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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65611	The method and order of reading both civil and ecclesiastical histories in which the most excellent historians are reduced into the order in which they are successively to be read, and the judgments of learned men concerning each of them, subjoin'd / by Degoræus Wheare ... ; to which is added, an appendix concerning the historians of particular nations, as well ancient as modern, by Nicholas Horseman ; made English and enlarged by Edmund Bohun, Esq. ...; Reflectiones hyemales de ratione & methodo legendi utrasque historias, civiles et ecclesiasticas. English	Wheare, Degory, 1573-1647.; Horsman, Nicholas, fl. 1689. Mantissa.; Bohun, Edmund, 1645-1699.	1685 (1685)	Wing W1592; ESTC R6163	182,967	426

Veracity of which those Accounts we met with in Prophane and fabulous Writers are to be Examined 4. To go on the third Interval which Varro and Censorinus will allow to be the onely sole Historical Period from the first Olympiad to the times of Censorinus who writ about the year of our Lord 240 from the building of Rome 991 as he saith himself Chap. XXI comprehends above 1040 to which belongs the whole Series of ancient Prophane Story which we have now Extant perfect and distinguished by any certain Notation of times SECT III. The Series and Succession of the great Empires said to be fatal it is proved there were Eminently four that of the Medes and Persians asserted to be but one Empire Every one of them foretold by the Prophets the Appellation Great Monarchies cavilled at in vain by Bodinus the Roman the biggest Empire NOw since the 4 Great Monarchies or Empires which as much as may be known are the Greatest and Successively followed each other that ever were amongst men do all fall in that period of times which contains the Mythick and Historical intervals which in their times Reigned over the greatest part of the Earth and under which the far greatest part of what is contain'd in History was transacted May I propose the Order and Succession of these great Empires Aemilius Sura an unknown person to me shall doe it for me who is by Vellejus Paterculus Lib. 1. c. 6. thus represented The Assyrians saith he were the first of all Nations who attained a general Empire then the Medes and then the Persians and then the Macedonians after which Philippus and Antiochus 2 Kings descended from the Macedonians not long after the Ruine of Carthage being Conquered the great Empire or Monarchy was transferr'd to the People of Rome This very Succession of the 4 Monarchies seems asserted by Arrianus Nicomedensis to be by a fatal decree disposed in this Order the Empire of Asia was saith he to be taken from the Persians by the Macedonians as the Persians had before Ravished it from the Medes and the Medes from the Assyrians and the same order is observed by Claudian the Poet Sic Medus ademit Assyrio Medóque tulit moderamina Perses Subjecit Persen Macedo cessurus ipse Romanis Haec Auguriis firmata Sibyllae So the Mede pluct from off his Ancient Throne Th' Assyrian Prince at first but left his own At last to the fierce Persian whose hard fate It was to leave a Grecian Prince his State Proud Greece yields too to the Italick Swords Which changes verifi'd Sibylla's Words Dionysius Halicarnassaeus also in his prooem of the Roman Antiquities observes the very self same Succession of the great Empires where he compares them one with another and does prefer the Roman Empire as very much above them all 2. But here by the way let us observe that though Aemilius Sura Arrianus Dionysius Halicarnassaus and very many other Authours of Antiquity do reckon the Empire of the Medes for one of the Monarchies distinct from the rest yet we are taught by the Scriptures that the Empire of the Medes and Persians was but one Especially when they had taken the Empire from the Assyrians And therefore there was but four illustrious and very great Monarchies which are commonly observed to have been the irreconcilable Enemies of the Ancient Church which were represented to Daniel the Prophet in a Vision by four Beasts to Zechary by 4 Chariots and to Nabuchodonosor by a vast Image made up of four several sorts of Materials as the Holy Scriptures testifie for so the ancient Fathers and most of the later Interpreters understand those Prophecies Omitting then the Modern Expositours three of the more ancient will be sufficient to prove that heretofore for many Ages it has been a received opinion that the four great Monarchies were designed by the said three Visions First Isidorus Pelusiota lib. 1. Ep. 218 above twelve Hundred years since interpreted the Vision of the 4 Beasts thus That Divine Person Daniel in the famous and celebrated Vision compared the several Kingdoms of the Assyrians Medes and Macedonians as consisting of the same sort of men and each of them of a distinct Nation to a several Beast that is one of them to a Bear another to a Lioness another to a Libard But the 4th Vision that is the terrible Beast which brought with it a vast Amazement having Iron Teeth and being arm'd with Nails of Brass devouring grinding and trampling under foot not resembling any Animal did perspicuously represent the Roman Empire as being compact or made up of all the Nations and Tribes and in its self furnished with all strength and Glory Nor did the Propher think it fit to express that Principality by one Name which was to extend the Yoke of its power