&c.; and so he goes on through the alphabet, naming between seventy and eighty Benedictine monasteries. It is impossible to doubt, and, indeed, in some cases it may be proved, that there was a great loss of books. When, for instance, the Abbey of Peterborough, in Lincolnshire, was burned by the Danes in the year 870, there was a large collection of books destroyed-sanctorum librorum ingens bibliotheca.* The language of Ingulph may provoke a smile; and I assure the reader that I do not want to make mountains of mole-hills, or to catch at a word in any writer of the dark ages. But I cannot consent to sneer away the statement to nothing; and the rather because though it may not be easy to say what the abbot's idea of an "ingens bibliotheca" was, yet, as will presently appear, he uses no such expression in speaking of the library of seven hundred volumes which was burned in his own time-that is, in A.D. 1091.

Again, "when the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over Europe, about nine hundred years after the Christian æra, they were mistaken by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog of the scriptures, the signs and forerunners of the end of the world.+" There

Ing. ap. Gale. V. Scr. p. 23.

"

As it is a principal part of my design to draw attention to the misrepresentations of popular writers, I cannot help offering a remark or two on the note which Gibbon adds to this passage (Dec. and Fall, vol. v. p. 548):—“ A bishop of Wurtzburg submitted this opinion to a reverend abbot; but he more gravely decided, that Gog and Magog were the spiritual persecutors of the church; since Gog signifies the roof, the pride of the Heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from the roof, the propagation of their sects. Yet these men once commanded the respect of mankind. Fleury, Hist. Eccles., tom. xi. p. 594, &c." I do not know why Gibbon says Wurtzburg, when Fleury, and D'Achery, the only authority to whom Fleury refers, say Verdun ; nor do I know how he learned that "these men ever commanded the respect of mankind, for it seems as if there was some doubt who the bishop was-and as to the abbot, I believe no one pretends to guess who he was, or of what country. Could it be shewn, therefore, that these two persons held a foolish opinion on a very obscure point, and maintained it by mere nonsense, yet that would not go far towards shewing that the respect of mankind in the tenth century was misplaced, in so far as it was given to bishops and abbots. The document exists, however, merely as "Epistola cujusdam Abbatis Monasterii S. Germani ad V. Episcopum Virdunensem de Hungris." Neither the bishop nor the abbot seem to have given any credit to the notion of the Hungarians being Gog and Magog. In writing to the abbot, the bishop appears (for I believe his letter is not extant) to have mentioned that it was current in his diocese, and to have desired him to look at the prophecy of Ezekiel, and let him know what he supposed to be its meaning. That he did not express or imply the least belief in the opinion, may be fairly presumed from the terms in which the abbot (who says it was current in his part of the world also) sets it down as mere nonsense-frivolam esse et nihil verum habere-contrasted with the language of deep respect and affection in which he addresses the bishop. But farther-the sarcasm can scarcely be said to touch either of the parties; for the abbot gives the notion about Gog and Magog being the roof, and the heretics, &c. as the exposition of Jerome, without the expression of any opinion as to its correctness; unless indeed we may find something like apology in the language of the single sentence of comment which he bestows on it" quæ quia a B. Hieronymo exposita sunt, et brevitas epistolæ plura de his dicere non permittit." He then goes on to inquire who the Hungarians really were, whence they came, and how it happened that they had not been mentioned in history, considering the extent of the Roman conquests and researches had they been known under some other name, "sicut solent mutari urbium vel locorum sen fluminum nomina. Nam Tiberis quondam Albula dicebatur. Unde Virgilius 'amisit priscum Albula nomen;' et Italia prius Saturnia

would be no use in detailing such particulars as are handed down to us; it is always the same horrid tale of barbarous outrage and destruction. I will here only refer to one case, partly out of respect to our friend the Abbot Bonus, who was brought up there, though it was before his time, in the days of Abbot Leopard, who presided there from the year 899 to 912; and principally because, as I have just said, Mabillon found only two manuscripts at Nonantula.* In the first or third year of Abbot Leopard, after a great battle on the river Brenta, in which many thousands of Christians were slain, the pagans advanced to Nonantula, killed the monks, burned the monastery, with many books (codices multos concremavere), and ravaged the whole place.

