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He even allowed a public school to be operied in . the imperiat pa tace. under the direction of our samo usco Intrymata Alcuin; on whom he chieny relied sor introdacing into France some tincture of that philosophy, inhich was stili rema in ing in Britata. But ho in sto alid inessecluat the progress of any leartii tig must have been . ne may gueis Dom an edici of the Coti cil of Chalion s. in the nexi century ; which earnestly ex horis ali monasteries to be caresui in having their manualsos devotion correctly transeribed: Iest. whilo theypioris γ
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there, in the eighth centu . it Was la tmalty extermina. ted Dom thetice in the ninth ; that, througho ut the who- Ie Lingdom of the we,Saxons. Do mati conia he found who was scholar enough to instruct Dur Hing Alsred. thera a chi Id. even in the firIt elements op rea dilige sothat he was in his liselfth year besore lae could Damothe letters of the alphabet. When that reno ned Fritice ascended the throne. he made it his study. to drais his
Evenis as these are tOo considerable . in the literaryllisto of the nitith age, to he passen o ver unobserve l. Tho rise of a noted grammari an, the VOyage of an applauded doctor. are recorded. by the chroniclers of that century, with the fame reverenee, that an ancierat writer would meration the appea rance of a Lycurgias, ora Timoleon; of a lawgiver. whq New-mocleis a state. or a hero, Who re ues a whole peOple DOm Ravery. But these fair appearances were os inori duration.
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no Ionger read ; amused them with forged miracles, ovoverawed them by the ghostly terrors of demons, spectres and Chimeras. This Was more ea sy, and more prosit table too, than the patrisul example of a virtuousIise. The proso und depravity that was spread thro' aliconditions of men . ecclesiastic and secular, appears in nothing more pia in than in the realans assigned for GI-ling severat counciis ab Out this time. In One, Dein ca cons were to Le made. sorbidding adulte . incest. and the practice os pagan superstitions ; as is thesethings h ad not tili then beeti accounted criminat. Inatiothcr. it was lautid necessary to declare. that a num-her of Angeis wor hiped universally under certains na- 'mes, mere a Itogether unknown: and that the church could Dot warrant the particular invocation os merethan three.WAnother. whicti the Empress Iretie had' sumitioned for the reformation os discipline, ordained. that no Prelate should then celarth convert his episco-Pal palace into a common inn; nor, in consideratio non ly of any sum os money given him by Onu man,
Curso and excommunicate another. A taurili, a Dasisth, censure the indecen OP avo wed concubinage: and etijoin that Fryars and Nuns could DO Ionger converse or live promiscuousty in the same convent. The See of Romae. which should have been a Pa. tern to the rest, was of ali christian churches the mos licentio us; and pontifical chair onera lillet withmen, who, initead os adorning their sacred character. made humati nature itseli detestabie: a truth by many catolic Writers achnowledged and lamented. Severat Popes were by their successors excommunica ted. theiructa abrogated, and the la amenta administred by them.
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who arroga ted to themialves tities, and attributes p entiar to the Deity. ean we wOnder at the greatest enoris
ine dissolution os their manners, Which Has extremer
speahing os, a reverence they no longer had sor these God. The most abando ned among them, miscreanis, familiar with crimes. that humanity stariles at, mould yet . at the hadard of their Iives. defetid the immuniistiea os a church. a consecrated mensit, or a donationmade to a convent. In laeti times as thoia, it Here in
It was not tili late . a stet the sack of Costantino-ple hy the Turhs, that the writings of Aristotio heganto be universalty known and studi ed. They were then, hy corta in sugitive Greelis, who had escaped the fusos the Ottomati Arms, brought away. and dispersed 'thro' the westem Paris of Europe. Some particulartreatises of his, it is true. had Iong been made public: tint chiesty in translations Dom the Arabic, done bymen, who. sar hom rendering faith fully the Author a sense, hardly understood his langu age. Theso howe- ver gave hirin to the Scholastic Philosophy; that mot.
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Dom Bositius his Latiti commentator. or from thewretched translations ab ove metitioned, these they
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linown or mentioned, as the controvevsies that onee
tants. For, to the disgrace of humari rea n. manlii in is ali thhir controversies, whether ab Orit a notiori or hething, a predicament or a province, have mado thelatast sippeal to bro te force and violetice. The tities witti .hich theso leaders inere honoured by their followet mn account of the sublime revertes they taught,' are Ronce magnificent arid absurd : and prove rather thsi M. perlative ignorance of tho se times, than any transceri dent merit iii the men .. to whom they were applied. From this censure we ought nevhthelela to except
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genius penetraten sar into the mysteries of naturetand made so many new discoveris in Astronomy ana Perspective, in Mechanies, and Chimimy, that thana ost laber Wxitera even DOR. cannot mention themisithout somo marlis os emotion, and wonder. It isa r. Friend's observation, that he was almost the onhyAstronomer os his age: and the reformation os the C aendax, by him attempted, and in a manner perfecte
Is a nobIe proos of his nitI in that science. The conis struction Osspectacles, ortelescopes, of ali foris os glan ses, that magni sy or diminita objecta, the compositionios gunpowder which Bartholdus Swartet is thought. to Lave flast hit upon. almost a century lateo are lamaof the many inventions with justice ascribet to him.
