trous ancestors. These vigorous proceedings, by which Stephen introduced the religion of Jesus among the Hungarians, procured him the most distinguished honours of saintship in succeeding ages.* they derived their origin from human art, and not from a divine interposition.* As long as Harald lived, he used every wise and probable method of confirming his subjects in the religion they had embraced. For this purpose VII. The Christian religion was in a very he established bishops in several parts of his dounsettled state among the Danes under the minions, enacted excellent laws, abrogated sureign of Gormon; and, notwithstanding the perstitious customs, and imposed severe reprotection it received from his queen, who pro-straints upon all vicious and immoral practices. fessed it publicly, it was obliged to struggle But, after all these pious efforts, and salutary with many difficulties, and to encounter much measures, which promised such fair prospects opposition. The face of things changed, in- to the rising church, his son Sueno, or Swein, deed, after the death of Gormon. His son apostatized from the truth, and, during a cerHarald, surnamed Blaatand, being defeated by tain time, involved the Christians in the deepOtho the Great, in 949, embraced the Gospel, est calamity and distress, and treated them and was baptized, together with his consort and with the greatest cruelty and injustice. This his son Sueno or Swein, by Adaldagus, arch- persecuting tyrant felt, however, in his turn, bishop of Hamburg, or, as others allege, by the heavy strokes of adversity, which producPoppon a pious ecclesiastic, who attended the ed a salutary change in his conduct, and hapemperor in this expedition. It is probable that pily brought him to a better mind; for, being Harald, educated by his mother Tyra, who driven from his kingdom, and obliged to seek was a Christian, was not extremely averse to his safety in a state of exile among the Scots, the religion of Jesus; it appears, however, cer- he embraced anew the religion he had abantain, that his conversion was less the effect of doned, and, on his restoration to his dominions, his own choice, than of the irresistible com- exerted the most ardent and exemplary zeal in mands of his victorious enemy; for Otho, per- the cause of Christianity, which he endeavour suaded that the Danes would never desisted to promote to the utmost of his power.† from their hostile incursions and rapines, while they persevered in the religion of their ancestors, which was calculated to nourish a ferocity | of temper, and to animate to military exploits, made it the principal condition of the treaty of peace, which he concluded with Harald, that he and his subjects should receive the Christian faith. On the conversion of this prince, Adaldagus and Poppon employed their ministerial labours among the Cimbrians and Danes, in order to engage them to imitate such an illustrious example; and their exhortations were crowned with remarkable success, to which the stupendous miracles performed by Poppon are said to have contributed in a particular manner. These miracles, indeed, were of such a kind, as manifestly shows that VIII. It was in this century, that the first dawn of the Gospel arose upon the Norwegians, as we learn from the most authentic records. The conversion of that people was attempted, in 933, by their monarch, Hagan Adalsteen, who had been educated among the English, and who employed certain ecclesiastics of that nation to instruct his subjects inthe doctrines of Christianity. But his pious efforts were rendered fruitless by the brutal obstinacy, with which the Norwegians persevered in their ancient prejudices; and the assiduity and zeal with which his successor Harald Graufeldt pursued the same plan of reformation, were also without effect. The succeeding princes, far from being discouraged by these obstacles, persisted firmly in their worthy purpose; and Haco, among others, yielding to the se-intreaties of Harald, king of Denmark, to whom he was indebted for the Norwegian crown, embraced, himself, the Christian reli gion, and recommended it with the greatest fervour to his subjects, in an assembly of the people, holden in 945.§ This recommendation, notwithstanding the solemnity and zeal with which it was accompanied, made little impression upon the minds of this fierce and barbarous people; nor were they entirely gained over by the zealous endeavours of Olaus to convert them to Christianity, though the pious diligence of that prince, which procured him the honour of saintship, was not altogether without effect. But that which gave the finishing stroke to the conversion of the Norwe *The Greeks, Germans, Bohemians, and Poles, verally claim the honour of having been the founders of the Christian religion in Hungary; and their respective pretensions have introduced not a little obscurity into this matter. The Germans allege, that the Christian religion was brought into Hungary by Gisela, sister to their emperor Henry II., who, being given in marriage to Stephen, the king of that nation, persuaded that prince to embrace the Gospel. The Bohemians tell us, on the other hand, that it was by the ministry of Adalbert, archbishop of Prague, that Stephen was converted. The Poles affirm, that Geysa, having married a Christian princess of their nation, viz. Adelheid, sister to Micislaus, duke of Poland, was induced by her remonstrances and exhortations to make profession of Christianity. In consequence of a careful examination of all these pretensions we have followed the sentiments and decisions of the Greek writers, after having diligently compared them with the Hungarian historians; and we are encouraged in this by the authority of the learned Gabriel de Juxta Hornad, who, in his Initia Religionis Christianæ inter Hungaros Ecclesiæ orientali adserta, published in 1740, decides this question in favour of the Greeks. All other accounts of the matter are extremely imperLect, and subject to many doubts and difficulties. * Jo. Adolph. Cypræi Annales Episcopor. Slesvic. cap. xiii. p. 78.