several other cities of Italy, met with the same fate.' The ancient histories of the Franks abound with the most dismal accounts of their horrid exploits.

III. The first views of these savage invaders extended no further than plunder; but charmed at length with Form new setthe beauty and fertility of the provinces which dements. they were so cruelly depopulating, they began to form settlements in them; nor were the European princes in a condition to oppose their usurpations. On the contrary, Charles the Bald was obliged, in the year 850, to resign a considerable part of his dominions to this powerful banditti;" and a few years after, under the reign of Charles the Gross, emperor and king of France, the famous Norman chief Godofred entered with an army into Friesland, and obstinately refused to sheath his sword before he was master of the whole province." Such however of the Normans as settled among the Christians, contracted a gentler turn of mind, and gradually departed from their primitive brutality. Their marriages with the Christians, contributed, no doubt, to civilize them; and engaged them to abandon the superstition of their ancestors with more facility, and to embrace the gospel with more readiness, than they would have otherwise done. Thus the proud conqueror of Friesland solemnly embraced the Christian religion after that he had received in marriage, from Charles the Gross, Gisela, the daughter of Lothaire the younger.

I See the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, published by Muratori.

m Annales incerti Auctoris, in Pithoei Scriptor. Francic. p. 46.

n Reginonis Prumiensis Annal. lib. ii. f. 60, in Pistorii Scriptor. German,

PART II.

INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

CONCERNING THE STATE OF LETTERS AND PHILOSOPHY DURING THIS CENTURY.

letters among

I. THE Grecian" empire in this century was in circumstances every way proper to extinguish all taste The state of for letters and philosophy, and all zeal for the the Greeks. cultivation of the sciences. The liberality however of the emperors, some of whom were men of learning and taste, and the wise precautions taken by the Patriarchs of Constantinople, among whom Photius deserves the first rank in point of erudition, contributed to attach a certain number of learned men to that imperial city, and thus prevented the total decline of letters. Accordingly we find in Constantinople, at this time, several persons who excelled in eloquence and poetry; some who displayed, in their writings against the Latins, a considerable knowledge in the art of reasoning, and a high degree of dexterity in the management of controversy; and others who composed the history of their own times with accuracy and with elegance. The controversy with the Latins, when it grew more keen and animated, contributed in a particular manner to excite the literary emulation of the disputants, rendered them studious to acquire new ideas, and a rich and copious elocution, adorned with the graces of elegance and wit; and thus roused and invigorate talents that were ready to perish in indolence and sloth. 11. We learn from the accounts of Zonaras, that the

study of philosophy lay for a long time neglected of philosophy in this age; but it was revived, with a zeal for the sciences in general, under the emperor Theophilus, and his son Michael III. This revival of letters was principally

owing to the encouragement and protection which the learned received from Bardas, who had been declared by Cesar, himself a weak and illiterate man, but a warm friend of the celebrated Photius, the great patron of science, by whose counsel he was, undoubtedly, directed in this matter. At the head of all the learned men to whom Bardas committed the culture of the sciences, he placed Leo, surnamed the Wise, a man of the most profound and uncommon erudition, and who afterward was consecrated bishop of Thessalonica. Photius explained the Categories of Aristotle, while Michael Psellus gave a brief exposition of the other works of that great philosopher.

The state of

among the

III. The Arabians, who, instead of cultivating the arts and sciences, had thought of nothing hitherto but of extending their territories, were now excited to learning literary pursuits by Almamunis, otherwise called Arabians. Abu Gaafar Abdallah, whose zeal for the advancement of letters was great, and whose munificence toward men of learning and genius was truly royal. Under the auspicious protection of this celebrated caliph of Babylon and Egypt, the Arabians made a rapid and astonishing progress in various kinds of learning. This excellent prince began to reign about the time of the death of Charlemagne, and died in the year 833. He erected the famous schools of Bagdad, Cufa, and Basora, and established seminaries of learning in several other cities; he drew to his court men of eminent parts by his extraordinary liberality, set up noble libraries in various places, had translations made of the best Grecian productions into the Arabic language at a vast expense, and employed every method of promoting the cause of learning, that became a great and generous prince, whose zeal for the sciences was attended with knowledge." It was under the reign of this immortal caliph that the Arabians began to take pleasure in the Grecian learning, and to propagate it by degrees, not only in Syria and Africa, but also in Spain and Italy; and from this period they give us a long catalogue of celebrated philosophers, physicians, astronomers, and mathematicians, who were ornaments to their nation, through several suc

o Annalium, tom. ii. lib. xvi. p. 126, tom. x. Coproris Byzantin.

p Abulpharaius, Historia Dynastiar. p. 246. Georg. Elmacin. Histor. Saracen. lib. ii. p. 139. Barthol. Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. Article Mamun, p. 545.

ceeding ages. And in this certainly they do not boast without reason; though we are not to consider, as literally true, all the wonderful and pompous things which the more modern writers of the Saracen history tell us of these illustrious philosophers.

