Some slight attempts were made for restoring literary pursuits, but with little success. In the tenth century, Oswald archbishop of York, finding the monasteries of his province extremely ignorant not only in the common elements of grammar, but even in the canonical rules of their respective orders, was obliged to send into France for competent masters, who might remedy these evils". In the mean time, from perpetual commotions, the manners of the people had degenerated from that mildness which a short interval of peace and letters had introduced, and the national character had contracted an air of rudeness and ferocity. England at length, in the beginning of the eleventh century, received from the Normans the rudiments of that cultivation which it has preserved to the present times. The Normans were a people who had acquired ideas of splendour and refinement from their residence in France; and the gallantries of their feudal system introduced new magnificence and elegance among our rough unpolished ancestors. The Conqueror's army was composed of the flower of the Norman nobility; who sharing allotments of land in different parts of the new territory, diffused a general knowledge of various improvements entirely unknown in the most flourishing eras of the Saxon government, and gave a more liberal turn to the manners even of the provincial inhabitants. That they brought with them the arts, may yet be seen by the castles and churches which they built on a more extensive and stately plan. Literature, in particular, the chief object of our present research, which had long been reduced to the most abject condition, appeared with new lustre in consequence of this important revolution. z Wharton, Angl. Sacr. ii. 201. Many evidences of the ignorance which prevailed in other countries during the tenth century have been collected by Muratori, Antiquit. Ital. Med. Æv. iii. 831. ii. 141. And Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. i. 288. This point will be further illustrated in a work now preparing for the press, entitled, ORSERVATIONS CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL, ON CASTLES, CHURCHES, MONASTERIES, and other MONUMENTS [This production, which Mr. Price of the Bodleian library affirms to have been written out fairly for the press, has not been discovered among the papers of Mr. Warton, though the prima stamina were found in a crude state.-PARK.] Towards the close of the tenth century, an event took place, which gave a new and very fortunate turn to the state of letters in France and Italy. A little before that time, there were no schools in Europe but those which belonged to the monasteries or episcopal churches; and the monks were almost the only masters employed to educate the youth in the principles of sacred and profane erudition. But at the commencement of the eleventh century, many learned persons of the laity, as well as of the clergy, undertook in the most capital cities of France and Italy this important charge. The Latin versions of the Greek philosophers from the Arabic, had now become so frequent and common, as to fall into the hands of the people; and many of these new preceptors having travelled into Spain with a design of studying in the Arabic schools", and comprehending in their course of instruction, more numerous and useful branches of science than the monastic teachers were acquainted with, communicated their knowledge in a better method, and taught in a much more full, perspicuous, solid, and rational manner. These and other beneficial effects, arising from this practice of admitting others besides ecclesiastics to the profession of letters, and the education of youth, were imported into England by means of the Norman conquest. He The Conqueror himself patronised and loved letters. filled the bishopricks and abbacies of England with the most learned of his countrymen, who had been educated at the university of Paris, at that time the most flourishing school in Europe. He placed Lanfranc, abbot of the monastery of Saint Stephen at Caen, in the see of Canterbury: an eminent master of logic, the subtleties of which he employed with great dexterity in a famous controversy concerning the real presence. Anselm, an acute metaphysician and theologist, his immediate This fashion continued for a long time. Among many who might here be mentioned was Daniel Merlac, an Englishman who in the year 1185 went to Toledo to learn mathematics, and brought back with him into England several books of the Arabian philosophy. Wood Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. p. 56. col. i. successor in the same see, was called from the government of the abbey of Bec in Normandy. Herman, a Norman bishop of Salisbury, founded a noble library in the antient cathedral of that see. Many of the Norman prelates preferred in England by the Conqueror, were polite scholars. Godfrey, prior of Saint Swithin's at Winchester, a native of Cambray, was an elegant Latin epigrammatist, and wrote with the smartness and ease of Martial. A circumstance, which by the way shews that the literature of the monks at this period was of a more liberal cast than that which we commonly annex to their character and profession. Geoffrey, a learned Norman, was invited from the university of Paris to superintend the direction of the school of the priory of Dunstable, where he composed a play called the Play of SAINT CATHARINE, which was acted by his scholars. This was perhaps the first spectacle of the kind that was ever attempted, and the first trace of theatrical "Nobilem bibliothecam, comparatis in hoc optimis juxta ac antiquissimis illustrium autorum monumentis, Severiæ posuit." Leland. Script. Brit. p. 174. He died 1099. He was so fond of letters, that he did not disdain to bind and illuminate books. Mon. Angl. iii. p. 375. Vid. supr. The old church of Salisbury stood within the area of that noble antient military work, called Old-castle. Leland says, that he finished the church which his predecessor Herman had begun, and filled its chapter with eminent scholars. d Camden has cited several of his epigrams. Remains, p. 421. edit. 1674. I have read all his pieces now remaining. The chief of them are, "PROverbia, et EPIGRAMMATA SATYRICA."