energy against heretics and schismatics, obtained from his contemporaries the title of Pater Patrum. Gregory of Nazianzum possessed a more elevated genius and more brilliant eloquence. When hatred, excited by his censures and by a domineering spirit, which he could not repress, had raised powerful enemies against him, he resigned his see without regret, but not without pain, and the farewell of the bishop was the masterpiece of the orator. Chrysostom of Antioch, d. 407, by his clear and easy eloquence, by his rich and bold imagery, by his power of reasoning joined to grandeur of ideas and tenderness of sentiment, may be compared with Demosthenes or Cicero. He is the chief of the orators of that primitive period. Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, whose intolerance was so fatal to the arts and philosophy, brought into the bosom of the church Synesius of Ptolemais, afterwards bishop of his native city, 430. The latter celebrated in prose and verse the great truths of Christianity, and the beauties of religious morals. Cyril of Jerusalem, d. 386, the most skilful teacher of his age; Epiphanius of Salamis, who combated the sectarians with more zeal than learning; Cyril of Alexandria, d. 444, the first doctor of the East, with many others, shed honour on the age of the Theodosian emperors. John of Damascus, d. 750, who was the last in those parts, monopolized all the literary glory of the eighth century. By his application of the peripatetic forms of demonstration to the Christian doctrines, he became the founder of the Scholastic philosophy.

Latin Fathers.-Arnobius, and Lactantius "the Christian Cicero," flourished in the reign of Constantine; the one feebly defended his religion against the Pagans, the other acquired just renown by his Divine Institutions.-Hilary of Poitiers was the champion of Athanasius in Gaul. During his Phrygian exile, into which he was driven by an Arian prince, he published his twelve books On the Trinity, in which he combats all the heresies relating to the Son of God and the Holy Ghost.-Ambrose, d. 398, was prætor of Milan, when the universal acclamation raised him to the bishopric. He defended with inflexible courage the privilege of Catholic worship against the Arians, who were protected by Valentinian II. His virtuous tolerance forbade him to communicate in the Holy Sacrament with the fanatical bishops who had demanded the blood of Priscillian. He taught the chants, of whose use the Latin church had till then been ignorant ; but the majestic hymn, Te Deum, which bears his name, is the work of a monk of the sixth century.-Jerome, d. 420, opened at Rome the first asylum for misery and infirmity; but his virtues were no protection against calumny. In his retreat at Bethlehem he undertook the translation of the Holy Scriptures, a task for which he was well qualified by his profound study of Hebrew, and his vast knowledge of sacred archæology. The church adopted his version, known as the Vulgate, and his Commentaries are an authority among divines. He translated and continued the Chronicle of Eusebius; wrote a Biography of ecclesiastical authors, and the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert.-Angustin, bishop of Hippo, d. 430, successively professor at Carthage, Rome, and Milan, was rescued from his errors by St Ambrose. He raised himself to the first rank among the Latin Fathers by his City of God, an immense repertory of profane and theological erudition, in which the author, after having in some measure crushed paganism fragment by fragment, applies himself to re-establish by invincible proofs the truth of the Christian religion. In 411, he defended the doctrines of Original Sin and Divine Grace, against Pelagius.-At the court of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, Dionysius the Little, d. 536, created a new science of Chronology. He introduced the computation of time from the Incarnation, a mode which was slowly adopted by the whole Christian world. He also, by the publication of a code of Canons, laid the foundation of ecclesiastical jurisprudence. His book of Pontifical Decretals, or letters, was disfigured by the impostures of the forger Isidore of Seville,

636. The authentic decretals do not commence before the pontificate of Siricius, 385.—The age to which Boethius and Cassiodorus belong was worthily brought to a close by Pope Gregory, d. 604, and Bishop Fortunatus of Poitiers.