66

I pass over the irruption of the Saracens into Italy; but, though it is lamentable to carry on the history of desolation as the work of Christians, yet truth requires me to notice what may be called religious, or, more properly and emphatically, irreligious, wars. Happily the books which I have mentioned as furnishing illustrations relate chiefly to France, and we will not at present look elsewhere. The Dean and Chapter of St. Theudere, near Vienne, says Martene, nous comblerent d'honnêteté, et nous communiquirent, de la meilleure grace du monde, ce qui leur reste d'anciens monumens de la fureur des heretiques. Car ces impies brûlerent en 1562 toutes les chartes.”+ "Nous fûmes de là à Tarbe, où nous ne trouvâmes pas grand travail, l'église cathédrale et tous les titres ayant été brûlé par les Calvinistes, qui, dans toute le Bearn et dans la Bigorre, ont laissé de funestes marques de leur fureur."-" Pour l'abbaye de St. Jean [à Thouars], elle est beaucoup plus ancienne, mais les ravages qu'y ont fait les Calvinistes le siècle passé, en ont dissipé la plupart des monumens."§ Grimberg I must reserve for another purpose, and here only mention that it had been destroyed and its library burned by the Huguenots; and as I do not wish to repeat the same cases, even for the illustration of different points, I here only mention the neighbouring monastery of Dilighen, of which Martene says-" Cette abbaye a éprouvé le même sort que celle de Grimberg. C'est à dire, qu'elle a été ruïnée par les heretiques. Aujourd'hui on la rétablit, et on lui a rédonné son premier lustre ;" except, of course, in one respect, for he adds, "L'église est fort jolie . . . . . la bibliotheque assez bonne, mais il n'y a que trèspeu de manuscrits qui ne sont pas de consequence." At another monastery, (near Ferte sous Jouarre, not far from Meaux,) Ruinart says, "Sperabamus nos ibi in archiviis aliquid forte reperturos... at monasterii chartas a Calvinianis penitus combustas fuisse nobis responsum supersunt in bibliotheca aliquot codices manu

dicebatur; sicut idem poeta, et nomen posuit Saturnia tellus,""&c. The letter, on the whole, is such as that I cannot but hope that the writer did command the respect of his age. Fleury refers for it to Dach. Spic. xii. 349, but in the folio edition it is at tom. iii. 368.

* Of course I do not mean that they had none in the meantime. I hope under another head to shew that they had many, of whose fate fire and sword were guiltless. + I. Voy. Lit. 252.

II. Voy. Lit. 112.

scripti ;" and, after specifying a good many works, he adds, " quæ non sunt magni momenti."* Much the same injury had been suffered at the monastery of Fleury, where Mabillon found but a few relics of the vast collection which had been destroyed in the religious wars of the preceding century. The effects of war were, indeed, too frequently visible; but not to tire the reader with repetition,-yet without repetition how can I impress on him the extent of the mischief?— some other notices of the destruction produced by what may be termed general or common warfare shall be thrown into a note, and I will proceed to speak of another cause of destruction.+

II. I need not insist on the liability of manuscripts to be destroyed by fire, especially at a time when so many were kept in wooden buildings. Our travellers, however, continually furnish us with such notices as these, most of which are quite modern. At Rheims, "L'église cathédrale et l'archevêché ayant été brûlez dans le douzième siècle, toutes les archives furent pour lors consumées par le feu."§— At Gembloux, "Nous passâmes la matinée à voir ce qui restoit de manuscrits de l'incendie generale du monastère.'||-At the monastery of the Jacobins at Liege, "Il y avoit autrefois une assez bonne bibliotheque; mais il y a quelques années que tous les manuscrits périrent dans un incendie, qui consuma entièrement le monastère."¶-At Lucelle, "L'incendie qui consuma tout le monastère en 1699 nous priva du plaisir d'y voir une très-riche bibliotheque en manuscrits, que les flammes ont reduit en cendre, avec le religieux qui y étoit entré pour tâcher de les sauver."**"Ce que nous venons de rapporter nous fait voir que les six incendies qui sont arrivées à S. Wast, n'ont pas tout consumé, et nous font aisément juger des trésors immenses que nous y trouverions, si nous avions tout ce que les flammes nous ont ravi."+t―The abbey of Loroy, "Qui ayant été entièrement brulée il y a environ quarante ans, n'a conservé aucun de ses anciens monumens."++

It. Alsat. 415.

