we may boldly affirm, that they were highly || and most pernicious effects was the encrnious prejudicial, both to the cause of religion, and augmentation of the influence and authority to the civil interests of mankind; and that, in of the Roman pontiffs: they also contributeď, Europe more especially, they occasioned innu- in various ways, to enrich the churches and merable evils and calamities, the effects of monasteries with daily accessions of wealth, which are yet perceptible in our times. The and to open new sources of opulence to all the European nations were deprived of the great- sacerdotal orders. For they, who assumed the est part of their inhabitants by these ill-judged cross, disposed of their possessions as if they expeditions; immense sums of money were ex- were at the point of death, on account of the ported into Asia for the support of the war; great and innumerable dangers to which they and numbers of the most powerful and opulent were to be exposed in their passage to the holy families either became extinct, or were in- land, and the opposition they were to encounvolved in the deepest miseries of poverty and ter there upon their arrival. They therefore, want. It could not easily be otherwise, since for the most part, made their wills before their the heads of the most illustrious houses either departure, and left a considerable part of their mortgaged or sold their lands and possessions possessions to the priests and monks, in order in order to pay the expenses of their voyage,* to obtain, by these pious legacies, the favor and while others imposed such intolerable burthens protection of the Deity.† Many examples of upon their vassals and tenants, as obliged them these donations are to be found in ancient reto abandon their houses and all their domestic cords. Such of the holy soldiers, as had been concerns, and to enlist themselves, rather engaged in suits of law with the priests or through wild despair than religious zeal, under monks, renounced their pretensions, and subthe sacred banner of the cross. Hence the missively gave up whatever it was that had face of Europe was totally changed, and all been the subject of debate; and others, who things were thrown into the utmost confusion. had seized any of the possessions of the churchWe pass in silence the various enormities that es or convents, or had heard of any injury that were occasioned by these crusades, the mur- had been committed against the clergy by the ders, rapes, and robberies of the most infernal remotest of their ancestors, made the most linature, that were every where committed with beral restitution, both for their own usurpaimpunity by these holy soldiers of God and of tions and those of their forefathers, and made Christ, as they were impiously called; nor ample satisfaction, for the real or pretended inshall we enter into a detail of the new privi- juries committed against the church, by rich leges and rights, to which these wars gave rise, and costly donations. and which were often attended with the greatest inconveniences.† X. These holy wars were not less prejudicial to the cause of religion, and the true interests of the Christian church, than they were to the temporal concerns of men. One of their first attempted the conquest of Palestine, they would have acted conformably with their apparent rights, because it was formerly their country; and consist ently also with their religious principles, because they expected a Messiah who was to bind the kings of the Gentiles in chains, and to reduce the whole world under the Jewish yoke. *We find many memorable examples of this in the ancient records. Robert, duke of Normandy, mortgaged his duchy to his brother William king of Eng. land to defray the expenses of his voyage to Palestine. See the Histor. Major of Matthew Paris, lib. i. p. 24.-Odo, viscount of Bourges, sold his territory to the king of France. Gallia Christiana Benedicti norum, tom. ii. p. 45. See, for many examples of this kind, Car. du Fresne, Adnot. ad Joinvilli Vitam Ludovici S. p. 52.-Boulainvilliers sur l'Origine et les Droits de la Noblesse, in Molet's Memoires de Literature et de l'Histoire, tom. ix. part i. p. 68.