A contemporary narrative of the proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery in 1324, by Richard de Ledrede, bishop of Ossory / edited by Thomas Wright.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contemporary narrative of the proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery in 1324, by Richard de Ledrede, bishop of Ossory / edited by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Chronicle of Martinus Polonus, which is said to have been written by a monk of Glastonbury named John Merylynch, who is mentioned at the end as having been the possessor of the volume in which it is contained.* It appears that Thomas Hearne had prepared an edition of this continuation for the press, when his literary labours were cut short by death. There is also a transcript of the narrative of the proceedings against dame Alice Kyteler, made while the manuscript was in the hands of its former pos- sessor, Sir Simonds D'Ewes, among the Clarendon Papers, in the Sloane MSS. No. 4800. It appears not be an integral part of the continuation of Martinus Polonus, but a mere copy from some original account of the transaction, added to the end of that tract by the continuator, or by Merylynch the possessor of the manuscript. There can be no doubt of its being a contemporary narrative. I owe the most valuable part of the illustrative notes at the end of this volume to the kindness of Mr. Crofton Croker and Sir William Betham, the Ulster King of Arms. The profound learning of Sir William Betham in everything connected with Irish history is so well known, that it is scarcely necessary for me to say how much I prize his communications. discrepans, spiritu diabolico plena, a secta omnium Dei cultorum exorbitans, gen- tibus et Judiis crudelior, episcopos sacerdotes Dei summi prosequitur in vita pariter et in morte, spoliando, lacerando Christi patrimonium in dioecesi Ossoriensi, Domini commerendo maledictionem : quorum malitiis, quz plus solito invaluerunt et invales- cunt, cogimur, ut possumus, obviare. Adhszc cum dispensatio clavium ecclesie, quas Christus apostolis commisit, et episcopis et eorum successoribus, commode exerceri non possit sine ecclesiastica juris- dictione, per quam extirpantur vitia et inseruntur virtutes ; nonnulli tamen iniquitatis filii subditi nostri, instinctu quodam diabolico, episcopis, et eorum ministris, jurisdic- tionem ecclesiasticam secundum canonica instituta exercentibus, minas machinantur gravissimas, ad indictandum, vexandum, et imbrigandum in curiis secularibus ; et per hoc impedire nituntur correctiones peccatorum et salutem animarum, in contemptum Dei et ecclesie, et cumulum propriwe damnationis seternz: super quo de spirituali remedio statuere compellimur et ordinare.— Wilkins! Concilia, vol. ii. p. 504. * Liber ffratris Johannis Merylynche de perquisito ejusdem, fol. 206, v^.