-Adam Bremens. lib. ii. cap. xxvi. p. 22, cap. xliv. p. 28.-Jo. Stephan. ad Saxonem Gram mat. p. 207.-Molleri Introduct. ad Historiam Cher sones. Cimbric. part ii. cap. iii. sect. 14. † Saxon. Gramm. Histor. Dan. lib. x. p. 186.-Pon toppidan. de Gestis et Vestigiis Danorum extra Da † Adami Brem. Hist. lib. ii. cap. ii. iii. p. 16, cap. xv. p. 20, in Lindenbrogii Scriptoribus rerum Septen-niam, tom. if. cap. i. sect. 1, 2. trional.-Alb. Kranzii Wandalia, lib. iv. cap. xx.Ludwigii Reliquiæ Manuscriptor. tom. ix. p. 10.Pontoppidani Annales Ecclesiæ Diplomatici, tom. i. D 59 Eric. Pontoppidan. Annales Eccles. Danica di plomat. tom. i. p. 66. Torfæi Historia Norvegica, tom ii. p. 183, 214 gians was their subjection to Sueno, or Swein, || bishops in several places, and generously king of Sweden, who, having defeated their monarch Olaus Tryg-gueson, became master of Norway, and obliged its inhabitants to abandon the gods of their ancestors, and to embrace universally the religion of Jesus.* Among the various doctors who were sent to instruct this barbarous people, the most eminent, both in merit and authority, was Guthebald, an English priest. From Norway, Christianity spread its salutary light through the adjacent countries, and was preached, with success, in the Orkney islands, which were, at that time, subject to the Norwegian kings, and also in Iceland and Old Groenland; for it is evident, from many circumstances and records of undoubted authority, that the greatest part of the inhabitants of these countries received the Gospel in this century.‡ erected and endowed the bishoprics of Brandenburg, Havelberg, Meissen, Magdeburg, and Naumburg; by which excellent establishments the church was furnished with eminent doctors from various parts, whose instructions were the occasion of raising up new laborers in the spiritual harvest, and of thus multiplying the ministers of Christ from time to time. It was also through the munificence of the same prince, that many convents were erected for those who, in conformity with the false piety of the times, chose to finish their Christian course in the indolent sanctity of a solitary life; and it was by his express order that schools were established in almost every city for the education of the youth. All this may serve to show us the generosity and zeal of this illustrious emperor, whose merit would have IX. In Germany the pious exploits of Otho surpassed the highest encomiums, had his pruthe Great contributed, in a signal manner, to dence and moderation been equal to the ferpromote the interest of Christianity, and to fix vor of his piety and the uprightness of his init upon solid foundations throughout the em- tentions. But the superstition of his empress,* pire. This truly great prince, whose pious and the deplorable ignorance of the times, demagnanimity clothed him with a lustre infinite-luded this good prince into the notion, that he ly superior to that which he derived from his obliged the Deity in proportion as he loaded imperial dignity, was constantly employed in the clergy with riches and honors, and that extirpating the remains of the ancient super-nothing was more proper to draw down upon stitions, and in supporting and confirming the infant church, which in several provinces had not yet attained any considerable degree of consistence and vigor. That there might be rulers and pastors to govern the church, and to contribute both by their doctrine and example to the reformation and improvement of an unpolished and illiterate people, he established him the divine protection, than the exercise of a boundless liberality to his ministers. In consequence of this idle and extravagant fancy, Otho opened the sources of his opulence, which flowed into the church like an overgrown torrent, so that the bishops, monks, and the religious fraternities in general, wallowed in wealth and abundance. But succeeding ages perceived the unhappy effects of this excessive Dr. Mosheim attributes here to Swein the and ill-judged munificence, when the sacred honor which is due to his predecessor Olaus Tryg- orders employed this opulence, which they had gueson; if it can be deemed an honour to have pro- acquired without either merit or labor, in gratimoted a rational and divine religion by compulsion and violence, by fire and sword. Olaus, who had ab-fying their passions, in waging war against all jured Paganism in England during his youth, in con- who opposed their ambitious pretensions, and sequence of a warm and pathetic discourse which he in purchasing the various pleasures of a luxuhad heard from a British priest, returned to Norway rious and effeminate life. with a firm resolution to propagate Christianity throughout his dominions. For