CENT. writings of the Arabians, of which a great num PARTII, ber were tranflated into Latin. For with thefe

XI.

The fciences that

in these 4chools.

foreign fuccours they were enabled to teach philofophy, mathematics, phyfic, aftronomy, and the other fciences that are connected with them, in a much more learned and folid manner than the monks, or fuch as had received their education from them alone. The fchool of Salernum, in the kingdom of Naples, was renowned above all others for the study of phyfic in this century, and vast numbers crowded thither from all the provinces of Europe to receive inftruction in the art of healing but the medical precepts which rendered the doctors of Salernum fo famous, were all derived from the writings of the Arabians, or from the schools of the Saracens in Spain and Africa [i]. It was alfo from the schools and writings of the Arabian fages, that the abfurd and puerile tricks of divination, and the custom of foretelling future events from the pofition of the ftars, the features of the face, and the lines of the hand, derived their origin. Thefe ridiculous practices, proceeding from fo refpectable a fource, and moreover adapted to fatisfy the idle curiofity of impatient mortals, were carried on in all the European nations; and in process of time the pretended fciences of aftrology and divination acquired the highest reputation and au thority.

V. The feven liberal arts, as they were now were taught ftiled, were taught in the greatest part of the schools that were erected in this century for the education of youth. The firft ftage of thefe fciences was grammar, which was followed fuccef

[i] MURATORI Antiq. Ital. tom. iii. p. 935.-GIANNONE, Hit. de Naples, tom. ii. p. 151.-FREIND's Hiftory of Phyfic. It is well known, that the famous precepts of the fchool of Salernum, for the prefervation of health, were compofed is this century, at the requeft of the king of England.

X1.

fively by rhetoric and logic. When the difciple, CEN T.
having learned these three branches, which were PART II.
generally known by the name of trivium, extended
his ambition farther, and was defirous of new im-
provement in the fciences, he was conducted
flowly through the quadrivium [k] to the very
fummit of literary fame. But this method of
teaching, which had been received in all the weft-
ern schools, was confiderably changed towards
the latter end of this century. For as the fcience
of logic, under which metaphyfics were in part com-
prehended, received new degrees of perfection
from the deep meditations and the affiduous in-
dustry of certain acute thinkers, and was taught
with more detail and fubtilty than in former
times, the greatest part of the ftudious youth be-
came fo enamoured of this branch of philofophy,
as to abandon grammar, rhetoric, and all the
other liberal arts, that they might confecrate
their whole time to the difcuffion of logical quef-
tions, and the purfuit of metaphyfical fpecula-
tions. Nor was this furprifing, when we confi-
der, that, according to the opinion which now
prevailed in the republic of letters, a man who
was well verfed in dialectics, i. e. in logical and
metaphyfical knowledge, was reputed fufficiently
learned, and was fuppofed to ftand in need of no
other branches of erudition [7]. Hence that
contempt

[k] The trivium was a term invented in the times of
barbarifm to exprefs the three fciences that were first learned
in the fchools, viz. Grammar, rhetoric, and logic; and the
schools, in which these sciences alone were taught, were called
triviales. The quadrivium comprehended the four mathema-
tical fciences, viz. Arithmetic, mufic, geometry, and aftronomy.

[1] See BOULAY, Hift. Acad. Parif. tom. i. p. 408, 409.
511, 512. This is too likely to become the prevailing tafte
even in our times: but it is an ancient tafle, as we may eafily
perceive by cafting an eye upon the literary hiftory of the ele-
venth century.
And to confirm ftill farther the truth of that
vulgar faying, that there is nothing new under the fux, we shall

quote

轉

CEN T. contempt of languages and eloquence, of the

XI.

PART II. more elegant fciences, and the finer arts, which spread its baneful influence through the Latin provinces; and hence that barbarism and pedantic fophiftry that difhonoured, in fucceeding ages, the republic of letters, and corrupted, in a moft hideous manner, the noble fimplicity of true theology, and the pureft fystems of philofophical wisdom.

logic in

Dialectic or VI. The philosophy of the Latins, in this cenhigh repute, tury, was abfolutely confined within the circle of dialectics; while the other philofophical sciences were scarcely known by name [m]. This dialectic,

