Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/130

The translator, who desired to remain unknown, and whose name, even in his day, Harpesfield could not discover, as he tells us, was a monk. He calls himself "John," and it has been suggested with some probability that he was the John Blackman, originally secretary of the saintly Henry VI, the author of the intimate life already described, who subsequently became a monk in the Charter House at London. The volume, at present among the Royal MSS., is really the first draft, much corrected, of the proposed translation. These corrections, mainly of style, are numerous throughout the volume; and the 135 miracles therein recorded are selections from some 300 which, as the translator tells us, were to be found entered in the English volumes or registers kept at the tomb of the saintly King at Windsor. The monk "John" states that he had received the English records from John Morgan, the Dean of Windsor, who, with other Canons of the Collegiate Church, such as Oliver King, subsequently Bishop of Bath and Wells, kept a faithful record of the graces and blessings received at the tomb at Windsor. Dean Morgan's name appears many times in the records of these miracles