much fidelity and industry that he seems to be the onely man amongst all our Writers who hath performed the part of a good Historian and the famous Camden speaks thus of him both the Civil and Church History of England is much in debt to that man He writ in V Books the History of the Actions of the Kings of England from the year of Christ 449 in which the English and Saxons entered Britain to the year 1116 which was the XVI th year of the Reign of Henry the first to which he afterwards added two Books more from the XX th year of that Kings Reign to the 8 th year of King Stephen which was the year of Christ 1143 in which times he Lived There are some who advise the beginning with Jeffery of Monmouth because he begins his History much higher and affirms that one Brutus a great Grandchild of Aeneas and LXVIII Kings besides Reigned here for about one thousand years before Caesar entred Britain but we thought it very fit to pass him by because he seems to write of things that are very obscure and dark by reason of their Great Antiquity and are involved with mere fabulous Stories nor have we done or spoken this upon our own private judgment onely many Learned men having said the same thing before us Neubrigensis who Lived not long after Jeffery of Monmouth speaks thus In our times saith he there Sprung up a certain Writer who to Expiate the faults of the Britains set forth a number of ridiculous inventions extolling their Vertue and Valour with an impudent Vanity above the Macedonians and Romans his Name was Jeffery and he was Nicknamed Arthur because taking the Fables of the ancient Britains concerning Arthur out of their old Romances and encreasing them with his own Additions and giving them the Varnish of the Latine Tongue he Cloathed them with the Honourable Name of an History He also with greater boldness published the fallacious divinations of one Merlin which he hath also improved by his own Additions whilst he turned them into Latine for Authentick Prophecies which were grounded upon unmoveable truth John of Withamsted who flourished in the time of Henry the VI th doth in part agree with William of Newbury According to other Histories saith he which in the judgment of some deserve more Credit this whole process concerning Brute is rather Poetical than Historical and for many causes seems to be founded in fancy rather than in any Reality and Bale confesseth that there are many things in his History which exceed belief and John Twin a diligent searcher out of the British Antiquities calls him the British Homer the Father of Lies but Ponticus Virunnius a very Learned man in the esteem of Vossius who lived above 130 years since and reduced Jeffery's History into an Epitome passing by the fabulous parts of it bestows this Elogy upon him Jeffery of Monmouth was a famous Historian and a Cardinal a man of much Authority with Robert Duke of Gloster Son of Henry II King of England he was a great favourer of his Countrey and Collecting a History of the most ancient times from the Records of their Kings and out of their highest Philosophy he continued the same in an uninterrupted Series from the times of the Trojans That his History is most true will appear from the Custome of the Western Kings which was to have always some with them who should faithfully relate their greatest Actions and John Leland also defends him against Newbury and Polidore Virgil he flourished about the year of Christ 1160 under Henry the II. But however as I said before for these reasons we have passed him by and rather put our Reader upon William of Malmesbury Henry Archdeacon of Huntington follows next who in VIII Books shewing the Origine of our Nation and continuing the History of King Stephen and his Successours goes on to the year 1153 he wrote many other excellent Pieces which would enrich our History but that they lie concealed from the World in Manuscripts in Libraries Polidore Virgil styles him an excellent Historian and John Leland an approved writer he flourished about the year of Christ 1160. William of Newbury beginning with the Death of Henry the first continues the History a little farther to wit to the year 1197 he is a great lover of truth in the opinion of Polydore Virgil but he is sharply reprehended by John Leland because in reprehending Jeffery of Monmouth he kept no mean he flourished about the year of Christ 1220. To Conclude Roger Hoveden deduced our History to the year of Christ 1202 in his Annals which he hath divided into two parts that is to the IV th year of King John's Reign in whose time this Authour flourished An ADDITION There is a passage cited by Mr. Selden concerning this last Authour out of John Leland which I think worth the inserting here Simeon Dunelmensis is to be deservedly reckoned with the principal Monks of his Age He very well understanding that the things which had happened beyond the Severn both by reason of the sloath and negligence of their Writers in the fury of so many Danish Wars and also by the injury of time were so obscured and oppressed that in a short time the memory of them would be lost except the diligence of some Learned man repaired the memory of them by Collecting them together and digesting them into order entered into a serious Consultation with himself how he might prevent this mischief deliberating a long time with himself that which was most necessary and usefull offered it self at last to him which was carefully to search out the remainders of those ancient Libraries which had been Ruined by the Danes c. for the Monks had preserved some fragments of them whilst they fled from the fury of their Enemies c. All these the curious diligence of Simeon sought out found and examined so that his ardent Care had no remission till he had brought the History of the Northumbrian Kingdom from the times of Bede to the Reign of King Stephen the Usurper I design not saith he in this place to write the praises of Simeon his work is immortal and will Live though I say nothing of it onely I would have the Reader take notice that there was one Roger Hoveden a not unlearned man who in the same order with Simeon hath deduced the History from Bede to the Reign of King John whom as I cannot but commend for his History of our Ancestours so I must needs blame him that he rifled the Flowry Meads of Simeon ' s History without ever mentioning his Name the same Leland calls him in another place as Mr. Selden acquaints us a Commendable person with the former exception notwithstanding and Mr. Selden tells us hereupon that many men thought these two works were the same but saith he as it is most certain that R. Hoveden made use of Simeon ' s Annals
than Caesar Salust Livy and the rest of the great Princes of the Senate of Historians in which the native Vigour and Spirit of the Roman Language exerts it self and in truth there are not many who aimed at the perfections of those middle Writers and they are yet more scarce who have attain'd to that degree of perfection and yet they are not to be persecuted or reprehended for this neither because they fell into this Misfortune more by the necessities of the times in which they Lived than by their own faults which is enough to bespeak their Pardon with all candid Readers In ancient Coins we regard the Weight and the Matter much more than the Neatness of the Stamp and so in those Authours which have been depressed by the iniquity of their times and thereby disabled from shewing their Vertues we ought rather to consider the weight and excellence of the things they have delivered than the brightness or sweetness of Discourse what Cicero said of the Philosophers if they bring with them Eloquence it is not to be despised but if they have it not it is not mightily to be desired is by us to be applied to an Historian But as to those who Wrote after the reviving of Learning and the restitution of the Just esteem of Eloquence as there is a Circulation of all things they I say have more illustrated History and treated it according to its Dignity so that the following Ages have many Historians which if I should presume to compare with the Ancient Writers I should not be destitute of the suffrage of the Greatest men for men of no mean Learning have heretofore thought that Guicciardin Comines and Aemilius were so far from being inferiour to Livy Salust and Tacitus that they might contest the Precedence with them ARTICLE II. The Historians of the Germans and of all those people which live betwixt the Alpes and the Baltick Sea and the Rhine and the Weissell to which is joyned the History of the Goths Vandals Hunnes Herulans Switzars Lombards Polonians Muscovites Danes and Swedes WE have a small piece of Tacitus of the Situation Manners and People of the Ancient Germans and it is resonable that we should believe he understood the affairs of those People very well because he was employed as a Souldier in the Wars against them and was Governour of the Low Countries under Hadrian the Emperour and he in his Annals frequently takes notice of the German affairs and especially of the Expedition of Caesar Germanicus and the Victory he obtained against Arminius General of the Châ—ruscians now call'd Mansfelders but there is none of those Historians which are now Extant which hath so largely described tâ—e Battel in which Arminius routed and totally destroyed Quintilius Varus and his Army as Dion Cassius in his LVIth Book Ammianus Marcellinus also who was a Souldier under Constantius and Julianus the Roman Emperours takes notice of many things concerning the Franks Alemans and other German Nations which are very true and worthy to be known Huldericus Mutius Hugwaldus who lived about the year of Christ 1551 Wrote XXXI Books of the Origine of the Germans their Manners Customs Laws and memorable Actions in Peace and War from their first beginning to the year of Christ 1539 which he collected out of their best Authours Conradus a Liechtenaw Abbas Urspergensis Wrote a Chronicle from Belus the first King of the Assyrians to the IXth year of Frederick the second that is to the year of Christ 1229 who in the affairs of others is very short but in what concerns the Germans in his own times and those that went just before him he is much larger and has as Vossius saith many things that may be read with great advantage Gaspar Hedio continued the latter from the year 1230 to the year 1537 adding many memorable things omitted by Urspergensis and besides this Continuation he also Wrote a German Chronicle Lambertus Schafnaburgensis who flourished about the year of Christ 1077 Wrote one Volume of the History of Germany which he brought down to the year 1077 which as Trithemius expresseth himself is very well and pleasantly done and Justus Lipsius saith of this and Rodoricus Toletanus that they are as Good as that Age could possibly afford but the Commendation of the Learned Joseph Scaliger in his piece de Emendatione temporum is very illustrious in truth saith he I admire the Purity of this man's style and the exactness of his Computation in so barbarous an Age which is so great that he might put the Chronologers of our times to the blush if they had any sense of these things Nor will I conceal the censure of Melancthon I have not seen saith he any Writer of the German History that hath Written with greater industry though he hath also put in some private things which are unworthy of the knowledge of Posterity upon which account and for that his Fidelity is suspected in some things pertaining to the Controversie between Henry the 4th and Gregory the 7th he has been censured by some others A certain Monk of Erfurd has brought down the last named Authour to the year 1472 and has also Written an History of the Landgraves of Duringer the principal Town of which is Erfurd Marianus a Scot by Nation but a Monk of Fuld in Germany an Elegant Writer for the times as Sigebertus saith of him produced a Chronicle to his own times that is to the year 1073 in three Books which Dodechinus afterwards continued to the year 1200. Otto Frisingensis of Freising in Noricum and not of Friseland as Aeneas Sylvius insinuates descended of an imperial Family has Written a Chronicle from the beginning of the World to the times of Frederick the first that is to the year of Christ 1146 in VII Books for the VIIIth is not an History but a Dissertation concerning Antichrist the Resurrection of the Dead the end of the World and the last Judgment which is continued by an ancient Authour to the year 1210 and the same Otto Wrote the Life of Frederick the first his Cousin or Nephew Sirnamed Aenobarbus by the Command and Encouragement of this Prince in II Books which Radevicus another Writer by adding two Books more brought down to the year 1160. This Otto though he was Uncle to this Emperour Frederick yet that Relation did no way prejudice the truth as Aeneas Sylvius saith who was afterwards Pope by the Name of Pius Luitiprandus Ticinensis beginning from Arnolphus Emperour of Germany and the year 891 in which the Saracens took Frassinel a small Town upon the River Po in Italy Wrote in six Books the History of the principal Transactions of his own times in Europe in many of which he himself was present which ends Anno Christi 963. He was a privy Counsellour to Berengarius the second King of Italy and falling into his
Church History that I may use the words of a very Learned Man I think those who have written the Lives of the Popes of Rome are to be prized equally with the best Writers of the History of the Western Church or rather before them especially Anastasius Bibliothecarius and Baptista or Bartholomaeus Platina In the first of these we have the Lives of One hundred and nine Popes of Rome described sincerely and faithfully without any varnish of deceitfull Oratory as a Learned Man of Mentz expresseth it which is all the Popes from St. Peter the Apostle to almost the year of our Lord DCCCLXX that is from St. Peter to Nicholas the first who died in the year 867. We have a noble commendation of this Writer in the Great Annalist Baronius for thus he speaks of him Anastasius Biblioth though in a rude style yet with great fidelity described the History of Affairs yea we have not one Writer who has more faithfully or better given a relation of the affairs of his own times for he had a greater esteem for Truth with simplicity than for Lies well painted And the great Historian Carolus Sigonius thus commends him This Writer saith he ought to be much valued by us because he has those things which are not to be found elsewhere either in better or worse Writers Bartholomaeus Platina for that Christian Name is given him by Volaterranus and the most Learned Vossius has proved by very good Arguments that it is his true Name though he is by most other Writers call'd Baptista Wrote the Lives of the Popes to Paul the IId bringing to light with an ingenuous labour and an uncorrupted veracity the actions of those Papal Princes as Paulus Jovius writes of him with whom the judgment of Volaterranus concerning him exactly agrees for he affirms that he was a grave Man who hated lying and which is worthy of much wonder that having spent his youth in Arms he began to study in his old age He lived in the times of Pope Sixtus the IV th to whom he dedicated his Work and by whom he was made Keeper of the Vatican Library Onuphrius Panvinius wrote Notes upon the foregoing Authour which in the opinion of Bellarmine are not to be despised And by the Addition of the Lives of XIV Popes brought down the Story to Pope Pius the V th and to the year MDLXVI in describing of which Lives Onuphrius besides the Publick Annals and the Diaries and Acts of the Consistory chiefly made use of Raphael Volaterranus and Paulus Jovius transcribing some things from the latter but with great brevity And to conclude as we observed speaking above of the Civil Historians the Learned Sigonius hath with a singular care collected what his industry could possibly discover of the affairs of the Western Empire which did any way concern the Church as well as the Civil State and hath recommended them to posterity in an elegant style as truely as he could considering the obscurity of the things the disagreement of Writers and the great remoteness of those times he begins with Dioclesian and Maximianus the Emperours in the year of Christ CCLXXXI and he ends with the death of Justinian Anno Christi DLXV. and here also the same Authours Histories of Bononia and that of the Kingdom of Italy may be taken in too The same thing that is thus done by Sigonius is also perform'd by Flavius Blondus Foroliviensis who begins his History a little lower at the year of Christ CCCCVII but continues it farther than Sigonius has brought his to wit to the year MCCCCXL but then he has not employed the same Accuracy or Elegance with the former For Blondus his style is not very excellent as is acknowledged by Volaterranus and in ancient affairs he sometimes mistakes yet considering the times in which he lived he has done very well which as the Learned Vossius tells us was about the year of Christ 1440. and that he was Secretary to Pope Eugenius the IV