Then what a pity is it, that they who are possessed of so much personal worth, and so much obliging condescension, should find so unkind returns from many of their own clergy? This can proceed only from a fore-conceived prejudice and misapprehension of their true character, which arises not from any just ground, but, from being engaged in a party, and, for that reason, unadvisedly believing all that is said in their disparagement. If this unhandsome and ungodly custom do not stop in good time, God knows whither it will at last carry us. The ancient heresies and schisms, which so sadly pestered the primitive church, had their original from presbyters quarrelling with their bishops. This gave a rise to the heresies of Arius and Novatianus, and to the schism of the Donatists. But I hope, the good God will afford us more grace and wisdom than to let matters run so far. I do not think this humour to be spread so very wide as to affect any great part of our clergy; the far greater number I am persuaded do stick fast to their ancient principles and duty, and have never ceased to pay that love and respect to their diocesans, which our forefathers were so hearty in; and that ill example, which some disobliged persons have set, will, I hope, be so far from being copied, that they themselves will see their error, and be sorry for it.

But I would not have you mistake me, as if I charged these faults upon the lower house of convocation, in their disputes with the bishops; for though, I confess, I cannot go into opinion with them in all they have advanced, yet they, as acting in a synodical authority, have a privilege to remonstrate upon any grievances they think to be hard upon them, without breach of their duty to superiors. Or, if rules of decency be sometimes transgressed, the warmth of the disputes, they may be engaged in, goes a good way in alleviation. But my business is to silence, if I could, the reflecting talk of those, who reproach the bishops without doors; which, though they were of the house, they have no synodical privilege to excuse them for. For every presbyter then is upon the level with you and me, and owe as much duty and regard to their respective bishops. But I am afraid, there are the greatest number of tongues running upon this theme, that have had no share in these disputes, but what they have been pleased to take to themselves, without being called to it. And I think it is time for all, who have nothing to do in these matters, to be quiet, when the chief managers of the lower house controversy, and all the worthy members of the body now met, seem inclined to peace, and the ancient good correspondence. Now these, I think, we may both of us, as occasion shall offer, put in mind of their duty, without assuming an authority which does not belong to us. For brotherly admonition is a common duty of Christianity; and therefore, to be sure, does not lie out of our way, that have the honour to take a share in the ministerial function. For, if you take seasonable opportunities to speak calmly upon these heads, or others, which yourself may suggest, where you shall find need, I doubt not, but in time, and with God's blessing, your discourse will have its desired effect in the neighbourhood; and, if others would take upon them to do the like elsewhere in the nation, I am persuaded we

should all grow into a good humour once again, and love our bishops as we have done formerly. Thus, recommending you to the divine protection, and praying for good success in the attempt you shall make in the kind I advise, or any other good work of your calling,

I am your faithful friend,.

and brother in Christ, &c.

AN ACCOUNT

OF

THE ORIGINAL OF WRITING AND PAPER,

Out of a Book, intitled, La Libraria Vaticana,

Written by Mutio Pansa, Keeper of the said Library.
Printed at Rome. Quarto, containing thirty pages.

1st, Of the Use of Books, and Invention of Letters.

DISCOURSE I.

THAT many authors, both Christian and heathen, from whom it may in some measure be gathered, that they have been in use ever since the world began; for we read, that Jude the Apostle, in one of his epistles quotes the book of Enoch, which was before the flood. (The words of the epistle are: And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, &c. So that here is a prophecy, but nothing expresly of a book of his writing, whence a debate may arise, whether this prophecy was not left by oral tradition, without more positive proof; but to return to our author.) And tho' authors differ very much concerning the invention of letters, of which afterwards books were composed; yet we take it for granted, that they were invented by Adam, his sons, and grandsons, in the first age of the world, before the flood, and were after preserved by Noah and his progeny, till they came to Abraham, and so to Moses; and of this opinion was St. Augustin, lib. xv. de Civitate Dei, and Josephus, a Jewish writer of great credit, who, in

