Alexander Hales. DIED A. D. 1249. ALEXANDER HALES was born in Gloucester at the beginning of the 13th century, and received his name from a monastery belonging to the Franciscan order, in which he received his education. While yet a youth he was sent to the university of Paris, where he applied himself to study with the most indefatigable industry. He soon distinguished himself by the extent and variety of his learning, but especially in those cherished pursuits of the age, scholastic theology and the canon law. No sooner had he taken his degree of doctor, than he became professor in these branches, and his profound erudition and uncommon acuteness soon gained him the title of the Irrefragable doctor.' Some of his pupils afterwards became as distinguished as their master, and even more so. Among them were the celebrated Duus Scotus and John Fedanza, better known by the name of Cardinal Bonaventura. In 1222, the irrefragable doctor consigned himself to the monastic life amongst the Franciscans at Paris. Here he passed the rest of his days employing his time in that most laborious trifling-the composition of various works of scholastic theology. The greater part of them have long since perished; many extant works, however, are ascribed to him, but the only one that critics regard as genuine is the 'Summa Unversia Theologia,' or Commentaries on the Four Books of Sentences. He entered upon this work by order of Pope Innocent IV. It was first printed at Nuremberg in 1482, fol.; then at Basil in 1502; at Venice, 1575-6; and at Cologne in 1622. It is needless to say there have been no later editions. This work displays, of course, much of that oracular dogmatism and ambitious speculation which distinguished all performances of a similar stamp and of the same age, together with much also of that metaphysical subtlety and acute reasoning from faulty premises which were no less characteristic of them. In vain, however, shall we in general look either for useful knowledge or sound argumentation. Alexander Hales was one of the great admirers and expositors of Aristotle, and together with his contemporaries Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, and Thomas Aquinas, gave the Aristotelian philosophy that pre-eminence which it enjoyed over all Europe, till Bacon, that great iconoclast, disputed its claims to the homage of mankind, and aimed the first deadly blow at the reputation of the scholastic philosophers and their master. Since that these laborious and learned writers have been rarely looked into; they lived only as the commentatators and expounders of Aristotle, or as the authors of works wholly constructed on his philosophy, and it was neither just nor probable that their fame should survive his. As a theologian, Alexander Hales, like his contemporaries, adopted that most pernicious custom of applying the Aristotelian philosophy, or rather the extravagant system which they wrought out of it, and of illustrating the sacred page by the flickering light of the lamp of the Stagirite. By this means every book of theology, not less than of philosophy, was soon crowded with verbal quibbles and metaphysical subtleties. The Commentaria in quatuor libros sententiarum,' published under the name of Hales at Lyons in 1515, are ascribed by the best critics to another author. In addition to the works usually ascribed to him, it is supposed that many of his MSS. exist in the libraries of Milan, Oxford, and Lambeth. Requiescant in pace! Those who wish to know more of this irrefragable doctor' may consult Dupin, Leland, and Cave. 2 Matthew Paris. DIED A. D. 12:9. ONE of the most faithful and best informed of the numerous English historians of the 13th century was Matthew Paris, an individual of whose personal history little is known. Fuller makes him a native of Cambridgeshire, but upon no better authority than the fact that there was an ancient family of his name in that county. The first circumstance of his life which we know with certainty is, that he assumed the habit in the abbey of St Albans in 1217. Here he continued to reside until the period of his death in 1259, having never obtained any higher office than that of historiographer to the brotherhood,' although he enjoyed the friendship and even familiarity of several crowned heads. By his own sovereign, Henry III., he was treated in a very kind and confidential manner, being often invited to his table and employed in different missions of importance. He even hints that the king condescended to lend him occasional assistance in the composition of his great work, although our author was certainly no sycophant or flatterer of princes, but, on the contrary, appears to have frequently admonished his sovereign with great boldness of speech. Indeed, no historian of his age has recorded the follies and vices as well as the virtues of the great with a more unsparing hand; and even though a monk himself, he has depicted the insatiable avarice, the intolerable tyranny, the luxury and perfidy of the court of Rome in the strongest colours. To this perfect integrity and fearlessness of character, he added no small share of genius and learning. "He was," says Pit, "an elegant poet, an eloquent orator, an acute logician, a subtle philosopher, a solid divine, a celebrated historian, and, which crowned the whole, a man justly famous for the purity, the integrity, the innocence and simplicity of his manners." ""3 Among the princes who honoured him with their confidence and correspondence was Haco, king of Norway, for whom he transacted some affairs of importance in London, and who having obtained a bull from Pope Innocent IV. authorizing him to adopt steps for the reformation of the manners of the ecclesiastics in his kingdom, fixed upon Paris as the best qualified person to aid him in the projected reformation. At Haco's invitation, our historian went to Norway in 1248, and spent about a year in that country in restoring monastic discipline to its primitive strictness and regularity. During his resi dence in Norway, he acted as ambassador for Louis IX. of France, whose friendship he had won by his learning and integrity. The theological works of Matthew Paris have perished, but his his- Hist Angl. p. 494. M. Paris, 504. 