Christendom for the attainment of a religious object and one common cause, seemed calculated to contribute much towards a cessation of mutual jealousy,-of feuds and jarring interests which armed the whole body of christians in Europe one against the other.

Literature continued to be patronised in the East. The Turks who subjugated Persia, Syria and Palestine, protected the learned, and, with their concurrence, founded some academies. Their conquests in the Indies introduced the sciences, and the philosophy of the Arabs; and familiarised the Arabian and Greek philosophers with the philosophy of the Indies. The oriental philosophers were now no longer mere translators of the ancients; they commented and criticised their works; discussed their doctrine and their principles; arranged them in proper order and connection; and, from the total result of their combination, were qualified to elicit systems of their own.

At Constantinople, hunting, dancing and voluptuousness, seemed wholly to engross the public attention: the arts and sciences were utterly despised. In the reign, however, of Constantine Monomachus-the study of letters began once more to revive: grammar and philosophy were cultivated with much care; although this philosophy consisted merely in the art of forming syllogisms and of deducing sophistical conclusions. This was an exercise of the mental faculties caculated rather to narrow than improve them.

In the West the anathemata of the church; the dread of eternal torments; the virtues of several among the popes, bishops and other ecclesiastical superiors put a restraint upon the passions of the laity. Fewer acts of extortion, of rapine, and of plunder now took place than formerly: the churches and monasteries were more respected, discipline and order better observed: the sciences were cultivated in peace; public academies were open to all that wished to improve their understanding: the generous piety of monasteries and cathedrals supplied what was wanting to talents without fortune; and the schools were quickly crowded with an infinite number of students full of emulation and a noble ardor, which they diffused among all ranks and conditions of life. Kings, princes and noblemen;-princesses and ladies of the first quality and respectability, deemed it no disgrace to study diligently the elements of literature: learning, hitherto confined exclusively within the cloister, now burst forth with a kind of explosion which enlightened all Europe, and produced a sudden revolution in the ideas and the morals of mankind. It took off that savage predilection for arms and military ferocity,ever the result of ignorance and barbarism; and substituted in lieu of duelling and acts of violence, exercises more congenial with humanity, and a courage inspired by the principles of right reason and religion.

During the eleventh age the method of Alcuin was adopted in the schools, under the denomination of Trivium and Quadrivium. The Trivium included grammar, logic and dialectics: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, constituted what was termed Quadrivium. As at first the sciences were taught in the cathedral churches, and in the monasteries,-they were all made subservient to morality and religion. But when the number of schools was multiplied, and emulation spread more universally, philosophy became the chief object of the bulk of students, especially towards the middle of the eleventh age, when the works of Aristotle, of Avicennes and Averroes,-the introduction of Porphyrius and the categories attributed to St Augustin, were very generally studied in the West.

It is not necessary here to notice the tedious disputes of John the sophist, who maintained that logic as then taught treated only of abstract ideas, or rather of words expressing those ideas,with his opponents who would have it, that the objects of general and abstract ideas had a real existence in nature. Suffice it to remark, that these very important wrangles between the nominalists and realists, absorbed the greater part of the attention of schoolmen for several succeeding centuries; till Bacon caught the hint and decided the hard fought contest in favour of John the sophist.

Physics were absolutely unknown to the students of the eleventh age, if we except a part of natural history; that, for instance, which treats of animals and of precious stones, concerning which Hildebert, bishop of Mons, and Marbonius, of Rennes, put forth publications. The mechanism of nature was not studied; and extraordinary phenomena were deemed to prognosticate extraordinary events, or thought to be the work of a special superintending Providence. Nor was the eleventh age better versed in the art of criticism, than it was in natural philosophy; and of course, every uncommon incident had in it something of the miraculous.

At Constantinople, while the minds of private individuals seemed wholly immersed in pleasure, the ambitious patriarch Cerularius formed the project of vindicating to himself the title of Ecumenical or Universal; but he foresaw that the church of Rome would oppose an invincible obstacle to his wild pretensions. Therefore he renewed the groundless charges of Photius, and accused the western church of holding pernicious doctrines. He was excommunicated by the pope, and, to repay the compliment, he excommunicated the pontiff in his turn; found means to gain the confidence of the people; acquired much influence at the court; raised or tranquillized the populace at will, and caused the emperor himself to tremble upon his throne. After his death, the empire continued to be disturbed with that spirit of fanaticism which he had put in motion, and which all the efforts of the

imperial authority were not equal to control. With him commenced what is usually termed the Greek schism; which to this day separates the Russian christians from the communion of the Latin church.

In the West, the candidates for the ecclesiastic state pursued the course of studies adopted in the schools, and, agreeably to that method, applied themselves particularly to the dialectic. This was thought to qualify a person to reason upon any subject of which he understood the terms; and thus, the knowledge of the fathers and ecclesiastical authors was no longer deemed essential in theology. The syllogistic art was substituted in its place; and, with the aid of this art, persons undertook to treat of the dogmata, and explain the mysteries of faith. This fallacious method taught Berengarius the novel doctrine of Impanation in the eucharist, and Roscelin Tritheism in the blessed Trinity; each pretending to elucidate more satisfactorily, according to their new rule, these most sacred and ineffable mysteries of our religion.

