Page:Gospel of Saint John in West-Saxon.djvu/22

xviii of the Gospels Mark and Luke, as described above, the end of John, namely, the latter portion of the last verse (beginning with -writene), and Luke xvi, 14 to xvii, 1. These parts were therefore originally wanting in the Royal MS. At a later period B, or, as it may be designated, B, sustained the further loss of the two long passages of Mark i, 1 to iv, 37 and John xx, 9 to the middle point of the last verse, for these passages were never wanting in the Royal MS. Accordingly B would denote MS. B in its present condition, restored by the insertion, in the sixteenth century, of the twelve new leaves. Now the Hatton scribe, when he came to make his copy from the Royal MS., discovered at least three of its lacunae, namely those at the ends of the Gospels (as in B); these he supplied in the Royal MS. as well as in his own by his own translation of the passages from the Latin. It is possible that he did not observe the loss of Luke xvi, 14 to xvii, 1 (the remaining loss of B); it is also possible that, observing it, he refrained from translating so long a passage. This passage is now on a new leaf in the Hatton MS., inserted, no doubt, by the Archbishop's skilful [sic] restorer.

That MS. B, purchased for the Bodleian Library, according to Macray, in the year 1601, was once in Archbishop Parker's possession is also confirmed by its "being the MS. from which John Foxe had taken the text of the Saxon Gospels in the edition published at the expense of Archbishop Parker in 1571." The date of MS. B is about that of MS. Corp. to which it is closely related.

C. - Cotton Otho C. 1 belongs to Sir Robert Cotton's collection of MSS. (now in the British Museum), which was partly destroyed and otherwise injured by fire in the year 1731. Of this MS. the fire destroyed twenty-five