PREFACE.

On the first day of February, A. D. 1807, the Ecclesiastical Society of the Diocese of St. David's, for promoting Christian Knowledge and Church Union, inserted an advertisement in several periodical works, proposing a premium to the author of the best work, to be entitled, "A Summary of the History of the English Church, and of the Sects which have separated from its Communion, with short Answers addressed to each Sect, relative to its pretended Grounds of Dissent." The work which is now presented to the public eye, is formed on the skeleton of that smaller production, which, in the adjudication, was honoured with preference.

The Society having been pleased further to express a wish for the more extended circulation of my History, and having handsomely proposed to relieve the expense, by purchasing a consider able number of copies, I immediately replaced

VOL. I.

the Work on the frame, with the intention of rendering it somewhat less unworthy of the flattering distinction which it had experienced; for the candidates having been required to transmit their performances, in the short space of three months from the date of the notice, it will readily be supposed, that many inaccuracies in the original statement of facts, as well as imperfections in reasoning and expression, must have escaped the most laborious and careful writer.

From that time to the present, I have devoted as many hours, as could be snatched from other professional avocations, to a diligent perusal of the older histories, which the former limitation of time permitted me to consult no further than in relation to a few of the more important points. By comparing these volumes with each other, as well as with the different more recent productions, I have been enabled to lay claim to at least one merit of an historical writer, that of fidelity in narration. To varying accounts, wherever they have occurred, I have applied the ordinary rules. of evidence, making allowance for the acknowledged prejudices of different historians; and, with this limitation, adopting authorities, neither too

near to the facts in question, nor too remote from them; and preferring, amongst historians nearly contemporary, the majority to the smaller num

ber.

I have, likewise, endeavoured to exercise a more mature and deliberate judgment, in regard to the selection of facts; but having found, in perusing the older histories, much matter which appeared extremely valuable, although unnoticed in later narratives, I have been unavoidably compelled to enlarge my own work, beyond its original dimensions. By dismissing, however, a few facts formerly introduced, and compressing others, which, though also of minor importance, seemed still deserving of being retained, I trust I shall be considered as having yet restricted the publication within bounds sufficiently narrow to preserve its character of a Summary.

With this view, I have chiefly, in the histo rical part of the work, confined myself to a perspicuous and compressed narrative, seldom indulging, at any considerable length, in those reflections which the facts suggested. I have endeavoured, however, I know not whether with success, to avoid what appears to be the leading

fault, in the several historians whom I have consulted; I mean, their want of judgment in selection, and in arrangement. No one, in any degree conversant in their writings, can fail to have remarked, that they are annalists rather than historians, moving to and fro from parliament to convocation, and from England to Rome, for the purpose of recording the transactions of each year, and filling their ponderous volumes with dull speeches and prolix epistles, or with the idle details of a gossipping biography.

Time has, likewise, been now afforded me, for extending my reading, and methodizing my observations, with reference to the various sects; but as, in this most important part of the labour, a more ample discussion than that originally written, appeared, in particular instances, to be expedient, I have omitted, in the title-page, the epithet Short, which was at first specified, as a requisite quality of the answers.

I feel, on the whole, very deeply conscious of my incompetence to doing full justice to so arduous an undertaking; and it is not without a trembling, and even a reluctant hand, that I now transmit to public notice, my humble and feeble