He was bred a Monk of St. Albans, living in that loose Age a very strict and severe life, never less idle than when he was alone; spending those hours, reserved from Devotion, in the sweet delights of Poetry, and laborious study of History, in both which he excelled all his Contemporaries:  His skill also was excellent in Oratory and Divinity, as also in such manual Arts as lie in the Suburbs of the liberal Sciences, Painting, Graving, _&c._ so that we might sooner reckon up those things wherein he had no skill, as those wherein he was skilled:  But his Genius chiefly disposed him for the writing of Histories, writing a large Chronicle with great Commendations from the Norman Conquest to the Year of our Lord 1250. where he concludes with this Distich: 

  Sifte tui metas studij, Matthaee, quietas
  Nec ventura petas, quae postera proferat atas.

  Matthew, here cease thy Pen in peace, and study on no more,
  Nor do thou rome at things to come, what next Age hath in store.

Yet, notwithstanding this resolution, he afterwards resumed that Work, continuing it to the Year 1259. a History impartially and judicially written, neither flattering any for their Greatness, nor sparing others for their Vices, no not so much as those of his own Profession; yet though he had sharp Nails, he had clean Hands, strict in his own, as well as linking at the loose conversation of others, and for his eminent austerity, was imployed by Pope Innocent the Fourth, not only to visit the Monks in the Diocess of Norwich but also was sent by him into Norway, to reform the Discipline in Holui, a fair Covent therein, but much corrupted.

His History was set forth with all integrity about a hundred years ago, by his namesake, Matthew Parker, (though some asperse it with a suspition of forgery) and afterwards in a latter and more exact Edition, by the care and industry of Doctor William Wats, and is at this present in great esteem amongst learned men.

* * * * *

WILLIAM RAMSEY.

This William Ramsey was born in Huntingtonshire, a County famous for the richest Benedictines Abbey in England; yet here he would not stay, but went to Crowland, where he prospered so well, that he became Abbot thereof. Bale saith he was a Natural Poet, and therefore no wonder if fault be found in the Feet of his Verses; but by his leave, he was also a good Scholar, and Arithmetician enough to make his Verse run in right Numbers.