1601.--The Library bought the copy of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, from
which John Foxe had printed the edition of 1571.[17] It is marked Bod.
441.

1603.--Some manuscripts were given by Sir Robert Cotton, and one of them
(Auct. D., ii. 14:--Bod. 857) is an ancient volume of Latin Gospels,
written probably in the sixth century, which shares with the illuminated
Benet Gospels described above, the traditional reputation of being one
of the books that were sent by Gregory to Augustine. It has no
miniatures, but it has rubrication, and it is in a similar style of
writing with that splendid volume. Thomas Elmham, who was a monk of St.
Augustine's at Canterbury, and wrote a history of his monastery, about
A.D. 1414, gives a list of the books of his house; and there
are two entries of "Textus Evangeliorum," each being particularly
described. Humphrey Wanley (p. 172) identified our two books as those
known to Elmham; and Westwood pronounces them to be two of the oldest
Latin manuscripts written in pure Roman uncials that exist in this
country.

1635-1640.--In these years Archbishop Laud gave nearly 1,300
manuscripts, among which there is one (E. 2) that enjoys pre-eminently
the title of "Codex Laudianus." This is a famous manuscript of the Acts
of the Apostles, which has been variously dated from the sixth to the
eighth century. It is the only known manuscript that exhibits certain
irregular readings, seventy-four in number, which Bede, in his
"Retractations on the Acts," quoted from his copy. Wetstein surmised
that this was the very book before Bede when he wrote his
"Retractations."[18] At the end is a Latin Creed, written in the same
uncial character, though not by the same hand, and Dr. Heurtley says it