or librorum_, they moreover unfold to us
the state of learning among the ecclesiastics at least of the twelfth
century; and if we were to take our worthy archdeacon as a specimen, they
possessed a far better taste for these matters than we usually give them
credit for. Peter of Blois was no ordinary man; a churchman, he was free
from the prejudices of churchmen--a visitant of courts and the associate
of royalty, he was yet free from the sycophancy of a courtier--and when
he saw pride and ungodliness in the church, or in high places, he feared
not to use his pen in stern reproof at these abominations. It is both
curious and extraordinary, when we bear in mind the prejudices of the
age, to find him writing to a bishop upon the looseness of his conduct,
and reproving him for his inattention to the affairs of his diocese, and
upbraiding another for displaying an unseemly fondness for hunting,[337]
and other sports of the field; which he says is so disreputable to one of
his holy calling, and quotes an instance of Pope Nicholas suspending and
excluding from the church Bishop Lanfred for a similar offence; which he
considers even more disgraceful in Walter, Lord Bishop of Winchester, to
whom he is writing, on account of his advanced age; he being at that time
eighty years old. We are constantly reminded in reading his letters that
we have those of an indefatigable student before us; almost every page
bears some allusion to his books or to his studies, and prove how well
and deeply read he was in Latin literature; not merely the theological
writings of the church, but the classics also. In one of his letters he
speaks of his own studies, and tells us that when he learnt the art of
versification and correct style, he did not spend his time on legends and
fables, but took his models from Livy, Quintus Curtius, Trogus Pompeius,
Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and other classics; in the same letter he
gives some directions to the Archdeacon of Nantes, who had undertaken the
education of his nephews, as to the manner of their study. He had
received from the archdeacon a flattering account of the progress made by
one of them named William, to which he thus replies--"You speak," says
he, "of William--his great penetration and ingenious disposition, who,
without grammar or the authors of science, which are both so desirable,
has mastered the subtilties of logic, so as to be esteemed a famous
logician, as I learn by your letter. But this is