lived towards the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the
fourteenth century, and having joined the Dominican order, was a "Maitre
en Theologie" of that brotherhood at Reims. Various works are attributed
to him, and his learning and piety had many eulogists.

It is more than probable that his name would have been much less widely
known but for the happy accident that turned his attention to the game
of chess. It was a popular diversion, and in the moralizing spirit of
the age he saw in it an allegory of the various components of the
commonwealth. The men who were merely killing time were perhaps
flattered at the thought that they were at the same time learning the
modes of statecraft. Then, as now, the teachers of morality felt that a
song might reach him who a sermon flies, and they did not scruple to use
in the pulpit whatever aids came handy. The popular stories, wise saws,
and modern instances, were common enough on the lips of the preachers,
and such collections as the "Gesta Romanorum show what a pitch of
ingenuity in unnatural interpretation they had reached. An appropriate
instance is furnished by it in the following quaint fashion of
moralizing the chess play:--

"Antonius was a wys emp_er_our regnyng in the cite of Rome, the which
vsid moche to pley with houndis; and aftir at pley, all e day
aftir he wolde vse e chesse. So yn a day, as he pleide at e
chesse, & byheld the kyng fette yn the pley, som tyme hy and som tyme
lowe, among aufyns and pownys, he thought _er_with _a_t hit
wold be so with hi_m_, for he shuld dey, and be hid vndir erth. And
_er_fore he devided his Reame in thre p_ar_ties; and he yaf oo
part to e kyng of Ier_usa_l_e_m; e secunde p_ar_t vnto
e lordis of his Reame or his empire; and the thrid p_ar_tie vnto
the pore people; & yede him self vnto the holy londe, and ther he
endid his lyf in peas.

MORALITE.

Seth now, good sirs; this emp_er_our, at lovith so wele play, may
be called eche worldly man at occupieth him in vanytes of the
world; but he moste take kepe of the pley of the chesse, as did the
emp_er_oure. the chekir or e chesse hath viij. poyntes in eche
p_ar_tie. In eu_er_y pley beth viij. kyndes of men, s_cil_.
man, woman, wedewer, wedowis, lewid men, clerk_es_, riche men, and
pou_er_e men. at this pley pleieth vj. men. the first man, at
goth afore, hath not but oo poynt, but whenne he goth aside, he
takith ano_er_;