The rise of English culture

Front matter

ou. dL, AV.

56 ERASMUS (Desiderius, 1467-1536, scholar, editor of the first pubUshed edition of the New Testament in Greek) Autograph Inscription on the title of a Book.

At foot of title Erasmus has written, in a clear and steady hand, but with quite characteristic forms of the letters :

Author's Preface

In offering this new Introduction to English History to the public, I would call attention to the words rendered from Polydore Vergil, which I have placed on the title-page of the volume. For the first time since the Kevival of Letters, I have endeavoured to state the mere matter of fact concerning the manner in which our national story was first schemed in the monasteries, and gradually published to the external world during the reign of Henry YIII. It may save my readers the tedium of long explanations or apologies if I simply say that the contents of my work may be regarded as a series of comments on, and illustrations of, the Preface of the first scholar of known personality who undertook to write the history of our country since the old Eoman time.

Contents

PAGE

Dedication s v

Author's Preface vii

Part I. Chapter L

THE RISE OP THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT.

The Monasteries, or Minsters — Coming of the Benedictines : various theories — Ideals of the Benedictines : St. Augustine, St. Dunstan, Lanfranc, Anselm — Probable Epoch of the Benedictines . . 40

Chapter II. The Benedictine Architecture

Opinion of Sir Christopher Wren — The Freemasons — Elias Ashmole —

Ignorance at Westminster — Stanley's " Memorials " . . -49

CONTENTS.

Chapter III. The Rise Of The Benedictine Literature

PACK

Missions in the West — Benedictine Schools — The Benedictines of St. Maur — Controversy with the Jesuits — Father Hardouin — Literary History of the Benedictines, 1754 — Enghsh Critics ... 56

CHAPTER lY.

FABLES OF THE BENEDICTINE SCHOOLS.

Monte Cassino — Thomas Aquinas — His Bibhcal ideal — St. Thomas in the " Divine Comedy " — Age of the manuscript — State of libraries — Lists of scholars — Seeming inactivity until the Revival — Monte Cassino in the sixteenth century ....... 63

Chapter V. The Scheme Of Benedictine Literature

Theology— The Eule of St. Benet— Church Law— Civil Law— Philosophy— The Moral Philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount — Medicine, Chemistry and Natural Magic, Mathematics, Music, History, Sacred and Profane — Lives of the Popes and Bishops — Church History — Profane and Civil History — Chronicles— Bibliographies— Discourse of the Abbot of Erfurt on History — The diplomatic art — Critical Study 72

Chapter VI. The Benedictine System Of Chronology

The Chronological Passion — The Era of the Incarnation : when did it come into Use ? — Researches of Mr. Thorold Rogers — The Eyes of History — The Study of Astronomy and the Legend of Sacro Bosco — Gresham College — Roger Bacon and Merton College — Robert Bacon — Thomas Fuller on the Bacon Guild — The Story of the Cycles — Merton — " Dionysius Exiguus," author of the Christian Era — Bede — Marianus Scotus — Literary state of the Monastery of Fulda, etc. 96

Chapter VII

THE BENEDICTINE SYSTEM OF TRAVELLERS, GEOGRAPHERS, AND NATURAL HISTORIANS.

Pilgrim Legends of St. Jerome and others — Maundeville — Monastic Geography — The Hereford Wheel Map — Christian Topography —

CONTENTS.

The Sphere denied — Evil effects of the Dogma — The Polychronicon — Geography of Edrisi — The Dogma of Natural History — Delight in the Monstrous — The Power of the Monk over Nature — Fables of Animals and Donations — The Legends of the Discovery of the New World 114