-Jo. George Cramer, de Juribus et Prærogativis Nobilita. tis, tom. i. p. 81, 409. From the commencement therefore of these holy wars, a vast number of estates, belonging to the European nobility, were either mortgaged, or totally transferred, some to kings and princes, others to priests and monks, and not a few to persons of a private condition, who, by possessing considerable sums of ready money, were enabled to make advantageous purchases. Nor were these the only unhappy effects of these holy expeditions, considered with respect to their influence upon the state of religion, and the affairs of the Christian church; for, while whole legions of bishops and abbots girded the sword to the thigh, and went as generals, volunteers, or chaplains into Palestine, the priests and monks, who had lived under their jurisdiction, and were more or less awed by their authority, threw off all restraint, led the most lawless and profligate lives, and abandoned themselves to all sorts of licentiousness, committing the most flagitious and extravagant excesses without reluctance or remorse. The monster superstition, which was already grown to an enormous size, received new accessions of strength and influence from this holy war, and exercised with greater vehemence than ever its despotic dominion over the minds of the Latins. To the crowd of saints and tutelar patrons, whose number was prodigious before this period, were now added many fictitious saints of Greek and Syrian origin,§ The translator has here inserted, in the text, the note (r) of the original, as it is purely historical and makes an interesting part of the narration. † See Plessis, Hist. de Meaux, tom. ii. p. 76, 79, 141.-Gallia Christiana, tom. ii. p. 138, 139.-Le Bœuf, Append. p. 31.-Du Fresne, Notæ ad Vitam Ludovici Sancti, p. 52. Du-Fresne, p. 52. The Roman Catholic historians acknowledge, that, during the time of the crusades, many saints, unknown to the Latins before that period, were im. † Such persons as entered into these expeditions, and were distinguished by the badge of the military cross, acquired thereby certain remarkable rights, which were extremely prejudicial to the rest of their feliow-citizens. Hence it happened, that when any of these holy soldiers contracted any civil obliga-ported into Europe from Greece and the eastern pro. tions, or entered into conventions of sale, purchase, or any such transactions, they were previously required to renounce all privileges and immunities, which they had obtained, or might obtain in time to come, by assuming the cross. See Le Bouf, Memoires sur l'Histoire d'Auxerre Append, tom. ii. p. 292. VOL. I.-33 vinces, and were treated with the utmost respect and the most devout veneration. Among these new patrons, there were some, whose exploits and even existence are called in question. Such, among others, was St. Catherine, whom Baronius and Cassander reprezent as having re hoved from Syria into Eu hitherto unknown in Europe; and an incredi- || that fierce nation, which was daily extending ble quantity of relics, the greatest part of which the bounds of its empire, persisted in their were ridiculous in the highest degree, were cruelty toward their Christian subjects, whom imported into the European churches. The they robbed, plundered, maimed, or murdered armies, that returned from Asia after the in the most barbarous manner, and loaded taking of Jerusalem, brought with them a vast with all sorts of injuries and calamities. The number of these saintly relics, which they had Turks, on the other hand, not only reduced bought at a high price from the crafty Greeks the Saracen dominion to very narrow bounds, and Syrians, and which they considered as the but also seized the richest provinces of the noblest spoils that could crown their return Grecian empire, the fertile countries situated from the holy land. These they committed to upon the coasts of the Euxine sea, and subject the custody of the clergy in the churches and ed them to their yoke, while they impoverished monasteries, or ordered them to be most care- and exhausted the rest by perpetual incursions, fully preserved in their families from one ge- and by the most severe and unmerciful exacneration to another.* tions. The Greeks were not able to oppose this impetuous torrent of prosperous ambition. Their force was weakened by intestine dissuch a degree as rendered them incapable of cords, and their treasures were exhausted to raising new troops, or of paying the armies they had already in their service. CHAPTER II. Concerning the Calamitous Events that happened to the Church during this Century. I. THE greatest opposition that Christians inet with, in this century, was from the Saracens and Turks. To the latter the Christians and Saracens were equally odious, and felt equally the fatal consequences of their increasing dominion. The Saracens, notwithstanding their bloody contests with the Turks, which gave them constant occupation, and the vigorous, though ineffectual efforts they were continually making to set limits to the power of rope. See Baronius, ad Martyrol. Roman. p. 728.George Cassander, Schol. ad Hymnos Ecclesiæ. It is extremely doubtful, whether this Catherine, who is honoured as the patroness of learned men, ever ex isted. II. The Saracens in Spain opposed the pr gress of the Gospel in a different, yet still more pernicious way. They used all sorts of methods to allure the Christians into the profession of the Mohammedan faith. Alliances of marriage, advantageous contracts, flatter ing rewards, were employed to seduce them with too much success; for great numbers fell into these fatal snares, and apostatized from the truth;* and these allurements would have, undoubtedly, still continued to seduce multitudes of Christians from the bosom of the church, had not the face of affairs been changed in Spain by the victorious arms of the kings of Arragon and Castile, and more especially Ferdinand I.; for these princes, whose zeal for Christianity was equal to their military courage, defeated the Saracens in several battles, and deprived them of a great part of their territories and possessions.