Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/69

 60

LITERATURE.

1

it is yet held. King John, upon whose head a pile of crimes, crowned by pusillanimity, died Oct. 19, 1216, at Newark Castle, aeed 57 years, and was buried in Worcester cathedral.

From the time of the Conquest, to this period, upwards of five hundred monasteries were built, in each of which a school was kept ; thus increas- ing both the number of teachers and students, multiplying the inducements to pursue know- ledge, and more than all, making books much more common and attainable, than at any former period. The circle of the sciences was, of course, much enlarged beyond the trivium and quadri- vium, of former ages, and each was reduced to a more distinct purpose and method

1216. Henry, m his Hutory of England, states tha> the following parts of learning were culti- vated in some degree in Britain, during the period from 1066 to 1216: — grammar, rhetoric, logic, metaphysics, physics, ethics, scholastic divinity, the canon law, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, astrology, and medicine. He also gives the fol- lowing anecdote, to shew the trifling questions that were agitated by the loquacious of this period. " When a hog is carried to market with a rope tied about its neck, which is held at the other end by a man, whether is the hog carried to market by the rope or the man."

1220. At this period, there were seventy public libraries in Arabian Spain, which contained 250,000 volumes. The Jews of Spain also, were much devoted to literature: Leo Africanus speak- ing of booksellers, alludes to one Jewish philoso- pherof Cordova, who.having follenin love, turned poet : his verses, he adds, were publicly sold in a street in that city, which he calls the bookseller's street. Mr. Hallam says, booksellers appear in the latter part of this century ; and quotes Peter of Blois, who mentions a law book w-hich he had bought from a public seller of books.

1225. Roger de Insula, dean of York, gave several Latin bibles to the university of Oxford, with a condition, that the students who perused them, should deposit a cautionary pledge. /The library of that university, before 'l300, cons'isted only of a few tracts, chained or kept in chests in St. Mary's church. — Warton.

1226. In the great revenue-roll of John Ger- veys, bishop of Winchester, there is an item of five skillitu/s, expended for parchment in oneyear. Wheat was from two to three shillings a quarter, or eight bushels.

1228, July 9. Died Stephen Langton, arch- bbhopof Canterbury, to which he was nominated by Innocent III. in 1207, vacant by the death of Hubert Walter, and was consecrated by the pope hin^lf at Viterbo. This nomination being re- garded as an usurpation of the rights of the king of England, and by the monks and bishops of his province, met with a violent resistance from the king. The pope enraged at the disappointment, laid both the king and kingdom under an inter- dict, which was pronounced by the bishops of London, Elv, and Worcester, March 28th, 1208. At length, dispirited by opposition from the pope and foreign princes from abroad, and from the

barons, and many of the clergy and people tt home, the king submitted to the election of Ste- phen, and purchased his peace with the Roman pontiff, bv a charter granted to certain prelates, and the payment of 40,000 marks. In 1222, the archbishop called a council at Oxford, at which a number of constitutions were framed, Irom which a few are extracted, as illustrating the , practice and manners of the age.*

On various occasions the archbishop disco- vered a haughty independence, particularly in his conduct towards his sovereign and the pope. The irritated pope excommunicated and sus- pended him, ano reversed the election of his brother Simon Langton, who had been chosen to the see of York. Prior, however, to the calling of the council at Oxford, these violent measures appear to have been relinquished.

Stephen Langton was by birth an Englishnun. He received hLs education at Paris, and became so eminent for scholastic learning, that he was created chancellor of the university of Paris, canon of Paris,and dean of Rheims ; and on his being called to Rome, he was placed among the cardinals, by Innocent III. He was author of Commentaries on many of the books of the Old and New Testament, and many other works. He died at Slindon, in Sussex, and was buried in the cathedral at Canterbury.

1229. The council of Toidouse held in this year, by Romanus, cardinal of St. Angelo, and the pope's legate,formed the/irrt court of InqtU- >ition,a.nd published the first canon which forbade the scriptures to the laity.

1229, Dec. 7. On this day, the Boy Bishop, in the chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-upon- Tyne, said vespers before Edward I. on his way to Scotland, who made a considerable present to him and the other boys who sang with him. In the reign of Edward III. he received nineteen shillings andsixpence,forsinging before the king, in his private chamber on Innocents' day.

The ceremony of the Boy Bishop, is supposed to have existed not only in collegiate churches, but in almost everv parish. A statue of the coUegiate church of St. Mary Offrey, in 1337, retained one of them within the limits of its own parish. Dean Coletf in the statutes of the school founded by him in 1510, at St. Pauls, expressly orders that his scholars shall, every Chilaermat (Innocents') day, come to Paul's "Church, and hear the Chylde-Byshop's sermon: and after be

• CoMtit. SI. We forbid with the terror of anathena any one to retain robbers in his service, for commlttlat robberies : or Icnowingly to let them dwell on his lands.

31. Let not clerj^ymen, that are t)eneflccd, or in iMtjr orders, publicly keep concnbinea in their manses, [« parsonage houses,} or have public access to them with scandal, any where else.

36. We decree that nuns, and other religions women, wear no Rillc veils, nor needles of silver or gold in thdr veils ; that neither monks nor canons regtdar, have ginHW of silk, or garnished with gold or silver j nor use burned (artificial brown) or any Irregular cloth. Let the dlmcn. sions of their clothes be commensorate to their bodies, oat longer than to cover their feet, like Joseph's coat, whieb came down to the anldes. Only the nuns may wear a ring, and but one.

t John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, died Sept iff, isif, and was buried in St. Paul's,

VjOOQ IC