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
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
Authour Accurately Corrected and Amended and Eloquently continued out of Sleidan's History of the IV. Monarchies to the Empire of CHARLES the Vth of that Name The Truth is Sulpitius has some Errours concerning which the Reader may if he please consult Bellarmine his Piece concerning the Ecclesiastical Writers Anno Christi 420. Thus far of those who have Written the Church History of the First Interval or Period of Time and which we think ought to be read in the first place SECT XXXIII The History of the Second Interval that is of the Christian Church is first to be sought for in the Evangelists and the other Books of the New Testament where its Infancy is describ'd there is scarce any besides extant who were eye-witnesses of any part of its first state and describ'd it there are some pieces indeed still in being whose Authours are said to have lived in the same time and to have described the brave encounters of the first Matyrs but they are thought to be spurious by Learned Men because they are overrun with fables Baronius confesseth some of the Later Writers are guilty of this fault Vives and Melchior Canus doe both make the same complaint As also some of the Ancients and therefore the History of the Church is to be read with care And yet too much incredulity is to be shun'd Of what Temper we should be in the Reading of Histories The first and most Ancient are to be preferr'd before the latter NOw the Second and other Internal which as I said took its beginning at the Birth of Christ and continues to our times is attributed to the New Testament Church which is call'd the Christian Church as the former was the Jewish Church The History of the Christian Church is first to be sought in the Evangelists the faithfull Pen-men of the Holy Ghost for they have consign'd to Writing the History of our Redeemer the Lord of all things the founder and foundation of the Christian Faith If I may be allowed to use the Words of the Reverend Bishop of Chichester After these St. LUKE that most Learned Bishop also has Consecrated to eternity the Acts of the Apostles especially the Travels of St. Peter and St. Paul their dangers and encounters in most pure and most elegant Greek so that the very Athenians themselves never Wrote the Atick Dialect more exactly than he Besides those Writers of the New Testament who have onely represented to us the Cradle of the Christian Church few others have come to our hands shall I say few or rather none who being eye-witness described those first Ages or who have committed to Writing the History of the Church till her youth Indeed there are divers Writers extant which are said to have lived in that first age of the Church as Prochorus one of the VII Deacons which the Apostles themselves Ordain'd who is reported to have Wrote that Life of the Evangelist and Apostle St. John which is now to be read in the Orthodoxographis and the Bibliotheca patrum Abdias the Babylonian one of the LXXII Disciples if we may be believe him who is said to have Wrote X. Books of the Sufferings of the Apostles Linus his Account of the Martyrdoms of St. Peter and St. Paul The Relation of the Sufferings of St. Andrew the Apostle Written by a Presbyter of Achaia and others which yet are generally by the Ancient Fathers reputed and registred amongst the Suppositious and Apocryphal Writers and even Baronius Bellarmine Sextus Sinensis Melchior Canus and many other very Learned Men of this and the foregoing Age Because in truth they are stuft with a parcel of such silly Fables that they deserve no credit in those things which perhaps are true Nor are onely the Writers as they are commonly call'd of the very first Age obnoxious to this fault but many also of the latter Writers who writing of the more Ancient times and being sick as it were of too great a Credulity do strangely abound with devised Fables Which the Great Cardinal ingenuously confesseth There is nothing saith he which seems so much neglected to this day as a true and certain Account of the Affairs of the Church Collected with an exact diligence And that I may speak of the more Ancient it is very difficult to find any of them who have published Commentaries on this subject which have hit the truth in all points John Luis Vives made just such a Complaint before Baronius I have said he been much afflicted when I have seriously considered with my self how diligently and with what exact care the Actions of Alexander Hannibal Scipio Pompey Caesar and other Commanders and the Lives of Socrates Plato Aristotle and others of the Philosophers have been written and fixed in an everlasting remembrance so that there is not the least danger they can ever be lost But then the Acts of the Apostles and Martyrs and of the Saints of our Religion and the Affairs of the Rising and Established Church being involved in much darkness are almost totally unknown though they are of so much greater advantage than the Lives of the Philosophers or Great Generals both as to the improvement of our Knowledge and Practice For what is written of these holy Men except a very few things is very much corrupted and defaced with the mixture of many Fables whilst the Writer indulging his own humour doth not tell us what the Saint did but what the Historian would have had him done and