Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pike, John (fl.1322?)

by Mary Bateson

PIKE, PIK, or PYKE, JOHN (fl. 1322?), chronicler, was master of the schools of St. Martin-le-Grand, London (cf. Bibl. Reg. MS. 13 C. xi). He wrote:

1. ‘Suppletio Historiæ Regum Angliæ.’ There are three fourteenth-century copies of this work: Cotton. MS. Julius D. vi, Arundel MS. 220, and Bibliothèque Nationale, 6234, Fonds Latin, olim Baluze. A modern copy is in British Museum Harleian MS. 685, f. 46. In Julius D. vi. f. 1, the rubric states that it was extracted by Johannes Pik ‘de compendio Brome,’ i.e. from the ‘Compendium’ of John Brome, and Augustinian, who died in 1449. Pike's work is chiefly compiled from Ralph de Diceto's ‘Abbreviationes,’ ‘Imagines,’ and ‘De Mirabilibus Angliæ,’ and from Brome's ‘Compendium.’ Two passages are printed in Gale's ‘Scriptores XV’ (i. 553, 560), under the name of Diceto. The history of the Norman kings is brought down to the coronation of John.
2. ‘In ista Compilacione tractatur quale jus dominus noster Rex Angliæ intendit habere ad terram Scotie;’ this consists of extracts from named chroniclers and a short history of the relations of Edward I and Edward II to Scotland, down to the death of Thomas of Lancaster [q. v.] in 1322 (Jul. D. vi. f. 67, and Arundel MS. 220, f. 278).
3. A history of English bishoprics, enlarged from Diceto's (Arundel MS. 220, f. 147 b). The history of Canterbury has been, in part, printed by Wharton (Anglia Sacra, ii. 677), and erroneously ascribed to Diceto (Stubbs, Diceto, vol. i. p. lxxxviii). The lives of the bishops are brought down in some cases only to the coronation of John, in others to a later date, the latest being that of the consecration of John, bishop of Norwich, in 1299. Walter Reynolds (1314–1327) is included in the list of archbishops; a later hand adds his two successors. That the author was Pike is proved by references to passages in the ‘Suppletio’ (No. 1 above).
4. Another collection of extracts closely similar to the ‘Suppletio’ in character (Arundel MS. 220, ff. 4, 52; Harl. MS. 3899). The history of the British kings (extracted from Geoffrey of Monmouth) is here much fuller than in the ‘Suppletio.’ After extracts on the Saxon and Norman kings, the chronicle is carried to the birth of Edward, prince of Wales, in 1239. Bale, Pits, and Tanner, in stating that William Horman [q. v.], vice-provost of Eton, made an epitome of Pike's ‘Suppletio,’ confound Pike with Picus Mirandulæ.

[Hardy's Catalogue, ii. 124, iii. 12, 376; Glover's Livere de Reis de Brittanie, p. xii; Pits, De Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus, s. an. 1115; Bale's Scriptorum Catalogus, p. 170, No. 61.]

M. B.