As  a  historian  Fuller  is  prejudiced  and
uncritical,  but  his  quaint  felicity  of  style,
continual  flow  of  wit,  and  easy,  vivacious
narrative  have  won  him  a  reputation  among
English  prose  writers  only  below  the  highest.
His  marvellous  memory  caused  his  earliest
biographer  to  style  him  '  a  perfect  walking
library.'  His  chief  works  are  The  Church
History  of  Britain,  1655;  The  Worthies  oj
England,  1662,  and  numerous  volumes  of
sermons  and  quasi-devotional  moralisings.
[G.    C]

Works;  anonymous  Life,  1661 ;  modern  Lives
by  J.  E.  Bailey  and  J.  M.  Fuller.
G


/-*  ARDINER,     Stephen     (1493  ?- 1555),

'*'  Bishop  of  Winchester,  was  born  at  Bury
St.  Edmunds  perhaps  in  1493.  The  date
commonly  given,  1483,  is  impossible,  but  may
be  a  misreading  of  some  inscription.  Many
stories  of  his  parentage  and  early  years  are
fabulous.  He  was  the  eldest  son  of  John
Gardiner,   a  substantial  cloth  merchant   of


Bury,  and  was  educated  mostly  at  Cam-
bridge. But  in  the  year  1511,  perhaps  before
he  went  to  that  University,  he  visited  Paris
as  one  of  a  certain  Mr.  Eden's  household,  and
there,  as  appears  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote
to  Erasmus  in  1527,  he  met  the  great  Dutch
scholar,  and  dressed  him  some  salads  in  a
way   that   particularly   pleased    his   palate.
(231)


Gardiner]


Dictionary  of  English  Church  History


[Gardiner


Returning  home,  and  pursuing  his  studies
at  Cambridge,  he  became  a  doctor  of  civil
law  in  1520,  and  of  canon  law  next  year.