Chapter VIII. Fables Of Early Irish Culture, And Of French Schools

Bobbio : the Legend of St. Columban — The Conversion of Ireland — St. Patrick — St. Bridget — Fabulous Schools in Ireland — St. Columban : a parallel to St. Benet — His Wanderings with St. Gall — The Irish monks were Benedictines — Paris: its schools — Attempts at History in the seventeenth Century — St. Dionysius the Areopagite — St. Germain — Charlemagne — Illustrious Scholars of Paris — Notre Dame or St. Mary — Histories by Bulseus and Launoy — List of Masters of Theology — Practice of Altercation — The Canons of St. Victor — Doctors of Decrees — State of Literature in Paris — Rarity of Books . . . . . . . . . . -159

Chapter IX. Libraries In Florence And Rome

Nicholas V. — Roman University — The Vatican Library — Alphonso Borgia — Pietro Barbo — Francisco Rovere — Platina — The Secret Archives— The time of Leo X. — Inghirami — Beroald — Aleander — Urbino — Polydore Vergil — Bembo — Sadolet — The Humanists — Poggio — Literary Condition of the Cloisters — Valla — The Printers in Italy — The German Printers in Rome — The Greek Printing- Presses — The Humanists and the Monks — Story of Linacre . . 181

Chapter X. The Benedictine System Of English Historians

The Catalogue of " Boston of Bury " examined — The method of Benedictine Fiction — The " Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs " — Gildas — Nennius — Bede — His self-testimony — Witness of Segebert — Of John Boston — Of Polydore Vergil — Of John Leland — William "of Malmesbury — Ralph de Diceto — Supposed thirteenth Century writers — Matthew Paris unknown — Further ignorances — Supposed fourteenth Century writers — Golden History of John of Tynemouth — Silence on John Wiclif — St. Albans — John of Wheathamstead, a parallel to Trithemius — " The Granary : " its character — Fable of Abgarus — Article on John Wiclif — Article on Tacitus — " The Granary : " an exposure of ignorance and dishonesty . 200 xii CONTENTS.

PAET 11.

Chapter I. The Invention Op English Story — Polydore Vergil

PAGE

Witness of Chalcondylas to ignorance of England — Polydore Vergil in England — English History has yet to be discovered — Importance of his testimony — His Sources — The Britons — " Geoffrey of Monmouth." etc. — Gavin Douglas and the contemporary Invention of Scottish Story — Hector Boece and his Critics . . . .221

CHAPTER II. POLYDORE VERGIL — continued

The Saxons — Paul the Deacon — Rise of the English Empire — Polydore on Himself— St. Frideswide — The Dacians, or Danes — King Alfred — Legends of Oxford and Cambridge, and other Benedictine fiction — Satire upon them — Canute, patron of the Benedictines — St. Peter declares England to be the Kingdom of God . . .241

CHAPTER III. POLYDORE VERGIL — continued

Tlie Normans — The Common Laws — Curfew — The Exchequer — The Chancellors — The Grand Jury — The Census — Holy men of the Time — Wicked Rufus — Myths of Customs — French Kings — Thomas k Becket — English Kings again — The Charters — The English Justinian — The Hanse League — Legends of Merton and Balliol Colleges 258

CHAPTER IV. POLYDORE VERGIL — continued

Edward II. points a Moral — Edward III. — Glorification of the Archers —The Order of the Garter— The Religion of St. George— The Legend of Wiclif — Council of Constance — Richard II. — Popular Insurrection — Death of Richard — An old wives' fable — Lancastrian fictions — Henry IV. and his false title— Henry V. an edifying Prince

CONTENTS.

TAGK

— Feeling against the French — The Miracle of Agincourt — The Romance of the Maid of Orleans — Rise of the House of Tudor — Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou — Fatality of the name of Gloster — College Building — Loss of Normandy and Aquitaine — Fall of Suffolk — Rising under Jack Cade — The Two Roses . . .275

CHAPTER V. POLYDORE VERGIL — Continued

Edward IV. — The moral of Henry VI.'s troubles — His death a Parricide — The Benedictines of Chertsey honour the most holy King — His college of boy priests at Eton — Henry of Richmond his prophetically designated successor — Edward IV. must on a priori grounds be represented as a Murderer — Fabled fate of the Duke of Clarence — The portrait of Edward IV. perhaps due to the canons of St. George — The portrait of Richard III. an imitation of Tacitus' style — His story a moral Lancastrian drama — The Grey Friars are interested in it . . . . . . . . . . 295

