at Durham, and having been tutor to Edward III., was made successively Dean of Wells and Bishop of Durham, besides acting for a time as high chancellor, as ambassador to France and Germany, and as commissioner for a truce with Scotland. He had a passion for collecting manuscripts and books; and his principal work, "Philobiblon," intended to serve as a handbook to the library which he founded in connection with Durham College at Oxford (afterwards suppressed), describes the state of learning in England and France. See E. C. Thomas's edition of the "Philobiblon" (1888). PATRICK AND GROOME, eds. 1897, Chambers's Biographical Dictionary, p. 52. The end of the Philobiblon of Master Richard de Aungervile, surnamed de Bury, late Bishop of Durham. This treatise. was finished in our manor-house of Auckland on the 24th day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand three hundred and forty-four, the fifty-eighth year of our age being exactly completed and the eleventh year of our pontificate drawing to an end; to the glory of God. Amen. DE BURY, RICHARD, 1344, Philobiblon, ed. and tr. Thomas, ch. 29, p. 251. He (Richard) saith of himselfe, "exstatico quodam librorum amore potenter se abreptum," that he was mightily carried away, and even beside himself, with immoderate love of bookes and desire of reading. He had alwaies in his house many chaplains, all great schollers. His manner was, at dinner and supper time, to haue some good booke read unto him, whereof he would discourse with his chaplaines a great part of the day following, if business interrupted not his course. He was very bountiful unto the poore.GODWIN, FRANCIS, 1601, Catalogue of the Bishops of England, p. 524. We will now, my dear Sir, begin "making out the catalogue" of victims to the BIBLIOMANIA! The first eminent character who appears to have been infected with this disease was Richard De Bury, one of the tutors of Edward III, and afterwards Bishop of Durham; a man, who has been uniformly praised for the variety of his erudition, and the intenseness of his ardor in book-collecting. DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, 1809, The Bibliomania; or Book-Madness, p. 15. His erudition appears crude and uncritical, his style indifferent, and his thoughts superficial. Yet I am not aware that he had any equal in England during this century.-HALLAM, HENRY, 183739, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, pt. i, ch. i, par. 88. To solace his declining years, he wrote the "Philobiblon," in praise of books; a treatise which may now be perused with great pleasure, as it shows that the author had a most intimate acquaintance with the classics, and not only a passion for books exceeding that of any modern collector, but a rich vein of native humour, which must have made him a most delightful companion.-CAMPBELL, JOHN, LORD, 1845-56, Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England, vol. 1, p. 194. ests. Widely varying judgments have been passed upon the intellectual position of De Bury. It was long the fashion to speak of him with Sir Henry Savile as the learnedest man of his age. More recent critics have regarded him as not a scholar himself, but a patron and encourager of scholarship. The truth lies perhaps midway between these different verdicts. We must bear in mind that De Bury was essentially a man of affairs, and that his official preoccupations left him comparatively scanty intervals of time to devote to literature. The judgment of Petrarch may be sufficient to satisfy us as to the extent of his knowledge and the width of his literary interThe special interest to us of Richard De Bury is that he is, if not the prototype, at least the most conspicuous example of a class of men who have been more numerous in modern than in ancient or mediæval times. No man has ever carried to a higher pitch of enthusiasm the passion for collecting books. On this point, at least, De Bury and Petrarch were truly kindred spirits, and their community of feeling finds expression in a striking similarity of language. There seems no sufficient reason to suppose that De Bury wrote any other book than the "Philobiblon."-THOMAS, ERNEST C., 1888, ed. and tr. The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury, Introduction, pp. xxxiv, xxxvii, xli. 90 William of Occam Occam, or Ockham, William of, an English monk and scholastic philosopher of the 14th century, was a native of Ockham, in Surrey. He entered the Franciscan Order; was sent to study at Paris under the celebrated Duns Scotus; became a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and a renowned teacher of the Scholastic philosophy. He was the greatest dialectician of his age, and obtained the name of "the Invincible Doctor." He asserted without reserve the rights of temporal sovereigns against the papal claims, and denied to the Pope any authority in secular affairs. He wrote against Pope John XXII., whom he treated as a heretic, and supported the anti-pope, Nicholas V., set up by the Emperor Louis of Bavaria. In the quarrel between the pope and the Franciscans, William of Ockham was the assertor of absolute poverty. His famous "Defence of