Chapter XXIV (37)

[109] In the preface to the metrical version of the Bible, executed by command of Louis le Debonnaire, we find the following passage: “Præcepit namque uni de gente Saxonum qui apud suos non ignobilis vates habebatur ut Vetus ac Novum Testamentum in Germanicam Linguam poetice transferre studeret, quatenus _non solum litteratis verum etiam illiteratis_ sacra divinorum præceptorum lectio panderetur.”

[110] Martene: Thesaurus Anec. i. 489.

[111] Vos lumina; vos mea vita ... vos novella plantatio. (Vita Sanctæ Cæsariæ.)

[112] Si qua enim soror, reliquis in templo cantantibus, sonoræ vocis modulatione non congrueret, a pia illa matre objurgata, vel etiam in facie manibus cæsa, toto reliquæ vitæ spatio clara fuit et delectabili voce. (Vita S. Adehildæ: ap. Surium.)

[113] The whole document is to be found in D’Achery’s “Spicilegium,” vol. ii.

[114] Hallam, Middle Ages, iii. p. 332.

[115] This Saxon school became, afterwards, a great object of interest to Alfred; and Asser tells us, that at his request Pope Martin II. freed it from all taxes and tribute.

[116] Wise’s Edition, Oxon. 1722.

[117] Asser (Wise’s Ed.), p. 67.

[118] Among these homilies is that for the festival of Easter, commonly quoted in support of the audacious theory that the Anglo-Saxon divines knew nothing of the doctrine of Transubstantiation. The whole question is satisfactorily examined by Dr. Lingard, in his “History of the Anglo-Saxon Church,” to which the reader is referred. But it may be observed, that whatever obscurity is to be found in Ælfric’s language, that of other writers of his nation is singularly emphatic. The very term, _Transubstantiation_, is all but anticipated by Alcuin, who, in a letter to Paulinus, bids him remember his friend “at that time when thou shalt consecrate the bread and wine _into the substance_ of the body and blood of Christ.” And of two saints contemporary with Ælfric, viz. St. Odo and St. Oswald, their biographers record the fact, that while celebrating mass, the appearance of a bleeding Host in their hands removed the doubts of certain beholders. Yet, what doubts had to be removed if the doctrine were not then held?

[119] Hist. of Ramsey, ch. lxvii.

[120] In the first edition of this book allusion was made to the studies pursued in this century at Croyland abbey. But the chronicle of Ingulphus from which the narrative was quoted, is now generally admitted to be spurious, and the passage has therefore been omitted.

[121] Berington, Lit. Hist. book iii. 154.

[122] Hallam, Middle Ages, chap. ix. part 1. _passim_.

[123] Florus, Carmina Varia, Vet. Anal. 413.

[124] The battle of Fontenay was gained by Charles the Bald and Louis the German over their elder brother Lothaire. The latter was totally defeated, and the old Frankish or Teutonic nobility who supported him were all but entirely destroyed. From this time the Gallo-Roman element began to prevail in France over the German, and the treaty shortly afterwards renewed between Charles and Louis at Strasburg, is the first instance on record of the vernacular dialects being employed on any solemn occasion. Louis as king of the Germans, swore to the treaty in the Romance language, now formally recognised as the language of France while the French king took his oath in Tudesque, or German. On that day, France and Germany may be said to have first assumed their distinct nationalities. The Romance or Rustic Latin became the language of France, though this afterwards separated into two branches, that spoken in the northern provinces, which was more largely mingled with Germanic idioms, and which was known as the _Langue d’oyl_, or _d’oui_ and the softer dialect of the south, which was called the _Langue d’oc_. Later on, the Italian Romance became distinct from either of these, and is sometimes spoken of as the _Langue de si_.

[125] Footnote: Hallam, Middle Ages, chap. i. part 1.

[126] Acta SS. Ben. Vita S. Anscharii.

[127] Odericus Vitalis, B. vi. ch. 10.

[128] Analect. tom. i. 426.

[129] Gesta Epis. Leod. cap. 25.

[130] Fleury observes that by the “Dialectics of St. Augustine” is supposed to be meant the treatise of the ten categories, attributed to St. Augustine from the time of Alcuin.

[131] D’Achery, Spic. t. i. 372.

[132]

Esuries Te, Christe Deus, sitis atque videndi
Jam modo carnales me vetat esse dapes.
Da mihi Te vesci, Te potum haurire salutis,
Unicus ignotæ Tu cibus esto viæ;
Et quem longa fames errantem ambedit in orbe
Hunc satia vultu, Patris Imago, Tuo.

[133] St. Maieul of Cluny always “refreshed his mind with reading” as he rode, and one day both horse and man fell into a quagmire. And Thierry, abbot of St. Hubert’s, lost his way, and very nearly his life also, owing to his being so intent on the recitation of the Psalms that he did not see where his horse was going. Many examples of a similar nature are to be met with.

[134] Quando illi prandentes in angulis scholæ, dulcia obsonia magistro furantur.--_Vita S. Adalberti_, _Acta SS. Ben._

[135] The following is his version of the “Our Father”:--

Fater unser du in himele bist. Din na’ mo vuerde geheiligot. Din riche chome. Din wille geskehe in erdo also in himele. Unser ta’ golicha brot kib uns hinto-unde. Unsere sculde belak uns, also ouch wir bela’ zend unsern sculdigen. Und in chorunga nit leitest du unsich. Nu belose unsich some ubele.

[136] I wish to be a Greek, lady, who am scarcely yet a Latin.

[137] I am altogether unable to compose worthy verses, for I am so confused by the caresses of the duchess.

[138] Oderic. Vit. B. vi. c. iv.

[139] Wis. vii. 17. 22-23.

[140] Richer’s history is printed at length in Pertz’s _Monumenta Germaniæ Historica_, Tom. iii.

[141] Gerbert taught his disciples the use of the monochord; a single string, which being struck at different intervals, gave out the different sounds of the gamut. These intervals were marked on the chord, and the words to be sung had written over them a cipher, showing to what interval on the monochord it corresponded. A person therefore could always set himself right by sounding the note he wanted, as we should use a pitch-key. A description of this instrument is given by the monk Odoramn, whose works have been discovered and published by Cardinal Mai, and whose musical treatises are said to be based on the scientific principles of Boëthius and Euclid.

