COMMENTARY NOTES

I.5 Pliny the Elder, Natural History IV.ciii.2.
I.13 Polydore was wrong. The Latin Mona indeed does pertain to the island of Anglesey, not the Isle of Man (the military operations described in the preceding paragraph occurred at Anglesey).
I.14 Georgics III.384f. (the following quote is IV.333ff.).
I.14 Columella, De Re Rustica VII.ii.3.
I.18 Tacitus, Agricola xi.2.
I.18 Pomponius Laetus [1427 - 1497] was a notable Italian antiquarian (biography here).
I.18 Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae II.4.
I.19 Sallust, Bellum Iugurthinum xxxv.10.
I.19 Gildas I.2.
I.20 Pliny N. H. IV.cii.5.
I.28 Tacitus, Agricola xiv.33.
I.33 The first part in the sense that it is closest to Rome: cf. the detailed explanation of this term by William Camden given in the 1607 edition of Britannia here.
I.33 Gildas II.5.
II proem 2 Caesar, B. G. IV.xxvii.7.
II.1 Gildas II.6f. (but here Gildas is clearly writing about the Boadicca rebellion).
II.3 Tacitus, Annales XIV.xxxi.
II.7 Juvenal iv.125ff.
II.14 Herodian Ab excessu divi Marci III.xiv.7.
II.17 Mark 16:16.
III.3 Gildas II.20 (but Polydore quotes the text in a fuller form than does Gildas).
III.4 Gavin Douglas [d. 1522], a younger son of the Earl of Angus, is best remembered for his translation of the Aeneid, so admired by Ezra Pound. The work against which he warned Polydore was probably the Historia Maioris Britanniae tam Angliae quam Scotiae (Paris, 1521) by John Major [1469 - 1550].
III.5 Evidently Polydore was thinking of Pliny, N. H. VIII.cxxvi.7, nec quicquam rarius quam parientem videre ursam (which, on the showing of this passage, seems to have passed into proverbial usage).
III.9 Gildas II.23.
IV.10 Matthew 10:30.
IV.12 Matthew 5:44 = Luke 6:27.
IV.14 The allusion is to “Il Platina” [Bartholomaeus de Platina Sacchi, 1421 - 1481], De vitis pontificum Romanorum (Cologne, 1568, available here).
IV.16 Luke 8:17.
IV.24 Matthew 7:20.
V.13 The allusion is to I Peter 2:9.
VI.12 Psalm 61:11 (from the Old Greek).
VII.6 Perius, Satire ii.69.
VIII.7 Matthew 7:1 = Luke 11.9.
IX proem Euripides, Phoenissae 524ff., as quoted (and perhaps translated) by Cicero, De Officiis III.lxxxii.17 repeated by Suetonius, Julius Caesar xxx.5.
IX.9 Aeneid I.367f.
IX.12 I. e., the first bishop to occupy the new cathedral.
XI.1 Isaiah 14:4.
XI.3 John 10:11.
XI.11 See the note on IV.14.
XI.15 the allusion is to Matthew 7:2 = Luke 6:41.
XI.18 Wisdom of Solomon 4:3.
XII.8 Matthew 7:1
XII.10 The idea of this proverb is that, as a warning sign, dangerous bulls were marked by attaching a handful of straw to their horns.
XII.13 See the note on IV.14.
XIII.7 It will be observed that this is not a complete sentence (I have imitated this in the translation).
XIV.1 Aeneid I.630.
XIV.7 A terrae filius is a proverbial description of a man of absolutely no social standing.
XV.11 Luke 4:24.
XV.20 Psalm 111:10.
XVI.2 Cf. Ezechiel 18:19.
XVI.3 Cf. Varro, De Lingua Latina VII.iii.
XVI.37 Cf. Cicero, Pro Archia xvi.
XVII.2 The Latin could also be translated “in exchange for their great service” (in helping during the famine).
XVII.7 This injunction does not appear in the original Magna Carta, but only in revised form adopted under Henry III. Cf. the Catholic Encyclopedia article on mortmain.
XVII.9 I do not know who this individual is supposed to be. At the time the Marshal of France was Guy ler de Clermont de Nesle.
XVII.14 Matthew 6:24 = Luke 16:13.
XVII.16 I am not sure what work Polydore has in mind, presumably some commentary on Gregory IX’s bull De immunitate ecclesiarum. Several works of this title appeared in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, but even the earliest I have managed to identify, that by Annibale Albani (1553), seems too late to have been read by Polydore before he wrote this.
XVII.16 Acts 5:29.
XVIII.9 Psalm 139:8.
XIX.24 Ovid, Heroides iv.161.
XIX.26 Psalm 137.4.
XX.7 Ecclesiastes 10:16.
XXI.2 Whenever somebody showed signs of madness, the Greek would say “send him to Anticyra!” This was a island sacred to Artemis, on which her priestess grew hellebore, a supposed cure for insanity.
XXII.18 Aeneid II.49.
XXIII.25 An unacknowledged quotation of Cicero, Pro Milone xi.1.
XXIII.32 Luke 11:17.
XXIII.41 Cf. In Catilinam IV.ii.7.
XXIII.41 Aulus Gellius records and explains this proverb at Noctes Atticae III.ix.1: whoever owned the horse suffered great misfortunes.
XXIV.2 II Timothy 2:6.
XXV.4 Matthew 7:12.
XXV.7 See the note on XXIII.25.
XXVI.23 Luke 17:1.
XXVI.28 Evidently an allusion to Matthew 13:12, For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.
XXVI.50 Matthew 6:3.
XXVI.51 Horace, Odes I.xxii.1.
ΧΧVII.20 John 15:20.
XXVII.1 Deuteronomy 25:5 - 6.
XXVII.24 Cicero, De Officiis I.xxii.1.
XXVII.25 Matthew 5:44 (the next quote is 5:48).
XXVII.31 John 13:34.
XXVII.60 The allusion is to the title Defender of the Faith that had been conferred on him by the Pope.