th and to several other Popes SECT XLII The Magdeburgian Centuriators put out a most excellent Work of this nature The Judgment of the Reverend Bishop of Chichester upon it What is contain'd in that Work worthy of praise The foundation of it well laid From whence the Materials for the Structure are fetched An excuse of the defects BUt now if our Reader of Histories thinks it too great a labour to read over so long a series of Authours and doth rather desire to fix upon some one or two wherein he may find as it were all the rest we have for him the Magdeburgian Centuries chiefly penn'd for this end by several Learned Men that they might lay before the eyes of Men 1. What the Faith of the Church was in every age 2. What was the external form of Discipline 3. And what changes have happened in her which they accordingly did perform very well and put out a work which deserves great commendations and is very usefull to the Church especially in our times in which so many and great controversies concerning both Faith and Discipline are moved But then this work must be sometimes cautiously and circumspectly read Concerning which may I have your leave to represent the judgment of the Reverend Bishop of Chichester in his own words by which you will understand how the former Church Histories are to be esteem'd in comparison of this and what is most particularly to be observed in this work For thus the most Learned Bishop discourseth After a sort of Chronological Tables and Delineations of the Ages which succeeded after the Apostles in which were represented not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body or whole of the Church History but some Adumbrations of the Great Lines or Figure of it with a Lighter Labour though not unprofitable after some vintages of the Ecclesiastical History in which the bunches of Grapes had been gathered here and there as occasion served by parts at length a number of Men were found who seriously undertook the business and afforded us a plenty of Wine to wit those who are call'd the Magdeburgian Centuriators who made a noble attempt undertook a difficult work and an Herculean enterprise for they removing the Rubbish of Antiquity which lay dispersed here and there and broken dissipated and cast down out of that confused heap built for the use of the Christian World a certain curious Edifice of a wonderfull advantage and use in which there are many things which thou canst not but commend and admire and not fewer which thou canst not approve The Reverend Prelate goes on in a more particular enumeration in acquainting us with what he esteemed worthy of praise and approbation and I would gladly persuade and admonish our Reader diligently to observe his words Certainly saith he their order or disposition of things is Magnificent the series and method Singular
began in the year 1545. continued to the year 1563. the History of which Council written by Pietro Soave Polano a Venetian of the Order of the Servi a Man of admired Learning of an exquisite Judgment of an Indefatigable Industry and of a modesty and integrity that is scarce to be equall'd is in truth of more value than any Gold I think I may say then any Jewels and like to out-live the most lasting Monuments Which commendation is given deservedly to this Historian by that worthy and learned Person who faithfully translated this History into English who also was the first person who brought this pretious Jewel into these Western parts and to the great good of the Church first published it and in the preliminary Epistle has thus represented the Authour's Character and that not without good cause for he having had a Learned Intercourse with him and for some time conversed familiarly with him knew him throughly Yea the work it self confirms the truth of all this which was extracted out of the Memoires and Commentaries of Ambassadours out of the Letters of Princes and Commonwealths and from the Writings of the Prelates Divines and of the very Legates who were present in the Council which Writings had till then been carefully kept and out of them this History was extracted with so much labour accuracy study and fidelity as the said most learned and famous Knight has there observed that it may equal the best of all the ancient or Modern Histories of that Nature Neither are you my Hearers to conceive that this is the testimony of one single Person concerning either the Work or the Authour Be pleased then to accept a second and like testimony concerning both from the Latin Translatour also a person of the same degree with the former and for his great Ingenuity and Erudition of a flourishing Name Who writes thus of that Authour Nor doth he stand in any need of my Commendation his Work speaking him a person of an happy Ingenuity and of a great and right judgment liberally endowed with all sorts of Learning and abundantly adorn'd both with Divine and Humane Knowledge and that as well Moral as Political or Civil whereby he has attain'd a high degree both of Probity and Sweetness of Mind And of the Work it self he speaks thus As to what concerns the structure of this History whether you consider the things themselves or his Language and in the things if you observe the order of times the Counsels the things done the events and in the management of affairs if you desire not onely what was done or said should be discoursed but also in what manner and that when the event is told at the same time all the causes should be unfolded and all the accidents which sprung from wisedom or folly All these and a multitude of other such like things which the great Masters of History require in a good Historian he has performed so fully and exactly that in forming the History of one Council he hath represented all the Perfections of History and upon this account deserves to be numbered amongst the most noble Historians Jacobus Augustus Thuanus a Man of Noble Birth of great Learning and Dignity and worthy of the principal place amongst the Historians of this Age as we have observed above wrote the affairs of this Century as well Ecclesiastical as Civil from the year 1546 to the year 1608 with great exactness which History we have lately continued to the year 1618. Besides all these which I have named the Books of the Learned and Famous Gerardus Johannes Vossius concerning the Greek and Latin Historians will supply the Reader with the Names of a vast number of other both Civil and Ecclesiastical Historians out of which any Man that is not pleased with the choice I have made may choose out others at his pleasure But thus I think and that I have spoken enough concerning the First Part of my Method THE METHOD and ORDER OF Reading Histories Part the Second Concerning a Competent Reader SECT I. A young Man is as well to be thought an unqualified or incompetent Reader of History as of Moral Philosophy What things are required to both The end and scope of Reading The disagreeing opinions of the most Learned Vossius and Keckerman concerning this Question WE have finished the First Part in which we have represented the Authours both of the CIVIL and ECCLESIASTICAL History And we have made choice of those which we esteem'd the best of both sorts and have also shewn in what order they are to be Read And now in the Second Place we must inquire who is a competent Reader of them And we shall doe this with as much brevity as is possible Aristotle disputing in the first Book and third Chapter of his Ethicks concerning the competent and well-qualified hearer of those Doctrines he was to deliver there concludes thus A young Man is not a well-qualified hearer of Civil Knowledge or Morality because he is not experienced in the Actions which concern this life Because youth being ignorant in judging doth easily despise good advices and imbrace bad Counsels by which it is deluded and deceived But now if our Master has given a right sentence in this case what reason can be given why we may not pass the same sentence in our disquisition concerning a fit and competent Reader of Histories Seeing Wise Men have observed that History is nothing but Moral Philosophy cloathed in Examples In the Hearer of Ethicks or Politicks there is required in the first place judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he may judge well concerning the Rules of Actions And in the next place is required a well-disposed Mind that he may with dexterity endeavour to bring into use the Precepts he hath received And in the self-same manner it is necessary for the Reader of Histories to have the faculty of Apprehending whatever Examples he Reads and judging well of them And then that he should have an inclination and propensity of Mind to follow what is Good and to shun and avoid what is Evil and of turning all he meets with to his use and advantage For the principal end of History is Practice and not Knowledge or Contemplation And therefore we must learn not onely that we may know but that we may doe well and live honestly And therefore there are some Men of very great Learning who assert there is hardly any sort of study which seems to require more Sagacity Judgment Experience and Prudence than in reading History which is the best Mistress of Civil Conversation And therefore I have ever wondered that Gerardus Johannes Vossius who deserves to be numbred amongst the Princes of Learning in this Age should in his Elegant Book de Arte Historica of the Historick Art stifly maintain that this sort of study is fit for young Men and reject the opinions and confute and take off the arguments of Bartolomaeus
of his Chronology has made use of so great an industry that he has not omitted any thing by which the true time of Histories may be exquisitely known But then if after these Chronologers he is pleased to dwell a little longer on the Universal History and to enlarge his prospect JUSTIN may be read who is thought to have flourished under the Antonines about the year of Christ 140. Nor is there any one amongst the Latins who has more Politely and Elegantly contracted the History of so many Empires for he Comprehends the Actions of almost all Nations from Ninus to Augustus Then may Herodotus Diodorus Siculus and Polybius follow of all which we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter and after these some of the Modern Writers may be read amongst which Sir Walter Rawleigh our Countrey-man deserves the first place a man of great Fame and for his great both Valour and prudence worthy of a better Fate He has built up an Universal History from the Creation of the World to the fall of the Macedonian or III Monarchy out of the most approved Authours which is written in English with very great Judgment in a perspicuous method and an Elegant and Masculine style and the incomparable Gerardus Joannes Vossius some years since began an Universal History of all the foregoing Ages and Nations I heartily wish my Hearers that I may once see that Noble work and injoy it with you for what can be expected from so great a Treasure of Antiquity and History but what is most Excellent and above the reach of the Wits not onely of this but of many of the better Ages But however let the History of the Bible lead the way which is incontestably not onely the most ancient but the truest of all Histories and to this tends the grave reprehension of Carolus Sigonius of the common way of instituting or entering upon the Study of Antiquity In laying the Foundations of the knowledge of Ancient times and things as also in the beginning of almost all other Studies I know not how we are carried away with the impetuous torrent of an ill Custome and generally commit a very great Errour by beginning with those Monuments in which the Acute Grecians who were totally ignorant of the truth have comprehended their Traditions of the false Gods and the fictitious Actions of their feigned Heroes which we can neither make any good use of nor improve our selves thereby in the least in Piety when if there were any Sense that I may not say prudence in us we ought rather to begin with what is contain'd in the Holy writings of the Hebrews for if we search for the Origine of things we can begin no higher than the Creation of the World and the formation of man which is there treated of if we seek Truth there is no where so much of it as here where it is proclaimed by the mouth of the Living God if we seek grave things what is more magnificent than these illustrious Monuments in which the Holy Commands of God the saving Promises the certain Oracles and other helps to our Salvation are comprehended from whence can we derive more Excellent Examples of Vertue or sharper detestations of Vices or Actions worthy of memory than from these Monuments of the Hebrews in which onely it is apparently discovered how much mankind has been relieved by the powerfull and present Assistence of God Almighty in the Exercise of true Religion or in the neglect of it have been troden down and ruin'd by his Anger SECT VII From whence the History of the Assyrio-Chaldean Monarchy is to be fetched Of Berosus Ctesias and Megasthenes and their supposititious Writings in the defect of these we must have recourse to Josephus The great loss in Diodorus Siculus to be supplied from elsewhere especially out of Josephus and the prophetick History Diogines Laertius commended BUt now if you are pleased to descend to the several Empires and to prosecute the Histories of them by parts and in their Order we have Berosus Ctesias and Megasthenes who give an account of the Affairs of the Assyrio-Chaldean Monarchy But did I say we have them No which is a very great affliction to the Historians we have them not we have some fragments of Ctesias which perhaps are not spurious but then those concern the Persian Empire onely for whatever he writ concerning the Chaldean is lost We have also some shreds of Megasthenes too and some Adulterated Rhapsodies imposed upon the World by the Viterbian Monk a deceitfull Merchant to which little Credit is to be given in the Opinion of very Learned men for as to Ctesias this is the opinion of Josephus Scaliger a very great Philosopher He is saith he a silly Greek and so he may but contradict Herodotus he cares not what he says he has committed many Errours through Humane Frailty many wilfully out of Envy and this appears clearly in Photius his Parietina Ctesias flourished in the times of Cyrus Junior and being taken by Artaxerxes in a Battel he was afterwards his Physician And Strabo disputes the fidelity of the very genuine History of Megasthenes which he often cites how much more reasonably then may Learned men question the truth of that fictitious piece which is ignorantly call'd by his Name but it is really the work of Annianus He lived under Seleucus Nicanor as we are told by Clemens Alexandrinus and that Impostor Annian And most of the Learned suppose that the Berosus which goes abroad in the World is of the same Stamp Will you please to hear what Lodovicus Vivis thinks of him There is a small Book which is stil'd Berosi Babylonii Antiquitates the Antiquities of Berosus the Babylonian but it is a figment that pleases unlearned idle men very much and of the same sort are Xenophon's Aequivoca and the fragments of Archilochus Cato Sempronius and Fabius Pictor which are patched together in the same Book by Annianus Viterbiensis and by his Additions rendered too much the more ridiculous not but that there are in it some things that are true for otherwise the thing could never have look'd abroad but yet the body of that History is fictitious and none of his whose Name it bears thus far the Learned Vivis and therefore he and other Learned men send us to Josephus Justin the Epitomizer of Trogus and Diodorus Siculus his Antiquities and well we might be turn'd over to him if he were intirely Extant which some of the Ancients call'd simply the LIBRARY and others the Libraries And Diodorus acquaints us himself in the Preface to his History what account he had given of ancient times his words are these Our first six Books give an account of what happened before the Trojan War and what is set forth concerning those Ages in Fables of which the three first contain the Barbarous Story and the three latter the Grecian and in the eleven
