trous ancestors. These vigorous proceedings, || they derived their origin from human art, and by which Stephen introduced the religion of not from a divine interposition.* As long Jesus among the Hungarians, procured him as Harald lived, he used every wise and prothe most distinguished honours of saintship in bable method of confirming his subjects in the succeeding ages.* religion they had embraced. For this purpose he established bishops in several parts of his dominions, enacted excellent laws, abrogated superstitious customs, and imposed severe re

But, after all these pious efforts, and salutary measures, which promised such fair prospects to the rising church, his son Sueno, or Swein, apostatized from the truth, and, during a certain time, involved the Christians in the deepest calamity and distress, and treated them with the greatest cruelty and injustice. This persecuting tyrant felt, however, in his turn, the heavy strokes of adversity, which produced a salutary change in his conduct, and happily brought him to a better mind; for, being driven from his kingdom, and obliged to seek his safety in a state of exile among the Scots, he embraced anew the religion he had aban doned, and, on his restoration to his dominions, exerted the most ardent and exemplary zeal in the cause of Christianity, which he endeavoured to promote to the utmost of his power.t

VII. The Christian religion was in a very unsettled state among the Danes under the reign of Gormon; and, notwithstanding the protection it received from his queen, who pro-straints upon all vicious and immoral practices. fessed it publicly, it was obliged to struggle with many difficulties, and to encounter much opposition. The face of things changed, indeed, after the death of Gormon. His son Harald, surnamed Blaatand, being defeated by Otho the Great, in 949, embraced the Gospel, and was baptized, together with his consort and his son Sueno or Swein, by Adaldagus, archbishop of Hamburg, or, as others allege, by Poppon a pious ecclesiastic, who attended the emperor in this expedition. It is probable that Harald, educated by his mother Tyra, who was a Christian, was not extremely averse to the religion of Jesus; it appears, however, certain, that his conversion was less the effect of his own choice, than of the irresistible commands of his victorious enemy; for Otho, persuaded that the Danes would never desist from their hostile incursions and rapines, while VIII. It was in this century, that the first they persevered in the religion of their ances- dawn of the Gospel arose upon the Norwegitors, which was calculated to nourish a ferocity || ans, as we learn from the most authentic reof temper, and to animate to military exploits, cords. The conversion of that people was atmade it the principal condition of the treaty tempted, in 933, by their monarch, Hagan of peace, which he concluded with Harald, Adalsteen, who had been educated among the that he and his subjects should receive the English, and who employed certain ecclesiasChristian faith. On the conversion of this tics of that nation to instruct his subjects in prince, Adaldagus and Poppon employed their the doctrines of Christianity. But his pious ministerial labours among the Cimbrians and efforts were rendered fruitless by the brutal obDanes, in order to engage them to imitate stinacy, with which the Norwegians perseversuch an illustrious example; and their exhor- ed in their ancient prejudices; and the assidutations were crowned with remarkable success, ity and zeal with which his successor Harald to which the stupendous miracles performed Graufeldt pursued the same plan of reformaby Poppon are said to have contributed in a tion, were also without effect. The succeedparticular manner. These miracles, indeed, ing princes, far from being discouraged by these were of such a kind, as manifestly shows that || obstacles, persisted firmly in their worthy purpose; and Haco, among others, yielding to the intreaties of Harald, king of Denmark, to whom he was indebted for the Norwegian crown, embraced, himself, the Christian religion, 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 gain

*The Greeks, Germans, Bohemians, and Poles, severally 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 Micised over by the zealous endeavours of Olaus to laus, duke of Poland, was induced by her remonstrances and exhortations to make profession of Christi anity. 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 imperect, and subject to many doubts and difficulties.

1 Adami Brem. Hist. lib. ii. cap. ii. iii. p. 16, cap. xv. p. 20, in Lindenbrogii Scriptoribus rerum Septentrional. Alb. Kranzii Wandalia, lib. iv. cap. xx.Ludwigii Reliquiæ Manuscriptor. tom. ix. p. 10. Pontoppidani Annales Ecclesiæ Diplomatici, tom. i.

D 59

convert them to Christianity, though the pious diligence of that prince, which procured him the honour of caintship, was not altogether without effect. But that which gave the finishing stroke to the conversion of the Norwe

Jo. Adolph. Cypræi Annales Episcopor. Slesvic. cap. xiii. p. 78.-Adam Bremens. lib. ii. cap. xxvi. p. 22, cap. xliv. p. 23.-Jo. Stephan. ad Saxonem Gram mat. p. 207.-Molleri Introduct. ad Historiam Cher sones. Cimbric. part ii. cap. iii. sect. 14.