CHAPTER VI. POLYDORE YERGih —continued

Henry VII. comes to the throne by Prophecy — The Pretender Simnel — The Regular Clergy and Politics — Hadrian Castello — Perkin Warbeck — More clerical intrigues and fictions — The Religious Houses centres of Sedition — The Royal Inquisition — Absence of Right and Law in England — The Ideal of the Wise King — Henry Patron of the Grey Friars — Picture by Mabuse — Cardinal Fisher's portrait of the Lady Margaret — Hints of the State of Culture in Erasmus' Letters . . . . . . . . .317

Chapter VII. John Leland

Importance of his Testimony — His visits to the Religious Houses, 1533- 1539 — Paucity of all Literature in England — His visit to the Franciscans at Oxford — The forged Nennius — John Ross of Warwick — Tales of Hebrew culture in old England — Visit to the Oratory of Bede — Rabelais' jest on Bede — The rise of the Chaucer legend and poetry ; the Beginnings of an Enghsh School ; the English Homer as j'et unknown to classical scholars — The observp.tion of Sidney on Chaucer explained 346 xiv CONTENTS.

Chapter VIII. Early Printed Books I Legends Op The Press

PAGE

Legend of Caxton — "Recueyl of the History of Troye " — " The Book on Chess:" the game derived from the Arabians — "Historv of Jason"— "The Dictes"— "The Cordial "—" The Image of" the World "— " Chronicle of England : " a deductive tale—" Story of King John " — The Press at St. Albans — The Chronicle — Edward IV. a terminal Name — Coat- Armour — Rise of Crusading Legends — " The Festival Book "— " The Confessio Amantis "—Romance of Chivalry — King Arthur — Chaucer and Lydgate — Ciceronian Tracts — Legend of Tiptoft — Obscurity of the early Printers . . . 363

Chapter IX. French And English Chronicles

Froissart : his Romantic and Miraculous Style ; examples — Arthur and the Table Round — Lancastrian Prophecies in " Brute of England " — The Continuator Monstrelet — Comines : his manner — History a Religious Drama — Lives of Edward V. and Richard III. ascribed to Sir Thomas More — Fabian's "Concordance of Stories" — Rastell's " Pastime of the People "—The Chronicles of Hall— Of Harding- Fable in the interest of Ambition, English and Scottish — Grafton's Chronicle : the delight in Falsehood — 'Fusion of Biblical and Classical Legends — Holinshed — Stow and Howes — 'Defence of Brute — The sceptics increase — Camden's " Britannia " — Speed — Daniel — Hayward — Baker : his coldness towards the Playwright Shakespeare . 383

Chapter X. The Inns Of Court; Romance Of The Law

The Fortescue Tracts: their late origin — Brute the founder of the Constitution — Yearnings for Liberty — Antipathy to the French — Praise of the Archers — The Ideal of Robin Hood, the Outlaw Archer — His Day and Culture — The Gentle Thief is a National Hero — Satire on the Monks — Littleton and Coke — Blackstone on the Tantalus — Fable of the Constitution 403

Chapter XI. The Public Records

The Tower of London — Chancery Lane — Westminster; the Chapter House — The late Beginning of all Records — How Records were constructed — Macaulay's partial insight into the matter — Hallam on Bacon and Coke — Richard Baxter's stern denunciation of Party Falsehood m English History 422

CONTENTS. XV

Chapter XII. The Bible In England

PAGE

The Knowledge of the Bible dates from the Revival — The Hebrew Bible, as the production of Jewish ecclesiastics, should be studied in the Synagogues — The Latin Bible of Benedictine origin : explained by " John Boston of Bury " — The Greek Bible : a sixteenth and seventeenth century study — English Scholars : Mill, Whitby, Bentley, Conyers Middleton — Opinion of Hardouin — The Bible in English : Tyndale — Ignorance of Oriental Literature till the seventeenth century 438

