DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0214
182
HISTORY OF
buried before the high altar under the lower pavement. He was the first of his
dignity whose epitaph was written in prose.—Hie jacet Ricardus de Sudbury,
quondam Abbas hujus loci: cujus animae propitietur Deus. Amen.
Pater Noster—Ave Maria*.
* In the time of this abbot John Bevere is supposed to have died. He is also called Castor and
Fiber; but in the list of the monks, John de London, as having been born in that city. He appears
to have been living in 1S10, but not afterwards, and was then in a very infirm state. He wrote a
history from the time of iEneas to the latter end of the reign of Edward I.; but it was never printed.
Mr. Hearne was preparing it for the press at the time of his death. Many expressions in it are to be
found in Matthew of Westminster; but which was the original writer cannot be determined till the
time of the latter be ascertained. If that could be done with accuracy, some account of the author
of Flores Historiarum + would be appropriate to this place, as it is more probable, according to
Wharton and NicholsonJ, that he lived about this time, than seventy years later, which is the opinion
of Bale and Pits. If he were a monk of Westminster, as is generally supposed, for in this monastery
Adam Murimuth found his book, which he continued, his name could not have been Matthew, for there
is not one of that Christian name in all the various lists of monks yet remaining in the archives of
the church. The first time he appears by the name of Matthew is in a manuscript of his history§,
which belonged to the stout Bishop of Norwich, and that is between the years 1370 and 1406. In Bishop
Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica||, one Reading, a monk of Westminster, is said to have
been the author of the first part of the Flores, and Matthew Pariensis, a canon of St. Paul's, of the
second. There was certainly a Robert Reading, a monk of Westminster, at this time ; but no such
person as Matthew Paris appears to have been a canon of St. Paul's. The historian and monk of the
abbey of St. Alban's is the only ecclesiastic known to possess that name. The author in question has
transcribed very largely from Matthew Paris, and referred to the Additimenta as his own work; a cir-
cumstance which might, perhaps, occasion such as lived some time afterwards to quote him by the
name of Matthew.
* Archives.
f Anglia Sacra, vol. I. p. 32, 33.
% Page 66, edit. 1714.
§ Cotton Library, Claudius, E. 3.
|| Page 619.
HISTORY OF
buried before the high altar under the lower pavement. He was the first of his
dignity whose epitaph was written in prose.—Hie jacet Ricardus de Sudbury,
quondam Abbas hujus loci: cujus animae propitietur Deus. Amen.
Pater Noster—Ave Maria*.
* In the time of this abbot John Bevere is supposed to have died. He is also called Castor and
Fiber; but in the list of the monks, John de London, as having been born in that city. He appears
to have been living in 1S10, but not afterwards, and was then in a very infirm state. He wrote a
history from the time of iEneas to the latter end of the reign of Edward I.; but it was never printed.
Mr. Hearne was preparing it for the press at the time of his death. Many expressions in it are to be
found in Matthew of Westminster; but which was the original writer cannot be determined till the
time of the latter be ascertained. If that could be done with accuracy, some account of the author
of Flores Historiarum + would be appropriate to this place, as it is more probable, according to
Wharton and NicholsonJ, that he lived about this time, than seventy years later, which is the opinion
of Bale and Pits. If he were a monk of Westminster, as is generally supposed, for in this monastery
Adam Murimuth found his book, which he continued, his name could not have been Matthew, for there
is not one of that Christian name in all the various lists of monks yet remaining in the archives of
the church. The first time he appears by the name of Matthew is in a manuscript of his history§,
which belonged to the stout Bishop of Norwich, and that is between the years 1370 and 1406. In Bishop
Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica||, one Reading, a monk of Westminster, is said to have
been the author of the first part of the Flores, and Matthew Pariensis, a canon of St. Paul's, of the
second. There was certainly a Robert Reading, a monk of Westminster, at this time ; but no such
person as Matthew Paris appears to have been a canon of St. Paul's. The historian and monk of the
abbey of St. Alban's is the only ecclesiastic known to possess that name. The author in question has
transcribed very largely from Matthew Paris, and referred to the Additimenta as his own work; a cir-
cumstance which might, perhaps, occasion such as lived some time afterwards to quote him by the
name of Matthew.
* Archives.
f Anglia Sacra, vol. I. p. 32, 33.
% Page 66, edit. 1714.
§ Cotton Library, Claudius, E. 3.
|| Page 619.