PART I.

trated into the very heart of Italy; for in the year CENT. IX. 857, they sacked and pillaged the city of Luca in the most cruel manner, and about three years after Pisa, and several other cities of Italy, met with the same fate. The ancient histories of the Franks abound with the most dismal accounts of their horrid exploits.

tlements.

III. The first views of these savage invaders ex- Form new settended no further than plunder; but charmed at length with the beauty and fertility of the provinces which they were so cruelly depopulating, they began to form settlements in them; nor were the European princes in a condition to oppose their usurpations. On the contrary, Charles the Bald was obliged, in the year 850, to resign a considerable part of his dominions to this powerful banditti; and a few years after, under the reign of Charles the Gross, emperor and king of France, the famous Norman chief Godofred entered with an army into Friesland, and obstinately refused to sheath his sword before he was master of the whole province." Such however of the Normans as settled among the christians, contracted a gentler turn of mind, and gradually departed from their primitive brutality. Their marriages with the christians contributed, no doubt, to civilize them; and engaged them to abandon the superstition of their ancestors with more facility, and to embrace the gospel with more readiness. than they would have otherwise done. Thus the proud conqueror of Friesland solemnly embraced the christian religion after that he had received in marriage, from Charles the Gross, Gisela, the daughter of Lothaire the younger.

'See the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, published by Muratori.

TM Annales incerti Auctoris, in Pithoei Scriptor. Francic, p. 46.

* Reginonis Prumiensis Annal. lib. ii. f. 60, in Pistorii Scriptor. Ger

man.

PART II.

INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

PART 11.

the Greeks.

CHAPTER I.

CONCERNING THE STATE OF LETTERS AND PHILOSOPHY DURING
THIS CENTURY.

CENT. IX. 1. THE Grecian empire in this century was in circumstances every way proper to extinguish all taste The state of for letters and philosophy, and all zeal for the culletters among tivation of the sciences. The liberality however of the emperors, some of whom were men of learning and taste, and the wise precautions taken the patriarchs of Constantinople, among whom Photius deserves the first rank in point of erudition, contributed to attach a certain number of learned men to that imperial city, and thus prevented the total decline of letters. Accordingly we find in Constantinople, at this time, several persons who excelled in eloquence and poetry; some who displayed, in their writings against the Latins, a considerable knowledge in the art of reasoning, and a high degree of dexterity in the management of controversy; and others who composed the history of their own times with accuracy and with elegance. The controversy with the Latins, when it grew more keen and animated, contributed in a particular manner to excite the literary emulation of the disputants, rendered them studious to acquire new ideas, and a rich and copious elocution, adorned with the graces of elegance and wit; and thus

roused and invigorated talents that were ready to CENT. IX. perish in indolence and sloth.

PART II.

II. We learn from the accounts of Zonaras, that of philosophy. the study of philosophy lay for a long time neglected in this age; but it was revived, with a zeal for the sciences in general, under the emperor Theophilus, and his son Michael III. This revival of letters was principally owing to the encouragement and protection which the learned received from Bardas, who had been declared Cesar, himself a weak and illiterate man, but a warm friend of the celebrated Photius, the great patron of science, by whose counsel he was, undoubtedly, directed in this matter. At the head of all the learned men to whom Bardas committed the culture of the sciences, he placed Leo, sirnamed the Wise, a man of the most profound and uncommon erudition, and who afterward was consecrated bishop of Thessalonica. Photius explained the Categories of Aristotle, while Michael Psellus gave a brief exposition of the other works of that great philosopher.

The state of learning a

rabians.

II. The Arabians, who, instead of cultivating the arts and sciences, had thought of nothing hith- mong the Aerto but of extending their territories, were now excited to literary pursuits by Almamunis, otherwise called Abu Gaafar Abdallah, whose zeal for the advancement of letters was great, and whose munificence toward men of learning and genius was truly royal. Under the auspicious protection of this celebrated caliph of Babylon and Egypt, the Arabians made a rapid and astonishing progress in various kinds of learning. This excellent prince began to reign about the time of the death of Charlemagne, and died in the year 833. He erected the famous schools of Bagdad, Cufa, and Basora,

• Annalium, tom. ii. lib. xvi. p. 126, tom. x. Corporis Byzantin. VOL. II.

36

CENT. IX. and established seminaries of learning in several PART II. other cities; he drew to his court men of eminent parts by his extraordinary liberality, set up noble libraries in various places, had translations made of the best Grecian productions into the Arabic language at a vast expense, and employed every method of promoting the cause of learning, that became a great and generous prince, whose zeal for the sciences was attended with knowledge. It was under the reign of this immortal caliph that the Arabians began to take pleasure in the Grecian learning, and to propagate it by degrees, not only in Syria and Africa, but also in Spain and Italy; and from this period they give us a long catalogue of celebrated philosophers, physicians, astronomers, and mathematicians, who were ornaments to their nation, through several succeeding ages. And in this certainly they do not boast without reason; though we are not to consider, as literally true, all the wonderful and pompous things which the more modern writers of the Saracen history tell us of these illustrious philosophers.

After this period, the European christians profited much by the Arabian learning, and were highly indebted to the Saracens for the improvement they made in the various sciences. For the mathematics, astronomy, physic, and philosophy, that were taught in Europe from the tenth century, were, for the most part, drawn from the Arabian 'schools that were established in Spain and Italy; or from the writings of the Arabian sages. And from hence the Saracens may, in one respect, be justly considered as the restorers of learning in Europe.

P Abulpharaius, Historia Dynastiar. p. 246. Georg. Elmacin. Histor. Saracen. lib. ii. p. 139. Barthol, Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. Article Mamun, p. 545.

See the treatise of Leo Africanus, De Medicis et Philosophis Arabibus, published a second time by Fabricius, in the twelfth volume of his Bibliotheca Græca, p. 259.

PART II.

letters under

and his succes

Iv. In that part of Europe that was subject to CENT. IX. the dominion of the Franks, Charlemagne laboured with incredible zeal and ardour for the advance-, The state of ment of useful learning, and animated his subjects Charlemagne, to the culture of the sciences in all their various sors. branches. So that, had his successors been disposed to follow his example, and capable of acting upon the noble plan he formed, the empire, in a little time, would have been entirely delivered from barbarism and ignorance. It is true, this great prince left in his family a certain spirit of emulation, which animated his immediate successors to imitate, in some measure, his zeal for the prosperity of the republic of letters. Lewis the Meck both formed and executed several designs that were extremely conducive to the progress of the arts and sciences;" and his zeal in this respect was surpassed by the ardour with which his son Charles the Bald exerted himself in the propagation of letters, and in exciting the emulation of the learned by the most alluring marks of his protection and favour. This great patron of the sciences drew the literati to his court from all parts, took a particular delight in their conversation, multiplied and embellished the seminaries of learning, and protected, in a more especial manner, the Aulic school, of which mention has been formerly made, and which was first erected in the seventh century, in order to the education of the royal family, and the first nobility. His brother Lothaire endeavoured to revive in Italy the drooping sciences, and to restore them from that state of languor and decay into which the corruption and indolence of the clergy had permitted them to fall. For this purpose he erected schools

See the Histoire Litteraire de la France, tom. iv. p. 583. Herman Conringii Antiquit. Academica, p. 320. Cres. Eg. du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. i. p. 178. Launoius, De Scholis Caroli M. cap. xi. xii. p. 47. Histoire Litter. de la France, tom. v. p. 488.