the old and new testaments connectedin the history of the jews and neighbouring nations, from the...

8/22/2019 The Old and New Testaments connectedin the history of the Jews and neighbouring nations, from the declensions

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CONNECTED IN THE HISTORY OFTHK

JEWS AND NEIGHBOURING NATIONS,FKOM THEDeclensions of the Kingdoms of Israel and Jodaii

TO TI|E

/BY HUMPHREY PRIDEAUX, D.D.DEAN OP NORWICH.

TO WHICH IS NOW ADDED,THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

CONTAINING SOME LETTERS WHICH HE WROTE IN DEFENCE AND II.i.US-TRATION OF CERTAIN PARTS OF HIS CONNEXIONS.

ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT NEW MAPS AXD PLATED.IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

BOSTON:PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS AND IIILLIARD.

J, t J. Harper, Printers.1323.


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To the Right Honourable DANIEL, Earl ofNottingham^ President of his Blajestxfs mosthonourable Privy Council.

My Lord,IT being by your recommendation to your

noble father, that I was by him made prebenda-ry of the cathedral church of Norwich, whilehe was Lord Chancellor of England, and itbeing also by your Lordship's like favourablerecommendation of me to her late MajestyQueen Anne, that I was promoted to be Deanof the same church, I humbly offer unto yourLordship this product of my studies, in agrateful acknowledgment of the favours I havereceived from you. And, if the public receiveany benefit from it (as I hope some may,) no-thing is more just and reasonable, than thatthey should receive it through your Lordship'shands, who, in having been so much a patronto the Author, have acquired thereby the besttitle to all the fruits of mv labours. What I


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4 DEDTCATIOX.

now oftbr unto your Lordship is only the firstpart of what is intended. If God gives life,the second shall follow, and beg its passageinto the world under the same patronage.The only additional favour I am now capableof receiving, is your Lordship's kind accep-tance of this expression of my gratitudewhich I humbly pray from your hands; and Iam,

My Lord,Your most obedient, and

Most obliged humble Servant,HUMPHREY PRIDEAUX.


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THE AUTHORS LIFE.

Dr. Humphrey Prideaux was born at Padstow, in thecounty of Cornwall, on the 3d of May, A. D. 1648, beingthe third son of Edmund Prideaux, Esq. by Bridgett his wife,who was the daughter of John Movie of Bake, Esq. in thesame county. He was by both his parents descended fromancient and honourable families, well known in that county.The doctor being a younger brother, and designed by hisparents for the church, as soon as he was of fit age he wassent abroad to school, first to Liskard, in Cornwall, then toBodmin, in the same county, and from thence removed toWestminster, under the famous Dr. Busb}', where he wassoon chosen King's scholar ; and after having been in thatcollege three years, was from thence elected to Christ-church,Oxford, and admitted into a student's place in theyear 1668,by Dr. John Fell, dean of that college ; and in Trinity Term.A. D. 1672, he commenced bachelor of arts.As soon as he had taken that degree, lie was employed byDr. Fell, who had at that time the management of the publicprinting-press in that university, in an edition of LuciusFlorus, and directed to add notes thereto,'which he did ac-cordingly. These notes contain only references to other au-thors, showing where other ancient historians have treatedmore at large of matters, which Florus has only related inepitome.

After this, there was put into his hands, out of the Bodleianlibrary, a manuscript copy of Johannes AntiochenusMalela.a Greek historian, in order to have it fitted for the press byhis care : but he, on perusing it, thought it a very fabulousand trifling book, not worth the printing ; and upon his givingthis judgment of it. the design was quite laid aside. Thisbook, however, has been since published by the learned Dr.Hody, professor of Greek in the same university.

About this time, the doctor had the misfortune to lose hisbrother Nicholas, for whom he had conceived a particularaffection, on account of his promising parts, and the greatprogress he had made in literature. He died of the small-pox, in the eighteenth year of his age. at Corpus Chris ficoWege.


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tj THE AUTHOR'S LIf K.Oxon, where he had been a scholar three years ; and Jiesburied in the cloister near the chapel, with a mural monu-ment erected to his memory, which is still to be seen there.

It was about this time that the Lord Henry Howard, thenearl of Norwich, and afterward duke of Norfolk, made apresent to the university of Oxford, of those marbles, whichare called the Arundel marbles, being the collection of hisgrandfather Thomas, earl of Arundel : and these being setup in the court before the theatre, as there were severalvery curious and valuable inscriptions upon them, it wasthought proper, that they should be published with a commentto explain them ; and Mr. Humphrey Frideaux, at that timethe only bachelor of arts, was appointed to this work. Accord-ingly he undertook it, and two years afterward, in May,1676, published his book, entitled Marmora Oxoniensia, inone volume in folio, printed at the university press, and dedi-cated to the said earl of Norwich. In this work he has givenus all the aforesaid inscriptions at large, with a commentafter each, tending to illustrate and explain them, and hasadded by way of appendix, an account of some marbles col-lected by Mr. Selden, and Scrtorius Ursatus's Commentarhisde noiis Romanorum. This book being published when he wasbut twenty-six years of age, a year after he had taken hismaster of arts degree, gained him great reputation in the uni-versity, and was well received in the world, especially amongforeigners in Germany, France, and Italy ; and the demandfor it among the learned was such, that it grew very scarcewithin a few years after it had been printed, and was not tobe had, but at an advanced price. The learned Huetius inhis Demonstratio Evangelica, prop. 4. cap. 2. 14, says of it," Plurima hujusmodisuppeditat Liber Inscriptionum Gruteri :at nihil in hoc genere marmora Oxoniensia ajquiparate queat,quibus Insigniores Priscorum Grascorum Epochas, FoedusSmyrnaeorum et Magnentium, aliaque egregia vetustatisMonumenta inscripta sunt." This book has suffered much inpassing through the press, and is full of typographical errors ;which was owing to the negligence of the public correctorof the university press, who took no sort of Care in correct-ing it, but suffered it to come out with all the faults, as itcame from thence. The author for these and other reasons(particularly as he was called upon for a sheet every week,whether he was ready or not) never had any opinion or es-teem for this work, and speaks of it himself in his preface inthe following manner: "Ac sic tandem postexactum Annispa-tium iisdem semper gradibus, quibus typographus progressusfaciens, operi meo citius timeo quam felicius finem imposui,illudque jam trado, candide Lector, in manus tuas : si in eojnvenias me aliquid rectins dicere. iitere in c^mmoHum tniim j


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THE AtiTHOK's LII'K. .SI iu uoiHiuUis errasse, ne incuses; spectes aetaieni wieam;spectes difBcillimas scribendi conditiones ; reputa quam paucisunt qui, in his circumstantiis positipossunt melius : iis igiturcondona quicquid in hoc opere culpandum est : a maturioribusstudiis si Deus vitam dederit et valetudinem ferendis Labo-ribus idoneam, spera meliora."

Mr. Prideaux having been ordered at the first publicationof this book to present one to the lord chancellor Finch, thisintroduced him into his lordship's patronage, who soon aftersent to him, at Christ-church, Mr. Charles Finch, one of hislordship's sons, to be his pupil. He was afterward electedfellow of All Souls College, and there commenced doctor oflaws ; but died soon after, before he could make any appear-ance in the world.

In the beginning of the year 1679, the rectory of St.Clemens in Oxford, which is in the gift of the great seal,falling void, Mr. Prideaux was by the lord chancellor Finchpresented to it, and instituted and inducted accordingly.This living he served constantly for several years.The same year Mr. Prideaux published two tracts out ofMaimonides in Hebrew, to which he added a Latin translationand annotations. The book bears the title of Dejure Pmi-peris et Peregrini apiid JridcEos. This he did in consequenceof his having been appointed Dr. Busby's Hebrew lecturerin the college of Christ-church ; and his principal view inprinting this book was to introduce young students in theHebrew language into t!ie knowledge of the Rabinical dia-lect, and to teach them to read it without points.In the latter end of the year 1680, the parliament meetingat Oxford, he attended on the lord chancellor Finch there ashis chaplain; but this was of short continuance; for theparliament was dissolved within ten days after its first meeting.The 12th of May following his patron the lord Finch wascreated earl of Nottingham on the decease of Charles Howard,the last Earl of Nottingham of that family, by whose deathtlie title was now become extinct.About midsummer following, A. D. 1681, Dr. HerbertAstley, dean of Norwich, dying, Dr. John Sharp, formerlychaplain to the said lord chancellor, prebendary of Norwich,and rector of St. Giles in the Fields, was promoted to thatdeanery ; upon which his prebend in that church, which was inthe gift of the great seal, falling void, the lord chancellor wrotea very kind letter to Mr. Prideaux at Oxford, to let him knowthat he gave it him ; and accordingly on the 15th of Augustafter, he was installed into it, and kept his first residence atthat church, in the months of December and January follow-ing. The other prebendaries of the same church, at Mr.Prideanx's first admission into it were. Mr. Joseph Loveland.


