XIII.

ing all this, the thirteenth century produced se-C EN T. veral writers, who were very far from being con- PART II. temptible, such as GUIL. BRITO [i], GUALTHERUS MAPES [k], MATTHEW of Vendosme, ALIAN DE L'ISLE, GUNTHERUS, JACOBUS DE VITRIACO, and several others, who wrote with ease, and were not altogether destitute of elegance. Among the historians the first place is due to MATTHEW PARIS, a writer of the highest merit both in point of knowledge and prudence, to whom we may add RODERICUS XIMENIUS, RIGORDUS [m], VINCENT of Beauvais, ROBERT of St Marino [n], MARTINUS, a native of Poland, GERVAIS of Tilbury [0], CONRAD of Lichtenau, GULIELMUS NANGIUS, whose names are worthy of being preserved from oblivion. The writers who have laboured to transmit to posterity the lives and exploits of the saints, have rather related the superstitions and miseries of the times, than the actions of these holy men. Among these biographers, JAMES of Vitri, mentioned above, makes the greatest figure: he also composed a History of the Lombards, that is full of insipid and trifling stories [p].

VI.

[] See the Histoire de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, tom. xvi. p. 255.

[] Jo. WOLFII, Lectionis Memorabil. tom. i. p. 430. [] Called in Latin, ALANUS DE INSULIS.

[m] See the Histoire de l' Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Letters, tom. xvi. p. 243. which also gives an ample account of WILLIAM of Nangis, p. 292.

[n] See LE BOEUF, Memoires pour l'Histoire d'Auxerre, tom. ii. p. 490. where there is also a learned account of Vincent of Beauvais, p. 494.

[o] JERVAIS of Tilbury was nephew to HENRY II. king of England, and was in high credit with the emperor ОTHO IV. to whom he dedicated a description of the world and a Chronicle, both of which he had himself composed. He wrote also a History of England, and one of the Holy Land, with several treatises upon different subjects.

[] See SCHELHORNII Amanitates Literaria, tom. xi. p.

CENT.

PART II

of the

VI. ROGER BACON [q], JOHN BALBI, and XIII. ROBERT CAPITO, with some other learned men, whose number was but inconsiderable, applied The study themselves to the study of Greek literature. The Greek and Hebrew language and theology were much less Oriental cultivated; though it appears that BACON and languages. CAPITO, already mentioned, and RAYMOND MARTIN, author of an excellent treatise, entitled, Pugio Fidei Christiana, or, The Dagger of the Christian Faith, were extremely well versed in that species of erudition. Many of the Spaniards, and more particularly the Dominican Friars, made themselves masters of the Arabian learning and language, as the kings of Spain had charged the latter with the instruction and conversion of the Jews and Saracens who resided in their dominions [r]. As to the Latin Grammarians, the best of them were extremely barbarous and insipid, and equally destitute of taste and knowledge. To be convinced of this, we have only to cast an eye upon the productions of ALEXANDER DE VILLA DEI, who was looked upon as the most eminent of them all, and whose works were read in almost all the schools from this period until the sixteenth century. This pedantic Franciscan composed, in

the

[9] This illustrious Franciscan was in point of genius and universal learning, one of the greatest ornaments of the British nation, and in general of the republic of letters. The astonishing discoveries he made in astronomy, chemistry, optics, and mathematics, made him pass for a magician in the ignorant and superstitious times in which he lived, while his profound knowledge in philosophy, theology, and the Greek and Oriental languages, procured him, with more justice the title of the admirable or wonderful doctor. Among other discoveries he is said to have made that of the composition and force of gunpowder, which he describes clearly in one of his letters; and he proposed much the same correction of the Kalendar, which was executed about 300 years after by GREGORY XIII. He composed a prodigious number of books, of which the list may be seen in the General Dictionary, at the article BACON.

[r] See RICH. SIMON's Lettres Choisies, tom. iii, p. 112.— NIC. ANTONII Bibliotheca vetus Hispanica.

XIII.

the year 1240, what he called, a Doctrinale, in C EN T. Leonine verse, full of the most wretched quibbles, PART M. and in which the rules of grammar and criticism are delivered with the greatest confusion and obscurity, or rather, are covered with impenetrable darkness.

VII. The various systems of philosophy that The state of were in vogue before this century, lost their cre- philosophy. dit by degrees, and submitted to the triumphant doctrine of ARISTOTLE, which erected a new and despotic empire in the republic of letters, and reduced the whole ideal world under its lordly dominion. Several of the works of this philosopher, and more especially his metaphysical productions, had been so early as the beginning of this century translated into Latin at Paris, and were from that time explained to the youth in the public schools [s]. But when it appeared, that ALMERIC [] had drawn from these books his

erroneous

[s] FRANC. PATRICII, Discussiones Peripatetica, tom. i. lib. xi. p. 145. Jo. LAUNOIUS de varia Aristot. fortuna in Acad. Parisiensi, cap. i. p. 127. ed. Elswich. It is commonly reported, that the books of ARISTOTLE here mentioned, were translated from Arabic into Latin. But we are told positively, that these books were brought from Constantinople, and translated from Greek into Latin. See RIGORDUS, De gestis Philippi regis Francorum ad A. 1209. in ANDR. CHESNII Scriptor. Histor. Franc. p. 119.

