JOHN, chap. v. "Search the Scriptures.] q. d. in them the Father testifies of me, if ye read them inwardly. Therefore search, that is, diligently investigate the spiritual sense, not satisfying yourselves with the literal merely."

"For in them ye think ye have eternal life: ye think.] because, as he shows, they only read the Scriptures literally, and therefore had not the knowledge of eternal life, but a mere opinion or conjecture."

"And they are they which testify of me,] q. d. the very grounds on which you found your hope of eternal life, testify of me. It is therefore evident, that the hindrance to your believing in me, is in your own depraved will, since the design of the Scriptures is to persuade you to believe in me."

2 TIM. iv. "The cloak that I left at Troas with Car

pus, when thou comest, bring with thee.] According to Haymo, the penula, or cloak, was the consular vest of Paul's father, conferred upon him by the Romans, when he obtained the privilege of a Roman citizen:―according to Jerom, the book of the law is to be understood; but Chrysostom says, phelonem is a garment; and afterwards adds, that he inquires for the cloak, to prevent the necessity of receiving from others; Acts xx. It is more blessed to give, than to receive."

"And the books.] Chrysostom asks, What need was there of books for him who was about to go to God? And replies, there was then the greatest need, that he might deposit them with the believers. Another reason was, that they might afford him solace in tribulation; and give to others an example of study. 1 Maccab. xii. We have the Holy Books of Scripture in our hands, to comfort us. And it is an argument for study, since, on the eve of martyrdom, he either wishes to study them himself, or to recommend the study of them to others."

"But especially the parchments;] That I may write my epistles upon them. And let it be noted, that he who gloried that the Holy Spirit and Christ spake in him, 2 Cor. xiii. made use of parchments in this case, for (the assistance of) the memory."

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This work has been several times printed in 6 vols. folio, and at Cologne, in 1621, in 8 vols. folio. This is usually supposed to be the first Bible divided into the present CHAPTERS, which, for the convenience of quotations and references, were subdivided again by the cardinal, by adding in the margin the letters A. B. C. D. E. F. a practice continued till the invention of the present verses, by Robert Stephens, in 1550, and adopted in our early English Bibles, Yet Cardinal Humbert, about A. D. 1059, cites the 12th and 13th chapters of Exodus, and the 23rd of Leviticus, according to our present division of chapters. Hugo died on the 14th of March, A. D. 1262, and was buried in the church of the Dominicans, at Lyons.5*

The School or Academy of Paris has been repeatedly mentioned, as the resort of all who were desirous of completing a literary education; we may now farther observe, that hitherto the public studies had been limited to certain branches of learning, denominated the Trivium and the Quadrivium; the Trivium included grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics; the Quadrivium comprehended music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. He who was master of these had been thought to have no need of a preceptor, to explain any books, or to solve any questions which lay within the compass of human reason; the knowledge of the Trivium having furnished him with the key to all language, and that of the Quadrivium having opened to him the secret laws of nature. But as the views or desires of men became enlarged, the whole circle of the sci(53) Ugonis de S. Charo, Opera, VII. p. 230, Colon. Agrip. 1621, fol, (54) Cavei Hist, Lit. Sæc. xiii. p. 721,

Jortin's Remarks, III. p, 126,

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ences, as far as the allotted period of time would allow, did not appear to be an object beyond the comprehension of youthful minds. Schools then which professed to embrace all the sciences within their walls, and to appoint masters to each, were properly denominated Universities, of which, Paris, about the year 1215, is said to have set the example. This was soon followed in other countries, and particularly in Italy; where almost every city, owing to the beneficence of princes or of pontiffs, was honoured with the distinctive title. The civil and canon law, theology, and the more abstruse philosophical researches, were the studies most ardently followed: the two first as the path to preferment; the latter, as the way to secure celebrity and applause in the field of disputation. But books were still scarce, as has been already noted, for the work of transcription was necessarily slow, laborious, and expensive; and where the monks laboured as scribes, their copies were generally enclosed in the cloister; and what was executed by hired artists in the universities, could satisfy the demands only of a few. Wood's notice of the library of Merton College, Oxford, in its infant state, (Colleges and Halls, edit, Gutch, vol. I. p. 61,) is illustrative of the manners and learning of the times; "at first the society kept those books they had, (which were but few,) in chests, and once, sometimes twice, in a year, made choice for the borrowing of such as they liked, by giving a certificate under their hands, for the restoring of them again to their proper place." "56 How arduous the pursuit of literature, and how slow its progress during the ages of transcription, and before the invention of printing! Nor did the allowance to students in the public academies, or universities, enable them to purchase many volumes for them