Poverty" was condemned by the Pope, and he, with others, was arrested. But he escaped and took refuge at the Imperial Court. He was soon after excommunicated, and he died, at Munich, in 1347. . . Among his most celebrated works are the "Disputatio super Potestate Ecclesiastica," the "Defence of Poverty," and the "Summa totius Logicæ." It is said that Luther had the works of Ockham at his fingers' ends, and that he was the only schoolman in his library whom he esteemed.CATES, WILLIAM L. R., ed. 1867, A Dictionary of General Biography, p. 817. Our Ockham, flushed with success against John Scotus, undertook another John, of higher Power and Place, even Pope John the three-and-twentieth, (?) and gave a mortal wound to his Temporal Power over Princes. He got a good Guardian, viz. Lewis of Bavaria the Emperor, whose Court was his Sanctuary, so that we may call him a School-man-Courtier. But he was excommunicated by the Pope, and the Masters of Paris condemned him for a Heretick, and burnt his Books. This, I conceive, was the cause why Luther was so vers'd in his Works, which he had at his fingers' ends, being the sole Schoolman in his Library whom he esteemed. ever, at last the Pope took Wit in his Anger, finding it no policy to enrage so sharp a Pen; and though I find no Recantation or publick Submission of Ockham, yet he was restored to his state, and the repute of an acute School-man. -FULLER, THOMAS, 1662, The Worthies of England, ed. Nichols, vol. II, p. 362. How He did but sketch the principles of a philosophy afterwards completed; but his labours sufficed to withdraw the attention of his followers from the all-engrossing question of the principle of Individuality, and directed them rather to the acquirement of fresh knowledge.-TENNEMANN, WILLIAM GOTTLIEB, 1812-52, A Manual of the History of Philosophy, tr. Johnson, ed. Morell, p. 244. Perhaps the hardest and severest intellectualist of all; a political fanatic, not like his visionary brethern, who brooded That Occam has exercised a great influence on Philosophy in the large sense of that word, cannot, we think, be doubted. Though he never neddled with physical studies, as such, he did much to break those logical fetters by which Physics as much as Theology, were bound. His Nominalism was the assertion that a science exists purely for Names; it was therefore a step towards the separation of Real sciences from this. Occam perceived that Theology had a real invisible object, not to be enslaved by men's theories and conceptions. With a Roger Bacon at Oxford,-with all the new experience of Nature which the coming centuries were to bring forth, how certain it was that in due time some method would be discovered of examining visible objects, as they are in themselves, not as we make them by the impressions of our senses, or the conclusions of our intellects. Englishmen have a right to claim Occam as one of the instruments in this mighty scientific revolution, which it was the especial privilege of her sons to accomplish. MAURICE, FREDERICK DENISON, 1862-73, Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, vol. II, p. 16. No Schoolman since Abelard had devoted himself to the study of logic with such fondness as William.-ERDMANN, JOHN EDUARD, 1865-76, A History of Philosophy, ed. Hough, vol. 1, p. 503. Refused to logic the exalted station which his master Duns Scotus had claimed for it. But by excluding from the field of discussion the chief dogmas of theology, as beyond the province of reason, and thus, with the English prudence and common sense which marks him as a forerunner of Bacon and Locke, avoiding the aerial heights of metaphysics, he was enabled to study logic more thoroughly at the lower level to which he had brought it. TILLEY, ARTHUR, 1885, The Literature of the French Renaissance, p. 105. Occam's influence was felt by Wyclif, and affected strongly the Gallican leaders in the reforming councils. It extended still later. His principles, and those of his disciples, were the maxims on which the resistance of Protestant princes to the authority of Rome was, to a considerable extent, based. Luther was a student of Occam, praises him as the most ingenious of the schoolmen, and derived from him his conception of the Lord's Supper-a conception suggested by Occam as a reasonable view, yet as one that furnishes an instance of the possible inconsistency of faith and reason. Notwithstanding the revolutionary influence that went forth from Occam, he was a conscientious and orthodox believer in the dogmas of the Church. His whole method of discussion is scholastic, and, in theology, he added a third school, that of the Occamists, to the previously existing parties, the Thomists and the Scotists.FISHER, GEORGE PARK, 1887, History of the Christian Church, p. 271. He was indeed strongest on the critical or negative side; and while he denied the "plenitudo potestatis" claimed for the papacy, he was not altogether disposed to place the emperor above the pope, nor was he happy in invoking, as was required by the controversy, the ultimate resort of a general council, even though formed alike of clergy and laymen, men and women. The infirmity of reason was with him the counterpart to the strength of the logician. He could criticise with freedom, but had scruples in reconstructing. He furnished invaluable weapons to those after him who opposed the authority of the pope, and even helped Luther in the elaboration of his doctrine concerning the sacrament; but his most enduring monument is found in the logical tradition which he established in the university of Paris.