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8 TfJE AUTHOR b LIFE.Dr. Hezekiah Burton, Dr. William Hawkins, Dr. WilliamSmyth, and Mr. Nathaniel Hodges: but Dr. Burton dyingsoon after, Mr. Richard Kidder, afterward dean of Peterbo-rough, and bishop of Bath and Wells, succeeded him. Withhim Mr. Prideaux contracted a very particular friendship,which continued to the time of Dr. Kidder's death, whowas unfortunately killed by the fall of the roof of his bed-chamber, in the great storm^ A. D. 1703.On the 13th of November, 1682, Mr. Prideaux was admit-ted to the degree of bachelor in divinity, and soon after hadthe misfortune to lose his patron, the lord chancellor Notting-ham, who died on the 18th of November following, and wassucceeded by sir Francis North, lord chiefjustice of the Courtof Common Pleas.On the 17th of February, A. D. 1682-3, he was institutedto the rectory of Bladen cum Capclla de Woodstock, in thecounty of Oxford. Dr. Thomas Marshall, then dean ofGloucester, and rector of Lincoln College, was his predecessorin this living, who having resigned it, Mr. Prideaux was pre-sented thereto, by the lord keeper North, it being in the giftof the great seal, held it with his student's place, at Christ-church, by virtue of his being library keeper of that college ;for as there is no salary belonging to that office, except fortyshillings per annum paid to a deputy, the student, who has it,has the privilege of holding one living without vacating hisstudent's place by his institution thereto.On the 13th of October, A. D. 1GC3, Mr. Prideaux lost hisfather, who died in the 78th year of his age. He was de-scended of a family, that had flourished in many places bothin Cornwall and Devonshire, at Prideaux, Orcharton, Ad-deston, Thuborough, Soldon, Nctherton, Ford Abby, andPadstovv ; as appears from the herald's books, Camden,Leland's Ilinerarij, Fidlers pVorihies, Risdon's Survey ofDevon, Carrro's Srirvei/ of Cornu-all, and Princess Worthies ofDevon; who all make honourable mention of this family,lie was a i^eutleman of great worth, sobriety, and discretion,and well learned in mosc parts of literature, that became agentleman to know. He studied tirst at Sidney College inCambridge, where he was under the care of Dr. Paul Michel-thwayt, afterward master of the temple : from thence re-moved to Exeter college in Oxford at the invitation of Dr.John Prideaux, then rector of that college ; and from thencehe went to the Inns of Court, in order to make himself ac-quainted with the laws of the realm ; and after this travelledabroad, and spent some time in foreign countries. Ey thesemeans he improved his natural understanding, and acquiredthose accomplishments, which made him honoured and res-pected beyond most of his time in the conntv where he lived :


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f.HK AUTHOR'S LIFE. 9to which he was very useful in the commission of the peaceand Heutenancy. From the restoration to the time of hisdeath, he had the chief management of affairs in the countyof Cornwall, which, on account of his known wisdom andintegrity, were mostly referred to him.Mr. Prideaux now wholly gave himself up to his studies,and attended to the duties of his function, going constantly toKladen and Woodstock every Sunday from Christ-church.And that there might be no deficiency in the ministerial du-ties at any time, he kept a curate resident at Woodstock, toattend them ; so that both churciies were constantly servedmorning and afternoon every Sunday.And that they might always continue to be so served, Dr^

Fell, who was then bishop of Oxford, as well as dean ofChrist-church, projected the building an house for the minister ofWoodstock; and having accordingly purchased apiece ofground on the left-hand of the gate, going into the park fromthe town of Woodstock, and formed the model for the house ;committed the care of building it to Mr. Prideaux, underwhose direction it was finished in the year 1685, and after-ward settled for the use of the minister for ever, in case heshall reside thereon ; otherwise for the use of the poor ofthe town of Woodstock. It is built in the form of a cross,upon the park wall over against Chaucer's house. Thepurchase of the ground, and the building of the new housethereon, was wholly at the expense of the learned and piousbishop Fell, which cost him above 600/. but the convertingthe old house, which stood there before, into out-houses andoffices, and fitting up the same, was wholly at the charge ofMr. Prideaux.From the time that he was master of arts, and a tutor inthe college, he was always very zealous and diligent in re-forming such disorders and corruptions, as had from time totime crept into it; and made use of all opportunities inhis power for suppressing them. This of course drew onhim the ill-will of many of his fellow-collegians, as mustalways happen to those, who endeavour at the reformationofdiscipline. But at the same time he had the friendship andesteem of the best men, and such whose reputation washighest in the university ; particularly of bishop Fell, Dr.Pocock, the learned Hebrew and Arabic professor. Dr. Mar-shall, dean of Gloucester, and rector of Lincoln college, Dr.Bernard, Savilian professor of astronomy. Dr. Mills, the edi-tor of the Greek Testament, Dr. Henry Godolphin, late deanof St. Paul's, Mr. Guise of All Souls College, and manyother learned and valuable men.On the 6th of February, A. D. 1684-5. died king CharlesVol, T. ' i '


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10 THE author's LIFL.the lid, and his brother James the lid was pioclauned kmt;the same day. The summer following happened the invasion!-of the earl of Argyle in Scotland, and the duke of Monmouthin England, which having both miscarried, and both the con-ductors of them being cut off, king James now looked uponhimself as thoroughly settled on the throne ; and began totake open measures for subjecting these realms to popish su-perstition. At the same time, bishop Fell declining very fastin health, Mr. Prideaux foresaw the confusion, which after-ward followed in the college upon his decease, when theking imposed a popish dean to succeed him ; and thereforedetermined to retire from it, and settle on his cure, and on thel6th of February, A. D, 1G86-6, he married Mrs. BridgetsBokenham, only daughter of Anthony Bokenham of Helming-ham in the county of Suffolk, Esq. who was the son of tiyounger brother of sir Henry Bokenham of Thornham, in thecounty of Suffolk ; and her mother was the daughter of Tho-mas Townsend of Horstead, in the county of Norfolk, Esq.

In the year 1G86, at the public act, Mr. Prideaux proceededdoctor of divinity ; and having exchanged his living of Bladenrum Woodstock, for the rectory of Saham in Norfolk, as soonas that act was over, left Oxford, and settled upon his prebendat Norwich.The last thing he did at Oxford, was to attend the funeralof his friend bishop Fell, who died on the Saturday of thatact; and was buried on the Tuesday following, in the cathe-dral ofChrist-church, underthe dean's stall in the Latinchapel.As soon as Dr. Prideaux had seen him put into the ground, heimmediately left Oxford, and never afterward returnedthither. This good bishop was, for his piety, learning, andwisdom, esteemed one of the most eminent prelates of histime ; and the college, which long enjoyed the benefit of hiswise and useful government, is so much indebted to him onthat account, as well as for his buildings and other benefac-tions, that he may deservedly be esteemed the second founder.

Dr. Prideaux always looked on him as the author of thebook, called The Reasons of the Decay of Christian Piety,which came out in the name of the author of The Whole Dutyof Man; and his reasons for it were, that in the summer of1676, he made a visit to Sir William Morice at Werrington,in the county of Devon, (who was his uncle, having married asister of his father's) when among other discourse that passedbetween them. Sir William told him, he thought bishop Fellwas the author of that book ; for that whilst he attended atcourt, as secretary of state, a little after the restoration, he heardthe bishop preach a sermon in the king's chapel, with whichhe was -^o much pleased, that he desired to have a copv of it.


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IHE author's LIFK. liwhich was accordingly presented to him ; and that someyears after, on the pubhcation of the book called The Decayof Christian Piety, he found the sermon in the very samewords in that book ; and thence concluded, that the personwho preached the one must be the author of the other. Dr.Prideaux was afterward farther confirmed in this opinionfor as he attended the press in the theatre at Oxford, whilstanother of the books ascribed to the same author was printingthere, he often found whole lines, and sometimes two or threetogether blotted out, and interlineations in their stead, whichhe knew to be of bishop Fell's handwriting ; and this was aliberty, which it was unlikely any but the author should havetaken. So that his opinion upon the whole was, that the book,called The Whole Duty of Man, was written by an author stillunknown ; but that ail the other books assigned to the sameauthor were written by bishop Fell and Dr. Allestry. Andthat whereas the first of them, that was printed, either by de-sign or mistake of the bookseller, came forth under the nameof the author of The Whole Duty of Man, they suffered all theothers to come out under the same disguise, the better to con-ceal what they intended should be a secret. And as to whatbishop Fell says in a preface to a folio edition printed atOxford, in which all these books are comprised together,where he mentions the author as lately dead, it was generallyunderstood to be meant of Dr. Ailestry, who was then latelydeceased.On Dr. Prideaus's settling at Norwich, the whole manage-ment of the afiairs of the cathedral fell into his hands ; andthis burden remained upon him ever after whilst he lived.On his first undertaking them, he found all matters there inthe utmost disorder and confusion ; for they had no rentals,whereby to receive their rents, nor any treasurer's book,whereby to pay the salaries ofthe officers and other outgoingsbut the audit book of the former year was the only guide,which either the receiver or treasurer had for what was to bedone in the following year ; and that was very confused anddefective. By these means the aifairs of the church beingkept in an intricate and dark state, the seniors often imposedon the juniors. In order io remedy these inconveniences, thedoctor was at the pains to examine all the leger books, andout of them he made an exact rental in the order of the alpha-bet, which being every year writ over in a book, the recei-vers have ever since continued to receive the rents thereby-At the same time he made a book for the treasurer in a,due.and orderly method, according to which the salaries and allother payments and expenses of the church have ever sincebeen made -, and by the help of those two books, ho reform-