† The number of those among the Danes, Hungarians, and other European nations, who retained their prejudices in favour of the idolatrous religion of their ancestors, was yet very considerable; and they persecuted, with the also such of their fellow-citizens as had emutmost cruelty, the neighbouring nations, and braced the Gospel. To put a stop to this barbarous persecution, Christian princes exerted their zeal in a terrible manner, proclaiming capital punishment against all who persisted in the worship of the Pagan deities. This dreadful severity contributed much more toward the extirpation of paganism, than the exhortations and instructions of ignorant missionaries, who were unacquainted with the true nature of the Gospel, and dishonoured its pure and holy doctrines by their licentious lives and superstitious practices. *The sacred treasures of musty relics which the French, Germans, Britons, and other European nations, preserved formerly with so much care, and show even in our times with such pious ostentation, are certainly not more ancient than these holy wars, but were then purchased at a high rate from the Greeks and Syrians. These cunning traders in superstition, whose avarice and fraud were excessive, frequently imposed upon the credulity of the simple and ignorant Latins, by the sale of fictitious relics. Richard, king of England, bought in 1191, from the famous Saladin, all the relics that were to be found in Jerusalem, as appears from the testimony of Matthew Paris, who tells us also, that the Dominicans brought from Palestine a white stone, in which Jesus Christ had left the print of his feet. The Genoese pretended to have received from Baldwin, second king of Jerusalem, the very dish in which the paschal lamb was served up to Christ and his disciples at the last supper; though this famous dish excites the laughter of even father Labat, in his Voy. ages en Espagne et en Italie, tom. ii. For an account of the prodigous quantity of relics, which St. Louis brought from Palestine into France, we refer the reader to the life of that prince composed by Joinville, and published by Du-Fresne; as also to Plessis, Histoire de l'Eglise de Meaux, tom. i. p. 120; and Lancelot, Memoires pour la Vie de l'Abbe de St. Cyran, tom. i. p. 175. Christ's handkerchief, which is worshipped at Besancon, was brought thither from the holy land. See J. Jaques Chiflet, Visontio, part ii. p. 108; and de Linteis Christi Sepulchralibus . ix. p. 50. Many other examples of The Prussians, Lithuanians, Sclavonians this miserable superstition may be seen in Anton. Obotriti, and several other nations, who dwelt Matthæi Analecta veteris Evi, tom. ii. p. 677.-Jo. Mabillon, Annal. Bened. tom. vi. p. 52; and princi- in the lower parts of Germany, and lay still pally Chiflet's Crisis Historica de Linteis Christi Se-grovelling in the darkness of paganism, con pulchralibus, c. ix. x. p. 50, and also 59, where we find the following passage: "Sciendum est, vigente 'immani et barbara Turcarum persecutione, et im"minente Christianæ religionis in oriente naufragio, educta a sacrariis et per Christianos quovis 'modo recondita ecclesiarum pignora.-Hisce plane 'divinis opibus illecti præ aliis, sacra A qua vi, qua pretio, a detinentibus hac illac extorse"runt." * Jo. Henr. Hottingeri Histor. Ecclesiast. Sæc. xi. § ii. p. 452; and Michael Geddes' History of the Expulsion of the Morescoes out of Spain, which is to be found in the Miscellaneous Tracts of that Author. tom. i. † For an account of these wars between the firsi Christian kings of Spain and the Moslems or Moors, see the Spanish histories of Mariana and Ferrerar tinued to harass the Christians, who lived in || them to death in the most inhuman manner.* their neighbourhood, by perpetual acts of hostility and violence, by frequent incursions into their territories, and by putting numbers of * Helmoldi Chron. Slavorum, lib. 1. cap. xvi. p. 52.-Adami Bremens. Histor. lib. ii. cap. xxvii. PART II. THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy during this Century. losophy, and particularly the system of Aristotle, which he embellished and illustrated in several learned and ingenious productions.* If we turn our eyes toward the Arabians, we shall find that they still retained a high degree of zeal for the culture of the sciences; as appears evidently from the number of physicians, mathematicians, and astronomers, who flourished among them in this century.