indeed,

quote the following paffage from the Metalogicum of JOHN of Salisbury, a writer of no mean abilities. lib. i. cap. in. p. 741 edit. Lugdun. Bat. 1639. Poeta, Hiftoriographi, habebantur infames, et fi quis incumbebat laboribus antiquorum, notabatur ut non modo afello Arcadia tardior, fed obtufior plumbo vel lapide, omnibus erat in rifum.—Suis enim, aut magiftri fui, quifquis incumbebat inventis.-Fiebant ergo fummi repente philosophi: nam qui illiteratus accefferat, fere non morabatur in fcholis ulterius quam co curriculo temporis, quo avium pulli plumefcunt.-Sed quid docebant novi doctores et qui plus fomniorum, quam vigiliarum in fcrutinio philofophiæ confumferant? Ecce nova fiebant omnia: innovabatur grammatica, immutabatur dialectica, contemnebatur rhetorica, et novas totius quadrivii vias, evacuatis priorum regulis, de ipfius philofophiæ adytis proferebant. Solam convenientiam, five rationem loquebantur, argumentum fonabat in ore omnium- ac ineptum nimis aut rude et a philosopho alienum, impoffibile credebatur convenienter et ad rationis normam quicquam dicere aut facere, nifi convenientis et rationis mentio expreffim erat inferta. Many more paffages of this nature are to be found in this author.

[m] We fhall, indeed, and many, in the records of this century, honoured with the title of Philofophers. Thus we hear of MANEGOLDUS the Philofopher, ADALARDUS the Philofopher, &c. But we must not attribute to the term philofo pher, when applied to these grammarians, the fenfe which it bore among the ancient Greeks and Latins, and which it fill bears in our times. In the ftile of, what we call, the middle age, every man of learning, of whatever kind his erudition might be, was called a philofopher, and this title was also given to the interpreters of fcripture, though that fet of men were, generally speaking, deftiture of true philofophy. See the

6

Chronicos

indeed, was miferably dry and barren, as long as CENT.
it was drawn from no other fource than the ten PARTH
categories falfely attributed to St. AUGUSTIN, or
from the explications of the Ariftotelian philo-
fophy compofed by PORPHYRY and AVERROES.
Thefe, however, were the only guides which the
fchools had to follow in the beginning of this
century; nor had the public teachers either ge-
nius or courage enough to enlarge the fyftem, or
to improve upon the principles of thefe dictators
in philosophy, whofe authority was treated as in-
fallible, and their productions, for a long time,
regarded as perfect, to the great detriment of
true fcience. But, about the year 1050, the face
of philofophy began to change, and the science of
logic affumed a new afpect. This revolution be-
gan in France, where feveral of the books of
ARISTOTLE had been brought from the schools of
the Saracens in Spain, and it was effected by a fet
of men highly renowned for their abilities and ge-
nius, fuch as BERENGER, ROSCELLINUS, HILDE-
BERT, and after them by GILBERT DE LA PORRE,
the famous ABELARD, and others. These emi-
nent logicians, though they followed the Stagirite
as their guide, took nevertheless the liberty to il-
luftrate and model anew his philosophy, and to
extend it far beyond its ancient limits.

VII. The philofophers of this age, who were
most famous for their zealous and fuccessful en-
deavours to improve the science of logic, and ac-
commodate it to general ufe, were LANFRANC, an
Italian by birth, who was abbot of St. STEPHENS
at Caen in Normandy, and was called from thence,

Chronicon Salernitanum in MURATORI Scriptor. rerum Italicarə
tom. ij. 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 Be-
nevento. We learn, however, by what follows, that these
philofophers were partly grammarians, and partly perfons who
were more or less versed in certain liberal arts.
Hh

VOL. II.

by

XI.

CENT. by WILLIAM the Conqueror, to the fee of Canter PART II. bury, ANSELM his fucceffor, and Opo, whose last promotion was the bishopric of Cambray. LANFRANC was fo deeply verfed in this science, that he was commonly called the Dialectician; and he employed with great dexterity the fubtilties of logic in the controverfy which was carried on between him and the learned BERENGER, against whom he maintained the real prefence of CHRIST'S body and blood in the holy facrament. ANSELM, in a very learned dialogue De Grammatico, throws much light upon the darkness and perplexity in which the science of logic had lain fo long involved; and, among other things, investigates, with no fmall fagacity, the nature of fubftance, and mode or quality, in order to convey juster notions of these metaphyfical entities than had been hitherto entertained [n]. This great prelate, who fhone with a diftinguished iuftre in feveral branches of literature both facred and profane, was the first of the Latin doctors who difpelled the clouds of ignorance and obfcurity that hung over the important fciences of metaphyfic and natural theology, as appears from two books of his compofition, wherein the truths concerning the Deity, which are deducible from the mere light of nature, are enumerated and explained with a degree of fagacity which could not well be ex pected from a writer of this century. He was the inventor of that famous argument, vulgarly and erroneously attributed to DESCARTES, which demonftrates the existence of God from the idea of an infinitely perfect Being naturally implanted in the mind of man, and which is to be found, without exception, in the breaft of every mortal. The folidity of this argument was, indeed, called

[2] This dialogue is to be found in the works of ANSELM, published by father GERBERON, tom. i. p. 143.

in