the Fancy of the Writer dictates the Life and not the truth of things Vives a little after goes on thus There have been men who have thought it a great piece of Piety to invent Lies for the sake of Religion which is both dangerous for fear those things which are true should lose their Credit by the means of these falshoods and it is by no means necessary neither because our holy Religion is supported with so many true Miracles that these false ones like lazy and useless Souldiers are rather a burthen and a hinderance than a help or assistence to it Thus far that Learned Spaniard And because his Countryman Melchior Canus a Divine of a great and not undeserved reputation with the Papists agrees with him in all this I shall not be unwilling to adjoyn his words too I speak it with grief and not by way of reproach Laertius has Written the Lives of the Philosophers with more care and industry than the Christians have those of the Saints Suetonius hath represented the Lives of the Caesars with much more truth and sincerity than the Catholicks have the affairs I will not say of the Emperours but even those of the Martyrs holy Virgins and Confessors For they have not conceal'd the Vices nor the very suspitions of vice in good and commendable Philosophers or Princes and in the worst of them they discover the very colours or appearances of Vertue But the greatest part of our Writers either
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
an excellent Authour in the Opinion of Melchior Canus a Man of an approved Faith and a grave Historian But in the esteem of the most Learned Casaubon and Vossius he is a Spurious Pretending and Suppositious and in short an Authour of no Antiquity or at least quite another Man from that Noble Hegesippus who lived near the times of the Apostles and was Contemporary with Justin Martyr and Athenagoras of whom frequent mention is made by Eusebius and St. Hierome and yet after all this there are some who think he is no contemptible or unprofitable Authour in his first Book he has given an Account of the Wars of the Jews from the times of the Maccabees to the Birth of Christ and the death of Herod the Great And in his Second Book he brings down the History to the Expedition of Vespasian into Judaea Anno Christi 69. and then in his IIId IVth and Vth Books he has Consecrated to the memory of Posterity the Story of the total devastation of Judaea and the utter Ruine of Jerusalem by Vespasian and his Son Titus which happened Anno Christi 72. But then saith Bodinus This may be better and more truely Learned from Josephus who was not onely present in these Wars but was a Commander for some time and being made a Captive obtain'd from Vespasian and Titus the Privilege of being made a Citizen of Rome and the Flavian Sir-name which was that of their own Family and also a Statue And then the Princelike Virtues of an Historian an exalted erudition a rare integrity and a great experience shone clearly in that person And it is farther objected against this fictitious Hegesippus that he doth not treat of the Affairs of the Church but onely of those of the Jews from the time of the Maccabees to the ruine of Jerusalem But we may Answer Bodinus in the first place that this Hegesippus has shortly and elegantly comprehended in that Work what Josephus hath more copiously related in his VII Books of the Wars of the Jews and scatteringly in his Antiquities And in the next place that this Authour doth no less religiously than truely set forth some things concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ which are either altogether passed by by Josephus or onely slightly mention'd by him because perhaps he had an aversion for our Religion And he also sets down in a few words the causes of the War doth Learnedly shew the sources of those great Calamities and why that People which alone was chosen by God and beloved very much was thus consum'd why Jerusalem was destroy'd which was not onely the most Celebrated City of all the East as Pliny calls it but if we consider the extraordinary Favours of God of the whole World Why the Temple was rased their Sacred Rites abolished and the Politick Government of that Nation which had subsisted so many Ages was for ever taken away For the serious consideration of these things will yield the pious and prudent Reader a plenty of the most Excellent Fruits which History can afford him Or if our Reader of History is better pleased to pass by this suppositious Authour and will not be discouraged to go back again and after the Reading the Holy Bible and the Antiquities of Josephus and to câ—ntemplate at one view the whole image of the Sacred History from the Creation of the World to the Birth of Christ and so on to the Fourth Centery of the Second Interval then let him here take in Sulpitius Severus his Sacred History which he begins with the Creation of the World and ends with the Synod of Bordeaux Anno Christi 386. He was a Man of much learning and prudence and a most Polite Writer His style is so pure and elegant that Josephus Scaliger calls him The most Pure Writer of the Church History But I cannot forbear confirming the Judgment of this great Man by the more Prolix and yet not less elegant testimony of Victor Giselin a Physician and Antiquary of a most accomplish'd Erudition He writes thus The blessed Sulpitius hath with great brevity compris'd and with an exact