[] ALMERIC, or AMAURI, does not seem to have entertained any enormous errors. He held, that every Christian was obliged to believe himself a member of JESUS CHRIST, and attached, perhaps, some extravagant and fanatical ideas to that opinion; but his followers fell into more pernicious notions, and adopted the most odious tenets, maintaining, that the power of the Father continued no longer than the Mosaic dispensation; that the empire of the Son extended only to the thirteenth century: and that the reign of the Holy Ghost commenced, when all sacraments and external worship were to be abolished, and the salvation of Christians was to be accomplished merely by internal acts of illuminating grace. Their morals also were as infamous as their doctrine was absurd, and, under the name of charity they comprehended and committed the most criminal acts of impurity and licentiousness.

XIII.

CEN T. erroneous sentiments concerning the divine naPATH. ture, they were prohibited and condemned as pernicious and pestilential, by a public decree of the council of Sens, in the year 1209 [u]. The logic of ARISTOTLE, however, recovered its credit some years after this, and was publicly taught in the university of Paris in the year 1215; but the natural philosophy and metaphysic of that great man were still under the sentence of condemnation [w]. It was reserved for the emperor FREDERIC II. to restore the Stagirite to his former glory, which this prince effected by employing a number of learned men, whom he had chosen with the greatest attention and care [x], and who were profoundly versed in the knowledge of the languages, to translate into Latin, from the Greek and Arabic, certain books of ARISTOTLE, and of other ancient sages. This translation, which was recommended, in a particular manner, to the academy of Bolonia by the learned emperor, raised the credit of ARISTOTLE to the greatest height, and gave him an irresistible and despotic authority in all the European schools. This authority was still farther augmented by the translations, which

[v] Dr MOSHEIM has fallen here into two light mistakes. It was at Paris, and not at Sens, and in the year 1210, and not in 1209, that the metaphysical books of ARISTOTLE were condemned to the flames. The writers quoted here by our author are LAUNOIUS, De varia Aristotelis fortuna in Acad. Paris. cap. iv. p. 195. and the same writer's Syllabus rationum quibus Durandi causa defenditur, tom. i. opp. pars I. P. 8.

viii.

66

66

[w] NAT. ALEXANDER, Select. Histor. Eccles. Capita, tom. cap. iii. sect. 7. p. 76.

[x] PETR. DE VINEIS, Epistolar. lib. iii. ep. lxvii. p. 503. This epistle is addressed " ad magistros et scholares Bononienses," i. e. "to the masters and scholars of the academy of Bolonia ;" but it is more than probable, that the emperor sent letters upon this occasion to the other European schools. It is a common opinion, that this learned prince had all the works of ARISTOTLE, that were then extant, translated into Latin about the year 1020; but this cannot be deduced from the letter above mentioned, nor from any other sufficient testimony that we know of.

XIII. PARTIL

which were made of some of the books of the CENT. Grecian sage by several Latin interpreters, such, XI as MICHAEL SCOT, PHILIP of Tripoly, WILLIAM FLEMING, and others; though these men were quite unequal to the task they undertook, and had neither such knowledge of the languages, nor such an acquaintance with philosophy, as were necessary to the successful execution of such a difficult enterprise [y].

and others

the Aristo

VIII. The Aristotelian philosophy received the Thomas Aquinas very last addition that could be made to its authority and lustre, when the Dominican and adopt and Franciscan friars adopted its tenets, taught it in maintain their schools, and illustrated it in their writings. telian sysThese two mendicant orders were looked upon tem. as the chief depositaries of all learning both human and divine; and were followed, with the utmost eagerness and assiduity, by all such as were ambitious of being distinguished from the multitude by their superior knowledge. ALEXANDER HALES, an English Franciscan, who taught philosophy at Paris, and acquired, by the strength of his metaphysical genius, the title of the IKREFRAGABLE Doctor [x], and ALBERT the Great, a German of the Dominican order, and bishop of Ratisbon, a man of vast abilities and a universal dictator at this time [a], were the two first emi

nent

[y] See Wood's account of the interpreters of ARISTOTLE, in his Antiquitat. Oxon. tom. i. p. 119. as also JEBB's Preface to the Opus Majus of the famous ROGER BACON, published at London in folio, in the year 1733. We shall give here the opinion which BACON had of the translators of ARISTOTLE, in the words of that great man who expresses his contempt of these wretched interpreters in the following manner: "Si haberem, (says he) potestatem supra libros Aristotelis Latine conversos, ego facerem omnes cremari, quia non est nisi temporis amissio studere in illis, et causa erroris et multiplicatio ignorantiæ, ultra id quod valet explicari.

33.

[x] See LUCE WADDINGI Annales Minorum, tom. iii. p. DU BOULAY, Histor. Acad. Paris. tom. iii. p. 200, 673. [a] Jo. ALB. FABRICII Bibliotheca Latina medii avi, tom, • P. 113.