founded a school of Scotists in opposition to the more powerful school of the Thomists, who succeeded at least in setting a mark of contempt upon the name of the philosopher, whose followers they stigmatised by their chief's name of Dunce.

William
Occam.

William Occam was a pupil of Duns Scotus, and also a Franciscan. As his master was called the Subtle, so he was called the Invincible Doctor. Parting from the opinions of his master, he became the chief or the Occamists, who denied the reality of ideas outside the mind; opposing what was called by the philosophers of that day "Realism with what was called in opposition to it "Nominalism." The founder of Nominalism had been at the end of the eleventh century John Roscellin, or Roussellin, a canon of Compiègne, who argued that the notions of genus and species were mere names, "flatus vocis," used to designate qualities common to different individual objects. Over this there was a long battle-flatus vocis about genus and species, ridiculed by the good sense and best wit of John of Salisbury, who said in his "Polycraticus": "There is no getting away from genera and species. From whatever point the discourse begins thither you will find it turning.. Whatever Rufus is doing, there is nothing but Nævia for Rufus. If he is glad, if he weep, if he is silent, he speaks only of her. Does he sup, does he drink, does he ask, does he refuse, does he nod assent, it is only Nævia. If there is no Nævia he is dumb." *

The logicians, or, as they were then called, dialecticians, of the older school, held that notions of genus and species were real essences or types of things, "universalia ante rem;" that before there was a horse there was, equally real, the idea of a horse. William Occam opposed this idle reasoning, not so much by undertaking to split hairs against the Realists as by attacking powerfully the despotism of

* Quoted by Maurice in his "Medieval Philosophy."

mere dogmas, and encouraging each thinker to individual inquiry. This was the death-blow to scholasticism. When the philosophical interpretation of Theology no longer assumed that the dogmas of the Church were beyond question, scholasticism lost that feature which alone entitled it to a distinctive name. Scholasticism that began with Erigena ended with Occam. The issue of his doctrine was, that he gave a practical turn to his philosophy, by boldly arguing against the domination of the Pope* in temporal affairs. He defended the cause of the King of France and of the Emperor against the Pope, and, never flinching under persecution, died at Munich in the middle of the fourteenth century.

* In "Decisiones octo quæst. de Potestate summi Pontifici,” Lugd. 1496, and "Disputatio inter Clericum et Militem super Potestate Prelatis atque Principibus terrarum Commissâ " (Paris, 1498).

CHAPTER XIII.

SONGS, SATIRES, FABLES.

THE religious life of England, dwelling always upon duty to be done, now found its native voice again in moral and religious poems, songs, satires, fables, proverbs, homilies, addressed in their own tongue to the people.

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From the middle of the thirteenth century there has come down to us a song of the Creation and of Israel to the Genesis and death of Moses, drawn from the books of Genesis Exodus. and Exodus, with some addition of legend from Peter Comestor and supplementary detail from the book of Numbers. We have it in one copy only, a manuscript on parchment bound in vellum which is in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The handwriting is of about the year 1300; and the poems of "Genesis" and "Exodus" were written, perhaps not by the same singer, about the year 1250. One should love," says the unknown poet in the opening of "Genesis," "the rhyme that teaches the layman how he may defend himself, love God and serve him, though he be not learned in books; how, with peace and love towards all Christians, he may win, below and above, the love of the Almighty, who will give him everlasting bliss and rest. The song," this poet says, "is drawn from Latin into English, and Christian men who hear the story of salvation in little words of the speech of their own land should be as glad as birds are at the coming of the dawn."

"Genesis" and "Exodus" were transcribed from the unique MS., which places them in natural succession, by Dr. F. J. Furnivall, and edited by Dr. Richard Morris for the Early English Text Society in 1865, the proof-sheets being carefully read with the MS. by Professor Skeat.* Our three best workers in early English were thus labouring together for the publication of one of the chief pieces of English literature of the thirteenth century. Its grammatical and verbal forms are of the Midland dialect, and correspond very closely to those of the Bestiary, next to be mentioned. Dr. Morris regards the English of the Ormulum as that of the northern part of the East Midland district, but the "Genesis" and "Exodus" and the Bestiary as in dialect of the southern part, perhaps of Suffolk. There is no good reason for supposing—though it is possible to suppose, and is therefore supposed by some—that the author of the poem of "Genesis was not the author of the Exodus.' The version of "Genesis" ends, no doubt, by saying

"An here endede to ful, in wis,

de boc de is hoten Genesis,
de Moyses, durg Godes ned,

Wrot for lefful soules ned."

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And a prayer for blessing on the poet's soul has been added for use in recitation of the song among the people. "Exodus" then begins simply with a brief God bless us :—

"Godes bliscing be wið us
Her nu bi-ginneð Exodus.
Pharao kinges," &c.

There is no change in style or versification, and at the

* There was a second and revised edition of it in 1872. "The Story of Genesis and Exodus: an Early English Song, about A.D. 1250. Edited from a Unique MS. in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary, by the Rev. Richard Morris, LL.D." (Early English Text Society).

opening of "Genesis " there were lines suggesting a design in the writer to put all the main features of the Bible story into song that should delight and teach the people. If more was written, it is lost; but the condition of recitation, whether of sacred or secular tales, made it necessary to shape into distinct passus, or stretches of song, coherent parts that could be taken at a single hearing. Thus the “Genesis,” in 2,536 short lines, is not quite four times as long as Coleridge's "Christabel;” and although selected parts of it would be more commonly recited, the whole could well be brought within the limits of an afternoon's or evening's amusement. The song of "Exodus" was shorter; it was contained in 1,606 lines.

In each poem the story was enlivened by free use of the Bible History from the Creation to the Deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, written by Petrus Comestor, Pierre le Mangeur, so called for his devouring of meats for the mind, his wide reading of books. He was a French theologian who at one time had charge of the school of philosophy in Paris, and who died in 1198, leaving all his goods to the poor. Over his tomb it was inscribed that he was called Eater, and now was eaten.

of the Gene

sis and Exodus.

The versification of these songs of "Genesis" and "Exodus" is of especial interest. Their story is told in a Versification rhyming octosyllabic romance measure, caught from the French poets and imitated in some of our early English metrical tales. Where the lines do not seem to be octosyllabic they were often made so by the swift pronunciation leading to phonetic contractions, especially in "Exodus," of which there is well-marked evidence in our old ballad poetry. But the Teutonic form of verse, in which accent was more regarded than the number of the syllables, sometimes asserted itself against the new French influence, the chief care being to preserve the rhythm of four accents in every line.