6 torical labours have been more fortunate. The greatest and most valuable of these is his Historia Major,' which contains the history of England from the conquest to the 43d of Henry III. or 1259. In the early portion of this work, our historian stands much indebted to the labours of his predecessor in the office of historiographer to the abbey of St Albans, Roger de Wendover; and it was continued after his death to 1273 by his successor in the same office, William Rishanger. Of this work our author executed an abridgment under the title of 'Historia Minor,' which is still preserved in MS. The first part of Matthew of Westminster's Flowers of History,' extending from the creation of the world to the conquest of England, is said to have been little more than a transcript of an unpublished work of Matthew Paris. Our author likewise wrote the lives of the two Offas, kings of Mercia, and of the twenty-three first abbots of St Albans. His historical compositions have been several times printed, and will be always consulted with interest and profit by the student of early English history. They are, indeed, disfigured with many ridiculous legends, but such kind of credulity was the folly of the times rather than of the man. The best and most complete edition of his works was published at London in 1684. The first edition of the Historia Major' appeared in 1571. 6 Roger Bacon. BORN A. D. 1214.-DIED A. D. 1292. 1214.' year THE celebrated Roger Bacon, a monk of the order of St Francis, was born at Ilchester in Somersetshire, in the He is, perhaps, entitled to be considered as at least equal to any man of his age; and when we say this, we do not forget that Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura, and Alexander Hales, flourished in the same century. That Roger Bacon was their match in general learning and powers of reasoning, will be readily admitted, while it must be granted that he far surpassed all of them in the knowledge of nature. This extraordinary man certainly gave strong practical indications that he was acquainted with the true way of studying the physical sciences,— with the secret of the experimental philosophy; though undoubtedly deficient in his method, and with a very imperfect conception of those vast and comprehensive general principles, which his great namesake FRANCIS BACON-a singular coincidence-showed to be applicable to all the sciences, and to constitute the only way in which man can become the interpreter of nature.' Thus Bacon deserves to be consi dered one of the greatest of the many forerunners of that auspicious era, which was to usher in a revival both of literature and religion, and to witness the most splendid discoveries in all departments of science; he was one of the many prophets, who amidst imperfect revelations and beclouded knowledge, gave promise to the world of the better dispensation.' It was not until many such had appeared, flashing one after another through the night of ages, and successively penetrating the thick darkness with a brighter and steadier ray, that at length the day Hist. et Antiq. Oxon. p. 136. slowly dawned,' and the day-star' of science arose. In extenuating the merit, then, of those great geniuses who, though possessed of splendid powers, shone so dimly during the middle ages, we must never forget to weigh carefully and impartially all the circumstances which oppressed their faculties and circumscribed their views. Roger Bacon might, for any thing we know, have been the Francis Bacon of a later age; a light that would only tremble like a star amidst the darkness of the middle ages,' might be effulgent as the sun under other circumstances. We shall find, therefore, that the fame of these men is to rest, not on their absolute knowledge, but on their attainments viewed in relation to their times; and if this rule of judgment be adopted, sure we are, that many a greater name in the annals of modern science-greater, simply because placed in more favourable circumstances will stand eclipsed by the glory of Roger Bacon. The giant strength with which some of the men of the middle ages grappled with their difficulties, and partially upheaved the vast piles of prejudice and ignorance under which they lay buried, is not less worthy of our admiration than the alacrity with which their successors, relieved of all these encumberments, press on in the open path of science and knowledge. There is a gradual preparation, there are successive steps by which, in analogy with all the schemes of providence, and the limited nature of the human faculties, the Divine Being brings about every great change in this world, political, moral, and philosophical; and it is not less pleasing to mark the progress of the species in knowledge and improvement, than to watch the developement of the faculties of the individual. Of the early years of Roger Bacon little is known; he received his education in the university of Oxford, at that time highly celebrated, we speak of course in relation to the general darkness of the age. It numbered amongst its scholars men of no mean attainments and of no little genius. Many of them were something better than acute dialecticians,-men, whose knowledge was not confined to the vain subtleties of the scholastic logic, or the still vainer subtleties of the scholastic theology. At this period classical literature began to be more generally studied than heretofore; and it is worthy of notice, that Oxford, which earliest encouraged these pursuits, still maintains her pre-eminence in them. Amongst his most kind and zealous patrons, Bacon ranked the celebrated Grosseteste. To his instructions and advice, to the general influence which he exerted on his young mind, Bacon was probably indebted for that eminently practical bent which was given to his genius, and which led him, if not to despise much of the learning of his days, at all events, to assign to it a very inferior rank. To this conclusion we are led by the fact that Bacon, in the honourable mention which he makes of his great patron and benefactor, characterizes and applauds him, as one of the few who could, at that time, distinguish between truly valuable knowledge, and that which, as frivolous and worthless, deserved not the name. Another of Bacon's friends was Edmund Price, archbishop of Canterbury. This prelate resided much at Oxford, and there afforded our young scholar much kind assistance. He was also deeply indebted to William 2 Opus Maj. p. 64. |