The lives of the most famous English poets, or, The honour of Parnassus in a brief essay of the works and writings of above two hundred of them, from the time of K. William the Conqueror to the reign of His present Majesty, King James II / written by William Winstanley, author of The English worthies ...

MATTHEW PARIS.

MAtthew Paris is acknowledged by all to be an Englishman, saving only one or two wrang∣ling Writers, who deserve to be arraigned of Felony for robbing our Country of its due; and no doubt Cambridge -shire was the County made happy by his birth, where the Name and Family of Paris is right ancient, even long before they were setled therein at Hildersham, wherein they still flou∣rish, though much impaired for their Loyalty in the late times of Rebellion.

He was bred a Monk of St. Albans, living in that loose Age a very strict and severe life, never less idle than when he was alone; spending those hours, reserved from Devotion, in the sweet de∣lights of Poetry, and laborious study of History, in both which he excelled all his Contemporaries: His skill also was excellent in Oratory and Divinity, as also in such manual Arts as lie in the Suburbs of

the liberal sciences, Painting, Graving, &c. so that we might sooner reckon up those things wherein he had no skill, as those wherein he was skilled: But his Genius chiefly disposed him for the writing of Histories, writing a large Chronicle with great Commendations from the Norman Con∣quest to the Year of our Lord 1250. where he con∣cludes with this Distich:

Siste tui metas studij, Matthaee, quietas Nec ventura petas, quae postera proferat aetas.

Matthew, here cease thy Pen in peace, and study on no more, Nor do thou rome at things to come, what next Age hath in store.

Yet, notwithstanding this resolution, he afterwards resumed that Work, continuing it to the Year 1259. a History impartially and judicially written, neither flattering any for their Greatness, nor sparing others for their Vices, no not so much as those of his own Profession: yet though he had sharp Nails, he had clean Hands, strict in his own, as well as striking at the loose conversation of others, and for his eminent austerity, was im∣ployed by Pope Innocent the Fourth, not only to visit the Monks in the Diocess of Norwich, but also was sent by him into Norway, to reform the Disci∣pline in Holui, a fair Covent therein, but much corrupted.

His History was set forth with all integrity about a hundred years ago, by his namesake, Mat∣thew Parker, (though some asperse it with a suspi∣tion of forgery) and afterwards in latter and

more exact Edition, by the care and industry of Doctor William Wats, and is at this present in great esteem amongst learned men.