re is no question, but what poems were his we do not know for
certain. To him was ascribed most of the "Goliardic" poetry current in
the Middle Ages, so called on account of the principal personage who
figures in it, Golias, the type of the gluttonous and debauched prelate.
Some of those poems were merry songs full of humour and _entrain_,
perfectly consistent with what we know of Map's fantasy: "My supreme
wish is to die in the tavern! May my dying lips be wet with wine! So
that on their coming the choirs of angels will exclaim: 'God be merciful
to this drinker!'"[289] Doubts exist also as to what his French poems
were; most of his jokes and repartees were delivered in French, as we
know from the testimony of Gerald de Barry,[290] but what he wrote in
that language is uncertain. The "Lancelot" is assigned to him in many
manuscripts and is perhaps his work.[291]

V.

The subjects of the Angevin kings also took part in the scientific
movement. In the ranks of their literary men using the Latin language
are jurists, physicians, savants, historians, theologians, and, among
the latter, some of the most famous doctors of the Middle Ages:
Alexander of Hales, the "irrefragable doctor"[292]; Duns Scot, the
"subtle doctor"; Adam de Marisco, friend and adviser of Simon de
Montfort, the "illustrious doctor"; Ockham, the "invincible doctor";
Roger Bacon, the "admirable doctor"; Bradwardine, the "profound doctor,"
and yet others.

Scot discusses the greatest problems of soul and matter, and amid many
contradictions, and much obscurity, arrives at this conclusion, that
matter is one: "Socrates and the brazen sphere are identical in nature."
He almost reaches this further conclusion, that "being is one."[293] His
reputation is immense during the Middle Ages; it diminishes at the
Renaissance, and Rabelais, drawing up a list of some remarkable books in
St. Victor's library, inscribes on it, between the "Maschefaim des
Advocats" and the "Ratepenade des Cardinaux," the works of the subtle
doctor under the irreverent title of "Barbouillamenta Scoti."[294]

Ockham, in the pay of Philippe-le-Bel--for England, that formerly had to
send for Lanfranc and Anselm, can now furnish the Continent with
doctors--makes war on Boniface VIII., and, drawing his arguments from
both St. Paul and Aristotle, attacks the temporal power of the
popes.[295] Roger Bacon endeavours to clear up the chaos of the
sciences; he forestalls his illustrious namesake,