct Writer of St. Wilfrid's Life A Third was written in Prose by Eadmerus and a fourth by Petrus Blesensis dedicated to Jeofrey A. B. of York So that this Petrus Blesensis and Mr. Pit's Petrus Ripponensis tho' he makes them two several Authors are the same Person There is now in my Possession a Latin Manuscript Life of this Saint which perhaps may be the same with the last mention'd It is certainly different from the three first and seems not to have Length enough for that tedious Discourse on this Subject which is said to have been written by one Stephen a Priest and Epitomiz'd by William of Malmesbury It begins Anâ—â— igitur ab Incar natione Verbi Dei Sexceiâ—â—esimo tricesimo quarto and ends with St. Wilfrid's Epitaph in twenty Hexameters St. Wulstan as two of his immediate Predecessors held the Arch-bishoprick of York together with the Bishoprick of Worcester and was Sainted for the same Reasons as St. Oswald There 's a double Account of his Life already publish'd a short one by Hemming a Monk of Worcester and another more at large by the famous Will. of Malmesbury But what 's become of those by Bravonius and M. Paris we know not These are they that make the most considerable Figure in the Saxon Calendar and whose Lives being most amply treated on will afford some Passages that may be of use to our English Historian Nor are the little inferior Saints of those times to be wholly despised by him He 'll meet with abundance of such in the several Voluminous Collections to which we sometimes referr him And I dare promise that in most of 'em he shall frequently discover some hidden Treasure even in the midst of the most drossy Miracles CHAP. III. Of our Church-Historians from the Conquest to the Reformation THE Subject of this Chapter is in a great measure dispatch'd already The general Historians of the Kingdom during this whole Period were mostly Monks and other Church-men who have taken care to Register our Ecclesiastical Transactions as accurately as the Civil and to carry along with them the Affairs of our Church and State together Canon-Law and Appeals to Rome were first brought into England in King Stephen's Reign upon the Debates that arose betwixt the Bishop of Winchester the Pope's Legate and the AB of Canterbury And these soon introduced that Exaltation of the Clergy that they were necessarily in at every thing no Intriegue either of the Court or Camp being to be manag'd without them So that 't is no wonder if after that time our Histories are generally cramm'd with Disputes and other Matters of a purely Ecclesiastical Nature and the main Body of 'em look like the Annals of Saint Peter's Patrimony Odericus or Ordericus Vitalis ends his Ecclesiastical History at the Year 1121. some time before these Alterations happen'd in England He was Monk of St. Eurole's Vtici in Normandy where he lived 56 Years The most of his Thirteen Books are spent in Affairs of the Church within his own Native Country But towards the latter end he has intermix'd a great many Passages that relate to us There are in his Writings two Faults and they are great ones which Lucian of old condemn'd in History For 1. He 's immoderate in the Praise of his Friends and the Dispraise of his Enemies either all Panegyrick or all Satyr Now such Discourses are rightly observed to be strangely monstrous and unnatural Productions They want Meeter to become Poems and Truth to make them just Histories 2. He 's too large in his Descriptions of little petit Matters and on the contrary passes too cursorily over some things of such weight as would well endure Reflection and a second Thought We are told of one Richard Pluto who was Monk of Canterbury A. D. 1181. a Writer of the Ecclesiastical History of England which he dedicated to Richard Duke of Normandy Where or what it is I know not But what is hop'd for in that Book may possibly be found in the Burtonenses Annales written I suppose by some Monk of Burton in Staffordshire For it begins with the Foundation of that Monastery A. D. 1004. and ends at the Year 1263. Many Passages in it are borrow'd from Roger Hoveden whom the Author calls Hugh and not a few from M. Paris The latter of these was certainly Cotemporary with this Author whoever he was and they may be to good purpose read together The Reader will meet with a great many remarkable Stories in it that are hardly to be had elsewhere none perhaps having a better Collection of Letters Memorials c. of the Church-History of those Times The Defects of these Annals will be in part supply'd by W. Linwood's Provinciale being a Collection of Canons and Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted and publish'd by no less than Fourteen Arch-bishops of Canterbury from Stephen Langton inclusively down to Henry Chicheley These give us a View of what Points were chiefly under Debate in the Church for about 200 Years and are rank'd after the Example of the Decretals under several distinct Titles or Common Places having annex'd to them a large Commentary or Gloss of the Learn'd Collector's own composure This Writer was Dr. of Laws Official of Canterbury and at last Bishop of St. Davids after he had been imploy'd by King Henry the Fifth in several Embassies and entrusted with his Privy-Seal The Book was first publish'd by Jodocus Badius and dedicated to Arch-bishop Warham but the Abbreviations in the Original MS. being retain'd in this and two following Editions it was lately reprinted at Oxford much more accurately and correct The Legatine Constitutions of the two Cardinals Otho and Othobon in the Years 1236 and 1268. have been always added to these in the Prints together with the like Commentaries of John Acton or Athon sometime Prebendary of Lincoln The Oxford Edition gives us the Canons of the several Arch-bishops entire and apart as well as in that confusion to which Linwood's Method had reduced them