Countries The fifth Book contains the Persian Embassy to Amyntas King of Macedonia and also the just Punishment of Sisamnis an unjust Judge the Sedition of Aristagoras the Milesian and his end and then he shews what was the State of the Cities of Athens Lacedemonium and Corinth in the time of Darius Histaspis The sixth Book describes the Ruine of the Seditious Histiaeus and then shews the Origine of the Kings of Sparta and the preparations of War made by Darius against the Grecians and the Fight at Marathon in which Miltiades bravely defeated the Persians The seventh contains a most excellent Consultation concerning the War with Greece held by Xerxes and then represents his famous Expedition into Greece and the Battel of Thermopilas The eighth describes the Sea Fight at the Island of Salamine The ninth besides the punishment of one Lycidas gives an account of two great Battels fought in one day the one at Plateas in the dawn of the Morning and the other at Mycalen a Promontory of Asia in the Evening in both which the Persians were beaten and at last totally Expell'd out of Greece And in these Nine Books you will find besides the History of the Medes and Persians the Histories also of the Lydians Jonians Lycians Aegyptians Mynians Grecians and Macedonians and of some other Nations their Manners and Religions are also intermixt and delivered with that Purity Elegance and sweetness of Style that the Muses were by the Ancients feigned to have spoken by the mouth of Herodotus and for this cause the Names of the Muses were put before these Books not by the Authour but by some other persons as some think But the Learned Vossius which I think fit to remark here is of another opinion and says that he inscribed the Names of the IX Muses before his Books upon the same account that the three Orations of Eschines were call'd the Graces with relation both to their Number and the Delicateness of the Language and the same Oratours IX Epistles were also call'd by the Names of the Muses as Photius saith Sect. LXI But the same Learned man Vossius goes on and asserts that it is apparent that the Books of Herodotus were not so call'd by way of Apology for the falsehoods contained in them as Lodovicus Vivis thought as if by these Names the Reader were in the very entrance to be admonished that some things in them were related with too much Liberty to delight the mind which is allowed the Muses For though Herodotus inserts some Narratives that are not much unlike Fables yet the body of his History is compil'd with a rare Fidelity and a diligent care of Truth Concerning his other Narratives he for the most part premiseth that he recites them not because he thought them true but as he had receiv'd them from others I ought saith he to unfold in my History what I have heard from others but there is not the same necessity I should believe all relations alike which I desire the Reader would once for all take notice of and remember throughout my History And we may enlarge and confirm the History of these times of which Herodotus writ by reading the 2 3 and 7 th Books of Justin and by reading the Lives of those famous Generals Aristides Themistocles Cimon Miltiades and Pausanias written both by Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos and to these may be added the Lives of the Philosophers of those times written by Laertins viz. Anaximander Zenon Empedocles Heraclitus Democritus and others of that Age. SECT IX Of Thucydides his Elogies from whence and how far be deduceth his History which he compil'd in VIII Books the Arguments of those Books briefly and distinctly unfolded and lastly is shewn what Authours besides he have written of the same Wars and Times THucydides follows Herodotus a celebrated Historian in relation both to his Eloquence and Fidelity He flourished 460 years before Christ in the LXXXVII Olympiad and because the Elogies Learned men have made for him may perhaps accend the Reader to a more serious study of his History I shall not decline the repeating them here M. T. Cicero speaks thus of him In my opinion Thucydides excells all others in the art of Speaking he almost equals the number of his words with the number of his Sentences his expressions are so fit and short that no man can determine whether he has most illustrated his Subject by his Oratory or his Oratory by his wise reflexions Fabius Quintilianus thus expresseth his Esteem of him Thucydides is always saith he close and short and ever present to his Business Herodotus sweet candid and diffus'd Thucydides is the best representer of moved affections Herodotus of calm Herodotus is the best at a long Thucydides at a short Oration this forceth and that wins a man's consent Let us now hear the judgment of Modern Writers and in the first place that of Justus Lipsius Thucydides saith he writ an History in which he relates neither many nor great affairs and yet perhaps he has won the Garland from all those who have represented many and great occurrences his discourse is always close and short his Sentences are frequent and his Judgment sound giving every where excellent but conceal'd Advice directing thereby Mens Lives and Actions his Orations and Excursions are almost Divine the oftner you reade him the more you will gain by him and yet he will never dismiss you without a thirst of reading him again Isaac Casaubon speaks thus Thucydides is a great man and a great Historian who when he had for some time been conversant with and employed in great Transactions retired to describe them with his Pen and gave Posterity an example of an History so written for the use of Men that it will ever be the Subject of their wonder rather than imitation Christopherus Colerus speaks thus Thucydides perfected the art of Writing Histories which Herodotus just before had Adorn'd turn over and over and carry in your bosome that great treasure he has described the Peloponnesian War which he saw and in which he bore his part you will not seem to reade but see it in him and you will find as many wise instructions as Sentences he explains his Business prudently severely and gravely by which it is apparent how usefull he may be to a Politician and as to those that are to consult about War or Peace they ought to keep him ever close to them as their best Counsellour thus has Thucydides hit every point To proceed Thucydides writ an History of almost LXX years in eight Books beginning at the departure of Xerxes out of Greece where Herodotus ends and bringing it down to the XXI year of the Peloponnesian War for although his main design was to write the War betwixt the Athenians and the Peloponnesians a great part of which he was yet in his first Book in the very entrance of it he
I have noted already Diodorus Dionysius and Dion Cassius who if they were now Extant intire we should then have a perfect memory of the Roman affairs from the building of that City to the thousandth year of its Age. But let us be content with what is left the Divine Providence has so ordered it that out of the Reliques of what remains the body of the Roman History may yet be beautifully built up the Picture of which in Little is most Artfully drawn by our L. Annaeus Florus SECT XV. From whence the course of the Roman Story is to be begun L. Annaeus Florus commended the judgments of Learned men concerning him he is not the same with the Epitomizer of Livy his Errours or mistakes excused how these Errours in probability crept in the Consular fasts of Sigonius and Onuphrius and also Pighius his Annals commended VEry Learned men and well acquainted with the Roman History exhort the Students of it with an intent eye and mind to run through look into and contemplate this curious Representation and not without good cause it being in the Judgment of Lipsius a Compendium of the Roman History written finely plainly and Eloquently Nor does he stop here but adds his Censure the accurateness and brevity of it are very often wonderfull and there are many shining Sentences like Jewels inserted here and there both with good Judgment and truth Nor does the Learned C. Colerus whom I have so often cited before decline from this opinion his words are these believe me you will with no less pleasure reade that terse piece than that with which you could see one of Apellis his Pictures it is so well compos'd and so Elegant I admire that Judgment which could insert SENTENCES with so great prudence and brevity in such a heap and variety of things The great and Learned Censor of Books in his Piece of teaching the Arts and Sciences led the way to both these where he affirms there can nothing of that kind be fansied more accurate and pleasant but in this Vivis and other Learned men are much deceived who think this our Florus the same with the Epitomizer of Livy and much more those who conceive he designed in this work to give us a Compendium of the Livian History whereas he neither observes the Livian method nor always agrees with him And others that they may abate his esteem accuse him of a great fault his confounding times and relating that first which ought to have been placed in the second place often also perturbing and confounding the Names and Employments of their Generals so that he who follows him must often be led out of his way I will not deny that there are many such Errours in this Authour nor can I say whether they happened through ignorance or negligence or want of care but my opinion is that in some he may be excused for as to the confusion of times objected they might have known that he digests his Relations by Heads and Species rather than times separating things of a like Nature from those of a different separating for Example Wars from Conspiracies and civil Discords from Military Expeditions in short what a great Antiquary has said for Paulus Diaconus I should willingly offer in the behalf of Annaeus Florus no man can be supposed so ignorant in Chronology as that he can expect to find in Florus an exact Series of the Fasts as if he were a sworn Accountant and as to what concerns the confounding Names and Offices who knows not that such failings happen frequently by the carelesness of Transcribers and the ignorance of the ancient Notes especially in the names of the Roman Generals and Magistrates and in transcribing the numbers of years nor am I unacquainted with the complaint of that very learned Man Andraeas Scotus It is not possible to express what darkness and confusions the affinity of Names and the great similitude of words have cast upon the History of the Roman Common-wealth and upon their Families and what an infinite trouble has from thence been given to the Students in Antiquities and the Interpreters of Books And therefore the Reader may in this if he please and I do most earnestly perswade him to it call in to his Assistence the Consulary and Triumphant Fasts of Carolus Sigonius or Onuphrius which are much more certain Guides than Florus for there he will find the Roman Story shortly and regularly Adumbrated Or the Annals of the Magistrates and Provinces of the Senate and People of Rome written by Stephanus Vinandus Pighius than which it is impossible to conceive a better Commentary can be made or wished not onely upon our Florus but also upon Livy Dionsius Halicarnassaeus Dion Cassius and upon all the other Writers of the Roman History as the before named Learned Jesuite Schotus affirms To conclude as the small imperfections which appear in the greatest beauties are easily pardon'd or obscured by the great perfections which attend them so I see no reason why we should not readily pardon the few Errours we meet in so usefull and delicate a piece as Florus is SECT XVI In what order the Reader should proceed in his Reading of the Roman History Dionysius Halicarnassaeus commended how many years his History contains the reason given why we assign him the first place and confirmed out of Bodinus WHen the Reader has attentively considered the shadow and Picture of the Roman History let him proceed to consider the body of it in all its parts in the following method and order of Authours if he is pleased to make use of my advice Dionysius Halicarnassaeus who flourished about 26 years before Christ Anno V. C. 725 is by the confession of all a grave Authour and a most accurate searcher into and describer of the Roman Antiquities and therefore I desire he may lead the way He in order to a clear Notice who the Romans were having given an account of what he had learned concerning the People call'd the Aborigines or the most ancient inhabitants of Italy not onely from Fables and the reports spread among the many but from the Books of Portius Cato Fabius Maximus and Valerius Anciatis and of many others then he continues a History in XX Books to the first Punick War which began the third or fourth year of the 128 Olympiad A. V. C. 488 but of those twenty Books which Photius tells us he left onely XI have been brought down to us in which we have the History of CCCXII years described with great fidelity and care nor have we rashly assigned the first place to Dionysius in this our Chain of Authours because he will be instead of a bright Torch to our lover of Histories who without him must often stick and blink and walk in a dark Night whilst he read onely Latine Historians Will you have the reason of this Joannes Bodinus will give you many and will also
461 year after the building of Rome and yet before our Reader proceeds though perhaps he has attain'd a rich History of the first times of the Romans out of Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and the aforesaid Books of Livy yet in this place Plutarchs Romulus Numa Pompilius Valerius Poplicola Coriolanus and Camillus may not unprofitably be read not unprofitably did I say what is there in that Authour that can be read without great advantage and reward especially if he falls into the hands of a serious Reader that is apprehensive and of an experienced Judgment Treasures of Learning Wisedom and History may be found in Plutarch yea there are some that assert that his Monuments I mean his Parallel Lives and Morals are the Libraries or Collections of all the ancient Historians or rather Writers and of all that have either spoken or done any thing honourably rightly or wisely whether they were Grecians or Romans so that Theodorus Gaza answered not imprudently when being once asked what Authour he would chuse if he were to be deprived of all others he replied onely Plutarch and therefore we so often already have and hereafter shall recommend him to the Reader to be read by parts every part in its proper place By parts I say because as Lipsius saith he did not so properly write an History as certain Particles of History and appropriated to himself the Lives of Illustrious men and yet here if we may Acquiesce in the judgment of Colerius he observes all the Laws of History more than Suetonius or any other of those that have written Lives however in the opinion of Lipsius he truly deserves above all others to be styled the Prince of Writers who doth wonderfully form the judgment and in a diffused and plain way of Writing leads a man every where to Vertue and Prudence SECT XVIII The second Decade of T. Livy that is from the X th to the XXI Book is lost how and from whence the History may be supplied Appianus Alexandrinus what Learned men think of him BUt to proceed where we should have gone on in T. Livius the whole second Decade from his tenth Book to his XXI th is lost to wit the History of LXX years from the year of the City 461 to the year 531 in which space of time besides other very remarkable things the War with Pyrrhus King of Epirus call'd the Tarentine War the first Punick War and the Ligustick Illyrick and Gallican Wars are said to have happened for the supplying therefore this defect the arguments of these Books drawn by the Epitomizer of our Authour may be usefull and for the filling up and enlarging the story Plutarch's Pyrrhus and the XVII th XVIII th and XXII and XXIII Books of Justin to these may be added 14 Chapters of the IV th Book of Orosius who flourished 415 years after Christ and the IV first Chapters of the third Book of Paulus Diaconus his Historia Miscella who lived about 787 years after Christ and especially the first and second Books of Polybius in which though we have not a full History of the first Punick War yet we shall there find more of it than in all the Latine Historians that are now Extant and we may judge the same of the Wars the Romans made with the Galls inhabiting in Italy And here Plutarch's M. Marcellus and Fabius Maximus may be taken in who fought most Valiantly and succesfully against the Ligurians and Cisalpine Galls and as they afterwards did in the second Punick War against the Carthagineans for Fabius first broke Hannibal with delays and then Marcellus taught the World it was possible to beat him as the Authour de Viris Illustribus writes Chap. 45. Lastly Joannes Zonaras may perhaps afford some assistence for filling up this Gap in the Roman History who in the second Tome of his Annals has given a short account of the affairs of the Romans from the building of the City to the Reign of Constantine the Great and also Appianus Alexandrinus will afford some help in his Punic's and Illyric's A writer according to the censure of Photius studious of delivering the truth as far as possible a Discoverer of the Military Discipline above most others and he is one of those who hath as in a Table represented to us the Provinces Revenues Armies and in general the description of the whole Roman Empire as Johannes Bodinus hath observed And Josephus Scaliger in his Animadversions upon Eusebius supposeth him to have been a mere Child in History or else that many things had been tack'd to his Syriac's by others and the Learned Vossius affirms he took many things from Polybius and useth to transcribe Plutarch word for word and in truth Franc. Balduinus acknowledgeth that some passages of Plutarch in his Crassus concerning the Parthian War are repeated in the Books of Appianus but this is supposed to be done not by Appian who was contemporary with Plutarch but by some of his Transcribers that they might fill up some Chasme in his Commentaries This Authour flourished in the year of Christ 123. SECT XIX Where the remaining XXV Books of Livy are to be read what other Authours may confirm or illustrate that History the nine last Decades and an half are intirely lost whence that loss may be supply'd the History of Salust commended and also Caesar's Commentaries by the Learned of the more ancient and of the later times OUr Reader having thus furnished himself as well as he can is now to proceed to the XXI th Book of T. Livius that is to the third Decade and let him go on and diligently reade all that remain and are still Extant in order that is two Decades and an half in which he will find an uninterrupted History of LVI years to the year of Rome 587 but together with those XXV Books of Livy for just so many besides the first Decade have escaped this common Shipwreck and besides Plutarch's Fabius and Marcellus already mentioned let the Reader also peruse his Hannibal Scipio Africanus T. Quinctius Flaminianus Paullus Aemylius and his Cato Major or Censorius because every one of these flourished in that interval of time and Plutarch hath written their Lives very largely and clearly and in them the success of the Roman affairs From the XLV th Book of Livy nine Decades and an half for he writ XIV Decades that is 95 Books are perished in that common and deplorable Shipwreck that is the History of 157 years to the Death of Drusius Nero the Son-in-Law of Augustus Caesar who died whilst he was General in an Expedition against the Germans beyond the Rhine Anno V. C. 744. The Contents of these Books are yet Extant collected by the before mentioned Epitomizer for the improvement of which after Plutarch's Cato Major follow his two Gracchi's Marius Scylla Cato Minor or Uticensis Sertorius Lucullus Pompejus Magnus and Marcus
