Page:Elizabeth Elstob - An English-Saxon homily on the birth-day of St. Gregory.djvu/74

But to return to the Homily on St. Gregory. It is printed from a Transcript I had made of it from one made by Dr. Hopkins, I believe, out of the Cottonian Book, Vitellius D. 17. because there I read it, Engliscene þeode. whereas, in all the other Copies, it is Engliscne þeode. The Homily is one of those which were prepared by Ælfrick, to be used in the English Saxon Church: and is the ninth in the second of those two Volumes, which contain'd a course of Sermons, and were to be recited to the People, in the course of one or two Years, as shou'd be judged most fit. He stiles himself Ælfrick, Monk, and Priest, and dedicates both Volumes to Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, whofe Successor he was in that See. He professes, that for the Prevention of Heresie, and the Doctrine of Deceivers, he had in these Sermons chiefly followed the Authority of the ancient Fathers, viz. St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Jerom, Bede, and St. Gregory, &c. The reason of his translating these Books out of Latin into English, was not, as he himself declares, out of Presumption of any great Learning; but because he saw and observed, much Error in many English Books; which the unlearned, out of their Simplicity, took for great Wisdom. That it grieved him, that they knew not, and had not, the Gospel-Learning in their Writings; save such alone as understood Latin, and such as cou'd have those Books which K. Ælfred wisely translated out of Latin into English. These Books he humbly dedicates to Sigeric, and