The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, vol 8 | Page 2

he relapsed from the faith.
Whereupon he left Wales, and went into France, and hauing gone
through France, [Footnote: He is said to have resided long at Rome,
only leaving on the capture of that city by the Gottis.] hee went
therehence into Egypt, Syria, and other Countries of the East, and being
made Priest by a certaine Monke of those partes, he there hatched his
heresie, which according to his name was called the heresie of the
Pelagians: which was, that manne was borne without sinne, and might
be saued by the power of his owne will without grace, that so the
miserable man might take away faith and baptisme. With this and the
like dregges of false doctrine, he returned againe into Wales, and there
by the meanes of the two false Prelates Iulian and Celestine, who
fauoured his heresie, hee infected the whole Countrey with it. But
before his fall and Apostasie from the faith, he exercised himselfe in
the best studies, as Gennadius, Beda, Honorius, and other authors doe
report of him, and wrote many bookes seruing not a litle to Christian
vtilitie: but being once fallen into his heresie, hee wrote many more
erroneous bookes, then he did before honest, and sincere: whereupon,

at the last his owne Countreymen banished him, as Walden testifieth in
his Epistle to Pope Martine the fift. He flourished in the yere after the
Incarnation, 390. Maximus being then King of Britaine.
* * * * *
A testimonie of the sending of Sighelmus Bishop of Shirburne, by King
Alphred, vnto Saint Thomas of India in the yeare of our Lord 883,
recorded by William of Malmesburie, in his second booke and fourth
Chapter de
gestis regum Anglorum.
Eleemosynis intentus priuilegia ecclesiarum, sicut pater statuerat,
roborauit; et trans mare Romam, et ad sanctum Thomam in Indiam
multa munera misit. Legatus in hoc missus Sighelmus Shirburnensis
Episcopus cum magna prosperitate, quod quiuis hoc seculo miretur,
Indiam penetrauit; inde rediens exoticos splendores gemmarum, et
liquores aromatum, quorum illa humus ferax est, reportauit.
The same in English.
King Alphred being addicted to giving of almes, confirmed the
priuileges of Churches as his father had determined; and sent also many
giftes beyond the seas vnto Rome, and vnto S. Thomas of India. His
messenger in this businesse was Sighelmus bishop of Schirburne;
[Footnote: Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, where an abbey was founded in
700.] who with great prosperitie (which is a matter to be wondered at in
this our age) trauailed thorough India, and returning home brought with
him many strange and precious vnions and costly spyces, such as that
countrey plentifully yeeldeth.
* * * * *
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.
Sighelmus trans mare, causa eleemosynarum regis, et etiam ad Sanctam
Thomam in Indiam missus mira prosperitate, quod quiuis in hoc seculo
miretur, Indiam penetrauit; indequè rediens exotici generis gemmas,
quarum illa humus ferax est, reportauit. Nonnullæ illarum adhuc in
ecclesiæ monumentis visuntur.
The same in English.

Sighelmus being for the performance of the kings almes sent beyond
the seas, and trauailing vnto S. Thomas of India, very prosperously
(which a man would woonder at in this age) passed through the sayde
countrey of India, and returning home brought with him diuers strange
and precious stones, such as that climate affourdeth. Many of which
stones are as yet extant in the monuments of the Church.
* * * * *
The trauailes of Andrew Whiteman aliás Leucander, Centur. 11.
[Footnote: This is misprinted "Centur. 2" in the original edition, but as
Ramsey Abbey (in Huntingdonshire) was only founded by Ailwin the
Saxon, A.D. 969-74, the 11th Century is probably meant, as further on
Whiteman is said to have flourished in 1020. Ramsey is so called from
_Ram's Ey_, an island in the fens.]
Andræas Leucander aliás Whiteman (iuxta Lelandum) Monachus, &
Abbas Ramesiensis Coenobij tertius fuit. Hic bonis artibus studio
quodam incredibili noctes atque dies inuigilabat, et operæ præcium
ingens inde retulit. Accessit præterea et ardens quoddam desiderium, ea
proprijs et apertis oculis videndi loca in quibus Seruator Christus
redemptionis nostræ mysteria omnia consummauit, quorum prius sola
nomina ex scripturarum lectione nouerat: vnde et sacram
Hierosolymorum vrbem miraculorum, prædicationis, ac passionis eius
testem inuisit, atque domum rediens factus est Abbas. Claruisse fertur
anno nati Seruatoris, 1020 sub Canuto Dano.
The same in English.
Andrew Leucander otherwise called Whiteman (as Leland reporteth)
was by profession a Monke, and the third Abbat of the Abbey of
Ramsie: he was exceedingly giuen to the studie of good artes, taking
paines therein day and night, and profited greatly thereby. And amonst
all other things, he had an incredible desire to see