PARIS, MATTHEW, one of our best historians from William the Conqueror to the latter end of the reign of Henry III. but of his life few particulars have been transmitted to us. Leland his original biographer, without determining whether he was born in France or England, informs us, that he was a monk of St Alban's, and that he was sent by Pope Innocent to reform the monks of the convent at Holm in Norway. Bishop Bale, the next in point of time, adds to the above relation, that, on account of his extraordinary gifts of body and mind, he was much esteemed, particularly by King Henry III. who commanded him to write the history of his reign. Fuller makes him a native of Cambridge-shire, because there was an ancient family of his name in that county. He also mentions his being sent by the pope to visit the monks in the diocese of Norwich. Bishop Tanner, Bishop Nicholson, Doctor Du Pin, and the Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique, add not a single fact to those above related. Matthew Paris died in the monastery of St Alban's in the year 1239. He was doubtless a man of extraordinary knowledge for the 13th century; of an excellent moral character, and, as an historian, of strict integrity. His style is unpolished; but that defect is sufficiently atoned for by the honest freedom with which he relates the truth, regardless of the dignity or sanctity of the persons concerned. His works are, 1. Historia ab Adamo ad Conquestum Angliæ, Lib. I. manuscript, col. C. C. Cantab. c. ix. Most of this book is transcribed, by Matthew of Westminster, into the first part of his Florilegium. 2. Historia major, seu rerum Anglicanarum historia à Gul. Conquestoris adventu ad annum 43 Henrici III. &c. several times printed. The first part of this history, viz. to the year 1235, is transcribed almost verbatim from the Chronicle of Roger Wendover; and the Appendix, from the year 1260, is the work of William Ralinger, who was also a monk of St Alban's. 3. Vitæ duorum Offorum, Mercie regum, S. Albani fundatorum. 4. Gesta 22 abbatum S. Albani. 5. Additamenta chronicorum ad hist. majorem; printed. 6. Historia minor, five epitome majoris historie; manuscript. Besides many other things in manuscript.