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Jjifum 5$5^eplicum tx- tinually unto this Day,
ge :• Se ca&ija Cpejo- The Holy Gregory com?
piur gebihre maniga hahge pofed many Divine
that thefe old Books are the very fame which St. Gregory fent to St. Au*
^uflincy in the Infancy of the Englifl} Church.
The Fourth Book, that is, the Pfalter, fcems to be loft ; never-
thelefs, there is in the Cottonian Library, Vespas. A i. a Pfalcer of
St* Jerome's in Latin^ in the old Saxon Charafter, written about ^
Thoufand Years ago. In which you have likewife in great Letters,
but in a foreign Hand, before the Pfalms, all thofe things, and in the
fame Order, which are faid to be in this Book of Gregory, From
whence I am inclined to believe the one might be a Copy of the
Qther.
The Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth as yet I have not feen. But there
feems to be many ancient TranfcriptsoiF them in feveral of our Libra-
ries. As for the fixth Book, it feems in procefs of time to have been
tranflated into Saxon ; beeaufe the fame Paflions of the Saints,^ ?5^Ct
are to be found in the Saxon Homilies ; and perhaps the f^me may be
faid of the Seventh Volume.
Thefe Books, fays the Writer of the Annals, are the Firft Fruity
of the Engliflj Church, whom I (hall not contradift, provided the
Reader who is a Lover of Antiquity, (hall remember that Augufline
brought with him into England Gregory the Great his Book of the
Paftoral Care, as is attefted by King Mtfred in his P^oetical Preface
prefixed to his Tranflation of this Work.
To conclude , the Learned Reader may obferve, th^t this cele-
brated Book hath this Note in the beginning of it. *^ This Book
-' once belonged to the Monaftery of the Bleffed Apoftles Feter and
•* Faul^ or of Augujlke^ near the Walls of the City of Canterbury.
•* Bus this Monaftery in the Reign of Henry the Eighth being diffol-
- ved, and all the Goods of the Monks being taken from them, and
f* converted to the King's ufe j this Book by accident came into the
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* hands of Matter Robert Haery who gave the fame to the CoUege or
- HaU of the Sacred Trmty in Cambridge^ ihexe to be kept faf e and
•* fecure. But with this condition, that if hereafter it fhould hap-
?* pen by God's pcrmiflion that this Monaftery be rebuilt, then the
^^ Mafter and Fellows of the faid College or Hall of the Sacred TrhUy
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• ftiall take care that the ^ok fliall be rcftored to the Monks of the
^ fame plpi^aflcry*
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