Ecclesiastical History of Beda, the principal source whence our early chroniclers have derived their matter.
What has just been stated, with reference to king Ælfred, may perhaps tend in some degree to account for the distribution of copies of the Chronicle among certain religious houses, during the reign of that prince: but how it was continued in after-times we are without any intimation whereupon to found more than a probable conjecture; although all the extant copies, not excepting that which least resembles the others (Domit. A. VIII.), bear proofs of a common prototype, as must be evident to every reader of the several texts displayed in the present edition. Of this subject, the passage from the Scotichronicon, quoted below, offers a curious and not improbable illustration;[1] though, perhaps, too vague and too recent to be considered as evidence.
While regarding Alfred as the probable originator of the Saxon Chronicle, it must, at the same time, be evident that in England there already existed written memorials of our early times, whence he, or rather perhaps his coadjutors, derived materials; and to such Beda alludes,[2] in the words: "A principio voluminis hujus usque ad tempus quo gens Anglorum fidem Christi percepit, ex priorum maxime scriptis, hinc inde collectis, ea quæ promeremus didicimus." He also
- ↑ Ideoque statutum est convenienter, in plerisque regionibus, et, ut audivi, in Anglia, quod unumquodque monasterium, a regibus fundatum, haberet de ipso loco suum certum scribam vei scriptorem, qui omnia notabilia, tempore regis, saltem in regno vel e vicinis, contingentia, secundum quod veritas facti se haberet, cum data annotaret, et ad proximum generale concilium, post obitum regis, omnes illi chronographi convenirent, et sua veridicta sive scripta in medium producerent, et, electis a concilio sagacioribus et in talibus peritis et expertis, scripta examinarent, et, diligenti habita collatione, decongestis summarium extraherent, et chronicam compingerent ; ac in coenobiticis archivis librariorum pro authenticis chronicis, quibus fides daretur, scripta reponerent, ne temporum labilitate memoriæ gestorum in regno deperirent." Fordun, Scotichronicon, Cont. edit. Hearne, iv. p. 1348.
- ↑ H. E. Prolog.