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12 THE AUTHOR S I.IFK.ed the audit book, supplying what was defective therein, andputtin" the whole in a proper method ; and these his regula-tions have ever since been followed in all their books ofaccompts : by which means every thing is made plain andeasy. He examined also and sorted ail their charters andevidences, and disposed them in drawers accordinj^ to theirproper order, by which means they may easily be referredto ; whereas before this, they lay in a very confused and dis-orderly manner, on the tloor of a room, which was unpavedand covered with dirt, and the windows broken ; all which herepaired. The register books likewise, and other books thatlay neglected and dispersed up and down, he had bound upin order, to the number of thirty volumes ; so that all the evi-dences and muniments of the church were settled and dispo-sed of in perfect order and method.The tomb of Herbert Losinga, bishop of Norwich, andfounder of the church, having been demolished in the civilwars, the doctor caused it to be repaired, and put a new in-scription on it of his own composing ; giving some account ofthe founder, and of this and his other foundations. It isplaced before the high altar, with the arms of tho bishop atihe upper end, the dean's on the lower, and the six prebenda-ties on the sides. This was done in the year 1632.The first audit the doctor was at, he found that the chap-ter were always at a loss on the renewal of their leases, bothas to the value of their estates, the fine last set, and othercircumstances ; and that they were obhged to refer them-selves to the memory of the seniors for information, whichwas very imperfect and uncertain. To remedy this incon-venience therefore, he contrived a book called The PrivateRegister, in which are entered the time of every renewal, thename of the tenant, the term demised, the old rent, theprovision rent, with the times of payment, the reservations,covenants and conditions of the lease, the date of the formerlease, the real value of the estate, what was taken for the fine,and on what consideration it was either raised or abated,with all those other circumstances and particulars relating toit, which might be of use to be known at future renewals.This book begins from the time of the restoration, though itwas twenty years after, that he set about composing it. As tothe preceding time the doctor gathered up his information aswell as he could from the leger and audit books of thechurch, and from the memories of the senior members of thechapter ; but the rest he formed from his own knowledge.This book he kept, continually making the entries with hisown hand, till about two years before his death ; when he di-rected it to be done hv another.


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THE author's life. 13About this time the doctor was engaged in a controversy

with the papists : for king James, upon his coming to thecrown, having made an open profession of their religion, theyimagined, that supported by his authority, they should carryall before them, and bring the whole nation over to their per-suasion ; and to this end, sent out emissaries into all parts ofthe kingdom. Now those who were sent into the country,they would not trust with the whole controversy, for fear ofoverburdening their abilities, but assigned a particular pointto each, which he was to insist upon, and beyond which hewas not to meddle. And the point assigned to those, whocame to make conversions in Norfolk and Norwich, was ' TheInvalidity of the Orders of the Church of England,' whichthey were directed to make out by such arguments as theirsuperiors had furnished them with ; and from hence they wereto infer, that having no priesthood, we could have no sacra-ments ; and consequently could be no church, nor any salva-tion be had among us. The first who appeared there withthis argument, was one Webster, who had formerly beencurate of St. Margaret's, in King's Lynn, for the dean andchapter of Norwich, who have the appropriation of thatchurch, and being turned out from thence for his notoriousmisdemeanours, went to London, and there kept a privateschool. But on king James's coming to the crown, seeing thegreat encouragement that popery met with, and imagining itwould turn to his advantage, he early embraced that interest,hoping to rise by it, and for a greater show of zeal came intoNorfolk, as a missionarj for popery, with the argument abovementioned, and had the coniidence to send a challenge to thebishop cf Norwich, appointing a cime wru-ii ne would co.neto him at his palace, and dispute that point v/ilh him. Onthis the bishop desired Dr. Sharp and Dr. Pridc^aux to be pre-sent at the lime appointed, when Webster came, bringing withhim one Mr. Acton, a priest of the order of the Jesuits, andwho resided at Norwich, for the service of those of the Romancommunion in that city. When all were seated, Websterbegan to read a paper, which he called a preface to the dis-putation ; whereupon the bishop interrupting him, called himto an account for his apostacy, and reproved him for that, aswell as for the present insult, in the manner he deservedupon this Webster being much offended, rose up in great an-ger, and departing abruptly, broke off the conference. BothDr. Sharp and Dr. Prideaux offered to answer his arguments,if he would have proposed them ; but he let them know, thathe disdained to dispute with any but the bishop himself; andso the conference ended. Not long after. Mr. Acton havingperverted a brewer in Norwich, this produced a dispute on


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H iHE author's life.the same point, between Mr. Acton, on the one part, andMr. Earbury and Mr. Kipping, two Protestant divines, on theother; upon which a gentleman of Norwich, who was pre-sent at the conference, pretended not to have received satis-faction from what was said for the vahdity of our orders,addressed himseh' in a letter to Dr. Prideaux about it ; towhich he returned an answer the day after, November II,1687. Hence followed several letters on both sides uponthe same subject ; and the last the doctor wrote on this occa-sion was a very long one, containing the whole state of thecontroversy. But by the time he had finished it, understand-ing that the gentleman, to whom it was intended to be sent,was gone over to the popish communion, and irrecoverablydetermined in it, the doctor did not think it worth his whileto get a copy of it wrote out for him, or concern himself anyfarther about him, and therefore threw aside his papers in hisstudy, as no farther useful to the end they were originallyintended. In the beginning of April following, this gentlemandied, owning himself a member of that communion, uponwhich the papists were resolved to bury him in the cathedralchurch, and bring him thither in a solemn procession, by wayof triumph : but the doctor being then in his residence at thechurch, was as fully determined to obstruct this design, andgave orders, that no grave there should be made for himThis being matter of great disappointment to them, they helda meeting at the goat tavern in Norwich, to consult about it,and from thence sent a message to the doctor to expostulatewith him, and demand his reason for such his proceeding. Inanswer to this, he wrote them a letter to the following pur-port, that Mr. N , not dying within the precincts of thecathedral church, they were under no obligation to bury himin it: but he recommended it to his relations to bury him asthe law directed, in the church or churchyard of the parish inwhich he died, against which there could be no exception : andthis his answer the doctor chose to send in writing with hisname subscribed to it, that it might not be in the power of themessenger, by any addition or alteration of his own, to repre-sent it otherwise than he intended it. On the delivery ofthis note, a certain knight, who lived near Norwich, and hadseveral times turned Papist and Protestant, forwards and back-wards, as either religion was most likely to be uppermost,sitting as chairman of the consultation, declared, that therewas nothing written in it for which they could maVe the doc-tor suffer, and therefore advised them to send to him again inorder to provoke him to give another answer ; and accor-dingly the brother of the deceased, who had also gone overro popery, was sent on this CTand. who comin? to the doctor'?


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IHt author's LliK. 15house demanded of him in an imperious manner why he wouldnot let his brother be buried in the cathedral ? to which thedoctor answered, that he had sent his reasons in writing,which he supposed the other had seen. His reply to thiswas, that he had seen the writing, but that the reason theregiven was not sufficient, and he would have another. To thisthe doctor said, he had no other for him ; and so leaving himretired to his study ; on which the other went off in greatwrath; and the consult not being able to gain any advantageagainst the doctor, followed his advice, and buried the de-ceased in the church of the parish where he died.

At the same time there was another affair, whichfurtherexasperated these men against him ; for the doctor observ-ing, that the clergy of Norwich were much intimidated, bythe severe measures the king took for the propagating of hisreligion, especially after what had happened to the bishopof London, and Dr. Sharp, dean of Norwich, and that theVwholly abstained from meddling with this controversy, at atime when there was most need to exert themselves, re-solved by his example to encourage them no longer to besilent on so important an occasion, but speak out in defenceof the holy religion they professed. Having therefore twoturns for preachirig in the cathedral, the first on Good-Fri-day, and the other the Sunday seven-night following, hetook for his test, the 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th versesof the ixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews ; the word^are as follow: " For Christ is not entered into the holyplaces made with hands, Mhich are the figures of the true :but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Godfor us,"Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high-priest entereth into the holy place every year with theblood of others

" For then must he often have suffered since the foun-dation of the world ; but now once, in the end of the world,hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." And as it is appointed for all men once to die, but afterthis the judgment