[142] The Arabs received the knowledge of the Indian numerals in the ninth century. “But the profound and important historical investigations to which a distinguished mathematician, M. Chasles, was led by his correct interpretation of the so-called Pythagorean table in the geometry of Boëthius,” says M. Humboldt, “render it more than probable that the Christians in the West were acquainted even earlier than the Arabians with the Indian system of numeration; the use of the nine figures, having their value determined by position, being known by them under the name of the System of the Abacus.” (_Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 226, also note 358. See also M. Chasles, _Aperçu historique des méthodes en géométrie_, 464-472, and his papers in the _Comptes-rendus de l’Acad. des Sciences_.)

[143] The story has of course been taken up by the usual chorus of modern writers, but its fallacy is well exposed by Gretser, who shows that the tenth century knew nothing of the rumour, which entirely originated in the fertile brain of Benno.

[144] Meibomius, Scrip. Rerum German. t. i. 706.

[145] In the year 1867 a controversy arose in Germany concerning the authenticity of the works attributed to Hroswitha. Professor Aschbach, of the Imperial Academy of Vienna, in a paper printed that year in the Acts of the Academy, endeavoured to prove them audacious forgeries; and supposed the author of the fraud to have been one Conrad Celtes, a Humanist of the fifteenth century. The question was taken up on both sides. Several distinguished writers and their arguments and investigations appear to have successfully vindicated the genuine character of the works, and to have established Hroswitha’s claim to be considered their real authoress. See B. Tenk, _Neber Roswitha Carmen de Gestis Oddonis_, Leipzig, 1876. R. Kœpke, _Ottonische Studien zur deutschen geschichte im 10ten jahrhundert_, II. _Hroswith von Gandersheim_ (xv. s. 314.) _Die Aelteste deutsche Dichterin_ (III. 127. S), Berlin, 1869. _Hroswitha, die helltönende Stimme von Gandersheim. In Westermann’s Illustr. Monatsheften_, 1871, &c.

[146] Rohrbacher, Hist. de l’Eglise, vol. xiii. 540.

[147] Adelmann Rythmi Alphabetici. Vet. Anal. iv. 382.

[148] Analecta, t. iv. 385-387.

[149] Rémusat, St. Anselme de Cantorbéry, liv. ii. chap. iv. The various opinions in favour of and against this argument are given in chap. v.

[150] Fleury, lib. lxii. 1.

[151]

O’er wayward childhood wouldst thou hold firm rule,
And sun thee in the light of happy faces?
Love, Hope, and Patience, these must be thy graces,
And in thine own heart let them first keep school.
For, as old Atlas on his broad neck places
Heaven’s starry globe, and there sustains it;--so
Do these upbear the little world below
Of education,--Patience, Love, and Hope.--_Coleridge._

[152] So at least we conjecture from certain stage directions in the dramas of Hroswitha, which seem to infer a good deal of skill on the part of the stage manager.

[153] M. Delisle, in his Notice on the Life and Writings of Odericus, explains this expression to mean the Latin alphabet; Carmenta Nicostrata, the mother of the Arcadian Evander, being held by some to have first invented letters. He could not, however, have been five years learning his alphabet, so we may probably understand him to mean the ordinary elementary instruction in Latin.

[154] Now known as the _Priorata_, or Priory of St. John of Jerusalem.

[155] Rohrbacher, Hist. Ecc. tom. xiv. 48-60.

[156]

Essa è la luce eterna di Sigieri,
Che, leggendo nel Vico degli Strami,
Sillogizzo invidiosi veri.--_Parad._ x. 136.

[157] Pertz, Monumenta Germanica, tom. iv. 39.

[158] Chron. Clun. ap. Bib. Clun. 1645.

[159] It may be taken as tolerably well proved, however, that he was really an Irishman, and he is supposed to have been a monk of Clonard. Contemporary with him was another famous Irish historian, Tigernach, abbot of Clonmacnoise, who wrote his chronicle partly in Irish and partly in Latin, and is held to have been well acquainted with Greek. The Irish scholars highly distinguished themselves in this century. There was an Irish monastery at Erford, and another at Cologne, into which Helias, a monk of Monaghan, on returning from a visit to Rome, introduced the Roman chant (Lanigan, Ecc. Hist. c. xxiv.)

[160] Histoire Lit. tom. vii. 58, and tom. ix. 149. The same authority makes mention of other translations in French of the Four Gospels, the Epistles of St. Paul, the Psalms, and some books of the Old Testament, all made in the diocese of Metz in the twelfth century.

[161] Sicut rectus ordo exigit ut profunda Christianæ fidei credamus, priusquam ea præsumamus ratione discutere; ita negligentia mihi videtur si postquam confirmati sumus in fide, non studemus quod credimus intelligere. Opp. S. Anselm, _de Fide Trinitatis et de Incarn._ Prœf. et _Cur Deus homo?_ c. i. et 2.

[162] Abelard is classed by John of Salisbury as belonging to the sect of the Nominalists. (_De Nugis Curialium_, 7, 12. _Metalog._ 2, 17.) His followers, however, disliked the name, and he is more commonly described as a _Conceptualist_.

[163] Jo. Saris. Ep. xxiv.

[164] A certain enemy of the poets in the days of Virgil.

[165] Except indeed we reckon St. Anselm as the first of the schoolmen. But though this would be, strictly speaking, correct, the formation of Scholastic Theology as a distinct science is not generally spoken of before the time of Peter Lombard.

[166] In his work entitled _De Nugis Curialium_, he is said to have quoted upwards of one hundred and twenty writers of antiquity.

[167] Metalogicon, lib. vii. c. 13.

[168] Jos. xv. 15.

[169] Jacob de Vitrag. Hist. Occ. c. 7. Fleury, Hist. Eccles. liv. 66. lix.

[170] Archi-Trenius, or the Chief Lamenter,--a name taken from the Greek title of the Book of Lamentations.

[171] Du Boulai. Hist. de l’Univ. t. iii. p. 31.

[172] Terra mota est, etenim cœli distillaverunt ... pluviam voluntariam segregabis Deus, hæreditati tuæ. Ps. lxvii. 10, 11.

