Accordingly these Paraphrases were highly esteemed in
Cranmer*s days, and have been so ever since : and if it be
true, that a very mean edition of them printed at Hanover
sold very well in England, our bookseller may reasonably
hope that this edition will be not less acceptable, since it
is infinitely superior both in beauty and -correctness. But
the reader must not attribute to Erasmus the summaries of
each chapter, put into verse. He who revised and cor-
rected this edition inserted them; and Erasmus was very
far from being as mean a poet as this versificator.
The eighth Volume hath scarcely any thing besides trans-
lations of treatises composed by Greek fathers, by Chry-
sostom, Athanasius, and Basil. There is also here a small
tract of Erasmus, containing the Life of Origen, and a
critical account of his works. Then follows the translation
of a Fragment of Origen's Commentary on St. Matthew,
which had fallen info the hands of Erasmus. We have it
now in Greek and Latin, and in much better condition, by
the care of Huetius, whose Origeniana are, in their kind,
an accomplished work. But although we now have the
writings of the abovementioned fathers far more complete
and exact than Erasmus had them, yet it is useful to preserve
his versions and his remarks, because disputes may arise
concerning the sense of those authors, or concerning the
genuineness of those tracts, or concerning the esteem in
which they ought to be held ; and in these cases the autho-
rity of Erasmus may be of weight, for the decision of such
controversies.
. For example : He passeth this censure on a ^ letter of
Athanasius to Serapion, an w3Egyptian bishop.