" So Christ was once oflered to bear the sins of many ; andunto them, that look for him, shall he appear the secondtime without sin unto salvation."And from this text he formed both his sermons against the)nass-sacrifice of the church of Rome, endeavouring to prove.what the 31st article of our church says of them, viz. " thatthe sacrifices of masses, in which it was commonly said, thaast, (where they l)arbarously destroyed Tripoli.Antioch, and several otiier cities) they scarce did any thingworthy to be recorded in history. The beginning of theirempire was, A. D. 1250, and it ended in the year 1517,which was the eighth year of the reign of our king Henrythe Eighth; so that their empire, in Egypt, lasted two hun-dred and sixty-seven years, during which time they had asuccession of above filty reigns, in which the major part ot*their kings ascended the throne by the murder or deposi-tion of their predecessors. So base and barbarous a peoplescarce deserve to be spoken of, and so quick a successioncould not allow tinfie enough for any of them to do any greatmatters. They gloried in having been slaves, and thereforetailed themselves by a name which expressed as much; forMamaluc, in Arabic, signifies a slave; and, for the furtherexpression hereof, it was an usage among them to take thenames of all the masters they served, by way of addition tothat which was properly their own.tBut what you mistook me to have said of the Mamalucs

is true of the East in general ; for there are many good his-tories of the affairs thereof, from the time of Mahomet, inthe Abraham and Persian languages. And the many revolu-tions that happened there, from the time aforesaid, and themany considerable events which were produced in the effect-ing of them, afTord suflicient materials for a very good his-tory of those parts, which we here wholly want. For, fron^the time of AJahomet, there were four large empires erectedin the East, in succession one of another, whose transactionsdeserve recording, as well as those of the Greeks or Romans.The first of these empires was that of the Saracens, whichin eighty years extended itself as largely as that of the Ro-mans did in eight hundred ; for it took in India, Fersia, Ar-menia, Mesopotamia, Syria. Palestine, 7\rabia, Egypt, Spain,and all the coast of Africa, westward, as far as the AtlanticOcean. It began in the year 622, and, after having lastedunder the caliphs of Bagdat three hundred and fourteenyears, it expired all at once, in the year 936. For, in thatyear, all the governors of provinces conspiring together, eachdeclared himself sovereign in his respective government, andleft the caliph only Bagdat, with the narrow territories of thateity, for his support; where he and his successors conlin'v-

* See Dr. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 104.i See Marsat llhu of fnmerlan*;, \\h. \\u. inprincifi.


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THE author's life. C9d for several ages after as sacred persons, being, as it were,

the popes of the Mahometan sect.The empire of the Saracens being weakened by this di-vision of its dominions, and having also suffered many con-vulsions from the mutual hostihties which the successors ofthem that divided it made upon each other, the *SeiJukianTurks, from the northern parts of Tartary, taking the ad-vantage thereof, A. D. 1037, made a terrible invasion uponit. One part of them, under the leading of Togrul-Beg(whom the western writers call Tangrolonix) seized on allthat lies between the Indus and the Euphrates ; and the otherpart of them passing farther, under the command of Koslu-mish, seized the Lesser Asia, and there founded the kingdomof Iconium, where his posterity, for several descents, tillAladin, the last of them, dying without issue, Othman, frombeing his mercenary, became his successor; and, in the} ear1300, seized his kingdom, and thereon founded the Turkishempire that is now in being; of which Knowles hath givenus a very good history. Togrul-Beg, having fixed his empirein Persia and Assyria, and the neighbouring countries, heand his descendants there reigned for several successions,till they were suppressed by Jingiz-Can, king of the ancientMoguls, who inhabited that part of Tartary which lies nextto the wall of China.

For this mighty prince having begun his reign A. D.1202, formed the largest empire that ever was in the world,for it contained all China and India, and extended westward,on the side of the north, through all Tartaria, Russia, Poland,and Hungary, as far as the Baltic, the Oder, and the Adri-atic ; and on the side of the south, as far as the Euphratesand the Euxine sea ; which was more tlian double the extentof that of Alexander, or of that of the Romans. And,therefore, by reason of ihe largeness of it, whenever a gene-ral council was called, two years were allowed for their meet-ing, the remote distance of some of the provinces requiringthat time for their coming together. This empire continuedin the posterity of Jingiz-Can through twelve descents, tillthe death of Bahadur-Can, the last of them ; when it hadthe same end with that of the Saracens. For, on the deathof that prince, which happened in the year 1335, the gover-nors of provinces, by a general conspiracy, usurped in eachof them the sovereignty to themselves, and thereby extin-guished this empire all at once ; and, we may reasonablyexpect, that the empire of the Othmans will, some time orother, have the same fate. It hath been several times at-

* f?ee Mr. Petis


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70 THE author's life.tempted by some of the bashaws ; but it hath hitherto failedof success for want of the general concurrence of the rest.One Mr. Petis de la Croix* hath published, in French, thehistory of Jingiz-Can, with an account of his empire, and thesuccession of the kings of his race that governed it afterhim ; in the compiling of which work, he tells us, he employ-ed ten years ; so that, it may be hoped, he hath gathered to-gether all the materials that are proper for the same ; butwhether he has done so 1 cannot say, having never seen thebook.

Thirty-three years after the extinction of this empire ofthe Moguls, there was raised out of its ruins another empireof the Moguls, who, to distinguish them from the other, arecalled the latter Moguls. The founder of this empire wasthe famous Tamerlane, by the western writers, who begin-ning his reign in the year 1.368, continued in it thirty-sixyears, that is, till the year 1 404, when he died ; during whichtime he overrun all the eastern part of the world with pro-digious success of victory ; whereby he subjugated to himall Tartaria, China, India, Persia, and all else, westward, asfar as the Archipelago. At his death, he divided his empireamong his sons; the posterity of him that had India for hispart of the legacy, still reign there, unless the many revolu-tions and convulsions of government, which have happenedthere since the death of Aurang Zeb, have by this time ex-tinguished it. Of this race of the Mogul kings in India, oneSeignior Monuchi, a Venetian, who had been physician inthe court of Aurang Zeb for near forty years, hath written avery good history: it is published in French and English;which is very well worth the perusal. He was lately aliveat St. Thomas, a town of the Portuguese, within sevenmiles of our establishment of Fort St. George, in the coastof India.The rise and fall of these four empires, and the severalremarkable matters and facts transacted in them while theystood, cannot but aflford a very fitting and plentiful subject foran excellent history ; and there are sufficient materials for itin the writings of the East, were they carefully and judi-ciously put together. As to the authors of this sort, whichare in the public library of Oxford, there is a full accountgiven of them in the large catalogue of the MSB. of England,printed at Oxford, about twenty-five years since. Amongthese, are the two famous historians of the East,! Abul-Fedaand Al Jannabius, which are now printing at Oxford, in Ara-

* See Collier. Append. Genghiskan.t See Dr. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet.His Account of Authors, 4to. Edit

p. 153, 160.Churchills Collect, of V^oyages, vol. i. Introiluct. Ixxix.


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THE author's life. 71bio and Latin, by Mr. Gagnier, a French gentleman, wellskilled in this kind of learning. But, if my lord Pembroke(to whom my most humble duty) desires further to be inform-ed of what the East can afford us of this nature, I beg leaveto recommend to him Mr. Herbelot's Bihliotheca Orientalis,a book written in French some years since ; wherein hegives account of all the Eastern writers that fell within hisknowledge, whether historical, philosophical, or of any othersubject. Since that, another Bihliotheca of the Easternwriters hath been projected at Rome, which pretends tosupply the defects of Herbelot, and give us an additionalaccount of many other Eastern writers, more than are to befound in that author. It is designed to be in three volumesin folio, of which, the first volume, 1 hear, is already pub-lished.

As to Mr. Jones, whom my lord Pembroke makes mentionof, I do not know the gentleman, neither have I ever heardof him. To make him adequate to it, requires a thoroughskill in the Arabic language, which cannot, without long andsedulous application, be attained unto ; and it adds to thedifficulty, that most of the books, to be made use of in thismatter, lie in manuscript, which cannot be easily come at, oreasily read. For I know but of three Arabic historians, thatare in print, *EImacinus, Abul-Pharagius, and Eutychius ;the first, published by Herpenius, and the other two by Dr.Pocock : but these are only jejune epitomes, containing nomore than the bare bones of the Oriental history : the fullsubstance of it, to make it a perfect body, is to be soughtfrom other books.The greatest difficulty, in compiling such an history,would be the reconciling the Arabic and Byzantine writers,who often give us accounts of matters, which are inconsistentwith each other: and the same is to be said of the Latinwriters that treat of the holy war, they often giving narra-tives of it, quite different from the Arabic ; for both sidesfrequently choose to gratify their hatred and bitter aversionagainst each other, by reason of their different religions,rather than give us the naked truth of the facts they writeof. The Arabic writers, it must be confessed, are more ex-act in their chronology than the Byzantine, and, in someother particulars, seem to be more impartial, and to comenearer to the truth than the other.

In order to understand the Oriental history, and the wri-ters of it, from the time of Mahomet, a new Oriental geogra-" See the Life of Mahomet, ubi supra, p. 153, 164, 165. Seld. Tom. 11. p.410Gen. Pref. xvi.vol. i, p. 1069, 1702, 1703, 1884.ibid. 1356, 1703,1866,


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72 THE AUTHOR'S LIFE.phy is necessary ; for the names of the countries and citiesin the East, which the Romans and Greeks called them by,are now altogether unknown in the East. Abul-Feda is asfamous for his geography as for his history : were that print-ed with a good version, it would answer the matter: thishas been several times attempted, but hitherto without suc-cess.