“La main de Dieu, lorsqu’elle nous châtie, est comme celle du chirurgien qui ne blesse que pour guérir, et à la fin _les foudres se convertissent en pluies_ que Dieu réserve pour l’heritage de ses élus.” (Esprit de S. François de Sales.)

[173] Grandes Chroniques de France, ann. 1196.

[174] Lebœuf, Hist. du diocèse de Paris, i. 6.

[175] The collection of the Roman Imperial statutes, known as the _Justinian Code_, was published by order of Justinian in 529. Three years later appeared fifty books, containing the decisions of famous jurists, and this digest received the name of the _Pandects_. An introduction, to facilitate the study of the Pandects, with four additional books, make up the _Institutes_; and, lastly, certain new statutes added at the revision of the code made in 534, formed the _Novellæ_; the whole collection making up the body of the Roman or civil law.

[176] Cosmos (Sabine’s Translation), vol. ii. note 331.

[177] His story is introduced by Dante into the Inferno, cant. xiii.

[178] The university of Toulouse was established in virtue of certain articles introduced into the treaty of peace between Count Raymund of Toulouse and St. Louis of France. The count agreed to pay 4000 marks for the maintenance of certain masters for ten years; namely, two doctors of theology, two canonists, six masters of liberal arts, and two of grammar. This foundation was made for the express purpose of combating the Albigensian heresy in its headquarters.

[179] The feudal lords in the eleventh century frequently claimed and exercised the right of appointing the scholasticus to certain churches where benefices were attached to the office. (See Martene, Ampl. Coll. t. ii. 974-979.) But even then the approval of the bishop or his chancellor was required, and he could claim the right of veto, when objections to the candidate existed on the score of faith or morals.

[180] Crevier, Hist. de l’Univ. vol. i. p. 256. The custom was made law by a decree of the Third Council of Lateran in 1179. But forty years earlier we find the Council of Westminster prohibiting cathedral scholastics from accepting payment for the licenses granted by them to schoolmasters in towns and villages.

[181] Thus we read that W. de Champeaux held the office of archdeacon of Paris, and governed the cathedral schools. “It had been the rule,” says Crevier, “that all who wished to open a school should obtain a license from the scholasticus, _that is, the chancellor_, of the church in whose territory they wished to establish themselves.” See also the statutes of Lichfield Cathedral. (Monas. Anglic. t. 3. p. 34.) “Officium Cancellarii est, sive residens sive non extiterit, lectiones legendas in ecclesia per se, vel per suum vicarium, auscultare, male legentes emendare, _scholas conferre_, &c.” (Quoted by Du Cange.) The chancellor of St. Paul’s, London, had jurisdiction over all the schools of the city. He was called the _Magister Scholarum_, and the master of the cathedral grammar school acted as his vice-chancellor. (Lib. Stat. Eccl. S. Pauli.) In the reign of Stephen we find an ordinance from the legate, Henry de Blois, to the effect that all schoolmasters teaching schools in London, without license from the cathedral scholasticus, should be excommunicated.

[182] Quoted in Catholic University Gazette, Oct. 26, 1854.

[183] Crevier, Hist. de l’Univ. vol. ii.

[184] For a summary of the errors condemned, see Martene, Thesaur. Anecdot. t. iv. col. 163, 164.

[185] Jasinski, Sum. Ordin. Cap. Gen. p. 403.

[186] Const. FF. Præd. dis. n. note _a._

[187] Const. FF. Præd. dis. ii. note _b._

[188] _Ibid._ Paris, 1236. De Studiis linguarum. S. (Const. Fontana, 1862.)

[189] Const. Dis. ii. De Student. iv. note _g._

[190] Const. F. F. Præd. De Studentibus. This provision of the ancient Constitutions is commented on by the statutes of more modern addition, wherein we see the immense importance attached by the Order to the study of Church history. After speaking of the study of the Scriptures, it is said: “Another fount of theological science is ecclesiastical history, which is, as it were, the complement, and ever-living interpreter of Holy Scripture; so that these two are the _duo luminaria magna_, illuminating all the faithful in Christ, and manifesting without a cloud of error, all those truths revealed by God; for the history of the Church, rightly speaking, is nothing else than Christian doctrine in act, nor is there any better or more easy way of knowing the Catholic dogma; for it is nothing else than a series of battles and triumphs of our faith against the insurgent heresies, which the Church, by her doctors, martyrs, and decrees of Popes and Councils has successively pierced through and overcome; whence the certain interpretation of Scripture and the clear explanation of tradition and the authoritative definition of dogma, are all to be found in the History of the Church.” Const. F. F. Præd. (Fontana, 1862.) De Studio, p. 458.

[191] Fleury, Histoire Eccl. Discours 5^me.

The order of graduation, as it exists at present, is as follows: Eight years of study are required before any one can be admitted to the degree of Lector, and to obtain this a student must undergo an examination in Philosophy, Modern Controversy, Scripture, and the Summa of St. Thomas. The active or teaching course, required for the higher degrees of Bachelor and Doctor, remains nearly the same as in former days. Various modifications have from time to time been introduced into the legislation of the Order on this point, but the principle has always been retained of making a long course of teaching and repeated examinations the test of qualification. _Secular_ students in a Dominican College, however, may be admitted to the degree of Doctor after only a three years’ course of Theology, provided they stand an examination in the Summa; and by the Bull of Pope Clement XII., all such secular graduates of the Dominican schools hold the same position in every respect as though they had been promoted to the Doctorship in the Roman College of the Sapienza. (Fontana, p. 206.)

[192] His words are as follows: “When I was at Venice, being still a youth, they were sawing some stones for the repair of one of the churches, and it chanced that in one of these blocks there appeared the figure of a head; as of a king, crowned with a long beard. The countenance had no other defect, save that the forehead was too high ascending towards the top of the head. All of us who examined it were satisfied that it was the work of nature. And I being questioned as to the cause of the disproportioned forehead, replied that this stone had been coagulated by the work of vapour, and that by means of a more powerful heat the vapour had arisen without order or measure.” (Op. tom. 2 De Mineralibus. lib. 2, tract. 3, c. i.) The expressions here used are somewhat obscure, but they seem to imply that Albert knew something of those phenomena which geologists explain as the result of volcanic heat and the action of vapour. “Transformed, or metamorphic rocks,” says Humboldt, “are those in which the texture and mode of stratification have been altered either by the contact or proximity of an irrupted volcanic rock, or, as is more frequently the case, by the _action of vapours_ and _sublimations_ which accompany the issue of certain masses in a state of igneous liquefaction.” (Cosmos. vol. i. p. 236.)

