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book on the Ancient Privileges, by Thomas Markant, Fellow of Peter House, and junior Proctor, A. D. 1417. This book disappeared many years ago; and the book of Mr. Buck, of Caius College, Squire Beadle, in the middle of the seventeenth century, (which latter book was probably founded on the former,) has, I understand, in like manner, disappeared within these few years. And " who can stay what will away?" as merry Fuller has it; for Markant's book strayed three times; which Fuller considered as an earnest that it would never return.

As to the Black Book, the little credit due to that depends, not merely on the assertions, or solitary proofs of Oxford antiquaries. They, indeed, have been as violent in opposing its claims, as some Cantabrigians have been rash in its support. Nor can we wonder, that when one Cambridge orator supported the superior antiquity of his University, by a desperate appeal to this book of fables, that an Oxford orator, the assertor of the superior antiquity of his University, should entrench himself, as it were, within this argument. It was a sort of stratagem of war, and a justifiable one. But bishop Nicholson speaks largely, I had almost said ignorantly, when he affirms, " that the Black Book of Cambridge makes as considerable a figure there, as our old Statute Books at Oxford."

b

This book is, indeed, the ground work of Caius's idle assertion, for its great antiquity, (though even Caius and Codex differ in their dates,) and of the violent controversy between Key and Twine of Oxford, and Caius of Cambridge. It is introduced, also, at large, into Parker's History of the Antiquities of the University of Cambridge, though he decides neither for nor against its authenticity.

a I shall speak of him under Bene't College. He is called by others Marchant, b Assertio Antiq. Acad. Oxon. p. 7.

But the opinion of Hare was decided. "This is said,"
(he is speaking of the Historiola alluded to above,) " to be
taken ex nigro codice universitatis, the Black Book of the
University: but it seems to be no better than idle fiction,
though the preceding charters, 1, 3, 5, (viz. the charters of
kings Arthur, Cadwallader, and Edward) are copied from
it." Hare, being a Papist, was probably willing to re-
serve the Pope's bulls, for the honour and glory of Alma
Mater. But Baker, our honest and learned Cambridge
antiquary, considered these bulls, also, as gross forgeries,
for the purpose of fresh impositions. Dr. Ashton, too, a
learned man, and well acquainted, as already hinted, with
Cambridge antiquities, has prefixed to the Index of the
first volume of Parris's Index, his testimony against
both bulls and charters: and I take Dr. Parris, from
what he says of " the most useless part of this book," to
have been of the same judgment.

What Carter's opinion of this Black Book was, is clear
enough. He says, without the smallest authority, indeed,
"that the first original of this famous university is said to
be about A. D. 536, when one Cantaber, a Spaniard, was
a governor under Arthur, king of the South Britons:"
so unaccountably out of order is he, in his chronology,
and so at variance, both with Caius and Codex d.

To crown all, Mr. Robert Smyth, when remarking, that
Mr. William Bokenham was the author of the Historiola,
adds, " being part, as it is called, of the Black Book of

• MS. Hare's Collection, Ist. vol.

MS. Hist. of St. John's Col. in the British Museum.

• Hæ Chartæ Antiquæ una cum Bullis omnino videntur esse fictitiæ.

Dr. Ashton's note to Dr. Parris's Index to Hare's Collections. 1st vol.
d Hist. of Cambridge.

Cambridge. Therein is the story of Cantaber, whose son, Grantanus, is said to have built Cambridge, called from him, at first, Caergrant:" but of this book, and the legends, Leland has said, too justly, "There are in it a hundred things of the same kind. Truly, I never read any thing in it more vain, nor at the same time more foolish and stupid." If, therefore, our Oxonians pay as much, (and no more) " deference," I use bishop Nicholson's words, " to their old Statute Books, as our best informed Cantabs do to the Black Book," it is clear, they pay no deference to them at all.

As to the earliest charters, and the bulls, then, contained in this book, their authority will tell but for little. In tracing the birth of some colleges, I have found, if they have not in their chartularies an original charter of foundation, they have, at least, an attested copy, which, as it would be valid in a court of law, so would it authenticate history: but, in the present instance, there are neither originals, nor attested copies of originals; and as black books would be no legal evidence, so can they give no authority to historyb.

As little can be said in favour of Cantaber, no such name is once mentioned, either by Gildas or Bede, who are our earliest writers of British history; nor, of course, by succeeding writers, who tread in their steps, as Spelman, in his British Councils, and Camden in his Britannia. And yet, a Spanish prince, settling in this island, founding a seat of learning, and giving name to a part of the coun

• Smyth's MS. in Carter, and Leland, in his notes to Cantio Cygnea.

That the attested copy, made under Pope Martin, A. 1430, was no original, see Caius's own Testimony, De Antiq. Cant. Acad. L. i. p. 62, 63.

Had

try, must have been circumstances of notoriety. they been true, must they not have been heard of? Had they been heard of, must they not have been recorded? Is it probable, that neither Cæsar nor Tacitus should have heard of such an occurrence? There was a Roman camp near Cambridge. Tacitus was very curious about the Britons, and prepared to do them justice, as may be fully seen in his Life of Agricola. Indeed, he expressly observed, that some of the Iberi, an eastern people of Spain, passed over to the western part of Britain: and had the northern inhabitants of Spain, the Cantabri, settled in the eastern parts of Britain, is it not as likely he would have mentioned, also, that? I say the Cantabri, so the Biscayans were called: for, had there been any foundation for this report, they should rather have been some Cantabri, a gentile name, than one Cantaber, a proper name of an individual.

As neither Tacitus, nor Gildas, nor Bede, nor any contemporary writer, mention the circumstance, neither does Richard of Cirencester, in his Account of the Province of Flavia, where Camborico was, as it occurs, stated by him, in the Fifth Iter of Antonine's Itineraryb.

But enough of black books and bulls, and dreams of charters. The truth is, many circumstances have combined to disturb the repose of our University records, and public libraries. Ancient writers speak of the Danes as having made a complete desolation of every monument of literature and religion, in these parts: and the Saxons had been here before, and came at first, not as revivers, but destroyers: and whatever honours popery may claim, in subsequent periods, by her new creations, yet, our alterations from popery to protestantism introduced much disorder and confusion. Eighty years after the foundation of duke Humphrey's library, at Oxford, not a single book remained of the old library. Caius, who has preserved the titles of the books left in the two public libraries at Cambridge, in 1574, confesses they had been plundered of a great part; and, though he speaks of privileges, granted by ancient kings, he appeals to nohe directly, nor could he, to any authentic, higher than Henry III. Fuller, in his History of Cambridge, has given, after Caius, an account of the furious disputes about privileges that had subsisted long before, between the townsmen and scholastics of Cambridge, together with the intire destruction made of the University records, by the former; and such records as the scholastics would have been most willing to preserve, the townsmen would have been most eager to destroy. Some of our most flattering testimonies, therefore, must have been made up of conjectures, traditions, and ancient histories, accessible to every one, or of impostures, and fragments of no account.

a Caius calls him, comically enough, (p. 4. Hist. Caut. pars 1.) a king's son (homo genere nobilis, Hispaniæ Regis filius); and yet speaks of him as a sort of schoolmaster.

b Ricardus Corinensis de Situ Britanniæ, Cap. vi.

I have included ancient histories, because, in questions of this kind, it is no uncommon thing for men to speak of old archives, which, while they do reach to later occurrences, do not to such as are remote. Here they take up with ancient authors; but where are their archives?

The first public instrument, relating to this University, that can be spoken of, as undoubtedly authentic, is the 13th of Henry III. A. C. 1229.

a Reliq. Bodleianæ.

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