Ravage of our late Days of Usurpation with those of other Cathedral Churches being made a very improper Prey to a Fanatical and Illiterate Army of Rebellious Blockheads Amongst these Silas Taylor was an Officer of a more than ordinary Fancy and Respect for Books and Learning and having gotten part of the Bishop's Palace into his Possession thought it was also convenient to seize as many of the Churches Evidences and Records as he could possibly get into his Clutches With these and many of the like kind from the Church at Worcester he troop'd off upon the happy return of our old English Government and near Twenty Years afterwards dy'd with some of 'em in his Possession at Harwich His Books and Papers together with the other few Moveables he left behind him fell into the Hands of his Creditors from whom if any care was taken to preserve them it will now be a very difficult Matter to retrieve them LANDAFF Bishop Godwine assures us that all he says of the Archbishops and Bishops of this See down as far as the Year 1110. was taken out of an old Manuscript-Register of that Church which seem'd to him to have been penn'd about that Time This he tells us was most particular in the Account of the Acts and Miracles of St. Teliau the second Bishop of that Diocess and therefore I take it to be the very same with that which is now in Sir John Cotton's Library and for that very Reason bears there the Title of Teilo From 〈◊〉 Sir Henry Spelman had the whole Account he gives us of the several Synodical Decrees of divers Bishops in that Church As Mr. Wharton had also those good Pieces which he afterwards publish'd as being overlook'd both by Godwine and Spelman There 's yet another Book in the same Library that affords a History or Chronicle of this Church which seems to have escap'd the notice of both these diligent Antiquaries It commences at Brute and ends A. D. 1370. LINCOLN There 's a meagre Catalogue of the Bishops of this Diocess in the Cottonian Library which brings down the Succession of them from Birinus to John Longland who was Consecrated A. D. 1521. 'T is much the List of these Prelates should be so compleat when our Historians are at a loss for the very Place where a good many of them 〈◊〉 Some Letters from Pope Martin and his Cardinals about the Struggle that happen'd upon the Advancement of Rich. Fleming to this See may be had but in the main we are very deficient in all the parts of its History and shall hardly recover any great Matters more than its own Registries will supply us with What those are I know not LITCHFIELD In the perusal of the History of this Diocess one great mistake which has been unanimously swallow'd by all our Church-Historians is to be observ'd to our Reader And that is we are told that upon the subdivision of the Kingdom of Mercia into three Dioceses about the Year 740. there was a Bishop placed at Leicester We do indeed meet with one Totta who is said to have been Episcopus Legecestriae about that Time But Legercestria is the old name of Leicester as Legecestria is of Chester It was therefore in Truth at West-Chester that the New Diocess was erected and not at Leicester which is too near to Litchfield were there no other Argument against it With these Cautions we are to peruse the two valuable MSS. in Sir John Cotton's Library which have in a great measure been Printed in the Anglia Sacra and are very probably ascrib'd to Tho. Chesterton and Will. Whitlock two Canons of this Church Of the former of these there are several ancient Copies and 't is that venerable Book which is quoted by many of our late Writers under the Name of Chronicon Lichfeldense These are the chief Registers of the old Records of the Church of Lichfield that are now Extant Unless perhaps their Cartulary or black-Black-Book and the Description of their Close or College be still to be met with The little that was to be sav'd out of the Ruins into which this Cathedral fell in our late Days of Confusion was pick'd up by one of the great Preservers of our English Antiquities Elias Ashmole Esq late Garter King at Arms and is now amongst many other of his precious Remains in his Musaeum at Oxford This excellent Person had a Design to have honour'd the Place of his Nativity with the writing a History and Description of its ancient and present State and had collected a good number of choice Materials for that Purpose LONDON I do not much lament Bishop Godwine's Misfortune that his best diligence could not recover a right Catalogue of the British Arc-bishops of this City Whatever became of Theanus and Theonus the Alpha and Omega of those Sixteen Metropolitans I should be mightily pleased to hear that its History is entire since Mellitus's time or even that we had every thing mention'd in that List of Records Registers and other Books belonging to this Cathedral which was deliver'd by Dean Cole to his Successor Dr. May in the Year 1559. What or where the Annales Londinenses are Mr. Wharton who quotes them does not tell us nor whether they treat only of the Affairs of this Diocess or what I rather Suspect present us with such a short History and Chronicle of the Kingdom in general as almost every one of our Monasteries afforded 'T is enough that he has left behind him an elaborate History of the Bishops and Deans of this See of his own composure wherein following the Method to which he had confin'd himself in his two larger Volumes he brings their Story down to the Year 1540. To this Treatise as well as that of St. Asaph which is joyn'd with it is annex'd an Appendix of Authentic Instruments and he has further let us know that of the Prelates before the Reformation we have the Registers of Gravesend Sudbury Courtney Braybrook Walden Clifford Gilbert Kemp Grey Savage Warham Barnes Fitz-James Tonstal Stokesley and Bonner The Sepulchral Monumnts of St. Paul's Church were first drawn out and publish'd by Mr. Camden's grateful Scholar Hugh Holland the Poet But this was only a mean and dull Performance in comparison of that more absolute one of Sir Will. Dugdale in his History of that Cathedral from its first Foundation extracted out of Lieger Books and other Manuscripts and beautified with sundry Prospects of the Church and the Figures of the Tombs The greatest part of the Cartularies and Records refer'd to in this Book were happily communicated to the Author by one Mr. Reading who thereby encouraged his Zealous Engaging in the Work at a very proper and seasonable Juncture For soon after he had taken Copies of the Inscriptions a great many of the Monuments were defaced and the Church it self
Legend it self The Learned Reader will pardon me if I give him a further Account of this rare French MS. out of Monsieur Borel's Glossary Which because the Book is not in many of our English Libraries I shall do at large in his own Words Il ya un Romant ancien says he intitule La Conqueste du Saingreal c. du S. Vaisseau ou estoit le Sang de Jesus-Christ qu'il appelle aussi le Sang real c. le Sang royal Et ainsi ces deux choses sont confundues tellement qu'on ne connoist qu'auec peine quand les anciens Romans qui en parlent fort souuent entendent le Vaisseau ou le Sang. Perceual l'explique bien en ces mots Senefioit que li greaus Qui tant est beaux precieux Que le S. Sang glorieux Du Roy des Rois y fu receus Et ailleurs Un greal Trestout descouuert Item Et puis apporta un greaux Tout plein de pierres precieuses R. de Merlin MS. Ne oneques peus ne fust veu au siecle ne du greal ne palle Et apres il dit Et cil Rois pecheors avoit le digne sang Jesus-Christ en guarde D'ou il est manifeste que le R. de Sangreal n'est que du Sang Royal de Jesus-Christ Item Pensa moult a la lance ou graal qu'il avoit veu porter Ce texte monstre que c'estoit un vase Mais en suite le mesinem Autheur parlant du Graal l'appelle un Vaisseau car il parle ainsi Et quand le premier mes fust apportee si issi le Graal fo rs d'une Chambre les dignes Reliques auenc si tot comme Perceualle vit qui moult en avoit grand desir de scavoir si dit Sire je vos prie que vous me diez que l'en sert de cest Vessel que cest vallet porte Et encore il dit ailleurs Et porce laupelon nos Graal qu'il agree as prodes homes En cest Vessel gist le Sang de Jesus-Christ En ce texte il donne une Etymologie differente du Sang Royal a scavoir le Sang agreable aux hommes en ce qu' ils en lavent leurs pechez Et derechef confirmant cela il dit vers le commencement de son Livre Et ils distrent porrons dire du Vesseil que nos veimes coman le clameron nos qui tant nos gree cil qui ly voudront clamer ne metre non a nos esciens le clameront le greal qui tant agree Et quant cil l'oyent si dient bien doit avoir non cist vesseaux graax Et ainsi le nomment Et enfin il dit Ou li Vessel de graal seit C'est le vase on Joseph dit il recueillit le Sang qui sortit des playes de Jesus-Christ lors qu'il lavoit son corps pour l'embaumer a la maniere des Juifs The present Age amongst her many Writers in all parts of Learning has afforded us some that have thought it an Undertaking worth their Pains to search after the Remains of our first British Church and the Discoveries they have made have met with very different Characters and Entertainment according as they have fall'n into the Hands of proper or improper Judges The first of these I suppose was R. Broughton a Secular Priest who was bred at Rheims and sojourn'd sometime in Oxford In this latter Place he collected Materials for his Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain from the Nativity of our Saviour unto the happy Conversion of the Saxons The Account that Mr. Wood gives of this Book is this Tho' 't is a Rapsody and a thing not well digested yet there 's a great deal of Reading shew'd in it 'T is said King James J. was overjoy'd to hear of Sir R. Cotton's Design of writing our Church-History from the first planting of Christianity to the Reformation And so far he carry'd on the Project as to draw together no less than Eight large Volumes of Collections which have long been and still are very serviceable to those that engage in those Studies The like Collections were made about the same time by AB Vsher the most Reverend and Learn'd Primate of Ireland and soon after Commendatory Bishop of Carlisle of whom one that knew him well and was as able as any Man to judge of him gives this Character Vir ob Eruditionis immensitatem morumque Sanctitatem toto Orbi Vener andissimus His Book was first printed at Dublin under the Title De Pâ—imordiis c. and is since publish'd by the Name of Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates 'T was begun by Command of King James I. who gave him Licence under the Great Seal of Ireland to retire from his Bishoprick of Meath to one of our English Universities for the more effectual carrying on of so good a Work And this Grant was had and enjoy'd above a dozen Years before the Book was first published He begins with a Collection of whatever Narratives and old Stories he could meet with about Simon Zelotes Joseph of Arimathea and others first planting Christianity in this Island From whence he proceeds to the Legend of King Lucius and the whole Succession of those Archbishops and Bishops descended from Jeoffrey of Monmouth's Flamines and Archi-Flamines After this we have the Settlement of three Metropolitical Thrones at London York and Caerlion which are afterward removed to Canterbury Dole in Britany and St. Davids Then follows the generous Endowments of Glastonbury and other places by Lucius and Arthur The Martyrdom of St. Alban and his Friend or Cloak Amphibalus with many more of their Fellow-Saints The famous Expedition of Vrsula c. Interwoven with these Reports the Reader will find a deal of excellent Learning and the clearing of many doubts in our British Roman and Saxon Antiquities He also gives a particular Account of the Original and Progress of the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian Heresies and concludes with the Remains St. Patrick and the ancient Scottish or Irish Church The Author himself modestly calls the Work Ex omni Scriptorum genere promiscue congesta farrago Which Sir Geo. Mackenzie has a little bluntly translated A confused Rabble and a formless Lump of fabulous Nonsense 'T is a more just Account that another gives of this Treasure of our ancient Church-History That all that have written since with any Success on this Subject must own themselves beholding to him for his Elaborate Collections In the late Edition the References which the Author makes to the several parts of his Work are very faulty The Margin of the former Quarto Edition having not always been Corrected The same Year with AB Vsher's Book was publish'd Sir H. Spelman's first Tome of the Councils Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions c. of this Kingdom and its Dependencies Whereof we are to give
