ON THE MIDDLE OR DARK AGES. 



309 



Latin character progressively died away ; and pure Latin was at length no 

 longer known except as the language of the learned. Even in Rome itself it 

 ceased to be spoken at the commencement of the seventh century; and the 

 descendants»of Csesar and Cicero, and Virgil and Horace, were incapable of 

 reading the immortal productions of their forefathers. It had already ceased 

 for some ages to be employed in the Greek empire; having here been sup- 

 planted by the Greek tongue itself, the prevailing language of the country, 

 and the fashionable language of every polite Roman, shortly after the remo- 

 val of the imperial court to the eastern metropolis, in the reign of Con- 

 stantine. 



With respect to language, Mahomet pursued the same plan as the Romans. 

 Wherever he conquered he introduced the Alcoran, and compelled every na- 

 tion to read and to understand it in his own tongue. And hence, during the 

 seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, the only genuine languages spoken 

 throughout the civilized world were Greek and Arabic ; both derived from a 

 similar source, and of very early origin; and both existing without any very 

 great degree of variation to the present hour ; but neither of them employed 

 at any time as a vernacular tongue, in the north or south, or even the west of 

 Europe, except in vSpain, where the Arabic was used during the dominion of 

 the western caliphat in that country. Jn consequence of which the latinity 

 of the Spanish tongue is considerably tinctured with Arabic terms and 

 phraseologies, and possesses less resemblance to its Roman origin than the 

 Portuguese, which, as being more remote, was less affected by the Saracen 

 invasion and conquest. 



The controversies of the church, and the subtle logomachies, or word-wars 

 of the schoolmen, were conducted sometimes in Greek, but far more gene- 

 rally in Latin. And as only the former of these tongues was known to the 

 people of the eastern, and neither of them to those of the western empire, 

 the laity, in general, were completely cut off from all knowledge of the 

 little and only learning that was alternately exercised, excepting as occa- 

 sionally explained to them in whatever might happen to be their vernacular 

 tongue. 



Upon the fall of the Latin language, the rude dialect that was most approved 

 in France and Italy was the Proven9al, or that made use of in Provence and 

 its vicinity; and it was hence exclusively employed by the Troveurs or Trou- 

 badours, as they were called, Provencal poets that about the commencement 

 of the eleventh century began to flourish very numerously ; and by the com- 

 plimentary and licentious gayety of their incondite rhymes, to obtain an esta- 

 blishment in almost every court of Europe. 



The times, indeed, were well calculated to promote their object; for there 

 is, perhaps, hardly a vice that can be enumerated in the whole catalogue of 

 moral evil that did not at this era of ignorance brutalize the human heart; 

 and even the devotees themselves consisted, for the most part, of worn-out pro- 

 fligates, who had no longer the power of indulging their sensual gratifica- 

 tions. Such, among others, was William IX., count of Poictou, who was 

 one of the earliest Provencal poets, and is equally celebrated for the un- 

 bridled debauchery of his earlier life, and the sanctimonious pretensions of 

 his old age ; — who at first founded an abbey for women of pleasure, and after- 

 ward converted it into a nunnery for the chaste and the pious ; and who, on 

 being rebuked and excommunicated in the midst of his infamous career, by 

 his own bishop, seized him by the hair, and was on the point of despatching 

 him, but suddenly stopped short, and exclaimed, " No— I have that hatred 

 of thee, thou shalt never enter heaven through the assistance of my hand." 

 " Nec coelum unquam intrabis meae manus ministerio."* 



Respecting another court and people in the neighbourhood of Poictou, we 

 are told by an excellent contemporary writer, that all the men of rank were 

 so blinded by avarice, that it might truly be said of them, in the words of 

 Juvenal, 



* Malmesbury, p. 96, fol. ed. 1596 , 