this purpose he traveled from one province to another, attended by a X. It was no doubtful mark of the progress and strength of the Christian cause, that the European kings and princes began so early as this century to form the project of a holy war against the Mohammedans, who were masters of Palestine. They considered it as an intolerable reproach upon Christians, that the very land in which the divine author of their reli chosen band of soldiers, and, sword in hand, performed the functions of missionary and apostle. His ministry, thus enforced, was followed with the desired success throughout all the provinces, except that of Drontheim, which rose in rebellion against him, and attacked Christianity with the same kind of arguments that Olaus employed in establishing it. This opposition occasioned several bloody battles, which ended, however, in the defeat of the region had received his birth, had exercised his bels, and of the god Thor, their tutelar deity, whose ministry, and made expiation for the sins of statue Olaus dragged from its place, and burned publicly in the sight of his worshippers. This event de mortals, should be abandoned to the enemies of jected the courage of the inhabitants of Drontheim the Christian name. They also looked upon it who submitted to the religion and laws of their con- as highly just, and suitable to the majesty of queror. And thus, before the reign of Sueno, at the Christian religion, to avenge the calamities least before the defeat of Olaus by that prince, Nor- and injuries, the persecution and reproach, way was Christian. See the History of Denmark, published in French by M. Mallet, vol. i. p. 52, 53. which its professors had suffered under the † Chron. Danicum a Ludewigio editum in Reli- Mohammedan yoke. The bloody signal was quiis Manuscriptorum, tom. ix. p. 11, 16, 17. On the subject of the conversion of the inhabi- accordingly given toward the conclusion of this tants of the Orkneys, see Torfæi Historia Rerum century, by Sylvester II. in the first year of Orcadens, lib. i. p. 22, and, for an account of the Ice- his pontificate; and this signal was an epistle, landers, the reader may consult Arngrim Jonas' Cry-written in the name of the church of Jerusamogœa, lib. i. and Arius' Multis. in Schedis Islandiæ; as also Torfæus, Histor. Norveg. tom. ii. p. 378, 379, 417; and Gabriel Liron's Singularites Historiques et Literaires, tom. i. p. 138.-The same Torfæus gives a full account of the introduction of Christianity into Groenland, in his Histor. Norveg. tom. ii. p. 374, and also in his Groenla dia Antiqua, c. xvii. D. 127. lem, to the church universal throughout the World,† in which the European powers were * See the life of the empress, whose name was Adelaide, in the Lectiones Antiquæ of Henry Cani'sius, tom. iii. This is the twenty-eighth Epistle in the first ho solemnly exhorted and entreated to succour | had much to suffer from the hatred and cruelty and deliver the Christians in Palestine. The of those who remained under the darkness of pope's exhortations, however, were without paganism. The Normans, during a great part effect, except upon the inhabitants of Pisa, who of this century, committed, in several parts of are said to have obeyed the summons with the France, the most barbarous hostilities, and inutmost alacrity, and to have prepared them-volved the Christians, wherever they carried selves immediately for a holy campaign.* CHAPTER II. Concerning the Calamitous Events that happened to the Church during this Century. I. THE Christian religion suffered less in this century from the cruelty of its enemies, than from the defection of its friends. Of all the pagan monarchs, under whose government the Christians lived, none behaved to them in a hostile manner, or tormented them with the execution of compulsive edicts or penal laws, except Gormon and Swein, kings of Denmark. Notwithstanding this, their affairs were far from being either in a fixed or flourishing state; and their situation was full of uncertainty and peril, both in the eastern and western provinces. The Saracens in Asia and Africa, amidst the intestine divisions under which they groaned, and the calamities that overwhelmed them from different quarters, were extremely assiduous in propagating the doctrines of Mohammed; nor were their efforts unsuccessful. Multitudes of Christians fell into their snares; and the Turks, a valiant and fierce nation, who inhabited the northern coast of the Cas their victorious arms, in numberless calamities. The Sarmatians, Sclavonians, Bohemians, and others, who had either conceived an aversion for the Gospel, or were sunk in a stupid igno rance of its intrinsic excellence and its immortal blessings, not only endeavoured to extirpate Christianity out of their own territories by the most barbarous efforts of cruelty and violence, but infested the adjacent countries, where it was professed, with fire and sword. and left, wherever they went, the most dread ful marks of their unrelenting fury. The Danes, moreover, did not cease to molest the Christians, until they were subdued by Otho the Great, and thus, from being the enemies, became the friends of the Christian cause. The Hungarians also contributed their part to the sufferings of the church, by their incursions into several parts of Germany, which they turned into scenes of desolation and misery; while the fierce Arabs, by their