-POOLE, R. L., 1895, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XLI, p. 361. Richard Rolle of Hampole Richard Rolle (c.1290-1349), the "Hermit of Hampole," near Doncaster, was born at Thornton in Yorkshire, and was sent to Oxford, but from nineteen devoted himself to asceticism. He wrote religious books and rendered the Psalms into English prose. His great work is "The Pricke of Conscience" (Stimulus Conscientia), a poem written both in English and in Latin, on the instability of life, death, purgatory, doomsday, the pains of hell, and the joys of heaven (ed. by Morris, Philolog. Soc. 1863). Some of his prose pieces were edited by Perry in 1866; others Dr. Carl Horstmann in 1894-96. PATRICK AND GROOME, eds., 1897, Chambers's Biographical Dictionary, p. 458. Richard Role, alias Hampole, had his first Name from his Father, the other from the place (three Miles from Doncaster) where living he was honoured, and dead was buried and sainted. He was an Heremite, led a strict life, and wrote many Books of Piety, which I prefer before his He Propheticall Predictions, as but a degree above Almanack Prognostications. threatened the Sins of the Nation with future Famine, Plague, Inundations, War, and such general Calamities, from which no Land is long free, but subject to them in some proportion. Besides, his Predictions, if hitting, were heeded: if were heeded if missing, not marked. However, because it becomes me not ἁγιομαχείν, let him pass for a Saint. I will adde, that our Saviour's Dilemma to the Jews may partly be pressed on the Papists his Contemporaries. If Hampole's Doctrine was of Men, why was he generally reputed a Saint; if from God, why did they not obey him, seeing he spake much against the viciousness and covetousness of the Clergy of that Age?-FULLER, THOMAS, 1662, The Worthies of England, ed. Nichols, vol. II, p. 498. His Latin theological tracts, both in prose and verse, are numerous; in which Leland justly thinks he has displayed more erudition than eloquence. His principal pieces of English rhyme are a Paraphrase of part of the book of Job, of the Lord's prayer, of the seven penitential psalms, and the "Pricke of Conscience. But our hermit's poetry, which indeed from these titles promises but little entertainment, has no tincture of sentiment, imagination, or elegance.-WARTON, THOMAS, 1778-81, The History of English Poetry, sec. vii. The penitential psalms and theological tracts of a hermit were not likely to enrich or improve the style of our poetry; and they are accordingly confessed, by those who have read them, to be very dull. His name challenges notice, only from the paucity of contemporary writers.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, An Essay on English Poetry. Hampole commands a large vocabulary, from which he draws with lavish hand. He likes to mass synonyms, and does not hesitate to repeat words and turns of expression; nor does he in general proceed with pedantic uniformity, but occasionally looks forward and backward. Making no æsthetic claims, with only the desire to instruct and edify, striving only to make what is black, right black, and what is bright, very brilliant, he has, nevertheless, produced many very effective passages. His verses are flowing, but unlike most northern poets, he does not trouble himself at all about the number of syllables. The verses of his short couplets have always four accents, but often more than four unemphatic syllables. This, too, is characteristic of the man, who was indifferent to external symmetry. All in all, Hampole is the most notable English religious writer of the first half of the fourteenth century, and he had a corresponding influence upon later religious literature, especially that of the fifteenth century.TEN BRINK, BERNHARD, 1877-83, History of English Literature (To Wiclif), tr. Kennedy, p. 296. Noticeable for his English and Latin compositions, in prose and verse, and still more so by his character. He is the first on the list of those lay preachers, of whom England has produced a number, whom an inward crisis brought back to God, and who roamed about the country as volunteer apostles, converting the simple, edifying the wise, and, alas! affording cause for laughter to the wicked. They are taken by good folks for saints, and for madmen by sceptics: such was the fate of Richard Rolle, of George Fox, of Bunyan, and of Wesley. Rolle of Hampole is, if we except the doubtful case of the "Ancren Riwle," the first English prose writer after the Conquest who can pretend to the title of original author. To find him we have had to come far into the fourteenth century. When he died, in 1349, Chaucer was about ten years of age and Wyclif thirty.