and it also intermixes some other Edicts of a spiritual kind such as Edward the First 's Statute of Circumspecte Agatis the Decree of the University of Oxford against some Tenets of Wickliff c. Lastly it furnishes us with some other Canons made by Stafford and Waâ—ham which will bring us down as low as the beginning of the Reformation What is here missing may be sought for in Sir Henry Spelman's second Volume of our English Councils which unhappily wanted the finishing Hand of its Author Indeed he was so far from perfecting what he had projected that he is said to have left no more than 57 Sheets of the 200. which are now publish'd under his Name the rest being entirely owing to the indefatigable Pains of our late excellent Antiquary Sir William Dugdale 'T is a pity that the joint Labours of two such great Men as these should stand in need of a third Hand to compleat them And yet the Errors that were committed either in Transcribing or Printing or both are apparently so many that we cannot but earnestly wish that better care may be taken in a second Edition Arch-bishop Sheldon and Chancellour Hide thought such a Structure as this worth the rearing and will none of the present Patrons of our Church think fit to repair it Mr. Somner has long since made a considerable advance toward so good a Work having with great Pains and Accuracy collated the Printed Copy with many of the Original Records and in the Margin amended the infinite Defects This Book is now amongst others of the same worthy Person 's valuable Labours in the Library at Canterbury where it cannot lie much longer in obscurity After the Papal Yoke was thrown off in that great Revolution which was begun in our Church by King Henry the Eighth and finish'd by Queen Elizabeth the Roman Emissaries try'd all imaginable Expedients to reduce us to our former Obedience and amongst others spared no Pains in representing to us the Primitive State of Christianity in this Isle The first of these doughty Champions was Nicholas Harpesfield sometime Arch-Deacon of Canterbury but outed A. D. 1559. for refusing the Oath of Supremacy John Pits says he was afterwards imprison'd So far from it that AB Parker took him into his own particular care and gave him all the assistance he could wish for in compiling what he calls his Ecclesistaical History of the British Church In the first Ages he has lazily follow'd Bede and Malmesbury transcribing the very Errors of such Copies as he met with and not giving himself leisure to examine the Incoherencies in Chronology and other Contradictions that he delivers for good and grave History In after-times he amasses Things together out of the Registraries and other Helps he had at hand without any sort of Order or Form Insomuch that sometimes the Reader is plagued with several Sheets of tedious Impertinences and elsewhere scarce meets with the bare Names of the Prelates for some Ages together Some things are said to have been expunged out of his Original Manuscript by the Licenser of his Book being mostly particular Opinions of his own condemning the Discords Broils and ambitious Poverty of the begging Fryers So that we may probably want the best part of his Work since this would have a little ballanc'd that load of Infamy which he endeavours to lay upon the chief of our Reformers I confess our Oxford Antiquary gives a somewhat different Character of this History Quo quidem in Libro Eruditio an Industria conspicua magis sit haud facile dicendum Vtroque revera Nomine laudandus adeo comparet ut nisi partium studio abductus suorum in Vtilitatem omnia rapuisset haud modice de Republica Literaria meruisset Another Zealous engager in this undertaking was the famous Jesuite Robert Parsons who wrote an Account of the three Conversions of England from Paganism to Christianity in as many little Volumes The first of these he ascribes to St. Peter whom he very Logically proves to have been here because he was not at Rome when St. Paul sent his Epistle thither His story of King Lucius's change is shewn to be borrow'd from Baronius who also tho' he would have been loath to have own'd any such thing had it from the Centuriators The whole seems to have been design'd in answer to Mr. Fox whom he profess'dly opposes throughout a great part of his Second and Third Volumes He represents that Author as a Person very ignorant and very dishonest perverting the Sense in some of his Quotations and mistaking it in others Rich. Smith Titular Bishop of Chalcedon who took upon him to exercise Episcopal Jurisdiction here in the beginning of K. Charles the First 's Reign was not much short of Parsons in Learning and was certainly much his superior in that Candour and fair Dealing which ought to be the Property of an Historian He made very large Collections out of our English Histories which were publish'd in seven Books under the Title of Flores Ecclesiasticae Historiae Gentis Anglorum The whole Volume is rather an indigested heap of Materials than a just and formal History and thus much may be said in it's commendation that it honestly Quotes the Reform'd Writers as well as those of the Author 's own Persuasion After these Flores came out the Annales Ecclesiae Britannicae in four Volumes by Michael Alford a Jesuite whose true Name is said to be Griffith From this Work a late Learn'd Member of our Church has well prov'd how vain and empty are the brags of our Romanists who are frequently valuing themselves upon the great Treasure they have of our Ancient English Records These they say were carry'd off by Monks and other Religious People who were forc'd to fly in the last Age and are now in Salva Custodia in several Monasteries beyond the Seas 'T is much as he unanswerably argues that none of their own Friends should ever reap any Benefit from these mighty Spoils that this same Alford for Example should not have the Advantage of one of those Venerable Instruments to grace his Book but be forced to run on in the beaten Track and fetch all his Quotations from such printed Authors as we poor Hereticks have publish'd for him This is the true state of his Case There 's nothing in him that carries a Face of Antiquity save only some few Shreds that were pick'd up at Lambeth by Harpsfield who has furnish'd him and his Brethren with whatever looks this way Out of this Gentleman and some more of our late publish'd Historians Serenus Cressy compil'd his Church-History which should have been brought down to the Dissolution of Monasteries by K. Henry the Eighth tho' what is publish'd reaches no lower than the Conquest 'T was much wondred by those that had been acquainted with this Learned Person in Oxford before he fled to the Roman
Lambeth was by this Gentleman I should have been able to have enlarg'd this Collection to a much greater bulk whereas for want of such Discoveries some hundreds of Volumes may possibly escape me Sir John Cotton's at VVestminster collected by his Grandfather Sir Robert has heretofore been justly esteem'd to contain more Helps for the composure of a General History of England than all the other Libraries of the Kingdom put together being not only plentifully stock'd with Manuscript Historians Original Grants Patents c. but also abundantly furnish'd with our old Roman British Saxon and Norman Coins Tho-James first publish'd a Catalogue of the MSS. in the Publick Library at Cambridge and of the Private College-Libraries in Oxford out of which last he is reported to have borrow'd several Volumes never hitherto restor'd to their proper Owners Afterwards he did the like for Bodley's which the Reader ought to know has been wonderfully improv'd since that time by the many large Additions that have been made to it chiefly in Manuscripts by Archbishop Laud the Lord Hatton Mr. Selden's and Mr. Junius's Executors c. To which the Musaeum Ashmoleanum makes now a most Noble Appendix as being richly fraught with an excellent Collection of Manuscripts and Coins as well as other Rarities in Art and Nature made by that worthy Person whose Name it deservedly bears Some part of the great Treasure here reposited has been already discover'd to us by Mr. Gibson who has publish'd a Catalogue of Sir VVilliam Dugdale 's Books and we hope the like good Office will be done for Mr. Ashmole by another learned hand Dr. Hickes's Catalogue of such MSS. as relate to the Saxon and Danish Times is the most complete we have in its kind and Mr. Gibson's Account of Tennison's Library founded by His Grace the present Archbishop of Canterbury at St. Martin's in the Fields is highly beneficial and obliging But all these are small shreds and scantlings if compar'd with the Voluminous work of Dr. Bernard who threatens to give us an entire List of all the Manuscripts of this Kingdom of all kinds that either our Publick or Private Libraries will afford 'T is a very Noble and Generous Vndertaking Only a little more caution I think should be observ'd by him in carefully perusing the Catalogues that are sent from some of the most distant Counties especially where the Authority rely'd on for the Truth of the Copies is not very good and staunch Otherwise 't is possible the Reader may be sent some hundreds of Miles to enquire after a Book that has not appear'd in the place referr'd to at any time since the Restoration of King Charles the Second This I am very sure is the Case with some of the Northern Libraries whose Catalogues as he has Printed them were either drawn thirty years ago or else are Prophetically calculated for about thirty years hence Of this latter kind is that of a certain Cathedral Church which neither is nor ever was furnish'd with any one single Manuscript of the several in all Volumes which 't is there said to contain I have some cause to fear that I shall never live to see such Books in that Library as are there mention'd and I am also afraid that most of 'em if they have any being at all are of that modest complexion which becomes a private retirement better than an appearance in publick The Doctor 's Project is certainly very commendable and deserves encouragement and the utmost Assistance that Men of Learning and Acquaintance with Books can give it But then They that pretend to put a helping hand to the Work should be sure to do it effectually They should be scrupulously nice in their Informations take nothing upon Trust and Hear-say send no Transcripts of ancient heretofore Catalogues instead of such as give the present State of their Libraries view the Books themselves be sure they are already in the Classes referr'd to and not only in some distant and uncertain promise c. By these means we might truly discover the dormant Riches of the Nation and the câ—rious might with good assurance apply to such Persons as were undoubtedly able to Answer their Hopes Till these vast Designs are perfected we cannot hope for a full and exact Index of all those Historians that have escaped the common Destruction in the Dissolution of Abbeys and the Outrages of our Civil Wars And 't will be enough for a Man that lives in such an obscure corner of the Earth as my Lot is fallen into to point at the Times wherein the greatest part of 'em flourish'd how they were qualify'd for their several Vndertakings and how well or ill they have acquitted themselves in their Performances This I shall endeavour to do in a Method which I hope the Reader will think Natural enough as agreeing with me that our General Historian ought to enquire for 1. Geographical Chorographical and Topographical Writers of this Nation such as give an Account of its chief Remarkables in Nature Arts and Antiquities And that either 1. In Generaâ— Chap. 1. 2. In Particular Counties Cities and Great Towns Ch. 2. 2. Chronicles and Annals Which are either 1. General Relating to the Times 1. Of the Britains and Romans Chap. 3. 2. Of the Saxons and Danes Ch. 4. 3. Since the Conquest Ch. 5. 2. Particular Lives of our several Kings down from William the Conqueror Ch. 6. 3. Ecclesiastical Historians 1. General As 1. From the first Establishment of Christianity to the Reign of Henry VIII Chap. 7. 2. Since the Reformation Ch. 8. 2. Particular As to the several 1. Bishopricks Ch. 9. 2. Monasteries Ch. 10. 3. Vniversities Ch. 11. 4. Law-Books Records and Papers of State Ch. 12. 5. Biographers Writers of the Lives of our English 1. Saints Ch. 13. 2. Eminent Churchmen and Statesman Ch. 14. 3. Writers Ch. 15. I have not the vanity to imagine that I shall ever be able to run through all these Chapters without being guilty of a deal of very gross Mistakes and therefore I expect to hear of a large Muster-Roll of Errors and Defects in my Book This I shall so little repine at that I do assure Thee Honest Reader 't is what I heartily long for and desire I pretend to little more at present than the drawing of such Lines as may be filld up hereafter into a piece worth the Viewing and I shall be abundantly thankful to have the finishing part done by a better and more Skilful hand than my own I have spent a great deal of time perhaps too much in conversing with some of these old Gentlemen and I cannot but flatter my self into a belief that I have attain'd to something of a more than ordinary Acquaintance with them However the Characters I shall give of 'em are not alwaies mine but are sometimes Censures pass'd by better Judges than my self Where-ever I venture to give my own opinion I hope
