Pagina:Annales monastici Vol IV.djvu/66

Iviii PKEFACE. better than what it succeeded, yet in many instances went so far in the opposite extreme, as to give an ahnost equally unreal picture of the times it venerated. If it was clear that a monk was not necessarily a demon, it yet did not follow that he was necessarily an angel. Indiscriminate praises or condemnations of a whole past age are alike untrue ; and it can only be by a large amount of hard historical study that we can ever be able to form in our minds a true picture of the past. I believe no sources can be found for obtaining this knowledge so good as the accou':'ts o." the mo^ks as given by their own writers, and that thus the publication of the present volumes and works either of the same nature, or more directly histories of monastick life — is at least one method of rendering the attainment of accurate knowledge on these subjects possible. As I have reason to believe that the tables of contents prefixed to the Annals of Duns liable and Bermondsey have been found useful, I have done the same with respect to the chronicles in the present volume. Of the plan adopted in the Index to the four volumes, which is issued separately, I have spoken in the few words of preface prefixed to it. It will, I trust, be found sufficiently full. Cambridge, October 15, 1868.