† Saxon. Gramım. Histor. Dan. lib. x. p. 186.-Pon toppidan. de Gestis et Vestigiis Danorum extra Da niam, tom. ii. cap. i. sect. 1, 2.

Eric. Pontoppidan. Annales Eccles. Danica di plomat. tom. i. p. 66.

§ Torfiei Historia Norvegica, tom ii. p. 183, 214 Torfæus p. 457

gians was their subjection to Sueno, or Swein, || bishops in several places, and generously king of Sweden, who, having defeated their erected and endowed the bishoprics of Branmonarch Olaus Tryg-gueson, became master denburg, Havelberg, Meissen, Magdeburg, and of Norway, and obliged its inhabitants to aban- Naumburg; by which excellent establishments don the gods of their ancestors, and to embrace the church was furnished with eminent doctors universally the religion of Jesus.* Among the from various parts, whose instructions were the various doctors who were sent to instruct this occasion of raising up new laborers in the barbarous people, the most eminent, both in spiritual harvest, and of thus multiplying the merit and authority, was Guthebald, an En- ministers of Christ from time to time. It was glish priest. From Norway, Christianity also through the munificence of the same spread its salutary light through the adjacent prince, that many convents were erected for countries, and was preached, with success, in those who, in conformity with the false piety the Orkney islands, which were, at that time, of the times, chose to finish their Christian subject to the Norwegian kings, and also in course in the indolent sanctity of a solitary Iceland and Old Groenland; for it is evident, life; and it was by his express order that from many ci cumstances and records of un- schools were established in almost every city doubted authority, that the greatest part of the for the education of the youth. All this may inhabitants of these countries received the Gos- serve to show us the generosity and zeal of this pel in this century.‡ illustrious emperor, whose merit would have surpassed the highest encomiums, had his prudence and moderation been equal to the fervor of his piety and the uprightness of his intentions. But the superstition of his empress,* and the deplorable ignorance of the times, de

IX. In Germany the pious exploits of Otho the Great contributed, in a signal manner, to promote the interest of Christianity, and to fix it upon solid foundations throughout the empire. This truly great prince, whose pious magnanimity clothed him with a lustre infinite-luded this good prince into the notion, that he ly superior to that which he derived from his imperial dignity, was constantly employed in extirpating the remains of the ancient superstitions, 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

obliged the Deity in proportion as he loaded the clergy with riches and honors, and that nothing was more proper to draw down upon 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 greson; if it can be deemed an honour to have pro-acquired without either merit or labor, in gratiInoted 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 conwho 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 traX. It was no doubtful mark of the progress veled from one province to another, attended by a and strength of the Christian cause, that the chosen band of soldiers, and, sword in hand, per- European kings and princes began so early as formed the functions of missionary and apostle. this century to form the project of a holy war His ministry, thus enforced, was followed with the desired success throughout all the provinces, except against the Mohainmedans, who were masters that of Drontheim, which rose in rebellion against of Palestine. They considered it as an intolhim, and attacked Christianity with the same kind erable reproach upon Christians, that the very of arguments that Olaus employed in establishing it. This opposition occasioned several bloody bat land in which the divine author of their relitles, 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 pub-mortals, should be abandoned to the enemies of licly in the sight of his worshippers. This event dejected the courage of the inhabitants of Drontheim

who submitted to the religion and laws of their conqueror. And thus, before the reign of Sueno, at

the Christian name. They also looked upon it as highly just, and suitable to the majesty of least before the defeat of Olaus by that prince, Nor-and injuries, the persecution and reproach, the Christian religion, to avenge the calamities way was Christian. See the History of Denmark, which its professors had suffered under the published in French by M. Mallet, vol. i. p. 52, 53. † 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 Jerusamogæa, 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.sius, tom. iii. p. 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.

This is the twenty-eighth Epistle in the first var

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.* 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

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

rance of its intrinsic excellence and its immorpate Christianity out of their own territories tal blessings, not only endeavoured to extirby 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 perceive the reason of that fervent and inextin and quarrels were never more violent than guishable zeal, which Christian princes discofrom the time that Mohammed became their vered for the conversion of those nations, common 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 aid of the former, by whom succours were granted with the utmost alacrity and readiness. The Turks accordingly fell upon the Saracens in a furious manner, drove them out of the whole extent of the Persian territories, and afterwards, with incredible rapidity and success, invaded, seized, and plundered the other provinces that belonged to that people, whose desolation, in reality, came on like a whirlwind. Thus the powerful empire of the Saracens, which its enemies had for so many years attempted in vain to overturn, fell at last by the hands of its allies and friends. The Turks accomplished what the Greeks and Romans ineffectually aimed at; they struck suddenly that dreadful blow, which ruined at once the affairs of the Saracens in Persia, and then deprived them by degrees of their other dominions; and thus the Ottoman empire, which is still an object of terror to the Christians, was established upon the ruins of the Saracen dominion.†