finding many Passages in it not touch'd on by other Writers and others differently related had once Thoughts of publishing it with a Translation and Notes of his own But being afterwards acquainted that Dr. Brady had written the Life of this King and knowing that nothing could escape the Diligence of that Historian he lay those Thoughts aside Here rather than it should be wholly forgotten let me put the Reader in mind of the elegant History of our old Civil Wars written in Italian by Sir Francis Biondi of the Bed-Chamber to King Charles the First and translated into English by the Earl of Monmouth Ibid. l. ult too Dramatical This Piece is certainly the least liable to that Censure of any this Author ever wrote being the most elaborate of all his Works and what looks like a part of what he design'd for a just History But the little that 's published should rather be entitl'd the Reign of Richard the Second since it reaches no farther than his Death and the Settlement of his Successor in the Throne P. 218. l. 14. their hands There 's a very fair Ms. in Bodley's Library entitl'd a Translation of Titus Livius 's Life of K. Hen. V. dedicated to Hen. VIII But 't is more truly a History of that Prince's Life compiled out of a French Book call'd Enquerrant which of all the French Chronicles is said to treat most copiously of the Wars betwixt England and France and out of Titus Livius To which Book says the Author or Translator in the Prologue I have added divers Sayings of the English Chronicles and to the same Matter also divers other Opinions that I have read of the Report of a certain Honourable and Ancient Person and that is the Honourable Earl of Ormond There are likewise two several Lives of this King in Cotton's Libary whereof the one was written by Tho. Elmham Prior of Lenton and the other by an Anonymous Author Fran. Thynne in the Conclusion of Holinshead's Chronicle mentions one by Roger Wall a Herald P. 220. l. 10. Original Dr. John Herd was employ'd by the great Lord Burleigh to write the History of England during the Reigns of Edw. IV. V. Rich. III. and Henry VII which he did in Latin Verse and his Book is still extant in several hands P. 222. l. ult his Client They that are dissatisfyd with any Passages in this Book may have recourse to a Copy corrected and amended in every Page P. 223. l. 7. Throne He is mightily extoll'd by Bern. Andreas of Tholouse his Poet Laureat and Historiographer who has written two good Volumes on the most eminent Transactions of his Reign P. 228. l. 20. do it A slender historical Account of Wiat's Rebellion was publish'd by one John Proctor School-Master of Tunbridge who for any thing I have yet learn'd must be look'd upon as the only particular Historian of this Reign P. 232. l. 5. good value There are several other Treatises which will be useful in furnishing out a complete View of her long and prosperous Reign As 1. Eliza or the Life and Troubles of Queen Elizabeth from her Cradle to her Crown by Tho. Heywood 2. Elizabetha or a Panegyrick on the most considerable Occurrences of her Reign in Latin Verse by Chr. Ocland 3. The Felicity of her Time by Sir Francis Bacon 4. Sir Dudley Digge's Compleat Ambassador containing all the Letters Instructions Memoirs c. relating to the French Match with that Queen 5. Some good Materials may be had from the Itinerary of F. Moryson Secretary to the Lord Montjoy General and Governour of Ireland They are given us in that useful Method which is now generally allow'd to be the most pleasing and instructive giving us at large all those Original Evidences whereby the Author justifies his Narrative 6. Sir John Hayward acquaints us likewise that he presented Prince Henry with some Years of this Queen's Reign drawn at length and in full proportion But these I think were never publish'd 7. Dr. Barth Clerke Dean of the Arches was put upon the writing of her History by my Lord Buckhurst and he seems to have been every way fit for the Undertaking But whether he might not afterwards be prevented by Death or Mr. Camden's engaging in the same Design I know not These are the chief of those Errors and Defects that have either been remark'd by others or hitherto observ'd by my self in the former part There are several others of lesser Note which an intelligent Reader will easily correct without my Directions As particularly the frequent References to some following Chapters which are here digested in a different manner than was at first projected They that have any Acquaintance with the Drudgery of preparing Books for the Publick View know very well how apt an Undertaking of this kind is to grow upon the Author's hand and how little 't is we see of our Work when we first begin to engage in it With these I shall need no Apology and the rest must excuse me if I make none I am now in haste And can only stay to tell them that I have as many Papers that treat on our Law-Books Records c. so far as they are serviceable to History all which I once thought to have crowded into a Chapter or two as will furnish out a Third Part if they and the Bookseller think it worth their while to call for it For the present I am resolv'd to keep my self within the Verge of the Church and shall only in this Second Part give the Reader the best Account I can of our Ecclesiastical Historians in the following Chapters 1. Of the Affairs of the British Church 2. Historians of the English-Saxon Church from the coming in of Augustine the Monk to the Conquest 3. Church-Historians from the Conquest to the Reformation 4. Histories of the Reformation and our Church-Affairs to the End of Queen Elizabeth's Reign 5. Accounts of our Bishops in general and their several Sees 6. Lives of particular Bishops and other eminent Church-men 7. Histories Chronicles Cartularies c. of our Ancient Monasteries 8. Histories of our Universities and Writers CHAP. I. Of the Writers of the Affairs of the British Church IF Gildas had cause to complain That in treating of the Civil History of Britain he had no Assistance from any Monuments or Records of his own Country but was forced to seek his whole Information from Forreigners they that take upon them to write the Church-History of the first British Christians will find themselves much more oblig'd to Strangers and must look abroad for their Intelligence 'T was Happiness enough to enjoy the Gospel-Light as long as the Heathen Romans were our Masters without the rejoycing in it so openly as to have had our Publick Notaries registring the Acts of our Councils Convocations and Synods even amongst such of our Ancestors as had at once learn'd to write and to obey And they
some farther Account anon For the present the Reader is only to be inform'd That the excellent Publisher of those Collections has prefix'd to them an Elaborate and Learn'd Discourse of his own touching the first Preachers of the Gospel in this Country our British Metropolitans and the State of the Churches under them The next that engaged in these dark Enquiries was our Learn'd Dr. William Lloyd then Bishop of St. Asaph now of Coventry and Lichfield in his Historical Account of Ancient Church-Government in Great Britain and Ireland The Undertaking became a Bishop of our English Church and the Performance answered the great Opinion that Men of Learning have always had of this worthy Prelate His Aim in it was the encountring an Objection against the Order of Episcopacy from the Story of the Scotch Culdees An Argument put into the Mouths of our Schismaticks by Blondel and Selden out of the abundant Kindness they had for our Establishment In the answering of the several Cavils of these Learned Men the Bishop thought himself obliged to give a short History of the first planting of the Scots in Great Britain which thwarted the common Road of their Historians since the Days of Hector Boethius and bereaf'd them of about Forty of their first Monarchs This shortening of the Royal Line His Majesty's Advocate of Scotland the late Ingenious and Learn'd Sir Geo. Mackenzie presently resented as an Affront little short of what the Lawyers of that Country call Lese-Majesty and therefore publish'd a Defence of the Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland In this Tract the zealous Author was so wholly on Fire that 't was not safe for the Bishop himself to approach him but his incomparable Friend Dr. Stillingfleet took the Pains to confirm at large the Bishops Positions and to answer the most considerable of Sir George's Objections Soon after the Advocate published a Reply to his new Antagonist under the Title of The Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland further clear'd c. I am not now concern'd to enquire whether these two great Opponents or their no less ingenious Answerer had the better in these Debates tho' I may perhaps hereafter weigh some of the Arguments on both sides if I live to publish my Notes on the Scotch and Irish Historians For the present I shall only observe that the Cause of our Church in this Controversie was thought long since to have been secur'd in few words by Sir John Marsham Columbanus says he postquam in Hybernia Armachanum Monasterium fecerat Anno 565. Britanniam venit ad Pictos Australes autem Pictos Nynias Brito ad Veritatem converterat Anno 412. hii Insulam Episcopatus sedem fecerat This last particular was more than needed and is what he could not prove from his avow'd Author Venerable Bede who says no such thing He never speaks of Nynias's being at Hy but expresly tells us that his Church was at Whithern The latest of our British Church-Historians and who shall come after him is the renown'd Dr. Stillingfleet not Bishop of Worcester whose Origines Britannicae have perfected all the Collections of former Writers on that Subject The Design of the Book is to vindicate the Liberties of the ancicient British Church against the pretended Jurisdiction of the Bishops of Rome so that it reaches only from the first appearance of the Christian Faith in this Island to the Conversion of the Saxons 'T is penn'd with an Accuracy of Judgment and Purity of Style peculiar to its great Author and clears many doubtful Passages that had escaped the diligence of the famous AB of Armagh He tells us in the conclusion of his Preface that it comes forth as a Specimen of a greater Design to clear the most important difficulties of Ecclesiastical History He rejects for very good Reasons the Glastonbury-Legend of Ioseph of Arimathea but confirms the Story of St. Paul's planting a Church in this our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The History of King Lucius he endeavours to set free from the Monkish Fopperies and Contradictions that clog it in other Authors explains the Subscriptions of the British Bishops in the Council of Arles shews the probability of some of 'em being present in the Council of Nice excellently illustrates the State of Arrianism and Pelagianism c. The Picts he thinks contrary to Camden's Opinion to have been a People originally distinct from the ancient Britains and agrees with Hector Boethius for better Reasons than ever he knew that they were some of the old Maritime Inhabitants of the Baltic Sea He teaches his Reader how to judge of the Antiquities and Antiquaries of Scotland and Ireland and concludes with a very particular and full Account of the great Revolution in this Island upon the coming in of the Saxons His Preface as we have already hinted was attaqu'd by Sir George Mackenzie and the Book it self by Emanuel a Schelstrate Keeper of the Vatican Library in his Dissertation concerning Patriarchal and Metropolitical Authority To the latter there needs no other Reply than only to tell him 1. The probable Arguments alledg'd for St. Paul's preaching Christianity in this Isle are not to be overthrown by less probable ones on the behalf of St. Peter Nor should the Man that admits King Lucius's and Pope Eleutherius's Epistles as genuine reject the MS. account of Abbot Dinoth and his Monks 2. Mr. Launoy and Dr. Beverege agree with Dr. Stillingfleet in their Exposition of the sixth Canon of the Nicene Council as well as the Anonymous French Author of the Treatise De Disciplina Ecclesiae who exactly jumps with our great Prelate in his Notion about the Suburbicarian Churches Dr. Basire's four Positions asserting the Legitimate Exemption of the British Church from the Roman Patriarchate contain only a short Essay towards the proof of what we have more amply advanc'd and more clearly demonstrated in the Origines not to mention that the greatest part of 'em are borrow'd from John Barnes's Catholico Romanus Pacificus The Lives of our British Saints must be read with the allowance that 's usually given of those of our Neighbouring Nations and we are not under any great difficulties to learning what Opinion even the Romanists themselves have of the Writings of their Monks on these Subjects Dolenter hoc dico says Melchior Canus multo severius a Laertio vitas Philosophorum scriptas quam a Christianis vitas Sanctorum longeque incorruptius integrius Suetonium Res Caesarum exposuisse quam exposuerint Catholici non res dico Imperatorum sed Martyrum Virginum Confessorum 'T is the sense of the gravest and best Writers of that Church and what will very well agree to those of the Times and Country we are now mentioning There cannot be bolder nor more inconsistent Miracles than those we meet with in the Stories of St. Alban and St. Patrick And the whole Treasury of Legends seems