[193] “Quia totum scibile scisti.”--Jammy, Vita B. Alberti.

[194] The very remarkable passage here referred to by Humboldt is to be found in the Treatise, “De Cælo et Mundo.”

[195] Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 247.

[196] Among these, besides the celebrated speaking head, the account of which is too legendary to be depended on, we must reckon the mode of rendering sensible the phenomena of an earthquake, which he describes in his book on meteors, and which finds a place in most modern works on popular science; his automata made to move by means of mercury according to the method of Chinese toys; and the so-called magic cup, which is still preserved in the Museum of Cologne.

[197] Rutebœuf, the celebrated crusading minstrel of the thirteenth century, whose reckless sarcasm spared no one, not even St. Louis himself, endeavoured to console the defeated seculars by directing his most cutting satire against their opponents, in a piece entitled “La descorde de l’université et des Jacobins.” The poem contains many curious illustrations of the manners and studies of the Paris students, and it need hardly be said that the Jacobins fare but badly. When first the friars came into the world, he says, they took lodgings with humility, but now they are masters of Paris and Rome,

Et par leur grant chape roonde
Ont versé l’université.

[198] Ps. ciii. 13.

[199] Boll. Vita S. Thom. p. 712, n. 77.

[200] Institutions Liturgiques, tom. 1, 348.

[201] Frigerio, Vita di S. Tomaso, lib. ii. c. x.

[202] Sixtus of Sienna and Trithemius both declare that St. Thomas explained _all_ the works of Aristotle, and that he was the first Latin Doctor who did so, but the Commentaries that are preserved treat only of fifty two books. This purgation of the pagan philosophy is alluded to in the Matins hymn for his office, as forming one of his chief glories:

Plusquam doctores cæteri
Purgans dogma Gentilium.

[203] Qu. 85, Act. 2, Ad. 3

[204] Qu. 84, 7.

[205] Contra Gen. 1, 7.

[206] Qu. i. Act. 8.

[207] Dalgairns, Introduction to the Life of St. Richard, pp. 36, 37.

[208] At Paris 1286, Bourdeaux 1287, and Lucca 1288.

[209] Vie de S. Thomas, livre v. ch. xi.

[210] Echard, de Script. Ord. t. i. 435.

[211] In c. 5. Matth. quoted by Touron, liv. 4, ch. 3.

[212] Lib. 1, contra Gentil. c. 2, quoted by Touron.

[213] Boll. p. 715, n. 80.

[214] This idea is doubtless little in accordance with our ordinary way of regarding the mechanical arts, but the reader will remember the words of Scripture, which tells us how the Lord called Beseleel the son of Uri, and filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding and all learning to work in gold and silver and carpenter’s work; and how He put wisdom into the heart of every skilful man to know how to work artificially, and to the women that they might spin fine linen. (Exod. xxxi. 3; xxxv. 25, 35; xxxvi. 1.) How sublime is this view, which displays to us every part of human knowledge, the humblest as well as the most profound, as, alike, but sparks from the One Fontal Light,--the Illuminating Spirit of God!

[215] S. Bonaventure (quoted in the _Dublin Review_, Dec. 1851), from his small work called “The Reduction of the Arts to Theology.”

[216] De Studio legendi, iii. 3-6, quoted in the Appendix to Newman’s University Lectures.

[217] Eccl. Hist. vol. 18, p. 434-444.

[218] _Ibid._ vol. 18, p. 444.

[219] See Touron, _Vies des Hommes Illustres_, tom. i. 489-504; where are also to be found notices of F. Paul Christiani, and other Hebrew scholars of the order.

[220] These foundations are thought worthy of being named among his greatest works in the Breviary lessons for the Octave day of his feast: “Hebraicæ et Arabicæ linguæ publicas scholas in Ordine Prædicatorum impensis instituit.”

[221] The letter is printed at length in Martene’s Collection, Tom. iv. col. 1527.

[222] Crevier, Hist. de l’Univ. de Paris. Vol. ii. p. 227. There is incidental evidence that the Greek and Oriental tongues were occasionally studied even by members of the secular colleges of Paris, during this and the following century. Stephen Pasquier speaks of a certain youth of twenty, who in the year 1445 spoke very subtle Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Arabic, besides many other tongues; and winds up his account by saying that if an ordinary man had lived a hundred years without eating and sleeping he could not have learnt as much as this young prodigy. His learning, however, was evidently something rather uncommon, for, says the historian, it put all his fellow-students in fear lest he knew more than human nature ought to know, and might possibly be “a young Antichrist.”

[223] Ayliffe; State of the University of Oxford, vol. i. p. 106.

[224] Fontana, Const. _De studio Linguarum_. g. p. 467; also Jasinsky, _Studium Linguarum_. lit. B.

[225] Annibaldi was a pupil of Albert the Great, and took his Doctor’s degree in Paris, where he enjoyed a very brilliant reputation. Innocent IV. created him Master of the Sacred Palace. But being promoted to the purple in 1263 be solicited Urban IV. to name as his successor in that office a certain learned English Friar, F. William Bonderinensis, as he is called in the Catalogue of the Masters, who belonged to the Convent of London, and was the only one of our countrymen who ever filled that important post.

[226] Hibernia Dominicana, p. 191.

[227] Speech on the Extension of Academic Education in Ireland, delivered at Cork, Nov. 13, 1844; quoted in an article on the _Ancient Dominican Irish Schools_; Dublin Review, Sept. 1845.

[228] Hib. Dominicana, p. 193.

[229] Cantu, Histoire Universelle, vol. xi, p. 593.

