says Matthew Paris, "he began to feel in his mind, "the great tribulation, which threatened the

church, but which we did not then foresee." The historian relates at length the discourse, which our prelate held on this important topic, while he lay on his death-bed.

He died in October 1253, universally beloved and respected; and, if we should believe M. Paris, God gave immediate testimony of his having been received into eternal happiness, by miracles wrought through his intercession. The fame of these, and the general opinion of his sanctity, were so prevalent throughout the realm, that, within fifty years after his decease, four solemn applications were made to Rome for his canonization: the first, by the university of Oxford; the second, by John le Romaine, archbishop of York; the third, by William Grenfield, archbishop of the same see; the fourth, by the dean and chapter of St. Paul's in Lincoln. All were unsuccessful: "still it is true," as doctor Pegge* justly observes, "that, for his learning " and abilities, he is still valued and revered in the "breasts of all reasonable men." From the time of his decease, till the period of the reformation, he was generally known by the appellation of "The holy Robert of Lincoln."

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"The holy bishop Robert," says Matthew Paris†, departed out of this world, which he never loved, " and which was always to him as a place of banish"ment. He was the open reprover both of my lord "the pope and of the king; the censurer of pre

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"lates, the corrector of the monks, the instructor "of the clergy, the supporter of scholars, the preacher to the laity, the punisher of incontinence, the diligent investigator of various writings, and lastly, he was the scourge of the lazy "and selfish Romans, whom he heartily despised. "In the supply of the temporal table, liberal, copious, polite, cheerful and affable; in the spiritual table, devout, humble and contrite; in "the episcopal office, diligent, venerable, and indefatigable."

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CHAP. IX.

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE STATE OF LITERATURE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.

To complete the succinct view, which we have attempted to give, in the preceding pages, of some of the principal events in the history of religion in England before the reformation, it appears advisable that we should add to them some historical minutes of the state of English literature during the same period :-they will be preceded by some observations on the literature of Greece and Rome, which the subject naturally suggests.

IX. 1.

The Literature of Greece.

THE arts and literature of Greece attained their summit in the reign of Alexander the great. Her

first authors were her poets: their fables and traditions seem to have contained all her religion, all that was known of her early history, and all the rudiments of her morality: they seem to have fixed her language, and, what is much more surprising, to have settled the principles of literary composition for every age. The poetry of the Greeks was generally sung; thus music was at once their earliest and most popular science. Their historians followed; then their orators. From the importance and celebrity, which they derived from their harangues, these gave rise to the rhetoricians, or those, who professed to teach the science of public speaking; and to the dialecticians, the teachers of an humbler rhetoric. But, long before any of their historians or orators of distinction had appeared, their scientific men and moralists, first, under the appellation of sophists or wise men, and afterwards under that of philosophers or lovers of wisdom, attracted public notice. The former addicted themselves to the study of nature; those, whose pursuits led them to observe the heavens, were called astronomers; the observers of the earth, were called physicians; geometry was subservient to both. Socrates called the attention of man to himself: to reason and act rightly, were, in his estimate of knowledge, the principal objects of man. For the former, his disciples formed rules of logic, for the latter, rules of morality. The painters, sculptors and architects of Greece were coëval with her orators. In every art and every science grammar and arithmetic necessarily had their part.

IX. 2.

The Literature of Rome.

ALL the useful and ornamental knowledge and acquirements of the Greeks were diffused over Asia and Egypt, by the Macedonian princes; and, when Greece submitted to the arms of Rome, all were transplanted to the territories within her pale. "Even Britain," Juvenal contemptuously exclaims, "now talks of hiring a professor of rhetoric."

But, in addition to these spoils of Greece, the Romans possessed, in a high degree of excellence, a science, which, though it conduces more than any, to public and private happiness, had been totally disregarded by the Greeks. To them, jurisprudence, as a liberal science, was unknown: their legal instruments and forensic proceedings were drawn up by a description of persons in little estimation among them, called pragmatists or practitioners;—but the knowledge of the laws of their country was never followed by them, as an occupation conferring importance and celebrity. Among the Romans, jurisprudence was always highly esteemed; it was studied on the most liberal principles, professed by the most distinguished persons, and led to the highest honours of the state.

The practice of physic was highly esteemed in Greece; but Dr. Middleton has invincibly shewn, against Dr. Mead, that, whatever celebrity might be acquired by individuals, the profession of medicine was not of great repute among the Romans.

With the reign of Trajan, the golden age of Roman literature expired: its silver age continued till the end of the last of the Antonines. This produced several works of elegance and taste; but, as Mr. Gibbon, whose authority on the subject is certainly great, observes*, "if we except the inimi"table Lucian, the age passed away without pro

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ducing a single writer of genius, who deserved "the attention of posterity." This decay of genius among the Romans is usually attributed to the establishment of the arbitrary power of the emperors, which, it is said, depraved the talents of their subjects. Yet Mr. Gibbon himself observes, that Longinus, who lived at the close of this era of Roman literature, possessed the spirit of ancient Athens; and that in its age of brass,-to which we may assign the period between the reign of the last of the Antonines, and the final division of the Roman empire, the poet Claudian acquired the absolute command of the Latin language, soared above his contemporaries; and placed himself, after an interval of 300 years, among the poets of ancient Romet. In this period also Ammianus Marcellinus produced an history of an interesting era of the Roman empire, which, for good sense and impartiality, will not suffer in comparison with any former Greek or Latin historian.-With the invasion of the barbarians, the iron or last age of Roman literature began; with the extinction of the empire of the west, it expired, and a base and discoloured age commenced.

* Vol. i. ch. 2.

+ Vol. iii. p. 30.