Bibliomania in the Middle Ages Part 24

"I am like other Clerkes, which so frowardly them gyde, That after they are once come unto promotion, They give them to pleasure, their study set aside, Their auarice couering with fained deuotion; Yet dayly they preache and have great derision Against the rude laymen, and all for couetise, Through their owne conscience be blended with that vice.

"But if I durst truth plainely utter and expresse, This is the speciall cause of this inconvenience, That greatest of fooles & fullest of lewdness, Having least wit and simplest science, Are first promoted, & have greatest reverence; For if one can flatter & bear a hauke on his fist, He shall be made Parson of Honington or of Elist.

"But he that is in study ay firme and diligent, And without all favour preacheth Christe's love, Of all the Cominalite nowe adayes is sore shent, And by estates threatned oft therfore.

Thus what anayle is it to us to study more, To knowe ether Scripture, truth, wisdome, or virtue, Since fewe or none without fauour dare them shewe.

"But O n.o.ble Doctours, that worthy are of name, Consider oure olde fathers, note well their diligence, Ensue ye to their steppes, obtayne ye suche fame As they did living; and that, by true prudence Within their heartes, thy planted their science, And not in pleasaunt bookes, but noue to fewe suche be, Therefore to this ship come you & rowe with me.

"The Lennoy of Alexander Barclay, Translatour, exhorting the fooles accloyed with this vice, to amende their foly.

"Say worthie Doctours & Clerkes curious, What moneth you of bookes to have such number, Since diuers doctrines through way contrarious, Doth man's minde distract and sore encomber.

Alas blinde men awake, out of your slumber; And if ye will needes your bookes multiplye, With diligence endeuor you some to occupye."[472]

FOOTNOTES:

[438] Thirteen Dominicans were sent into England in the year 1221; they held their first provincial council in England in 1230 at Oxford, three years before St. Dominic was canonized by pope Gregory.

[439] Four clercs and five laymen of the Franciscan order were sent into England in 1224; ten years afterwards we find their disciples spreading over the whole of England.

[440] Edward the Second regarded them with great favor, and wrote several letters to the pope in their praise; he says in one, "Desiderantes itaque, pater sancte ordinis fratrum praedicatorum Oxonii, ubi religionis devotio, et honestatis laudabilis decer viget, per quem etiam honor universitatis Oxoniensis, et utilitas ibidem studentium, etc." Dugdale's Monast. vol. vi. p. 1492.

[441] A list of celebrated authors who flourished in England, and who were members of the Dominican Order, will be found in _Steven's Monasticon_, vol. ii. p. 193, more than 80 names are mentioned. A similar list of authors of the Franciscan order will be found at p.

97 of vol. i. containing 122 names; and of the Carmelite authors, vol. ii. p. 160, specifying 137 writers; a great proportion of their works are upon the Scriptures.

[442] Dr. Cave says, "In scholis Christianis pene unice regnavit scholastica theologia, advocata in subsidium Aristotelis philosophia, eaque non ex Graecis fontibus _sed ex turbidis Arab.u.m lacunis, ex versionibus male factis, male intellectis, hansta_."

_Hist. Liter._, p. 615. But I am not satisfied that this has been proved, though often affirmed.

[443] It was probably the work of Andrew the Jew. _Meiners_, ii. p.

664.

[444] At a council held at Paris in the year 1209, the works of Aristotle were proscribed and ordered to be burnt. _Launvius de Varia Aristotelis fortuna_. But in spite of the papal mandate the friars revived its use. Richard Fizacre, an intimate friend of Roger Bacon, was so pa.s.sionately fond of reading Aristotle, that he always carried one of his works in his bosom. _Stevens Monast._, vol. ii.

p. 194.

[445] See what has been said of the Mendicants at p. 79.

[446] Steven's additions to Dugdale's Monasticon from the MSS. of Anthony a Wood in the library at Oxford, vol. i. p. 129. Agnell himself was "_a man of scarce any erudition_."--_Ibid._

[447] He is spoken of under a mult.i.tude of names, sometimes Grosthead, Grouthead, etc. A list of them will be found in Wood's Oxford by Gutch, vol. i. p. 198.

[448] He gives strict injunctions as to the study of the Scriptures in his _Const.i.tutiones_.--See Pegge's Life of Grostest, p. 315.

[449] Utilitate Scientiarum, cap. x.x.xix.

[450] De Confess. Amantis, lib. iv. fo. 70, _Imprint_. Caxton _at Westminster_, 1483. The bishop is said to have taken a journey from England to Rome one night on an infernal horse.--Pegge's Life of Grostest, p. 306.

[451] Stephen's additions to Dugdale's Monasticon from Anthony a Wood's MSS. vol. i. p. 133.

[452] The Mendicant orders, unlike the monks, were not remarkable for their industry in transcribing books: their roving life was unsuitable to the tedious profession of a scribe.

[453] Leland's Itin. vol. iii. p. 59.

[454] Oliver's Collections relating to the Monasteries in Devon, 8vo. 1820, appendix lxii.

[455] Cottonian MSS. Vittel, F. xii. 13. fol. 325, headed "_De Fundacione Librarie_."

[456] The library was 129 feet long and 31 feet broad, and most beautifully fitted up.--_Lelandi Antiquarii Collectanea_, vol. i. p.

109.

[457] This refers to the custom then prevalent of chaining their books, especially their choice ones, to the library shelf, or to a reading desk.

[458] MS. _ibid._ fo. o. 325 b.

[459] Script. Brit. p. 241, and Collectanea, iii. 52.

[460] Leland's Collect. vol. iii. p. 51. He found in the priory of the Dominicans at Cambridge, among other books, a _Biblia in lingua vernacula_.

[461] Steven's Monast. vol. ii. p. 194.

[462] His works were of the impressions of the Air--of the Wonder of the Elements--of Ceremonial Magic--of the Mysteries of Secrets--and the Correction of Chemistry.

[463] Sieben's Monast. vol. i. p. 183, from the MSS. of Anthony a Wood, who says, "What became of them (their books) at the dissolution unless they were carried into the library of some college, I know not."

[464] They obtained much wealth by the sale of pardons and indulgences. Margaret Est, of the convent of Franciscans, ordered her letters of pardon and absolution, to partake of the indulgences of the convent, to be returned as soon she was buried. _Bloomfield's Hist. of Norfolk_, vol. ii. p. 565.

[465] And among others of St. Augustine's books, _De Civitate Dei_, with many notes in the margins, by Grostest. _Wood's Hist. Oxon_, p.

78.

[466] Anthony a Wood in Steven's Monast. vol. i. p. 133.

[467] Script. Brit. p. 286.

[468] Le Boeuf gives an instance of one being represented as early as the eleventh century, in which Virgil was introduced. _Hallam's Lit. of Europe_, vol. i. p. 295. The case of Geoffry of St. Albans is well known, and I have already mentioned it.

[469] MS. Cottonian Vespasian, D. viii. fo. 1. Codex Chart. 225 folios, written in the fifteenth century. Sir W. Dugdale, in his Hist. of Warwick, p. 116, mentions this volume; and Stevens, in his Monast. has printed a portion of it. Mr. Halliwell has printed them with much care and accuracy.

[470] MS. Cottonian Vitel. E. 5. _Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry_, vol.

iii. p. 326.

[471] The original was written in 1494.

[472] Ship of Fooles, folio 1570, Imprynted by Cawood, fol. 1.

CHAPTER XIII.