to all and at the time of our Lord's Incarnation was Arrived at an infinite Empire Thus far the Pelusiot of the four Beasts and St. Hierome who was a little more ancient than the Pelusiot applies the Vision of Zechary's four Chariots to the same purpose In the first Chariot saith hewere Red Horses Sanguinary and Bloudy and terrible as Babylonian Cruelty in the second Chariot were Black Horses representing the Empire of the Medes and Persians in the third Chariot were White Horses These were the Macedonians under a King of which Race the Victory of the Maccabees of whom we reade was in the fourth Chariot were Horses of divers Colours of great strength for we know that of the Roman Kings some were mercifull to the Jews as Cajus Caesar Augustus and Claudian others were Persetutours and terrible as Caligula Nero and Vespatian Thus far St. Hierome of Zechary's Chariots To Conclude the stupendious Coloss in the very Explication of Daniel which appeared to Nabuchodorosor signifies the IV Kingdoms But the Blessed Sulpitius does Elegantly unfold and apply it and affirms that the IV Monarchies we have mentioned were foretold by it According to the Interpretation of the Prophet saith he lib. 2. The Image which was seen carries the figure of the World the Head of Gold was the Empire of the Chaldeans for we have been informed that was the first and Richest the Breast and Armes of Silver foretold the second Kingdom for Cyrus Conquering the Chaldeans and Medes transferr'd the Empire to the Persians in the Belly of Brass was the third portended and we see the prediction fulfill'd for Alexander the Great snatching the Empire from the Persians brought it over to the Macedonians by the Thighs and Legs of Iron the fourth that is the Roman is understood which was stronger than any of the Monarchies that went before it but the feet part Iron and part of Potter's-Clay foretell that this Kingdom shall be divided so as they shall never Unite which is also come to pass 3. We have exprest this somewhat too much at large which yet we could not decline the fallacy of John Bodinus a very Learned man having Extorted

Works which is the most winning way of engaging a Reader to undertake that task such Planes being a kind of Pictures or Landsckapes to shew the Reader what pleasing objects he may expect to meet with if he have the courage to proceed And if the Reader please but to peruse the 8th Section of the First Part where he gives an account of Herodotus his History he will then be able to judge for himself without taking my word for it Secondly By informing his Reader where every History begins and where it ends which has been done by few others and by no body with more exactness This too is a great invitation to a Reader to know in what Age of the World he is and how far his Authour will conduct him before he reads one word in him Thirdly He has acquainted his Reader with how much remains now extant and how much is lost of any History which hath not come down perfect and intire to us as very few of the more Ancient have done Fourthly He has told us when each Historian Wrote or Lived of what Countrey and Interest he was which are things of great use as to the advancing or abating the Credit of any Writer Fifthly He has represented the Styles Characters Virtues and Vices of each Historian which are notices of the greatest use and advantage to a Reader that is possible and of the greatest pleasure and delight Lastly He has not given us his own thoughts in all these onely but has taken the pains to search out and transcribe the very Words and Censures of the more ancient and latter Criticks of greatest fame and reputation which was a Work of great labour and difficulty So that upon the whole matter I am very much tempted to alter his Title and to call this Piece The History of the Greek and Latin Historians For so the first part of it does well deserve to be call'd The Addition in the middle of the First Part concerning the Historians of particular Nations and Places is a thing of great use and Learning though not equal to the exact care and diligence of this Authour as any Man that shall please to compare them together will soon find which I suppose was owing rather to the Authour 's great desire to be short than his want of industry or ability In the Latin Copy there is onely the two first Letters of his Name N. H. but I have been informed by a person of great worth who knew him that his Name was Nicholas Horseman and therefore I have put it so that his Memory may be preserved to Posterity The Authour of this Piece has not onely taken great care and pains to direct and encourage his Reader to that noble and usefull study of History by the best Method that ever was proposed in his First Part but he hath also in the Second and Third Parts taken an equal pains to fit and direct him how to reap the utmost advantage from his Readings both as to himself and as to others Which two Parts as he has handled them are not less usefull or delightfull than the First but they being both very short the Reader may much better satisfie himself by a perusal of the whole or of the Contents onely of the Chapters than be here troubled with a long discourse of mine upon them As this Piece was thus drawn with a mighty care and labour so it hath accordingly been valued in the World for besides the first impression of it which preceded this latter Twelve years as he tells us in his Preliminary Oration this has been Printed since the year 1637 three