tyranny in Spain, and their depredations in Italy and the neighbouring islands, spread calamity and oppression all around them, of which, no doubt, the Christians established in those parts had the heaviest portion. III. Whoever considers the endless vexa pian sea, received their doctrine. The uni- tions, persecutions, and calamities, which the formity of religion did not, however, produce Christians suffered from the nations that con a solid union of interest between the Turks and tinued in their ancient superstitions, will easily Saracens; on the contrary, their dissensions and quarrels were never more violent than perceive the reason of that fervent and inextin from the time that Mohammed became their vered for the conversion of those nations, guishable zeal, which Christian princes discocommon chief in religious matters. The Per- whose impetuous and savage fury they expesians, whose country was a prey to the ambi-rienced from time to time. A principle of selftious usurpations of the latter, implored the preservation, and a prudent regard to their aid of the former, by whom succours were granted with the utmost alacrity and readi-propagation of the Gospel, engaged them to own safety, as well as a pious zeal for the ness. The Turks accordingly fell upon the put in practice every method that might open Saracens in a furious manner, drove them out the eyes of their barbarous adversaries, from a of the whole extent of the Persian territories, rational and well-grounded hope that the preand afterwards, with incredible rapidity and success, invaded, seized, and plundered the cepts of Christianity would mitigate, by degrees, the ferocity of these nations, and soften other provinces that belonged to that people, their rugged and intractable tempers. Hence whose desolation, in reality, came on like a it was, that Christian kings and emperors left whirlwind. Thus the powerful empire of the Saracens, which its enemies had for so many within the pale of the church. For this purno means unemployed to draw these infidels years attempted in vain to overturn, fell at last by the hands of its allies and friends. The pose, they proposed to their chiefs alliances of Turks accomplished what the Greeks and Ro- marriage, and offered them certain districts mans ineffectually aimed at; they struck sud- tain them against their enemies, upon condiand territories, with auxiliary troops to maindenly that dreadful blow, which ruined at once tion that they would abandon the superstition the affairs of the Saracens in Persia, and then of their ancestors, which tended to nourish deprived them by degrees of their other do- their ferocity, and to increase their passion for minions; and thus the Ottoman empire, which blood and carnage. These offers were attendis still an object of terror to the Christians, ed with the desired success, as they induced was established upon the ruins of the Saracen the infidel chiefs not only to lend an ear themdominion.t selves to the instructions and exhortations of the Christian missionaries; but also to oblige their subjects and armies to follow their examples in this important respect. II. In the western provinces, the Christians of the collection of the letters of Sylvester II. pub. lished by Du-Chesne, in the third volume of his Scriptor. Histor. Franc. *See Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. 400. For a more ample account of these revolutions, THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH CHAPTER I. Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy during this Century. this great and illustrious example; nor did any excellent princes in zeal for the advancement of the succeeding emperors equal these two of learning, or in lending, by protection and encouragement, an auspicious hand to raise, out of obscurity and dejection, neglected and depressed genius. But (what is still more re I. THE deplorable ignorance of this barbaleas age, in which the drooping arts were totally neglected, and the sciences seemed to be on the point of expiring for want of encourage-markable) Constantine Porphyrogeneta, whom ment, is unanimously confessed and lamented we have now been representing as the restorer by all the writers who have transmitted to us of letters, and whom the Greeks unanimously any accounts of this period. Nor, indeed, will admire in this character, is supposed by some this fatal revolution, in the republic of letters, to have done considerable prejudice to the cause appear astonishing to such as consider, on one of learning by the very means he employed to hand, the terrible vicissitudes, tumults, and promote its advancement; for, by employing wars, that threw all things into confusion both learned men to extract from the writers of anin the eastern and western world, and, on the tiquity what they thought might contribute to other, the ignominious stupidity and dissolute- the improvement of the various arts and ness of those sacred orders which had been ap- || sciences, he gave too much occasion to neglect pointed as the guardians of truth and learning. the sources, and flattered the indolence of the Leo, surnamed the Philosopher, who ascended effeminate Greeks, who confined their studies the imperial throne of the Greeks toward the to these extracts, and neglected, in effect, the commencement of this century, was himself an perusal of the writers from whom they were eminent lover of learning, and an auspicious drawn. Hence it unfortunately happened, and zealous protector of such as distinguished that many of the most celebrated authors of themselves in the culture of the sciences.