† III. The arts and sciences seemed, in some measure, to revive in the west, among the clergy, at least, and the monastic orders; they were not indeed cultivated by any other set of men; and the nobility, if we except such of them as were designed to fill certain ecclesiastical dignities, or had voluntarily devoted themselves to a religious solitude, treated all sorts of learning and erudition with indifference and contempt. The schools of learning flourished in several parts of Italy about the year 1050; and of the Italian doctors, who acquired a name by their writings or their academical lectures, several removed afterwards into France, and particularly into Normandy, where they instructed the youth, who had consecrated themselves to the service of the I. THE declining condition of the Grecian empire was fatal to the progress of letters and philosophy. Its glory and power diminished from day to day under the insults and usurpations of the Turks and Saracens; and, while the empire suffered by these attacks from without, it was consumed gradually by the internal pestilence of civil discord, by frequent seditions and conspiracies, and by those violent revolutions which shook from time to time the imperial throne, and were attended with the sudden fall and elevation of those who held the reins of government. So many foreign invasions, so many internal troubles, so many emperors dethroned, deprived the political body of its strength and consistency, broke in upon the public order, rendered all things precarious, and, dejecting the spirits of the nation, damped the fire of genius, and discouraged the efforts of literary ambition.* There were, however, some emperors, such as Alexius Comnenus, who seemed to cherish and encourage the drooping sciences, and whose zeal was second-church. ed by several prelates, who were willing to lend a supporting hand to the cause of letters. The controversies also that subsisted between the Greeks and Latins, impelled the former, amidst all their disadvantages to a certain degree of application to study, and prevented them from abandoning entirely the culture of the sciences. And hence it is, that we find among the Greeks of this century some writers, at least, who have deserved well of the republic of letters. The French also, though they acknowledge their obligations to the learned Italians who settled in their provinces, exhibit, at the same time, a considerable list of their countrymen, who, without any foreign succours, cultivated the sciences, and contributed not a little to the advancement of letters in this century; they mention also several schools erected in different parts of that kingdom, which were in the highest reputation, both on account of the fame of their masters, and the multitude of disciples that resorted to them.§ And, indeed, it is certain beyond all contradiction, that the liberal arts and sciences were cultivated in France, which abounded with learned men, while the greatest part of Italy lay as yet covered with a thick cloud of igncrance and darkness. For Robert, king of France, son and successor of Hugh Capet, dis ciple of the famous Gerbert (afterwards Sylvester II.,) and the great protector of the sciences, and friend of the learned, reigned II. We pass in silence the poets, rhetoricians, and philologists of this century, who were neither highly eminent nor absolutely contemptible. Among the writers of history, Leo the grammarian, John Scylizes, Cedrenus, and a few others, deserve to be mentioned with some share of praise, notwithstanding the|| palpable partiality with which they are chargeable, and the zeal they discover for many of the fabulous records of their nation. But the greatest ornament of the republic of letters, at this time, was Michael Psellus, a man illustrious in every respect, and deeply versed in all the various kinds of erudition that were known in his age. This great man recommended warmly to his countrymen the study of phi-iii. The sentence which begins with the words so many foreign, and ends with the words literary ambition, is added by the translator to render the Connexion with what follows more evident. Leo Allatius, Diatriba de Psellis, p. 14, edit. Fabricii. Hottinger, Histor. Eccles. Sæc. xi. p. 449. See Muratori, Antiquitates Ital. medii ævi, tom from the close of the preceding century to the || precision, many of the same branches of sci IV. This vehement desire of knowledge, that increased from day to day, and became at length, the predominant passion of the politest European nations, produced many happy effects. To it, more particularly, we must attribute the considerable number of public schools that were opened in various places, and the choice of more able and eminent masters than those who had formerly presided in the seminaries of learning. Toward the conclusion of