After the total overthrow of the Manichees, the remnants of that sect had fled into Italy, and settled among the Lombards. From Lombardy they had occasionally dispersed themselves over the several states of Europe. In their doctrinal system they had introduced some changes; and they now professed a high esteem for poverty, and affected an extraordinary love of virtue. These very specious appearances seduced some undiscerning, though apparently exemplary christians, who were in consequence arrested, and remaining obstinately attached to their new belief, were sentenced by the magistrates to the stake. Their execution did not annihilate the sect; and its principles, disseminated with caution through the various provinces of the West, gradually fermented, and produced the most fatal effects in the succeeding centuries.

Twelfth century of the christian era.

The new state

In the East, all was anarchy and confusion. which the christians had there established, was the subject of continual wars. The sultans were constantly in the field to arrest the efforts of the crusards, who poured on all sides into Syria, Palestine and Africa; and, to complete the desolation of Asia, the celebrated Prester John, with a mighty army of Tartars from the remote regions of Thibet, extended his vast empire to the borders of the Tigris. The emperor of Constantinople, unable to repel the inroads of the Saracens, and jealous alike of the successes of the crusards, tampered first with one and then the other, without being able to take advantage either of their victories, or their defeats. He was equally at variance

with Turks and Saracens ;-with the Normans established in Italy, and the christians engaged in their expedition to the Holy Land. At home, the state had to struggle with the spirit of faction, and schismatical cabal. The people were overburdened with taxes by their voluptuous emperors, who for the most part indulged their extravagant humours and their luxurious propensities in the midst of the most dreadful national calamities: they were, accordingly, oftentimes deposed, and frequently murdered by their subjects.

Con

The West, as in the preceding century, was divided into an infinite number of provinces, petty sovereignties and states. Their respective chiefs made war upon each other; and the nobles and great lords seemed unable to support the tediousness of existence out of warfare. These disorders the Roman pontiffs endeavoured to correct, or at least to turn this general passion for arms-against usurpers and unjust oppressors; as also, against the common enemies of the christian name. sequently, it is not reasonable to attribute to ambition, or an undue system of self-aggrandisement, the efforts which they made to extend their own influence, and to contract the power of temporal princes. The celebrated Mr Leibnitz, who studied history as a philosopher and as a politician, and who, perhaps, was better acquainted than any other individual with the state of the West during these epochs of disorder, vouches,-that this overwhelming power of the popes often prevented the most serious disasters. To procure more infallibly the public good and the blessing of peace, they wished to transfer as great a share as possible, of that power and of those prerogatives enjoyed by temporal princes, and almost always by them abusedto the see of Rome. The right of investiture was a temptation to sovereigns to make a traffic of ecclesiastical benefices, bishoprics and abbeys. Gregory VII. contested this right, and would not allow it to Henry IV. Henry V. attempted to reassume it, was excommunicated, and subsequently forsaken by the greater part of his feudatory vassals. After a furious struggle of twenty years, he was compelled to accede to the demand of canonical elections throughout all the churches of the empire; -to renounce the claim of investiture by the ring and the crosier; and was to assist at the elections, merely for the maintenance of order, by the special permission of the pope. England was involved in the same unhappy contest.

The papal power-certainly on weak and fallacious groundsthus elevated to its zenith, became the object of ambition and cabal; its influence in the civil and political affairs of Europe made the election of a pope a concern of mighty importance to every crowned head: this laical interference in their election, made way for the introduction of antipopes; who caused pernicious schisms in the church, and excommunicated their com

petitors, together with the sovereigns that patronised their cause. Thus religious power began to predominate in every political occurrence in the West; and from this moment it must produce, or contribute largely to produce, all important révolutions;-must, of course, be attacked or defended by temporal princes, as their respective interests should direct; gradually die away in proportion as its credit should be abused, or be entrusted in the hands of the ambitious and ill-principled, or even virtuous persons devoid of judgment and discretion; and lose entirely, for want of moderation and prudence, even what in justice was its due, and what it were to be wished for the good of christianity, it had still retained; according to the wise remark of Mr Leibnitz. (Cod. Jur. Gent. diplom.)

The state of literature, notwithstanding the unfavourable aspect of things, was gradually improving. In the midst of the horrors of war, the califs, sultans and governors in the East, were for the most part themselves men of learning; and the schools or academies established throughout the Mussulman empire were respected. Some Arabian theologists controverted alike every system of religion and philosophy; while others pretended to justify Mahometism by philosophic principles. Averroes, the most famous of their philosophers, regarded Aristotle as a being who of all others approached the nighest to the divinity, and as one who had possessed a perfect knowledge of all truths.

The Constantinopolitan empire likewise had somewhat improved, from its frequent intercourse with the Saracens, and from its theological disputes with the Western church in order to justify its separation. During the course of the twelfth age it produced some philosophers, some theologians, and some few writers on jurisprudence.

The emulation which had been excited in the West during the preceding century, the patronage of princes, and the promotion, exclusively, of persons of distinguished merit to the higher dignities of the church,-combined with the introduction and astonishing propagation of the orders of Citeaux, Cluni, the Carthusians and regular canons, multiplied prodigiously academies and schools: which in every abbey, and almost in every monastery in the West, were opened for the purpose of diffusing literary, as well as religious improvement. The art of writing was cultivated with greater application and success in this, than in the foregoing age; nor had the eleventh century any authors comparable to St Bernard, or Peter Abelard.

The contests in which the popes were engaged with sovereigns, and sovereigns respectively with each other; also those of different religious orders with their impugners, induced many to apply themselves to the study of the canonical and civil law, as well as of profane and ecclesiastical history. Sacred biography,