* antiquity were lost, at this time, through the This noble and generous disposition appeared sloth and negligence of the Greeks. with still greater lustre in his son Constantine II. This method, as the event manifestly Porphyrogeneta, who evinced the greatest ar- showed, was really detrimental to the prodor for the revival of the arts and sciences in gress of true learning and genius. And acGreece, and employed what he deemed the cordingly we find among the Greek writers most effectual measures for the accomplish- of this century only a small number, who acment of this excellent purpose. It was with quired a distinguished and shining reputation this view that he spared no expense in draw- in the republic of letters; so that the fair and ing to his court, and supporting in his domin- engaging prospects which seemed to arise in ions, a variety of learned men, each of whom the cause of learning from the munificence excelled in some of the different branches of and zeal of its imperial patrons, vanished in a literature, and in causing the most diligent short time; and though the seeds of science search to be made for the writings of the an- were richly sown, the natural expectations of cients. With this view, also, he became him- an abundant harvest were unhappily disapself an author, and thus animated by his ex-pointed. Nor did the cause of philosophy ample, as well as by his protection, men of succeed better than that of literature. Philogenius and abilities to enrich the sciences with sophers indeed there were; and some of them their learned productions. He employed, were not destitute of genius and abilities; but moreover, a considerable number of able pens, not one of them rendered his name immortal in making valuable extracts from the commen- by productions that were worthy of being taries and other compositions of the ancients; transmitted to posterity. A certain number of which extracts were preserved in certain places rhetoricians and grammarians, a few poets for the benefit and satisfaction of the curious; who were above contempt, and several histoand thus, by various exertions of liberality and|| rians who, without deserving the highest enzeal, this learned prince restored the arts and comiums, were not totally destitute of merit, sciences to a certain degree of life and vigor.§ were the members that composed, at this But there were few of the Greeks who followed time, the republic of letters in Greece, whose kinds of literature alone, in which industry, inhabitants seemed to take pleasure in those imagination, and memory are concerned. * See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Biblioth. Græc. lib. v. part ii. cap. v. p. 363. Fabricius, lib. v. part ii. cap. v. p. 486. We have yet remaining the following productions of this prince: The Life of the Emperor Basilius;-a Treatise upon the Art of Governing, in which he investigates the origin of several nations, treats of their power, their progress, their revolutions, and their decline, and gives a series of their princes and rulers;-a Discourse concerning the Manner of forming a Land Army and Naval Force in Order of Battle;-Two Books concerning the eastern and western Provinces, which may be consider ed as an account of the state of the empire in the time of this prince. § All this appears evident from the accounts left upon record by Zonaras, in his Annales, tom. iii. III. Egypt, though at this time it groaned under a heavy and exasperating yoke of oppression and bondage, produced writers, who, in genius and learning, were no-wise inferior to the most eminent of the Grecian literati. Among the many examples we might mention to prove the truth of this assertion, we shar1 confine ourselves to that of Eutychius, bishop of Alexandria, who cultivated the sciences of physic and theology with the greatest success, and cast a new light upon them both by his excellent writings. The Arabians, during this || terests of religion, or, to speak more properly, whole century, preserved that noble passion to the views of superstition. for the arts and sciences, which had been kindled among them in the preceding age: and hence their country abounded with physicians, mathematicians, and, philosophers, whose names and characters, together with an account of their respective abilities and talents, are given by Leo Africanus and other literary historians. IV. The Latins present to us a spectacle of a very different kind. They were almost without exception sunk in the most brutish and Darbarous ignorance; so that, according to the unanimous accounts of the most credible writers, nothing could be more melancholy and deplorable than the darkness that reigned in the western world during this century, which, with respect to learning and philosophy at least, may be called the Iron Age of the Latins.