Cultural and Artistic Antccede)its 33J 



c'est la que debute veritablement I'histoire de nos arts, de notre litte- 

 rature. de notre civilisation, comme celle des autres arts et des autres 

 civilisations de TEurope.^ 



Classical studies reached their zenith in the twelfth century. For in 

 every way this century surpassed its predecessors ; and in classical 

 studies it excelled the thirteenth, which devoted to them a smaller 

 portion of its intellectual energies. - 



But at the close of the latter reign [Henry I's] and throughout that 

 of Stephen, the people . . . was stirred by the first of those great relig- 

 ious movements which England was to experience afterwards in the 

 preaching of the Friars, the LoUardism of Wychf, the Reformation, 

 the Puritan enthusiasm, and the mission work of the Wesleys. Every- 

 where in town and country men banded themselves together for prayer, 

 hermits flocked to the woods, noble and churl welcomed the austere 

 Cistercians, a reformed outshoot of the Benedictine order, as they 

 spread over the moors and forests of the North. A ncAV spirit of de- 

 votion woke the slumber of the religious houses.^ 



The religious movement of which Henry had once seemed destined 

 to become a leader had gone sweeping on till it left him far behind. 

 It was the one element of national life whose growth, instead of being 

 checked, seems to have been actually fostered by the ana^ch3^ The 

 only bright pages in the story of those ' nineteen winters ' are thi' 

 pages in the Jlonasticon Anglimnum which tell of the progress and the 

 work of the new religious orders, and shew us how, while knights and 

 barons, king and Empress, were turning the fairest regions of England 

 into a wilderness, Templars and Hospitallers were setting up their 

 priories, Austin canons were directing schools and serving hospitals, 

 and the sons of S. Bernard were making the very desert to rejoice and 

 blossom as the lose. The vigor of the movement shewed itself in the 

 diversity of forms which it assumed. Most of them were offshoots 

 of the Order of 8. Augustine. The Augustinian schools were the best 

 in England ; the ' Black Canons ' excelled as teachers ; they excelled 

 yet more as nui'ses and guardians of the poor. One of the most attract- 

 ive features of the time is the great number of hospices, hospitals, 

 or almhouses as we should call them now, established for the reception 

 and maintenance of the aged, the needy and the infirm.^ . . . ' In the 

 short while that Stephen reigned, or rather bore the title of king, there 

 arose in England many more dwelhngs of the servants and handmaids 

 of God than had arisen there in the course of the whole previous cen- 



Caumont, Abecedaire (V ArcMologit 1. 203. 

 Taylor 2. 117. 



Green, Short Hist., Chap. 2, sec. 6. 

 Cf. p. 99, note. 



(119) 



