Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/334

 32G THE MASTERS OF THE SCHOOLS AT July stayed there until he was recalled to Chartres. The third letter which concerns us (xxin) was written by a monk G. to Master G., recommending his kinsman Geoffrey for admission to his instruc- tion, in scola vestra docendum, at Chartres. It is tempting to find in Master G, William of Conches, who was a leading disciple of Bernard : the letter preceding it (xxn) speaks of tabulae which had been asked back a domno Guillelmo, who may be the same person as magister G. The letter-book thus brings before us several masters living at Chartres about 1118, whom there are reasons for connecting with that place later on, Bernard and his brother and William of Conches ; also Gilbert of La Porree, who had studied at Chartres, but was no longer there. III. Bernard of Chartres The school attached to the cathedral church of Our Lady at Chartres had two officers. Its head was the chancellor, who also conducted the business of the chapter ; and under him was the master of the schools, who actually gave the instruction.* The inferior office was held by Bernard in 1115,^ and probably a good deal earlier ; for Gilbert of La Porree studied under him before he attended Anselm of Laon,^ and Anselm died in 1117. The chancellorship was occupied by one Vulgrin from about 1099 to about 1119. There is no reason to doubt that he was succeeded by Bernard, who is named as chancellor in 1124 * and perhaps a little earlier ; but he ceased to be chancellor before November 1126, when Gilbert of La Porree held the office,^ and there has been much discussion as to what happened to him afterwards. John of Salisbury gives so large a description of Bernard's method of teaching that Schaarschmidt and Haureau * were persuaded that he wrote from personal knowledge. I myself shared this opinion in 1884.' It was supposed that after his retirement before the latter part of 1126 Bernard still continued to take a friendly interest in the school. It should, however, be observed that, so far from saying that he had learned directly from Bernard, he concluded his account with the words ' Ad huius magistri formam praeceptores mei in grammatica Gulielmus de Conchis et Ricardus cognomento Episcopus. . . suos discipulos aliquandiu informaverunt '.* This was the good old method ; but now things are changed, and every one wants to get to the and A. Clerval, Un Manuscrit Chartrain du XI' sieclc, p. 196, Chartres, 1893. au Moyen-Age, p. 160. * Otto of Freising, Oeata Friderici, i. 50 [52]. ' lUtislrationa of the History of Medieval Thought, pp. 120, 206
 * The two officers appear together in a document of about 1121 : see R. Merlet
 * Haur^AU, Mim. de PAcad. dea Inscr., xxxi. ii. 90 ; Clerval, Lea Bcolea de Chartres
 * Cartvlaire de SairU-Pire, p. 469. » Ibid. p. 267. * Ubi supra, p. 91.
 * Jtf c/o/off. i. 24.