iterature dwindled as its sources were impoverished; ingenuities
and technical formalities replaced imagination. The minds of men were
prepared to accept the new influences of the Renaissance and the
Reformation.

I
NARRATIVE RELIGIOUS POETRY

The oldest monument of the French language is found in the Strasburg
Oaths (842); the oldest French poem possessing literary merit is the
_Vie de Saint Alexis_, of which a redaction belonging to the middle
of the eleventh century survives. The passion of piety and the passion
of combat, the religious and the warrior motives, found early
expression in literature; from the first arose the Lives of Saints
and other devout writings, from the second arose the _chansons de
geste_. They grew side by side, and had a like manner of development.
If one takes precedence of the other, it is only because by the chances
of time _Saint Alexis_ remains to us, and the forerunners of the
_Chanson de Roland_ are lost. With each species of poetry
_cantilenes_--short lyrico-epic poems--preceded the narrative form.
Both the profane and what may be called the religious _chanson de
geste_ were sung or recited by the same jongleurs--men of a class
superior to the vulgar purveyors of amusement. Gradually the poems
of both kinds expanded in length, and finally prose narrative took
the place of verse.

The Lives of Saints are in the main founded on Latin originals; the
names of their authors are commonly unknown. _Saint Alexis_, a tale
of Syriac origin, possibly the work of Tedbalt, a canon of Vernon,
consists of 125 stanzas, each of five lines which are bound together
by a single assonant rhyme. It tells of the chastity and poverty of
the saint, who flies from his virgin bride, lives among beggars,
returns unrecognised to his father's house, endures the insults of
the servants, and, dying at Rome, receives high posthumous honours;
finally, he is rejoined by his wife--the poet here adding to the
legend--in the presence of God, among the company of the angels. Some
of the sacred poems are derived from the Bible, rhymed versions of
which were part of the jongleur's equipment; some from the apocryphal
gospels, or legends of Judas, of Pilate, of the Cross, or, again,
from the life of the Blessed Virgin. The literary value of these is
inferior to that of the versified Lives of the Saints. About the tenth
century the marvels of Eastern hagiography became known in France,
and gave a powerful stimulus to the