been translated into the old English-Saxon Tongue that took the Story higher The like says Pits was penn'd by Wolstan the same famous Monk of Winchester who about the Year 1000 did as much for St. Ethelwald but I can hear of this piece no where else St. Wilfrid's uneasie Life and Sufferings were first regester'd by Eddius or Heddius a noted Monk of Canterbury whence he was brought by Wilfrid himself to instruct his Quire-men of the Kingdom of Northumberland in the Art of Singing Out of this which is lately publish'd by Dr. Gale there was a second Account taken in Latin Rhime by Fridegod another Monk of the same Church who was put upon the Employment by Odo Archbishop of Canterbury The Arch-bishop himself wrote a Preface to the Book which was omitted by Mabillon but is since published by another and for this Mr. Pits makes him a distinct Writer of St. Wilfrid's Life A Third was written in Prose by Eadmerus and a fourth by Petrus Blesensis dedicated to Jeofrey A. B. of York So that this Petrus Blesensis and Mr. Pit's Petrus Ripponensis tho' he makes them two several Authors are the same Person There is now in my Possession a Latin Manuscript Life of this Saint which perhaps may be the same with the last mention'd It is certainly different from the three first and seems not to have Length enough for that tedious Discourse on this Subject which is said to have been written by one Stephen a Priest and Epitomiz'd by William of Malmesbury It begins Anâ—â— igitur ab Incar natione Verbi Dei Sexceiâ—â—esimo tricesimo quarto and ends with St. Wilfrid's Epitaph in twenty Hexameters St. Wulstan as two of his immediate Predecessors held the Arch-bishoprick of York together with the Bishoprick of Worcester and was Sainted for the same Reasons as St. Oswald There 's a double Account of his Life already publish'd a short one by Hemming a Monk of Worcester and another more at large by the famous Will. of Malmesbury But what 's become of those by Bravonius and M. Paris we know not These are they that make the most considerable Figure in the Saxon Calendar and whose Lives being most amply treated on will afford some Passages that may be of use to our English Historian Nor are the little inferior Saints of those times to be wholly despised by him He 'll meet with abundance of such in the several Voluminous Collections to which we sometimes referr him And I dare promise that in most of 'em he shall frequently discover some hidden Treasure even in the midst of the most drossy Miracles CHAP. III. Of our Church-Historians from the Conquest to the Reformation THE Subject of this Chapter is in a great measure dispatch'd already The general Historians of the Kingdom during this whole Period were mostly Monks and other Church-men who have taken care to Register our Ecclesiastical Transactions as accurately as the Civil and to carry along with them the Affairs of our Church and State together Canon-Law and Appeals to Rome were first brought into England in King Stephen's Reign upon the Debates that arose betwixt the Bishop of Winchester the Pope's Legate and the AB of Canterbury And these soon introduced that Exaltation of the Clergy that they were necessarily in at every thing no Intriegue either of the Court or Camp being to be manag'd without them So that 't is no wonder if after that time our Histories are generally cramm'd with Disputes and other Matters of a purely Ecclesiastical Nature and the main Body of 'em look like the Annals of Saint Peter's Patrimony Odericus or Ordericus Vitalis ends his Ecclesiastical History at the Year 1121. some time before these Alterations happen'd in England He was Monk of St. Eurole's Vtici in Normandy where he lived 56 Years The most of his Thirteen Books are spent in Affairs of the Church within his own Native Country But towards the latter end he has intermix'd a great many Passages that relate to us There are in his Writings two Faults and they are great ones which Lucian of old condemn'd in History For 1. He 's immoderate in the Praise of his Friends and the Dispraise of his Enemies either all Panegyrick or all Satyr Now such Discourses are rightly observed to be strangely monstrous and unnatural Productions They want Meeter to become Poems and Truth to make them just Histories 2. He 's too large in his Descriptions of little petit Matters and on the contrary passes too cursorily over some things of such weight as would well endure Reflection and a second Thought We are told of one Richard Pluto who was Monk of Canterbury A. D. 1181. a Writer of the Ecclesiastical History of England which he dedicated to Richard Duke of Normandy Where or what it is I know not But what is hop'd for in that Book may possibly be found in the Burtonenses Annales written I suppose by some Monk of Burton in Staffordshire For it begins with the Foundation of that Monastery A. D. 1004. and ends at the Year 1263. Many Passages in it are borrow'd from Roger Hoveden whom the Author calls Hugh and not a few from M. Paris The latter of these was certainly Cotemporary with this Author whoever he was and they may be to good purpose read together The Reader will meet with a great many remarkable Stories in it that are hardly to be had elsewhere none perhaps having a better Collection of Letters Memorials c. of the Church-History of those Times The Defects of these Annals will be in part supply'd by W. Linwood's Provinciale being a Collection of Canons and Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted and publish'd by no less than Fourteen Arch-bishops of Canterbury from Stephen Langton inclusively down to Henry Chicheley These give us a View of what Points were chiefly under Debate in the Church for about 200 Years and are rank'd after the Example of the Decretals under several distinct Titles or Common Places having annex'd to them a large Commentary or Gloss of the Learn'd Collector's own composure This Writer was Dr. of Laws Official of Canterbury and at last Bishop of St. Davids after he had been imploy'd by King Henry the Fifth in several Embassies and entrusted with his Privy-Seal The Book was first publish'd by Jodocus Badius and dedicated to Arch-bishop Warham but the Abbreviations in the Original MS. being retain'd in this and two following Editions it was lately reprinted at Oxford much more accurately and correct The Legatine Constitutions of the two Cardinals Otho and Othobon in the Years 1236 and 1268. have been always added to these in the Prints together with the like Commentaries of John Acton or Athon sometime Prebendary of Lincoln The Oxford Edition gives us the Canons of the several Arch-bishops entire and apart as well as in that confusion to which Linwood's Method had reduced them
14. Thomas Stapleton the Translator of Bede in whose Pair-royal of Thomas's this Gentleman makes as considerable a Figure as either Thomas the Apostle or Thomas Aquinas 15. Laurence Vade or Wade a Benedictine Monk of Canterbury who liv'd and dy'd we know not when or where unless perhaps he be the same Person with 16. An Anonymous Writer of the same Life who appears to have been a Monk of that Church and whose Book is now in Manuscript in the Library at Lambeth 17. Rich. James Nephew to Dr. Tho. James our Bodleyan Library-keeper a very industrious and eminent Antiquary who endeavour'd to overthrow the great Design of the foremention'd Authors in his Decanonizatio Thomae Cantuariensis suorum which with many other MSS. of his Composure is in the Publick Library at Oxford CHAP. IV. Histories of the Reformation and of our Church-Affairs down to the end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign THE first Man that engaged in the History of our Reformation was Mr. John Fox sometime Prebendary of Salisbury who dy'd at London in the Year 1587. His Acts and Monuments were first written in Latin for the Instruction of Foreigners and were so publish'd during his own Exile in the Reign of Queen Mary They afterwards grew into two large English Volumes which have had several Impressions and have at last been publish'd in three with fair Copper-Cuts In behalf of this last Edition the Publishers had well nigh prevail'd with King Charles the Second to revive Queen Elizabeth's Order and AB Parker's Canon for the having a Set of these Volumes in the Common Halls of every Archbishop Bishop Dean Archdeacon c. But that Project fail'd and came to nothing And indeed it would have look'd a little odly to have paid such a respect to the Works of an Author Qui Matri Ecclesiae Anglicanae non per omnia Amicus deprehenditur ut pote qui Puritanis faveret Ritibus Ecclesiae se non Conformem praestiterit The Design of the Author is to discover the Corruptions and Cruelties of the Romish Clergy together with the Sufferings and Constancy of the Reform'd and of the Maintainers of their Doctrins in all Ages of the Church which he has done so throughly that 't is no wonder to find those of the Papal Communion very much gall'd with his Writings Hence the Jesuite Parsons took such Pains to represent him as a Corrupter of Antiquity an impertinent Arguer c. And Nich. Harpsfield treated him as coursely in those six Dialogues of his which were printed beyond Seas in his Friend Alan Cope's Name during their true Author's residing in England It must be confess'd that these Volumes being large and penn'd in haste have some Mistakes in them that are not to be dissembl'd But in the main 't is an Honourable Character that one of the greatest Historians of our Age gives of them That having compared these Acts and Monuments with the Records he had never been able to discover any Errors or Prevarications in them but the utmost Fidelity and Exactness Indeed where his Stories are of a more modern Date and depend on common Reports or such Informations as were sent him from distant parts of the Kingdom the like exactness is not always to be look'd for since the Author 's hasty Zeal against the Papists furnish'd him with a large Stock of Faith and a readiness to avouch any thing that might effectually blacken them and their Religion One unlucky Tale occasion'd a deal of Trouble to a Clergy-man who very innocently reporting from him that one Greenwood had by Perjury taken off a Martyr in Queen Mary's Reign and came afterwards to a shameful End the said Greenwood was it seems present at the Sermon and brought an Action of Scandal against the Preacher However the Judge clear'd him at the Trial as only harmlesly quoting an Author without any malicious intent of slandering his Neighbour Such Slips as these were pretty numerous in some of the first Editions But as many of them as came to the Author's knowledge were rectified by himself and others have been corrected since his Death Several Papists were provok'd to write Counterparts to these Volumes wherein they pretended to set forth the Reformers in as bloody a Dress as Fox had painted Them and to draw up as large Kalendars of their own Martyrs The chief of these were 1. Maurice Chancey by some call'd Chamney and by others Chawney a famous Carthusian Friar in the Monastery of that Order near London who fled upon starting the Question of the King's Supremacy and dy'd in a voluntary Exile A. D. 1581. He wrote a large Account of the Sufferings of Sir Thomas Moor Bishop Fisher and others as also of Eighteen Monks of his own Order This Work bears the Title of Historia aliquot nostri saeculi Martyrum and is falsly subdivided into three several Books by John Pits 2. John Fenn sometime a Civilian of New College in Oxford and afterwards a Member of the University of Lovain who clubb'd with one John Gibbon a Jesuite for such another Martyrology which they publish'd under the Title of Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholicae in Anglia adversus Calvino-Papistas Puritanos This Book was afterwards enlarg'd by John Bridgwater or Aquaepontanus as he stiles himself another Jesuite who having corrected many faulty Particulars and added about a hundred new Martyrs dedicated his Edition to the AB of Triers 3. Thomas Worthington Doctor in Divinity and sometime President of the English College at Doway who dy'd in England A. D. 1626. His Book or Pamphlet for it consists only of Four Sheets bears the Name of Catalogus Martyrum pro Religione Catholica in Anglia occisorum ab Anno 1570. ad Ann. 1612. and is mostly taken out of the Book last mention'd 'T is chiefly valuable upon the Account of a Preliminary Discourse wherein the Author gives the History of our English Seminaries beyond Seas and the Success that has attended several Missions out of them 4. John Musheus sent from Doway into England where he liv'd A. D. 1612. somewhere in his Native County of York He is said to have drawn a Register of the Sufferings of all the Roman-Catholicks in the Northern parts of this Kingdom Nicolas Sanders deserves a peculiar Respect and ought to be consider'd by himself The short of his Story as we have it from his Nephew Pits is this He was born in Surrey Educated at Winchester and New College in Oxford where he was sometime Regius Professor of the Canon-Law He afterwards fled to Rome whence he attended Cardinal Hosius to the Council of Trent as also into Poland Russia c. At last Pope Gregory the 13th sent him as his Nuncio into Ireland where he dy'd about the Year 1580. He was an indefatigable Writer as well as Warrior for the Roman Cause and stuck at nothing that he thought might advance it Amongst