About one hundred and fifty years after Mahomet, theSaracens, from the Greek books (which, in their several in-roads upon the Grecian empire, they had plundered out ofthe Grecian libraries) having the learning of the Greeksamong them, and it having flourished there for four hundredyears after the Arabic writers, are, from that time, as full oftheir accounts of their famous scholars, as they are of theirfamous warriors, and equally record what is remarkable ofboth. If the history of the East, here proposed to be made,should follow the same method, and equally give us an ac-count of the progress of their learning, as well as of theirarms, it would render the work the more acceptable to thelearned world.

Thus far have I endeavoured to answer your letter, as wellas my shattered head would give me leave to dictate it. Itwill very much please me, if it prove to your satisfaction ,:for 1 am, Sir, your most faithful humble servant,

H. Prideaux.Norwich, Feb. 5, 1721-2.


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FKKFACKThe calamitous distemper of the stone, and the unfortunate

management 1 fell under, after being cut for it, having drivenme out of the pulpit, in wholly disabling rae for that duty ofmy profession, that I might not be altogether useless, I under-took this work, hoping that the clearing of the sacred historyby the profane, the connecting of the Old Testament withthe New, by an account of the times intervening, and theexplaining of the prophecies that were fulfilled in them,might be of great use to many. What is now published isonly the first part of my design. If God gives life, the otherwill soon after follow ; but if it should please him, who is theDisposer of all things, that it happen otherwise, yet thisHistory, being brought down to the times when the canonof the Hebrew Scriptures was finished, it may of itself bereckoned a complete work : for it may serve as an epilogueto (he Old Testament, in the same manner as what after is tofollow, will be a prologue to the New.

Chronology and geography being necessary helps to his-tory, and good chronological tables being most useful for theone, as good maps are for the other ; I have taken full careof the former, not only by adding such tables in the conclu-sion of the work, as may answer this end, but also by digest-,ing the whole into the form of annals under the years beforeChrist, and the years of the kings that then reigned overJudea ; both which are added in the margin at the beginningof every year, in which the actions happened that are rela-ted. And as to the latter, since Dr. Wells, Cellarius, andReland have sufficiently provided for it, both by good mapsof the countries this history relates to, and also by accuratedescriptions of them, I need do no more than refer the readerto what they have already done in this matter. What Dr.Wells hath done herein, being written in English, will bestserve the English reader; but they that are also skilled inthe Latin tongue may moreover consult the other two.

In the annals, I have made use of no other era but thatof the years before Christ, reckoning it backward from thevulgar era of Christ's incarnation, and not from the true timeof it. For learned men are not all agreed in the fixing ofthe true time of Christ's incarnation, some placing it twoVol. T. 10


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74 rREFACE.vcars, and some four j'cars, before the vulgar era. But wlicrethe vulvar era begins, all know that use it ; and therefore thereckoning of the years before Christ backward from thence,makes ita fixed and certain era. The difference that isbetweenthe true year of our Saviour's incarnation, and that of thevulgar era of it, proceeded from hence, that it was not till thefive hundred and twenty-seventh year of that era, that it wasfirst brought into use. *Dionysius Exiguus,a Scythian by birth,and then a Roman abbot, was the first author of it ; and 13eda,our countryman, taking it from him, used it in all his writings ;and the recommendation which he gave it thereby, hath madeit of common use among Christians ever since, especially inthese western parts. Had all Christians calculated their timeby it from the beginning of the church of Christ (as it couldbe wished they had,) there could then have been no mistakein it. But it being five hundred and twenty-seven yearsafter Christ's incarnation, before this era of it was ever used,no wonder, that after so great a distance of time, a mis-take was made in the fixing of ihe first year of it.The era from the creation of the world is of very commonuse in chronology ; but this I have rejected, because of the

uncertainty of it, most chronologers following different opi-nions herein, some reckoning the time of the creation sooner,and some later, and scarce any two agreeing in the sameyear for it.The Julian period is indeed a certain measure of time,"but its certainty depends upon a reckoning backward, in thesame manner as that of the era before Christ. For it beinga period of seven thousand nine hundred and eighty Julianyears, made out of the three cycles of the sun, moon, andindiction, multiplied into each other; and the first year ofit being that in which all these three cycles of the sun be-gin together, this first year can be no otherwise fixed, thanby computing backward from the present numbers of thosecycles through all the different combinations of them, till wecome to that year, in which the first year of every one ofthem meet together ; which carries up the reckoning severalhundred years before the creation, and fixeth the beginningof the period in an imaginary point of time before time was.And therefore, although from that beginning it computesdownward, yet the whole of its certainty is by a backwardreckoning from the present years of those cycles : for, ac-cording as they are, all must be reckoned upward even to

* See Scaligcr, Calvisius, and other chrouologers, in those parts of theirworks, where tliey write of the vulgar era of Christ. And see also Du Pin'sHistory of Ecclesiastical writers, cent. 6, p. 42: and Dr. Cave's HistoriaLiteraria, p. 405.


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PREFACE. 75the beginning of the period. So that, although in appear-ance it reckons downward, yet in reaHty it is only a backwardcomputation, to tell us how many years since any thing wasdone from the present year. For in the numbers of thethree cycles of the present year, it hath a real and fixedfoundation for an upward reckoning, and so in any other year,in which the said numbers are known ; whereas it hath noneat all for a downward reckoning, but what is in the imagina-tion only. And therefore, this being the true and real useof the Julian period, the era before Christ for the times Itreat of, serves all the purposes of chronology altogether aswell, if not much better. For, adding the years beforeChrist, to those since Christ, according to the vulgar era, itimmediately tells us how many years since any action beforethe time of Christ was done, and the Julian period can dono more ; and indeed it cannot do thus much but by reduc-tion, whereas it is done the other way directly, immediately,and at first sight. However, in the tables I have put the Ju-lian period, and have reduced to it not only the years beforeChrist, but also the years of the princes reigning in Judea,and the neighbouring countries, and all things else that aretreated of in this History; and hereby the Synchronisms, orcoincident times and transactions of other nations, may easilybe known.The year I compute by in the annals is the Julian year,which begins from the first of January ; and to this I reduceall the actions I treat of, though they were originally reckon-ed by other forms. The ^Greeks, before the time of Meto,began their year from the winter solstice, and after from thatof the summer. The Egyptians, Chaldeans, and ancientPersians, reckoned the first of the month Thoth to be alwaysthe first day of their year, which, consisting of 365 days,without a leap year,t it began every fourth year one daysooner than it did before ; and so, in the space of 1460 years,its beginning was carried backward through the whole solaryear. The Syrians and the Phoenicians began their yearfrom the autumnal equinox ; and so did also the Hebrews,till their coming up out of the land of Egypt. But thathappening in the month of Nisan, in commemoration ofthis deliverance, they afterward began their year fromjthe beginning of that month, which usually happened aboutthe time of the vernal equinox 5 and this form they ever

* Vide Scaligerum, Petavium, aliosque chronologos, in eis locis ubi deanno Graecorum agunt.t So it was in the time of the last Darius ; but afterward the Persianscompensated for the loss of the leap year, by adding an intercalary monthof 30 days every 13lh year.

t Exod. xii. 2.


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76 rUEFACE.after made use of in the calculating of the times of theirfasts and festivals, and all other ecclesiastical times and con-cerns ; but, in all civil matters, as contracts, obligations, andsuch other affairs, which were of a secular nature, they stillmade use of the old form, and began their year as formerly,from the first of Tisri, which happened about the time of theautumnal equinox : and from hence they began* all theirjubilees and sabbatical years, and all other their computa-tions of civil matters, as they still do the years of the crea-tion of the world, and the years of their era of contracts;which are the only epochas they now compute past times by.Anciently! the form of the year which they made use of waswholly inartificial : for it was not settled by any astronomicalrules or calculations, but was made up of lunar months setout by the phasis or appearance of the moon. When theysaw the new moon, then they began their months, whichsometimes consisted of twenty-nine days, and sometimes ofthirty, according as the new moon did sooner or later ap-pear. The reason of this was, because the synodical courseof the moon (that is, from new moon to new moon) beingtwenty-nine days and an half, the half day, which a month oftwenty-nine days fell short of, was made up by adding it tothe next month, which made it consist of thirty days ; sothat their months consisted of twenty-nine days and thirtydays alternatively. None of them had fewer than twenty-nine days, and therefore they never looked for the newmoon before the night following the twenty-ninth day ; and,if they then saw it, the next day was the first day of the fol-lowing month. Neither had any of their months more thanthirty days, and therefore they never looked for the newmoon after the night following the thirtieth day ; but then, ifthey saw it not, they concluded, that the appearance wasobstructed by the clouds, and made the next day the first ofthe following month, without expecting any longer ; andof twelve of these months their common year consisted.But twelve lunar months falling eleven days short of a solaryear, every one of those common years began eleven dayssooner than the former; which, in thirty-three years time,would carry back the beginning of the year through all thefour seasons to the same point again, and get a whole yearfrom the solar reckoning (as is now done in Turkey, wherethis sort of year is in use ;) for the remedying of which, theirusage was sometimes in the third year, and sometimes in thesecond, to cast in another month, and make their year then

Lev. XXV. 9, 10.t Talmud in Tract. Rosh Hasshanah, Maimonides in Kiddash Hachode."-!!.