HAT the use of books and libraries is very ancient, appears by

the first book of his antiquities, writes, That Adam's grandsons, the sons of Seth, erected two pillars, the one of stone and the other of brick, on which they left written, and engraved, all the arts discovered by them, and he affirms he saw one of the pillars in Syria; from the which, I am of opinion, the Egyptians afterwards learnt the way of writing, and expressing their mysteries with those characters called hieroglyphicks, on several obelisks, wherein Egypt formerly so much abounded, that some of them are still to be seen in Rome, whither they were transported by the first Emperors. This is the more credible, because we read, that Adam was by God created in so great a state of perfection, of knowledge, and of wisdom, that he gave names to all things, according to their nature and qualities; and that none ever so well understood the revolutions of the heavens, the motions of the stars and planets, and so thoroughly knew the nature of herbs, plants, animals, and all other things in the world, as he did. It is therefore to be believed, that he found out the method for preserving the memory hereof to posterity. Pliny, in his Nat. Hist. lib. vii, cap. ult. confirms this opinion; for there, after delivering the sentiments of many concerning the invention of letters, as that some pretend they were invented in Syria by the Assyrians, and others in Egypt by Mercury; that they were brought into Italy by the Pelasgi, and into Greece by the Phoenicians, and Cadmus their leader; that Palamedes, during the Trojan war, added four more; he concludes, it is his opinion, that letters were eternal, which is almost the same, as to say they began with the world. Hence it follows, that their opinion is vain, who say the Egyptians were the inventors of letters and arts, as Diodorus Siculus holds lib. i. where he says, that Mercury found them out in Egypt; though, in his fourth book, he writes, that others think the Ethiopians had letters before, and the Egyptians from them. Hence we may further infer, that Moses was not the first inventor of letters, as some Jews and Christians affirm, because he was ancienter than any one of those by whom they are said to have been first found; as Cadmus, who lived in the days when Othoniel governed Israel, which was forty-seven years after the written law was given to Moses; and therefore the Egyptians learnt the letters of him, and they communicated them to the Phoenicians, whence Cadmus carried them into Greece. True it is, that Attabanus and Eupolemus, heathen authors, say, that Moses was by the Egyptians called Mercury, and the same that taught them letters. Thus, we see, the invention of letters was ancienter than Philo the Jew believes it, who says, that Abraham first found them; for, as has been said, they were in being even in the days of Adam and his children, and afterwards preserved by Noah, who was a man of learning and letters, and it is to be believed that he saved them with him in the ark; though, after the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, most nations might lose the letters, and the knowledge of them might only remain in the family of Heber, from whom the Hebrews afterwards descended, who lost not their first language, as St. Augustin, Eusebius, and most learned men of our time affirm. Philo, and the rest, who thought that Moses had been the inventor of letters, were the more easily deceived, because it is manifest, that the books and history writ by Moses are the

ancientest in the world, or than the wisdom of the Egyptians, or the philosophy of the Greeks, as is made out by St. Augustin and Josephus writing against Appion the grammarian, as also by Eusebius and Justin Martyr: And that there were letters before Moses is visible, because we find it written, that he learnt in Egypt unto Pharoah the arts and wisdom of the Egyptians; nor do I know how this could be, unless they had letters before, though, it is true, we know they had some characters called hieroglyphicks, by which they taught most of their sciences. Howsoever it was, the invention of letters is certainly divine, as being those that preserve and secure all other invention, for without them none can subsist; and they are of such worth, that they make men immortal, rendering those things present which happened a thousand years ago, and joining those which are distant, communicating them, as if they were not asunder. By them are known and learnt all sorts of sciences, teaching those in being all that past ages knew, and preserving for posterity all that those now living found out. In short, the benefit of them is almost infinite and inexpressible, and therefore their invention may deservedly be called rather divine than human. What order was observed in the characters of ancient times, methinks is not to be sought after, as depending on the will and pleasure of the inventor; as we daily see is done by those who frame cyphers or characters, and other sorts of common letters, who observe no order. It is true they were, in process of time, for the more distinction, put into that order we now see them: And, because many afterwards successively added other letters, or made new characters, therefore many were thought the inventors of them; of whom we shall speak to purpose hereafter, when we come to discourse of the pictures in the Vatican library, among which are those, of all such as were famous in the world for the invention of letters, or for adding any to them.

