restorers of knowledge and of science. It is not here our duty to trace
that marvellous work of the revival of thought--thought which
Christianity had slain, but which, revived by Mahommedanism, was
destined to issue in the new birth of heretic philosophy. While this
work was proceeding among the Saracens, the Arabians, and the Moors,
Christendom went on its way, degraded, vicious, and superstitious; only
here and there an effort at learning was made, and some few went to the
Arabian schools, and returned with some tincture of knowledge. John
Scotus Erigena, a subtle and acute thinker, left behind him works which
have made some regard him as the founder of the _Realist_ school of the
middle ages, the school which followed Aristotle, in opposition to the
_Nominalists_, who held with Zeno and the Stoics. Erigena taught that
the soul would be re-absorbed into the divine spirit, from which it had
originally emanated; from God all things had come--to Him would they
ultimately return; God alone was eternal, and in the end nothing but God
would exist. Some of Erigena's works naturally fell under the
displeasure of the Church, and were duly burned: he was a philosopher,
and therefore dangerous.

While this slight effort at thought was thus frowned upon, vice made its
way unchecked and unrebuked by the authorities. "The impiety and
licentiousness of the greater part of the clergy arose, at this time, to
an enormous height, and stand upon record in the unanimous complaints of
the most candid and impartial writers of this century. In the East,
tumult, discord, conspiracies, and treason reigned uncontrolled, and all
things were carried by violence and force. These abuses appeared in many
things, but particularly in the election of the Patriarchs of
Constantinople.... In the western provinces, the bishops were become
voluptuous and effeminate to a very high degree. They passed their lives
amidst the splendour of courts, and the pleasures of a luxurious