Selden de Anno Civili veterum Judaeorum.


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PRErACE. 77consist of thirteen months ; whereby they constantly redu-ced their lunar year, as far as such an intercalation couldeffect it, to that of the sun, and never suffered the one, forany more than a month, at any time to vary from the other.And this they were forced to do for the sake of their festi-vals ; for their feast of the passover (the first day of which*was always fixed to the middle of their month Nisan) beingto be celebrated by their eating the Paschal lamb, and theoffering up of the wave-sheaf, as the first-fruits of their bar-ley-harvest; and their feast of Pentecost, which was Tkeptthe fiftieth day after the Ibth of Nisan (which was the day inwhich the wave-sheaf was offered) being to be celebrated bythe offering of the two wave-loaves, as the first-fruits oftheir Jwheat-harvest ; and their feast of tabernacles, whichwas always begun on the fifteenth of Tisri, being fixed tothe time|| of their ingathering of all the fruits of the earth :the passover could not be observed till the lambs were grownfit to be eaten, and the barley fit to be reaped ; nor the Pen-tecost till the wheat was ripe ; nor the feast of tabernacles,till the ingatherings of the vineyard and oliveyard were over :and therefore these festivals being fixed to these set seasonsof the year, the making of the intercalation above mentionedwas necessary, for the keeping them within a month sooneror later always to them. Their rule for the doing of thiswas:1[ whenever, according to the course of the commonyear, the fifteenth day of Nisan (which was the first day ofunleavened bread, and the first day of their Paschal solemni-ty) happened to fall before the day of their vernal equinox,then they intercalated a month, and the Paschal solemnitywas thereby carried on a month farther into the year, and allthe other festivals with it : for, according as the Paschalfestival was fixed, so were all the rest ; that is, the Pente-cost fifty days after the second day of the Paschal feast (i. e.the sixteenth of Nisan,) on which the wave-sheaf was offer-ed ; and the feast of tabernacles six months after the begin-ning of the said Paschal feast. For as the first day of thePaschal feast was the fifteenth of Nisan (the fourteenth, onthe evening of which the solemnity began in the slaying ofthe Paschal Iambs, being but the eve of the passover) so thefirst day of the feast of tabernacles was on the fifteenth of

* Exod..xii.320. Lev. xxiii. 48. Numb, xxviii. 16, 17.,t Lev. xxiii. 1517. Deut. xvi. 9.i Here it is to be observed, that in Judea the barley-harvest was before thwheat-harvest, and so it was in Egypt ; for the barley was in the ear when

the wheat and rye were not grown up. Exod, ix. 31, 32.^ Lev. xxiii. 34, 39. Ij Lev. xxiii. 39.11 Talmud in Rosh Hasshanah. Maimonides in Kiddush. Hachodesh.

"^plden de Anno Civili veterum Judaeorum.


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78 PREFACE.Tisri, just six months after. To make this the more clear,let it be observed, that the Hebrew months were as foUow-eth : first, Nisan, second, lyar, third, Sivan, fourth, Tamuz,fifth, Ab, sixth, Elul, seventh, Tisri, eighth, Marchesvan,ninth, Cisleu, tenth, Tebeth, eleventh, Shebat, twelfth, Adar.And these twelve made their common year : but in their in-tercalated years there was another month added after Adar,which they called Veadar, or the second Adar ; and thentheir year consisted of thirteen months. Supposing, there-fore, their vernal equinox should have been on the tenth ofMarch (whereabout now it is,) and that the fifteenth of Ni-san, the first day of their passover, should, in the commoncourse of their year, happen to fall on the ninth of March,the day before the equinox; then, on their foreseeing of this,they intercalated a month, and after their Adar added theirVeadar, which sometimes consisted of twenty-nine days, andsometimes of thirty, according as it happened ; at presentwe will suppose it to be of thirty days, and then the first ofNisan, which is to begin this year, mstead of being on thetwenty-third of February (as otherwise it would,) must becarried on thirty days forward to the twenty-fifth of March,and their passover to the eighth of April following. Butthe next year after beginning eleven days sooner, for thereason 1 have mentioned, the first of Nisan must then havehappened on the fourteenth of March, and the first day ofthe passover on the twenty-eighth of the same month ; and,the next year after that, the first of Nisan, must for thesame reason have happened on the third of March, and thefirst year of the passover on the seventeenth of March ; andthe next year after that, according to this calculation, thefirst of Nisan would have happened on the twentieth ofFebruary, and the first day of the passover on the sixth ofMarch following. But this being before the equinox, ano-ther intercalation of the month Veadar must have beenmade. And so after the same manner it went through allother years ; whereby it came to pass, that the first of Ni-san, which was the beginning of their year, always waswithin fifteen days before, or fifteen days after the vernalequinox, that is, within the compass of thirty days in thewhole, sooner or later ; and according as that was fixed, sowere fixed also the beginnings of all their other months, andall the fasts and feasts observed in them. But this in-artificial way of forming their months and years, was in useamong them only while they lived in their own land, andthere might easily receive notice of what was ordained inthis matter by those who had the care and ordering of it : forwhen they became dispersed through all nations, they were


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PREFACE. J 9torccd to make use of" cycles and astronomical calculationsfor the fixing of their new moons and intercalations, and thetimes of their feasts, fasts, and other observances, that sothey might be every where uniform herein. The first cyclethey made use of for this purpose* was that of eighty-fouryears : by this they fixed their Paschal feast, and by thattheir whole year besides ; and the use hereof the primitiveChristians borrowed from them, and for some of the firstcenturies, fixed their Easter in every year according to it:but this, after some time, being found to be faulty, Meto'scycle of nineteen years! was, after the council of Nice,brought into use by them for this purpose instead of theother ; and the Jews, following their example herein, almostabout the same time, came into the same usage also ; andupon this cycle is founded the present form of their year.The first who began to work it into this shape,J was RabbiSamuel, rector of the Jewish school at Sora in MesopotamiaRabbi Adda, who was a great astronomer, pursued hisscheme ; and after him Rabbi Hillel, about A. D. 360,brought it to that perfection in which now it is ; and beingNasi, or prince of their sanhedrim, he gave it the authorityof his sanction, and by virtue thereof it hath ever since beenobserved by them, and they say always is to be observed to"the coming of the Messiah. According to this form thereare, within the compass of the said nineteen years cycle,seven intercalated years, consisting of thirteen months, andtwelve common years, consisting of twelve months. Theintercalated years are the third, the sixth, the eighth, theeleventh, the fourteenth, the seventeenth, and the nineteenthof that cycle ; and when one round of this cycle is over, theybegin another; and so constantly, according to it, fix theirnew moons (at which all their months begin) and all theirfasts and feasts in every year. And this form of their year,it must be acknowledged, is very exactly and astronomicallycontrived, and may truly be reckoned the greatest piece ofart and ingenuity that is to be found among that people.They who would thoroughly understand it, may read Mai-monides's tract Kiddush Hachodesh, which hath been pub-lished in a very good Latin translation by Lewis de Veil,under the title, De Consecratione Calendarum, where hewill find it very exactly and perspicuously described.

* Vide Bucherium de antique Paschali Judffiorum Cyclo.t Epistola Arabrosii 83 ad episcopus per /Erailiam constitutos. It was bythe council of Nice referred to the church of Alexandria, every year to fixthe time of Easter, and they did it by Meto's cycle of nineteen years.

t Juchasin ; Shalslieleth Haccabala ; h Zemach David, &, ex iisdetn Mo-rinus in exercitat. Prima in Pentateuchum Samaritanum, cap. 3.

Talmud in Rosh Hasshanah. Maimonides in Kiddush Hachodesh, k,Seldeniis de Anno Civili veterum Judseorum


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80 PREFACK.These having been the forms of the Jewish year, that i?,

the inartificial form used by the ancients in the land of Ca-naan, and the artificial and astronomical form now in useamong the moderns throughout all their dispersions ; accord-ing to neither of them can the days of the Jewish monthsbe fixed to any certain days of the months in the Julian year;for, in both of them, the months being lunar, and the inter-calations made of one whole lunar month at once, the days ofthose months, to the full extent of one full lunar month, fellsometimes sooner, and sometimes later in the solar form.Since the Jewish calendar hath been fixed by Rabbi Hiliel,upon the certain foundations ofastronomy, tables may indeedbe made, which may point out to what day in that calendarevery day in the Julian jear shall answer ; but this cannotbe done for the time before ; because, while they went inar-tificialiy to work in this matter by the phasis and appearanceof the moon, both for the beginning of their months and years,and the making of their intercalations, they did not always doit exactly ; but often varied from the astronomical truth here-in. And this latter having been their way through all thetimes of which this History treats, we cannot, when we findthe day of any Jewish month mentioned either in the Scrip-tures or in Joscphus, reduce it exactly to its time in the Ju-lian year, or there fix it any nearer, than within the compassof a month sooner or later. Kepler indeed holds, that theJewish year was a solar year, consisting of twelve months,of thirty days each, and an addition of five days after the lastof them; and our countrymen, archbishop Usher and Mr,Lydiat, two of the most eminent chronologers that any agehath produced, go into the same opinion. Such a year I ac-knowledge, was in use among the Chaldeans, from whomAbraham was descended ; and also among the Egyptians,with whom the Israelites long lived : and I doubt not, butthat, before their coming out of the land of Egypt, they alsoreckoned their time by the same form. For the time of theflood is manifestly computed by it* in the book of Genesis,an hundred and fifty days being there made equal to fivemonths, which proves those months to have been thirty-daymonths. But that the Israelites made use of this sort ofyear, after their coming out of Egypt, can never be madeconsisting with the Mosaical law. According to that, theiryear must be made up of months purely lunar, and could nootherwise, than by an intercalary month, be reduced to thesolar form : and there being a necessity of making this inter-calation for the keeping of their festivals to their proper sea-

' Chnp vii. 11, compared with cIicTji. viii. 3, 4.