-JUSSERAND, J. J., 1895, A Literary History of the English People, pp. 216, 218. Richard Rolle was one of the most remarkable men of his time--yea, of history. It is a strange and not very creditable fact that one of the greatest of Englishmen has hitherto been doomed to oblivion. In other cases the human beast first crucifies and then glorifies or deifies the nobler minds who, swayed by the Spirit, do not live as others live, in quest of higher ideals by which to benefit the race. He, one of the noblest champions of humanity a hero, a saint, a martyr in this cause--has never had his resurrection yet. -HORSTSMANN, CARL, 1896, ed. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Introduction. Though not "the father of English literature," yet Richard Rolle may have influenced both prose and verse, as every skilled and popular writer must do. There is, however, nothing to show that he formed or modified it to any great extent. He was not a man of letters, like Spenser, striving to mould or polish a rugged speech. He used it as he found it. his poetry it is improbable that he introduced any new Το measure or metre. In have done so would have frustrated his purpose. He wished to popularize sacred poetry, in order to banish profane lovesongs.-BRIDGETT, T. E., 1897, Richard Rolle, the Hermit, Dublin Review, vol. 121, p. 292. For the attribution to him of the revival of strictly alliterative verse there is little if any more warrant than for the ascription to him of the invention of the heroic. We can at the most (and also at the least) allow that this revival was a very reasonable consequence of the increased stimulus to literary composition in the North-always fonder of alliterative rhythm, and more rebel to strict metrical ways, than the South—of which he certainly was one of the lights and leaders. SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature p. 76. Lawrence Minot 1300?-1352? Poet (circa 1350), wrote a series of short poems on the victories of Edward III., beginning with the battle of Halidon Hill (1333), and ending with the siege of Guines Castle (1352). Among them is a lyric in celebration of the battle of Crecy (1346). An edition of his works was published by Ritson in 1795, and later in 1825.-ADAMS, W. DAVENPORT, 1877, Dictionary of English Literature, p. 438. For want of a better poet, he may, by courtesy, be called the Tyrtæus of his age.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, An Essay on English Poetry. Ritson, the editor of Minot, praises his author for the ease, variety, and harmony of his versification, in which qualities he declares him to have no equals, previous to the sixteenth century, except Robert of Brunne and Tusser. As a poet Minot is certainly equal to these two writers, though perhaps not much superior. In one respect, however, he is entitled to some praise; he is the first English versifier who quits the beaten track of translation from chronicle, romance, and theology. As regards choice of subject he may be classed with his northern contemporary Barbour, though, in every other respect, he is far inferior to the Scottish Homer.-HIPPISLEY, J. H., 1837, Chapters on Early English Literature, p. 16. He stands out clearly from the more ancient ballad-writers, in the subjective side of his poetry. We see Laurence Minot personally anxious for the welfare of England, personally praying for country and king; and the proud exultation over victories won that breaks forth in his songs, sounds from lips that speak in the name of the whole nation, but none the less in the name of this definite personality. The style and metrical form of Minot's songs are also individual, however they may conform to tradition, and regardless of the fact that all the elements into which exact analysis resolves them, were found already existing by the poet. His originality consists in the blending of the technique of the gleemen's song with that of the clerical lyric. He has not, after all, given a vivid picture of the event that he sings. We obtain the parts of such a picture singly, like fragments that the waves of lyrical movement have borne to the shore. For with Minot the lyrical element is decidedly uppermost; it is unfortunately not powerful enough in itself to enchain our interest. Thus the impression we receive is very positive, but by no means unmixed; the impression made by a gifted man, who, half folk-poet and half art-poet, is neither entirely, and hence must rank beneath many less important writers.TEN BRINK, BERNHARD, 1877-83, History of English Literature (To Wiclif), tr. Kennedy, pp. 322, 324. His verses are sometimes spirited, but never especially significant.-GILMORE, J. H., 1880, The English Language and its Early Literature, p. 104. No wonder that when the battles were fought by the people itself, and when the cost of the wars was to so large an extent defrayed by its self-imposed contributions, the Scottish and French campaigns should have called forth that national enthusiasm which found an echo in the songs of Lawrence Minot, as hearty warpoetry as has been composed in any age of our literature. They were put forth in 1352, and considering the unusual popularity they are said to have enjoyed, |