the Lives of the XII C sars with great Integrity because he conceals not the Vices or suspicions of Vices in the very best Princes nor does he dissemble the Colours of vertue in the worst Colerus doth almost follow Vivis as to the main and then adds something as to his Style His Style saith he is short and Nervous and no man has more diligently intermixt the publick Rites he is most correct and candid and not obnoxious to any man for whoever wrote the tempers or humours and manners of Princes with a greater freedom Courtiers and Statesmen may from hence reap much advantage and may also from Suetonius at the same time learn to detest flattery And with Suetonius Tranquillus the Reader may admit Tacitus an Historian of a great and sharp judgment who wrote of the same times with Suetonius the Criticks say he had a new concise and sententious way of writing but as to the use and utility of his History they vary or it may be rather fight each against other Justus Lipsius the Prince of the Criticks thus expresseth himself an usefull and a great writer and who ought to be in their hands who have the steering of the Common-wealth and Government and again a sharp Writer and very prudent and who if ever may be very usefull in the hands of men in these times and Scenes of affairs he doth not recite the Victories of Hanibal almost fatal to the Romans nor the specious death of Lucretia nor the Prodigies of the foretellers or the predictions of the Etruscans and the like which are apter to please than instruct the Reader Let every one in him consider the Courts of Princes their private Lives Counsels Commands Actions and from the apparent Similitude that is betwixt those times and ours let them expect the like Events you shall find under Tyranny Flattery and Informers Evils too well known in our times nothing simple and sincere and no true fidelity even amongst Friends frequent accusations of Treason the onely fault of those who had no fault the Destruction of great men in heaps and a Peace more cruel than any War I confess the greatest part of his History is full of unpleasant and sorrowfull Accidents but then let us suppose what was spoken by the dying Thrasea spoken to every one of us Young man consider well and though I implore the Gods to avert the Omen yet you are born in those times that require the well fixing your mind by Examples of Constancy To this may be added his Style which is by no means sordid or vulgar but distinguished with frequent and unexpected Sentences which a man cannot conjecture whence they should be derived which for their truth and brevity may be compared to Oracles to conclude he is a wonderfull Writer and does most seriously doe what he seems not to make his business at all for it is not onely a History but a Garden and Seminary of Precepts Colerus follows here the Judgment of Lipsius and thus he writes we esteem the Judgment of Lipsius as equal to Tacitus thou thinkest and that seriously of the Court and Palaces as I love thee look a little seriously in Tacitus into the fortune of Courtiers and the genius of Princes Let Cornelius be always by thy side that true Court Companion nor is there any cause that our Centaurs and Rusticks should affright thee from him who pretend that these representations are too ancient and nothing like our manners and times I say it is nothing so there is the same Play still upon the Stage the same vertues the same vices are Reacted onely the Actours are changed onely here wants a Learned and a wise Spectatour Isaac Casaubon a person admired for his Learning and Vertue here goes quite against the Judgments of Lipsius and Colerus for where he compares the other Historians with his Polybius he affirms of Tacitus that if his fortune had not deprived him of a Subject worthy of his faculties he might have equall'd any of the most excellent Greek or Latine Historians but such times saith he fell under his Pen especially in his Annals as there were never any more polluted with vices or more destitute of or enraged against all Vertues then comparing more particularly the matter of the History of Polybius and Tacitus together he concludes thus We can easily excuse Tacitus but not those who prefer this Authour before all the other Historians and aver that he is to be frequently read by States-men and the onely one from whom Princes and their Councellours should take rules for the Government of Common-wealths Now if we would expose the absurdity of this Opinion it would not be difficult to prove that those who think so accuse our present Princes of Tyranny or would manifestly teach them the principles of Tyranny for what can be more pernicious especially to a young man than the reading of those Annals for as good examples when they are frequently in sight improve a man without his observation so ill Examples hurt us for by little and little they sink into our minds and have the effect of Precepts being often read or heard but to proceed our Reader will better apprehend and more clearly understand both Suetonius and Tacitus if he has first read Dion Cassius whom I mentioned before and of this opinion Colerus is also thou wouldest better understand Suetonius and Tacitus let then Dion lead the way I would have thee know this that he is the onely Authour who has given us the famous and Politick oration of Mecoenas to Augustus which is worth all the rest of the Histories and he has also the splendid oration of Agrippa to him in other things and relations he hath not wholly escaped the suspicion of falsehood SECT XXII The Passage to the rest of the Writers of the Augustane Story how to be made viz. Spartianus Capitolinus Vulcatius and the other Authours who are not to be lightly esteemed the Judgment of Justus Lipsius upon them and also of Casaubon Herodian to be read in his place with them how far these Authours have brought the History and that amongst them Aurelius Victor and Pomponius Laetus are to be admitted THese being thus expedited if the Reader please to take in the Lives of Nerva Coccejus and Trajan two most excellent Princes out of Aurelius Victor Xiphilin or any other of the Writers of Lives Spartian's Adrian and Capitolinus his Antoninus will immediately follow in their order and all the rest of the Emperours whose Lives and Actions are written by those six Writers of the Augustane Story not so Elegantly as truly and were lately put out accurately amended and illustrated by Isaac Casaubon the immortal glory of this last Age and Claudius Salmafius a man Learned to a Miracle in the ancient Learning and although Casper Barthius prosecutes these Authours with a mean and slight Testimony and affirms that the Latine Tongue was become deformed in the very ages
of Theodosius and Justinian yet I would not have any man thence conclude that he shall gain small advantage by the reading of them let him rather hear Justus Lipsius and Casaubon's Judgment of them of which the first thus briefly One Writer is usefull for one purpose and another for another Spartianus Lampridius Capitolinus and Vulcatius and the rest of the Writers of the second form have indeed not much Eloquence but it is possible to extract out of them a vast plenty of Antiquities and of the forgotten Customes The latter is yet more large in their Commendations The reading of these Authours saith he is not onely usefull but necessary for all men but especially for all those who are Studious of the ancient manners and History and especially for those who love the Roman Civil Law For how many things will you find dispersed in the whole Work which belong properly to the study of Law how often is it there observed that a new Law was introduced or an ancient Law abrogated that I may not mention this that if it were not for these Writers many of the great Civilians whose names and fragments are extant in the Pandects would have been altogether unknown to us not to mention also the Style which is common with these Authours to the ancient Lawyers in short what esteem ought we to have for the excellent Letters of so many Princes so many grave Decrees of the Senate and so many other publick Monuments transcribed out of the Cabinets of the Caesars out of the Acts or Registers of the Senate and People or out of I know not what other secret and concealed Records or whom will you assign out of all the number of the ancient Writers to whom we are indebted for a like Fidelity or Industry nor ought I to pass by those Learned and not far fetched but Domestick Digressions with which these Books are inriched as with so many studds of true and Radiant purple in very many places thus far Casaubon These Historians will furnish the Reader with the History if the Chronologers deceive me not of an Hundred Sixty and Seven years it is however certain they will give him the names of LXX and upwards who in the course of these times by right or injury obtained the name of Emperour or Caesar. The Lives of some of which also are written in VIII Books by Herodian an Authour of good Judgment Discreetly and Elegantly therefore if the Reader please to joyn him to the other six Writers of the Lives in his due time he will have a fuller and more illustrious History of Commodus the Emperour and of the other seven that succeeded him to the Gordians for he will find in that Writer a great variety of both things and men and frequent examples of Fortune's Frowns and Smiles as she is ever changing and he will observe strange and wonderfull Counsels and unexpected Events he will find as occasion serves grave Sentences and a style full both of dignity and sweetness to conclude he will find plenty of necessary Utensils for the improvement of his Manners and as it were the Looking-Glass of Humanity which he may inspect all his Life time and from whence he may draw instructions for the better management of publick or private affairs Let him then reade this Authour either in Greek or Latine for I know not whether Herodian deserves more Honour who in his own Language flows with a plentyfull vain or Politian who has translated him so happily that he doth not seem so much to have rendered as writ that History However these six Writers the last of which is Vopiscus who is yet learned and accurate beyond any of the rest will bring the Reader to the thousand thirty and sixth year after the building of Rome that is to the Death of Carinus Caesar who with Numerianus is said to have reigned or affected the Empire after Carus it is to be confess'd that in this Series which these six Writers of Lives have left us there is a gap betwixt Gordianus the third and Valentinian the Emperour for Valerianus did not succeed immediately after Gordian but first the two Philippi and to them the Decii and then Vibius Gallus with his Son Volusianus then Aemylianus Libycus who was immediately succeeded by Valerianus and the Learned Casaubon reckons some others to the number of Fifteen between Caesars and Emperours within the space of nine or at most ten years none of whose Names are mention'd any where in these Writers a supply is therefore to be made of this defect from Aurelius Victor a discreet and prudent Writer of whom Ammianus Marcellinus saith That for his sobriety he is much to be commended and Casaubon calls his small Piece of the Lives of the Emperours An Elegant Discourse or from Pomponius Laetus A Man for the Age in which he Wrote rarely acquainted with Antiquities and good Learning and very conspicuous amongst the most Excellent Wits of his time who hath Written a Compendium of the Roman History from the death of Gordian the younger a little beyond the time of the death of Heraclius This Authour flourished about the year after Christ 1488. In this History of the Caesars you may reade many things which are not to be found in any of the Historians which for the most part he extracted from the Ancient Panegyrists SECT XXIII After the times of Constantius Chlorus and a little before the History seems a little perplex'd especially in the Latin Writers Eusebius Zosimus and Zonaras will render it more plain of Zosimus and Zonaras and their Writings and also Jornandes and Ammianus Marcellinus who is here to be Read the Opinion of Lipsius and Balduinus the Lawyer concerning him BUt because the History of those times is very confused especially if we consult none but Latin Writers to the Succession of Constantine's Children It will well requite the trouble to seek assistence from the Greek Authours Eusebius Zosimus Zonaras or some other Authour as well in relation to the asoresaid Emperours as also to them that follow Dioclesian Constantius Chlorus Galerius and Constantine the Great whose Histories may be thus illustrated For in this Age Eusebius flourished under Constantine and his Children about the year of Christ 325. and for his great Learning and Extraordinary Knowledge of History was very famous of whom more will be spoken when we come to the Church-Historians Since the death of our Authour there has been published first by Baluzius a Learned Frenchman and since that at Oxon a History of all the Roman Emperours from the 20th year of the Reign of Dioclesian Anno Christi 303. to the year 313. which was the 7th year of the Reign of Constantine the Great Written by Lucius Coelius Lactantius and stiled De mortibus persecutorum This Authour was contemporary with Eusebius and was Tutour to Crispus one of the Children of Constantine the Great and though this History is