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r^ErAt;K. 31

sons, by this nieatis it comes to pass, tliat the beginnings oftheir months cannot be fixed to any certain day in the Juliancalendar, but they fell always witliin the compass of thirtydays sooner or later therein. That the thing may appearthe clearer to the reader, I shall express it in this followingscheme, wherein the first column gives the names of the Jew-ish months, and the second of the Julian months, within thecompass of which the said Jewish months set over againstthem have always sooner or later their beginning and end-ing ; and this is the nearest view that can be giving of the cor-respondency of the one with the other.

5 November.^ December.Nisan

2 Jair3 Sivan4 Tamuz

( March.> JlpHl.X April.\ May.\ May.I Jane.^ June.\ July.

5 Ab6Eiul -7 Tizri -

8 Merchesuan

5 July.I J3ugv.st.^ August.( September.\ September.\ October.

October.JVovember.

9 Cisleu10 Tebeth ^ December.

I January.11 Shebat )-i"/'-^-

^ February,12 Adar ^ ^ebriiary.

( Maarch.The thirteenth month called Veadar, or the second Adar,answered most the end of our March, it being then only in-

tercalated, or cast in, when the beginning of Nisan wouldotherwise be carried back into the end of February.

I have, in the series of this History, taken no notice eitherof the jubilees, or the sabbatical years of the Jews, bothliecause of the uselessness, and also of the uncertainty ofthem. They are useless, because they help not to the ex-plaining of any thing, either in the holy Scriptures, or thehistories of the times which i treat of; and they are uncer-tain, because it dotli not appear when or how they were ob-served. It is acknowledged by most learned men, that thejubilees were no more regarded after the Babylonish captivi-ty; and it is manifest from Scripture, that the sabbatical year^were wholly neglected for many ages before it. For the de-aolation, which happened to the country of Judea, under thatcaptivity, is said, in the second book ofChronicles, xxxvi. 21,to have been brought upon it for this very reason, that theland might enjoy its sabbaths, that is, those sabbatical yearsof rest, which the Jews, in neglecting the law of God concern-ing this matter, had deprived it of: and therefore if we reck-on to this desolation only the fifty-two years, that were fromthe destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, to theend of the Babyloni>h captivity (in which the land was whol-ly desolated) (his will prove the observing of those sabbaticalyears to have been neglected for three huiidred and sixty-four years before that captivity. But, if we add hereto theother eighteen years of that captivity, in which it was onlyin part desolated^ and take in the whole seventy years of it

>'(M . f, ! 1


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82 PHKFACE.into this reckoning, it will then carry up the time of thisneglect much higher, even to four hundred and ninety yearsbeibre that captivity: and, as to the jubilees, there is nomention made of them any where through the whole Scrip-tures, saving only in that law where they are enjoined, neitheris there of their sabbatical years, saving only in the same law,and the place in Chronicles above mentioned. There areindeed two other places of Scripture which some understandconcerning them, (that is, 2 Kings six. 29, and Jer. xxxiv.8 10.) But both these passages do better admit of otherinterpretations : for what is said in the former of these, seemsrather to refer to the desolations of the war, and the inter-I uption of agriculture through the violences and calamity ofit,than to a sabbatical year ; and so Grotius and other learnedmen understand it. And Avhat is said in the other by Jeremiah,about the release of servants, doth not infer a sabbatical year,nor a jubilee neither : for every Hebrew servant* was to bereleased in the seventh year of his servitude, though it wereneither a jubilee nor a sabbatical year ; and therefore thisinstance infers neither of them ; and those who undertake tointerpret the law which enjoins these jubilees and sabbaticalyears, very much differ concerning them, both as to the timeand manner of their observance. Some will have the reck-oning, both of the sabbatical years and the jubilees, to com-mence from the first entering of the Israelites into the landof Canaan; and therefore place the first sabbatical year inthe seventh year after that entrance, and the first jubilee alsoaccording hereto ; but others say, that the land was seven yearsin conquering and dividing, and that the eighth year was thefirst in which the Israelites began to sow and reap in it; andthat therefore the fourteenth year was the first sabbaticalyear: and according to this reckoning they put the first sab-batical year, and the first jubilee, seven years later than theformer, and so the numbers of all the rest that follow. An^lthen, as to the time of the jubilee, there is this dispute, whetherit be the same with the seventh sabbatical year, or the nextyearafter. The reason of this dispute is, because ifitbeonthe year after the seventh sabbatical year, then there will betwo sabbatical years together, (for the year of jubilee wasalsot a sabbatical year ;) and in this case there would be theloss of two crops together; and then it will be asked, howcould the people be supported? And they who, notwith-standing this objection, determine foi- the year next after theseventh sabbatical year to have been the year of jubilee,thoughl they have the Scripture on their side in this particu-

* Kxodus xxi. 2. | Levit. xiv. II.5 Levit. >xv^lO.


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I'REFACJE. 8.3

iar, yet are not agreed where to begin the next week of years(or Shemittah, as the Jews call it) after the seventh sabbaticalyear ; that is, whether the year of jubilee, or the next yearafter it, was to be the tirst year of that week, or Shemittah.If the jubilee year were the first year of that week, then therewould have been but five years for them to sow and reap inbetween the jubilee (which was also a sabbatical year) andthe next sabbatical year after; whereas* the Scripture saiththey were to have six. And if the tirst year of the next She-mittah were the next year after the jubilee, then the Shamit-tahs would not always succeed in an exact series immediate-ly one after the other ; but after the seventh Shemittah, theyear of jubilee would intervene between that and the nextwhich disagreeth with the opinion of many. However, itis indeed the truth of the matter, and I know no objectionagainst it, but tliat it exposeth the error of those, who, think-ing that the sabbatical years did always happen each exactlyon the seventh year after the former, have in that orderand series placed them in (heir chronological computations.without considering, that after every forty-ninth year ajubilee year did intervene between the Shemittah that thenended, and the beginning of the next that followed. But theyact most cut of the way in this matter, who would confineDaniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks to so many Shemit-tahs, as if these seventy weeks fell in exactly with seventyShemittahs. that is, that the tirst week began with thefirst year of a Shemittah or sabbatical week, and ended witha sabbatical year, which was the last of a Shemittah ; and soall the rest down to the last of the whole number : and to thisend some have perplexed themselves in vain to lind out sab-batical years to suit their hypothesis, and fix them to times towhich they never did belong; whereas the prophecy meansno more than I)y the seventy weeks to express seventy timesseven years, that is, four hundred and ninety in the whole,without any relation had either to Shemittahs or sabbaticalyears. And were it otherwise, the seventy weeks of Daniel,besides the seventy Shemittahs, must have contained nineyearsmore for the nine jubilees which must have happened with-in the compass of the said seventy Shemittahs, and therebymake the whole number of those weeks to be four hundredand ninety-nine years, which no one that I know of hath everyet said. And therefore, since there is nothing certain to beknown concerning these sabbatical years and jubilees of theJews, as to their ancient observance of them, and consequent-ly there can be no use made of them, for the explicationeither of Scripture or history, I have not troubled the reader

* Lrvit. x\v. 3.


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84 PRKFACE.with them in the body of this History; and I wish I have tiuiiroublc'd him too far in saying so much of them here in thePreface.

