Felony for robbing our Country of its due; and no doubt
_Cambridgeshire_ was the County made happy by his birth, where the Name
and Family of _Paris_ is right ancient, even long before they were
setled therein at _Hildersham_, wherein they still flourish, though
much impaired for their Loyalty in the late times of Rebellion.

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_, Matthæe, _quietas_
_Nec ventura petas, quæ 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