short Letter to the Bishop of London His Quarrel with Doctor Burnet is wholly about Method and the Art of Composure wherein most certainly these two Authors have extreamly differ'd And yet notwithstanding the awkardness of Mr. Lowth's Stile 't is thought the Man himself was not Master of so much Venome and Ill-Nature as appears in his Book But that he had a great share of his spiteful Language put into his Mouth by a warm Neighbour who is now dead and ought to be forgotten The next Assailant was a peevish Gentleman in Masquerade who under the feign'd Name of Anthony Harmer publish'd a Specimen of some Errors and Defects in the History of the Reformation c. As if what he there gives were only a Sample of what he had in store for us when it appears that he has stoop'd to such mean and pitiful Remarks as sufficiently shew that he had pump'd himself to the bottom and that his Malice was upon the Lees. 'T is a great Indignity which some have put upon the Memory of a late most Reverend Learn'd and Pious Prelate in reporting him to have been the Author of that malicious Libel For whatever other unhappy Mistakes he might be guilty of he could never fall so low as to write at such an unmanly and uncharitable Rate The Historian vouchsaf'd this Book a short Answer in a Letter to the Bishop of Litchfield to which the Animadverter made no Reply To those that are still inclin'd to favour the Specimen I shall only say that the whole 150 Particulars therein summ'd up will fall under these six Heads as being either 1. Such aery and superficial Matters as we usually call Impertinencies 2. Some inconsiderable Mistakes of the Printer's or Copiers 3. Others that have a little Weight but might have been corrected without Noise and do not affect the Reformation 4. Some few a very few that do touch upon its Justice and Honour In most of which 't is easie to discern the Affection which the Animadverter pretends to bear it if Apologies for the old Monks and N. Sanders be any Argument of such Affection 5. Others wherein he himself is mistaken 6. Several Objections are raised purely for the sake of Calumny and Reflection These are the Thoughts I had of this Piece upon my first perusal of it and I am throughly confirm'd in them from the successful Pains that has been since taken with it by my modest and industrious Friend Something of a fresh Attaque was afterwards made by one who had set himself to discredit whatever had been publish'd by this Historian And yet all that even such a Writer could find chargeable on his History of the Reformation was only that In a Matter of no great Consequence there was too little Care had in Copying or Examining a Letter writ in a very bad Hand and that there was since probability that Dr. Burnet was mistaken in one of his Conjectures I think I may justly observe thus much of all those that have hitherto endeavour'd to lessen the Repute of this History That they have apparently shewn their Inclinations rather to bespatter the Author than his Work And whatever Success such Persons may meet with in their Attempts they have commonly the Misfortune to discover themselves to be at least Men of like Passions with their Adversary The Reverend Author of these Volumes publish'd also an Abridgment of them wherein the Reader has a full and clear View of the Reformation without any of those Obscurities or Defects that usually attend Works of this kind Take an Account of it in his own Words I have wholly wav'd every thing that belong'd to the Records and the proof of what I relate or to the Confutation of the Falshoods that run through the Popish Historians All that is to be found in the History at large And therefore in this Abridgment every thing is to be taken upon Trust and those that desire a fuller Satisfaction are to seek it in the Volumes I have already published The Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer which were lately publish'd by Mr. Strype shall conclude this Chapter tho' were it not that the Subject rather than the Title of the Book inclines me to bring them in here they would more properly belong to another Place The Writer of them has adhered to Dr. Burnet's Method giving us his own Historical Account in Three Books ending with the several Deaths of Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary and in the Conclusion a good Collection of Records Several Things relating to the State of the Church during that Primacy are well Illustrated by him and some Authentick Letters and other Original Papers of Value are discover'd and made publick The only Blemish I know in this Book is what it may be the Author will think its most comely Feature the crowding so much of his other Learning into the Body of his History which instead of entertaining his Readers answerably to his good Design is apt to distract and amuse them Where the Subject is dry and barren a few choice Flowers out of a right Common-place-book are very refreshing provided they are sprinkled with a sparing Hand and a steady Judgment But where the Matter it self is pleasant and diverting all those Embellishments are nauseous and even Tully and Tacitus themselves are troublesome CHAP. V. Histories of our Bishops in general and those of their several Sees THAT Joceline de Fourness an Historian quoted by Stow and Fitzherbert wrote several Books concerning the ancient British Bishops John Pits is very certain But whether he was an English-man or as he rather fancies a Welch-man he dares not be positive One Book indeed of that kind was written by Joceline a Monk of Fourness in Lancashire and is still extant But as the Author himself could not be of any great Age so his Collections seem to have been made out of Histories that were penn'd since the Conquest Of somewhat less Account I fear is that of the Saxon Prelates whereof Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester is said to be the Author whereof a MS. Copy is likewise reported to be in the publick Library at Cambridge After the Conquest the Memoirs of our Bishops were taken by a great many Hands Geoffrey Prior of Winchester about the Year 1100. wrote a Panegyrical Account of them in elegant Verse says Will. of Malmesbury who himself more largely commented upon them in Prose His four first Books were publish'd by Sir Henry Savil from a very faulty Manuscript and his Edition was Copy'd more faultily in that of Francfurt In these we have all that could be had out of the many old Catalogues which swarm'd in our English Monasteries together with what the Author was able to inform us of his own Knowledge touching his Cotemporaries Henry of Huntingdon's Letter to his Friend Walter describes the Prelates of his own Time which immediately succeeded
to Malmesbury's and 't is done with all the heartiness that becomes a familiar Epistle and a Freedom inclining to Satyr Ralph de Diceto follow'd these with a Catalogue of his own drawing from the coming in of Augustine the Monk to the beginning of King John's Reign But there 's little in it worth the publishing Joh. Eversden a Monk of Bury who dy'd says Pits about the Year 1636. is said to have written de Episcopis Anglìae as well as de Regibus But Mr. Wharton could never meet with any such Treatise He found he says some of Mr. Joceline's Collections out of Eversden's Chronicle So that perhaps he 's the same Man with that Johannes Buriensis whom we have mention'd in the First Part. We are also told of a like Book by one Nicolas Montacute or Manacutius who is believed to have been sometime Master of Eaton School because forsooth most of his Works were in the Library of that College What good Things were heretofore in that Library I know not But upon a late Search nothing could be found that bore this Author's Name save only a pitiful Treatise at Lambeth de Pontificibus Romanis not worth the reading I fancy somebody's quoting this under the Title de Pontificibus simply has given occasion to Bale and Pits who collected and wrote in haste to Naturalize all his Bishops Polydore Virgil's Book or Scrowl of our English Prelates is boasted of in our Seminaries beyond Seas And his great Antagonist John Leland assures us he had taken mighty care to collect their Remains Et majori cura propediem in ordinem redigam He had many other grand Projects in his Head which came to nothing John Pits likewise very gravely refers his Readers in many parts of his Book de Illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus to another of his own composure de Episcopis which we are credibly inform'd is only a poor and silly Abstract of the first and worst Edition of that which falls next under our Thoughts and deserves to be separately consider'd Francis Godwine Son of Tho. Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells was most fortunate in his Commentary as he calls it on this Subject being himself advanced to the Episcopal Order for the good Services that as Queen Elizabeth thought he had done the Church by that Book It was twice published in English equally full of the Authors and Printer's Mistakes The Faults of the latter Edition especially were so very gross that they put him upon the speedy dispatch of another in Latine which came out the next Year The Style of this is very neat and clean and he seems to have taken more Pains in polishing it than in gathering together all the Materials of his History He quotes no Authorities excepting belike that Posterity should acquiesce in his singly without enquiring any further He is particularly ungrateful to the Author of the Antiquitates Britannicae from whom he has borrow'd by the Great his Account of the See of Canterbury varying only the Phrase and that sometimes for the worse The like Carriage he is guilty of towards Bale Camden and others But what is most especially notorious is his transcribing out of Josseline and Mason what he pretends to have had immediately from the Archives and Registraries from the Year 1559 to his own Time He is also frequently guilty of Chronological Mistakes a too confident Reliance on the Authorities of counterfeit Charters in Ingulfus and others an uncertain Calculation of Years beginning some at Michaelmas and others at Christmas c. as his Authors blindly led him and lastly a contenting himself with false and imperfect Catalogues of the Prelates in almost every Diocess These are the Failures where with he stands charg'd by Mr. Wharton who modestly assures us that a better Progress had been made in these Matters by himself within the compass of Eighteen Months than by this Bishop in Twenty Years Our Oxford Antiquary further complains that he Puritanically vilified Popish Bishops with a Design thereby to advance the Credit of those since the Reformation whereby he had given unlucky Advantages to William Prynne the profess'd Enemy of Episcopacy who made ill use of his Book I will not say that either of these Censurers are mistaken but I must observe to the Reader that each of them intended to have furnish'd us with a View of this part of our Ecclesiastical History of his own drawing and therefore like all new Builders they must be allow'd to spy more Faults in the old Fabrick than others can The former has help'd us to a noble Stock of old Writers upon the Affairs of a great many of our Sees from their Foundation in his Anglia Sacra and the latter has given us almost an entire History of our Bishops for the two last Centuries in his Athenae Oxonienses These are good Materials and such as will direct to more of the same kind whereof there are good store in the Bodleian and Cottonian Libraries We long only for a skilful Architect to put them into the Figure we desire And I hear the Work is at last put into the Hands of a Person who wants none of those Helps or Qualifications that are necessary to the Undertaking Hitherto we have mention'd only such as have written the History of our Prelacy with an honest Intent to represent it to the World in its proper and true Colours we have others that have made it their Business to daub it with false Paint endeavouring to give such Pourtraictures of our Bishops as might most effectually defame and prostitute the sacred Order The first of these was one Thomas Gibson a Fanatical Physitian in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign who entitl'done of his Treatises A History of the Treasons of the Bishops since the Norman Conquest Whether this was ever Printed my Author cannot inform me The next was Sir John Harring ton of Kelweston who soon after K. James the First 's arrival in England began to draw together some malicious Remarks upon the Bishops of his Time which he at last finish'd under the Title of A brief view of the state of the Church of England as it stood in Queen Elizabeth 's and King Jame 's Reign to the Year 1608. It was presented by the Author in Manuscript to Prince Henry from whom the Presbyterian Faction expected great Alterations in Church-Government After the downfal of Episcopacy it fell into such Hands as brought it to the Press believing it to be a proper Antidote against the return of the plaguy Hierarchis The last of this Gang was that eternal Scribler Will. Prynne who rak'd together all the Dirt that had been thrown at any of our Bishops by the most inveterate and implacable of all their Enemies and hap'd it into a large Dunghil-Book inscrib'd The Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy both to legal Monarchy and civil Vnity Wherein he pretends to give