Monuments of those Princes and Countries and yet he Writes as if he had been present and leaves not the least place for doubt So what he might with facility have most truly Written the Affairs of Italy those he would not Write truly and what he would have Written so those he could not thus far Bodinus of him And Melchior Canus saith He was too violent both in his Love and Hatred and because he was a lover of Money he was a slave to it in the very Writing of his History And yet if we may credit Justus Lipsius he is to be commended and Read for the manifold and various series of things which he has regularly and clearly reduced into the body of an History The famous President Jacobus Augustus Thuanus follows him who is without dispute the Prince of the Historians of this Age. He has delineated a General History of the World from the year 1545 to the year 1608. in a most excellent style which is since continued to the year 1618. by himself in a later Edition SECT XXVI The Writers of some very excellent Particular Histories commended as Guicciardin Paulus Aemilius Philip Comines whose great Elogies are remembred Meteranus Chromerus also and Bembus recommended I Am not ignorant that there are many other Authours who have with their Pens delineated the Histories of particular Nations or Persons as well Ancient as Modern who in their times do well deserve to be read and amongst them I will first name Francis Guicciardin who treats of the affairs of Italy in his own times a wise and understanding Writer who is able to make his Readers such as Lipsius saith he is free and true and biass'd with no affections except that of hatred which he seems often to discover against the Duke of Urbine Bodinus is also very large in his Commendations of Guicciardin and that not without good reason for in Writing History he hath excelled all his equals in the judgment of grave men And I know not saith he whether I may not say the same thing as to the more ancient Historians for where any thing that seems inexplicable falls under deliberation he shews an admirable subtilty in his discourse and every where sprinkles grave Sentences like Salt And a little after there is in him a strange study to find out the Truth for he affirms nothing rashly but backs every thing he saith with necessary Arguments he is reported to have transcribed the Letters Decrees Leagues and Speeches out of the very Fountains and Originals and to conclude he was so exact an inquirer into Things Places and Persons that it is said he took a view of all the Cities great Towns and Rivers of Italy and which I think most material saith he carefully examined all the publick Monuments This great Man flourished about the year of Christ 1530. his History was Translated into English many years since by a very great Man Paulus Aemilius Veronensis flourished in the same Age of our Great Grandfathers about the year of Christ 1530. who beginning with the first Kings of France Wrote the History of France for above 1000 years with a Laconick brevity He is said to have spent XXX years in this excellent Work by which he acquired to himself a great Name He is in the opinion of Gerardus Johannes Vossius an Elegant and a curious Writer and Justus Lipsius bestows an high commendation upon him in these words He saith he that I may express the thing shortly is the onely man amongst the latter Historians who observed the true and ancient way of writing Historys and steadily pursued it his style is Learned Nervous Close and inclining to subtilty and finesses fixing and leaving ever something in the mind of a serious Reader he often mixeth Sentences and wise Expressions he is a diligent searcher and a severe judge of things nor is there any Writer in our Age more free from passions A little before P. Aemilius lived Philip Comines who writ so well of the actions of Luis the XI th King of France as Justus Lipsius feared not to compare him with any one of the ancient Historians It is incredible saith he how clearly this man saw all things and looked through them he discovers the most concealed Councils and delivers salutary and rare Precepts for our instruction and that in a diffused way after the manner of Polybius The famous Parisian President Jac. Augustus Thuanus hath left an excellent Testimony to Posterity of Comines his History in the History of Luis the XI th writ by that prudent Knight Philip Comines as I cannot deny that there are many precepts of Prudence so no man can deny but there are many Examples of a disingenuous mind and therefore no way befitting the Majesty of a King Comines flourished about the year of Christ 1490. Emanuel Meteranus wrote the History of the Low Countries Chromerus the History of Poland Petrus Bembus that of Venice and others have written the Histories of other particular Countries which are worth the reading but I design not to express them all as indeed who can or if I could who could reade them all but I have made it my business to propose especially to my younger Hearers a thread of Histories disposed in such a right order as he may from it learn the distinct Changes and Varieties of times and the Series of the great Transactions that have passed in the World down to our own Age. SECT XXVII A transition to the British History how the Reader ought to prepare himself for the reading of it in what order he shall go on Camden's Britannia and Selden's Analecta are first to be read George Lilly his Chronicle the Compendium of the British History BUt that we may not be thought wholly ignorant and negligent of our own History whilst we search into that of other Nations it is convenient to give some account of the British Writers and to annex it by way of supplement to the former Catalogue and to point out at the same time in what order they are to be read for I have no small confidence I shall thereby more oblige our University Youth than by the other that is by shewing a more certain and shorter way to the knowledge of our British History as you see I have already done in relation to the Universal History for who is there that doth not esteem it a shamefull thing to be thought a Stranger in his own City a Foreigner in his own Countrey As for me what M. Cicero said once of the Latine Poets to the Romans I should with much greater confidence apply to English men as to the Histories of Britain None can seem Learned to me who is ignorant of what is our own In truth to search out the great Actions of other Countries and in the mean time despise our own is a certain sign either of a most Lazy inactivity or of a soft and unmanly
the fourth are contained in this Chronicle which are not in any of our own Latine Historians which have hitherto been printed it begins Anno 1149 and it ends 1486 which was the second year of Henry the 7 th This last Authour belongs to the next Section where the Reader will find our Authour for want of Historians of our own Nation turning his Reader over to Polydore Virgil from the Reign of Henry the 5 th to the Reign of Richard the third much of which chasme this last Authour hath supplied but yet I would not part him from the rest but onely give the Reader this hint to what times he belongs SECT XXX Walsingham's Hypodigma Neustriae or his History of Normandy and the other Writers concerning that Dukedom not to be neglected and amongst them Odoricus Vitalis of principal note the History of England from the Reign of Henry the 5 th to that of Richard the third to be fetched from Polydore Virgil. The opinion of our Noble S. H. Savil concerning him observable Sir Thomas Moor Knight Lord Chancellor of England wrote the Reign of Richard the third F. Lord Bacon Viscount of Verulam that of Henry the 7 th the Reigns of Henry the VIII th Edward the VI th and Queen Mary Francis Goodwin Lord Bishop of Landaff wrote by way of Annals as Will Camden did that of Queen Elizabeth also THe Reader having dispatched the Chronicle of Walsingham may in the next place pursue his Hypodigma Neustriae his History of Normandy which will render the former Histories more clear and complete it containing a perfect account of the Story of that Dukedom from Rollo the first Duke of it to the 4 th year of Henry the 5 th who in the year 1416 forced Normandy after it had been Ravished and Alienated CCXX years from the English to return to its due Allegiance to the English Crown nor let the Reader think I give him this advice rashly for as it is rightly observed by the Learned Mr. Selden the ancient affairs of the Normans are so implicated and twisted with ours that if a man consider seriously of our own he cannot pass by theirs without sloath and ignorance Now Andraeas Duchenius in the year 1619 put out several Writers of the Norman History and amongst them Odericus Vitalis a Countreyman of ours who was born at Attingham in the County of Salop is the principal he wrote 13 Books of Church History the first and second of which contain the Martial Actions of the Normans in France England and Apulia in Italy to the year 1141 which was the 6 th year of the Reign of King Stephen about which time this Authour flourished But to return to our English History after Walsingham's Chronicle which as I said in the last Section ends in Henry the 5 th if our Reader thinks to find any one of our Nation who hath written our History in Latine from this time of Henry the 5 th to the Reign of Richard the third he will be much deceived except perhaps some Manuscript lies concealed in the recesses of some Libraries Consecrated to Antiquities which have not as yet seen the publick Light Therefore I will recommend to my Hearers a History which may be had that is one of the Published Authours and may be come by now here had been a vast Gap of almost LXX years if Polydore Virgil had not prevented it which in so great a scarcity of our own Authours the Studious Historian will not unwillingly take in for although as the noble Sir Henry Savil writes of him he was an Italian and a Stranger to our affairs and which is yet more never employed in any publick Station and of no great natural either Judgment or Ingenuity and although in delivering our History he has often mistaken things and passed over in silence many things worthy to be known yea has too often imbraced things that are false instead of truth and so left us a very faulty History Yet I should conceive this happened for the most part where he describes the times of Henry the VIII th for besides that he was ignorant of our Tongue he must of necessity not know many things that were then Transacted and it is highly probable he writ some things in favour of Queen Mary otherwise than he knew they were but this is not to be suspected of the former times Let our Reader therefore take the History of the two Henrys the V th and the VI th and of the two Edwards the IV th and the V th from Polydore Virgil the Reign of Richard the third who immediately follows these was written by the famous Sir Thomas Moor Knight Lord Chancellour of England who flourished about the year 1533 in the Reign of Henry the 8 th but the Learned Vossius thinks the Work imperfect because as he largely describes by what Villanies he ascended the Throne so he doth not tell us how he afterwards administred the Government and even that part which we have seems to have wanted the Authour's last hand and the Elegance of the Latine of his other Works do much exceed that of this Work Henry VIIth succeeded Richard the third whose Life and Reign was not long since represented to us by the most noble Viscount Verulam so happily and so fully that if he hath not excelled the best Historians he yet at least equall'd them this Work was first written in English but has since been turned into Latine as the preliminary Epistle to the Book call'd Gustavus saith After this let the Reader peruse the Annals of the most Reverend Bishop F. Goodwin in which the Reigns of Henry the VIII th Edward the VI th and Queen Mary are described with a great and commendable brevity Lastly the famous William Camden the Founder of the place I now enjoy and my Patron wrote the Annals of the Actions of Queen Elizabeth in England and Ireland which Queen was the most glorious and prosperous Queen that ever swayed a Sceptre for this Elogy was bestowed long since upon her by Anna Attestina the Mother of the Guises as Thuanus saith Let our Reader in the next place diligently reade this History and then tell me whether it be not comparable to the best of the ancient Annals and that with Justice and truth An ADDITION Another great man of the French Nation speaks thus of Camden although it be very natural to men to speak too advantageously of their Native Countries and that this inclination hath wrap'd some Historians to an offence against the Purity of History yet it cannot be denyed but William Camden has writ that of England with so much fidelity that he may justly claim a place amongst the most sincere Historians of the last Ages and a little after being made King at Arms the XXXIX year of the Queens Reign he made very curious Collections of all those things which he judged worthy of or usefull to an History
and as Sincerity was the Foundation of all he wrote so his Works are in so great esteem that a very grave and Learned Modern Writer who hath written the Life of Mary Stuard confesseth that he took his Directions for that Work from Camden ' s Annals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth this Testimony is of the more value because from a prfessed Enemy who deplores Camden's dying an Heretick The Commendations given by the Authour in the end of the last Section to Camden's Annals of Queen Elizabeth are deservedly due to them and much more for he being his Patron as he saith and Founder of the History Lecture in Oxon which our Authour then had he would not break into those Commendations of him which he otherwise would have done lest his gratitude might have seemed to have bribed his Judgment but I believe it is granted by all the Learned World that Camden's Annals is one of the best pieces that hath seen the Light since the reviving of Learning in this Western part of the World and that great Princess had this additional felicity given her from Heaven that as her Reign was long and prosperous and her memory is precious still and ever will be to all English men so she found in Camden a noble learned eloquent ingenious Celebratour of her actions which hath given her a second Life here on Earth in the memories of men which shall last till the Resurrection instate her in the third the last and most perfect Life of consummated Glory but then all this is meant of the Original Latine for the English Version which we now have is a poor mean harsh style and translated not from the Latine neither but from a French translation so that I will ever hope to see an Elegant new Version made upon the Original and in some degree worthy of that great man But to continue down the History one Robert Johnston a Learned Scot hath written an History of the British and much of the French Dutch and German Affairs both Civil and Ecclesiastick in XXII Books from the year 1572 to the year 1628 that is from the first year of King James the VI th of Scotland to the third year of Charles the first of England which History though for thirty years of it parallel with Camden's Annals yet is even there worthy of our serious reading but then he has brought down the English History XXVI years lower than Mr. Camden did I could wish I could give the Reader a better account than I now can of this Authour who is not known to me by any thing but this History of his but all I can now do is to give the account Printed in the Epistle to the Reader before his History which is this in short This Authour in his Life time published the two first of these Books and dedicated them to Charles the first and then went on in writing the rest which he promised the World then how candidly he has acted in these Histories is left to the judgment of the World in the interim this Good man as was fit gives this testimony of himself I have not sold my Fidelity for Money nor engaged it to any man for his favour and as to my stock of ingenuity I submit it intirely to your censure I onely beg my Reader would treat me in Reading with the same equity he desires I should him in Writing for I seek no other recompence for my Labour besides that of Praise and Memory in after times And a little after No Mortal Man can satisfie all the World because some are delighted with Antiquity and the musty expressions of former times mixed with grave and wise Sentences others are onely to be pleas'd with a Laconick brevity concise and dark expressions whilst at the same time others being enemies to all excessive brevity and too great subtilty are onely to be won by an high and sublime style But it is a folly to expect in the Writers of our Age the Perfect Eloquence of Caesar the Brevity of Cato or Salust the Pomp of Tacitus or the Briskness and Height of the Livian Oratory I willingly acknowledge that in this Narrative I have performed nothing that is great or high I have onely represented the British Affairs in necessary words without any paint or fraud and without the suspicion of Favour or Aversion and in short I am so far from all desire of vain-glory and seeking the Applause of Many that I seek no Praise for my ingenuity but industry I am not in love with Glory but studious of truth and desirous of the reward of a good Conscience and a good Name from Posterity In the interim saith the Publisher the Courteous Reader will easily observe how religiously the Authour pursues all those things which are capable to give an Historian credit and which excite the minds of the Reader to Vertue Probity and Prudence And you will easily observe saith he how many things he relates worthy of Knowledge and which will render a Prince fit for the Administration of publick or domestick affairs in Peace or War at home or abroad and a Clergyman prudent in the Administration of Church-Government This Person was no way tainted with that Presbyterian Levin which then infected the Scotch Nation almost generally nor was he poisoned with the Republican Principles of the Age but every where with great prudence discovers the rise of those Men and Principles which afterwards imbroiled and bid fair for the Ruine of these Nations No Man perhaps having better set forth the turbulent behaviour of the Parliaments in the times in which he Wrote The Combinations and secret underminings of the Factious Levites and their disciples the Good Commonwealth-Men as they were styled in that Age. His Style is short and concise but very clear saving that he affects a little too much the use of Greek Words which may make him a little the less intelligible and pleasant to a mere Latin Reader who is not acquainted with the Greek Tongue Dr. George Bates a Learned Physician hath Written the History of our late Rebellion with great Elegance Judgment Brevity and Fidelity to the Deposition of Richard Cromwell May the 7th 1659. in two parts in which he hath excellently described the Methods by which that abominable War was raised and maintained by our Factions the Execrable Murther of Charles the Martyr and the Miseries that followed thereupon and overwhelmed the English Nation Dr. Thomas Skinner another Learned Physician has continued the former till the year 1669. describing the excessive joy of England at the Restitution of Charles the Second of Blessed Memory and the Catastrophies of the Regicides with an Elegance as bright and sparkling as the English exultation was in the day when God so wonderfully turn'd the Captivity of our Israel a day never to be forgotten by Englishmen SECT XXXI Although we have no perfect Body of our English History in Latin Written according
