FOWLER
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FOWLER
find throughout all Ireland were collected by me —
though it was difficult for me to collect them — into
one place to write this book." It was to the secluded
convent of Donegal that the learned friar retired while
engaged upon this work which was commenced by
himself and his fellow laViourers on the 2'2nd of Janu-
ary, 1632, and concluded on the 10th of August, 1636.
His forebodings as to the fate of the material that he
worked from were prophetic. Scarcely one of the an-
cient books which he brought together with such pains
has survived to the present day — they probably per-
ished in the cataclysm of the Cromwellian and Willia-
mite wars.
It was Father Colgan, the celebrated author of the "Trias Thaumaturga" and the "Acta sanctorum Hibernia; ", who, in the preface to this latter work, first conferred the title by which they are now always known, " The Annals of the Four Masters ", upon these annals of O'Clery. "As in the three works before mentioned", T\Tites Colgan, "so in this fourth one, three (helpers of O'Clery) are eminently to be praised, namely Farfassa O'Mulconry, Peregrine O'Clery, and Peregrine O'Duignan, men of consummate learning in the antiquities of their country, and to these were subsequently added the co-operation of other distin- guished antiquarians, as Maurice O'Mulconry who for one month and Conary O'Clery who for many months laboured in its promotion. But since those 'Annals' which we shall very frequently have occasion to quote, have been collected and compiled by the assistance and separate study of so many authors, neither the desire of brevity would permit us always to quote them individually, nor would justice permit us to at- tribute the labour of many to one, hence it sometimes seemed best to call them the 'Annals of Donegal', for in our convent of Donegal they were commenced and concluded. But afterwards, for other reasons, chiefly for the sake of the compilers themselves, who were four most learned masters in antiquarian lore, we have been led to call them the ' Annals of the Four Masters'."
These "Annals", written in a very archaic language, difficult to be understood, even then, except by the learned, give us the reigns, deaths, genealogies, etc., not only of the high-kings of Ireland, but also of the provincial kings, chiefs, and heads of distinguished families, men of science, historians, poets, etc., with their respective dates given as accurately as the Mas- ters are able to give them. They record the demise and succession of saints, abbots, bishops, and ecclesi- astical dignitaries. They tell of the foundation and occasionally the overthrow of countless churches, castles, abbeys, convents, and religious institutions. They give meagre details of battles, murders, tribal wars, wars with the foreigners, battles with Norsemen, Normans, and English, and political changes. Some- times they quote ancient verses in corroboration of the facts they mention, but no such verses are quoted prior to the third century. We have here the con- densed pith and substance of the old vellum books of Ireland which were then in existence, but most of which, as the Four Masters foresaw, have long since perished. Their facts and dates are not their own facts and dates. From confused masses of very an- cient matter, they, with labour and much sifting, drew forth their dates, and as far as possible synchronized their facts. It is not too much to say that there is no event in the whole of Irish history from the birth of Christ down to the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury that the first enquiry of the student al)out it must not be: " What do the Four Masters say of this? "
These "Annals" have been published, at least in part, three times, but are now always read in the edi- tion of the great Irish scholar, JohnO'Donovan. In this splendid work the Irish text is given with a trans- lation into English and a mass of the most valuable notes, topographical, genealogical, and historical, the
whole contained in seven great quarto volumes. So
long as Irish history exists the " Annals of the Four
Masters" will be read in O'Donovan's translation, and
the name of O'Donovan be inseparably connected
with that of the O'Clerys.
O'Donovan, ed., Annala Rioghachta Eireann, Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters, from the earliest ■period to the year 1616 (Dublin, 1851); Connellan, The Annals of Ire- land translated from the original Irish of the Four Masters, with annotations by Philip MacDermott, Esq., M.D., and the trans- lator (Dublin, 1846). Connellan's translation is only from the year 1171 to the end and he does not publish the Irish text. O'CoNOR, ed., RertLm Hibemicarum Scriptores Tom, 211, com- plectens annales IV Magistrorum ex ipso O'Clerii autographo in Bibliolheca Slowense (Buckingham, 1826). The Rev. Charles O'Conor publishes the Annals only up to the year 1171. O'CuRRy, Lectures on the MS, materials of Ancient Irish his- tory, 142-161, appendix 543-548: Hyde, Literary History of Ireland (London, 1899), 573-580; Idem, Story of Early Irish Lit- erature, 136-142; Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, I, 524-526; Gilbert, National MSS. of Ireland (London, 1884), 311-313; Moore in Did. Nat. Biog., s. v. O'Clery.
Douglas Hyde.
Fowler, John, scholar and printer, b. at Bristol, England, 1537; d. at Namur, Flanders, 13 Feb., ,1578- 9. He studied at Winchester School from 1551 to 1553, when he proceeded to New College, Oxford, where he remained till 1559. He became B.A. 23 Feb., 1556-7 and M.A. in 1560, though Antony a Wood adds that he did not complete his degree by standing in comitia. On Elizabeth's accession he was one of the fifteen Fellows of New College who left of their own accord or were ejected rather than take the Oath of Supremacy (Rashdall, History of New College, 114). This disposes of the calumny circulated by Acworth in his answerto Sander, called "DevisibiliRomanarchia", to the effect that Fowler took the oath to enable him to retain the living of Wonston in Hampshire. There is, indeed, no trace of any desire on his part to receive Holy orders and he subsequently married Alice Harris, daughter of Sir Thomas More's secretary. On leaving Oxford he withdrew to Louvain, where like other scholars of his time he turned his attention to the craft of printing. His intellectual attainments were such as to enable him to take high rank among the scholar-printers of that age. Thus Antony a Wood says of him: "He was well skilled in the Greek and Latin tongues, a tolerable poet and orator, and a theologian not to be contemned. So learned he was also in criticisms and other polite learning, that he might have passed for another Robert or Henry Stephens. He did diligently peruse the Theological Summa of St. Thomas of Aquin, and with a most ex- cellent method did reduce them into a Compendium. " To have a printing press abroad in the hands of a com- petent English printer was a great gain to the Catholic cause, and Fowler devoted the rest of his life to this work, winning from Cardinal Allen the praise of being catholicissimus et dodissimus librorum impressor. The English Government kept an eye on his work, as we learn from the State papers (Domestic, Eliz., 1566-1579), where we read the evidence of one Henry Simpson at York, in 1571, to the cfTect that Fowler printed all the English books at Louvain and that Dr. Harding's Welsh servant, William Smith, used to bring the works to the press. He seems to have had a press at Antwerp as well as at Louvain, for his Antwerp books range from 1565 to 1575, whereas his Louvain books are dated 1566, 1567 and 1568 ; while one of his publications, Gregory Martin's "Treatise of Schism", bears the im- press, Douay, 1578. More thorough bibliographical research than has yet been made into the output of his presses will probably throw new light upon his activity as a printer. The original works or transla- tions for which he was personally responsible are : " An Oration against the imlawfuU Insurrections of the Protestantes of our time under pretence to reforme Religion" (Antwerp, 1566), translated from the Latin of Peter Frarinus, which provoked a reply from Fidke; " Ex unjversa summi Sacra; Theologiic Doctoris S.
