OfOXFOXD^SHl^E. tzt 
tiiatnioft rationally) to their places, inamiich more eminent 
foche^ viz^. the printer Sol/Ike to the tenth of the Calends of Janu- 
ary^ and the Vernal Mquincx to the tenth of the Calends of JpriU 
their true places at the time of Chriils birth : which he proves 
by a very cogent Argument drawn from the obfervationsof Pto- 
lomy^ who lived but 140 years after Chrift ; in whofe time the 
Vernal /Equinox was found to be on the elevenrh of the Calends of 
Apil'. now allowing, as before, that it afcends \nx\\e C ahndar a 
whole natural day in 1 30 years ; if in Ytolomiestwcie it fell oil the 
eleventh of the Calends of Aprils it muft needs at Chrifts birth 
have been at leaft on the tenth; and fo of the Solfiice Accord- 
ing to which computation they have now gon back in our Calen- 
dar finceChn^s timealmoft 13 days, the number 130 days be- 
ing fo often to be found in 1^76. wanting but 14. Now the Mrd 
of Chrifts birth being a time of much higher value, and more to 
be refped:ed by Chriftians than the Nicene Council^ in whatever 
elie they have exceeded him;, I am fure in this they have fallen 
fliortof his reformation, 
I 5 And fo much for the invention of the Telefcope^ and 0=^ 
ther Inffniments^ by the affiftance whereof he fo nearly defined the 
true quantities of the Solar and Lunar year s^ that he firft gave oc- 
cafion to the reformation of the Julian Calendar', wherein if the 
Reader (with me) be convinced, let him hither refer thofe in- 
ordinate Encomiufns by Kepler^ Fabriciti6^ and C<ffar la Galla^ 
heaped on GaliUus for the one ; and whatever elfe of that na- 
ture he (liall meet wnth, given to Pautu6 Middleburgenfis^ Copernicm^ 
or Aloyfim for the other. 
16. Thus was the Chriftian World firft informed in fnatters of 
Agronomy by Roger Bacon^ and with fo much fucccfs here in En~ 
gland, that in the next Century we meet with RichardWalUngford 
Abbot of St. Albans^ and Simon Bredon^ both Oxford men, the 
moft eminent for their time in the whole World: who for their 
fubtilty, and yet clearnefs of demonftration, we find yoaked 
with nolefs than the great Mbategniu^^ by Lewi^ Caerlyon alfo an 
Oxford man, in his obfervations of the Eclyffes^ An, Dom, 1482 
where alfo he treats of the oblique afcenfions of the Signs calcula- 
ted to the Meridian of Oxford, And quickly after we meet with 
* In Operw Min,fart. 3- ca$. 69. MS. in Bibliotheca Coll.%)niverf. " Af"' MS 79. inter Codices MS- 
Seideni-l 
William 