In the scries of this History, having often endeavoured toreduce the sums of money mentioned therein to the value thevwould hear with us in this present age, whetliergold or silver,I think it requisite to lay down the rules whereby I makethis reduction. It is to be observed, therefore, in order here-to, that, among the ancients, the way of reckoning theirmoney was by talents. So the Hebrews, so the Babylonians,so the Greeks, and so the Romans did reckon ; and of thesetalents they l)ad subdivisions, which were usually into minasand drachms. /. c. of tlseir talents into minas, and their minasinto drachms. I'he Hebrews had, besides these, their shekelsand half shekels, or bekas, and the Romans their denarii ywhich last were very near of the same value with the drachmsof the Greeks. AVhat was the value of an Hebrew talentappears from Ex. xxxviii. 25, 26 : for there six hundred andthree thouf-and five hundred and tifty persons being taxed atan half shekel an head, they must have paid in the wholethree hundred and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels ; and that sum is there said to amount to onehundred talents, and one thousand seven hundred and seven-five shekels over : if, therefore, you deduct the one thousandseven hundred and seventj'-five shekels from the numberthree hundred and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and divide the remaining sum, i. e. three hundred thou-sand by one hundred, this will prove each of those talents tocontain three thousand shekels. Each of these shekelsweighed about three shillings of our money, and sixty ofthem, Ezekiel* tells us, made a mina, and therefore fiftyof those minas n^ide a talent. And as to their drachms, itappears by the gospel of St. Matthew, that it was the fourthpart of a shekel, that is, nine-pence of our money: for there(chap. xvii. 24.) the tribute money annually paid to the tem-j)leby every Jew (which was thaif a shekel) is called AtS^^cj^^i^v,(/. e. the two-drachm piece :) and therefore, if an half shekelcontained two drachms, a drachm must have been the.'|Uarlcr part of a shekel, and every shekel must have con-tained four of them ; and so Josephus tells us it did ; for hej-aith that a shekel contained four Attic drachms ; which isnot exactly to be understood according to the weight, butaccording to the valuation in the currency of common pay-ments : for according to the weight, the heaviest Attic drachmsdid not exceed eight-pence farthing half farthing of ourmoney, and an Hebrew drachm, as I have said, was nine-

-'' t7bap. jilv. 12. i Talmud in Shrkalim. t- Anfiq. lib. 3; c. fi.


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FREFAeE. dapence ; but what the Attic drachm fell short of the Hebrewin weight might be made up in the fineness, and its readycurrency in all countries (which last the Hebrew drachmcould not have,) and so might be made equivalent in commonestimation among the Jews. Allowing, therefore, a drachm,as well Attic as Jewish, as valued in Judea, to be equivalentto nine-pence ofour money, a beka, or half shekel, will beequal to one shilling and sixpence, a shekel three shillings,a mina nine pounds, and a talent four hundred and fift} pounds.So was it in the time of Moses and Ezekiel, and so was it thesame in the time of Josephus, among that people; for* hetells us, that an Hebrew mina contained two litras and an half,which comes exactly to nine pounds of our money ; for a litra,being the same with a Roman libra, contained twelve ouncestroy weight, that is, ninety-six drachms, and therefore twolitras and a half must contain two hundred and forty drachms,which being estimated at nine-pence a drachm, according tothe Jewish valuation, comes exactly to sixty shekels, or ninepounds of our money. And this accoujit exactly agreeswith that of Alexandria ; fort the Alexandrian talent con-tained twelve thousand Attic drachms, and Iwtdve thousandAttic drachms, according to the Jewish valuation, beingtwelve thousand of our nine-pences, they amount to fourhundred and fifty pounds of sterling money, which is thesame value with the Mosaic talent. But here it is to beobserved, that though the Alexandrian talent amounted totwelve thousand Attic drachms, yet they themselves reckon-ed it but at six thousand drachms, because every Alexandriandrachm contained:}: two Attic drachms ; and therefore, theSeptuagint versiorj being made by the Alexandrian Jews,they there render the Hebrew word shekel by the GreekAi^^ux/^^^ vfh'ich signifieih two drachms; because two Alexan-drian drachms make a shekel, two of them amounting to asmuch as four Attic drachms ; and therefore computing theAlexandrian money according to the same method in whichwe have computed the Jewish, it will be as followeth : onedrachm of Alexandria will be of our money eighteen-pence ;one didrachrn, or shekel, consisting of two drachms of Alexan-dria, or four of Attica, will be three shillings ; one mina, con-sisting ofsixty didrachms, or shekels, will be nine pounds; andone talent, consisting of fifty minas, will be four hundred andfifty pounds, which is the talent of Moses, and so also it is

" Joseph. Antiq. lib. 14, cap. 12.i Festiis Pompeius, Dionysius Halicamasseus etiam dicit, talentum Alex-andrinum continere 125 libras Roraanasi librae autem Romance 125 conti-nent drachmas Alticas 12,000.jfVario eestimat drachmas Alexandrinas duplo superasse Atticasve Tv-

ria^vc. f Ex. xssviii, 26, 2fi.


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86 PREFACE.the talent of Josephus ;* for he tells us, that an Hebrew talentcontained an hundred Greek, (?'. e. Attic) minas ; for those fiftyminas, which here make an Alexandrian talent, would be onehundred Attic minas in the like method of valuation, theAlexandrian talent containing double as much as the Attictalent, both in the whole, and also in all its parts, in whatso-ever method both shall be equally distributed. Among theGreeks, the established rule vvas,t tliat one hundred drachmsmade a mina, and sixty minas a talent ; but, in some differentstates, their drachms being different, accordingly their minasand talents were within the same proportion different also.But the money of Attica was the standard by which all therest were valued, according as they more or less differed fromit; and therefore, it being of most note, wherever any Greekhistorian speaks of talents, minas, or drachms, if they be sim-ply mentioned, it is always to be understood of talents, minas,or drachms, of Attica, and never of the talents, minas, ordrachms of any other place, unless it be expressed, Mr.Brerewood, going by the goldsmiths' weights,| reckons anAttic drachm to be the same with a drachm now in use intheir shops, that is, the eighth part of an ounce ; and there-fore lays it at the value of seven-pence halfpenny of ourmoney, or the eighth part of a crown, which is, or ought to be,an ounce weight. But Dr. Bernard, going more accurately towork. lays the middle sort of Attic drachms at eight-pencefarthing of our money, and the minas or talents accordinglyin the proportions above mentioned. The Babylonian talent,according to Pollux, || contained seven thousand of thosedrachms. The Roman talentHcontained seventy-two Italic mi-nas, which were the same with the Roman libras ; and ninety-six Roman denarii, each being of the value of seven-pencehalfpenny of our money, made a Roman libra. But all thevaluations 1 have hitherto mentioned must be understoodonly of silver money, and not of gold ; for that was muchhigher. The proportion of gold to silver was among theancients most commonly as ten to one; sometimes it was raisedto be as eleven to one, and sometimes as twelve, and some-times as thirteen to one. In the time of king F>dward 1. itwas here in England at the value of ten to one ; but it isnow gotten at sixteen to one, and so I value it in all the re-ductions which I make in this Historv of ancient sums to thepresent value- But, to make the whole of this matter theeasier to the reader, I will lay all of it before him, for hisclear view, in this following table of valuations.

'^ Antiq. lib. 3, c. 7. 4 Julii Pollucis Onomasticon, lib. 10, c. 6.X In libro de Ponderibus et Pretiis Vetenim Xummorum.^ In libro de Mensuris et Ponderibus Antiquis.II Lib. 10, c, 6, p. 437. ^ Festus Pompeius.


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PREFACE. 87Hebrew Monty. . s. d.

All Hebrew drachm - - - 9Two drachms made a beka, or half shekel, which was the tributemoney paid by every Jew to the temple - - 1Two bekas made a shekel - - - - 3Sixty shekels made a mina - - - - 9Fifty minas made a talent - . - - - 450A talent of gold, sixteen to one " * " ". ^^^ ^ ^

Attic Monet/, according to Mr. Brerewood.An Attic drachm - - - - - - 7 1-2An hundred drachms made a mina - - - - 3 2 6Sixty niinao made a talent ----- 187 10A talent of gold, sixteen to one . - - - 3000

Attic Money, according to Dr. Bernard.An Attic drachm - - - - - - 8 1-4An hundred drachms made a mina - - - 3 8 9Sixty minas made a talent ----- 206 5A talent of gold, sixteen to one - - - -3300

Bahylonish Money, according to Mr. Brerewood.A Babylonish talent of silver, containing 7000 Attic drachms 218 15A Babylonish talent of gold, sixteen to one - - 3500

Babylonish Money ^ according to Dr. Bernard.A Babylonish talent in silver - . - - 240 12 6A Babylonish talent of gold, sixteen to one - - 3850

Alexandrian Money.A drachm of Alexandria, containing two Attic drachms, as valuedby the Jews - - - - - - 1 6A didrachra of Alexandria, containing two Alexandrian drachms,which was an Hebrew shekel - - - -Sixty didrachms, or Hebrew shekels, made a mina - 9Fifty minas made a talent ----- 450A talent of gold, sixteen to one - . . - 72OO

Roman Money.Four sesterii made a Roman denarius - - - 7 1-2?finety-six Homan denarii made an Italic mina, which was

the same with a Roman libra - - - - 3Seventy-two Roman libras made a talent - - - 216

If any desire a fuller account of the money of the ancientshe may read Mr. Brerewood De Ponderibus et Pretiis veterum.yummormn, bishop Cumberland of the Jewish measures,weights, and moneys, Dr. Bernard De Mensuris et PonderibusAntiquis, and others that have written of this argument. Itsufticeth for ray present purpose, that I here insert so muchas may serve for a key to those passages in the ensuing His-tory, where any sum of money, or any quantity of gold orsilver, is mentioned.

So little mention having been mad>e of Zoroastres by thewestern writers, whether Greek or Latin, the reader mayperchan

the old and new testaments connectedin the history of the jews and neighbouring nations, from the...

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