the preceding age, there were no schools in Europe but those which belonged to monasteries, or episcopal residences: nor were there any other masters, except the Benedictine monks, to instruct the youth in the principles of sacred and profane erudition. But, not long after the commencement of this century, the face of things was totally changed, in a manner the most advantageous to the cause of letters. In many cities of France and Italy, learned men, both among the clergy and laity, undertook the weighty and important charge of instructing the youth, and succeeded much better in this worthy undertaking than the monks had done, not only by comprehending in their course of instruction more branches of knowledge than the monastic doctors were acquainted with, but also by teaching in a better method, and with more perspicuity and Robert succeeded Hugh Capet, and reigned thirty-five years. † Daniel, Histoire de la France. tom. iii. p. 58.Du Boulay, Hist. Academ. Paris. tom. i. p. 636 et passim. I See Hist. Liter. de la France, tom. viii. p. 171."The English," says Matthew Paris, "were so il "literate and ignorant before the time of William "the Conqueror, that a man who understood the principles of grammar, was universally looked upon "as a prodigy of learning." V. The seven liberal arts, as they were now styled, were taught in the greatest part of the schools that were erected in this century for the education of youth. The first stage was grammar, which was followed by rhetoric and logic. When the disciple, having learned these three branches, which were generally known by the name of trivium, extended his ambition, and was desirous of new improvement in the sciences, he was conducted slowly through the quadrivium† to the very summit of literary fame. But this method of teaching, which had been received in all the western schools, was considerably changed toward the latter end of this century; for, as the science of logic, under which metaphysics were in part comprehended, received new degrees of perfection from the deep meditations and the assiduous industry of certain acute thinkers, * Muratori, Antiq. Ital. tom. ii. p. 935.-Giannone, Hist. di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 151. Freind's History of Physic. It is well known, that the famous precepts of the school of Salernum, for the preservation of health, were composed in this century, at the request of the king of England. The trivium was a term invented in the times of barbarism to express the three sciences that were first learned in the schools, viz. grammar, rhe toric, and logic; and the schools in which these sci ences alone were taught, were called triviales. The quadrivium comprehended the four mathematica sciences,-arithmetic, music, geometry, and astro nomy. and was taught with more detail and subtilty || barren, as long as it was drawn from no other than in former times, the greatest part of the source than the ten categories falsely attributstudious youth became so enamoured of this ed to St. Augustin, or from the explications of branch of philosophy, as to abandon grammar, the Aristotelian philosophy, composed by Porrhetoric, and all the other liberal arts, that they phyry and Averroes. These, however, were might consecrate their whole time to the dis- the only guides which the schools had to folcussion of logical questions, and the pursuit low in the beginning of this century; nor had of metaphysical speculations. Nor was this the public teachers either genius or courage surprising, when we consider, that, according enough to enlarge the system, or to improve to the opinion which now prevailed in the re- upon the principles of these dictators in philopublic of letters, a man who was well versed sophy, whose authority was treated as infalli in dialectics, e. in logical and metaphysical ble, and whose productions, for a long time, knowledge, was reputed sufficiently learned, were regarded as perfect, to the great detriand was supposed to stand in need of no other ment of true science. But, about the year branches of erudition.* Hence arose that con- 1050, the face of philosophy began to change, tempt of languages and eloquence, of the more || and the science of logic assumed a new aspect. elegant sciences, and the fine arts, which spread This revolution began in France, where several its baneful influence through the Latin pro- of the books of Aristotle had been brought vinces; and hence that barbarism and pedantic from the schools of the Saracens in Spain; and sophistry which dishonoured, in succeeding it was effected by a set of men highly renownages, the republic of letters, and deplorably ed for their abilities and genius, such as Bercorrupted the noble simplicity of true theolo-enger, Roscellinus, Hildebert, and after them gy, and the purest systems of philosophical wisdom. VI. The philosophy of the Latins, in this century, was absolutely confined within the circle of dialectics, while the other philosophi- || cal sciences were scarcely known by name.