* Some learned men of modern times have, we confess, ventured to call this in question: but their doubts are certainly without foundation, and the matter of fact is too firmly established by unquestionable authorities to lose any part of its credit in consequence of the objections they allege against it. It is true, there were public schools founded in most of the European provinces, some of which were erected in the monasteries, and the rest in those cities where the bishops resided. It is also true, that through this dismal night of ignorance there shone forth from time to time, and more especially toward the conclusion of this century, some geniuses of a superior order, who eyed with ardour the paths of science, and cast some rays of light upon the darkness of a barbarous age But they were very few in number, and their extreme rarity is a sufficient proof of the infelicity of the times in which they appeared. In the seminaries of learning, such as they were, the seven liberal arts were taught in the most unskilful and miserable manner by the monks, who esteemed the arts and sciences no farther than as they were subservient to the in *The testimonies that prove the ignorance which prevailed in the tenth century, are collected by Du Boulay, in his Historia Acad. Paris. tom. i. p. 288; and also by Lud. Ant. Muratori, in his Antiquitat. Ital. medii Ævi, tom. iii. p. 831, et tom ii. p. 141, &c. V. They who were the most learned and judicious among the monastic orders, and who were desirous of employing usefully a part of their leisure, applied themselves to the composition of annals and histories, which savoured of the ignorance and barbarism of the times. Such were Abo, Luitprand, Wittekind, Fulcuin, Johannes Capuanus, Ratherius, Flodoard, Notker, Ethelbert, and others, who, though very different from each other in their respective degrees of merit, were all ignorant of the true nature and rules of historical composition. Several of the poets of this age gave evident marks of true genius; but they were strangers to the poetic art, which was not indeed necessary to satisfy a people utterly destitute of elegance and taste. The grammarians and rhetoricians of these unhappy times are scarcely worthy of mention; their method of instructing was full of absurdities; and their rules were trivial, and, for the most part, injudicious. The same judgment may be formed in general of the geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music, which were more or less taught in the public schools, and of which a more particular account would be uninstructive and insipid. VI. The philosophy of the Latins extended no farther than the single science of logic or dialectics, which they looked upon as the sum and substance of all human wisdom. But this logic, which was so highly admired, was drawn without the least perspicuity or method from a book of Categories, which some have unjustly attributed to Augustin, and others to Porphyry. It is true, indeed, that the Timæus of Plato, the Topica of Cicero and Aristotle, and the book of the latter concerning interpretation, with other compositions of the Greeks and Romans, were in the hands of several of the doctors of this century, as we learn from credible accounts; but the same accounts inform us, that the true sense of these excellent authors was scarcely understood by any of those who daily perused them.* It will appear, no doubt, surprising, that in such an ignorant age such a subtile question as that concerning universal ideas should ever have been thought of; true however it is, that the famous controversy, whether universal ideas belonged to the class of objects or of mere names (a controversy which perplexed and bewildered the Latin doctors in succeeding times, and gave rise to the opposite sects of the Nominalists and Realists,) was started for the first time in this century. Accordingly we find, in several passages of the writers of this period, the seeds and beginnings of this tedious and intricate dispute.† †The famous Leibnitz, in his preface to the Cod. Juris Nat. et Gentium Diplomat. affirms that more knowledge and learning existed in the tenth century, than in the succeeding ages, particularly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But this is washing the Ethiopian; it is an extravagant assertion, and borders upon paradox. We shall be better directed in our notions of this matter by Mabillon, in nis Præfat. ad Act. Bened. Quint. Sæc. p. 2, by the authors of the Histoire Literaire de la France, and by Le Bouf's Dissertat. de Statu Literarum in Francia, a Carolo M. ad Regem Robertum; who all agree in acknowledging the gross ignorance of this cenury, though they would engage us to believe that ts barbarism and darkness were not so hideous as they are commonly represented. There are, indeed, †This appears evident from the following remark. several considerations that render the reasons and able passage, which the reader will find in the 304th testimonies even of these writers not a little defec-page of the work cited in the preceding note, and in tive; but we agree with them so far, as to grant that all learning and knowledge were not absolutely extinguished in Europe at this time, and that, in the records of this century, we shall find a few chosen spirits, who pierced through the cloud of ignorance that covered the multitude. VOL. I.-31 * Gunzo, Epistol. ad Monachos Augienses in Mar tenne's Collect. Ampliss. Monumentor. Veter. tom. iii. p. 304. which the learned Gunzo expresses himself in the following manner: "Aristoteles, genus, speciem, "differentiam, proprium et accidens, subsistere de. "negavit, quæ Platoni subsistentia persuasit. Aris. "toteli an Platoni magis credendum putatis? Magna "est utriusque auctoritas, quatenus vix audeat quis |