To the Reader.
the History of the Founder's and Patron's Family, setting down their several Matches, and Issue, and often=times the day of their Births and Deaths, with the most remarkable Circumstances of their Lives, and where buried; which seems also to be done at the time when every thing happen'd or soon after, and is therefore of greater Credit. In this Work we must move that the Author saves nothing of the four Orders of Fryers, viz. The Franciscans or Gray-Friers, the Dominicans or Black-Friers, the Carmelites or White-Friers, and the Augustine Friers; the Reason was, I suppose, because their Houses, generally ⟨speaking⟩, not endow'd with Lands and Revenues, but they subsisted for the most, part by daily and accidental Charities.
Thus much of the Book at large, now as to this Abridgment or Epitome I have only this to say; It gives you a short view in English of the Principal, and (as I thought,) most material Passages of what is contain'd n Latin, and sometimes old French, in the three great and copious Tomes of the Monasticon Anglicanum: The Names of Persons and Places, being variously written according to the different Orthography of several Ages, and Writers, I have not thought convenient to alter the ancient way of spelling, but have transcribed them here in the same variety as I found 'em there: In the Margin I have exactly observed and markt out the Page successively in order, that so the Reader may have a ready recourse to the Book at large for a fuller and more particular Information. And in my opinion this is the best rule that can be made of any Abridgment; namely to serve as a larger and better sort of table, which not only represents the substance of a voluminous Author in little, but refers and directs the Reader to the place where the Subjects is more expresly handled. On the whole, you have here a short Historical Account of the Foundation of all the Principal Churches and Religious Structures in England and Wales, as well those that were demolisht at the Suppression of the Monasteries, as those that are still in being (except Parish Churches.) And here we must note that of all those Cathedral Churches and Episcopal Seats, whole venerable Fabricks we behold at this day, some were formerly Abbies, where the Prior and Convent of Monks were the Bishops Chap-
ter;
