NICEPHORUS', who was patriarch of Constantinople from 806 to 815, and was one of the most able defenders of the images, also wrote a short history 2 of the period between the death of Maurice (602) and the year 769-a work which was admired by Photius 3, and of which a great part may be regarded as belonging to Ecclesiastical history. The appearance of a book which could obtain the praise of the great Byzantine critic, sufficiently indicates the revival of a literary taste among the

3

authority, οὐδὲν ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν συντάξαντες (see the whole passage in the Appendix, Note W), it is most natural to understand him as speaking in reference to the times beyond his own memory. The last forty years of his history must surely have been original. For the preceding times, when he had not ioroptoypápor (as he had for the earlier part), he had Xoyoyρápor, by whom I understand him to mean the panegyrists of the saints, a class of writers that existed, as we have sufficient evidence to prove, even in the indolence and troubles of the seventh and eighth centuries.

1 A copious account of St. Nicephorus (Junii die II. Menolag. Græc. apud Thesaur. Monum. Basnage, tom. iii. P. i. p. 436) may be found in Hankius, ut supra, pp. 223-244. See also Fabr. Bibl. Græc. vi. 295.

* Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Νικηφόρου Πατριάρχου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Ἱστορία σύντομος ἀπὸ τῆς Μαυρικίου βασιλείας, printed after the edition of Petavius, among the Byzantine historians, Paris, 1648. A chronological work of the same author is printed with Georgius Syncellus.

3 Ἔστι δὲ τὴν φράσιν ἀπέριττός τε, καὶ σαφής. καλλιλεξία τε καὶ συνθήκῃ λόγου οὔτε λελυμένῃ, οὔτε αὖ πάλιν συμπεπιεσμένῃ περιέργως κεχρημένος· ἀλλ ̓ οἷς ἂν χρήσαιτο ὁ ῥητορικὸς ὡς ἀληθῶς Kaì TÉλεlog ȧvýp. Bibl. Cod. lxvi.

Greeks. It is a remarkable coincidence that literature emerged about the same time in the East and in the West from the long eclipse of the eighth century.

SECTION III.

FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE, A.D. 814, TO THE PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT III., A.D. 1198.

NEGLECT OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY-REFINEMENT OF THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE HAYMO OF HALBERSTADT -ANASTASIUS BIBLIOTHECARIUSFLODOARD-ADAM OF BREMEN-SIGEBERT OF GEMBLOURSORDERICUS VITALIS-REVIVAL OF LITERATURE IN THE EASTERN EMPIRE-GEORGIUS HAMARTOLUS-HISTORIANS OF THE AGE OF PHOTIUS-SIMEON METAPHRASTES-GEORGIUS CEDRENUS

JOANNES ZONARAS-EUTYCHIUS-ABULPHARAGIUS.

THE further we advance into the Middle Ages, the more necessary it becomes for the historian of Church-history implicitly to adhere to the principle on which he professes to regulate the selection of writers to whom he would direct the reader's notice. We have arrived at a period when the peculiarities which I have described as characterizing the historians of those times, become more and more decided. From the middle of the ninth century, civil and ecclesiastical history alike give place to the characteristic history of the period. Nearly all the writers were, as Schröckh expresses

it, "ecclesiastics who wrote political history theologically'." I must therefore either boldly undertake to enumerate all who distinguished themselves by the composition of historical works 2, or strictly confine myself to those who wrote what may properly be called the history of the Church. I have the less hesitation in deciding in favour of the latter course presented by this alternative, as, though it would be at once an interesting and useful employ to trace the succession of the historians of the Middle Ages, it must be confessed that they are more correctly regarded as being the materials of Church-history, than as deserving to be ranked themselves among the Ecclesiastical historians.

3

The age of Charlemagne forms an era not more important in the political history of Europe, than in the progress of knowledge and civilization among the Teutonic nations. We have a remarkable proof of the extent to which literary pursuits were cultivated under the influence of this great man and his successor, in the fact that the reign of Louis le Debonnaire produced a work on civil, and

1 Es sind Geistliche, welche die politische Geschichte theologisch beschrieben haben. Kirchengeschichte, i. 157.

2 A most convenient tabular view of the principal writers, with a notice of the editions of their works, is furnished by a very useful book intituled, Directorium Historicorum Medii potissimum Ævi post Marquardum Freherum et iteratas Joh. Dav. Koeleri curas recognovit, emendavit, auxit M. Geo. Christo. Hambergerus. Gottinga, 1772.

3 Appendix, Note X.

another on Ecclesiastical, history, written in professed imitation of the ancient models. Eginhard, the accomplished secretary of Charlemagne, wrote a life of his illustrious master, which has been pronounced to be a successful imitation of Suetonius. And HAYMO, bishop of Halberstadt (840853), a pupil of Alcuin, and one of the most celebrated theologians of his time, compiled, from Eusebius and Rufinus, an Ecclesiastical history of the first four centuries 3. But the refinement of

1

Vita et Gesta Karoli cognomento Magni, Francorum regis fortissimi, et Germaniæ suæ illustratoris, authorisque optime meriti, per Eginhartum illius quandoque alumnum, atque scribam adjuratum, Germanum. For the editions, see Hamberger. Directorium Historic. p. 105, 6. The author speaks of himself with great modesty-En tibi librum præclarissimi et maximi viri memoriam continentem, in quo præter illius facta, non est quod admireris nisi forte quod homo barbarus in Romana locutione perparum exercitatus, aliquid decenter aut commode Latine. scribere posse putaverim, atque in tantam impudentiam proruperim, ut illud Ciceronis putarem contemnendum, quod in primo Tusculanarum libro, cum de Latinis scriptoribus loqueretur, dixisse legitur: Mandare quenquam, inquit, literis cogitationes suas, quas nec disponere, nec illustrare possit, nec delectatione aliqua allicere lectorem, hominis est intemperanter abutentis et otio et literis. Poterat quidem hæc oratoris egregii sententia me a scribendo deterrere, nisi animo præmeditatum esset, hominum judicia potius experiri, et scribendo ingenioli mei periculum facere, quam tanti viri memoriam, mihi parcendo, præterire. Ap. Freheri Corpus Francicæ Historiæ, p. 433, edit. 1613.

2 Appendix, Note Y.

3

De Christianarum rerum memoria libri decem. He follows

the Carlovingian period was soon swept away by the stormy times which followed. The works of Eginhard and Haymo were the only attempts which were made in the West to revive the classical method of historical composition. And henceforth we meet with very few writers who may not be assigned to that middle class which I have described as peculiar to the times, till the rise of modern literature.

ANASTASIUS, who was librarian (bibliothecarius) of the Church of Rome, about the year 870, rendered no inconsiderable service to Ecclesiastical history, by introducing the information communicated by the Greek historians of the preceding period to the western church. The events of his life are involved in much obscurity. Indeed the circumstances of his personal history which we find recorded, appear so inconsistent with each other', that some critics have been led to conclude that there were two persons of the same name, who

his authority, Rufinus, in concluding with the reign of Theodosius I. Hic Rufinus Ecclesiasticæ historiæ finem facit; et nos quoque finitis persecutionibus, hæresibus consopitis, fundata et extructa Ecclesia, quia post enumerationem tantorum Martyrum, Confessorum, Doctorum, sive Patrum, nihil dignius restat vel illustrius, hic cum eo suscepti operis compendium terminemus. Hist. Eccles. Breviar. 199, 200, edit. Buxhornii, Lugd. Bat. 1650.

1 These difficulties are stated at length by Schröckh, Kirchengeschichte, xxi. 160.