III. PROFANE LEARNING in the West.-The ruin of learning in the Western Empire was more rapid and entire than in the Eastern, for the complete desolation of the former by barbarians destroyed both its language and literature. During the Theodosian period, while the poetic riches of the East consisted in miserable epigrams or inscriptions, the West produced Ausonius, 380, Prudentius, 400, Sidonius Apollinaris, d. 488, and others, none of whom was devoid of talent.-Claudian, 395, was the last bard of paganism, superior to all who had preceded him for two centuries, and equalled by none who came after him.-Priscian the grammarian, 380, translated or composed, at Constantinople, three didactic poems,-on Geography, on Weights and Measures, and on Astronomy.-Fortunatus was the poet laureate of the different Merovingian courts. Eleven works of miscellanies and a translation in hexameter verse of the Life of St Martin by Sulpicius Severus, place him at the head of the versifiers of his day.

History.-Ammianus Marcellinus, 370, was far superior to the inflated compilers of the Augustan History, and was the last author in the West deserving the name of historian. The chroniclers who come next are the only writers of this period who merit special attention. Glidas, a fugitive monk who sought refuge in the wilds of Armorica, wrote in a mournful strain, in which truth and fiction are almost inextricably confused, the particulars of the Anglo-Saxon invasion.-Another British monk, the venerable Bede, d. 735, composed the ecclesiastical history of England in Latin, and a long treatise on the Six Ages of the World.-Gregory of Tours, d. 595, completed the annals of the Franks down to 593.

Philosophy. The last and greatest philosopher of Latin antiquity was a follower of the Athenian Platonic school, Boethius, d. 526. He translated the Arithmetic of Nicomachus, the Geometry of Euclid, the Poetics of Aristotle, and various treatises by Archimedes and Plato. His great work, the Consolation of Philosophy, was the production of his captivity; it is a dialogue composed of mingled prose and verse.

Philology. While learning became more and more neglected, there were found a few men who devoted their time and abilities to the preservation of the remains of antiquity, to the explanation of its masterpieces, and to the teaching of a language which soon degenerated into a barbarous idiom. The Saturnalia of Macrobius, 395, in the style of the Attic Nights of Gellius, is a valuable work, although written without method or taste. He compiled a commentary of great value on the Dream of Scipio. -Servius, the most celebrated of the commentators on Virgil, lived at the beginning of the fifth century.-Cassiodorus wrote on Orthography, and has left a treatise on the Seven Liberal Arts. The most complete grammar of antiquity is the Eight Parts of Speech, by Priscian of Cæsarea, 500.

IV. PROFANE LEARNING in the East.

Poetry. Nonnus of Panopolis, 400, the restorer of hexameter verse, composed an epic poem, the Dionysiacs, on the exploits of Bacchus.Quintus of Smyrna, surnamed Calaber, from the MS. found in Calabria, wrote a servile imitation of the Iliad, bringing it down to the taking of Troy. The epigram alone was cultivated with success during the reigns of Justinian and Heraclius.

Romance.-At the end of the fourth century, fictions similar to our modern romances appear, a kind of writing unknown to classical antiquity, and destined to become, in the middle ages and in modern times, the living picture of the manners of the day. The Golden Ass of Apuleius-the

epithet is derived from the elegance of its style-was a successful attempt among the Latins. In 390, Heliodorus of Emesa composed the history of Theagenes and Chariclea, far superior to all contemporary works, except the Loves of Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus, the forerunner of Paul and Virginia. Achilles Tatius, 300, wrote the Loves of Clitophon and Leucippe.

History. The vast collection of the Byzantine historians contains few works meriting our esteem. Zosimus, 430, in his prejudiced History of the Caesars, endeavoured to trace the causes of the decline of the empire.Procopius of Cæsarea, 555, wrote a history of his own times in a manner at once clear and precise; but his elegance of style did not preclude bad taste. Geography. As the Byzantines added nothing to the opinions of the ancients, so they rarely explained them. Stephanus, 500, wrote a kind of Geographical Dictionary, which has not come down to us.

Philology. The Greek language, which had not yet fallen into decay, did not produce many grammarians. The Grammar of Dionysius of Thrace was the class-book of the teachers. At Alexandria, Hesychius published his Glossary about the end of the fourth century. Stobæus is the author of a collection of extracts, compiled for the education of his son, and selected from more than 500 writers. A few commentaries were written upon the Latin laws of Byzantium, and the name of Tribonian, 545, occurs among the names of the jurisprudentialists.

