Wherfore by remitting the readers to those, I reape this aduantage, namelie a dischage of a forethought & purposed labour, which as to reduce into some plausible forme was a worke both of time, paine and studie: so seeming vnlike|lie to be comprised in few words (being a matter of necessarie and important obseruation) occasion of tediousnes is to and fro auoided; speciallie to the rea|der, who is further to be aduertised, that the computations of yeares here and there expressed, according to the indirect direction of the copies whense they were deriued and drawne, is not so absolute (in some mens opinion) as it might haue beene: howbeit iustifiable by their originals.
Wherin hereafter (God prolonging peace in the church and common-welth that the vse of bookes may not be abridged) such diligent care shall be had, that in whatsoeuer the helpe of bookes will doo good, or conference with antiquaries auaile, there shall want no will to vse the one and the other. And yet it is not a worke for euerie common capacitie, naie it is a toile without head or taile euen for extraordinarie wits, to correct the accounts of former ages so many hundred yeares receiued, out of vncerteinties to raise certeinties, and to reconcile writers dissenting in opinion and report. But as this is vnpossible, so is no more to be looked for than may be performed: and fur|ther to inquire as it is against reason, so to vndertake more than may commendablie be atchiued, were fowle follie.
Abraham Fleming.
THE FIRST BOOKE of the historie of England.
1.1. [figure appears here on page 1] Who inhabited this Iland be|fore the comming of Brute: of Noah & his three sonnes, among whom the whole earth was di|uided: and to which of their portions this Ile of Bri|taine befell. The first Chapter.
[figure appears here on page 1]
Who inhabited this Iland be|fore the comming of Brute: of Noah & his three sonnes, among whom the whole earth was di|uided: and to which of their portions this Ile of Bri|taine befell. The first Chapter.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 _WHat manner of peo|ple did first inhabite this our country, which hath most generallie and of longest continu|ance béene knowne a|mong all nations by the name of Britaine as yet is not certeinly knowne; neither can it be decided frõ whence the first inhabitants there of came, by reason of such diuersitie in iudgements as haue risen amongst the learned in this behalfe.The originall of nations for the most part vncerteine. But sith the originall in ma|ner of all nations is doubtfull, and euen the same for the more part fabulous (that alwaies excepted which we find in the holie scriptures) I wish not any man to leane to that which shall be here set downe as to an infallible truth, sith I doo but onlie shew o|ther mens coniectures, grounded neuerthelesse vp|on likelie reasons, concerning that matter whereof there is now left but little other certeintie, or rather none at all.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 To fetch therefore the matter from the farthest,whither Bri|taine were an Iland at the first. and so to stretch it forward,Geog. com. lib. it séemeth by the report of Dominicus Marius Niger that in the beginning, when God framed the world,No Ilands at the first, as some coniec|ture. and diuided the waters apart from the earth, this Ile was then a parcell of the continent, and ioined without any separation of sea to the maine land. But this opinion (as all other the like vncerteinties) I leaue to be discussed of by the learned: howbeit for the first inhabitation of this Ile with people, I haue thought good to set downe in part, what may be gathered out of such writers as haue touched that matter, and may séeme to giue some light vnto the knowledge thereof.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 First therefore Iohn Bale our countrieman, who in his time greatlie trauelled in the search of such an|tiquities,In the first part of the acts of the English vota|ries. dooth probablie coniecture, that this land was inhabited and replenished with people long be|fore the floud, and that time in the which the generati|on of mankind (as Moses writeth) began to multi|plieBritaine in|habited before the floud. vpon the vniuersall face of the earth:Genesis. 6 and ther|fore it followeth, that as well this land was inhabi|ted with people long before the daies of Noah,Berosus ant. lib. [...] as any the other countries and parts of the world be|side. But when they had once forsaken the ordinan|ces appointed them by God, and betaken them to new waies inuented of themselues, such loosenesse of life ensued euerie where, as brought vpon them the great deluge and vniuersall floud, in the which peri|shed as well the inhabitants of these quarters, as the residue of the race of mankind, generallie dis|persed in euerie other part of the whole world, onelie Noah & his familie excepted, who by the prouidence and pleasure of almightie God was preserued from the rage of those waters, to recontinue and repaire the new generation of man vpon earth.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 AFter the flood (as Annius de Viterbo recordeth)Noah. and reason also enforceth,In comment. su|per 4. lib. Berosus de anti|quit. lib. 1. Annisus vt supr. Noah was the onlie monarch of all the wrold, and as the same Annius ga|thereth by the account of Moses in the 100. yeare af|ter the flood, Noah diuided the earth among his thrée sonnes; assigning to the possession of his eldest sonne all that portion of land which now is knowne by the name of Asia; to his second sonne Cham, he ap|pointed all that part of the world which now is called Affrica: and to his third sonne Iaphet was allotted all Europa, with all the Iles therto belonging, wher|in among other was conteined this our Ile of Bri|taine, with the other Iles thereto perteining.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 IAphet the third son of Noah, of some called Ia|petus,Iaphet and his sonnes. and of others, Atlas Maurus (because he departed this life in Mauritania) was the first (as Bodinus affirmeth by the authoritie and consent ofIohannes Bodi|nus ad fac. hist. cogn. the Hebrue, Gréeke & Latine writers) that peopled the countries of Europe, which afterward he diuided among his sonnes:Franciscus Tarapha. of whom Iuball (as Tarapha affirmeth) obteined the kingdome of Spaine. Go|mer had dominion ouer the Italians, and (as Bero|sus and diuers other authors agrée) Samothes was the founder of Celtica, which conteined in it (as Bale witnesseth) a great part of Europe, but speciallie those countries which now are called by the names of Gallia and Britannia.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 Thus was the Iland inhabited and peopled with|inBritaine in|habited short|lie after the floud. 200 yéeres after the floud by the children of Ia|phet the sonne of Noah: & this is not onlie prooued by Annius, writing vpon Berosus, but also confirmed by Moses in the scripture, where he writeth, that of the offspring of Iaphet, the Iles of the Gentiles (wherof Britain is one) were sorted into regions in the time of Phaleg the sonne of Hiber, who was borne at the time of the diuision of languages. Herevpon Theo|philus Theophilus epis|cop. Antioch. ad An [...]ol. lib. 2. hath these words: Cùm priscis temporibus pauei forant homines in Arabia & Chaldaea, post linguarum di|uisonem aucti & multiplicati paulatim sunt: The words of Theophi|lus a doctor of the church, who liued an. Dom. 160. hinc quidam abierunt versus orientem, quidam concessere ad partes maioris, continentis, alij porrò profecti sunt ad septentrionem sedes quae|siu [...]i, nec priùs desierunt terram vbi occupare, quàm etiam [...] annos in Arctois climatibus accesserint, &c. That is; EEBO page image 2 When at the first there were not manie men in Ara|bia and Chaldaea, it came to passe, that after the diui|sion of toongs, they began somewhat better to in|crease and multiplie, by which occasion some of them went toward the east, and some toward the parts of the great manie land: diuers went also north|wards to seeke them dwelling places, neither staid they to replenish the earth as they went, till they came vnto the Iles of Britaine, lieng vnder the north pole. Thus far Theophilus.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 These things considered, Gildas the Britaine had great reason to thinke, that this countrie had bene inhabited from the beginning. And Polydor Virgil was with no lesse consideration hereby induced to confesse, that the Ile of Britaine had receiued inha|bitants foorthwith after the floud.