222 The Statural Hijlory 



William Rede (after Biflop of Chicheyter) and J ohn E/chenden joint- 

 ly to carry on this ftudy, as appears from their Treatifes of the 

 central Eclyps of the Moon, and conjunction of the three fupe- 

 rior Planets that happen'd An. 1345. and the great conjunction of 

 Jupiter and Saturn, An. 1365. both which were calculated by 

 William Rede, and the Prognostications added by J 'ohn Efchenden d : 

 From which Eclyps, and the firft conjunction, he fore-told the 

 Epidemical Pejiilence that followed in the year 1349. which be- 

 ginning in Turky, fpread all over Syria and Greece ; whence it 

 came into Italy, Spain and France, and at length' into England. 

 To thefe addjobn Somer and William Wyrcefter, alfo mod eminent 

 Aflronomers ; the former whereof corrected the Calendar perhaps 

 yet more accuratly than Bacon e ; and the latter wrote a verifica- 

 tion of all the fix'd flars, as to their longitude and latitude, for 

 the year 1440 f . with fome other Agronomical matters, at the in- 

 ftance of his Patron Sir John Falftoff. 



1 7. Great we fee was the ingreafe of this fort of Learning, 

 even in thofe days, yet that former Ages may not carry away the 

 whole honor, let us alfo make an eftimate of its modern advance- 

 ments \ fuch as it received from Thomm Lydiat, formerly Fellow 

 of New College, and Re&or of Alkerton in this County, who de- 

 fining a yet truer period than any of the former, of the Sun and 

 Moons motion (without which, there could be no accurat Syflem 

 or Calendar of years, months and days) moft happily firft contri- 

 ved the Oclodefexcentenary Period: ipfe primus, abfit diclo invidia; 

 noftro feculo obfervavi, are his own words 2 : Which Period, 

 though till now not fo certainly known, 'by Learned Antiquity 

 was called the great year, as is manifeftfrom/o/^tt* his Hiftory 

 of the Jews h , where fpeaking of the great advantages our Fvre- 

 fat hers had in Aslronomy, he fays, Uxlov %w rew mw vy.<$v i - 



$ fuiytt opixvtos 7r?uj/>KTaf. i. e. that 'tis probable God gave them a 

 longer life, that they might fully underftandthe Theorems of Agro- 

 nomy, which they could not well do, unlefs they lived fix hun- 

 dred years ; for the great year, fays he, is accomplifti'd in that 

 number of years. 



8. Which Lydiat found to come fo near the truth, that there 



1 



a Vol. MS. 176. inter Codices V'tgh- e S?^- *** inter Codices T>igh>" MS - 5- f MS - 'ter Codices 

 Laud, 12. B- 23. Lydiati Ej>. Ajtronm. de Ami Solaris menfura- * Lib. i- cap. 4. fub.fi/iem- 



needed 



