Our author cannot help allowing that this was the laudable project of a great man, desirous of pouring into his own dominions all that was excellent in others."

It does not appear what these rarities were, but it sufficiently shews the Conqueror to have had a genius superior to the barbarity of his age.

One may imagine he was not ignorant of Ovid, and the ancient mythology, by his answer to Philip king of France.

William, as he became old, grew to an unwieldy bulk. The king of France, in a manner not very polite, asked of him, (with reference to this bulk,) “When, as he had been so long in breeding, he expected to be brought to bed?" "Whenever that happens," replied William, "it will be, as Semele was, in flames and thunder." France soon after that felt his devastations.h

His son Rufus seems more nearly to have approached the character of the times.

We have a sample of his manners in the following narrative. Being immensely fond of expense in dress, when one of his attendants brought him new shoes, and was putting them on, he demanded, "How much they cost?" "Three shillings, sir," replied his attendant. "Son of a whore," says Rufus, "at so pitiful a price to provide shoes for a king! Go and purchase me some for a mark of silver." i

Matthew Paris writes, that he was once told of a formidable dream, relative to his death, which had been dreamed by a certain monk. Rufus, on hearing it, burst into laughter, and said, “The man is a monk, and monk-like has dreamed, to get a little money; give him a hundred shillings, that he may not think he has been dreaming for nothing."

k

His historian, Malmesbury, after having related other facts of him, adds, "that he had neither application enough, nor leisure, ever to attend to letters."

1

It was not so with his brother, Henry the First. He (as this historian informs us") spent his youth in the schools of liberal

Simile aliquid fecisse visus est rex Anglorum Vilhelmus Primus, cujus virtuti Normannia et tandem major Britannia cessit. Assumpto namque regni diademate, et pace composita, legatos misit ad exteras nationes, ut a præclaris omnium domibus, quicquid eis magnificum aut mirificum videretur, afferrent. Defluxit ergo in insulam opulentam, et quæ fere sola bonis suis est in orbe contenta, quicquid magnificentiæ, imo luxuriæ potuit inveniri. Laudabile quidem fuit magni viri propositum, qui virtutes omnium orbi suo volebat infundere. Joan. Sarisb. de Nugis Curialium, p. 480. edit. Lugd. 8vo. 1595.

h Quærente, sc. Philippo, numquidnam tandem pareret Guilielmus, qui tam diu gessisset uterum: se pariturum, sed instar

Semeles, respondit, cum flammis et fulmine. Panciroll. Nova Reperta, tit. x. p. 219. edit. Francofurt. 1631. See this fact somewhat differently told by Matthew Paris. p. 13. edit. fol. London, 1640. The devastations here mentioned are related in the same page.

1 William of Malmesbury, p. 69. The words of Rufus were, Fili meretricis, ex quo habet rex caligas tam exilis pretii! Vade et affer mihi emptas marca argenti.

k Matthew Paris, p. 53. Rufus's words were, Monachus est, et lucri causa monachiliter somniavit: da ei centum solidos, ne videatur inaniter somniasse.

William of Malmesbury, p. 70. m Ibid. p. 87.

science, and so greedily imbibed the sweets of literature, that in after-times, (as the same writer rather floridly relates,) no tumults of war, no agitation of cares, could ever expel them from his illustrious mind.

Soon after we meet the well-known saying of Plato, that it was then states would be happy, if philosophers were to reign, or kings were to philosophize. Our historian, having given this sentiment, tells us, (to use his own expressions,) that Henry fortified his youth with literature in a view to the kingdom; and ventured even in his father's hearing, to throw out the proverb, Rex illiteratus, asinus coronatus, "that an illiterate king was but an ass crowned."

ג

That the king his father, from perceiving his son's abilities, had something like a presentiment of his future dignity, may appear from the following story.

When Henry was young, one of his brothers having injured him, he complained of his ill-treatment to his father with tears. "Do not cry, child," says his father, "for thou, too, shalt be king."

As Henry was a learned prince, we may suppose he was educated by learned men; and perhaps, if we attend to the account given by Ingulphus of his own education in the time of Edward the Confessor, it is probable there may have been among the clergy a succession of learned men from the time of Venerable Bede.