Chapter XIII. The New Testament In The Light Op The Revival

State of Thought among the Orders — •Christological Conceptions — The Book of Daniel as Source — Renunciation of the World — War against the Jews — ^Denunciation of the Rich, Praise of Poverty — Idyllic Scenes — Church Art suggestive — The Perfect Man — Pauline Sayings — A great Schism — The effort after Unity and Order amid diversities — Praise of Charity — Status of Women — The Holy Communion and Tran substantiation — Satires on the Priesthood — Pauline Allegory — Criticism of Jews and Greeks — Martin Luther's discovery of the Bible 456

Chapter XIV. The Monasteries And The New Testament

Illustrations from John Cassian the Benedictine — Allegories of the Profession; the discipline idealized in Story — Structure of the " Apostle " as a Book of Sentences — The Athlete of Christ — Dsemonology — The Science of Allegorical Interpretation — The Father of Lies — All History to be understood as Allegory — Knowledge and false Knowledge — ^Veracity : absolute statements forbidden— The intention and end of Action give value to the means — Falsehood permitted ; it is like Hellebore — Veracity should yield to Charity, as in the example of Paul — Promises and Oaths may be broken — Illustrations from Bede of the New Testament as Book of Precedents 470

Chapter XV. Some Poets And Critics Of English Story

Drayton : " The Barons' Wars," " Heroical Epistles," Legend of Thomas Cromwell — " The Polyolbion : " coming of Brute, etc. — xvi CONTENTS.

Spenser: " The Faery Queene " — Phantasy, Judgment, and Memory — Glorious ancestry of Queen Elizabeth — The Prophecy of Merlin — ^Dismal actual State of England — Sidney : " Defence of Poesy " — The Allegorical Use of English Story 493

Chapter XVI. John Selden As Critic Of English Story

Notes to Drayton's " Polyolbion," 16 12 — The "Arcadian deduction of the Monarchy " — Chronologies exploded — Merlin discredited — Selden first criticizes the Benedictine system of Chronology — ^The Chronicles all wrong : his contempt for the Monks — ^His opinion of Arthur — The corrupt story of English Liberties — On the Right of Sanctuary — Privilege of Highway — Discrepancies in copies of the forest Charter — Error in the G-reat Charter — On William the Bastard and his sons — Discrepancies in "Abjuration of the Realm " — Apology for King John as Victim of the Hierarchy — The fables of the Charters — The Two Roses — ^Polydore unjustly censured — On the Duke of Clarence — The last Plantagenet and the first Tyddour, or Tudor — English Story still in a fluid state — On the Liberties of Kent — The Titles of Honour, 16 14 — On Fortescue and Hengham, 1616 — On the S}Tian Gods, 1617 — On Tithes, 161 8 — Selden as learned Champion of English Liberty imprisoned — Edition of the Benedictine " Eadmer," 1623 — Selden pleads for Hampden, 1627 — His relation to the Great Charter : Personal Liberty not yet defined — Suspicions of erasures and interpolations of the Records — "Time out of Mind" — Selden in the Tower, 1628 — He is prosecuted in the Star Chamber — His Biblical writings — The forged " Eutychius," 1642 — Selden Keeper of the Records, 1644 — Pococke : his labours in Arabic and friendship with Moslems — John Lightfoot — Selden on Fleta, 1647 — on the Sanhedrin, 1650 — on the Ten English Writers, 1652 — his death, 1654 . . -51'

CHAPTER XVIL

APPENDIX : Principal Writings of Edwin Johnson, M.A., published

and unpublished 561

INDEX 569

EDWIN JOHNSON AND HIS WRITINGS.

As this is the first volume of the author's works to be issued since his decease, it has been thought fitting that it • should be prefaced by some account of his life and writings.