Mathematics.-The exact sciences were cultivated by the Platonists. All our knowledge of the mathematical acquirements of antiquity is due to the school of Alexandria. Hypatia, the learned daughter of Theon, applied the rigorous method of geometry to speculative knowledge. Diophantus first taught the calculation of indeterminate quantities, and thus created algebra. Proclus wrote on astronomy and the sphere, and composed a commentary on Euclid and Ptolemy.

END OF PART I.-ANCIENT HISTORY.

ELEMENTS OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY.

PART SECOND.

THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

FROM THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE, A. D. 476, TO THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION, AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

THE Roman empire had recovered under Theodosius its unity and greatness; but after the death of this prince it began to decline, and finally disappeared in the fall of the capital of Italy. This crisis was brought on as much by accidental circumstances as by the concurrence and reciprocal action of permanent causes. The despotism of the emperors, a natural consequence of political anarchy and military power, preserved the characters of its twofold origin, namely, corruption and violence. The Antonines had vainly endeavoured to restore national and political virtue; the populace having descended to the lowest degree of abasement, while the philosophy of Epicurus had fixed an indelible stain on the higher ranks. Christianity could alone arrest the almost general licentiousness; but the designs of Providence still exposed it to fiery trials, and its day of triumph had not yet arrived. Diocletian, by his division of the sovereignty, and Constantine, by the removal of the seat of empire to Byzantium, prepared the way for the two separate monarchies of the East and the West, and opened the road into Italy for the barbarians. The appearance of the Huns in the north of Europe drove the savage tribes of Germany across the Roman frontiers. These warlike nations braved the power of the emperors under the walls of Rome and Constantinople; imposed on them burdensome tributes; entered in whole tribes into the legions; and finally dismembering half of the empire, broke up the whole social state with its imperfect civilisation, to establish on its ruins the foundations of the existing political system.

Of the ten centuries embraced in that period of history entitled the Middle Ages, five were occupied by the restless

movements of the various barbarians, who were partially checked by the strong hand of Charlemagne. In the sixth age, that is, about A. D. 1000, repose and silence pervaded all Europe; the decay of literature and civilisation extended gradually; while institutions, laws, customs, and languages, began to assume their local peculiarities. Amidst the minute territorial divisions that took place, there was still found one bond of unity in the church, whose members kept up a communication with the remotest districts, all preaching the same doctrines, animating with the same spirit the almost innumerable societies throughout which they were scattered, and combining all nations in one common and holy enterprise. It was during the crusades that the representatives of every state in Europe, assembling round the tomb of our Saviour, recognised each other as brethren. After the Holy Wars the greater communities began to be remodelled, as their respective sovereigns issued victorious from their contention with feudalism. Then began the rancorous struggle between France and England, the rise of the Spanish monarchies, the destruction of the imperial authority in Germany, the brief splendour and fall of the Italian republics, the revolutions of the Sclavonic and Scandinavian states, and finally, the fall of Constantinople, A. D. 1453, which, by driving the learned Greeks into the centre and west of Europe, contributed in a remarkable degree to the Reformation.

SIXTH CENTURY.

GREEK EMPIRE.-527, Justinian.-532, Nika.-557, Earthquake in Syria.-565, Belisarius d.

PERSIA.-528, First War.-531, Nushirvan.-532, Perpetual Treaty.540, Second War.-590, Varanes (Bahram).—591, Chosroes II. ITALY.-493, Theodoric.-552, End of Gothic Empire.-569, Lombards. -584, Autharis.

FRANCE.-511, Clovis d.-Salic Law.-558, Clotaire I.

SPAIN.-507, Visigoths enter Spain.

BRITAIN.-542, King Arthur d.-586, Heptarchy.-596, Saxons converted. THE CHURCH.-514, Religious War in Constantinople.-519, Jewish Persecution.-578, Pelagius the Infallible.—590, Gregory I. LITERATURE.-580, Latin ceases to be spoken.-Stobæus; Agathias; Cassiodorus; Boethius; Priscian; Jornandes; Gregory of Tours. GREEK EMPIRE.

BELISARIUS.-The Eastern Roman, or, as it was afterwards called, the Greek Empire, began to recover from its lethargy, and to extend its conquests under the celebrated Justinian I., in