It is certain that, in England at least, during these middle ages, learning never flourished more, than from the time of Henry the First to the reign of his grandson Henry the Second, and some years after.

The learned historian of the life of Henry the Second, (I mean the first lord Lyttleton,) has put this beyond dispute.

Perhaps, too, the times which followed were adverse to the cause of literature. The crusades had made the laity greater barbarians, if possible, than they were before. Their cruelty had been stimulated by acting against Greeks, whom they hated for schismatics, and against Saracens, whom they hated for infidels; although it was from these alone they were likely to learn, had they understood (which few of them did) a syllable of Greek or Arabic.

q

Add to this, the inquisition being then established in all its terrors, the clergy (from whom only the cause of letters could hope any thing) found their genius insensibly checked by its gloomy terrors.

This depraved period (which lasted for a century or two) did not mend till the invention of printing, and the taking of Con

n William of Malmesbury, p. 87. B. • The words of William were, Ne fleas, fili; quoniam et tu rex eris. See the same

author in the same page, that is, p. 87. B. P Page 500, 501.

See before, p. 502.

stantinople. Then it was that these, and other hidden causes, roused the genius of Italy, and restored to mankind those arts and that literature which to Western Europe had been so long

unknown.

Before I conclude this chapter, I cannot but remark, that, during these inauspicious times, so generally tasteless, there were even Latins as well as Greeks whom the very ruins of antique arts carried to enthusiastic admiration.

Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, who died in the year 1139, in a fine poem, which he wrote upon the city of Rome, among others has the following verses, in praise of the then remaining statues and antiquities:

Non tamen annorum series, nec flamma, nec ensis,

Ad plenum potuit tale abolere decus.

Hic superum formas superi mirantur et ipsi,

Et cupiunt fictis vultibus esse pares.

Nec potuit natura deos hoc ore creare,

Quo miranda deum signa creavit homo.

Vultus adest his numinibus, potiusque coluntur

Artificum studio, quam deitate sua.'

It is worth observing, that the Latinity of these verses is in general pure, and that they are wholly free from the Leonine jingle.

They are thus attempted in English, for the sake of those who do not read the original.

But neither passing years, nor fire, nor sword
Have yet avail'd such beauty to annul.
Ev'n gods themselves their mimic forms admire,
And wish their own were equal to the feign'd.

Nor e'er could nature deities create

With such a countenance, as man has giv'n

To these fair statues, creatures of his own.
Worship they claim, tho' more from human art,
Than from their own divinity, ador'd.

CHAPTER X.

SCHOOLMEN—THEIR RISE, AND CHARACTER THEIR TITLES OF HONOUR -REMARKS ON SUCH TITLES-ABELARD AND HELOISA-JOHN OF SALISBURY—ADMIRABLE QUOTATIONS FROM HIS TWO CELEBRATED WORKS-GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS-WALTER MAPPS-RICHARD COUR DE LEON HIS TRANSACTIONS WITH SALADIN-HIS DEATH, AND THE SINGULAR INTERVIEW WHICH IMMEDIATELY PRECEDED IT.

WE are now to consider the state of literature with respect to other geniuses, both before the conquest and after it, so low as to the times of our first Richard.

r See before, what has been quoted from Nicetas the Choniate, p. 301, &c.

Forsan Cultus.

William of Malmesbury, p. 76. Fabricii Bibliotheca med. et infim. ætat. in voce Hildebert.

It was during this period began the race of schoolmen; a race much admired and followed in their day. Their subtlety was great; and though that subtlety might sometimes have led them into refinements rather frivolous, yet have they given eminent samples of penetrating ingenuity.

They began in the eleventh century, and lasted to the fourteenth, when new causes leading to new events, they gradually decreased, and were no more.

That they had some merit must be allowed, when we are told that the learned bishop Sanderson used constantly to read the Secunda Secundæ of Thomas Aquinas ;" and that this treatise, together with Aristotle's Rhetoric, and Cicero's Offices, were three books which he always had with him, and never ceased to peruse. The scholastic tract must have been no bad one, which was so well associated.

Various epithets at the time were bestowed upon these schoolmen. There was the irrefragable doctor, the subtle, the seraphic, the angelic, &c.