disfavour fled to Otton I. and at Franckford Wrote this History as he saith himself lib. 5. cap. 14. Beatus Rhenanus Published III Books of the German affairs excellently Composed Johannes Aventinus Wrote X Books under the Title of Germany illustrated and also the Annals of the Bavarians from the Flood to the year of Christ 1460 in VII Books how ill Baronius thought of this Authour appears To. 9. Ad Annum 772. Georgius Fabricius Chemnicensis Wrote the History of Great Germany and of all Saxony in two Books and to Conclude MAR QU ARDUS FREHERUS first put out in one Volume some very excellent German Historians which before were unknown ARTICLE III. The Historians of Austria FRanciscus Guillimannus Wrote VII Books of the ancient and true Origine of the House of Austria he flourished about the year of Christ 1500. Wolfangus Lazius of Vienna has comprehended the History of Austria in IV Books Gerhardus de Reo and Conradus Decius have Written Annals also of Austria there is Extant too a Chronicle of the Dukes of Bavaria and Suevia written by an uncertain Authour and to these may be added the Austriades of Richardus Bartolinus Perusinus in XII Books which concern the Wars between the Dukes of Bavaria and the Princes of the Palatinate which was illustrated with Notes by Jacobus Spigelius Selestadiensis ARTICLE IV. The Historians of the Hunnes and Hungarians JOhannes de Thwroz or Turocius so call'd from the Province of Thwrocz wrote a Chronicle of the Hungarian affairs from the very rise of that Nation under Attila their first King to the Coronation of Matthias which was in the year of Christ 1464 of this Authour Trithemius Writes thus Johannes Thuroth a Pannonian was a man excellently acquainted with and well exercised in Civil Literature and not ignorant in Divine knowledge of an exalted Ingenuity and a clear Eloquence this Authour lived Anno Christi 1494. Johannes Bonfinius Composed an Elegant History of the Kings of Hungary in four Decades and an half that is in XLV Books which reacheth to the Death of Matthias Hunniades and the beginning of Vladislaus or the year 1495 which he began at the Command of Matthias Bonfinius flourished about the year of Christ 1496. Petrus Ranzanus Wrote Indexes as he calls them of the Hungarian Transactions of which Joh. Sambucus who first rescued them from the Dust and Darkness in which they lay and Published them to the World writes thus It seems the ways of Writing Histories heretofore were very various this Authour having some Indexes of the Kings of Hungary given him at Vienna by Beatrix extracted out of the same Records from which Bonfinius described his he so well deduced and illustrated them that he is in nothing inferiour to the best Writers of the Hungarian History for in this brevity he has Comprehended what ever is required to render an History Elegant and usefull and he is the more valuable also that whereas there are some Gaps and mistakes by the faults of the Transcribers in Bonfinius his History we may here find directions for the rectifying all these Erratas and be assisted at the same time in searching out the sincere and perfect truth thus far Sambucus Philip Callimachus Experiens wrote an History of the Life and Reign of Vladislaus King of Poland and Hungary so elegantly and exactly that Paulus Jovius did not scruple to say of it that in his judgment it excell'd all that had been Written of that kind since Cornelius Tacitus through so many Ages as have since followed this Authour flourished Anno Christi 1490. Melchior Soiterus and Petrus Bizarrus have Written the History of the Hungarian Wars ARTICLE V. The Historians of the Goths Danes Sclavonians and Swedes PRocopius has Written III Books of the Gothick Wars and Agathias the Smyrnean V Books both of them in Greek and in Latine Jornandes the Bishop of the Goths who reduced into II Books the History of Aurelius Casiodorus who was Secretary to Theodoricus King of the Goths and Wrote a Gothick History in XII Books Isidorus Hispalensis Composed an History of the Origine of the Goths and of the Kingdom of the Sueves and Vandals Johannes Magnus a Bishop of Sweden wrote a History also of all the Kings of the Goths and Swedes Leon Aretinus Composed also an History of the Goths but which affords nothing more than what Procopius hath written so that he seems to be no more than his Paraphrast but he is more remarkable for another thing that is that be was the first Person who restored and communicated the Greek Tongue and Learning after it had lain several Ages oppressed and troden down by the tyranny of the insolent Barbarians as P. Jovius writes of him in his Elogies he flourished Anno Christi 1420. Hieronymus Rubeus wrote of the Goths and Lombards Saxo Grammaticus has deduced an History of Denmark from the utmost Antiquity down to his own times that is to Canutus the VI th and Waldemarus his Brother the Grandchildren of Saint Canutus that is almost to the year of Christ 1200. All he hath Written is not to be admitted hand over head without Examination yet neither is he so great a Fabler as some have fansied who have no esteem on that account for him amongst whom is Goropius Becanus which is the less worth our wonder because he himself doth not write so much Paradoxes as impossibilities as to Saxo's style the Elegance of it is so great saith the Learned Vossius that it exceeded the Capacity of the Age he lived in yea it is equal to many of the ancient Writers and to most of ours he flourished about the year of Christ 1220. Idacius his Chronicle of Denmark is from the times of Theodosius the Great to the year of Christ 400. Johannes Boterus and Erpoldus Lindenbruch have written accounts of the Kings of Denmark and in the year 1596 Plantin Printed a Compendious History of the Kings of Denmark to Christian the IV th Gaspar Ens wrote Commentaries concerning the Wars of Denmark both by Sea and Land in the Reign of Frederick the second containing the most memorable Dithmarsick and Swedish War The Learned Johannes Meursius hath comprehended in III Books the Reigns of Christian the first John his Son and Christian the second his Grandchild that is from the year of Christ 1448 to the year 1523. Albertus Crantzius hath Written an History of the Vandals in XIV Books and a Chronicle of the other Northern Nations as the Danes Norwegians Swedes which is call'd Gothia and Scandia he begins at the times of Charles the Great and comes down to the year 1504 he flourished to the year 1517 in which he Died. Gerardus Geldenhaurius writes thus of him He has almost onely seemed to me to deserve the Name of an Historian because he wrote the Transactions of his own times truely freely and for the good
Pyrenean Mountains THe principal Writers of the History of Gallia which the French now possess that I may say nothing of the most ancient Julius Caesar his VII Books of the Gallick War And Hirtius who continues him nor of Appianus his Celirks which belong to this Story are these Gregorius Turonensis Bishop of Tours in his first Book brings down the History from the beginning of the World to the Reign of Theodosius the first in the other nine Books he sets forth the Lives and actions of the Kings of France to his own times and the year of Christ 594 but the XIth Book which is supposed to have been added by Fredegarius ends in the Death of Charles the Great which happened Anno Christi 814. Paulus Aemilius Veronensis a man of a Livian style of whom mention is made above Sect. XXV as Reinerus Reineccius bears witness spent XXX years in the compiling his History of France after the Dissolution of the Roman Dominion and comes down to Philip and Charles his Brother Children of Luis that is from the year 420 to the year 1488 the opinion of J. Lipsius concerning this History is that if a few things were lightly Corrected he would be a person above the Learning of our Age and deserve the Commendations given to ancient Authours and Ludovicus Vivis saith his History is written with more Fidelity and truth than that of Gaguinus who has disclosed and intermixt his own affections in his History Paulus Jovius hath written the Reigns and Lives of Charles the 8th Luis the 12th and Francis the first King of France splendidly and elegantly Arnoldus Ferronius Burdegalensis hath continued the History of Aemilius to Henry the second Philippus Comines of whom mention is made above Sect. the 25th has woven the History of Luis the XIth and Charles the VIIIth his Son in a clear and elegant style and although Jacobus Mejerus avers in many places that he is mistaken yet he is in the judgment of the Learned Vossius a true and a prudent Historian and Johannes Sleidanns gives him this Elogie This Authour is in my judgment the nearest to the ancient Historians of all those that have wrote in or near our times both in prudence and veracity for he lays before us the grave deliberations that passed in the Closets of Princes before they appeared in their Events abroad which very few have attempted to do fewer have been able to do it effectually and even those who could have done it have yet not dared to do it lest they should offend their Princes Johannes Frossardus has splendidly and elegantly written the History of those dreadfull Wars which passed betwixt the English and French from the year 1335 to the year 1400 who deserves the greater faith because he was a follower of the Courts of Kings and Princes especially of Philippa Daughter of the Count of Heynault Queen to Edward the third King of England nor did he relate any thing in his History but what he had seen with his own Eyes or heard from others who had seen them or had the chief Commands in the Wars Johannes Sleidanus hath excerpted the most material passages out of this History and turned them into Latine for it is Originally written in French and Sir John Bouchier Knight translated this intire History into English Enguerus Monstreletus hath continued Frossardus and brought down the French History to the Reign of Luis the XIIth Martinus Longaeus wrote a Commentary in X Books of the actions of Francis I. of Valoise King of France and Stephanus Doletus and Galeacius Capella have written the History of the Wars betwixt Charles the fifth and this Prince for the Dutchy of Milan from the year 1520 to the year 1530 the latter is followed by Gulielmus Paradinus who hath added the story of the succeeding years to the year 1555. A nameless person perhaps Franciscus Hottomanus has written the History of France during the Reigns of Henry the second Francis the second and Charles the IXth Rabutinus hath written the Expedition of Henry the second against Charles the Vth undertaken in the year 1552 on the behalf of the Princes of Germany Eusebius Philadelphus that is Theodorus Beza who by the Cloudiness of this name obscured himself has wrote the History of Charles the IXth and of his Mother Petrus Matthaeus a Lawyer the Royal Historian has writ the History of Henry the IV th King of France and of Navar in VII Books BESIDES these which we have mentioned there are several others which ought to be perused as Carolus Molinaeus who hath writ of the Rise and Progress of the French Kingdom and Monarchy and Hubertus Leonardus of the Origine of the French â—â—tion but then Hunibaldus Francus who has wrote the affairs of the Franks from the Wars of Troy to the times of Clodoneus is to be esteemed of the same nature with Annius his Berosus and the rest of those fabulous Writers in the judgment of the famous Vossius de Hist. lat lib. 2. c. 22. Aimoinus the Monk is to be better thought of who is an excellent Historian as the Authour de Regimine Principatus lib. 3. c. 21. calls him which work is commonly but very falsely ascribed to Aquinas he wrote the actions of the French from the year 420 to the year 826 in V Books for the proof of whose Fidelity these words of his make very much there was another Monk in the same Monastery a Priest and a professed Monk as well as he and his name was Audoaldus he was of the same age and in his Manners and Conversation very like him from whose Mouth we have received what is delivered and much more which we are confident is faithfully related Nor is Joannes Trithemius though a German to be lightly passed by who has writ III Books of the Origine Kings and affairs of France from the year of Christ 433 to the year 1500 which was the III year of Charles the VIII th Nor Nicholaus Gilius who hath Composed the Annals of France Hermannus Comes who writes of their affairs to the year 1525 or Robertus Gaguinus who has deduced their History from the most remote Antiquity to the time of the Expedition of Charles the VIII th into Italy Anno Christi 1493 though he has mixed his own affections with the History as Vivis saith and yet Mejerus is not to be admitted neither who calls him a frivolous Writer which is to be attributed to his disaffection to the French Nation and all their Historians for he saith of them in general the French do not use to relate their actions with more fidelity than they transact them and besides as Mejerus out of his too great affection to his Countrey has delivered many things done in his own times there very partially so in Foreign affairs he is not over much to be Credited Paulus Jovius affirming of
follow the conduct of their affections or industriously fain many things so that I for my part am very often both weary and ashamed of them because I know they have thereby brought nothing of Advantage to the Church of Christ but very much inconvenience Thus saith Melchior Canus Nor are we to think that it is onely the complaint of the Learned Men of this and the last Age that the Church Writers are thus corrupted and depraved as if these faults had crept into them of late onely or as if none of the most Ancient Writers had been justly to be numbred amongst these depravers of the Church History Above a Thousand and three hundred years agon before the Church was past its youth there were some who basely infected the Monuments of the Church with Lies and made it their business to corrupt them with such impure mixtures And Arnobius in his Books Contra Gentes hath taken this notice of it But neither saith he could all that was done be written or arrive at the Knowledge of all men Many of our great Actions being done by obscure Men and those who had no knowledge of Letters and if some of them are committed to Letters and Writings yet even here by the Malice of the Devils and of men like them whose great design and study it is to intercept and ruine this truth by interpolating or adding some things to them or by changing or taking out Words Syllables or Letters they have put a stop to the Faiths of Wise Men and corrupted the truth of things Thus Arnobius And in truth what could possibly be devised to corrupt and debase the Memory of the Ancient Church which Pagans Jews or Hereticks have not deceitfully imposed upon her What hath not a silly and Credulous Superstition feigned My Hearers I have pursued these things at large that they who are desirous to know the Church History might understand and diligently consider with how much care and caution they are to be read for here a Man is in more danger of being deceived by feign'd stories than in any other sort of Histories whatsoever And yet it is confess'd by all that it is much more mischievous to be involved in errour here than in Civil History Now as it befits us to take great care on the one side that we do not imbrace falsehood for truth rashly so it becomes us to consider attentively that we do not reject what is really true as false without deliberation I confess saith the Learned Lawyer Balduinus where there are so many Ambushes and so many dangers those who remember that credit is not rashly to be given deserve to be commended for their suspitious modesty and jealousie But then the unbelief of some others is too great who will believe nothing but what is written by some one single Authour As for example they will believe nothing that is spoken concerning the Apostles but what is written by St. Luke But then St. Luke did chiefly design to Write the History of St. Paul and as to that too he omitted some things as is apparent by the