4206. Robert Southey to [John May] [fragment], [c. 27 June 1824]
Endorsement: No. 238 1824/ Robert Southey/ Keswick 27th June/
recd. 1st Jule/ ansd. 27th Oct.
MS: Robert Southey Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. AL; 4p.
Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 429–430.
Dating note: Dating from endorsement.
I had nearly forgotten to answer your question concerning the books which elucidate our Eccl. History.
(1)
Southey goes on to list his sources for The Book of the Church (1824).
The two works which profess that to embrace that subject exclusively are Fullers,
(2)
Thomas Fuller (1607/8–1661; DNB), The Church-History of Britain: from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the Year MDCXLVIII, with the History of the University of Cambridge and of Waltham-abby in Essex, Founded by King Harold (1655), no. 1190 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Oxford University Press did publish a new edition, edited by John Sherren Brewer (1810–1879; DNB), but not until 1845.
& Jeremy Collier’s.
(3)
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726; DNB), An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Chiefly of England: from the First Planting of Christianity, to the End of the Reign of Charles the Second (1708–1714). Collier was a High Churchman and refused to accept the Revolution of 1688, eventually becoming a non-juring bishop in 1713.
The first will I hope be reprinted at the Clarendon Press, for with all its manifold imperfections it contains much matter for which no other authority can now be found the record of the Convocation
(4)
The Convocations of Canterbury and York were the assemblies of bishops and clergy of the two Provinces of the Church of England. They approved revisions to canon law and agreed to taxes on the clergy, but their meetings had been formalities since 1717. Their proceedings can be gleaned from medieval archbishops’ registers and Southey could have consulted David Wilkins (1685–1745; DNB), Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae a Synodo Verolamiensi A.D. 446 ad Londinensam A.D. 1717 (1737).
having been destroyed. & it has moreover all the inimitable charm of Fullers manner. – Collier is coarse & clumsy – - a bigot – on the right side. – It was necessary that I should have both at hand, but you would find upon investigation that I have drawn my materials from other sources, Collier’s never lay open before me, – & Fuller’s I believe only in the reign of James I.
(5)
James VI and I (1567–1625; King of Great Britain 1603–1625; DNB).
For facts relating to the history of the Church the most common books are Kennetts Parochial Antiquities, & his Case of Impropriations.
(6)
White Kennett (1660–1728; DNB), Parochial Antiquities Attempted in the History of Ambrosden, Burcester and Other Adjacent Parts in the Counties of Oxford and Bucks, with a Glossary of Obsolete Terms (1695) and The Case of Impropriations, and of the Augmentations of Vicarages and Other Insufficient Cures, Stated by History and Law (1704), no. 1553 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
H Wharton Defence of Pluralities.
(7)
Henry Wharton (1664–1695; DNB), A Defence of Pluralities, or Holding Two Benefices with Cure of Souls as now Practised in the Church of England (1692).
Stavelys History of Churches.
(8)
Thomas Staveley (1626–1684; DNB), The History of Churches in England (1712), no. 2737 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
Bede
(9)
Bede (672/673–735; DNB), Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (c. 731).
& the Acta Sanctorum
(10)
The massive, 53-volume, compendium of hagiographies, entitled Acta Sanctorum (1643–1794), no. 207 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
were my resources for the early history – with Wm of Malmesbury.
(11)
William of Malmesbury (c. 1095–c. 1143; DNB), Gesta Pontificum Anglorum (1125).
To my sorrow I had no original authorities for the life of Becket,
(12)
St Thomas Becket (1119/1120–1170; DNB), Archbishop of Canterbury 1162–1170.
except such as were in the App. to Ld Lyttletons history.
