Thomas James

, or Jamesuis as he writes himself, was born in the Isle of Wight, (at Newport as it seems,) educated in Grammaticals in Wykchams School, and in Academicals in New coll. of which he became perpetual Fellow in 1593. where drudging day and night in several sorts of learning, he proceeded in Arts in 1599. About that time he being taken into the favour of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Tho. Bodley for his excellent worth in the knowledge of books, as well printed, as written, and of the ordering of them, he was by him designed the first keeper of the Publick Library at Oxon, then in founding; which office being confirmed to him by the University in 1602. he did much good therein and laid a most admirable foundation for his Successors to build upon. In 1614. he took the degrees in Divinity, and having about that time the Subdeanery of Wells conferr’d upon him freely without seeking by the Bishop of that place, and the Parsonage of Mongcham in Kent with other Spiritualities by the Archb. of Canterbury without asking, he resigned his place of Keeper of the Publick Library, (being about that time also a Justice of Peace,) and betook himself more severe to his studies. He was very well read in the Fathers and Schoolmen, and so much vers’d in several Faculties, that he was esteemed by some a living Library. He was also indefatigable in reading old MSS. and subtle in finding out the forgeries in them. He and Allen of Glouc. hall were esteemed as most knowing in the ancient Statutes and Customs of this University, and therefore their helps in the several attempts made of framing an intire and compleat body of them, were often desired. He was a Member of the Convocation held with the Parliament at Oxon, 1. Car. 1. wherein he made a motion that some persons might be commissioned to peruse the Manuscript Fathers in all publick and private English Libraries, that thereby the forgeries of Forreign Popish editions might be detected, but what the event of it was I know not. His designs were always for the publick benefit of learning, and English Church; which being well known to his learned friend Will. Camden, he therefore saith (b)(b) In Britan. edit. 1607. in com. Monmouth. thus of him, He is a learned man, and a true lover of books, wholly dedicated to learning, who is now laboriously searching the Libraries of England, and purposeth that for the publick good, which will be to the great benefit of Students. Our author Dr. James saith also of himself thus, in 1624. that (c)(c) See in the Collection of Letters, at the end of Archb. Ushers Life, Lond. 1686. fol. nu. 66. p. 307. and in p. 320. if Cambridge will set up and set forward the like (that is to collate and examine ancient MSS. as he hath done and will do) I dare undertake more good to be done for the profit of learning and true Religion, than by building ten Colleges. I have of late given my self to the reading only of MSS. and in them I find so many and so pregnant testimonies, either fully for our Religion, or against the Papists, that it is to be wondred at, that the Religion of Papists, then and now, do not agree, &c. He also farther tells us, that not only the Rabbins, but the Thalmud in six volumes at Rome hath felt the smart of the popish indices: would God we were but half as diligent to restore, as they abolish and put out the truth. I have restored 300 citations and rescued them from corruption in thirty quier of paper, with sundry other projects of mine, which if they miscarry not for want of maintenance, it would deserve a Princes purse. If I was in Germany, the States would defray all my charges: cannot our estates supply what is wanting? If every Churchman, that hath an 100. l. per an. and upward, will lay down but a shilling for every hundred towards these publick works, I will undertake the reprinting of the Fathers, and setting forth five or six volumes of Orthodox writers, comparing of books printed with printed, or written; collating of popish translations in Greek, and generally whosoever shall concern books, or the purity of them, I will take upon me to be Magister S. Palatii in England, if I should be lawfully thereunto required, &c. As for his works that are printed, they are these.

Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis, lib. 2. Lond. 1600. qu. This Ecloga doth contain a Catalogue of all the MSS in each college Library in the University of Oxon, but not of those in the publick, and in each college Library in Cambridge, and in that of the publick there. In the making of which Catalogue he had liberty given to him by each coll. in Oxon. to peruse their MSS. and from that Society which he perceived was careless of them, he borrow’d and took away what he pleased, and put them forthwith into the Publick Library. Several such MSS were taken from Ball. coll. and some from Merton, and do yet bear in their respective fronts the names of the donours of them to those Houses. This Ecloga is very useful for curious Scholars, and is much commended by Joseph Scaliger in an Epistle to Rich. Thompson as I have told (d)(d) In Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxon. lib. 2. p. 145. a. you elsewhere.

Cyprianus redivivus, hoc est elenchus eorum quae in opusculo Cypriani de unitate ecclesiae sunt vel addita, vel detracta, vel lapsu Typographi, vel alio quovis modo supposita, &c. Printed with the Ecloga.

Spicilegium D. Augustini, hoc est, libri de fide ad Pet. Diaconum, cum antiquiss, duob. MSS. & postremis ac ultimis editionibus excusis, tam Basiliensi quam Parisiensi diligens collatio, ac castigatio, &c. Pr. with the Ecloga.

Bellum paepale, seu concordia discors Sixti v. & Clementis viii circa Hieronymianum editionem. Lond. 1600. qu. there again 1678. oct.

Catalogus Librorum in Bib. Bodleiana. Oxon. 1605. in a large oct. or rather a small qu. printed again with many additions in a thick qu. 1620. To which was added an Appendix 1635.—6. In this Catalogue is remitted the Cat. of all such MSS. that were then in the Bod. Library.