distinction of times shortly deduced to the Age in which he lived the Memory of those things which are contained in the Holy Scriptures from the beginning of the World Now whether any Age hath produced Another Work that is more excellent more noble and more usefull to the Christian Church than this small Piece I shall willingly leave to the Judgment of those who have better abilities than I to determine of it But as to the Elegance of it I dare undertake and I think I may safely affirm that it is not inferiour in any thing to the best of all the Church Historians but then as to all other Works which are of the same nature it hath so great advantages over them that they do not deserve to be compared with it That which I have said of it is great and may perhaps seem to most men incredible But yet what I say has so much truth in it that I am confident the veracity of the thing will prevail so much that my testimony may be spared especially as to those who will take the Pains to compare all the parts of this Authour with Orosius Florus Eutropius and the rest of the Writers of Epitomes He seems to me to have obtain'd the Garland onely by the imitation of C. Salustius a florid Writer of the Roman Story For observing that many things in him passed for excellencies which would become no other Man and were scarce possible to be imitated as his abrupt way of speaking which slips insensibly by the Reader or Hearer and doth not stay till a Man comes to it but as Seneca saith his Sentences come pouring in and his words surprize by their unexpected falls these I say be left to Salust as his sole personal excellencies And he studiously avoided his obsolete words which as Augustus said he collected out of Cato ' s Books de Originibus But then as to his spruce brevity tempered with significant Words and adapted in the highest degree to his design he imitated that Great Historian with so much Art that we may well say he rather emulated him and strove to out-doe him For he did not think it sufficient to follow his style and to divide circumscribe and cut it and make just such transitions from one thing to another except he made the same entrances to his Books the other did but with this difference that whereas he as Fabius saith chose such as had no relation to History Sulpitius accommodated his a little better to his subject All which things in History at least appear glorious as any Man may observe at the first Glance For it was written as I have said in the flower of his Age before his passionate love to Eloquence had been mortified by the severe discipline of the Monastery of Tours Thus far Giselinus The Elzivers two Dutch Printers put out this
and the conversation of Learned Men which she heard diligently But many have a great suspicion that this Royal and Learned Lady out of her great Love for her Father is a little too partial in this her History SECT XXXIX Nicetas Acomiatus follows immediately after Zonaras after Nicetas Gregoras Lipsius his Judgment of both these Writers The fidelity of Gregoras call'd in question Johannes Cantacuzenus is in this place commended to the Reader by the Learned Vossius after the former follows Laonicus Calcochondylas AFter Zonaras Nicetas Acomiatus or Choniates immediately follows in order and subjoins his History For where Zonaras ends there Nicetas begins and prosecutes the Story somewhat largely and freely for LXXXV years to the taking of Constantinople by Baldwin the Flandrian and the year of Christ 1203. He was born at Chonis a Town of Phrygia from whence he took his Sir-name The Chronicle of Gregoras Logothetes may here also have its place he has the History of the taking of Constantinople and of the events that followed for almost LX. years that is from Baldwin the Flandrian to Baldwin the last Emperour Both Zonaras and Choniates had great employments in the Constantinopolitan Empire which made them the fitter to write their Histories the first was the great Drungar and prime Secretary and the Latter was the great Logothetes and Lord Chamberlain of the Sacred or Presence Chamber After Nicetas follows also Nicephorus Gregoras who wrote an History of CXLV years to wit from Theodorus Lascares the First to his own times or to the death of Andronicus Palaeologus the latter which falls in the year of Christ 1341. We must confess these two last did not make it so much their business to describe the History of the Church as that of the Empire or Civil State yet because they sometimes intermix things belonging to the Church briefly as occasion serves and are therefore reckon'd by others amongst the Ecclesiastical Writers and also because Choniates connects his Narrative to the History of Zonaras and Nicephorus makes it his business to supply or fill up what haniates had omitted as if he had designed to perfect the body of the History therefore I could not omit them and that the rather because amongst the latter Greeks there are no Authours of better note than these for the inforcing which last reason to the Lovers of History and that we may with the greater facility induce them to the Reading of these Authours I will here paint out the judgment of Justus Lipsius upon them I confess saith he that Nicetas is not yet publickly and commonly much taken notice of but he is worthy to be more known being of a pure and right judgment if there were any such in that Age his style is laboured