(13)
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton (1709–1773; DNB), The History of the Life of King Henry the Second, and of the Age in Which he Lived, 5 vols (London, 1769–1771), IV, pp. 413–521, no. 1771 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
Berrington
(14)
Joseph Berington (1743–1827; DNB), The History of the Reign of Henry the Second, and of Richard and John, his Sons; With the Events of the Period, from 1154 to 1216. In which the Character of Thomas a Becket is Vindicated from the Attacks of George Lord Lyttelton (1790).
is the best historian of those times, – indeed much the fairest of all the English Romanists in his writings
We come now to Lewis’s Life Lives of Wicliffe & of Bp Pecock
(15)
John Lewis (1675–1747; DNB), The History of the Life and Sufferings of the Reverend and Learned John Wiclif, D.D. Together with a Collection of Papers Relating to the Said History (1720) and The Life of the Learned and Right Reverend Reynold Pecock S.T.P. Lord Bishop of St Asaph and Chichester, in the Reign of King Henry VI. Faithfully Collected from Records and MSS. Being a Sequel of the Life of Dr. John Wiclif, In order to An Introduction to the History of the English Reformation (1744), no. 1719 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– I had also Baber’s Life of Wiclif prefixed to his New Testament
(16)
Henry Hervey Baber (1775–1869; DNB), The New Testament, Translated from the Latin in the Year 1380 by John Wiclif: to which are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Life, Opinions, and Writings of Dr Wiclif, and an Historical Account of the Saxon and English Versions of the Scriptures, Previous to the Opening of the Fifteenth Century (1810), no. 2849 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– & Fox’s Martyrs.
(17)
John Foxe (c. 1516–1587; DNB), Acts and Monuments most Special and Memorable happening to the Church, 9th edition (1684), no. 975 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
Then came the whole series of Strypes laborious compilations,
(18)
John Strype (1643–1737; DNB), whose lives of sixteenth-century divines were important sources for church history. Southey acquired the twenty-three-volume Clarendon Press edition of Strype’s Works (1816–1824), no. 2753 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– in which I believe nothing has escaped me, tho in this work I have not made use of the 50th part of my references to them. – Fox. Burnett.
(19)
Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715; DNB), History of the Reformation of the Church of England (1679–1714), no. 477 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
th Dr Wordsworths Ecc. Biography.
(20)
Christopher Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Biography; or, Lives of Eminent Men, Connected with the History of the Church of England; from the Commencement of the Reformation to the Revolution; Selected and Illustrated with Notes (1810), no. 3041 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
Rushworth & Nalson
(21)
John Rushworth (1612–1690; DNB), Historical Collections of Private Passages of State (1659–1721) and John Nalson (1637–1686; DNB), An Impartial Collection of the Great Affairs of State, from the Beginnings of the Scotch Rebellion in the Year MDCXXXIX to the Murther of King Charles I (1682–1683), no. 1924 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.
– (the former I must observe is not known as he deserves to be for a great rogue, – but he has perfectly convinced me that a writer may deserve to be punished as severely for his sins of omission, as for direct falsehood.) All the lives of Laud
(22)
William Laud (1573–1645; DNB), Archbishop of Canterbury 1633–1645. Southey possessed Peter Heylin (1599–1662; DNB), Cypriana Anglicus; or, the History of the Life and Death of William Laud (1671), no. 1224 in the sale catalogue of his library, and Henry Wharton (1664–1695; DNB), The History of the Troubles and Tryal of the Most Reverend Father in God and Blessed Martyr, William Laud, Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury (1695–1700), no. 1673 in the sale catalogue of his library.
– Hackets Life of Ab Williams
(23)
John Hacket (1592–1670; DNB), Scrinia Reserata: a Memorial Offer’d to the Great Deservings of John Williams, D.D. (1693), no. 1211 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. This was a biography of John Williams (1582–1650; DNB), Archbishop of York 1641–1650.
– a much more important book (in spite of its odd, but very amusing stile) than it is generally known to be. A great deal has been drawn from Tracts published during the Civil Wars, – of which I found a rich collection at Lowther. – In short from all histories, biograph memoirs, &c of all parties on which I could lay hands. And I need x not tell you that my previous knowledge of monastic history was of ‘great use.’
Every body has cried out for references. I will give them as I find leisure for doing it, in some future edition: & I will do for this reason, that when the references are given, the reader who xxx is diligent enough to refer to them, may see how faithfully I have followed <represented> the facts & how completely the composition is my own.