Edwin Johnson was the second son of the Rev. Alfred Johnson, Congregational Minister, and was born at Upton, near Andover, Hampshire, on the 9th November, 1842. If he had any pride of birth, it was in the fact that his descent was from English yeoman stock. His childhood was spent in the country, and he never lost his love for its charms and associations. A studious and thoughtful boy, he read English history with delight, was proud of his country's greatness, and ambitiously hoped that some day he would be in a position to do something for it. Inheriting an oldfashioned courtesy of manner and a very chivalric spirit, he had but a poor opinion of money and the position it is supposed to give. His home influences were, however, rather of a Puritan cast, and under the serene guidance of his parents he drifted, scarcely knowing how or why, towards the Pulpit.

In 1859 he entered New College, St. John's Wood, to train for the Ministry, his tutors being the Rev. Dr. Halley ; Dr. William Smith, editor of the Classical and xviii EDWIN JOHNSON

Bible Dictionaries ; Dr. Lankester, the chemist ; the Rev. John Godwin, Dr. Samuel Newth, and Professor Nenner. He won three Scholarships, took his M.A. degree in Classics at the London University; and years afterwards the aged Dr. (then Sir William) Smith wrote of him as one of the most distinguished pupils he ever had. Of his collegiate career a lifelong friend writes : — " His contemporaries would agree that he easily distanced them in any mental contest which he undertook ; while his courtesy, refinement, and quiet humour endeared him to them all as a friend and comrade. He did not possess the elan and force of expression which would have commanded popularity ; but he had in debate, in preaching, and in conversation a rare and delicate skill in exhibiting some of the most charming sides of truth ; and with quiet sarcasm he used to expose some of the popular shams and delusions of the religious world. Few men were so deeply loved and respected at College as Edwin Johnson ; for while he was always an original and daring thinker, he never willingly wounded the susceptibilities of those wha differed with him."

He entered upon his first pastoral charge at Forest Hill, near London, in 1865. There he married and remained some years. His father-in-law's health breaking down, he went a tour with him on the Continent, visiting France, Switzerland, North Italy, and Germany. On their return in 1870, Johnson accepted a call to Boston, Lincolnshire, where he was settled for nine years. This was a very active period. Carefully fulfilling his pastoral duties, he yet found time for writing and lecturing on important topics of the day, taking especial interest in the question of National Education. It was in Boston that Johnson began to make his excursions and explorations into the beginnings of history. Among

AND HIS WRITINGS. xix

his unpublished manuscripts are " An Ancient History in Anecdote," and a monograph on '* St. Beowulph's." Of the same period are Essays on "Hebrew Poetry," and on the " Science of Keligion." While at Boston he also edited Erasmus for the eminent bibliophile Robert Roberts, printer of an edition of the " Utopia." The " Apophthegmes," with a memoir of Erasmus by Johnson, issued in 1877, was followed by the "Colloquies" in 1878. To the latter Johnson added nearly one hundred pages of judicious and accurate notes. " No one," a critic wrote, " could complain that they were in excess, the work could scarcely have been better done " — a remark applicable to all his work, which is characterized by thoroughness and by conscientiousness. He was never influenced by any hasty desire of seeing his writing in print.

Meanwhile, he continued his studies of Classical, especially Greek literature, and read extensively in other branches. His own library — never a large one — was that of a poor scholar whose books are chosen for use, well-thumbed and annotated. Among his favourite authors were Horace, Seneca, Diogenes Laertius, Erasmus, Lessing, Wordsworth, Scott, Jane Austen, and Browning. The " Waverley Novels," he once told me, he had read through at least a dozen times ; the volumes of the double-column edition were always at hand, and in later years helped him through many a sleepless night. His own clear style owes not a little to his favourite Scott.