[230] M. Cartier, in his introduction to the Life of Fra Angelico, has adduced many passages from St. Thomas, not only elucidating the philosophy of Christian art, but showing that he had a natural taste for such pursuits, and drew from them more than one graceful illustration. Thus he lays down the three conditions of beauty to consist in entireness, proportion, and clearness of colour. He also enunciates that broad principle which justifies us in requiring that one who aims at representing spiritual subjects should himself be holy in life, when he declares that “all inferior forms flow from the forms which are in the intellect.” For how then, we may argue, can a spiritual form flow from a debased intellect? And among the maxims and sayings preserved by his biographers there occur more than one, the imagery of which seems to show even a practical acquaintance with the art of painting.

[231] Histoire Eccl., vol. xviii. p. 686.

[232] The image is taken from St. Gregory, who compares secular letters to the smiths’ tools which were to be found in the hands, not of the Israelites, but of the Philistines. Nevertheless, he says, as the Israelites went down to the Philistines and borrowed their tools to sharpen their own instruments, so Christians may and ought to use the liberal arts in order to explain and defend the truths of religion. And those who seek to prohibit the faithful from the study of the liberal sciences are like the Philistines who did not suffer the children of Israel to have smiths among them, “lest they should make them swords or spears.” (S. Greg. in 1 Reg. lib. v. c. iii. No. 30.)

[233] Greith; _Die Deutsche Mystik im Prediger-Orden_, pp 38, 39.

[234] Quoted by Sighart (French Trans.), p. 378.

[235] Summa, 2, 2, qu. 180, 1, ad 1 et 2.

[236] Ibid. 1. 2, qu. 27, a. 2, and 2.

[237] S. Thom. 2, 2, q. 27, a. 6.

[238] Sup. Psal. xxi.

[239] Sermon for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost.

[240] S. Antoninus, Vita, § 6.

[241] Preface to his _Meditations from St. Thomas_.

[242] Eccles. xxiv. 43, 44, 47 (Lessons for the Common of Doctors).

[243] Leland.

[244] Nevertheless, oddly enough, the susceptibility to natural beauty and the power of describing it with the pen is often claimed as one of the good things restored to us by the Renaissance. The author of Cosmos, in that beautiful Introduction to his work in which he traces the history of the love of nature, observes that, “when the sudden intercourse with Greece caused a general revival of classical literature, we find as _the first example among prose writers_ a charming description of nature from the pen of Cardinal Bembo.” Had the writer opened any of the monastic Chronicles in which his own country is so rich, he would have found that the monks, whom Bembo would have regarded as barbarians, had been before him as landscape painters in words, by at least six centuries.

[245] Fescennia, a town of Etruria, was noted in the days of Horace for the rude extempore verses, full of coarse raillery, composed by its inhabitants, and commonly known as _Fescennina carmina_ (Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 145). The _Theonine tooth_ is likewise an expression derived from Horace (Ep. i. 18. 82); and seems to have been a proverbial expression derived from Theon, the name of a certain Roman freedman, well known for his malignant wit. (See Notes on Horace by Rev. A. J. Maclean.)

[246] If the suggestion to restore the teaching of the Latin prayers and the plain song of the Church in our parochial schools be deemed preposterous on the ground of its _difficulty_, we would simply beg objectors to try the experiment before passing judgment. A very short experience will prove that with ordinary perseverance nothing is easier than to make a class of boys recite fluently and chant correctly from note the Psalms of Vespers or Compline, or the _Credo_, _Gloria_, and other portions of the Mass; and we may add, that nothing seems more acceptable to the scholars themselves. What was possible in an age when the whole instruction must have been given orally, cannot have any insuperable difficulties about it in days when every child may be provided with a printed book. Possibly in a congregation thus trained there might be fewer complaints than there now are on the score of children behaving badly in church: for when children understand and take part in what is going on around them, they do not behave amiss. More valid objections can be conceived as arising from the difficulty of sparing the time when so many other subjects have to be taught. But what is more essential to teach Catholics than their Catholic prayers? and what branch of secular learning will prove a substitute for sound, genuine, and intelligent Catholic Faith?

[247] Many different versions exist of this hymn, which may be thus rendered into modern English: “Saint Mary, pure Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, take, shield, help mine Godric, take, bring him safe with thee into the kingdom of God., Saint Mary, bower of Christ, purity of virgins, flower of mothers, take away my sins, reign in my mind, and bring me to dwell with the only God.”

[248] The custom was very general in poor parishes. Thus Reginald of Durham tells us of a certain scholar, Haldene by name, who was wont to attend the school which, “according to the known and accustomed usage,” was held in the Church of St. Cuthbert, at Northam. One day Haldene, who did not know his lessons and was afraid of the rod, conceived the bright idea of getting hold of the key and throwing it into the Tweed, so that when the hour of Vespers came no key was to be found. The example, in far later times, of “Wonderful Walker,” keeping school in his village church, was therefore but a surviving relic of the primitive manners.

[249] Antiquities of the Monastical Church of Durham, pp. 54, 77.

[250] Wood. Antiq. of Oxford, lib. i. p. 135.

[251] Ralph Bocking was a Dominican Friar and a native of Chichester, and wrote the life of the Saint (whose confessor he was) with great feeling and devotion.

[252] He adds that this decking of the well was prohibited by the Parliament, as a popish abomination, after which “the water shranke up.” On this the rustics set the Parliament at defiance and revived the ancient custom, whereupon, to their inexpressible consolation the water recommenced flowing.

[253] For a statement of the arguments by which this opinion is supported, see Rohrbacher, Histoire Eccl. t. xviii. pp. 478-482.

[254] Fleury, who in his fifth Discourse has spoken with equal contempt of the theological and literary merits of the scholastics, winds up by reminding the reader that they wrote at a time when everything exhibited the same bad taste as was displayed in Gothic architecture, that absurd assemblage of petty ornaments “_which no architect would ever dream of imitating_.” Nothing endurable in point of style or art was, according to him, to be seen in Europe from the fall of the Roman empire until the fifteenth century, that is, during the whole essentially Christian period. With what amazement would he have beheld the Christian Renaissance of our own days, and the reflux of taste into mediæval channels!