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(55) Enfield's Hist. of Philosophy, II. p. 337.

Berington's Literary Hist. of the Middle Ages, B. v. p. 354. (56) Chalmer's Hist, of the University of Oxford, I. p. 36. Oxf. 1810, 8vo.

selves. According to the statutes of Merton College, Oxford, founded in 1264, the allowance to scholars was only fifty shillings per annum for all necessaries, and the revenues of Baliol College, founded in 1263, or 1268, were at first so small, as to yield only eight-pence per week to each scholar, but afterwards were so increased by the benefaction of Sir P. Somervyle, as to raise the weekly allowance of the fellows and scholars to eleven-pence, and in case of dearness of victuals to fifteen-pence.**

Hearne, in the "Preliminary Observations" prefixed to the 6th vol. of his edition of Leland's "Collectanea," has attempted to defend the monks of the Middle Ages against the general charge of ignorance and illiteracy; and if he have not been completely successful in rescuing them from the imputations of their contemporary opponents, his reasoning is nevertheless deserving of attention: "Nobody doubts," says he, "but the monasteries had divers members that could not be styled learned. But when we discourse of learned bodies, these ought not to be considered, at least their ignorance ought not to be looked upon as sufficient to denominate them unlearned. Add to this, that sometimes these illiterate persons were eminent upon some other account, and consequently might prove very serviceable to the monasteries. After all, 'tis very certain that a great number of the monks were men of very profound learning and of extraordinary abilities. Had they been otherwise, 'tis impossible to account for that incredible number of books written by them. No one that reads either Boston of Bury, or Leland, or other authors, that say any thing of their writings, can justly suppose them to have been illiterate men. On the contrary, many of their writings are very judicious and full of learning, and what many of the best of our modern writers, (notwithstanding the many advantages we have for acquiring learning that they wanted,) need not be (57) Chalmer's Hist. of Oxford, L. pp, 6. 47, 48, 49.

ashamed of: nay, in some parts of learning they exceeded any of our moderns, which is an argument, not only of excellent parts, but of their constant and unwearied diligence and application. Had it not been for this diligence and care, we had not had so many of the best authors of the first ages 'preserved. John Bale* himself, who was otherwise their mortal enemy, will allow them this praise, and 'tis for that reason he laments the havock of so many of the books that they had preserved, at the dissolution. I know very well that the Abbots had oftentimes a small quantity of books, sometimes not above five or six, in their own private studies; and perhaps many of the monks might not have had more. But we are not to measure the extent of any one's learning by the number of books, although, indeed, if this were any proof, we might alledge in behalf of the religious, that however meanly furnished their own private studies might be, they might have continual access, if they pleased, to such libraries as were well stored, I mean the libraries that belonged in common to each abbey. We have accounts of the furniture of some of these libraries; and if we may judge of the rest by these, 'tis certain they had a large as well as a noble stock of books, and that many of their libraries might vie for number with many of our best libraries since. And even such libraries as had not so great a store, exceeded divers of our present libraries by reason they were all MSS. and upon that score are to be looked upon as a valuable and precious treasure. In short, as the abbeys were very curious, fine, and magnificent piles of building, richly endowed, and continually found liberal benefactors, so I believe their libraries in every respect answered the other parts of the structures, and were all (notwithstanding the reflexion made upon the Franciscan Library at Oxford, just

* John Bale, bishop of Ossory, in Ireland, was educated in the Roman Catholic religion, but afterwards embraced the doctrines of the Reforma tion, and became a noted author. He died in 1563,