For ait which, he was in his lis time calumniaten, imprisoned, oppressed: and aster his dea th woutidea in his good name, as a magician, who h ad deali in aris in sernal, and abominable. He tella us, that th xe were but laur persons then in Europe, who had mais de any Progress in the Mathematics; anditi Chilistis yet Lewer: that thoia Who underiooh to translate Aria tolle mere every Way unequat to the lain; and that his vritings, Which. rightly understood, Bacon considerina . the founta in os ali knowledge. had been Ialesycondemned and burnea in a synod held at Paris... The mortis of that celebrat ed Antient have. Iri th, more exercised the hatred and admiratioci oeman ind thati those of alI the other philosophura toge ther. Launoy enumerates no tela than thir severa Fathers of the Church, who have stigmatized his nais me, and etidea volared to reprobate his doctrines. Mori hoss has reelioned up a Itili greater number of his conam mentators, ho were at the fame time implicuely riis
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8Isel plegi and yet both these authors are far Dom ha ving gi veri a completo list cither of his frienus or eneis mi es. In his life- time he was suspected os irreligioti, an d, by the Pagan Priesthood, marhed Out sor destrii
tioti: the succussors of thola very men, Were his parti-zans and admirers. His works mei Willi much thesa-ime trea tment Dom the Christiati clergy: so metimes proscribet for hereticat; lamelimes triumphati t. and achnowledged the great bulwarli cis orthodoxy. Launoy has writteri a particular treati se on the subjeci, and mentioned eight disserent revolutions in the fortune and reputation os Aristolle 'sphilosophy. Topalia Over the intermediate changes, Ι will just metitiocit O , that malle a suli a Dd ridiculo us contrast. In thaa bove mentioned Councti, held at Paris abolit the yeae xuos, ille Bi inops there. censured his xvri tings. witti.out discrimination, as the pestilent laurces Os error and heresy; condemned them to the flames, and command-ed ali pertatis, On patri os excommunicatiora, not toread. transcribe. or heep any copi es of them. Theywent sarther, and delivered over lo the secular arm. no tela than ten persons, who were burned alive, sorcertain tenenis. dra n, as thola learned prelates haltieared. Dcim tho pernicious books tu question. Thola very books. in the si xteenth cetitvry, Here DOt Onlyread with impunity, but every wtiere taught witti apa plause: and whoever disputed their orthodoxy, I had. almost said their insallibi lily, was persecuted as an insi. . dei and miscreant. Os this the sophister Ramus is a memorabie instance. Certa in animadversons os his Ori the peripatetic philosophy occasioned a generat commotion in the leartied wOrid. The university of Paris' tooli tho alarm Lotly. and eryed o ut against this at.
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fore the partiament: and appearεd of so muta conse. qnence to Francis the First. that he would needs taxo it uti der his own immediate cognizance. The edictis stili extant. whicli declares Ramus insolent. impudent, and a lyar. His boolis are thereby for ever condemned.
thor very justly compares them to the Olympie Wrem Iers, who ab sta inod Dom necessary Iabours, that theymigbt he fit for facti as were not so. Under their ma na gement, it Was a philosophy of worda and notions. that seemen to exclude the study of nature; that insteactos en quiritig in to tho properties of bodies, into tholaws of motion hy which ali essecis a re Produced, waaeotivei sant only in logical definitions, disti cictions. ana
abstractions. utierly barren. and unproductive of anyadvantage to mari hind. The great aim Of thola solemn triners was rather in perplex a disputo than to ciear upany potnt os usesul disquisition ; to triumph over arienemy, thau to eularge the knowledge, or beller themorais of their followers. So that this capricio us philosophy, was a real obstae te to ali ad vatices in solati diearning. humati and divine. Aiter it had been adopt-ed tinto the christiati theology, far Dom being of use toexpla in and ascertain mysteries, it served ora ly to claris hen and render do ubi stat the molt necessam truths. by the chica Nery Os argumentation. with whicti it supplied each seci in delance of their Peculiar, a d DUOM.
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rite illiasions. To so extra vagant a height did they . Carry their idolat of Aristolle, that somo of them dis .
Dver Europe, that Iet meri rapon en quiring : into errorsand preposessions of every Lind. servedonly to confirmille dominion os this philosophyr protestants as weli asPapisis enirenching them selves bellind the authority of Aristolle.. and defending their severat tenets by the meapons inith which he surnished them. This utina tural alliance of theology with the peripatetic doctri