In 1879 he was appointed Professor of Classical Literature by the Council of his College, and returned to London. This engagement enabled him to devote much more time to study and research : henceforward he became a constant worker at the British Museum

XX EDWIN JOHNSON

and at Dr. Williams's Library in Gordon Square, both being within easy walk of his residence at Primrose Hill. Greek Mythology and Philosophy, as well as Greek Ecclesiastical History, were subjects taken up to fortify his position at the College. These he studied deeply, and upon some of them wrote elaborately. His published literary work during this period included translations of Ewald on the Psalms, Meyer on the Romans, and a variety of miscellaneous articles and papers. He also gave considerable attention to patristic literature, and other branches of theological study. A glance at the list of his writings during these years gives a fair indication of the very wide range of his reading and of his great industry ; while their perusal shows that he had acquired at the same time a facility and lucidity in expressing his ideas on learned and abstruse subjects. His attainments in Latin and Greek were those of a master ; a good French and German scholar, he also became familiar with Oriental literature. He had, moreover, a singular aptitude for teaching, and was able to invest the study of history with a living interest. Dr. Furnivall, who frequently met Johnson, thought him one of the most pregnant-minded and stimulating thinkers he had come across ; he noticed his singularly attractive and genial manner, and the breadth and depth of his culture. The College work was more than congenial, but the Council, for pecuniary considerations, removing the Arts Department to University College, Gower Street, Johnson, after eight years of professorial work, was left free to devote his whole attention to literary pursuits. His works on " Greek Mythology and Religion," and on " The Origin and Process of Religion " were soon completed, though not published. Another work was

AND HIS WRITINGS. xxi

the translation of a collection of South German Folk- Tales, " In the Land of Marvels/' issued as a companion volume to the North German '' Fairy and Household Tales" of the brothers Grimm. The preface to this work afforded its translator and editor an opportunity for writing an interesting article on Folk- Lore, and of criticising the so-called '' Nature Mythologists," whose opinions he considered were based on a radical mistake, presenting in their result an inversion of the truth.

In Patristic studies he had taken a bolder course M^ than is usually pursued by an orthodox professor. In England, Matthew Arnold had revealed to the layman the purely literary character of the Old and the New Testaments. Abroad, German and Dutch theologians had undermined belief in the personality of the supposed writers, while the author of " Supernatural Religion" had shown that there was no evidence for miracles. Johnson, after examining the literary character and authorship of these Scriptures, proposed to himself a re-examination of the history of Christianity from its inception. The result of his earlier inquiries appeared in his " Antiqua Mater," published anonymously towards the end of 1887, and in a Latin essay which he wrote for a Dutch Theological Society.

The tracing down of the so-called early Christian records was intensely interesting. Coming suddenly, after months of earnest research, upon a clue, it was gradually revealed to him that the actual writers of the Church and Gospel histories were not ancient. Not one only, or a few only, of the supposed ancient writers seemed to write in a " sixteenth -century " manner, as Canon Westcott had remarked of Jerome : nearly all of them belonged to that late period. In some respects,

c xxii EDWIN JOHNSON

for one who had spent years in teaching so-called orthodox Christianity, it was painful to have to record the result. But with that peculiar sense of triumph of which men are conscious when having cast away the leading-strings of authority and having learned to depend solely upon their own intelligence, he did not dread any feelings of resentment which the results might arouse upon their publication, and so sat down to the onerous task of recording them.

"The Rise of Christendom" appeared in October, 1890. For a book of its high character the Press notices were, on the whole, hesitating ; in some cases discreetly silent. Few treated the work with the consideration it deserved ; or challenged its statements or its conclusions — a disappointment to its author. It may be that Johnson assumed too much on the part of his readers and the critics, to many of whom the work was probably little more than a paradox. Gibbon and other historians are supposed to rest on the bed-rock of authority. It was the supposed bed-rock authorities behind Gibbon who were attacked in ''The Rise of Christendom." Fortunately for its author, the book was understood by a few thoughtful men. The late Mr. Froude read it with the closest interest and attention, and asked the author to call upon him. This Johnson did, the conversation on the occasion being followed by a correspondence on the questions raised in the book and on collateral subjects. In course of time notices of the book and letters arrived from the Antipodes, where, by a few, as in America, the import of the work was perceived, and (by one or two able critics) described as one of the most important books of the century — an appreciation contrasting greatly with the coldness or silence of the critics at home.

