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They were called Pontificum, Maximi, and sometimes Publici, to distinguish them from the Annales of other towns, of families, or of historical writers. But this of course was after its first sense was lost. Nevertheless it was considered authentic.

When Alexander, on his triumphal journey to the Lateran, passed the palace of his fanatical adherents, the Porcari, one of the boys of the family declaimed with much pathos some stanzas which concluded with the verses: Vive diu bos, vive diu celebrande per annos, Inter Pontificum gloria prima choros.

The simultaneous appearance of so many writers of moderate ability and not widely divergent views, is a witness to the literary activity of the age, but does not say much for the force of its intellectual creations. On the Annales Pontificum. The Annales, though not literature in the proper sense, were so important, as forming materials for it, that it may be well to give a short account of them.

It is also probable that these records were collected into a work, and that this work, while modernized by its frequent revisions, nevertheless preserved a great deal of original and genuine annalistic chronicle. The Annales must be distinguished from the Libri Pontificum, which seem to have been a manual of the Jus Pontificale.

We may recall, by way of illustration, the existence of a Corpus Inscriptionum Græcarum, of a Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, of a Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, the Regesta Imperii of J. F. Böhmer and his continuators, the Regesta Pontificum Romanorum of P. Jaffé and A. Potthast.

'Primus pontificum filios filiasque palam ostentavit, primus eorum apertas fecit nuptias, primus domesticos hymenæos celebravit. Egidius of Viterbo, quoted by Greg. Stadt Rom, vol. vii. p. 274, note.

Bede gives this etymology: "A copia anguillarum, quæ in iisdem paludibus capiuntur, nomen accepit." William of Malmesbury, in his "Gesta Pontificum," 1125, takes the same view. The "Liber Eliensis," of about the same date, also adopts it. Milton may not be regarded as a great authority upon such a question; he writes, however, as considering the matter settled.

A second testimony of the foresaid Sighelmus his voyage vnto Saint Thomas of India &c. out of William of Malmesburie his second booke de gestis pontificum Anglorum, cap. de episcopis Schireburnensibus, Salisburiensibus, Wiltunensibus.

Of this voyage, William of Malmsbury makes twice mention; once in the fourth chapter of his second book, De Gestis Regum Anglorum; and secondly, in the second book of his work; entitled, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum; and in the chapter devoted to the Bishops of Shireburn, Salisbury, and Winchester, both of which are here added, although the only authority for the story is contained in what has been already given from the Saxon Chronicle .

The work is characterised by a love of truth, much more critical faculty in sifting evidence than was then common, and considerable attention to literary form. It is dedicated to Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the champion of Queen Matilda. Other works by W. are De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, Lives of the English Bishops, and a history of the Monastery of Glastonbury.