CENT. XIIL had chosen for his prime minister, and in whom he placed the highest confidence. PART 1. origin of the book in question. Whoever is desirous of a more ample and a very curious account of this matter, will find it in the late Prosper Marchand's Dictionaire Historique, vol. ii. at the article Impostoribus. PART II. INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. CONCERNING THE STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY DURING I. PART II. The state mong the of learning a Greeks. THE Greeks, amidst the dreadful calamities, CENT. XIII. discords, and revolutions, that distracted and perplexed their unhappy country, had neither that spirit, nor that leisure, that are necessary to the culture of the arts and sciences. Yet, under all these disadvantages, they still retained a certain portion of their former spirit, and did not entirely abandon the cause of learning and philosophy, as appears by the writers that arose among them during this century. Their best historians were Nicetas, Choniates, Georgius Acropolita, Gregorius Pachymeres, and Joel, whose Chronology is yet extant. We learn from the writings of Gregory Pachymeres, and Nicephorus Blemmida, that the peripatetic philosophy was not without its admirers among the Greeks; though the platonic was most in vogue. The greatest part of the Grecian philosophers, following the example of the later platonists, whose works were the subject of their constant meditation, inclined to reduce the wisdom of Plato, and the subtilties of the Stagirite into one system, and to reconcile, as well as they could, their jarring principles. It is not necessary to PART 11. CENT. XIII. exhibit a list of those authors, who wrote the lives and discourses of the saints, or distinguished themselves in the controversy with the Latin church, or of those who employed their learned labours in illustrating the canon law of the Greeks. The principal Syrian writer, which this century produced, was Gregory Abul Farai, primate of the jacobites, a man of true genius and universal learning, who was a judicious divine, an eminent historian, and a good philosopher. George Elmacin, who composed the history of the Saracens, was also a writer of no mean reputation. The progress of learning in the west. II. The sciences carried a fairer aspect in the western world, where every branch of erudition was cultivated with assiduity and zeal, and of consequence, flourished with increasing vigour, from a See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Abulpharage; as also Jos. Sim. Assemanni Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican. tom. ii. cap. xlii. p. 244. Abulpharagius, or Abul Farai, was a native of Malatia, a city in Armenia, near the source of the river Euphrates, and acquired a vast reputation in the east on account of his extensive erudition. He com. posed An Abridgment of Universal History, from the beginning of the world to his own times, which he divided into ten parts, or dynasties. The 1st. comprehends the history of the ancient patriarchs, from Adam to Moses. The 2d. that of Joshua and the other judges of Israel. The 3d. 4th. 5th. and 6th. contain the history of the kings of Israel, of the Chaldean princes, of the Persian magi, and of the Grecian monarchs. The 7th. relates to the Roman history; the 8th. to that of the Greek emperors of Constantinople. In the 9th. he treats concerning the Arabian commanders; and in the 10th. concerning the Moguls. He is more to be depended upon in his history of the Saracens and Tartars, than in his accounts of other nations. The learned Dr. Edward Pocock translated this work into Latin, and published his translation in 1663; together with a supplement, which carries on the history of the oriental princes, where Abul Farai left it. The same learned translator had obliged the public, in 1650, with an abridgment of the ninth dynasty under the following title; "Specimen Historia Arabum; sive Georgii Abulfaragii Malatiensis de origine et moribus Arabum succincta narratio." PART 11. day to day. The European kings and princes had CENT. XIII learned, by a happy experience, how much the advancement of learning and arts contribute to the grandeur and happiness of a nation; and therefore they invited into their dominions learned men from all parts of the world, nourished the arts in their bosom, excited the youth to the love of letters, by crowning their progress with the most noble rewards, and encouraged every effort of genius, by conferring upon such as excelled, the most honourable distinctions. Among these patrons and protectors of learning, the emperor Frederic II. and Alphonsus X. king of Leon and Castile, two princes as much distinguished by their own learning, as by the encouragement they granted to men of genius, acquired the highest renown, and rendered their names immortal. The former founded the academy of Naples, had the works of Aristotle translated into Latin, assembled about his person all the learned men whom he could engage by his munificence to repair to his court, and gave many other undoubted proofs of his zeal for the advancement of the arts and sciences. The latter obtained an illustrious and permanent renown by several learned productions, but more especially by his famous Astronomical Tables. In consequence then of the protection that was given to the sciences in this century, academies were erected almost in every city, peculiar privileges of various kinds were also granted to the youth that frequented them, and these learned societies acquired, at length, the form of political bodies; that is to say, they were invest Boulay, Hist. Acad Paris. tom. iii. p. 115. Giannone, Hist. de Naples, tom. ii. p. 497. Add to these the observations of Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin. medii ævi, tom. ii, p. 618. Nic. Antonii Bibliotheca vetus Hispan. lib. viii. c. v. p. 217. Jo. de Ferreras, Histoire d'Espagne, tom. iv. p. 847. CENT. XIII. ed with a certain jurisdiction, and were governed by their own laws and statutes. PART 11. academies. The state of II. In the public schools or academies that were the European founded at Padua, Modena, Naples, Capua, Thoulouse, Salamancha, Lions, and Cologn, the whole circle of the sciences was not taught, as in our times. The application of the youth, and the labours of their instructors, were limited to certain branches of learning, and thus the course of academical education remained imperfect. The academy of Paris, which surpassed all the rest both with respect to the number and abilities of its professors, and the multitude of students by whom it was frequented, was the first learned society which extended the sphere of education, received all the sciences into its bosom, and appointed masters for every branch of erudition. Hence it was distinguished, before any other academy, with the title of a university, to denote its embracing the whole circle of science; and in process of time, other schools of learning were ambitious of forming themselves upon the same model, and of being honoured with the same title. In this famous university, the doctors were divided into four colleges or classes, according to the branches of learning they professed; and these classes were called, in after times, faculties. In each of these faculties, a doctor was chosen by the suffrages of his colleagues, to preside during a fixed period in the society; and the title of dean was given to those who successively filled that eminent office. The head of the university, whose inspection and jurisdiction extended to all branches of that learned body, was dignified with the name of chancellor, and that high and honourable place was filled by the bishop of Paris, to whom an assistant was afterward joined, who shared the administration with him, and was clothed with 4 This arrangement was executed about the year 1260. See Du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. iii. p. 557, 564. |