Epistle to the Galatians St. Luke speaking of Simon Magus does onely tell us That in Samaria his own Town being wrought upon by the Reproof of St. Peter he confessed his Sin But shall we therefore cry out that whatever those very Ancient Writers Justin Martyr Tertullian Arnobius Eusebius Epiphanius and St. Augustine have delivered besides this concerning him is false and therefore in the Reading of Histories let us ever remember to be such as Aristotle saith those men who are betwixt youth and old age commonly are that is neither too prone to believe nor too difficult and distrustive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Neither believing nor disbelieving every thing That of Hesiod is like an Oracle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Too much too little Faith has ruin'd Men. But some Man may with great truth say That Facility of Belief and Diffidence are both in their turns of great use and safety For every verisimilitude is not presently true nor is every thing that seems at first sight incredible to be concluded therefore false Truth hath sometimes the resemblance of falsehood and again a Lie is masked with the beautifull Colours of truth at other times as Seneca saith somewhere And therefore that we may proceed where we cannot have such Witnesses as were present at the Actions they record the next care is to hear those who have faithfully delivered what they received from others especially if the Ages in which they lived their Antiquity and Virtue have given them a right to our Faith and made them of good Authority And amongst these it is fit we should prefer the most Ancient and as I may say Classick Authours before the rest What Aristole said of Witnesses is true here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most Ancient deserve most credit because it is not so easie to corrupt them And for the most part it also comes to pass that by how much the later and newer the Account of any Ancient Transaction is so much the more faulty and corrupt it proves For as Wine by how much the oftner it is poured from one Vessel into another becomes so much the more weak and dispirited and as Fame the further it goes the further it removes from Truth and gathers so much the more of Vanity even so for the most part a History being repeated by many and toss'd to and fro and told every time in other Words is diffused takes aire and at last contaminates and degenerates into a mere Fable Indeed I have made this Discourse much longer than I intended but Prudent Readers will afford me so much the more easily their Pardon if they please to consider that all this has no other scope than the making men extremely cautious in their turning over the Volumes of the Church History And therefore I will now pass on to the Catalogue of those Authours and the Order of them which Learned Men have prescribed to be read after the Books of the New Testament in which I shall be as short as it is fit I should be SECT XXXIV At last in the Third Centery the Church then beginning to flourish Ecclesiastical History began to flourish too Eusebius Pamphili the Prince amongst the Church Historians he emulates Xenophon in his Books of the Life of Constantine Many things which he Wrote are lost His Authority vindicated How far his History reacheth Scaliger's judgment concerning Ruffinus The Tripartite History The Reading of Eusebius his Panegyrick recommended SEeing then those Writers who are said to have lived with the Apostles are to be rejected as is said above as spurious and those that followed them immediately in the two next Centeries are not extant being either swallowed up in that vast shipwreck of Learning or as the opinion of the Learned Casaubon is seeing they rather seem to have begun to think of writing something of this Nature than
memory fail'd him whilst instead of Theodoret he Wrote Sozomen for the words he mentions are Theodoret ' s and Cardinal Baronius supplies us with another Answer by saying That Sozomen the Commender of Theodorus Mopsuestia is not received by the See of Rome as to that particular But in all the rest he speaking the truth how could he be rejected and besides it is apparent that Sozomen was not rejected by Gelasius the Pope whom no man can in the opinion of the Cardinal disown such was his Authority and Learning but rather esteem'd to be of more credit than Eusebius of Caesarea and his History is accordingly more valued by Phocius than that of Socrates And Canus farther answereth That the Testimony of Sozomen was made use of and approved in the Council of Florence in which the Emperour Palaologus was present However we may think candidly of him not onely by reason of the sincerity and veracity which he pretends to in his first Chapter and promiseth throughout for when he was to relate the contentions quarrels and perfidy of many Orthodox Men and many other foul actions done by them he deprecates the opinion of a malevolent humour as is observed by the Learned Casaubon For he saith he does not write these things out of any pleasure he takes in them but whether he would or no because what was done could not be undone but on the other side to be silent as to those things which were done was to betray the truth and break the Laws of a good History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is fit to take care of truth in order to the preservation of the sincerity of History and again An Historian should esteem truth above all other things But also for the sake of that Judgment Euagrius has given of him whose words are these Eusebius Sozomen Theodoret and Socrates have accurately committed to Writing the coming of our most Mercifull Saviour into the World his Ascension into Heaven the Acts of the holy Apostles the Martyrdoms of the holy Martyrs and whatever else has been done worthy of commendation or blame to the Reign of Theodosius and somewhat farther this I say is the judgment of Euagrius Scholasticus a very famous Historian of those times and the first Orthodox Church Historian that wrote if we will believe Baronius or at least his Epitomizer And here Euagrius himself follows the Writers of the Tripertite History and begins his Story where Socrates and Theodoret end theirs that is from the calling of the Council at Ephesus by the authority of Theodosius the younger about the year of Christ CCCCXXXI in which Nestorius was condemn'd and he continues his History to the XII th year of the Reign of Mauritius which is the DXCVII year of Christ and he flourished mostly under this Emperour and his Successour Tiberius the Second This History of Euagrius consists of VI. Books in the first of which he comprehends the times of Theodosius the younger in the IId those of Martian and Leo the Thracian as he is commonly call'd in the IIId those of Zeno and Anastasius in the IVth those of Justin and Justinian in the Vth those of Justin the Second and Tiberius the Second in the VIth he goes on to the XIIth year of Mauritius who was Son-in-Law to Tiberius the Second and is by some call'd the Cappadocian And this was the year of Christ 597 as I have said above And with the same times that Euagrius hath thus written concur the Histories of Procopius Agathias and Jornandes of the affairs of the Goths and the Miscellane History of Diaconus from the XIIth to the XVIIIth Book and to conclude a great part of C. Sigonius his History of the Western Empire which I thought fit to tell the Reader here that he might know where to find an enlargement of the Histories of those times Theophilactus Simocatus was famous about the year of Christ DCXII. and is a delicate Writer amongst those of the latter Greek Historians he wrote VIII Books of the Actions of Mauritius which the Reader is to begin when he has read Euagrius Nor is it possible he should repent of this small Labour because he brings the History to the year of Christ DCI. to the very Murther of Mauritius and that not perfunctorily but accurately and elaborately so that others have deduced their borrowed streams from him as from a River as Pontanus the Jesuite saith His temper is soft and exceeding honest and his Writings discover and testifie a learning above the ordinary pitch And now if the Reader please let us take a stand a while and look back and see how much of our designed Journey is expedited and let us consider how and by what means we are arrived at the end of the VIth Century after Christ. Eusebius comprehends in his History somewhat above CCC years Socrates Theodoret and Sozomen have added to this CXL years more and then the History is brought down about CXL years farther by Euagrius and Simocatus makes up the rest of the time as is said above to the Six hundred and first year after Christ in which year Mauritius the Emperour with his Wife and Children was Murthered by Phocas who succeeded him in the Empire ADDITION All these Church Historians were a few years since put out in Greek and Latin by Valesius a Frenchman with excellent Notes and a new Version of his own in three Volumes in Folio which were soon after translated into English and put out in one Folio And they are very exactly translated and indeed somewhat the less delightfull to the Reader for being so nicely true and curious SECT XXXVI In the VII th Century and two or three which follow it those Writers of Church History who could treat it as it deserved were very rare The Legends of the Saints Oceans of Miracles and Wonders The times of Rotomantados and Ignorance THe Authours above recited have brought us to the VII th Century which if any Man search diligently with two or three which follow it I believe he will hardly find any one Authour who has handled the History of the Catholick Church according to its dignity There were indeed in those ages some who wrote the Lives and Legends of some of the Saints and the Acts and Passions of the Martyrs but then they swarm with fables and obtrude upon credulous and superstitious Men whole bed-rolls of Miracles And as Bellarmine himself saith of Simeon Metaphrastes who flourished Anno 859. they add many things of their own invention and write them not as they were but as they might have been done in the times of Damascen and German the Constantinopolitan amongst the Greeks saith our Reverend Bishop and in the times of George the Dialogist and the other George of Tours and in the times of our venerable Bede the Ocean of Miracles and Wonders burst in upon the
that of the Reverend Bishop of Chichester Those Annals to be read with great caution and why Spondanus the Jesuite the Epitomizer of them THe Great Annals of the Great Cardinal Baronius which he wrote in opposition to the Centuries not long since are of equal moment and esteem and I will add of as great advantage and use too a Work which by the confession of the most Learned Men and of Casaubon amongst the rest is stupendious because that great person has in it digested the Transactions of the whole Christian World especially those that concern the Church into one continued series of years with the same facility as if he had wrote the Chronicle of some one City For he is the Man who first brought to light I know not from whence so many things which were utterly unknown before who with so accurate a diligence explain'd the successions of the most ancient Bishops in the great Cities the rises progress and ends of the ancient Heresies And the Turbulent and Peaceable times of the Church who if he had not abated his own merit by his excessive partiality was without all controversie worthy to have had the preference before all the ancient and modern Writers who never were able to attain that degree of Learning he had as the famous Casaubon writes of him nor is he alone in this high Encomium on him The greatest part of the Learned Men who deserve to be the Censors of other Mens Labours do exactly agree with him as I have said But then the most Learned Bishop of Chichester whom we have already so very often cited has right to a greater Authority with us than any other person whatsoever and he commends the great Cardinal where he deserves it and yet doth not spare him where he thinks him blame-worthy But take his own words There is scarce saith he any thing wanting in Baronius which a Man would mightily desire if his too great partiality and as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sympathy and compassion which he every where pursues and too too much cherishes in himself for the interests of the Church of Rome had been abated for it cannot be denied which Learned Men blame in him that he is so totally taken up with the defence and commendation of those whom he sides with that all the instances that now are or heretofore were extant in the Church of Rome of deserting or corrupting the Faith or depraving the ancient manners of the most leud sales of holy things and of the most execrable Sacrileges whatever has been insolently perpetrated of which sort we may find many examples acted by most wicked Popes with insufferable boldness to the prejudice of the Name of Christianity to the dishonour of the Church and in contempt of Jesus Christ which the greatest Catholicks will not deny but rather acknowledge them to be Monsters of Men and the very shames of Humanity yet all these he excuseth and this is little too for he defends them and which is yet worse he sometimes commends them and with much Oratory adorns and extolls these Villanies He doth not endeavour to correct the present Manners of Rome by the ancient but by violence draws the utmost Antiquity against her will and in despite of her reluctance by the very Throat to countenance their City Faith and especially that ill-born Faith and worse brought up concerning the direct Omnipotence of the Pope for the confirmation of which he makes use of all his Furniture and stretches to the utmost all the powers of his Wit Thus far that Learned Prelate So that we may rightly conclude that it was not without cause that the excellent Casaubon said That the extraordinary Merits of the Cardinal were corrupted by his too much favouring his own party And therefore my Hearers the Reader of Ecclesiastical History is to know that the Annals of Baronius are not to be read without great caution but then where this caution is to be used and how great it ought to be is in part shewn by the famous Casaubon in his Prolegomena's to his Exercitationes Baronianas But the Learned Bishop of Chichester as he has shewn in short the Errors and Rashnesses of the Centuriators so in many places he shews wherein the most Illustrious Annalist has deserved blame and that in express and clear words Spondanus a Jesuit but a foul-mouth'd Railing Fellow has contracted that voluminous Work of the Cardinal into an Epitome who might yet perhaps have deserved commendation for his diligence if he had not too superstitiously pursued the opinions of Baronius and thereupon endeavoured to confirm his conceit concerning the Omnipotence of the Pope destroyed the Majesty of Kings and Princes and endeavoured under-hand and as it were by the bye to intoxicate his Readers with the pernitious doctrine of Hildebrand SECT XLV Lucas Osiander reduced the Eight first Centuries of the Magdeburgians into an Epitome and not without good advantage He skips from the 8 th to the 16 th To this Century belongs the History of the Council of Trent The Praises of that History and of that Authour Jacobus Augustus Thuanus inserted into his Accurate History the Ecclesiastical affairs of those times beginning at the year 1546 and ending at the year 1608. which History is continued to the year 1618. LUcas Osiander a Man of no small fame reduced into a Compendium the Eight first Magdeburgian Centuries and did it so exactly that he scarce left out any thing that was very necessary to be known For besides the series of the several years he proposed in a more easie method what the state of the Church was in all times from the Birth of our Saviour shews how the Doctrine of the Gospel was spread throughout the World what Heresies arose in the Church and by what means they were suppressed what Persecutions were moved against the Church and how they were appeased what Doctours the Churches had in all times and amongst them the Lives of the Bishops of Rome are related The actions of the Emperours of Rome also are there described All which he hath comprehended in a very excellent Compendium But then he pass'd from the VIII th Century to the XVI th which the Magdeburgians had not touched for they ended in the XIII th Century and he treats of the actions of that a little more largely and gives the reason why he did so in his preliminary Epistle in these words But I saith he think that there is no age from the times of the Apostles downward which is more necessary or usefull to be known to pious Men than that in which we live especially as to the Church History which I now set forth for it contains an account of very great changes both in Church and States which are such so great and so many as never happened before in any Century To this Century belongs the History of the Council of Trent which Council was summon'd in the year 1542.
