lo Professor Powicke'lpn 



which the Roman Empire made terms with the barbarian world. 

 This belief in the essential unity of things explained many 

 anomalies, including those of the medieval chronicle. Every 

 writer who wished to be more than a parochial annalist stretched 

 his story upon a chronological framework, which had its origin in 

 the harmony of sacred and pagan chronology made by Eusebius. 

 In the Latin translation of St. Jerome the chronicle of Eusebius 

 became the basis of Western history. It was continued by 

 numerous writers and was combined with the official lists of 

 Roman consuls, which were made down to the sixth century. At 

 different periods in medieval times universal histories were 

 compiled which were continuations of these continuations. The 

 lecturer proceeded to refer to the work of Marianus Scotus and 

 Sigebert of Genblou, and said this work was, in its turn, continued 

 by Robert of Torigny, a monk of Bee, who became Abbot of 

 Mont St. Michel, and through him it came into England. Robert, 

 who lived in the middle of the twelfth century, came in contact 

 with what was a kind of Celtic revival. In the previous century 

 Tigernach had worked the traditions and records of Ireland into 

 the Eusebian chronology, and now Geoffrey of Monmouth and 

 others were writing down the legends of the British kings. Robert 

 of Torigny, however, refused to tamper with the work of Eusebius 

 and St. Jerome by inserting the exploits of Arthur and his pre- 

 decessors. The lecturer then turned to the influence of St. 

 Augustine and Orosius upon historical writing, and especially upon 

 the universal chronicles of Isidore of Seville and of Bede. The 

 ecclesiastical point of view, emphasized by St. Augustine, was 

 apparent in the work of Gregory of Tours and Bede's Ecclesiastical 

 History ; but gradually the Divine character of secular history was 

 asserted, and it found a classical expression in the Convivio of 

 Dante. In the second part of his lecture Professor Powicke dealt 

 with some different types of chronicle, and traced the development 

 of the monastic annals and the Royal annals of the Carolingian 

 period. Turning to the scholarship and the historical method of 

 the better medieval chronicles, he referred to the influence of the 



