Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Henry of Saltrey
HENRY of Saltrey (fl. 1150), was a Cistercian monk at Saltrey or Sawtrey in Huntingdonshire. From Gilbert of Louth [q. v.] he learnt the story of the alleged descent of the knight Owen to purgatory which he committed to writing in a narrative styled ‘Purgatorium Sancti Patricii,’ and addressed the treatise to Henry, ‘Abbas de Sartis’ (i.e. of Wardon in Bedfordshire). It became extremely popular, and numerous manuscripts exist; it was embodied by Matthew Paris in his ‘Chronica Majora’ (Rolls Ser.), ii. 192–203. Three early metrical translations into French are extant; the first, made by Marie de France early in the thirteenth century, is printed among her poems (ed. Roquefort, vol. ii.); the other two are nearly a century later, and are extant in manuscript (Cott. MS. Domit. A. iv. f. 258, and Harley MS. 273, f. 191 b). In English there are two versions, under the name of ‘Owayne Miles:’ (1) in the Auchinleck MS. at Edinburgh, which is probably a translation of one of the French versions, and was edited by Turnbull and Laing in their collection of early religious poems in 1837; (2) Cott. MS. Cal. A. II. f. 89, a fifteenth-century version, from which extracts are printed in Wright's ‘St. Patrick's Purgatory,’ pp. 64–78. The Latin original is printed in Massingham's ‘Florilegium insulæ Sanctorum Hiberniæ,’ Paris, 1624, pp. 84, 100; in Colgan's ‘Trias Thaumaturga’ (the second volume of his ‘Acta Sanctorum,’ Louvain, 1647), App. vi. ad acta S. Patricii; and in Migne's ‘Patrologia,’ clxxx. 974 sqq. A French version was printed without date or name of place in 4to, but probably at Paris by Jean Trepperel; a second edition which appeared at Paris, n.d., 8vo, was perhaps printed by Jean Trepperel the second or Alan Lotrian; later editions appeared at Paris 1548, and at Rheims 1842. Two manuscripts at Rome (Vatican MS. Barberini 270, ff. 1–25) and Basle (Cooper, App. A. to Report on Fœdera, p. 23) ascribe the authorship of the ‘Purgatorium’ to Gilbert of Louth. The statement of Bale and Pits that Henry also wrote a book, ‘De pœnis purgatorii,’ is erroneous, as the alleged opening words show.
[Bale, ii. 77, Pits, p. 208; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 297; Visch's Bibl. Cist., Douay, 1647; Migne's Patrologia, clxxx. col. 971–4; Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. ii. 321; Wright's St. Patrick's Purgatory; Graesse's Trésor de Livres, v. 511; Brunet's Manuel du Libraire, iv. 980.]