and tastes of Homer and the Poets very often but then the subject and relation it self is distinct clear without vanity or trifles as short as is fit and faithfull there is in him frequent and seasonable reflexions or advices his Judgments of things are not onely free but sound In short I wish all Statesmen would reade him and then I shall not question but some of them will pay me their thanks for this judgment of him at least I am sure they will owe me thanks Thus much of Choniates and of Gregoras he gives this judgment Nicephorus Gregoras takes up the History where Nicetas ends it and brings down the thread of his Narrative but he doth not deserve the same commendations for though he wrote the History of affairs from the taking of the City of Constantinople to the death of Palaeologus the latter yet he did it not with the same correctness or industry and has more of the faults of his Age than the former he is redundant and wandering and indecently and sometimes imprudently mixeth his own onceits and Harangues Yet his Judgments are thick sown and for the most part right the causes of events are curiously inquired into and represented Piety is inculcated and many things are seasonably assigned and turn'd over to the first cause that is to God In truth no Writer has more asserted PROVIDENCE and FATE He is to be read for this cause and also for another that is that the greatest part of his History represents a state of affairs not much unlike our own times for you will find in him Contentions and Quarrels concerning Religion not much unlike those in our days Thus far goes Justus Lipsius in his Accounts of this Authour But then there are some Men of great skill in History who have some scruples concerning the fidelity of this Nicephorus especially in the affairs of Andronicus Palaeologus where he ends as I have said above And therefore if the Reader please he may there take in Johannes Cantacuzenus who of an Emperour became a Monk and wrote an excellent History under the Title of Christodulus of the Reigns of Andronicus the younger and his own The Learned Vossius commends this History on many accounts to those that are conversant in the study of History This History saith he ought to be the more esteemed because it was written by a Person who had not always led an obscure private life but who was first a great Officer in the Family and Court of Andronicus Junior and after his death had the tutelage of his Children and afterwards the Senate desiring and the affairs of the Empire requiring it he was elected Emperour and behaved himself prudently and valiantly in that Royal station To this may be added that he did not write of things which were scarce known to him but of such transactions as he was present at and had the chief conduct of and in truth I think there is hardly any one amongst the Modern Greeks who ought to be preferr'd before him This Royal Historian flourished about the year of Christ 1350. this History consists of VI. Books as Vossius there saith whereof the two first treat of the Reign of Andronicus the remaining IV of his own Reign and what he did after the death of Andronicus He was made a Monk in the year of Christ 1360. when he took the Name of Josaaphus Thus far the Learned Vossius And that our Historian may not here be at a loss or interrupt the thread of his Reading till he have seen the last period of the Eastern Empire And the deplored state of the Church there upon that revolution he may be pleased to subjoin to the former the History of Laonicus Chalcocondylas the Athenian For he will diligently shew what followed and how at last that August or Royal City which was not content to be the second City of the World but greatly emulated Rome the Sovereign of the Earth fell into the Power of that Potent Tyrant the Turk the bitter Enemy of our Faith and of the most Sacred Cross. And he doth also most excellently describe the Rise Encrease and Progress of this Tyrant
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
the difference of Opinions and number the Votes because they did not give their Opinions by Words but by these passings or Ranging themselves under others as they thought fit as others think and this latter opinion seems to be favoured by Cicero in his Epistles to Atticus Lib. 1. Ep. the last When this was done saith he and it was not yet certainly known on which side the Majority lay the Pedarii Foot-Senatours in throngs went over to that side and this place câ—nfirms that opinion of his Pedarii Senatores certatim exurgerent the Foot-Senatours in great numbers arose And there is also a remarkable place in Vopiscus his Life of Aurelius from which we may learn there was three ways of Voting in the Senate Some of them saith he stretching out their hands others going or walking over to the other side and the most consenting in express words the Decree of the Senate was passed These two instances will be sufficient for the Philological Observations SECT V. What Method is to be observed in Philosophical Observations shewn out of Herodotus Polybius and other Historians A twofold use of Examples Justus Lipsius Jo. à chokier and R. Dallington our Countreyman have excellently shewn the Uses of Histories and Examples An Instance or two of which is here given by us out of L. Florus Justin and Herodotus St. Augustine supposeth that the History of Romulus and Remus is true What use