of more years than I have yet lived, and who (on my first request) most generously gave me free leave to extract whatever I pleased for the public service." He advertised the work as being in a state of preparation on the 11th June 1714[1], and received the first "proof" sheet from Mr. Nutt, the printer, on the 24th of Feb. 1714–15, but as some alteration "in the method" was recommended by the printer, it was not worked off until the 2nd of March following. Between that date and the ensuing 26th of January the whole work was printed, and ready for publication.
Le Neve did not in the first instance contemplate nearly so extensive a work as that he afterwards accomplished : he intended merely to give a list of the English prelates from the Revolution to his own time ; but this design not meeting with the approbation of those members of the bench of bishops to whom he communicated it, he was induced at their recommendation to attempt what he calls a more difficult task, and commence his work at the year 1616, the period at which bishop Godwin terminated his labours ; but upon Dr. White Kennett's liberal offer of the loan of his collections, he determined "to add the succession of deans and other principal dignitaries in each cathedral." He also extended his lists up to the re-establishment of Christianity in England after the arrival of Augustine. This probably gave rise to Browne Willis's statement, "that though Mr. John Le Neve has the name and credit of the ' Fasti Ecelesiæ Anglicanæ' yet the real compiler of that useful work was bishop Kennett;" which may be taken in some measure as true, for upon comparing the "Fasti" with White Kennett's collections, it is evident that Le Neve did little more than publish a different arrangement of those materials. Indeed, he makes no secret of the matter : in his dedication to the bishop of Ely he writes, "Your lordship is not unacquainted with the several steps that have been taken in the prosecution of it, nor of the several materials which have been by many hands so generously communicated to me; and as to my own part of the work, I
- ↑ MS. Harl. 6098.