Keckerman and others who are of a contrary judgment but if you please you may hear both first Keckerman and then Vossius Seeing saith Keckerman Histories contain nothing but Examples of Precepts and Precepts are generally delivered in a Method but examples without any Method Except that which is methodically taught precede it is a common and a very mischievous errour and mistake for youth which is led onely by the pleasure and delight of History to begin professedly to read Histories before it is acquainted with those Sciences and Precepts which are delivered in Order and Method and with the common places to which all Histories ought to be reduced Now that this is very preposterous may be easily understood by thus comparing it with other Sciences as for example with Grammar Logick c. For as it were absurd for a Man to desire to know and observe the examples of Grammar Logick or Rhetorick before he hath learned the Rules of those Sciences so it must needs be more absurd for one to desire to read seriously and professedly and to observe Histories which are nothing but examples of Morality and Politicks before he has Learned the Rules and Method of Morality and Policy c. Thus far Keckerman And now if you please you may hear Vossius There is saith he nothing of absurdity as Keckerman pretends if one should choose to learn Examples before Precepts for it is very well known that Languages may be very well learn'd without Grammar Rules and then saith he those who are of Keckerman's opinion commit no small errour by not distinguishing between Reading and Writing an History to which no Man should apply himself if he be not well acquainted with Civil Philosophy Lastly he saith That they confound the naked and simple History of things with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Historical Perfection which inquireth curiously into the circumstances and causes of events In the last place he confirms his opinion by the Authority of Quintilian a Great Master in the Art of Breeding youth who commands Oratours to begin with Histories and Orations And at the same time doubts not to prefer Livy before Salust not onely because he is more Candid and more like Cicero than Salust but also because he is the Authour of a larger and more perfect History now he would never have written thus if he had not thought the most General Histories best for youth Thus Writes the most Learned Vossius SECT II. The Opinion of Keckerman defended That Tongues are hardly to be well-learned without Rules That there is a vast difference betwixt Languages and Actions That Practick Philosophy is necessary not onely to the Writer but Reader also of History Ubertus Folietta Sebastianus Foxius and Viperanus do all seem to be of this opinion And the most Learned Vossius himself affords us no infirm arguments to support it BUt may we have the liberty of this Great Man whose judgment is every where else of the greatest Authority with us and whom in the things relating to History we especially value and venerate to dissent and in some sort to defend the part Keckerman hath taken It seems therefore to me that Keckerman may thus Reply In the first place it is not impossible to learn Languages without Rules but that they may be as well Learned without Rules is denied We learn to Articulate words and to form compound and speak them by Hearing Use and Discourse without Precepts or Rules But then to Adorn our Speech and artificially form an Oration is scarce or rather not at all possible without the assistance of Rules and Precepts And besides although one may learn to speak of what Language soever he were without Rules yet he will never be able to judge of the exactness and propriety of Speech and to give the reason of it without them nor indeed to speak well or elegantly But then those things are best learned of which we have a perfect knowledge where we can give an account of the Reason of them as Aristotle our Master teacheth us And besides all this there is another judgment to be made upon Languages than there is upon Actions whether we are to imitate them or to compare them in our mind by Contemplation Use directs and corrects our Speech but it is the Rule and Precepts of Living well which are to govern our Actions The Custome of the place which is never fix'd governs our Language But then we know our Actions are to be temper'd with respect to Honesty and Turpitude and to be examin'd by the Precepts of Law Secondly Neither is the opinion of Vossius altogether to be approved in that he holds that Practick Philosophy is necessary for a Writer but not for a Reader of History For why not Do we not affirm that the same end is common to both of them the design of the one being that he may from examples learn the way of Living well the other's that he may also by Examples teach that way Is it not the scope of the one that by describing the Accidents that have attended the Lives of others he may insinuate wisedom into Men And is it not the scope of the other that by reading and observing those events he may attain to prudence It seems to be exactly thus to me at least and not to me onely but to many others and those not unlearned men If you please let us hear one or two of them Moral Philosophy and History saith Ubertus Folietta are two faculties which respect the common Good and Utility of Men and which direct them in the way to a blessed life and fit them for the preserving and improving Civil Society And therefore these two faculties have divided this work between them so that the first forms the Minds and Manners of Men by Disputes and Precepts and the latter by usefull Examples and salutary Admonitions teaching and advising them what to follow and what to flee in the course of their lives by whose Examples Men should govern and form their Actions and Counsels and sets before them the ends and events which usually wait upon good and evil Counsels by the knowledge of which Men may be engaged in the love of Vertue or call'd off from Lewd and Wicked courses Sebastian Fox also a Man of a celebrated judgment and eloquence in his time doth manifestly dissent from the great Vossius in this point For he in his Book de Institutione Historiae writes thus How shall you ever be able to know or judge of the Art or Elegance not onely of an History but of any other thing that is well written if you know not what that art is or what is rightly and well done those things you inquire of are not to be understood but by Learned and well-instructed Men for he that would accurately read a History must first know how it ought to be wrote c. and presently after he subjoins the reason Because Artificers and
Learned Men and not the ignorant and unexperienced are able to know what is Artificial and Learned And therefore saith he let Reading be attended not onely with a natural but also with an acquired judgment and with an erudition that is not mean or common Nor does Johannes Viperanus dissent from Fox as these his words demonstrate who was also a Man of good Learning It is saith he the work of a great Man to collect by his reading the true fruits of History that is of one who perceives the Divine and Humane reasons of things who can cull out the best instructions of Manners who measures the Actions of others by the same rules of Honesty by which he lives himself who is well acquainted with places who has a strange knowledge both of virtues and vices and in whom there are great treasures of Learning and Erudition c. and a little after this He that can join the Precepts of Morality with the Examples shall reap great advantages from the reading of Histories and shall thereby attain to perfect and absolute wisedom Yea the very Conclusion which the Learned Vossius makes in the said Fifth Chapter concerning the principal use of History seems to be of great force for the confirming our opinion for thus he writes Therefore saith he we must thus determine that the very principal fruit of History is to collect from Similars and Contraries what is expedient for the Publick and for every Person in Particular for he that will be wise must be carefull to observe or as the Greeks express it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a person that dwells upon and deeply inspects any thing Which because Children and Ignorant Men can never doe they must of necessity want the principal fruit of Reading Histories from whence it may more than probably be concluded that they are less fitted than others to be the Readers of Histories Yet I will not deny but that Children and Men of little or no Learning may reap some small advantage from the Reading of Histories that is Pleasure and Delight or may perhaps by remembring some pretty Stories please others by the handsome telling them if they be persons of more than ordinary natural wit and ingenuity and have the Knack of expressing a thing well and pleasantly which yet is very rarely found in a very tender and immature Age. But then as the same Vossius observes They are to be esteem'd a sort of ridiculous silly people who read Histories for no other end but that they may divertise themselves and lay up a stock of Chat for entertainments and common meetings Let such People in good time betake themselves they are the words of Justus Lipsius to their Amadis of Gaul or to Hugo Burdagalensis or if they have a mind to seem more learned to Heliodorus his Ethiopick Romance or to the noble Sir P. Sydney's Arcadia or Barclay's Arginis SECT III. Vossius his third Argument against Keckerman doth hardly seem to be strong That a naked relation of an Affair doth not satisfie a prudent Reader Which is proved from Ludov. Vivis Dion Halicarnassaeus and Vossius himself That the Reading the same Histories by a Child and by a Man of Learning is very different TO Proceed the Learned Vossius seems to me to be deceived in the third place where he saith we confound the simple relation of things with that which he calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Perfect History In that as I have said we grant Children and Youths may be able to read the naked and simple relations of things and the Accounts of great Actions and may without much difficulty understand the description of Places But then we ought to remember that Antiquity esteem'd these sorts of History as but little better than fables I use Vossius his own words because from such Accounts there was little other advantages to be reaped besides those of Pleasure no more than there was from Fables But the Reader we are now forming ought to look beyond these things for our end is not Pleasure but improvement and that which is the ultimate end of all Histories that he may be taught to live well and happily That Learned Man Ludovicus Vivis speaks very well and appositely to our purpose And now saith he we are acquainted with History in some degree that is as far as is necessary to the institution of youth viz. as to the order of times and the knowledge of the Names of Famous Men But now it is to be more exactly and fully known because it may be much better understood by Men who have attain'd some degree of experience that it may be applied to the advantage of our Lives by the use of Reason and Judgment as that nourishment is diffused over all the Body by the Natural Heat by which a Man is sustain'd and Life prolong'd And therefore we say our Reader cannot be satisfied with a naked account of things But as Dion Halicarnassaeus expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every one desireth to see the causes of Actions and after what manner they were done and the very minds and designs of those who were the Actors in them These very words and many others to the same purpose are cited out of Halicarnassaeus by that Man of much Learning Vossius where he Learnedly proves that the expression of the great Poet in his Second Georgick Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Happy is he who sees the Cause Of things and understands their Laws Has its place not onely in Philosophy but in the Writer and Reader of an History and at last about the end of that Chapter he concludes thus And in truth if the Causes Counsels and Manners of Actions are omitted there is rather a Fable told for the entertainment of Children than an History written for the use of Men as Sempronius Assellio saith in Agellius And now let the Learned Vossius tell me whether Children mind these things Do illiterate and ignorant Men inquire after these secrets Or to what end should they be taught them if they are not able to judge of the causes counsels and circumstances of Actions or to accommodate them to their own advantages some body very neatly express'd this by this simile As Girles gather Flowers onely to please their eyes and senses Whilst Apothecaries consider the health of Men and Medicines and to that purpose onely collect the Leaves Flowers Roots and smallest Fibers of Plants so Children play with Histories as they do with Tops and Chess and when they see or hear of any great Actions rejoice at them as new and strange things or are affrighted at them but then those that are a little versed in Arts and adorn'd with something of experience and judgment will in the reading of History pass by very few things without observing them These onely use to reflect on the Divine Institutions to observe Humane Law to weigh all Counsels and