PART I. emperors were dethroned, loaded with ignominy, CENT. VILL and sent into ba ish nent. Under Leo the Isaurian, and his son Constantine, sirnamed Copronymus, arose that fatal controversy about the worship of images, which proved a source of innumerable calamities and troubles, and weakened al nost incredibly the force of the empire. These troubles and dissensions left the Saracens at liberty to ravage the provinces of Asia and Africa, to oppress the Greeks in the most barbarous manner, and to extend their territories and dominion on all sides, as also to oppose every where the progress of Christianity, and in some places to extirpate it entirely. But the troubles of the empire, and the calamities of the church, did not end here; for about the middle of this century, they were assailed by new enemies, still more fierce and inhuman than those whose usurpations they had hitherto suffered. These were the Turks, a tribe of the Tartars, or The incursion at least their descendants, who, breaking forth from the inaccessible wilds about mount Caucasus, overspread Colchis, Iberia, and Albania, rushed from thence into Armenia, and after having subdued the Saracens, turned their victorious arms against the Greeks, whom, in process of time, they reduced under their dominion. of the Turks Their prog ress ju the II. In the year 714, the Saracens crossed the sea, which separates Spain from Africa, dispersed the west. army of Roderic, king of the Spanish Goths," whose defeat was principally due to the treachery of their general Julian, and made themselves masters of the greatest part of the territories of this vanquished prince. About the same time the empire of the Visigoths, which had subsisted in Spain above three hundred years, was totally overturned by these fierce and savage invaders, who also took ▸ Jo. Mariana, Rerum Hispanicarum, lib. vi. naudot, Historia Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 253. d'Espagne, tom. ii. p. 425. cap. xxi. Eusebe Re- PART 1. CENT. VIII. possession of all the maritime coasts of Gaul, from the Pyrenean mountains to the river Rhone, from whence they made frequent excursions, and ravag ed the neighbouring countries with fire and sword. The rapid progress of these bold invaders was, indeed, checked by Charles Martel, who gained a signal victory over them in a bloody action near the city of Poitiers, A. D 732. But the vanquished spoilers soon recovered their strength and their ferocity, and returned with new violence to their devastations. This engaged Charlemagne to lead a formidable army into Spain, with a design to deliver that whole country from the oppressive yoke of the Saracens; but this grand enterprise, though it did not entirely miscarry, was not however attended with the signal success that was expected from it. The inroads of this warlike people were felt by many of the western provinces, beside those of France and Spain. Several parts of Italy suffered from their incursions; the island of Sardinia was reduced under their yoke; and Sicily was ravaged and oppressed by them in the most inhuman manner. Hence the christian religion in Spain and Sardinia suffered inexpressibly under these violent usurpers. In Germany, and the adjacent countries, the christians were assailed by another sort of enemies; for all such as adhered to the pagan superstitions beheld them with the most inveterate hatred, and persecuted them with the most unrelenting violence and fury. Hence, in several places, castles and fortresses were erected to restrain the incursions of these barbarian zealots. Paulus Diaconus, De gestis Longobard lib. vi. cap. xlvi. liii. Jo Mariana, Rerum Hispan, lib. vii. cap. iii. Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Abderamus. Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. ii. p. 465. Henr. de Bunau, Teutsche Keyser und Reich's Histoire, tom. ii. p. 392. Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. ii. p. 506. . Servati Lupi vita Wigberti, p. 304. PART II. INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER 1. CONCERNING THE STATE OF LETTERS AND PHILOSOPHY DURING PAR! 11. of learning among the Greeks. THERE were not wanting among the Greeks CENT. VIIL men of genius and talents, who might have contributed to prevent the total decline of literature; but The state their zeal was damped by the tumults and desolations that reigned in the empire; and while both church and state were menaced with approaching ruin, the learned were left destitute of that protection which gives both vigour and success to the culture of the arts and sciences. Hence few or none of the Greeks were at all famous either for elegance of diction, true wit, copious erudition, or a zealous attachment to the study of philosophy, and the investigation of truth. Frigid homilies, insipid nar. rations of the exploits of pretended saints, vain and subtile disputes about unessential and trivial subjects, vehement and bombastic declamations for or against the erection and worship of images, histories composed without method or judgment; such were monuments of Grecian learning in this miserable age. of the aristo II. It must however be observed, that the aristo- The progress telian philosophy was taught every where in the lian pluloso phy. PART 11 CENT. VIII. public schools, and was propagated in all places with considerable success. The doctrine of Plato had lost all its credit in the schools, after the repeated sentences of condemnation that had been passed upon the opinions of Origen, and the troubles which the nestorian and eutychian controversies had excited in the church; so that platonism now was almost confined to the solitary retreats of the monastic orders. Of all the writers in this century, who contributed to the illustration and progress of the aristotelian philosophy, the most eminent was John Damascenus, who composed a concise, plain, and comprehensive view of the doctrines of the stagirite, for the instruction of the more ignorant, and in a manner adapted to common capacities. This little work excited numbers, both in Greece and Syria, to the study of that philosophy, whose proselytes increased daily. The nestorians and jacobites were also extremely diligent in the study of Aristotle's writings, from whence they armed themselves with sophisms and quibbles, which they employed against the Greeks in the controversy concerning the nature and person of Christ. The revival of learning a mague. П. The literary history of the Latins exhibits inmong the Lat- numerable instances of the grossest ignorance,2 ins by Charle which will not however appear surprising to such as consider with attention the state of Europe in this century. If we except some poor remains of learning which were yet to be found at Rome, and in certain cities of Italy, the sciences seemed to have abandoned the continent, and fixed their residence in Britain and Ireland. Those therefore of the Latin writers, who were distinguished by their Vid. Steph. Baluz, Observat. ad Reginouem Prumiensem, p. 540. Lud. Ant. Muratori Antiq. Italicæ medii ævi, tom. iii. p. 811. * Jac. Usserius, Præf. ad Syllogen Epistolarum Hibernicarum. PART II learning and genius, were all, a few French and CENT. VIII Italians excepted, either British or Scotch, such as Alcuin, Bede, Egbert, Clemens, Dungallus, Acca, and others. Charlemagne, whose political talents were embellished by a considerable degree of learning, and an ardent zeal for the culture of the sciences, endeavoured to dispel the profound ignorance that reigned in his dominions; in which excellent undertaking he was animated and directed by the counsels of Alcuin. With this view he drew, first from Italy, and afterward from Britain and Ireland, by his liberality, eminent men who had distinguished themselves in the various branches of literature; and excited the several orders of the clergy and monks by various encouragements, and the nobility, and others of eminent rank, by his own example, to the pursuit of knowledge in all its branches, human and divine. and nonas rected. IV. In the prosecution of this noble design, the Cathedral greatest part of the bishops erected, by the express tie schools eorder of the emperor, cathedral schools, so called from their lying contiguous to the principal church in each diocese, in which the youth which were set apart for the service of Christ, received a learned and religious education. Those also of the abbots, who had any zeal for the cause of Christianity, opened schools in their monasteries, in which the more learned of the fraternity instructed such as were designed for the monastic state, or the sacerdotal order, in the Latin language, and other branches of learning suitable to their future destination. It was formerly believed, that the university of Paris was erected by Charlemagne; but this opinion is rejected by such as have studied with impartiality the history of this age; though it is undeniably evident that this great prince had the honour of laying, in some measure, the foundation of that noble institution, and that the beginnings from which it |