times and if I be not misinformed four times and yet now it is a scarce Book Nor is this any great wonder if we consider that besides the usefulness of the Subject the great Learning Candor Modesty and Industry of the Authour he spent almost two whole years in improving this small Discourse after a whole Impression of it had been sold off For his Preliminary Oration was made the 17th day of October 1635. and his Epistle Dedicatory to the University of Oxford bears date the first of July 1637. I should have been much pleased if I could have given the Reader the Life of this Great Man but that I cannot doe it having never been written by any Man to my knowledge and he being utterly unknown to me any otherwise than by this his Learned Work which I have had a great esteem for ever since I first read it which made me the willinger to run through the labour of Translating it which was no very easie task and also of adding some things to it as necessity required In the History of the University of Oxford p. lib. 2. p. 98. and in other places I find this short account given of him Degoreus Whear was born at Jacobstow in the County of Cornwall He was call'd from Broadgate Hall to Exon College in the same University to be made a Fellow there where he was afterwards examiner of the Lads in the year MDCII at which time he was Master of Arts. About six years after desiring to Travel he took his leave of the College and spending some time beyond the Seas returned into England with the Lord Chandois and lived with him in great esteem that Lord dying he came with his Wife to Oxford and took some Chambers in Glocester Hall which were not then employed for want of Students There he was not long before he became acquainted with one Mr. Thomas Allen By whose Recommendation the famous Mr. Camden designing then to settle a Reader of History in that University chose him the first Reader To this purpose this great Man gave to the University of Oxford out of the Manor of Bexley in the County of Kent One hundred and Forty pounds per Annum And after a certain term of years the Rents of that whole Manor which when it comes it will be worth about Four hundred pounds a year The Charter of this noble Grant bears date the Fifth of March 1621. The 17th of May 1622 this Donation was published in the Convocation-House of that University And the 16th of October of the same year our Learned Authour was declared Reader by the Founder And Brian Twyn a very Learned Man was declared his Successour if he survived him being then a Batchellor of Divinity but he died before Mr. Wheare It was a great Honour to him to be chosen by so great a Man as Mr. Camden and preferred before Brian Twyn And he soon made it appear that he well deserved the Honour that was done him in a very ingenuius Oration which he made in Latin in the Schools when he entered upon his Lectureship which is Printed in the end of this Piece in which he complains much That his long disuse of the Latin Tongue during his Sixteen years absence from the University had rendred him unable or at least very unapt to Discourse or Write that Language

Inhabitants are clearly demonstrated from that Nation many old Monuments illustrated and the Commerce with that People as well as the Greeks plainly set forth and Collected out of approved Greek and Latine Authours together with a Chronological History of this Kingdom from the first traditional beginning untill the year of our Lord 800 when the Name of BRITAIN was changed into ENGLAND faithfully Collected out of the best Authours and disposed in a better method than hath hitherto been done with the Antiquities of the Saxons as well as Phoenicians Greeks and Romans Printed in Folio in London in the year 1676 Volume the first I know very well some Learned men have taken great exceptions to this Piece and have affirmed many things in it to be fabulous and I will not contest for the truth of the whole and every part of it but then I will presume to say that I have found good Authority for some of those things which some have pretended Mr. Samms invented and if we are to stay for an History which all the World approves of before we reade one our Lives will end with as little knowledge of past times as of those that are to follow us when we are dead I know any ingenious person who shall reade this piece must reap much satisfaction pleasure and delight from it John Milton who was Latine Secretary to Oliver Cromwell a Learned ingenious but a very factious man wrote the History of Britain that part especially that is called England from the first traditional beginning of it to the Norman Conquest Collected out of the ancientest and best Authours as he saith it was printed 1670 and 1671 in Quarto and in 1678 in Octavo The style and composure of this History is delicate short and perspicuous and it is of the greater value because few of our English Writers begin to any purpose before the Norman Conquest passing over all those times that went before it with a slight hand Doctour John Heyward writ the History of the first Norman Kings William the Conquerour William Rufus and Henry the first he lived in the times of King James and was a Civilian and a very candid true and Learned Writer Samuel Daniel writ the Collection of the History of England where in making some short reflexions on the State of Britain and the Succession of the Saxons he descends to William the Conquerour and the Norman Kings and ends with the Reign of Edward the third Anno Domini 