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sity to clean and put in order, is one of the worst. Severe language is used respecting the monks and the corruption prevalent among the orders; in reading which, it need hardly be said that the almost universal prejudice of a secular clergyman against the regulars must be taken into the account. In several chapters he maintains the superiority of the ancient classical authors, with whose works he shows considerable familiarity, over modern writers. This suggests to M. Cocheris, the French editor of the Philobiblon, the true and weighty remark, that a series of 'little revivals' of ancient literature may be traced through the whole course of the Middle Ages, and that it is not true that antiquity was discovered at any given epoch, for 'antiquity had never been lost.' Speaking of his mania for collecting, Richard says (ch. viii.), 'When I held high office, and it became generally known that I preferred books to money, books of all sorts flowed in upon me-cœnulenti quaterni et decrepiti codices-dirty quartos and shaky folios.' In another place he says, 'Wisdom, thou art better than all other treasure, but where shall we find thee? In libris quidem procul dubio posuisti tabernaculum desiderabile tuum, ubi te fundavit Altissimus, lumen luminum, liber vitæ.' He tells us that the monks and friars, especially the Dominicans, masters of arts, scholars, and professors, all of either sex-of every degree, estate, or dignity-whose pursuits were in any way connected with books-all came to know him, and helped to gratify his passion for accumulation. And when he himself could visit Paris, that seat of learning and splendour, the joy was almost too great for utterance. 'O beate Deus Deorum in Sion, quantus fluminis impetus voluptatis lætificavit cor nostrum, quoties paradysum mundi Parisiis visitare vacavimus, ibi moraturi, ubi nobis semper dies pauci præ amoris magnitudine videbantur.' Richard writes not seldom in a strange bantering tone, which in a modern would savour of scepticism. But the eloquent and feeling words with which he concludes the treatise show that this was not so with him. His love of books was but a whim after all, and he knew it to be so; deep in his soul lay that faith which is the root of the whole matter, and his religion was sound, intelligent, and pervading.

Science Adelard, Roger Bacon.

38. Adelard of Bath (in English, Æthelheard) is described by Mr. Wright as 'the greatest name in English science

1

1 Biogr. Brit. Lit., Norman period.

before Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon.' He lived in the reign of Henry I. He travelled for seven years, chiefly in the East, and studied mathematics in the Arabian schools, which, though verging to their decline, were still the depositories of more of the science of the Greeks and Chaldees than could be found elsewhere. Before 1116 he wrote De Eodem et Diverso, an allegory on the relative attractions of philosophy and the world. His other works are, Quæstiones Naturales, the preface to which was printed by Dom Martenne in 1717, and Regulæ Abaci. He also translated Euclid from the Arabic.

39. The thirteenth century is illustrated in the history of science by the name of a great Englishman, Roger Bacon. We have seen how astronomy, and the subsidiary sciences of arithmetic and geometry, were included in the old Quadrivium, the course of study which had struggled down from the Roman Empire. The reason of this lay in the absolute necessity of the thing; for without some degree of astronomical knowledge the calendar could not be computed, and the very church feasts could not be fixed to their proper dates. Moreover, the ignis fatuus of astrology-the delusive belief that human events were influenced by the aspects and conjunctions of the heavenly bodies-led on the student, duped for the benefit of his race, to a more careful study of the phenomena of the heavens than he would otherwise have bestowed. But, besides these long-established studies, scientific teaching in other branches had been ardently commenced in France by Gerbert, as we have seen, early in the eleventh century. But in spite of the intrinsic attractiveness of such studies, they languished and dwindled away. One cause of this is to be found in the suspicion and dislike with which they were popularly regarded. Gerbert was believed to have been a magician, and to have sold his soul to the evil one. Roger Bacon was popularly regarded in England as a sorcerer down to the reign of James I. To trace this feeling to its sources would be a very curious inquiry, but it is one foreign to our present purpose. The second principal cause of this scientific sterility lay in the superior attractiveness of scholasticism. It was pleasanter to be disputatious than to be thoughtful; easier to gain a victory in dialectics than to solve a problem in mechanics. Moreover, men could not distinguish between the applicability of the scholastic method to a subject, such as theology, in which the postulates or first principles were fixed, and its applicability to subjects of which the postulates either had to be discovered, or were liable to progressive change. They tried nature, not by an appeal to facts, but by certain physical or metaphysical canons which they

supposed to be impregnable. Thus Roger Bacon says that it was the general belief in his time that hot water exposed to a low temperature in a vessel would freeze sooner than the same quantity of cold water, because, say the metaphysicians, contrarium excitatur per contrarium-contraries reciprocally produce each other. But I have tried it,' he says, with amusing earnestness, and it is not the fact, but the very reverse. It thus happened that Roger Bacon, one of the most profound and penetrating thinkers that ever existed, had no disciples, and left no school behind him. This great anticipator of modern science only serves as a gauge whereby to test the depth and strength of the medieval intellect; the circumstances of the time did not permit the seed which he cast abroad to fructify.

