Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/117

Rh witness to the attractive force of his personality. At his death, says the biographer of saint Odilo, n the study of philosophy in France decayed, and the glory of her priesthood well-nigh perished. But Fulbert's learning was that of a divine, though he was a scholar and a mathematician too. He was wont of an evening to take his disciples apart in the little garden beside the chapel, and discourse to them of the prime duty of life, to prepare for the eternal fatherland hereafter. Without this presiding thought there was infinite danger in the study of letters by themselves: they were only worth cultivating in so far as they ministered to man's knowledge of divine things.

We have little information concerning the fortunes of the school of Chartres after Fulbert's death in 1029; but it is natural to presume that the literary tradition of the city, if not unbroken, was before long restored by the presence, whether his influence was actively exercised or not, of its bishop, the great lawyer Ivo, o a religious man, as he is described, and of great learning, who in his youth had heard master Lanfranc, prior of Bec, treat of secular and divine letters in that famous school which he had at Bec. Certainly some time towards the close of Ivo's life (he died in 1115 ) the school emerges again