an Historical Collection of I know not how many Hundreds of exercrable Treasons Conspiracies c. of the British English French Scotch and Irish Bishops against our Kings and Kingdom But 't is time to rid our Hands of this Filth and Nastiness The most ancient Register Books and Records of our several Dioceses and Cathedral Churches will less sully our Fingers S. ASAPH The History of the Bishops and Deans of this Place was composed by the late learned and industrious Mr. Wharton whose Book was publish'd soon after his Death as a Specimen of what his general Work of all the Dioceses in England would have been if he had liv'd to have finish'd it To this Treatise as well as to the other that is prefix'd to it there is an Appendix of Authentic Instruments out of the Register Books c. According to the Method first taught him by Dr. Burnet In the Lives of the Bishops he frequently quotes the Liber ruber Assavensis an old Cartulary of that Church of good Value BANGOR Godwine mentions a Catalogue of the Bishops of this See in the Archives of the Church of Bangor which I suppose was a very Empty one since upon the two first Editions of his Book he had not any thing to say of this Diocese BATH and WELLS What has been lately done for this Diocese is already taken notice of by Mr. Tanner whose Collections and References let it be here observ'd once for all I shall not repeat but shall wish the Reader himself to consult his very useful Book saving only that some of those Authors he barely quotes where I am able to do it shall be set in the truest Light I can give them Let it be here also noted that when ever he refers his Readers as he does in this place to one or the other Volume of Anglia Sacra they are there sure to meet with a good view of such old Writers as have treated of the ancient History of this or that Diocess or else they have at least a composure of Mr. Wharton's very valuable for the Pains that Author took in adjusting the true Chronological succession of our Bishops Dr. Thomas Chandler sometime Warden of New College in Oxford and Chancellour of this Church wrote a Treatise de Laudibus Bathoniae Welliae which I suppose would afford us some such Light as the same learn'd Person has given in those Lives that have been gratefully penn'd by him and will be taken notice of in another place I guess the Historia de tempore Primaevae inchoationis Sedis Episcopalis Wellensis c. which was made ready for the Press by the noble Publishers of the Decem Scriptores is part of what we have had since from Mr. Wharton who also must be thought to have enrich'd his own Notes out of the great Treasure of Collections which was gather'd and communicated to him by the Reverend and Learn'd Dr. Matt. Hutton BRISTOL This See having only been erected by King Henry the Eighth can have no Records of any great Antiquity but 't is hop'd its entire Story may be had out of such Registers as are in the Hands either of the Bishop or Dean and Chapter of the Church CANTERBVRY as in Justice it ought has had the most and best learn'd Preservers of its History and Antiquities of any Diocess in England The first of these was Arch-bishop Deusdedit or Adeodatus who is said to have recorded the Acts of all his Predecessors which was no mighty Undertaking since himself was only the Sixth from Augustine The eldest of those Writers whose Works are now Extant is Gotseline the Monk who besides the Life of Augustine publish'd by Mr. Wharton wrote also those of the Six following Arch-bishops These are now in MS. in Sir Joh. Cotton's Library but being only Collections out of Bede with the enlargement of a few Romantic Miracles they have not hitherto been thought worth the Printing About the same time Osbern was Precentor of Christ-Church and upon the unhappy Fire which destroy'd most of their Records A. D. 1070. took a deal of Pains in recovering the Histories of the Arch-bishops several of whose Lives were written by him besides those we have in Print Gervasius Dorobernensis that is Monk of Canterbury has left three good Treatises on this Subject which bear the following Titles 1. Tractatus de Combustione Reparatione Dorobernensis Ecclesiae 2. Imaginationes de Discordiis inter Monachos Cantuarienses Archiepiscopum Baldewinum 3. Vitae Dorobernensium Archiepiscoporum R. de Diceto's History of these Primates was discover'd in the Norfolk Library after some others amongst whom he should have been rank'd were publish'd And 't would not have been any great loss if we had still wanted it being very short and mostly stuff'd with Matters foreign to the Purpose Mr. Pits sends us to the Library at Bennet College to enquire after a Manuscript Copy of Arch-bishop Langton's Annals of his Predecessors But he that runs on his Errand will find himself mistaken There are indeed in that Library some Collections out of the last mention'd Author's History of our Kings which relate chiefly to the Affairs of this See the transcriber whereof had some thoughts of Copying out St. Langton's History of Richard the First and so prefaced his Work with the Title of Annales Stephani Archiepiscopi But he soon quits that Subject and so imposes upon a careless Catalogue-monger The next in Order of time was Tho. Spott Spottey or Sprott a Benedictine Monk of Canterbury in the Year 1274. whose Book has been vainly enquired after by some of our most Industrious Antiquaries and particularly by one whom hardly any thing on this Subject could escape The Truth is Mr. Somner seems to think 't was rather a Chronicle of the City of Canterbury than of the Arch-bishops and if W. Thorn who was a Monk of the same House in the Year 1380. either Epitomiz'd or Enlarged it it may probably prove only the same with his History of the Abbots of St. Augustines St. Birchington's Performance is largely accounted for by his late Publisher who has assur'd us that nothing that either this Writer or any of the former can afford us has been omitted by the diligent Author of the Antiquitates Britannicae Archbishop Parker was generally reputed the Author of this admired Book till Mr. Selden transferr'd the Honour of it to His Grace's Chaplain Mr. Josseline who has since enjoy'd it I confess I am far from being of AB Bramhal's Opinion That the conclusion of the Preface proves the Acrhbishop himself to have been the Author of that Book But it does fairly intimate that the Composer of it whoever he was did desire the World should believe that most of his Materials were handed to him by that Learn'd Metropolitan who was also he saies the Directer and Overseer of the
whole Work In the same place the Hannow Edition is blam'd for omitting Parker's own Life which perhaps was no fault in those that had the care of it There were only a few Copies of the First Edition such as were design'd for public Libraries and the accomodation of a few choise Friends that had the 29 Pages which make up that Life so that 't was not to be expected that the Foreign Publishers should Print it otherwise than as 't was commonly sold by our English Booksellers Mr. Wharton every where gives this Writer more respect than any other he 's pleased to cite and yet he observes a great many of his mistakes and I do not doubt but any skilful Antiquarie will easily take notice of many and many more So imperfect will always be the most compleat Works of any single Man CARLILE This remote and small Diocese has been heretofore so much expos'd to the continual Incursions of the Scots before the Kingdoms were happily united in King James the First that there are not many of it's ancient Records any where now to be had The only pieces of Antiquity in the Bishops possession are two Register Books of four successive Prelates Halton Rosse Kirkby and Welton and these will furnish us with little more than the History of one Century The Records of the Dean and Chapter go not much higher than their new Denomination given them by Henry the Eighth and are very broken and imperfect since that Epoche Out of these and what other helps could be had from some Neighbouring and Distant Libraries Dr. Hugh Todd Prebendary of this Church has made a Volume of Collections which is lately placed in the Dean and Chapter 's Library under the Title of An History of the Diocese of Carlile containing an Account of the Parishes Abbies Nunneries Churches Monuments Epitaphs Coats of Arms Founders Benefactors c. with a perfect Catalogue of the Bishops Priors Deans Chancellours Arch-deacons Prebendaries and of all Rectors and Vicars of the several Parishes in the said Diocese My worthy Brother hopes that the Additions which will hereafter be made to this Work will at last make it answer its Title and I heartily wish I could do so too But to me the prospect is so discouraging that I know not which way to look for such Helps as would be necessary for the compleating of so full and ample an Account of our Church and Diocess Our Sufferings in the days of Rapine and Rebellion equal'd or exceeded those of any other Cathedral of England and after our Chapter-House and Treasury had been turn'd into a Magazine for the Garrison and our very Charter sold to make a Taylor 's Measures it can hardly be expected that so many of our Records will ever be retriev'd as are requisite to finish out such a History CHESTER being another of King Henry the Eighth's Foundations cannot have any great stock of Records Some notice may possibly be taken of its most early Times by Mr. Vrmston who wrote an Account of the State of Religion in Lancashire part of this Diocess in the beginning of King James the First 's Reign CHICHESTER Most of the antient Records of this Church were squander'd and lost upon the City's being taken and plunder'd by Sir William Waller in our late Civil Wars and after the Restauration they never recover'd more than three Books belonging to the Chapter and a Register or two of the Bishops These do not reach above 230 Years backwards so that the prime Antiquities of this See before the Episcopal Throne was removed from Selsey to this Place and for some Ages afterwards are either wholly lost or in such private Hands as have hitherto very injuriously detain'd them from their right Owners 'Till a Restitution is made we must content our selves with such poor Fragments as Bede Malmesbury and others will afford us of the first Foundation of the Diocess by our Nothern Saint Wilfrid who with his Successors in the same Order that Godwine has given them stands yet pictur'd on the backside of the Quire Here are the chief Remains of their History as far as they are now to be had within the Verge of their own Cathedral to which if more shall be added by such Foreigners as are Masters of their dispersed Records 't will be a very gratefull as well as just service to the present Members of that Church St. DAVID'S We have already noted the Disputes there are about Abbot Dinoth's Remonstrance against the pretensions of Augustine the Monk and we are told that he did not only leave behind him his thoughts of that Matter in the foremention'd Protestation but that he also wrote another Treatise entitl'd Defensorinm Jurisdictionis Sedis Menevensis Bishop Godwine quotes a Catalogue of the Bishops of St. David's not taken notice of either by Gyraldus or the Annales Menevenses which he says is in the Archives of that Church There 's also an Anonymous Manuscript in the Library at Magdalen College in Oxford which treats de Gestis Ritibus Cler ' Cambrensis and may probably afford some discoveries of the ancient State of this Diocess DVRHAM The first Collecter of the History and Antiquities of this Ancient and Noble Church was Turgot who was Prior Arch-deacon and Vicar General of that Diocess He was afterwards Bishop of St. David's But upon the death of Queen Margaret return'd to Durham where he dy'd A. D. 1115. and lyes bury'd in the Chapter-House His Book bears the Title De Exordio progressu Ecclesiae Dunelmensis that is from K. Oswald's Time to the Year 1097. This was transcrib'd by Sim. Dunelm mention'd in the former part of this Work who also continu'd it to the Year 1129. from whence it has been drawn downwards by Jeoffery de Coldingham R. de Greystanes c. There are still some latent Manuscript Histories of this Church which if discover'd would undoubtedly supply a great many defects in those that are already publish'd Prior Laurence who dy'd in the Year 1154. wrote a Treatise in Meeter De Civitate Episcopatu Dunelmensi There are several MS. Tracts of that Author's Composure in the Libraries at Lambeth Durham and elsewhere and yet we cannot hitherto learn where this is to be had Tho. Rudburn in the very heart of his Historia Major has a large History of the Bishops of this See from the first Foundation at Lindisfarn to the Year 1083. which tho' mostly taken out of Turgot and Simeon has some remarkable passages never yet Printed John Wessington who dy'd Prior of Durham A. D. 1446. wrote a Book De Juribus Possessionibus Ecclesiae Dunelmensis wherein amongst other choice Matters 't is prov'd that the Priors of that Church were always invested with the Dignity and Priviledges of Abbots Sir H. Spelman quotes some Synodical or rather Consistorial Constitutions made by Bishop Lewis in the
