Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/142

96 the proviſions at Oxford; ſo what has ſince followed, is taken out of the continuator of his hiſtory, who out of modeſty has forborn to ſet his name as being unworthy, as he ſays, “To unlooſe the latchet of that venerable man’s ſhoe.” But we were told that it was, who ſucceeded Matt. Paris in the ſame employment, and proſecuted the hiſtory to the end of III. I know not by what misfortune we have loſt his proviſions of Oxford, which he ſays are written in his Addimenta: for certain it was by no neglect or omiſſion of his, becauſe he died with them upon his heart. For the laſt paſſage but one that he wrote, was the death of biſhop of London, (whom we ſaw above he taxed formerly upon the ſame account) “Who,” ſays he, “was a noble perſon, and of great generoſity; and if he had not a little before ſtaggered in their common proviſion, he had been the anchor and ſhield of the whole realm, and both their ſtay and defence.” It ſeems his faltering in that main affair, was what Matthew could never forgive him alive or dead. And indeed this could not but come unexpectedly from ſuch a man, who had always been firm and honeſt to that degree, as to tell the King, when he arbitrarily threatened