忍者ブログ

Kazu's Library

[PR]

×

[PR]上記の広告は3ヶ月以上新規記事投稿のないブログに表示されています。新しい記事を書く事で広告が消えます。

F. Godwin, A Catalogue of the Bishops of England (1615)

Francis Godwin, A Catalogve of the Bishops of England, since the First Planting of Christian Religion in this Island, Together with a Brief History of their Liues and Memorable Actions, so Neere as can be Gathered out of Antiquity, wherevnto is Prefixed a Discourse concerning the First Conuersion of our Britaine vnto Christian Religion (London: Thomas Adams, 1615). 



This book, a revised edition of the same book published in 1601, is a kind of a collection of biographies of bishops and archbishops in England from the Anglo-Saxon period to the end of the sixteenth century. The author, Francis Godwin (1562-1633), was a bishop of Hereford and historian, and according to D. R. Woolf's article in the DNB, this is the most important work by him, and 'it wore well over the next two centuries as a basic reference source'. It could be seen as another contribution to the establishment of the history of the Church of England in the face of Catholic and puritan attacks, and according to Woolf, it 'was largely responsible for Godwin's relatively early appointment to the see of Llandaff'. 



The revised edition is more interesting than the first edition because of the addition of a discourse on the first conversion of Britain to Christianity (pp. 1-48). The 'first conversion' in this case does not refer to Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons by St Augustine of Canterbury or that carried out from Lindisfarne, but the author follows the tradition in which Christianity is said to have first been brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea. According to this tradition, it happened during the reign of the mythical king Lucius, who is considered to have reigned in the mid-second century and converted to Christianity with his people who had been believers of the 'religion of the Druids' (pp. 18-20; on page 20, Godwin writes, based on Bede's Ecclesiastical History (Book 1, Chapter 3), that Marcus Antonius Verus became Emperor in AD 56, but it is a misprint for AD 156). Thus it is shown that the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons in the late sixth century is only a second conversion of England, which boasts much longer history of Christianity. 

In 1616, the revised edition was translated into Latin for wider, international circulation, as De praesulibus Angliae commentarius: omnium episcoporum, necnon et cardinalium eiusdem gentis, nomina, tempora, seriem, atque actiones maxime memorabiles ab ultima antiquitate repetita complexus, and because of this achievement, Godwin is said to have been promoted to a wealthier see of Hereford. 



My copy was owned by someone called H. Baker, and then by Edward Milward Seede Parker (probably 1846-1930), who seems to have been a writer, since his inscription on the margin of page 235 says that 'See Pages 390 to 392 Volume One to to [sic] the bottom of the page, of my Monograph. 1904. Edward Milward Seede Parker' (but I can locate neither the book nor the author himself, whose probable date of birth and death I have found here). This copy also includes sporadic inscriptions seemingly in several early modern hands. 

PR
Responses0 Responses
  • NAME
  • TITLE
  • EMAIL
  • URL
  • PASSWORD