The Isle of Wight : its history, topography and antiquities : with notes upon its principal seats, churches, manoral houses, legendary and poetical associations, geology and picturesque localities ... / by W. H. Davenport Adams.

  • Adams, W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport), 1828-1891.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Isle of Wight : its history, topography and antiquities : with notes upon its principal seats, churches, manoral houses, legendary and poetical associations, geology and picturesque localities ... / by W. H. Davenport Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    from the MSS. of the Fathers, and states that in thirty quires of paper he had restored no fewer than three hundred citations. He felt so deeply the benefits that Protestantism would derive from a thorough jDurgation of the manuscripts of the early Christian writers, that in the Convocation held with the Parliament of Oxford, in 1625, he moved that a commission might be appointed for the jDurpose of examining the manuscript Fathers in all public and private English libraries, that the perversions of Papistical com- mentators might be detected and removed. To this design, it is supposed, the great Camden alludes: Thomas James Oxoniensis, vir eruditus et vere <^tAo/?i/3Aos, qui se totum Uteris et libris invol- vit, et jam public! boni studio in Anglise Bibliothecis excutiendis (Deus opus secundet!) id molitur, quod Eeipublicse literarise imprimis erit Usui. [Thomas James, of Oxford, an erudite man and an ar- dent lover of books, who gives himself up wholly to letters; and is now searching the libraries of England from a desire to benefit the public, designs (may God prosper his labours!) that which will be of notable assistance to the republic of letters.] He pointed out to the members of Convocation, as he had previously done to Archbishoj^ Usher, the small expense at which his plan might be carried out, but he failed to secure their co-operation.* This learned and enthusiastic Protastant, who well deserved the character given him by Anthony Wood, of being the most indus- trious and indefatigable writer against Popery that had been edu- cated at Oxford since the Eeformation, died at Oxford in 1629, and was buried towards the up|)er end of New College Chapel, Oxon. His principal works are—an edition of the Philohihlion, published in 1599; Edoga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis, 1600; Cyprianus Piedivivus^ and Spicilegium divi Augustim, published with the Ecloga; Cata- logus Lihrorum in Bibliothecd Bodleiand, 1608, which Joseph Scaliger praised; Apology for John WicMiffe, 1608; Treatise on the Corrup- tion of Scriptures, Councils, and Fathers, 1611; Jesuitd Doumfall .threatened, 1612; Vindicice Gregoriance, 1625; Specimen Corruptel- arum Pontificiorum in Cypriano, Ambrosio, Gregorio Ifagno, etc., 1626 (Berry^s Genealogies; Wood's Athena^ Oxonienses; Usher's Life and Letters; Fidler's Worthies; Biog. Britannica, Suppl. to, etc.). * In a letter to Usher, January 28, 1623, he says that he has secured the help of the flower of the English divines, and needs only twelve more assistants, at £40 to £50 yearly—four to transcribe orthodox writers; four to compare old reprints with new; and four to compare the Greek translations by the Papists. At his own cost he attempted something, but his useful labours were cut short by death, (712) 19