Thomas Andrew Archer

“ Into the curious history of the short-lived pagan revival in the Western empire there is no need to enter here. Zosimus assures us that the tears of Galla threw the whole court into confusion; but there can be little doubt that to a religious, if not superstitious, mind like that of Theodosius it might well have seemed that he was fighting the battles of God, as he led his army of the cross against an enemy on whose standard shone the image of Hercules (Theodoret, v. 24) . His host consisted partly of Romans and partly of barbarians. ”

“ Even after the lapse of 150 years the general of his order, Spagnuoli, could sing of him as the great glory of the Carmelites, adding that no one has ever known the mind of Averroes better than he; and that by following his footsteps a man would become a second Aristotle. The same verses represent him as demolishing the 'footprints of the cloudy Scot,' Duns Scotus, the almost contemporary pride of the Franciscans. When summoned to Rome, Baconthorpe ceased to be the English provincial, in order that he might have more leisure for preaching and the study of the Scriptures (Bale, Heliad. i. 28) . ”

“ The Speculum Doctrinale, in seventeen books and 2374 chapters, is a summary of all the scholastic knowledge of the age and does not confine itself to natural history. It is intended to be a practical manual for the student and the official alike; and, to fulfil this object, it treats of the mechanic arts of life as well as the subtleties of the scholar, the duties of the prince and the tactics of the general. The first book, after defining philosophy, &c., gives a long Latin vocabulary of some 6000 or 7000 words. ”

“ Darker still were the iniquities of Carthage, surpassing even the unconcealed licentiousness of Gaul and Spain (iv. 5) ; and more fearful to Salvian than all else was it to hear men swear “by Christ” that they would commit a crime (iv. 15) . It would be the atheist’s strongest argument if God left such a state of society unpunished (iv. 12) —especially among Christians, whose sin, since they alone had the Scriptures, was worse than that of barbarians, even if equally wicked, would be (v. 2) . ”

“ Under the new abbot's rule, Arbroath soon became a favourite place for the holding of councils. It was here, and probably by Bernard's own hand, that the whole Scotch nation drew up its famous letter to John XXII, claiming its right to choose its own king, and declaring that even if he failed them—the Robert who was at once their Joshua and Maccabæus—yet they would elect another king of their own race rather than be subject to strangers. Meanwhile Bernard had been busy regulating the financial and other matters connected with the monastic estates ”

“ In England nearly all the worst evidence comes at second or third hand or through the depositions of Franciscans and Dominicans. Yet it can hardly be doubted that the "spuitio super crucem” did form a part of the initiation ceremony. Even the English Templars admitted that the statutes of the order were one and the same all the world over; and there is no setting aside the consistent evidence of almost every French Templar as to his guilt in this matter. ”

“ One main fault of the Speculum Historiale is the unduly large space devoted to miracles. Four of the medieval historians from whom he quotes most frequently are Sigebert of Gembloux, Hugh of Fleury, Helinand of Froidmont, and William of Malmesbury, whom he uses for Continental as well as for English history.
Vincent has thus hardly any claim to be reckoned as an original writer. But it is difficult to speak too highly of his immense industry in collecting, classifying and arranging these three huge volumes of 80 books and 9885 chapters. ”

“ Wilfrid on his journey to and from Rome was kindly received by Dalphinus, the archbishop of Lyons, who offered to make the young Englishman his heir and to give him his daughter in marriage. ‘But at that time,’ Eddius continues, ‘an evilly-disposed queen, Baldhild by name, persecuted the church of God. As the most wicked Jezebel of old, who slew God's prophets, so she bade slay ten bishops, of whom this Dalphinus was one.’ Bathilda seems to have given orders for him to be brought to the court, and to have had him slain on the way. ”

“ From the middle years of the 12th century the people of Toulouse seem to have begun to free themselves from the most oppressive feudal dues. An act of Alphonse-Jourdain (1141) exempts them from the tax on salt and wine; and in 1152 we have traces of a " commune consilium Tolosse " making police ordinances in its own name "with the advice of Lord Raymond, count of Toulouse, duke of Narbonne, and marquis of Provence. " ”

“ To quote Fuller's words, we may in 'this Robert Bacon behold the senior of all the Bacons which, like tributary streams, have disembogued themselves with all the credit of their actions into Roger Bacon, who in process of time hath monopolised the honour of all his sirname-sakes,' and the chief task of his biographer is to assign to him those actions which seem to be his due. ”

“ The commander of the kingdom guarded the treasure-house, to which even the grand-master might not have a key; the commander of the city of Jerusalem had charge of the True Cross in time of war. There were twelve or perhaps more commanders or preceptors of the different provinces and kingdoms of Europe and Asia,—Jerusalem (kingdom and city) , Acre, Tripoli, Antioch, France, England, Poitou, Aragon, Portugal, Apulia, and Hungary. No European preceptor could cross the sea without the grand-master’s leave; but all ought to be present at the election to this office. ”

“ Books xii.-xiv. deal with medicine both in practice and in theory: they contain practical rules for the preservation of health according to the four seasons of the year, and treat of various diseases from fever to gout. Book xv. deals with physics and may be regarded as a summary of the Speculum Naturale. Book xvi. is given up to mathematics, under which head are included music, geometry, astronomy, astrology, weights and measures, and metaphysics. It is noteworthy that in this book Vincent shows a knowledge of the Arabic numerals, though he does not call them by this name. ”

