Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/315

Rh of a education. These last four chapters occur also in 'Hirschau,' but at the beginning of the book, under the title of Aliquot philosophicae Sententiae. In the closing sentence of 'Bede,' which also concludes the section prefixed to 'Hirschau,' we read the following scheme of the order in which learning should proceed:

b Ordo vero discendi talis est ut quia per eloquentiam omnis fit doctrina, prius instruamur in eloquentia cuius sunt tres partes.... Initiandi ergo sumus in grammatica, deinde in dialectica, postea in rhetorica. Quibus instructi et ut armis muniti, ad studium philosophiae debemus accedere, cuius hic est ordo, ut prius in quadrivio,.. deinde in divina pagina, quippe ut per cognitionem creaturae ad cognitionem creatoris perveniamus.

This in reality opens a new division of the author's whole subject; for, as 'Honorius' continues, quoniam in omni doctrina grammatica praecedit, it is his design to treat of grammar and, we may presume, of the other studies in their order. c Sed quoniam, he concludes, ''de propositis supra.. sectantes compendia diximus, ut animus lectoris alacrior ad caetera accedat, hic quartae partis longitudinem terminemus.''

6. Hitherto I have assumed nothing with respect to the authorship of the work in question, although at the outset its absence from the list of William of Hirschau's works given by d Trittenheim, who had peculiar qualifications for knowing about the monastery of Hirschau, may seem to raise a presumption against its accuracy; not to speak of the surprise with which we find that most orthodox abbat credited with a theology betraying only too evidently the influence of Abailard. I have limited myself to showing the identity of the three works, which had previously, as I thought, escaped detection. In this I have since learned that I was mistaken. The fact was pointed out by Dr. Valentin Rose in the Literarische Centralblatt so long ago as e June 16, 1861. The sequel was interesting. f Dr. von Prantl in a reply professed with remarkable courage his