1376. It is written with great brevity and Politeness and his Political and Moral Reflexions are very fine usefull and instructive John Trussel continued this History with the like brevity and truth but not with equal Elegance till the end of the Reign of Richard the third Anno Domini 1484. In that Period or interval of time which Daniel hath written there are two Lives writ by two several Pens the first is the Life of Henry the third writ by that Learned wise and ingenious Gentleman Sir Robert Cotton Knight in a Masculine style with great labour and pains and with a Loyal design The Second is a piece which was lately Printed with this Title the History of the Life Reign and Death of Edward the II King of England and Lord of Ireland with the Rise and Fall of his great Favorites Gaveston and the Spencers written by E. F. in the year 1627 and Printed verbatim from the Original in the year 1680. Who this E. F. was I know not but that he was under the Dominion of a mighty Discontent is apparent by his short Preface to the Reader his first words there are these To out-run those weary hours of a deep and sad Passion my melancholy Pen fell accidentally saith he on this Historical Relation which speaks A King our own though one of the most unfortunate and shews the Pride and fall of his inglorious Minions If this Book was really written when pretended it may be probably conjectured this Male-Content had a mighty Spleen against the then Duke of Buckingham who being baited this year by the Commons in Parliament fell a Sacrifice to popular discontent the year following which with some other things to me unknown might occasion the suppressing this History then and it had been as well if it had never been Printed being partial to the highest degree and designed to encourage rather than suppress Rebellion Sedition and Treason and now why it was raked up out of the Dust and Printed when it was I shall leave the World to guess onely I cannot for bear observing the Authour was more ingenuous than the Publisher not onely because he concealed it but also because he had undoubtedly set down the causes of his discontent in the beginning of his Preface which are omitted in the Print for those weary hours must relate to something before exprest to perfect the nse Within this Period of time belonging to Trussel falls in the Life of Henry the IV th written by Dr. Heyward and also the Life of Edward the IV th written very Elegantly and Prudently by William Habington Esquire and the Life of Richard the third written by George Buck Gent. Francis Bio●di and Italian Gentleman and of the Privy Chamber to King Charles the first hath written in the Italian Tongue the Civil Wars between the two Houses of Lancaster and York from King Richard the second to King Henry the VIII th translated Elegantly into English saith Sir Richard Baker by Henry Earl of Monmouth Sir Francis Bacon Viscount St. Albans writ the History of Henry the 7 th in a most Elegant style Edward Lord Herbert of Sherbury hath writ the Life of Henry the Eighth with great Exactness and Accuracy as he was a person of great industry and capacity He was put upon this Work by King Charles the first and consulted all our Records Dr. John Heyward wrote the Life of Edward the VIth very Elegantly and as much of that Prince's Reign and that of Queen Mary was spent in matters of Religion so Dr. Peter Heylin in his Ecclesia Anglicana Restaurata has given a very good account of their two Reigns and also Dr. Gilbert Burnet in his History of the Reformation in two Volumes in Folio which is excellently Epitomized by himself in Octavo Though these two chiefly intend the Ecclesiastical History of those times yet they have carefully intermixt the Civil History also especially Burnet who with his History hath published many Original Records of those times which do purely belong to the Civil History Sir William Dugdale one of the Kings of Arms in England hath writ two Books which he styles the Baronage of England being an excellent History of the Successions of all the noble Families of England which is of excellent use to the well understanding of the English History Sir Richard Baker hath written a Chronicle of the Kings of England from the times of the Romans Government unto the Death of King James to which the Reign of Charles the first

and his Nation He begins his History from Ottoman the Son of Orthogulis who began to Reign about the year of Christ MCCC which he has compos'd in X. Books and in it he has comprised the Story of the Eastern Church and Empire And he continues it not onely to the year MCCCCLIII in which Constantinople was taken by Mahomet but also as Vossius assures us to the year 1463. in which this Mahomet the IId stoutly defended himself against Matthias King of Hungary and the Venetians who invaded his Kingdom And Vossius saith also Blasius Vigenerius of Bourbon put out this History in French with Notes which was Printed at Paris in the year 1620. SECT XL. Blondus Foroliviensis may supply the want of the Greek Writers as to the Church History with some others Sigebertus Gemblacensis The opinion of Cardinal Bellarmine concerning him Robertus the Abbat continues Sigebert to the year 1210. The Hirshavan Chronicle to the year 1370. and the Additions to that Chronicle to the last Century The Cosmodromus of Gobelinus Person where to be Read its commendation In the stead of it may be read Albertus Crantzius his Metropolis into which many things are transcribed out of