to Malmesbury's and 't is done with all the heartiness that becomes a familiar Epistle and a Freedom inclining to Satyr Ralph de Diceto follow'd these with a Catalogue of his own drawing from the coming in of Augustine the Monk to the beginning of King John's Reign But there 's little in it worth the publishing Joh. Eversden a Monk of Bury who dy'd says Pits about the Year 1636. is said to have written de Episcopis Anglìae as well as de Regibus But Mr. Wharton could never meet with any such Treatise He found he says some of Mr. Joceline's Collections out of Eversden's Chronicle So that perhaps he 's the same Man with that Johannes Buriensis whom we have mention'd in the First Part. We are also told of a like Book by one Nicolas Montacute or Manacutius who is believed to have been sometime Master of Eaton School because forsooth most of his Works were in the Library of that College What good Things were heretofore in that Library I know not But upon a late Search nothing could be found that bore this Author's Name save only a pitiful Treatise at Lambeth de Pontificibus Romanis not worth the reading I fancy somebody's quoting this under the Title de Pontificibus simply has given occasion to Bale and Pits who collected and wrote in haste to Naturalize all his Bishops Polydore Virgil's Book or Scrowl of our English Prelates is boasted of in our Seminaries beyond Seas And his great Antagonist John Leland assures us he had taken mighty care to collect their Remains Et majori cura propediem in ordinem redigam He had many other grand Projects in his Head which came to nothing John Pits likewise very gravely refers his Readers in many parts of his Book de Illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus to another of his own composure de Episcopis which we are credibly inform'd is only a poor and silly Abstract of the first and worst Edition of that which falls next under our Thoughts and deserves to be separately consider'd Francis Godwine Son of Tho. Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells was most fortunate in his Commentary as he calls it on this Subject being himself advanced to the Episcopal Order for the good Services that as Queen Elizabeth thought he had done the Church by that Book It was twice published in English equally full of the Authors and Printer's Mistakes The Faults of the latter Edition especially were so very gross that they put him upon the speedy dispatch of another in Latine which came out the next Year The Style of this is very neat and clean and he seems to have taken more Pains in polishing it than in gathering together all the Materials of his History He quotes no Authorities excepting belike that Posterity should acquiesce in his singly without enquiring any further He is particularly ungrateful to the Author of the Antiquitates Britannicae from whom he has borrow'd by the Great his Account of the See of Canterbury varying only the Phrase and that sometimes for the worse The like Carriage he is guilty of towards Bale Camden and others But what is most especially notorious is his transcribing out of Josseline and Mason what he pretends to have had immediately from the Archives and Registraries from the Year 1559 to his own Time He is also frequently guilty of Chronological Mistakes a too confident Reliance on the Authorities of counterfeit Charters in Ingulfus and others an uncertain Calculation of Years beginning some at Michaelmas and others at Christmas c. as his Authors blindly led him and lastly a contenting himself with false and imperfect Catalogues of the Prelates in almost every Diocess These are the Failures where with he stands charg'd by Mr. Wharton who modestly assures us that a better Progress had been made in these Matters by himself within the compass of Eighteen Months than by this Bishop in Twenty Years Our Oxford Antiquary further complains that he Puritanically vilified Popish Bishops with a Design thereby to advance the Credit of those since the Reformation whereby he had given unlucky Advantages to William Prynne the profess'd Enemy of Episcopacy who made ill use of his Book I will not say that either of these Censurers are mistaken but I must observe to the Reader that each of them intended to have furnish'd us with a View of this part of our Ecclesiastical History of his own drawing and therefore like all new Builders they must be allow'd to spy more Faults in the old Fabrick than others can The former has help'd us to a noble Stock of old Writers upon the Affairs of a great many of our Sees from their Foundation in his Anglia Sacra and the latter has given us almost an entire History of our Bishops for the two last Centuries in his Athenae Oxonienses These are good Materials and such as will direct to more of the same kind whereof there are good store in the Bodleian and Cottonian Libraries We long only for a skilful Architect to put them into the Figure we desire And I hear the Work is at last put into the Hands of a Person who wants none of those Helps or Qualifications that are necessary to the Undertaking Hitherto we have mention'd only such as have written the History of our Prelacy with an honest Intent to represent it to the World in its proper and true Colours we have others that have made it their Business to daub it with false Paint endeavouring to give such Pourtraictures of our Bishops as might most effectually defame and prostitute the sacred Order The first of these was one Thomas Gibson a Fanatical Physitian in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign who entitl'done of his Treatises A History of the Treasons of the Bishops since the Norman Conquest Whether this was ever Printed my Author cannot inform me The next was Sir John Harring ton of Kelweston who soon after K. James the First 's arrival in England began to draw together some malicious Remarks upon the Bishops of his Time which he at last finish'd under the Title of A brief view of the state of the Church of England as it stood in Queen Elizabeth 's and King Jame 's Reign to the Year 1608. It was presented by the Author in Manuscript to Prince Henry from whom the Presbyterian Faction expected great Alterations in Church-Government After the downfal of Episcopacy it fell into such Hands as brought it to the Press believing it to be a proper Antidote against the return of the plaguy Hierarchis The last of this Gang was that eternal Scribler Will. Prynne who rak'd together all the Dirt that had been thrown at any of our Bishops by the most inveterate and implacable of all their Enemies and hap'd it into a large Dunghil-Book inscrib'd The Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy both to legal Monarchy and civil Vnity Wherein he pretends to give