haee, _quietas_
_Nec ventura petas, quae postera proferat atas._

Matthew, here cease thy Pen in peace, and study on no more,
Nor do thou rome at things to come, what next Age hath in store.

Yet, notwithstanding this resolution, he afterwards resumed that Work,
continuing it to the Year 1259. a History impartially and judicially
written, neither flattering any for their Greatness, nor sparing others
for their Vices, no not so much as those of his own Profession; yet
though he had sharp Nails, he had clean Hands, strict in his own, as
well as linking at the loose conversation of others, and for his
eminent austerity, was imployed by Pope _Innocent_ the Fourth, not only
to visit the Monks in the Diocess of _Norwich_ but also was sent by him
into _Norway_, to reform the Discipline in _Holui_, a fair Covent
therein, but much corrupted.

His History was set forth with all integrity about a hundred years ago,
by his namesake, _Matthew Parker_, (though some asperse it with a
suspition of forgery) and afterwards in a latter and more exact
Edition, by the care and industry of Doctor _William Wats_, and is at
this present in great esteem amongst learned men.

* * * * *

_WILLIAM RAMSEY_.

This _William Ramsey_ was born in _Huntingtonshire_, a County famous
for the richest _Benedictines_ Abbey in _England_; yet here he would
not stay, but went to _Crowland_, where he prospered so well, that he
became Abbot thereof. _Bale_ saith he was a _Natural Poet_, and
therefore no wonder if fault be found in the Feet of his Verses; but by
his leave, he was also a good Scholar, and Arithmetician enough to make
his Verse run in right Numbers.

This _William_ wrote the Lives of St. _Guthlake_, St. _Neots_, St.
_Edmond_ the King, and divers others, all in Verse, which no doubt were
very acceptable and praise-worthy in those times; but the greatest
wonder of him, and which may seem a wonder indeed, was, that being a
Poet, he paid the vast Debts of others, even forty thousand Marks for
the engagement of his Covent, and all within the compass of eighteen
Months, wherein he was Abbot of _Crowland_. This was a vast Sum in that
Age, and would render it altogether incredible for a Poet to do, but
that we find he had therein the assistance of King _Henry_ the Second;
who, to expiate the Blood of _Becket_, was contented to be melted into
Coyn, and was prodigiously bountiful to many Churches as well as