-" CARMINA HISTORICA, DE REGE CANUTO, REGINA EMMA," &c. Among these last, none of which were ever printed, is an eulogy on Walkelin bishop of Winchester, and a Norman, who built great part of his stately cathedral, as it now stands, and was bishop there during Godfrey's priorate, viz. Consilium, virtutis amor, facundia comis, WALCHELINE pater, fixa fuere tibi. Corrector juvenum, senibus documenta ministrans, Exemplo vitæ pastor utrosque regis. Pes fueras claudis, cæcis imitabile lu men, Portans invalidos, qui cecidere levans. Divitiis dominus, facilis largitor earum, Dum reficis multos, deficis ipse tibi, &c. Among the Epigrams, the following is not cited by Camden. Pauca Titus pretiosa dabat, sed vilia Ut meliora habeam, pauca det, oro, These pieces are in the Bodleian library, MSS. Digb. 65. ut. 112. The whole collection is certainly worthy of publication. I do not mean merely as a curiosity. Leland mentions his epistles "familiari illo et DULCI stylo editæ." Script. Brit. p. 159. Godfrey died 1107. He was made prior of Winchester A.D. 1082. Wharton, Angl. Sacr. i. 324. He was interred in the old chapterhouse, whose area now makes part of the dean's garden. * See infr. SECT. vi. vol. ii. p. 68. representation which appeared in England. Matthew Paris*, who first records this anecdote, says, that Geoffrey borrowed copes from the sacrist of the neighbouring abbey of Saint Alban's to dress his characters. He was afterwards elected ab bot of that opulent monastery. The king himself gave no small countenance to the clergy, in sending his son Henry Beauclerc to the abbey of Abingdon, where he was initiated in the sciences under the care of the abbot Grymbald, and Farice a physician of Oxford. Robert d'Oilly, constable of Oxford castle, was ordered to pay for the board of the young prince in the convent, which the king himself frequently visiteds. Nor was William wanting in giv ing ample revenues to learning: he founded the magnificent abbeys of Battel and Selby, with other smaller convents. His nobles and their successors cooperated with this liberal spirit in erecting many monasteries. Herbert de Losinga, a monk of Normandy, bishop of Thetford in Norfolk, instituted and endowed with large possessions a Benedictine abbey at Norwich, consisting of sixty monks. To mention no more instances, such great institutions of persons dedicated to religious and literary leisure, while they diffused an air of civility, and softened the manners of the people in their respective circles, must have afforded powerful invitations to studious pursuits, and have consequently added no small degree of stability to the interests of learning. By these observations, and others which have occurred in the course of our enquiries, concerning the utility of monasteries, I certainly do not mean to defend the monastic system. [Mr. Warton has here most strangely misquoted Matthew Paris. This writer says, that Geoffrey was sent for by Richard abbot of St. Alban's, to superintend the school there: but arriving too late, the school was given to another person; that Geoffrey still expecting the office, established himself at Dunstaple, where he composed the miracle play of St. Catharine; for the decoration of which he borrowed copes from St. Alban's: but that on the following night his house to gether with the copes and all his books was burned. Nothing is mentioned about the priory of Dunstaple, which was not founded before 1131, long after Abbot Richard's death; immediately upon which Geoffrey was elected abbot of St. Alban's.-DOUCE.] f Vit. Abbat. ad calc. Hist. p. 56. edit. 1639. See also Bul. Hist. Acad. Paris. ii, 225. Hist. Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 46. We are apt to pass a general and undistinguishing censure on the monks, and to suppose their foundations to have been the retreats of illiterate indolence at every period of time. But it should be remembered, that our universities about the time of the Norman conquest, were in a low condition: while the monasteries contained ample endowments and accommodations, and were the only respectable seminaries of literature. A few centuries afterwards, as our universities began to flourish, in consequence of the distinctions and honours which they conferred on scholars, the establishment of colleges, the introduction of new systems of science, the universal ardour which prevailed of breeding almost all persons to letters, and the abolition of that exclusive right of teaching which the ecclesiastics had so long claimed; the monasteries of course grew inattentive to studies, which were more strongly encouraged, more commodiously pursued, and more successfully cultivated, in other places; they gradually became contemptible and unfashionable as nurseries of learning, and their fraternities degenerated into sloth and ignorance. The most eminent scholars which England produced, both in philosophy and humanity, before and even below the twelfth century, were educated in our religious houses. The encouragement given in the English monasteries for transcribing books, the scarcity of which in the middle ages we have before remarked, was very considerable. In every great abbey there was an apartment called the SCRIPTORIUM; where many writers were constantly busied in transcribing not only the service-books for the choir, but books for the library". The Scriptorium of Saint Alban's abbey was built by abbot Paulin, a Norman, who ordered This was also a practice in the monasteries abroad; in which the boys and novices were chiefly employed. But the missals and bibles were ordered to be written by monks of mature age and discretion. Du Fresne, Gloss. Lat. Med. V. SCRIPTORIUM. And Præfat. f. vi. edit. prim. See also Monast. Anglic. ii. 726. And references in the windows of the library of Saint Alban's abbey. Ibid. 183. At the foundation of Winchester college, one or more transcribers were hired and employed by the founder to make books for the library. They transcribed and took their commons within the college, as appears by computations of expenses on their account now remaining. |