But few particulars are known of his life. He was born at Ilchester, in Somersetshire, in 1214; received his education at the universities of Oxford and Paris; and, after taking the Franciscan habit, commenced a long life of unbroken study at Oxford. Among his numerous works the most important is the Opus Majus, which he dedicated and presented in 1267 to Clement IV. This high-minded and enlightened Pope he had known when formerly, as Guido, Bishop of Sabina, he had visited England in the capacity of Legate. Clamours and accusations were already beginning to be raised against him, for dabbling in unlawful arts; but the Pope promised him his protection, and kept his word. But after the death of Clement the efforts to silence him were renewed, and at a chapter of Franciscans held at Paris, his writings were condemned, and he himself was placed in confinement. For ten years, dating from 1278, he remained a prisoner, and was liberated at last owing to the intercession of some English noblemen with the Pope. He died, according to Anthony Wood, in 1292.

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40. The Opus Majus is an investigation of what he calls 'the roots of wisdom.' The introductory portion discusses at great length, and with masterly handling, the relations between philosophy and religion. Then he treats of grammatica, or the study of languages, the first and not the least essential of the roots of wisdom, since from these [languages] the sciences of the Latins have been translated.' By 'Latins' he means literary men in general, to whom the Latin language was then the medium of thought in all subjects except poetry. Nay, the 'Latins' threatened at one time, as we shall see, to engross even the field of poetry. The second 'root' is mathematical science, the key, as he justly says, to all other sciences, the neglect of which now, for these thirty or forty years, has

vitiated all the studies of the Latins; for whoever is ignorant of it cannot know the rest of the sciences.' Metaphysical disputation, as we have seen, had proved more exciting and attractive. To this part of the work is appended a long geographical treatise, followed by an account of the planets and their influences, which shows that on this point Bacon had succumbed to the solemn nonsense of the Arabian astrologers. The third root is perspectiva, or optics, a study to which Bacon had especially devoted himself. The fourth is experimental science, a source of knowledge which, he says, 'by the common herd of students is utterly ignored.' The whole work is remarkably characterised by that spirit of system in which later English philosophers have been singularly deficient. The study of each of these 'roots of wisdom' is recommended, not for its own sake, not for mere intellectual improvement, but on account of the relation which it bears to, and the light which it is able to throw on, the supreme science, Theology. The reasoning is sometimes singular: the study of optics, for instance, is stated to be essential to the right understanding of Holy Scripture, because in such passages as 'Guard us, Lord, as the apple of an eye,' we cannot fully enter into the meaning of the inspired writer, unless we have learned from this science how, and with what a multiplicity of precautions, the apple of the eye is secured from injury.

Means of Education.

41. We have now to inquire what were the principal means of education which students had at their command during this period. The most important among these were the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge. There seems good reason to believe that the school which Alfred founded was established at Oxford. A more central situation could not be found; it was a royal residence, and the scene of many a great council of the notables of the kingdom in the period intervening between Alfred and the Conquest; nor was it in those times a slight matter, that, standing on the Thames, and commanding by the bridge enclosed in its fortifications the passage of the river, it was equally accessible to those who lived north of the Thames, and those who lived south. The distinction is clearly recognised in the Saxon Chronicle, and it probably gave rise to the division of all the students of Oxford into the 'nations' of North Englishmen and South Englishmen, a division apparently as old as the University itself. Once established, we may be certain that the school would continue to exist in a

precarious way, even in the troubled reigns of Alfred's successors. Perhaps it was at Oxford that Ethelwerd learnt the exceedingly bad Latin in which, about the year 930, he addressed his cousin Matilda, daughter of the Emperor Otho, with a view of supplying her with information as to the early history of their common country. A charter of Ethelred, dated in 1006, proves at any rate the existence of valuable books in a monastery at Oxford at that time. But at the Conquest the dissolution of the University, if it had ever existed, seems to have been nearly complete. About the year 1130 it revived, and during the remainder of the twelfth century was making slow upward progress.

42. The lectures of Abelard, the most active thinker of his day, were attended by crowds of Englishmen-John of Salisbury for one, who has left us a curious account of them -and some of his hearers may have opened lectures on similar subjects in the halls of Oxford. It is certain that Robert Pullus (ante, § 33) lectured there on divinity in 1134, and that the Lombard Vacarius, brought over from Italy by Archbishop Theobald, gave lectures on civil and canon law in 1149. But it is not till the thirteenth century that we hear of Oxford as an important educational centre. A great stimulus seems to have been applied in 1229 by the migration of a large body of students from Paris to Oxford. The connection between these two universities was during all this period most intimate ;identity of religion, common studies, and the use of Latin as a common language, produced and maintained it;—they might almost be regarded as two national colleges in an European university. Some of the great men who lectured at Oxford have been already noticed, but there is one, whose connection with the university in this century was long and important, whom we have yet to mention. Robert Grossetête, Bishop of Lincoln, was long a teacher at Oxford, afterwards chancellor, and finally, in his episcopal capacity, ex officio head of the University. A man of varied learning, and a great and liberal nature, he was the warm friend and patron of Roger Bacon, and is mentioned by him in terms of high admiration in the Opus Majus. The number of students who flocked to Oxford in this and the following century far surpassed anything that has been seen in later times. We are told that there were in Oxford in 1209 three thousand members of the University, in 1231 thirty thousand, in 1263 fifteen thousand, in 1350 between three and four thousand, and in 1360 six thousand.'1 All national and local antipathies, all political

1 Newman's Office and Work of Universities, p. 267.

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