the Cosmodromus and the History brought down from the times of Charles the Great to the year 1504. Nauclerus also may supply this defect And that the Reader may avoid Repetitions he may begin with the middle generations of the Second Tome Johannes Sleidanus wrote Ecclesiastical Commentaries from the year 1517. to the year 1556. which are continued to the year 1609. by Caspar Lundorp THe Authours I have given account of in the three last Sections have written altogether of the Eastern affairs and do scarcely at all touch the state of the Western Church This defect may be supplied out of Blondus Foroliviensis who will serve in stead of many who has as is above observed comprehended in his Decads an intire and continued series of affairs from the declension of the Empire and the year of Christ CCCCVII to the year MCCCC and what he wants the following Authours will make good And in the first place I shall begin with Sigebert a Monk of Gemblours a celebrated Abbey in Brabant who was famous about the year of Christ MXCIV. he begins his Chronicle in the year CCCLXXXI that is a little before the end of the Tripartite History and continues it to the year M. C. XIII Bellarmine accuseth him of bearing ill-will to Gregory the VII th Pope of Rome out of a great affection to Henry the IV th Emperour of Germany and perhaps he might favour the Emperour the Cardinal goes higher and reproacheth him for Lying in his account of the death of that Pope but how truely let the Cardinal Answer for himself Robertus Abbat of Mons continued Sigebertus his Chronicle to the year MCCX and the Hirshavan Chronicle of Trithemius to the year MCCCLXX and to conclude the Paraleipomena or Additions of the Abbat of Ursperg brought down this Story to our Age almost Or if these do not please the Reader we can furnish him with other which deserve as well to be read as these And the first in this set shall be Gobelinus Person an Authour not to be despised in the opinion of Learned Men who wrote an Universal Chronicle which he call'd the Cosmodromus in which he has given an account both of the Civil and Sacred or Church History from the Creation of the World to the year of Christ 1418. in which time Sigismund the Son of Charles the IV th was Emperour He divided his whole Work into six Ages and it appears in every one of them that according to the capacity of the times in which he liv'd he was a person of no vulgar either learning or diligence and study in the searching out of what pertains to History But if the Reader be not willing to give himself the trouble of a repetition of what passed before the Birth of Christ when he comes to this Authour he may begin with the VI th Age which takes its Rise at the Nativity of our Lord. And if he is not at all pleased with this Authour he may then pass on to Albertus Crantzius who wrote an History which he stiles the Metropolis or an Ecclesiastical History of the Churches built or restor'd in the times of Charles the Great In the Writing of which History he made great use of Gobelinus his Cosmodromus and transcribd sometime intire Pages out of it into his own work which was afterwards done by many others as the Learned Vossius bears witness Crantzius begins at the times of Charles the Great and goes on to the year MDIV. Johannes Nauclerus also a Noble Schwaben wrote a Chronicle in two Tomes from the beginning of the World to the year MD. the first Volume contains LXIII Generations that is all the Generations of the Old Testament the second Volume with the Appendixes comprehends in LII Generations all those of the New Testament And before this Work was published Philip Melancthon partly by new Methodizing and partly by encreasing and changing it made it much the more desired and the more usefull and delightfull also when it came out And here too the Reader may begin with the second Volume or from the Middle Generations of the second Volume if he be desirous to avoid the repetition of those things which he had before read in other Authours Johannes Sleidanus also in the memory of our Fathers wrote Commentaries concerning the state of Religion from the year MDXVII to the year MDLVI wherein is the History of the Rise of the Reformation throughout all Christendom which is continued in III. Volumes by Caspar Lundorpius to the year MDCIX SECT XLI Venerable Bede and Usuardus are by no means to be neglected nor the Writers of the Lives of the Popes of Rome as Anastasius Bibliothecarius and Bartholomaeus Platina their great Elogies Onuphrius corrected and continued Platina to the year 1566. Sigonius interwove the affairs of the Church with his Civil Histories and so deserves to be esteem'd a Church Historian the Elogies of Sigonius and Onuphrius BEsides these there are extant not a few other Historians which are not less to be valued than those we have mention'd Amongst which in the first place I reckon Venerable Bede our Countrey-man who wrote Annals from the beginning of the World to the Reign of Leo Iconomachus in whose times he flourished Anno 730. when this diligent and pious Writer comes near his times he gives a larger account of affairs than in the former Ages Usuardus a Monk of Fuld in Germany but a Frenchman by birth and the Scholar of Allwin our Countreyman by the command of Charles the Great put out a Martyrologie in which he described the Lives of the Confessours and other Saints in few words and this is now extant to the no small advantage of

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