+"Penes quos quidam adhuc reliqui sunt ex innumera illa veterum librorum copia, quæ superiori sæculo, furente hæresi, direpta est." It. Burg. 30.

Take the following instances-Of the abbey of Brunwillers, Martene says, "Comme le monastère a beaucoup souffert par les guerres, et qu'il a été sujet comme les autres aux revolutions, on ne doit pas être surpris s'il n'y a plus qu'un manuscrit des lettres de Ciceron." (II. Voy. Lit. 269.) "Le Roi Louis XIV. ayant soûmis Luxembourg à la force invincible de ses armes, l'abbaye de Munster éprouva une seconde fois le sort de la guerre, et fut entièrement rasée.....après tant de revolutions on ne pouvoit pas s'attendre à faire des découvertes dans la bibliotheque. En effet, nous n'y avons trouvé que cinq ou six manuscrits." (II. Voy. Lit. 302.) St. Arnoul at Metz, "Cette abbaye. fut entièrement rasée, avec celles de Saint Clement, de Saint Symphorien, de Saint Pierre, et de Saint Marie, au siege de Mets formé par l'empereur Charles-Quint." (I. Voy. Lit. 112.) At Othmersheim, "Cette abbaye, étant exposée au theatre de la guerre, a perdu ses anciens monumens, et nous n'y trouvâmes rien qui dût nous arreter." (I. Voy. Lit. P. ii. 143.) La Chartreuse, by Liege, "Il y avoit autrefois beaucoup de manuscrits; mais le monastère ayant esté entièrement réduit en cendres dans les dernières guerres, ils ont tous esté consumez dans les flammes. Il n'y a que les sermons de Jacques de Vitry, en quatre on cinq volumes, qui ayent échappé à l'incendie." (II. Voy. Lit. 183.)

§ I. Voy. Lit. P. ii. 79. ** I. Voy. Lit. P. ii. 141.

II. Voy. Lit. 117. tt II. Voy. Lit. 65.

II. Voy. Lit. 182. #I. Voy. Lit. 36.

I do not wish to be tedious on this point, but I am irresistibly tempted, first of all, just to allude to the conflagration of the monastery of Teano, near Monte Casino, which was burned, as Leo Marsicanus says, cum omnibus operibus suis," in the year 892, because among those opera it is said that the original copy of the Rule of St. Benedict perished, and then to give one or two anecdotes respecting what may be called accidental burning of monasteries, as contra-distinguished from those which took place in the wars. I give them not as proofs that such things happened, for that is naturally to be supposed, and is sufficiently attested by history, but as stories illustrative both of one particular point and of one general subject.

Thieto, who was Abbot of St. Gall, in the year 937, was a strict disciplinarian; and this was very sensibly felt, not only by the monks, but by the school-boys. St. Mark's day being a holiday, some of the latter had got into mischief (quædam errata commiserant) which the monitors (censores scholarum quos circatores vocabant) reported to the masters. Sentence having been passed on the guilty, one of them was sent to the upper part of the building to fetch rods. By way of anticipatory revenge for his flogging, or as a desperate resource to avoid one, the boy took a brand from a fire and placed it under the dry wood which was next to the roof. This quickly took fire, and the flames, driven by the wind, soon seized the tower of the church. The monastery was almost entirely burned, and many books were lost (multi libri amissi) though they were in time to save the church bells and furniture. The writer who relates the story, adds, "that from this mischief, the monks of St. Gall took a great dislike to the scholars, and some thought that the school ought to be entirely given up, but he suggests that the loss which the monastery sustained by this occurrence was more than counterbalanced by the credit which it had gained through the scholars whom it had sent forth." +

If it had not happened in the same year, I should not have mentioned the burning of the famous monastery of Fulda, because I do not know how it happened, and cannot prove that the library was burned; and where there are cases enough of positive evidence, it is not in general worth while to notice that which is merely presumptive, however strong it may be; and of this monastery and its library I hope to find a fitter occasion to speak.

