1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Murimuth, Adam

MURIMUTH, ADAM (c. 1274-1347), English ecclesiastic and chronicler, was born in 1274 or 1275 and educated in the civil law at Oxford. Between 1312 and 1318 he practised in the papal curia at Avignon. Edward II. and Archbishop Winchelsey were among his clients, and his legal services secured for him canonries at Hereford and St Paul's, and the precentorship of Exeter Cathedral. In 1331 he retired to a country living (Wraysbury, Bucks), and devoted himself to writing the history of his own times. His Continuatio chronicarum, begun not earlier than 1325, starts from the year 1303, and was carried up to 1347, the year of his death. Meagre at first, it becomes fuller about 1340 and is specially valuable for the history of the French wars. Murimuth has no merits of style, and gives a bald narrative of events. But he incorporates many documents in the latter part of his book. The annals of St. Paul's which have been edited by Bishop Stubbs, are closely related to the work of Murimuth, but probably not from his pen. The Continuatio was carried on, after his death, by an anonymous writer to the year 1380.

The only complete edition of the Continuatio chronicarum is that by E. M. Thompson (Rolls series, 1889). The preface to this edition, and to W. Stubbs's Chronicles of Edward I. and II., vol. i. (Rolls series, 1882), should be consulted. The anonymous continuation is printed in T. Hog's edition of Murimuth (Eng. Hist. Soc., London, 1846). (H. W. C. D.)