Of the Paper of the Ancients, of the Papyrus of the Romans, of the several sorts of it, and of the Paper of our Times.

DISCOURSE II.

HAVING hitherto discoursed of the letters, it will now be convenient to say something of paper, as the matter on which they are made; and, to speak the truth, it is no small difficulty to decide what they writ on in former ages, because we have no account in history what they did write on before the flood, but what we said before, that Adam's grandchildren, the sons of Seth, writ an account of arts on those two pillars abovementioned. After the flood, all authors agree that men had no paper, but writ on the leaves of palm trees, whence, to this

day, those of books are called leaves. Next they writ on the fine bark of trees, and particularly on that sort which slips off easiest; such as the elder, the plane, the ash, and the elm; and these were the inward films, which grow between the bark and the wood, which, being curiously taken off, were joined together, and books made of them; and, because this film in Latin is called liber, thence the same name was given to a book, though now they are not made of that substance. The wit of man, which still improved, after this found out a way of writing on the thinnest sheets of lead, of which private people made books and pillars. Next, the ancients found the way of writing on linnen-cloths slicked and waxed, on which they writ, not with a pen, but with a small cane or reed, as some write to this day. And, as Pliny tells us, we find in Homer, that these waxed cloths were used before the time of the Trojans; and Mutianus, who, as he writes himself, was thrice consul, that, when he was president in Lycia, he read there, in a temple, a letter writ on one of these cloths by Sarpedon, king of Lycia, then at Troy, where he assisted Priam in his war against the Greeks, and was at last killed by Patroclus. In process of time, the method was found out of writing on parchment made of sheep-skins, mentioned by Herodotus, lib. vii. the invention whereof Varro assigns to the people of Pergamus, a city in Asia, on the banks of the river Caicus, whereof Eumenes was king, and from that city it was called Pergamenum, which we have corrupted to parchment. Pliny says, this Eumenes first sent it to Rome; but Elianus says it was Attalus, king of the same country, who first sent it. Josephus, the Jew, makes the writing on parchment ancienter, and says, the books of the Jews, so much ancienter than Eumenes, and the rest of that sort, were writ upon skins; and relates, that when Eleazer, the high priest, sent the books of the holy scripture to Ptolemy by the Septuagint, to be translated out of Hebrew into Greek, king Ptolemy Philadelphus was much amazed at the fineness of those skins or parchment; so that writing on them was easier and more lasting than the ancienter use of barks and leaves of trees; and it is to be believed, this invention was not yet in Egypt, since Ptolemy wondered at it. After this, there was found a sort of paper made of a rush, or plant, called Papyrus, growing in the marshes, about the river Nile, though Pliny says there are some of them in Syria, near the river Euphrates. These rushes bear small leaves betwixt the outward rhind and the pith, which, being neatly opened with the point of a needle, and then prepared with fine flour and other ingredients, served to write on and made paper, the innermost part making the finest, and, according to the several sorts, it had several names, and was put to sundry uses; being from this rush called Papyrus, which name has continued to our days, and is given to our paper, though made of rags, because this serves for the same uses as that did. I saw one of these rushes at Rome, which was shewed me by that worthy gentleman Castor Durante, of happy memory, my master in the college, who told me it came from Egypt; and he had it from Padua, sent him by Signior Cortuso, a man excellently learned in simples, of whom he had got other more strange and rave