Year 1319. which certainly must be very learn'd ones if they answer the Account Godwine gives of that Prelate The Cotton Library is hardly better stock'd with the Records of any Cathedral Church in England than that of Durham whereof the chief is a large Catalogue of their Benefactors from King Edwine down to the Reign of King Henry VIII The beginning of the Book is in an old Saxon Character as ancient as the time of K. Aethelstane in whose Possession 't is very probable from his Name in the Title Page supposed to be written with his own Hand it sometime was There is also a Miscellany Collection of a great many curious Particulars relating to St. Cuthbert and his Successors in that See the Contests of the Prior and Convent with their own Bishops and the Archbishops of York about the Visitatorial Power an entire History of that Church from its Foundation at Lindistarn through all its changes of Fortune and Place as low as the death of Bishop Hugh A. D. 1194. with many other remarkable Fragments of its History There 's also in the Bishops Library at Durham a MS. Collection of the Antiquities of this Church transcribed by the Directions of Bishop Cosin wherein there 's a different Account of some Particulars from what we have in the Rites and Monuments published by Mr. Davies Nor is this last mention'd Piece such an ignorant and pitiful Legend as a very worthy Person has represented it since there 's no where extant so full and exact an Account of the State of this Cathedral at the suppression of Monasteries The Author seems to have been an Eye-witness of all that pass'd at that time and his Descriptions of such Matters as are still remaining appear to be so nicely true that we have great Reason to credit him in the rest Besides these there are now in the Possession of the Dean and Chapter a great many Authentick Records Original Charters Endowments c. which will enable one to furnish out a much more compleat History of this Church than has yet appear'd And I hope the Ingenious and Learn'd Dr. Iohn Smith now Prebendary of that Cathedral will think the Undertaking most proper for himself ELY That History of the Church of Ely which was partly publish'd by Sir William Dugdale and wholly by Mr. Wharton is not the Work of Thomas and Richard whose Names it carries but an Abstract by a nameless Author out of their much larger Volumes which still remain in Manuscript Some parts of the former have been printed out of other Copies by L. D' Achery and Dr. Gale if those Learn'd Gentlemen be not mistaken as I suspect they are in their Conjectures Dr. Brady quotes a Survey of all the Mannors belonging to this Bishoprick taken in the Year 1248. but does not direct us where to find it That S. Birchington or Brickington as he calls him wrote a Catalogue of the Bishops of Ely Mr. Pits is very positive But how he fell into that Mistake wherein he is follow'd by Vossius has been discover'd by a late Writer of much better Credit He probably conjectures that staging over the Margin of one of our Learn'd Church-Historians he met with this Quotation Steph. Birch Catal. Episc. Eliens and thence presently concluded that Stephen must be the Author of the Catalogue there cited Whereas the Historian referr'd his Readers to two several Manuscripts Birchington's History of the Archbishops of Canterbury and an anoâ—ymous Catalogue of the Bishops of Ely for the proof of what he had there advanced EXETER There is in Bodley's Library an old Latin Mass-Book in Saxon Characters in the end whereof we have many Particulars of the Life of Bishop Leofric who gave the Book to his Cathedral as his settling the Episcopal See at Exeter A. D. 1050. c. It gives us also a Catalogue of the Reliques that Church was possess'd of at the time when this Book was written John Grandeson who dy'd Bishop of this See A. D. 1369. is said to have written Martyrologium Exoniense for a Manuscript whereof we are advised to consult the Library at Bennet College John Hooker or Vowel Chamberlain of Exeter where he dy'd A. D. 1601. wrote a lean Catalogue of the Bishops of that See first publish'd by him in Quarto and afterwards inserted into Ralph Holinshead's Chronicle It begins with Eadulph whom he unaccountably calls Werstant and ends at Bishop Woolton who was consecrated in the Year 1579. There 's no want of Materials for the composure of a much fuller History Since the Registers of a good many of the Bishops Stapleton Brantingham Stafford c. are cited by Mr. Wharton and many more pointed at by Mr. Taâ—â—er GLOCESTER being a Diocess of Henry VIIIth's Erection cannot have any Records relating to the See it self more authentick than that which acquaints us with the Erection of St. Peter's Church into a Cathedral But there are many Venerable Remains of Ecclesiastical History which are to be had in the register-Register-books of those Religious Houses and Parochial Churches which were then brought within that Jurisdiction Out of these Dr. R. Parsons the present worthy Chancellor of that Diocess has collected two MS. Volumes which are also digested into so good a Method that they well deserve the Title of a Compleat History The first of these he stiles Memoirs of the ancient Abbey and present Cathedral of Gloucester wherein he gives an Account of the Foundation of the Great Abbey of St. Peter's in this City and the Succession of its Abbots down to the Dissolution with the History and Succession of the Bishops Deans Chancellors Archdeacons and Prebendaries ever since the dismembering of it from the See of Worcester This Work was happily undertaken at the Request of the late Mr. Wharton who design'd to have oblig'd the Publick with it in some future Volume of his Anglia Sacra We are not in despair of seeing the good Services that were intended our Church by that Learn'd Person fully finish'd and brought to Perfection by some other able Hand So that 't is to be hop'd we shall not long want the Benefit of such successful Labours His other Volume bears the Inscription of A Parochial Visitation of the Diocess of Gloucester wherein the Matters treated on are chiefly Ecclesiastical tho' some Affairs of a Civil Nature are also intermix'd The Observations that occur in this are partly owing to the Author 's own View and Enquiries made in the several Parishes and partly to such Helps as could be had out of the Registry at Worcester and his own at Gloucester HEREFORD That there were anciently several good old Register-books belonging to this Cathedral is beyond dispute Sir H. Spelman quotes one of 'em and we have heard of several others besides that of Bishop Booth The Library and Archives here fell under the like Misfortunes during the
turn'd into a common Stable by the Rebel Army as it was within ten Years after that into a heap of Rubbish by the dreadful Fire of London NORWICH There are not many Histories of this Diocess All that Mr. Wharton could pick up was out of a couple of General Histories of England written by Bartholomew de Cotton and another anonymous Monk of that Church He quotes indeed a short Chronicle of Norwich in the same Library whence he had the former of these But the late Publisher of the Catalogue of those Manuscripts is mistaken if there be any such Book in the Place referr'd to There is indeed in another Class a piece which bears the Title of Festa synodalia Norwicensis Dioeceseos which begins with St. Foelix the Burgundian their first Bishop The oldest Register-Book which I have yet heard of in this See is that of Bishop Bateman the Magnanimous Founder of Trinity Hall in Cambridge A short Account of the Bishops and Deans of this Church by Tho. Searle A. D. 1659. is among the MSS. of the present worthy Bishop of the Diocess OXFORD is of so late an Erection that it cannot want an absolute and entire History of all its Prelates since its Foundation by Henry the Eighth And we have already observ'd that its Parochial Antiquities preceeding that Time are happily preserv'd by an Ingenious and Learn'd Person who has spar'd no Pains in Collecting out of a vast number of Neighbouring Records and Evidences whatever was worth the Treasuring up and transmitting to Posterity Anth. Wood Collected the Sepulchral and Fenestral Inscriptions of the several Parishes in the County of Oxford which are now amongst those many Papers he left to the University PETERBVRGH was one of the most Rich and Flourishing Monasteries in this Kingdom and was turn'd into one of the poorest Bishopricks by Henry the Eighth The most of those many excellent Histories that concern this Place in its Pristine State have been noted by Mr. Tanner tho' some few have escap'd his great Diligence He has taken no notice of two old Registers given by my Lord Hatton to the Cottonian Library nor of some ancient Grants and Donations to that Monastery He has also omitted Hugh White Abbot of Peterburgh who in Leland's Character is Rerum Petroburgi gestarum luculentus plane Scriptor To these there 's little to be added since the Foundation of the Episcopal See of any great value saving what has been carefully preserv'd in St. Gunton's History which will be this Churches everlasting Monument Some Inscriptions are said indeed to have been defaced before the Survey taken by this Author but those we are told were also to be had amongst the Manuscripts of Franc. Thynne who Collected them in the Year 1592. 'T was happy that Sir William Dugdale and Mr. Gunton drew up their Collections at so seasonable and lucky a time as the Year 1641. For within two years after that in April 1643. this Cathedral was most miserably abused by Cromwell's Regiment who among other shameless outrages broke into the Chapter-House ransack'd the Records broke the Seals tore the Writings and left the floor cover'd over with torn Papers Parchments and Seals ROCHESTER The most venerable Monument of Antiquity that belongs to this Church is the Textus Roffensis which may justly challenge a Respect more than ordinary It was written by Bishop Ernulf who dy'd in the Year 1124. And besides the Affairs of this Cathedral which are accounted for by Mr. Wharton furnishes us with the Laws of four Kentish Kings Ethelbert Hlothere Eadred and Withred omitted by Lambard together with the Saxon Form of Oaths of Fealty and Wager of Law the old Form of cursing by Bell Book and Candle of Ordale c. I suppose this Book was wisely committed to the care of Sir Roger Twisden during the confusions of our late Civil Wars For in his Custody I find it often referr'd to by Sir William Dugdale in a Work which he Compos'd during those Troubles Hadenham and Dene's Histories have been pickt and their choicest Flowers are preserv'd in the Anglia Sacra And the Chronicon Claustri Roffensis is the same with the Textus SALISBVRY Somewhat of the History of the ancient Bishops of Sherburn may be had among L. Noel's Collections and the defects of those down to the Year 1357. may be supply'd from the Chronicle of the Church of Sarum This Chronicle begins at the Creation and has some special Remarks touching the Affairs of our ancient British Church wherein it seems to be singular The Registers also of several of their Bishops as Mortival Wivil Waltham Medford Aiscough and Beauchamp are still extant WINCHESTER There can hardly be any more said of this Ancient and Famous See than what we have from Tho. Rudburn and other Authors lately publish'd out of Sir John Cotton's inexhaustible Treasury Unless for the more modern Times we had that Continuation of the Bishops which was made by John Trussel who brought their History as low as the Sufferings of Bishop Curl and his Order in the beginning of our English Anarchy WORCESTER As this Church was one of the most flourishing in the whole Island under the Government of our Saxon Kings so it had the fortune to preserve its Charters and other Instruments relating to those Times much better than its Neighbours In the Year 1643. Sir William Dugdale drew a Catalogue of no less than 92 such original Donations none whereof fell lower than the Reign of Henry the First To these there have been fifteen more now in the Archives of that Church and not mentioned in the Monasticon added by Dr. Hickes who also believes that among Mr. Lambard's MSS. now in the Archives at Canterbury there are several Saxon Grants belonging to the Church of Worcester After these we are to have recourse to the Anonymous Compilers of the Annals of this Cathedral and the continuation of them by their learn'd Publisher who by the way tells us that Hemming's Book has much more in it than either he or Sir W. Dugdale have given themselves the trouble of transcribing John Rosse the Renown'd Hermit of Guy's Cliff is said to have written a Treatise de Episcopis Wigorniae which I should not much have believed upon the single Credit of my first Author had I not seen the Book it self quoted by our late industrious Naturalist Doctor Plott Some part of Mr. Abingdon's Collection of the Antiquities of Worcestershire mention'd in the former part of this Historical Library is also reported to bear the Title of A History of the Bishops of Worcester which I cannot but once more heartily wish were committed to the Inspection and Care of the Learn'd Dr. Hopkins Prebendary of that Church who we know is throughly versed in the Antiquities of his own