“ Duncan succeeded in expatriating his uncle and establishing himself in his stead; but the young king found his followers unpopular with the very Scots who had made him king. These rose up in a body, cut off the strangers almost to a man, and only consented to retain Duncan as their king on condition of his taking an oath to introduce no more English or Normans into the country. ”

“ Men who could thus play with their own consciences at their initiation might well, when their lives were in peril, clothe a falsehood in the garb of truth by denying “spuitio super crucem” instead of confessing to “spuitio juxta crucem.” ”

“ These two seem to have given great offence to unprejudiced hearers by the system they adopted; for, without bringing forward passages from the writings of Bishop Gilbert, they proposed to swear that they had heard heretical opinions fall from his lips; and people were astonished that men of position, so well exercised in the true methods of argument (‘viros magnos et in ratione disserendi exercitatos’) should offer an oath for a proof. This Adam de Parvo-Ponte, then, was a canon of Paris in 1147, and considered an adept in the science of dialectics. ”

“ The great council of Constantinople, consisting of 150 orthodox and 36 Macedonian bishops, met in the following year, confirmed the Nicene faith, ordered the affairs of the various sees, and declared the bishop of Constantinople to rank next to the bishop of Rome. The emperor cannot be acquitted of the intolerance which marks edicts such as that depriving apostatizing Christians of the right of bequest. ”

“ Gilbert de Clare was the most powerful English noble of his day. Besides his immense estates in Wales and Ireland, he possessed lands in twenty-two English counties (Escheat Rolls, i. 131) . In his early years he appears to have been very fickle in his political attachments, and want of loyalty to his leaders was strikingly exemplified in his conduct towards Simon de Montfort and Prince Edward. There was something chivalrous, however, in his attitude towards the disinherited barons, and in his care to secure the safety of his adherents among the London citizens. ”

“ Roughly speaking, they confess with the most elaborate detail to every charge,—even the most loathsome; and the perusal of their evidence induces a constant suspicion that their answers were practically dictated to them in the process of the examination or invented by the witnesses themselves. [4] In England, where perhaps torture was not used, out of eighty Templars examined only four confessed to the charge of denying Christ, and of these four two were apostate knights. But some English Templars would only guarantee the purity of their own country. ”

“ Louis de Beaumont was present on this occasion, and it cannot be doubted that a man of his high birth and courage had much to do with the decision there arrived at — to render aid against the Scotch invasions, but to hold political matters over till the next parliament. Louis does not seem to have been a very vigorous protector of his palatinate against the Scotch, though this was one of the pleas on which Edward II urged the pope to appoint him; and we have a letter from that king reproaching the bishop for being by no means a 'stone wall' against the enemy. ”

“ The Templars carried the body of their dead sovereign to Jerusalem for burial; and then, unknown to the barons of the realm, Gerard and the patriarch crowned Sibylla and her husband Guy. The coronation of Guy was the triumph of Reginald of Châtillon, once prince of Antioch, and Saladin’s deadliest foe. It was at the same time the overthrow of Raymond's ambition; and both Latin and Arabic writers are agreed that the Christian count and the Mohammedan sultan now entered into an alliance. ”

“ Nor did he ape the usual pride of bishops in those days. ‘The primate of all England,’ says his biographer, ‘did not blush to take off his own shoes or to bear the cross from chapel to study with his own hands.’ But that which most impressed the imagination of his own generation was his absolute purity. ”

“ The latter half of the compact was enforced, but not the former; and the barbarians, left without any sustenance, began to plunder the open country. After their great victory at Adrianople they reached the walls of Constantinople, whence they were driven back by the valour of a band of Saracens. Meanwhile the Ostrogoths, the Taifali, the Huns, and the Alans had all crossed the Danube to share the spoils of the empire; and it was against this motley host that Theodosius had to contend. ”

“ The extreme unpopularity of Queen Eleanor is reflected in nearly all the contemporary annalists. Nor were these unfortunate relations confined to her subjects alone. In 1252 her arrogant conduct provoked her patient husband into an exclamation against feminine pride. Despite the affection which her eldest son, Edward, seems to have constantly shown for her, she is said by one chronicler to have been the cause of the quarrel between him and his father in 1260. Even her affection for her kinsmen is no justification for her waste of English treasure on their behalf. ”

“ From this time the counts of Toulouse were the greatest lords in southern France. Raymond IV., the hero of the first crusade, assumed the formal titles of marquis of Provence, duke of Narbonne, and count of Toulouse. While Raymond was away in the Holy Land, Toulouse was seized by William IX., duke of Aquitaine, who claimed the city in right of his wife Philippa, the daughter of William IV., but was unable to hold it long (1098-1100) . ”

“ He allowed no plundering among his followers, but countenanced the deposition of the great men of the city, and the tempprary institution of what a contemporary ndon chronicler calls a ‘commune’ of the ‘homines minuti.’ Henry at once came south with his army, rescued the legate, apparently by water, but, being unable to effect an entrance within the walls, encamped at Stratford. ”