II. In the western provinces, the Christians of the collection of the letters of Sylvester II. pab. 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,

preservation, and a prudent regard to their propagation of the Gospel, engaged them to own safety, as well as a pious zeal for the put in practice every method that might open the eyes of their barbarous adversaries, from a rational and well-grounded hope that the precepts of Christianity would mitigate, by detheir rugged and intractable tempers. Hence grees, the ferocity of these nations, and soften it was, that Christian kings and emperors left within the pale of the church. For this purno means unemployed to draw these infidels pose, they proposed to their chiefs alliances of marriage, and offered them certain districts and territories, with auxiliary troops to maintain them against their enemies, upon condition that they would abandon the superstition of their ancestors, which tended to nourish their ferocity, and to increase their passion for blood and carnage. These offers were attended with the desired success, as they induced the infidel chiefs not only to lend an ear them

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.

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

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

we have now been representing as the restorer of letters, and whom the Greeks unanimously admire in this character, is supposed by some to have done considerable prejudice to the cause of learning by the very means le employed to promote its advancement; for, by employing learned men to extract from the writers of antiquity what they thought might contribute to the improvement of the various arts and sciences, he gave too much occasion to neglect the sources, and flattered the indolence of the effeminate Greeks, who confined their studies to these extracts, and neglected, in effect, the perusal of the writers from whom they were drawn. Hence it unfortunately happened, that many of the most celebrated authors of antiquity were lost, at this time, through the sloth and negligence of the Greeks.

II. This method, as the event manifestly showed, was really detrimental to the pro

I. THE deplorable ignorance of this barbate as 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 by all the writers who have transmitted to us any accounts of this period. Nor, indeed, will this fatal revolution, in the republic of letters, appear astonishing to such as consider, on one hand, the terrible vicissitudes, tumults, and wars, that threw all things into confusion both in the eastern and western world, and, on the || other, the ignominious stupidity and dissoluteness of those sacred orders which had been appointed as the guardians of truth and learning. Leo, surnamed the Philosopher, who ascended the imperial throne of the Greeks toward the commencement of this century, was himself an eminent lover of learning, and an auspicious and zealous protector of such as distinguished themselves in the culture of the sciences.* This noble and generous disposition appeared with still greater lustre in his son Constantine Porphyrogeneta, who evinced the greatest ardor for the revival of the arts and sciences ingress of true learning and genius. And acGreece, and employed what he deemed the most effectual measures for the accomplishment of this excellent purpose. It was with this view that he spared no expense in drawing to his court, and supporting in his dominions, a variety of learned men, each of whom excelled in some of the different branches of literature, and in causing the most diligent search to be made for the writings of the ancients. With this view, also, he became himself an author, and thus animated by his example, as well as by his protection, men of genius and abilities to enrich the sciences with their learned productions. He employed, moreover, a considerable number of able pens, in making valuable extracts from the commentaries and other compositions of the ancients; which extracts were preserved in certain places for the benefit and satisfaction of the curious; and thus, by various exertions of liberality and zeal, this learned prince restored the arts and sciences to a certain degree of life and vigor.§ But there were few of the Greeks who followed

*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 castern 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.

cordingly we find among the Greek writers of this century only a small number, who acquired a distinguished and shining reputation in the republic of letters; so that the fair and engaging prospects which seemed to arise in the cause of learning from the munificence and zeal of its imperial patrons, vanished in a short time; and though the seeds of science were richly sown, the natural expectations of an abundant harvest were unhappily disappointed. Nor did the cause of philosophy succeed better than that of literature. Philosophers indeed there were; and some of them were not destitute of genius and abilities; but not one of them rendered his name immortal by productions that were worthy of being transmitted to posterity. A certain number of rhetoricians and grammarians, a few poets who were above contempt, and several historians who, without deserving the highest encomiums, were not totally destitute of merit, were the members that composed, at this time, the republic of letters in Greece, whose inhabitants seemed to take pleasure in those kinds of literature alone, in which industry, imagination, and memory are concerned.

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 shal1 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 barbarous 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 monasterics, 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.

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 wash

ing 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 cen. ury, though they would engage us to believe that As barbarism and darkness were not so hideous as they are commonly represented. There are, indeed, several considerations that render the reasons and testimonies even of these writers not a little defective; 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 multitud..

Vol. I.-31

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.†

*Gunzo, Epistol. ad Monachos Augienses in Mar tenne's Collect. Ampliss. Monumentor. Veter. tom. iii. p. 304.

†This appears evident from the following remarkable passage, which the reader will find in the 304th page of the work cited in the preceding note, and in 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