lly, who was Archbishop of Paris for more than
thirty years, from 1160 onwards, composed sermons in French; or at
least that sermons of his, which may have been written in Latin, were
translated into French. For this whole point of early prose,
especially on theological subjects, is complicated by the uncertainty
whether the French forms are original or not. There is no doubt that
the feeling expressed by Ascham in England nearly four centuries
later, that it would have been for himself much easier and pleasanter
to write in Latin, must at the earlier date have prevailed far more
extensively.

[Footnote 155: The often-quoted statement that in 659 Mummolinus or
Momolenus was made Bishop of Noyon because of his double skill in
"Teutonic" and "Roman" (_not_ "Latin") speech.]

[Sidenote: _Villehardouin._]

Still prose made its way: it must have received an immense accession
of vogue if the prose Arthurian romances really date from the end of
the twelfth century; and by the beginning of the thirteenth it found a
fresh channel in which to flow, the channel of historical narrative.
The earliest French chronicles of the ordinary compiling kind date
from this time; and (which is of infinitely greater importance) it is
from this time (_cir._ 1210) that the first great French prose book,
from the literary point, appears--that is to say, the _Conquete de
Constantinoble_,[156] or history of the Fourth Crusade, by Geoffroy de
Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne and Romanie, who was born about
1160 in the first-named province, and died at Messinople in Greece
about 1213.

[Footnote 156: Ed. Natalis de Wailly. Paris, 1872.]

This deservedly famous and thoroughly delightful book, which has more
than one contemporary or slightly younger parallel, though none of
these approaches it in literary interest, presents the most striking
resemblance to a _chanson de geste_--in conduct, arrangement (the
paragraphs representing _laisses_), and phraseology. But it is not, as
some other early prose is, merely verse without rhyme, and with broken
rhythm; and it is impossible to read it without astonished admiration
at the excellence of the medium which the writer, apparently by
instinct, has attained. The list of the crusaders; their embassy to
"li dux de Venise qui ot a nom Henris Dandolo et etait mult sages et
mult prouz"; their bargain, in which the business-like Venetian, after
stipulating for 85,000 marks of transport-money, agrees to add f