Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/69

 under the guise of a narrative of the adventures of Burnellus, or Brunellus, an ass who wants a longer tail, and who is explained in a prose introduction as typifying the discontented and ambitious monk. Both the introduction and the poem itself are addressed to a person named William, probably Longchamp before his elevation to episcopal dignity. An allusion to King Louis of France (ib. i. 17) seems to indicate that the poem was written before the death of Louis VII in 1180. It attained great popularity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as is shown by the large number of manuscripts still extant in continental as well as English libraries. The British Museum contains two copies of an edition printed at Cologne in 1499, besides three or four undated editions which are probably earlier. The only recent edition is that of Thomas Wright in the Rolls Series (ib. i. 3). Chaucer refers to the poem as ‘Dan Burnel the asse’ in the ‘Nonnes Preestes Tale’ (Canterbury Tales, ed. Tyrwhitt, l. 15318).

The next in importance of Nigel's works is the prose treatise ‘Contra Curiales et Officiales Clericos,’ an epistle addressed, together with a prologue in elegiac verse, to William Longchamp as bishop of Ely, chancellor, and legate (printed by Wright, Anglo-Latin Satir. Poets, i. 146). It was written after the capture of King Richard at the end of 1192, but while Longchamp was still an exile from England (ib. i. 217, 224); and may therefore be assigned to 1193, or the beginning of 1194. Nigel addresses the chancellor in terms of affection and intimacy; but he does not exempt him from his strictures on prelates and other ecclesiastics who neglect their sacred calling for secular pursuits: in fact the work is largely devoted to proving the incompatibility of the office of chancellor with that of bishop.

The poems in Vespasian D. xix. are: (1) Several short pieces, including some verses to Honorius (prior of Christ Church, 1186–8) and an elegy on his death (21 Oct. 1188); (2) ‘Miracula S. Mariæ Virginis;’ (3) ‘Passio S. Laurentii;’ (4) ‘Vita Pauli Primi Eremitæ.’ Among them is also a copy of the well-known poem on monastic life, beginning ‘Quid deceat monachum, vel qualis debeat esse,’ which appears in many editions of the works of Anselm [q. v.] It was ascribed by Wright (ib. ii. 175) to Alexander Neckam, apparently on the sole authority of Leland (Collect. iii. 28); it has also been attributed, with better reason, to Roger of Caen, a monk at Bec, and friend of Anselm (Hist. Litt. de la France, viii. 421). Some verses on the succession of archbishops of Canterbury, from Augustine to Richard (d. 1184), seem to be the work of Nigel (Vitellius A. xi. f. 37 b; Arundel MS. 23, f. 66 b); and Leland mentions ‘Liber distinctionum super novum et vetus testamentum’ and ‘Excerptiones de Warnerio Gregoriano super Moralia Job,’ both by him, among the books which he saw at Canterbury (Collect. iii. 8). The poem ‘Adversus Barbariem,’ ascribed to Nigel by Bale, and afterwards by Wright (Anglo-Latin Satir. Poets, i. 231), is really the ‘Entheticus ad Polycraticum’ of John of Salisbury [q. v.]

[Wright's Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, vol. i., and Stubbs's Epist. Cantuar. p. lxxxv, both in Rolls Ser.; Wright's Biogr. Brit., Anglo-Norman period, p. 351; Ward's Catalogue of Romances, ii. 691, 695; information kindly given by R. L. Poole, esq.] 

NIGER, RALPH (fl. 1170), historian and theologian, is said to have been a native of Bury St. Edmunds, where manuscripts of several of his works were formerly preserved. According to his own statement in the preface to the second part of his ‘Moralia on the Books of Kings,’ Ralph studied at Paris under Gerard La Pucelle, who began to teach in or about 1160. Ralph himself possibly taught rhetoric and dialectics there. He is said to have been archdeacon of Gloucester, but his name does not appear in Le Neve's ‘Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.’ Ralph was a supporter of Thomas Becket, and two letters written to him on the archbishop's behalf by John of Salisbury in 1166 are extant (Materials for History of Thomas Becket, vi. 1–8). The continuator of his second chronicle states that Ralph, having been accused before Henry II, fled into exile, and in revenge inserted in his history a savage and unseemly attack on the king. Nothing is known of Ralph's later life, but he would seem to have survived till after the accession of Baldwin to the see of Canterbury in 1184 (Chron. pp. 166, 168). He can hardly be the Ralph Niger who was afflicted with madness as a penalty for dissuading his shipmates from visiting the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury (Materials for History of Thomas Becket, i. 303). Ralph Niger has been constantly confused with another Ralph (Radulphus Flaviacensis), who was a Benedictine monk at Flaix, in the diocese of Beauvais. Alberic of Trois Fontaines says that Ralph of Flaix flourished in 1157, and was the author of a commentary on Leviticus; but, though the two Ralphs were contemporaries, there is no sufficient ground for treating them as the same person.

Ralph Niger was the author of two chronicles: 1. ‘Chronicon ab orbe condito