may be made of it The faith of Camillus and Fabricius and the Axioms which spring from it What the Prodigious Preparations of Xerxes and the Event of his Expedition may teach us which is again confirm'd by the Example of the last Darius By the Examples of Caligula Nero and Valentinian the Malignity of self love envy and spite and malice are shewn Polybius frequently shews the Use of Histories AND now in the gathering Philosophical Observations the Reader should observe this Rule That is not onely to Observe Extract and Compare all the Moral Politick Oeconomick and Military Examples which he meets in Histories and to gather them together but also to do this in such manner as that he may prudently accommodate them to the Laws and Rules of Life and the Principles of Art according to that of Plutarch's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stone is to be brought to the Rule and not the Rule to the Stone The Authours themselves do frequently do this Herodotus refers the whole History of the Trojan War to the Common Rule of Justice saying There are great Punishments inflicted by God for great Injuries And so Polybius from the Example of M. Attilius gives us this caution That we ought to distrust fortune and especially after great prosperities Because Attilius Regulus who but a little before would allow no place for Mercy and would not on any terms afford the afflicted Carthaginians a pardon was soon after taken and enforced to supplicate them for his own life And in the same place he shews the expression of Euripides was verified That one good counsel may overcome a great many Souldiers And this he saith also was strangely proved true by the Example of Xantippus the Lacedemonian who alone by one Sentence conquered and defeated the Roman Legions which were before thought invincible and insuperable restor'd the City when it was almost ready to perish and revived the dejected minds of his Countreymen That the Reader may be enabled to do this with the greater exactness let him enquire into the Causes of every Action and Counsel let him consider the circumstances of it and weigh the success and let him in each of these search out wherein any thing is well or prudently ill or imprudently managed and let him from thence draw up to himself a general Precept Rule or Direction and then prove or illustrate it with many Sentences or Examples For there is a two-fold use of Examples the first for our imitation of what is done by good men and that we may learn to shun the ill actions of wicked men The second is that from particular Stories we may deduce and extract some Sentence which may be generally usefull to us Justus Lipsius has by a great variety of Examples shewn the Manner of reducing Histories into use in a small piece which he styles Monita Exempla Politica Politick Advices and Examples Johannes a chokier also a Scholar of Lipsius in imitation of his Master put out Thesaurum Aphorismorum Politicorum a Treasury of Politick Aphorisms which is very full And above XX years since the most Noble R. Dallington our Countreyman a Man of great Name for Learning Wisedom and Piety exercised himself with great Commendations in this way in a piece he printed in the English Tongue under the title of Civil and Military Aphorisms And yet may we have the Reader 's leave even here to entertain him with some Examples which the young Student may propose to himself as a Copy and if he thinks fit imitate it When we reade in Ann. Florus and also in Titus Livius and others that Romulus the Founder both of the Roman City and Government was the Son of an unknown Father and together with Remus his Brother by the Command of Amulius being cast when an infant into the River he could not be destroyed For as Florus saith both Tiber restrain'd his Waves and a Wolf having left her Whelps and following the Cry of the Babes gave them suck and being so found under a Tree the King's Shepherd carried them home and brought them up We ought from this Story to observe the wonderfull power of the Divine Providence and the transcendent goodness of the Deity who knows how to preserve those he intends afterwards to make use of for the effecting some great work And from hence also ariseth this Axiome The Foundations and Cradles of great Empires are sometimes laid and preserved in small and shamefull beginnings but by extraordinary and miraculous manners Or thus The Beginnings of great Empires although they are often small and in the judgment of Men in themselves contemptible yet they ever shew some extraordinary and peculiar Providence of God and contain certain testimonies of both The History of Cyrus the founder of the Medio-Persick Monarchy is extremely well known who being expos'd by the Command of Astyagis his Grandfather to be devoured by wild beasts escaped by the miraculous defence and suckling of a Bitch There is a History in Justin of one Havidis a King of Gallicia in Spain which is no less wonderfull and amazing which whoever has a mind to see his strange Dangers and Accidents may reade and he may also meet with other such-like Examples in Aelian amongst his various Histories but I must not stay Nor let any man reply that these are Mythick Histories made up of Truth and Fiction seeing St. Augustine supposeth the Story of Romulus and Remus to be true from whence it may not improbably be conjectured the rest are so too What wonder is