Concordantiae Sanctorum patrum, i. e. vera & pia libri Canticorum per Patres universos tam Graecos quam Latinos expositio, &c. Oxon. 1607. qu.

Apology for Joh. Wicliff, shewing his conformity with the now Church of England, &c. Oxon. 1608. qu. Written in answer to the slanderous objections urged against by Father Parsons, the Apologist, and others.

Life of Joh. Wicliff—Printed with the Apology.

Treatise of the corruption of the Scripture, Councells, and Fathers, by the Church of Rome—Lond. 1611. qu. lb. 1688. oct.

Sufficient answer unto Jam. Gretser and Ant. Possevine Jesuits, and the unknown author of the grounds of the Old Religion and the New.—Printed with the Treatise of the Corruption, &c.

The Jesuits Downfall, threatned against them by the Secular Priests for their wicked Lives, accursed Manners, heretical doctrine, and more than Machiavillian Policy. Oxon. 1612. qu.

Life of Father Parsons, an English Jesuit—Printed at the end of the former book.

Index generalis sanctorum patrum, ad fingulos versus cap. 5. secundum Mathaeum, &c. Lond. 1624. oct.

Notae ad Georgium Wicelium de methodo concordiae Ecclesiasticae, cum Catologo authorum qui scripserunt contra squalores Ecclesiae Romanae. Lond. 1625. oct.

Vindiciae Gregorianae, &c. Genev. 1625. qu.

Manuduction or Introduction unto Divinity: containing a confutation of Papists, by Papists, throughout the important articles of our Religion, &c. Oxon. 1625. qu.

His humble and earnest request to the Church of England for, and in the behalf of, books touching Religion—Pr. in one sh. in oct. 1625.

Explanation, or enlarging of the ten articles in his supplication lately exhibited to the Clergy of England, for the restoring to integrity authors corrupted by Papists. Ox. 1625. qu.

Specimen corruptelarum Pontificiarum in Cypriano, Ambrosio, Gregorio, M. & authore operis imperfecti, & in jure canonico. Lond. 1626. qu.

Index Librorum prohibitorum a Pontificiis. Oxon. 1627. oct.

Admonitio ad Theologos Protestantes de libris Pontificiorum caute legendis. MS.

Enchiridion Theologicum. MS.

Liber de suspicionibus & conjecturis. MS. These 3. MSS. I saw formerly in Lambeth Library, under D. 1. 2, 3. but whether printed I know not: perhaps the Enchiridion is. He also translated from French into English The moral Philosophy of the Stoicks. Lond. 1598. oct. And published Two short Treatises against the orders of the begging Fryers, written by Joh. Wicliffe: Also, as ’tis said, a book intit. Fiscus. Papalis. Sive Catalogus indulgentiarum & reliquiarum septem principalium Ecclesiarum urbis Romae, ex vet. MS. discriptus. Lond. 1617. qu. The Latine out of the MS. is set down in one Colum, and the English in another by the publisher. This, I say, is reported to have been published by our author James, tho others tell us that it was done by Will. Crashaw of Cambridge. Howsoever it is, sure we are, that it hath supplyed with matter a certain scribler named Henry Care in his Weekly pacquet of advice from Rome, when he was deeply engaged by the Fanatical party, after the popish Plot broke out in 1678. to write against the Church of England, and the members thereof, then by him, and his party, supposed to be deeply enclining towards Popery, &c. I say by that Hen. Care whose breeding was in the nature of a petty Fogger, a little despicable wretch, and one that was afterwards much reflected upon in the Observators published by Rog. L’estrange: which Care, after all his scribbles against the Papists, and the men of the Church of England, was, after K. James 2. came to the Crown, drawn over so far by the R. Cath. party, for bread and money-sake and nothing else, to write on their behalf and to vindicate their proceedings, against the men of the Church of England, in his Mercuries, which weekly came out, intit. Publick occurrences, truly stated. The first of which came out 21. Feb. 1687. and were by him continued to the time of his death, which hapning 8. Aug. 1688. aged 42. was buried in the yard belonging to to the Blackfriers Church in London, with this inscription nailed to his Coffin. Here lies the ingenious Mr. Henry Care, who died, &c. This person I can compare to none more than to Marchemont Nedham, whose parts tho he wanted, yet they were Weather-Cocks both alike, as I shall tell you more at large when I shall come to that person, which will be in the 2d. Vol. As for our learned and industrious author Dr. James, he paid his last debt to nature in his house in Halywell in the north Suburb of Oxon, in the month of Aug. 1629 in sixteen hundred twenty and nine, aged about 58. years, and was buried towards the upper end of New college Chappel, leaving behind him this character, that he was the most industrious and indefatigable writer against the Papists, that had been educated in Oxon, since the Reformation of Religion. Which character being made manifest by his writings, it would have been esteemed as generous an act for the Society of that House, to have honoured his reliques with a Mon. and Epitaph, as they did those of Tho. Lydiat the Mathematitian. I shall make mention of another Thomas James in my discourse of Hen. Gellibrand, under the year 1637.