"Towards the evening of that day," says the historian of the monastery of Lawresheim or Lorsch, a few miles east of Worms) speaking of the 21st of March, in the year 1090, "after that, following the example of the carnal Israel, the people had sat down to eat and to drink, and risen up to play, it happened that, among other games, a disc, set on fire at the edge in the usual way, was whirled in the air by a soldier. Being driven round with great force, and present

* Mab. Ann., tom. iii. p. 263.

Mab. iii. Ann. 407.

Inter cætera ludorum exercitia discus in extrema marginis ora (ut solet) accensus, militari manu per aera vibrabatur;" qui aeriori impulsu circumactus, orbicularem flammæ speciem reddens, tam ostentui virium quam oculis mirantium, speVOL. IX.-May, 1836. 3 s

ing the appearance of a circle of fire, it forms a spectacle which pleases, not only the eye by its appearance, but as an exhibition of strength. This being whirled by some one who did not keep sufficiently fast hold, it flew, by his unintentional cast, on the top of the church. Sticking fast there, between the wooden tiles and the old beams, it set fire to the place. What need of many words? In the first place, the flame seized on the tower, which was made with admirable wood-work,* and in which were the bells, and their ropes being burned they could not be used to give the alarm. It then seized all the upper part of the building, the towers, and the porches. length the dropping of the melted lead, with which all the roof was covered, rendered it utterly impossible to go in or get anything out. Then was the face of things miserable-so many excellent buildings, of the church as well as of the whole monastery-so many fine ornaments devoured by the sudden ravages of the flames, a few only saved with great exertion and risk, either snatched with the hand or broken away with the axe or hatchet from the very midst of the fire."† I hope to give the reader another story somewhat similar, and more graphic; but, though I am not apprehensive of his thinking it tedious, it would extend this paper to an unreasonable length; and therefore, in the meantime, and before I proceed to speak of some other causes, I take the opportunity of briefly adverting to a point what cannot be fairly passed over. It is somewhat anticipating to say so, but the fact is, that there are so many manuscripts of some sorts in existence, that it has been very warmly contended by some learned men that a great part at least must be forgeries, because it is impossible that so many should have survived the perils to which such things have been exposed. On such an occasion as this, I must only just glance at what have been called the bella diplomatica, and my sole reason for referring to them at present is, to shew that those causes of destruction which I have already specified have been considered by learned men as sufficient to account for (indeed, I may say, to require) a greater scarcity of manuscripts than actually exists. "They say," says

claculi gratiam exhibet." I do not quite understand this, but I suppose it must have been some kind of circular board or frame, spun on an axis, and presenting some such appearance as a Catherine wheel.

"Castellum mirabili dolatura fabrefactum." I do not undertake to decide the precise meaning of dolatura in this place, and therefore translate by general terms only; but I suppose that we may in fact understand it to refer to those small, neat, wooden tiles (if I may use the expression, as I have done above, in translating tegulas, because the historian tells us that all the roof was covered with lead) which, in some parts of Europe, may still be seen forming the roofs or fronts of houses. I have seen a church made entirely of wood-that is to say, there was glass in the windows, and there might be iron nails, though I am far from being certain of that; but the body of the church, the upper part, which I know not whether to call turrets, or how to describe, and in fact everything, as far as I could see without entering it, were purely wooden. The upper parts of these turrets were capped with something like cupolas of these little oaken tiles. Some wind-mills, with a kind of domes, tiled with these small circular pieces of oak, with sails, and I believe everything of the same material, were the most picturesque buildings of the kind that I have ever seen. [The church alluded to in the note forms the illustration to the present Number.-ED.]

+ Chron. Laur. ap. Freher. p. 81. Edit. 1600.