AND HIS WRITINGS. xxiii

Soon after the publication of " The Eise of Christendom," Johnson, adopting the suggestion of a friend, wrote a work of fiction, the idea being that the results of his researches, if presented in romantic or allegorical form, might possibly be more intelligible to the large number of thoughtful persons unable, through lack of the very wide range of reading and knowledge assumed by the author on the part of his audience, to follow the arguments contained in " The Kise of Christendom." This romance, " The Quest of Mr. East," completed in 1889, was not published until ten years later, when, in 1900, it appeared over the pseudonym of " John Soane." In it are embodied some of the author's observations of the phases of religious philosophy and its modern expounders. It was well written, and has been very well received.

The author meantime continued his writings ; for " The Rise of Christendom," comparatively small though its circulation had been, had created among the few a demand for further enlightenment. It was not possible for a subject so vast — a critical subject, too, comprehending a wider field than that covered by Mosheim, Gibbon and Milman, extending over the whole range of European and Semitic literature, to be disposed of in a single volume of 500 pages.

A complementary work — the present volume on the " Rise of English Culture " — was completed towards the end of 1 89 1. This work, which brings the results of the author's researches into "Mediaeval " history nearer home, shows that Celtic and Anglo-Saxon civilization is not only mythic (as other critics had already discovered), but also that the "History" of Bede and som^ of the Chronicles could not possibly have been written before the time of Henry VH. or Henry VIII.

xxiv EDWIN JOHNSON

While writing " English Culture " Johnson prepared several short papers on " Saxon Charters," " British Origins," " English Records," " Foundation Legends of Oxford and Cambridge," " Biblical Legends," '* Biblical Geography," "Gothic and Saracen Architecture," and made notes for a work on " French Culture " which is left unfinished. By way of relaxation he also wrote, about this time, a series of papers on Robert Browning, touching on a few characteristic points in the personality and art of the poet. A " Primer or Elements of Historic Science," undertaken at the suggestion of Mr. Froude, was written in 1892, and a translation into English of the " Prolegomena " of Father Hardouin, copies of the Jesuit's work being scarce, and no full translation from the Latin existing. To various liberal and advance-thought publications he contributed from time to time miscellaneous articles on the same subjects written in more popular vein. These included chapters on "English History," articles on ''Gibbon and the Origin of Christianity," on the " History of Eusebius," and "Notes on Jewish Literature and the Jews in Spain : " some of these papers have been reprinted in American periodicals. " The Pauline Epistles, re-studied and explained," an account of the origin of New Testament writings and of the Protestant Reformation in Europe, issued in 1893, had a fair circulation.

The late Mr. Arbuthnot, Oriental scholar, met Johnson on several occasions to discuss the subject of Chronology with him, and there is no doubt that Johnson would have produced a valuable work on Calendars and Chronological Systems, but his health breaking down, he was obliged to lay aside the mass of notes and extracts which he had accumulated on this subject. This material was subsequently acquired by

AND HIS WRITINGS. xxv

Mr. Arbuthnot. "The Mysteries of Chronology," which appeared in 1900, was very largely based on information which Johnson supplied. The suggestion, however, for the formation of a new Era, ''The Victorian," was Mr. Arbuthnot's own.

Beyond an occasional letter to a private correspondent, Johnson wrote little more. His earlier and unpublished work, except that on '' Greek Mythology and Eeligion," was to some extent superseded by that containing the result of his latest discoveries and research. Of his work on the whole he has recorded his own feeling and impressions towards the end of " The Pauline Epistles." " It was," he writes, " a very distressing curiosity that goaded me to undertake these investigations. In one respect the result has been a grievous disappointment, because, instead of discovering a solid basis of witnessed and accredited facts, I have found nothing but clear and irresistible evidence of the schemes and devices of a secret literary society,* whose bold statements have again and again to