Page:Fasti ecclesiae Anglicanae Vol.1 body of work.djvu/31

Rh the weakness of my part of the performance, I shall willingly submit it on those conditions to the judgment of every candid reader ; only begging him wherever he sees a fault, which his exactness (perhaps) may not be inclinable otherwise to pardon, to remember the sentence, "Si quid novisti rectius istis, Oandidus imperti."

A fault that may be imputed as to the different ways of spelling the same name in divers places of the book, I beg to excuse thus: (viz.) that the same person's name is often variously spelt in several records of equal and undoubted authority; for instance, Gynewell, bishop of Lincoln, Reg. ipsius : Gyndwelle among the fines of Lincolnshire in the Tally-court, Westminster. Rowlands, bishop of Bangor, in the congé d'élire: Roland in the grant of the royal assent: Roulande in the grant of restitution of the temporalities. Cotton, bishop of Exeter, Reg. ipsius : Colon in the grant of the royal assent: Coion in the grant of restitution of the temporalities. And so of several others.

I am likewise obliged to own, that I have not performed every article promised in my proposals, for that the prebendaries of Rochester, Worcester, Chester, and Durham, are not specified, I hope the reader will believe I have done my utmost endeavour to obtain them : but not having been as yet so happy as to succeed in my solicitations, I can do no more than beg pardon for those or any other deficiencies.

The honour that this book has already obtained of being subscribed for by so many of my lords the bishops, (of which class, twenty-seven now living, and three dead since,) can be imputed to no other reason than that by which their lordships govern all their actions, (viz.) the encouraging any good design meant for the public use and service.

It would be the utmost vanity in me to say, their lordships are not balked in the performance; but I comfort myself with the assurance, that as their lordships had goodness enough to encourage it at first, so they have charity enough to accept it with all its faults, and to make a large allowance, as well for the incapacity of the undertaker, as for the many difficulties and discouragements he has met with in prosecuting the VOL. I.