[255] Godwin, and some other writers, claim Kilwarby as a Franciscan. But the evidence in favour of his being a Dominican is irresistible. He was present at the general chapter of the Order of Preachers held at Barcelona in 1261; he attended the Provincial chapter of Montpelier in 1271, and is named in the acts of that council among other distinguished men of the Order then present. He was discharged from his office of Provincial in the General Chapter held at Florence, 1272, but was re-elected by the Provincial Chapter of England the same year. He is described as a Friar Preacher in the Patent Rolls of Edward I., when the temporalities of Canterbury were restored; and Nicholas Trivet, the historian of the Order, who lived only fifty years after the archbishop, distinctly names him as a Dominican. Finally, his name does not occur in the Catalogue of English Franciscan Provincials.

[256] Collier, Eccl. History; vol. i. Book 5, p. 484.

[257] Nich. Trivet. _Annales regum Angliæ_.

[258] For the beautiful narrative of this event see the Life of St. Edmund, by the Abbé Massé.

[259] His name appears in the MS. Catalogue of Fellows of Merton under Edward II., preserved in the College Library.

[260] In his inedited commentary on the _Divina Commedia_, written whilst attending the Council of Constance, he says, “Anagogice dilexit theologiam sacrum in qua diu studuit tam in Oxoniis in regno Angliæ, quam Parisiis.” And again: “Dante se in juventute dedit omnibus artibus liberalibus, studens eas Paduæ, Bononiæ, demum Oxoniis et Parisiis, ubi fecit multos actus mirabiles, intantum quod ab aliquibus dicebatur magnus philosophus, ab aliquibus magnus theologus, ab aliquibus magnus poëta.” It is possible that his authority for this statement was drawn from English sources; for his own Latin translation of the poem was undertaken at the request of two English bishops present at the Council, Bubwith of Bath and Halam of Salisbury.

[261] Il _maestro vostro_ ben vi scrive.--Par. canto viii.

[262] Par. xxiv. 130.

[263] It must not be supposed, from the mention of _burning_, that Dante was the object of religious persecution. A reference to the annals of Florence, Siena, or any of the other Italian republics, will show that this punishment was very commonly decreed by the dominant party against their political opponents. Thus Silvestro de’ Medici, on gaining the upper hand in Florence, burnt several citizens of note, with their palaces. And these atrocious cruelties were perpetrated for no imaginable crime, but simply to get rid of hated rivals. In the Revolution of 1369 we read that Bruno da Renaldini had his head cut off, _senza cagione niuna_.

[264] Par. vi. 106.

[265] Purg. xx. 85.

[266] The celebrated Dominican, Durandus, Bishop of Mende, wrote his _Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_ about the year 1290. He may be considered almost the last of the great liturgical writers of the Church, the catalogue of whom includes the names of St. Isidore of Seville, Alcuin, Amalarius of Metz, Walafrid Strabo, Rabanus Maurus, Bruno of Asti, the Abbot Rupert, Honorius of Autun, and Pope Innocent III.

[267] Purgatorio, xxii. 101 (Carey’s translation).

[268] Purg. x. 128.

[269]

_Rafel maì amech zàbi almi_,
Comincio a gridar la fiera bocca
Cui non si convenien più dolci salmi.--_Inferno_, xxxi. 70.

[270] Purg. i. 23.

[271] Par. i. 37; Purg. xxx. 89.

[272] Inferno, xxxiv. 110.

[273] See particularly the description of the falcon (Purg. xix. 63), the lark (Par. xx. 73), the rooks (Par. xxi. 34), the pigeon (Purg. ii. 118), the cranes (Purg. xxiv. 63), and of other birds (Par. xviii. 68, xxiii. 1).

[274] Purg. xxviii. 18, i. 113, and xxvii. 76; Par. xxxiii. 77.

[275] Purg. x. 37; Par. xx. 73, and xxxi. 40.

[276] Par. xv. 124 (Carey’s translation).

[277] Tiraboschi, Istoria della Lit. Ital. v. 43.

[278] Soc. Hist. Eccl., l. 3, c. 16.

[279] “Pendant deux siècles, ni parmi les évêques, ni parmi les prêtres, ni parmi les moines français, on ne rencontre pas un seul personnage d’une vertu, d’une saintété, d’une doctrine entièrement approuvées par l’Église. Cette expérience de deux siècles accuse dans le clergé français _une diminution de l’esprit de Dieu_.”--Rohrbacher, xxii. 462.

[280] St. Palaye, _Mémoires sur l’Ancienne Chevalerie_, part i. 7.

[281] Chaucer, _Romaunt of the Rose_. Eustache Deschamps is equally emphatic on this point:--

Vous qui voulez l’ordre de chevalier
Il vous convient mener nouvelle vie,
Devotement en oraison veillier,
Péché fuir, _orgueil_ et villenie.

[282] Ordre de Chevalerie, fol. 10, 11.

[283] Godwin, _Life of Chaucer_.

[284] How significant are the words _famulus_ and _famula_, by which the household servants are designated in the unclassical Latin of the Middle Ages! The _servus_ of the Romans was, we know, nothing more than a slave; but the _famulus_, whether bond or free, was a member of the family, and a servant only in that sense in which his master owned himself the servant of Christ--_famulus Christi_.

[285] Innumerable decrees of provincial councils are to be found directed against these wandering clerks. And Edward II. issued a proclamation setting forth, “that whereas many idle and evil men, under colour of minstrelsy, get received into the houses of the rich to meat and drink, henceforth no great lord shall receive more than three or four minstrels of honour; and that none shall thrust themselves in unless they be sent for.”

[286] Dibdin in his _Typographical Antiquities_ (p. 142) examines the question whether Trevisa did or did not translate the Bible into English. To settle the question whether such a book was preserved at Berkeley Castle (where Trevisa was chaplain in 1387) Dibdin wrote to the Rev. J. Hughes, who filled the same office in 1807, and received the following reply:--

“I have the strongest reason for supposing that such a translation was made in the English language, and that it existed in the family so late as the time of James I. The book translated by Trevisa was given as a very precious gift by the Lord Berkeley of that time to the Prince of Wales, and I have read his letter thanking Lord Berkeley for the same. He does not positively say that the book was the Bible, but he says he hopes to make good use of so valuable a gift. This letter is still extant among the archives of the castle. Lord Berkeley has informed me that the book so given by his ancestor is at present in the Vatican Library. When he was at Rome several persons mentioned to him having seen there such a book, written by Trevisa; but as he had no opportunity of examining it, he cannot ascertain if it were the Bible.”

