Roger of Wendover
Pre-reading
Roger of Wendover ( ?-1236) was an English chronicler of the 13th century. At an uncertain date he became a monk at St. Albans Abbey; afterwards he was appointed prior of the cell of Belvoir, but he forfeited this dignity in the early years of Henry Ⅲ, having been found guilty of wasting the endowments. His later years were passed at St. Albans, where he died on 6 May 1236.
Wendover worked at St. Albans and is the first to work with the series of important chroniclers. The Flowers of History is his best-known chronicle. It is based in large part on material which already existed at St. Albans. Probably the actual nucleus of the early part of Roger’s Flowers of History is supposed to have been the compilation of John of Wallingford, who was abbot of St. Albans from 1195 to 1214.
The work done by John started from the year 1188, and was revised and continued by Roger up to 1235, the year before his death. Roger claims in his preface to have selected “from the books of catholic writers worthy of credit, just as flowers of various colors are gathered from various fields”. That is why he called his work Flores Historiarum— a title appropriated in the 14th century to a long compilation by various hands. It was finally completed at Westminster continuing to the year 1326, which was started at St. Albans based upon the Chronicle of Matthew Paris. Though it is now known that no actual chronicler of that name ever existed, the work was long ascribed to one “Matthew of Westminster”.
Prompts for Your Reading
1.What do you think is the purpose of recording past events? Is it to entertain people as stories or to warn them against evil doings or to educate them to follow good models?
2.What is Roger’s intention in Paragraph 1? Does he want to describe the wonderful aspects in the past or to redress misunderstanding of the values of history?
3.Recall any of the Bible stories that cover both good and evil deeds. Are there any lessons we can draw from them?