There is certainly something exaggerated in the pomp of these appellations. And yet, if we reflect on our modern titles of honour, on our common superscriptions of epistles, on our common modes of concluding them, and mark how gravely we admit all this; may we not suppose those other epithets appear ridiculous, not so much from their being absurd, as from their being unusual?*

Before we quit these schoolmen, we cannot omit the famous Peter Abelard, who, when he taught at Paris, was followed by thousands, and was considered almost as an oracle in discussing the abstrusest of subjects. At present he is better known for his unfortunate amour with the celebrated Heloisa, his disciple, his mistress, and at length his wife.

Her ingenuity and learning were celebrated also, and their epistolary correspondence, remarkably curious, is still extant.' The religion of the times drove them at length to finish their days in two separate convents. When Abelard died, (which happened about the year 1134,) his body was carried to Heloisa, who buried it in the convent of the Paraclete, where she presided.

My countryman, John of Salisbury, comes next, who lived in the reign of Stephen and Henry the Second. He appears to have been conversant in all the Latin classics, whom he not only quotes, but appears to understand, to relish, and to admire."

This able and acute man died, aged forty-eight years, in the year 1274.

For a fuller account of these schoolmen, see Scholastica Theologiæ Syntagma, by Prideaux bishop of Worcester, Mosheim's

History, and Cave's Hist. Lit. vol. ii. p. 275. y An octavo edition of their letters in Latin was published at London, in the year 1718.

* See Philosophical Arrangements, p. 382.

How far they sunk into his mind, and inspired him with sentiments similar to their own, the following passages may suffice to shew.

Take his ideas of liberty and servitude.

"For as the true and only liberty is to serve virtue, and discharge its various duties; so the only true and essential slavery is to be in subjection to the vices. He, therefore, is evidently mistaken, who imagines that either of these conditions can proceed from any other cause: for, indeed, (if we except the difference of virtue and vice,) all men throughout the world proceed from a similar beginning; consist of, and are nourished by the same elements; draw from the same principle the same vital breath; enjoy the same cope of heaven; all alike live; all alike die."a

Take his idea concerning the extensive influence of philosophy.

"It is philosophy that prescribes a just measure to all things; and while she arranges moral duties, condescends to mix with such as are plebeian and vulgar. No otherwise, indeed, can any thing be said to proceed rightly, unless she herself confirm by deeds, what she teaches us in words."b

Speaking of virtue and felicity, he thus explains himself.

"But these (two possessions) are more excellent than any other, because virtue includes all things that are to be done; felicity, all things that are to be wished. Yet does felicity excel virtue, because in all things the end is more excellent than the means. Now no one is happy, that he may act rightly; but he acts rightly, that he may live happily."

The following distich is of his own age, but being difficult to translate, is only given in its original, as a sample of elegant and meritorious poetry.

It expresses a refined thought; that as the soul of man animates the body, so is the soul itself animated by God.

Vita animæ Deus est; hæc, corporis; hac fugiente,
Solvitur hoc; perit hæc, destituente Deo.d

The preceding quotations are taken from his tract De Nugis Curialium; those which follow are from another tract, called

a Sicut enim vera et unica libertas est, servire virtuti, et ipsius exercere officia; ita unica et singularis servitus est vitiis subjugari. Errat plane quisquis aliunde conditionem alterutram opinatur accidere. Si quidem omne hominum genus in terris simili ab ortu surgit, eisdem constat et alitur elementis, eundemque spiritum ab eodem principio carpit, eodemque fruitur cælo, æque moritur, æque vivit. De Nugis Curialium, p. 510. edit. Lugdun. 1595.

b Ipsa (philosophia) est, quæ universis præscribit modum, et dum disponit officia,

etiam plebeis et vulgaribus interesse dignatur. Alioquin nihil aliud recte procedit, nisi et ipsa rebus asserat, quod verbis docet. De Nugis Curial. p. 483.

e Sunt autem hæc omnibus aliis præstantiora, quia virtus omnia agenda, felicitas omnia optanda complectitur. Felicitas tamen virtuti præstat, quia in omnibus præstantius est propter quod aliquid, quam quod propter aliquid. Non enim felix est quis, ut recte agat; sed recte agit, ut feliciter vivat. De Nugis Curial. p. 367, 368. d Ibid. p. 127.