profess'd Enemy he will be sure to read it with a Curb upon his Faith He will critically weigh and examine his Author's Conclusions and Inferences And if he finds those good and logical he will yet suspend his Belief till Matters of Fact are attested by some other indifferent Authority And lastly where Miracles and Revelations are in Vogue and carry a Price he will attentively consider whether the Penman will not be a Gainer by having his Story credited And whether he 's not in hazard of wanting some part of his daily Bread if it miscarries In such a Case a complaisant Respect to the Fashions of a Country may prevail upon a Man to be silent and say nothing but Reason will direct him what to think By these Rules we are to judge of the Lives of those Saints which have been taken notice of in some of the foregoing Chapters as well as of those Religious Persons that are here to follow I mean those good Bishops and other pious Ecclesiasticks of a lower Form of Sanctity and second-rate Merit who though they have not the Honour to come in the Kalendar are acknowledg'd to have done the Church very eminent Services in their several Generations The Lives of these are not very numerous At least they are but a few that have come to my Knowledge In the ancient British and Saxon Churches all that were worth the having their Names register'd by an Ecclesiastical Historian are Saints of some degree or other and are all to be had in the Catholick Almanack where Joseph of Arimathea Venerable Bede Bishop Erkenwald c. who are sometimes Saints and sometimes only Confessors or Reverend old Church-men have the Days of their several Obits assign'd them Having therefore nothing more to write of the Lives of the Holy Men of these Ages I shall take my leave of them with the Observation of a witty Author on some following Times which I think may be as applicable to these One may wonder says he that the World should see most Visions when it was most blind and that that Age most barren in Learning should be most fruitful in Revelations After the Conquest we have several Ecclesiastical Champions that have had a very profound Respect paid them by their Cotemporary Writers and yet could never arrive at a legal Canonization These as many of 'em that is as have had their Lives penn'd by such particular Historiographers as I have heard of were mostly either Archbishops or Bishops To which a third Class of inferiour Clergy-men shall be added to be inlarg'd by those that have better opportunities than I have had of making just and full Enquiries The Archbishops of Canterbury have always presided in the British Church tanquam Papae alterius Orbis and therefore in their Lives well written we may justly expect the most considerable part of our Ecclesiastical History During the Contests betwixt the Crown of England and the Court of Rome it was commonly the mishap of these Primates to side with the latter which brought them sometimes into disgraceful Circumstances with their Sovereigns but made their Memories precious in the esteem of those bigotted Monks to whose Lot it fell to write their Elogies Hence we have already met with Anselm Edmund and Thomas among the Saints and must here mennion such of their Successors as have had particular Pens engag'd in their Service tho' never so much as honour'd with even the diminutive Saintship a Beatification Simon Sudbury who was beheaded by the Rebels in Wat. Tyler's Insurrection is the first that I can meet with of this kind And we have only a Fragment of his Life written by one William Chartham It tells us that 't was prophesy'd such an untimely Death should befal him because when Bishop of London he met some Pilgrims on their way to Canterbury designing to pay their Devotion to St. Thomas's Shrine and advised them to let the Journey alone assuring them Quod illa Indulgentia plenaria quae apud Cantuarios fore sperabatur nullius commodi fuerat vel valoris Such Doctrin as this in his Life-time and the sealing his Loyalty to his Prince with his Blood at his Death ought indeed to be remember'd with Honour That of Henry Chicheley the pious Founder of All-Soul's College in Oxford is written by Arth. Duck and was lately publish'd with some others of the like kind by Dr. Bates John Morton's was written and publish'd by Dr. Budden Principal of New-Inn-Hall who had in this Primate as noble a Subject as any Historian could well treat on He had approv'd himself a most faithful Servant to Henry the Sixth a true Subject to Edward the Fourth and an admirable Counsellor to Henry the Seventh who gain'd the English Sceptre chiefly by his Management and had therefore good Reason to bestow a Crosier upon him Since the Reformation so much of Archbishop Parker's Life as related to his Consecration has been enquir'd into by several worthy Patriots of our Church provok'd to it by the impudent and senseless Fable of the Nags-Head Tavern The first that engag'd in this Controversy was Fran. Wilson who from the register-Register-books of the Diocess of Canterbury discover'd the Villanies and stop'd the Mouths of those Romanists that had first started this Slander The Dispute was again renew'd a little before the Restoration of King Charles the Second and then our Church's Cause was as happily asserted by Bishop Bramhal afterwards Primate of Ireland In the late Reign the University of Cambridge thought it a proper Season to publish an Account of that whole Procedure from the Original Record in the Library of Bennet College which they order'd to be printed with two excellent Sermons upon the same Subject preach'd by Mr. Edwards a Member of that University Archbishop Whitgift's many sharp Conflicts with the Nonconformists together with the other Occurrences of his Life are recorded by Sir George Paul a Writer much commended by Bishop Godwine The Metropolitical Church of York has had several Prelates whose high Birth and Extraction besides their other personal Endowments has advanc'd them to considerable Posts of Honour and Trust in the State and these will alwayes invite the best Historians of the Age to attempt their Characters Geoffry Plantagenet Natural Son to Henry the Second had great variety of Fortune being promoted by his Brother King Richard the First and driven out of the Kingdom by another of his brethren King John His Story is given us at large by Gyraldus Cambrensis who says he did not think fit to put its Author's Name to it there being belike some of his warm Truths in it which the Times would not bear In the Catalogue of his own Labours he tells us that 't was a Book quod nec in cunabulis aut celsitudine generis nec in Divitiis aut Fortunae blanditiis spes ponenda exemplum praebens Rich. Scroop Brother to the Earl of
of greatest note since the Reformation were penn'd by Tho. White alias Woodhop a Monk of Doway where he dy'd of the Plague in 1654. A Manuscript Copy of this was in Mr. Wood's possession and I suppose is now among those Books that he Bequeath'd to the University in the Musaeum at Oxford But the chief of our Historians of this Order was Clement Reyner whose elaborate Book is Entitl'd Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia sive Decerptatio Historica de Antiquitate Ordinis Congregationisque Monachorum Nigrorum in Anglia His Business is to prove that the Order was brought hither by Augustine Arch-bishop of Canterbury and he is thought by some of our best Antiquaries to have effectually prov'd his Point and to have fairly Answer'd all the Objections against it He is said to have had great helps from the Collections made by John Jones or Leander de Sancto Martino as he nam'd himself Prior of St. Gregory's and Publick Professor of Divinity at Doway who sojourning sometime in England with his heretofore Chamber-fellow Arch-bishop Laud had frequent access to the Cotton-Library where he transcrib'd whatever he could find that related to the History aâ—d Antiquities of his own Order Others say that the most of the Collections out of this Library which were used by our Author Reyner were made by Augustine Baker another Monk of Doway who left several Volumes in Folio of Select Matters very serviceable towards the Illustrating of this and other parts of our English History However it was Sir Thomas Bodley's Library was thought the most proper Magazine to furnish out Artillery against the Man that had already seiz'd on that of Sir Robert Cotton and to this purpose Father John Barnes a Brother Benedictine but of different Sentiments with Reyner betakes himself to Oxford and there Composes a sharp Refutation of the Apostolatus This was very ill resented by those of the Fraternity and other Members of the Roman Church And they had some reason to be Angry at one of their own Body's using the Book more Scurvily than any of the Protestant Writers had done There are several Learn'd Foreigners in France and Flanders that have lately made very Voluminous Collections of the Acta Benedictinorum in General wherein are some Tracts written by English-Men and such as wholly treat on our own Historical Matters These have been occasionally mention'd in other parts of this Work And my Design will not allow me to consider them any further The Cistercians may be reckon'd one of our own Orders For tho' they came not into this Kingdom 'till almost a Hundred Years after their first Formation they were founded by Robert Harding an English-Man Hugh Kirkstede or rather Kirkstall was a Monk of this Order about the Year 1220. and collected the Memoirs of all the English that had been of it which he Dedicated to John Abbot of Fountains This is attested by Leland who acquaints us further that in the Library at Rippon he saw his Book entitl'd Historia rerum a Monachis Cisterciensibus gestarum Bale tells us that he was greatly assisted in this Work by Serlo Abbat of Fountains about the Year 1160. And because there appears to be a good distance betwixt the reputed Times of these two Writers he assures us that Hugh liv'd very near a hundred Year I am apt to believe that Serlo was the sole Author of another Treatise ascrib'd to this Monk De Origine Fontani Coenobij and that this is the true bottom of Bale's fine Contrivance The Canons Regular of St. Augustine pretend to be Founded by that famous Father and Bishop of Hippo whose Name they bear But they are of no great Antiquity Here all our Historians agreeing in this tho' they disagree about the precise time that they came into England since the Conquest The first of their Historiographers was Jeoffrey Hardib Canon of Leicester and Privy Councellour to King Edward the Third in the Year 1360. who was an eminent Preacher a great Divine and amongst many other things wrote De rebus gestis Ordinis sui The next and the last that I know of was John Capgrave who was sometime Provincial of the Order and he alotted one his many Volumes the Subject De Illustribus Viris Ordinis S. Augustini The Dominicans Franciscans and other Mendicant Friers having had no Lands had no occasion for Leiger-Books But I know not why we should not have better Remains of their History Penn'd by themselves since 't was no part of their Vow that they should so far renounce the World as not to have their good Works had in remembrance The Story of the settlement of the Order of St. Francis in England being confirm'd by Henry the Third in the Year 1224 is written by Tho. Ecleston whose Book De adventu Minorum in Angliam is in several of our Libraries Mr. Pits says he wrote also another Book De Ordinis impugnatione per Dominicanos Which I am afraid is only a part of the former for they had Battail given soon after their first Landing Their History afterwards is pretty well accounted for by Fran. a Sancta Clara and we have a formal Register of that Colony of them that was seated in London with some Fragments of those of other Places The Records of the University of Oxford with those in the Neighbourhood have afforded us a diverting View of their frequent Bickerings with the Dominicans in our publick Schools which for an Age or two make up a good share of the Annals of that Place The Carmelites have likewise had some few of their Fraternity who have taken the pains to enquire into the History of that Order of whom William of Coventry about the Year 1360. wrote de Adventu Carmelitarum in Angliam Bale quotes some of his Words and Writes as if he had seen his Book About a Hundred Years after this Will. Green a Cambridg-Man collected out of the most of the Libraries in England the noted Exploits of the great Men of this Order which he afterwards published under the Title of Hagiologium Carmelitarum And lastly Robert Bale a Carmelite Fryar at Norwich and afterwards Prior of Burnham where he dy'd A. D. 1503. wrote Annales Breves Ordinis sui 'T is much that this Gentleman's name-sake the famous Mr. John Bale never penn'd any thing of this kind For he was also a Carmelite of Norwich and assures us in the Account he gives of his own dear Self in the Tail of his Writers that the Libraries of that Order were the chief Treasury out of which he had his Riches Perhaps he did Write some such Thing but did not afterwards think fit to own the Respects he once had for those Antichristian Locusts as he there most greatefully calls them CHAP. VIII Of the Histories of our Vniversities and Writers WHAT Sir John Marsham says of the old