† This dialectic, indeed, was miserably dry and by Gilbert de la Porree, the famous Abelard, and others. These eminent logicians, though they followed the Stagirite as their guide, took the liberty to illustrate and model anew his philosophy, and to extend it far beyond its ancient limits. last promotion was the bishopric of Cambray. Lanfranc was so deeply versed in this science, that he was commonly called the Dialectician; and he employed with great dexterity the subtilties of logic in the controversy which was VII. The philosophers of this age, who were most famous for their zealous and success* See Boulay, tom. i. p. 408, 511.—This is too likely ful endeavours to improve the science of logic, to become the prevailing taste even in our times: but it is an ancient taste, as we may easily perceive, and accommodate it to general use, were Lanby casting an eye upon the literary history of the franc, an Italian by birth, (who was abbot of eleventh century; and to confirm still farther the St. Stephen's at Caen, and was thence called truth of the vulgar saying, that there is nothing new under the sun, we shall quote the following passage by William the Conqueror to the see of Canfrom the Metalogicum of John of Salisbury, a wri-terbury,) Anselm his successor, and Odo, whose ter of no mean abilities, lib. i. cap. iii. "Poeta, historiographi, habebanter infames, et si quis incumbebat laboribus antiquorum, notabatur ut non modo asello Arcadia tardior, sed obtusior plumbo vel lapide, omnibus erat in risum. Suis enim, aut magistri sui, quisque incumbebat inventis.-Fiebant ergo summi repente philosophi: nam qui illiteratus accesserat, fere non morabatur in scholis ulterius quam eo curriculo temporis, quo avium pulli plumescunt. Sed quid docebant novi doctores, et qui plus somniorum quam vigiliarum in scrutinio philosophiæ consumserant? Ecce nova fiebant omnia: innovabatur grammatica, immutabatur dialectica, contemnebatur rhetorica. et novas totius quadrivii vias, evacuatis priorum regulis, de ipsis philosophiæ adytis profere bant. Solam convenientiam sive rationem loquebantur, argumentum sonabat in ore omnium-ac ineptum nimis aut rude et a philosopho alienum, impossibile credebatur convenienter et ad rationis normam quicquam dicere aut facere, nisi convenientiæ et rationis mentio expressim esset inserta." Many more passages of this nature are to be found in this au thor. We shall, indeed, find many, in the records of this century, honoured with the title of Philosophers. Thus we hear of Manegoldus the Philosopher, Adalardus the Philosopher, &c. But we must not attribute to that term, when applied to these grammarians, the sense which it bore among the ancient Greeks and Latins, and which it still bears in our times. In the style of what we call the middle ages, every man of learning, of whatever kind his erudition might be, was called a philosopher; and this title was also given to the interpreters of Scripture, hough that set of men were, generally speaking, destitute of true philosophy. See the Chronicon Sa lernitanum in Muratori's collection Scriptor. Rerum Italicar. tom. ii. part ii. cap. cxxiv. p. 265, where we are told, that in the tenth century, in which the sciences were almost totally extinguished in Italy, there were thirty-two philosophers at Benevento. We learn, however, by what follows, that these phi. losophers were partly grammarians, and partly perBons who were more or less versed in certain liberal arts. carried on between him and the learned Berenger, against whom he maintained the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the holy sacrament. Anselm, in a very learned dialogue, throws much light upon the darkness and perplexity in which the science of logic had been so long involved; and, among other things, he investigates, with no small sagacity, the nature of substance, and mode or quality, in order to convey more just notions of these metaphysical entities than had been hitherto entertained.* This great prelate, who shone with a distinguished lustre in several branches of literature both sacred and profane, was the first of the Latin doctors who dispelled the clouds of ignorance and obscurity that hung over the important sciences of metaphysics and natural theology, as appears from two books of his composition, wherein the truths concerning the Deity, which are deducible from the mere light of nature, are enumerated and explained with a degree of sagacity which could not well be expected from a writer of this century. He was the inventor of that fatributed to Des-Cartes, which demonstrates mous argument, vulgarly and erroneously atthe existence of God from the idea of an infi *This dialogue, de Grammatico, is to be found in the works of Anselm, published by father Gerberon, tom. i. p 143 |