Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/99

Gregory  as ruler in the north of England, and whose capital was York, the Scots invaded Northumbria and plundered the monastery of Lindisfarne.

The other fact recorded as to Gregory in the ' Chronicle ' of the thirteenth century is that ' he was the first to give liberty to the Scottish church, which was under servitude up to that time, according to the constitutions and customs of the Picts.' This is one of those tantalising entries which we feel almost sure conceal a fragment of authentic history, but leave much room for conjecture as to what that fragment is. The view of Skene, that it refers to the Scottish clergy being then freed from secular services and exactions, seems more probable than that of Mr. E. W. Robertson, that it indicates a transfer of the privileges of the church of Dunkeld to that of St. Andrews. That in some form Gregory was a benefactor of the church is certain, and accounts for the epithet of Great given to him by the later chroniclers and historians, and perhaps for the dedication of the church of Ecclesgreig in the Mearns in his honour. Mr. Robertson, following some of the later 'Chronicles,' assumes that Gregory continued to reign, along with the next king, Donald, the son of Constantine, for seven years, and that his reign therefore lasted till 896. But this is inconsistent with the earliest ' Chronicle of the Picts and Scots,' which distinctly states that he was expelled, along with his ward Eocha, and names Donald as their successor. According to the same class of authorities he died at Dunadeer, and was buried at Scone. But the place of his death is not really known. Some chronicles place it at Donedoune, which Chalmers identified with Dunadeer in Gareoch, although Skene identifies it with Dundurn, a fort on the Earn.

Buchanan, as usual, amplifies even the amplifications of Fordoun; but all that is known with reasonable certainty of this king is contained in the above narrative, mainly taken from Skene.

[Chronicles of the Picts and Scots; Robertson's Scotland under her Early Kings; Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. i.]  GREGORY or  (fl. 1270), historian, entered the monastery of St. Peter's at Gloucester, according to his own account, on 29 Oct. 1237 (M.S. Cott. Vesp. A. v. f. 201 recto), and is stated to have lived there for sixty years. He wrote the annals of his monastery from 682 to 1290, a work which has only survived in an epitome made by Lawrence Noel, and now contained in Cotton MS. Vesp. A. v. ff. 198-203. It consists almost entirely of obits and of notices relating to events which concerned his own monastery or the town of Gloucester, but even in the early part it includes matter which is not contained in the `Historia S. Petri Gloucestriæ,' printed in the Rolls Series. A Gregory of Karewent was dean of the arches in 1279 (, Hist. of K. John, &c., 1219, and in Peckham's 'Register' (Rolls Ser. iii. 1014) for the same year the livings of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, and Blockley, Worcestershire, are mentioned as vacant through the death of Gregory de Kerewent. A Philip de Kayrwent was prior of Gloucester in 1284 (''Hist. S. Pet. Glouc''. iii. 23), and Richard de Kayrwent was infirmarer in 1275 and 1284 (ib. i. 171, iii. 23). Gregory has also been supposed to be the author of the 'Metrical Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln '(''MSS. Reg''. 13, A. iv., in Brit. Mus., and Laud. 515 in Bodleian); but this is scarcely probable, since that poem appears to have been written before 1235 (, preface to Metrical Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln). The Laudiau MS., however, seems to contain a later edition, and ascribes the poem to a Gregory who had dedicated it to a bishop of Winchester, and it is therefore possible that our writer may have been the reviser of the older poem.

[Bals. iv. 346; Pits, p. 375; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 343; Hardy's Cat. Brit, Hist. ii. 548, iii. 214, 341.]  GREGORY (fl. 1290), monk of Ramsey, of which abbey he is said to have been prior for thirty-eight years, is described as a man of much learning, acquainted with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. On the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 he purchased from them all the Hebrew books which he could procure, and presented them to his abbey. In the catalogue of books in the library of Ramsey— printed in 'Chr. Ramsey,' Rolls Ser., p. 365— a list of books of Gregory the prior is given, which includes several in Hebrew and Greek. From the books thus collected Laurence Holbench is said to heve compiled a Hebrew dictionary about 1410. According to Bale and Pits, Gregory wrote: 1. 'Ars intelligendi Græca.' 2. 'Grammaticæ summa.' 3. 'Explanationes Græcorum nominum.' 4. 'Attentarium.' 5. 'Epistolæ curiales.' 6. 'Expositio Donati.' 7. 'Notulæ in Priscianum,' 8. 'Imago mundi.' This work is commonly ascribed to Henry of Huntingdon, and sometimes to Bede; it is printed among St. Anselm's' Works,'ed. 1630, ii. 416. The manuscripts are very numerous, e.g. Bodl. 625 and E. Mus. 223 in the Bodleian (see also, Cat. Cod. MSS. Coll. Oxon.) 9. 'Rudimenta