[287] Lamberde’s _Perambulations in Kent_, 1570.

[288] S. Anselmi Elucidarii, lib. ii. cap. 18.

[289] Chaucer’s expansion of some of the Latin of Boëthius, in his English version of the “Consolation of Philosophie,” has led some people to suppose that the poet translated from a French rendering of Boëthius, and not direct from the Latin. If he did so, the version he would have used was doubtless that of one of his known favourite authors, Jean de Méung, the continuator of Guillaume de Lorris’s “Romance of the Rose.” A magnificent copy of Jean de Méung’s Boëthius, printed in 1494, is in the British Museum. It is illuminated with miniatures, bound in velvet, and was presented to Henry VII. A chapter of this has lately been compared with Chaucer’s translation and the original Boëthius, by Mr. Edward Bell, for the Early English Text Society; and the result is, that Chaucer’s version was certainly not made from the French of Jean de Méung, but direct from Boëthius; though some phrases of the Latin are paraphrased rather than translated, in order to bring out their meaning more fully.

[290] Wilk. Con. iii, 242. Quoted by Lingard, v. ch. i.

[291] It appears that so far from being a friend to the classics, Wickliffe felt almost a superstitious intolerance for anything that savoured of ancient Rome. In one of his Prologues he condemns the ecclesiastics for their study of a _pagan_ jurisprudence, meaning thereby the Roman law.

[292] See Lingard, iv. ch. 3, where he gives several examples of Wickliffe’s system of non-natural interpretation of his own words.

[293] William Lyndwood, LL.D., was Bishop of St. David’s, and a learned canonist. He was the author of a collection of constitutions of the English Primates, entitled, _Provinciale, seu Constitutiones Angliæ_, which were printed by Caxton.

[294] Strype’s Cranmer, app. 242. We may compare this admission of the Protestant archbishop with the statute of his royal master (33 Henry VIII. c. 12), whereby it was enacted that “no women not of gentle birth, nor journeymen, artificers’ apprentices, should read the Bible in English, either to themselves or others;” whilst another Act of the same monarch forbade the public reading of the Scriptures.

[295] A field of battle is perhaps the last place where one would expect to find a Bible; yet in the British Museum is still preserved the copy of the Scriptures found in the tent of King John of France after the battle of Poictiers. It may be remarked, that versions of the Scriptures seem to have appeared in all languages as soon as the vernacular idiom of any country assumed a literary form. Thus we see Queen Anne had her Bohemian Catholic translation; and in 1399 the Polish translation was made by command of the learned queen St. Hedwiges.

[296] The Lollard heresy had been imported from the University of Oxford into that of Prague by some Bohemian gentlemen, who had come over to England in the suite of Queen Anne during the height of the controversy. Prague University at that time numbered as many as 60,000 scholars, and was divided into several nations, and presided over by sixty deans. Only twelve of the deans were Bohemians, and the rest Germans. John Huss, the rector of the university, who eagerly embraced the new opinions, endeavoured to destroy the German influence; and putting himself at the head of a national party obtained that in future the Bohemians should have two votes in all questions affecting the university and all the other nations united but one. In consequence of this change, which took place in 1409, the German students forsook the university, which from that time fell into decay. This _national_ spirit, which was so largely mixed up with the origin and progress of the Hussite heresy, must be taken into account when studying the history of those social revolutions which followed in the track of the new Apostles.

[297] For an account of these foundations see _The Three Chancellors_. (Burns, 1860.)

[298] The present revenues amount to something like £4000 a year, and still afford relief to about 140 poor persons. But the beautiful collegiate church, the carved and gilded roof of which is still visible, is now converted to domestic purposes. The choir is occupied by the women’s wards, and the nave by those of the men. This, however, is better than the fate which has awaited St. Paul’s Hospital in the same city, which has been transformed into a Bridewell. Few English cities can have been richer in these charitable houses than Norwich, which contained, besides its great College, _seventeen_ hospitals for the poor and the sick, by means of which it is probable that very sufficient relief was given to all in distress. For, in most cases, while only a limited number were received into the house, outdoor relief was very extensively granted, and at St. Giles’ Hospital it was customary on the Feast of the Annunciation to distribute alms to 130 necessitous persons.

[299] _i.e._ bread and milk.

[300] Fadeth.

[301] Pierced.

[302] Warton says 600, but this possibly included the Angervyle Library, which was united to Gloucester’s in 1480. The 129 volumes named above were valued at £1000. Possibly his collection included not a few of the 853 volumes sent over from Paris by his brother the Duke of Bedford.

[303] Carpenter’s Life has been written by Brewer, and a statue to his memory, on the pedestal of which are engraved all his munificent deeds, has been erected by the Corporation of London. A catalogue of his books is given in the Appendix to his Life.

[304] Stowe.

[305] The Saints Lives printed by Caxton are _The Lyf of St. Katherin of Senis_, Bradshaw’s _Lyf of St. Wenefryde_, and _The Golden Legende_, of which last he printed three editions.

[306] These he never lived to publish, but the autograph MS. of his translation from the French is preserved at Cambridge.

[307] Martene has published in his _Collectanea_ an interesting letter addressed to Cecilia by Gregorio Corraro, an old schoolfellow of hers at the Joyous House, who then filled the office of Apostolic Notary, in which he affectionately encourages her in her vocation. Of her mother, Paula Gonzaga, we read that “she was a woman of singular virtue, the mirror of excellence to all Italy. She had a good knowledge of letters, always dressed with great modesty, and daily recited the Divine Office. It was enough to see her,” adds her biographer, Vespasiano Bisticci, “to understand what she was.”

[308] According to Echard, the dangerous tendency of his idolatry of Plato was pointed out to Ficinus by St. Antoninus, who engaged him to suspend his studies of the heathen philosopher till he had read the _Summa_ against the Gentiles, of St. Thomas. And he was wont afterwards to acknowledge that if he had been saved from actual heresy, he owed it solely to the care of this good pastor.