After this period, the European Christians profited much by the Arabian learning, and were highly indebted to the Saracens for the improvement they made in the various ¡ sciences. For the mathematics, astronomy, physic, and philosophy, that were taught in Europe from the tenth century, were, for the most part, drawn from the Arabian schools that were established in Spain and Italy, or from the writings of the Arabian sages. And from hence the Saracens may, in one respect, be justly considered as the restorers of learning in Europe.

letters under

and his suc

cessors.

IV. In that part of Europe that was subject to the dominion of the Franks, Charlemagne laboured with The state of incredible zeal and ardour for the advancement of Charlemagne, useful learning, and animated his subjects to the culture of the sciences in all their various branches. So that, had his successors been disposed to follow his example, and capable of acting upon the noble plan he formed, the empire, in a little time, would have been entirely delivered from barbarism and ignorance. It is true, this great prince left in his family a certain spirit of emulation, which animated his immediate successors to imitate, in some measure, his zeal for the prosperity of the republic of letters. Lewis the Meek both formed and executed several designs that were extremely conducive to the progress of the arts and sciences; and his zeal in this respect was surpassed by the ardour with which his son Charles the Bald exerted himself in the propagation of letters, and in exciting the emulation of the learned by the most alluring marks of his protection and favour. This great patron of the sciences drew the literati to his court from all parts, took a particular delight in their conversation, multiplied and embellished the seminaries of learning, and protected, in a more especial manner, the Aulic school, of which mention has been formerly made, and which was first erected in the seventh century, in order to the education of the

q See the treatise of Leo Africanus, De Medicis et Philosophis Arabibus, published a second time by Fabricius, in the twelfth volume of his Bibliotheca Græca, p. r See the Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. iv. p. 583

royal family, and the first nobility. His brother Lothaire endeavoured to revive in Italy the drooping sciences, and to restore them from that state of languor and decay into which the corruption and indolence of the clergy had permitted them to fall. For this purpose he erected schools in the eight principal cities of Italy, A. D. 823,' but with little success, since it appears that that country was entirely destitute of men of learning and genius during the ninth century."

In England learning had a better fate under the auspicious protection of king Alfred, who has acquired an immortal name, not only by the admirable progress he made in all kinds of elegant and useful knowledge," but also by the care he took to multiply men of letters and genius in his dominions, and to restore to the sciences, sacred and profane, the credit and lustre they so eminently deserve.*

gress of

v. But the infelicity of the times rendered the effects of all this zeal and all these projects for the advance- Impediments ment of learning much less considerable than to the promight have otherwise been expected. The learning. protectors and patrons of the learned were themselves learned; their authority was respectable, and their munificence was boundless; and yet the progress of science toward perfection was but slow, because the interruptions arising from the troubled state of Europe were frequent. The discords that arose between Lewis the Meek and his sons, which were succeeded by a rupture between the latter, retarded considerably the progress of letters in the empire;

s Herman Conringii Antiquit. Academica, p. 320. Cæs. Eg. du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. i. p. 178. Launoius, De Scholis Caroli M. cap. xi. xii. p. 47. Histoire Liter. de la France, tom. v. p. 483.

t See the edict for that purpose among the Capitularia in Muratori Rerum Italicar. tom. i. part ii. p. 151.

u See Muratori's Antiq. Ital. medii ævi, tom. iii. p. 829.

w See Ant. Wood. Hist. et Antiquit. Academ. Oxoniens. lib. i. p. 13. Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. i. p. 211. General Dictionary, at the article Alfred. This prince, among other pious and learned labours, translated the Pastoral of Gregory I. Boetius, De Consolatione, and Bede's Ecclesiastical History.

Px This excellent prince not only encouraged by his protection and liberality such of his own subjects as made any progress in the liberal arts and sciences, but invited over from foreign countries men of distinguished talents, whom he fixed in a seminary at Oxford, and of consequence may be looked upon as the founder of that noble university. Johannes Scotus Erigena, who had been in the service of Charles the Bald, and Grimbald, a monk of St. Bertin in France, were the most famous of those learned men who came from abroad; Asserius, Werefrid, Plegmund, Dunwuf, Wulfsig, and the abbot of St. Neot's, deserve the first rank among the English literati, who adorned the age of Alfred. See Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. book iii. p. 165, 166, &c. Rapin Thoyras, in the reign of this illustrious monarch.