m Suecorum Regis exercitus
per universam fere Germaniam grassarentur.' This gift was followed, in
1636, by another of one hundred and eighty-one manuscripts. In the next
year five hundred and fifty-five additional manuscripts were given by
him to the Library, and in 1640 eighty-one more. This splendid donation
of nearly thirteen hundred manuscripts comprised works in Oriental and
many other languages; a large number of them being of exceptional value
and interest. Among them was a manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles in
Greek and Latin, of the end of the seventh century, which is believed to
have been once in the possession of the Venerable Bede. Other notable
manuscripts were an Irish vellum manuscript containing the Psalter of
Cashel, Cormac's Glossary, Poems attributed to St. Columb-Kill and St.
Patrick, etc., and a copy of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, which ends at
the year 1154, and appears to have been written in, and to have
formerly been the property of, the Abbey of Peterborough. In addition to
the manuscripts, the Archbishop presented the Library with a collection
of coins, and other antiquities and curiosities.[30] Archbishop Laud was
also a great benefactor to his own college, St. John's. Sir Kenelm Digby
in a letter to Dr. Gerard Langbaine, dated Gothurst, November 7th, 1654,
writes: 'As I was one day waiting on the late King, my master, I told
him of a collection of choice Arabic Manuscripts I was sending after my
Latin ones to the University. My Lord of Canterbury [Laud] that was
present, wished that they might go along with a parcel that he was
sending to St. John's College: whereupon I sent them to his Grace, as
Chancellor of the University, beseeching him to present them in my name
to the same place where he sent his. They were in two trunks (made
exactly fit for them) that had the first letters of my christian and
sirname decyphered upon them with nails; and on the first page of every
book was my ordinary motto and name written at length in my own hand.
The troubles of the times soon followed my sending these trunks of books
to Lambeth-house, and I was banished out of the land, and returned not
until my lord was dead; so that I never more heard of them.'[31]

Some curious entries in the Journals of the House of Commons show that
the books which the Archbishop retained for his own use fell into the
hands of Hugh Peters, the regicide.

'Ao. 1643-4, March 8. Ordered, That a Study of books to the value