[309] Some curious facts in connection with the proceedings of Pomponius and his associates have recently come to light. Among other discoveries made by the Cavaliere de Rossi in the Roman Catacombs, are certain inscriptions left there by the Academicians, who appear to have made use of these sacred excavations, which were at that time quite neglected by the literary world, as convenient places in which to hold their secret assemblies. One of the accusations brought against them by Paul II. was that they sought to make one of their own members _Pontifex Maximus_. In the Catacombs appear several inscriptions conferring this title on Pomponius: _Regnante Pom. Pont. Max._, _Pomponius Pont. Max._, &c.; and others, from which we gather that the _unanimes antiquitatis amatores_, as they called themselves, were lovers not merely of ancient names but of ancient manners; and that they saw no disgrace in thus perpetuating the dissolute habits of their members. It is remarkable that in none of their writings have any of the Academicians said one word about the Catacombs; for though they boasted of being the lovers of antiquity, it was only Pagan antiquity which they regarded worthy of their study: and the Catacombs were simply chosen by them for their convenient privacy. (See De Rossi, _Roma Sutterranea_, tom. i.)

[310] In his second journey into Greece, Lascaris brought back 200 manuscripts, of which eighty were, he informs us, of authors at that time unknown in Europe. The Medicean Library, however, was not destined long to survive its noble collector. On the death of Lorenzo, his son Pietro having become odious to the Florentines in consequence of his intrigues with Charles VIII. of France, was compelled to fly, the Medici Palace was sacked, and the great library fell a little later into the hands of the French soldiery and the Florentine mob, by whom its vast treasures were soon dispersed. Such portions as could be recovered, however, were afterwards deposited in St. Mark’s library.

[311] Bacon, Essay on Gardens.

[312] Wisd. vii. 13.

[313] St. Bernard, _Serm._ xxxvi. in Cantica Canticorum.

[314] Budæus did not escape the suspicion of heretical tendencies, but the charge appears to have been chiefly grounded on certain directions contained in his will for the performance of his funeral obsequies, which his biographers assure us arose from no indifference to religious ceremonial, but from a characteristic modesty and dislike of ostentation.

[315] Perhaps I am wrong in calling Erasmus an apostate canon, for though he quitted his monastery, he at times resumed his habit, whenever he found it convenient. He generally wore it in England, for old-fashioned ideas still held their ground at Oxford; and always appeared with it in Rome, until having been once mobbed by some ragamuffin boys, he applied to the Pope for a formal permission to lay it aside for ever.

[316] This was a hit at the monkish Latin, in which _poetria_ sometimes does duty for _poeta_, and, as Erasmus seems to intimate, for the _ars poetica_ itself.

[317] Menzel, t. 8, p. 455: t. 6, p. 6-10.

[318] Ibid. t. 6, p. 10-13.

[319] To do Francis I. justice, it must be admitted that he had in his concordat with Leo X. repealed the Pragmatic Sanction; but the same concordat abolished the right of election to benefices, on the plea that such a right was too often abused, and gave the Crown the nomination to all bishoprics, abbeys, and conventual priories within his dominions, with a few privileged exceptions.--See Gaillard, _Hist. de Francois I._ t. 6, p. 37.

[320] Not Peter Martyr Vermigli, the celebrated heretic who afterwards figured as Professor at Oxford, but Peter of Anghieria, a relation of the Borromeo family, who had come into Spain at the invitation of the Spanish Ambassador at Rome, and at the solicitation of Isabella, chose it for his adopted country.

[321] Prescott, Hist. of Ferd. and Isabella.

[322] See Newman’s Lectures; “Athens, the fit site for a university.”

[323] It was the scene of the martyrdom of the two scholars, Justus and Pastor. See Prudentius, Hymn 4.

[324] By the middle of the seventeenth century the ten colleges of the founder had increased to the number of thirty-five.

[325] This is generally spoken of as the first Italian comedy. The first dramatic composition of the Italian muse, however, was the Orpheus of Politian. Previous to this time the only scenic representations known in Italy were sacred mysteries drawn from Scripture. The questionable _glory_ of introducing profane performances is due to Pomponius Lætus, who, along with his other revivals of ancient Roman manners, caused the comedies of Terence and Plautus to be acted in Rome, in which enterprise, says Maffei, he was greatly seconded by Cardinal Riario, who opened a theatre in his own private house. Jovius tells us that Cardinal Bibiena organised a staff of skilful players, and encouraged the youths of Rome to take part in his theatricals.

[326] Jovius, the first historian of his time, was accustomed frankly to avow that “he had two pens, one of gold and the other of iron, to write of princes according to the favours or slights which they bestowed.” The Medicean princes were fortunate enough to secure the services of the golden pen, and Clement VII. rewarded his services with the bishopric of Nocera.

[327]

Vivere qui sancte vultis, discedite Roma:
Omnia hic esse licet, non licet esse probum.

[328] Pietro Pomponatus is by some writers erroneously confounded with Pomponius Lætus, the founder of the Roman academy, of whom mention has been made in a foregoing chapter. They resembled one another as in their philosophic errors, so also in their sincere conversion before their death. Pomponius died in 1495; Pomponatus, thirty years later.

[329] The following are the words of Pope Leo X. in the Bull, _Apostolici regiminis_:--“As truth cannot contradict truth, we declare every assertion contrary to the truth of Divine faith to be absolutely false, and strictly forbid any one to teach differently; we command that those who adhere to such assertions shall be avoided and punished, as men who seek to disseminate damnable heresies.” Moreover, he rigorously prescribes to all and each of those who give public lessons of philosophy in the universities and elsewhere, that when they read or explain to their pupils the principles and conclusions of those philosophers who notoriously wander from the orthodox faith ... “they employ every effort to set before their eyes the truth of the Christian religion, and persuade them to it with all their power, and use every care to refute and expose philosophic arguments of this kind, since there are none such which cannot be refuted.”

[330] His critics, however, accuse him of often enough falling into the like absurdities. In his version of the New Testament he was accused of continually using pagan expressions, and even of adopting the word _fable_ when speaking of the plan of Redemption, using it in the sense in which it is employed by the ancient dramatists to express the action which they portray.

[331] Also known as Philip of Having, or Philip de Bonne Espérance, from the name of the abbey which he governed in the twelfth century. He was the author of many learned works, and the good studies he established in his abbey continued to flourish down to the eighteenth century.