174 UNIVERSITY OF ST. MAEK. 



observations. Abstra6t ideas, despicable chimeras, and vain 

 subtilties, explained in a coarse and barbarous style, formed 

 the proud and useless science which resounded in their halls. 

 From them, as from a dark chaos, the errors which went 

 abroad were disseminated. If the information which relates 

 to the general ignorance of nations, had not been transmitted 

 to us by the most authentic testimonies, it would be difficult 

 for us to persuade ourselves, that it attained the scandalous de- 

 gradation of ordering the fathers who composed the council 

 of Chalons, to corre6l the rituals with all possible care and 

 exa6litude, from an apprehension least, in petitioning God 

 for a favour, the ecclesiastics should demand precisely the 

 contrary. At a period not so remote, a respectable Spaniard, 

 Clemente Sanchez, wrote as follows : " As a punishment for 

 our sins and transgressions, there are at this time many priests 

 entrusted with the cure of souls, who are utterly ignorant how 

 to teach the things that belong to our salvation." 



This grievous scourge infested all Europe. When the doc- 

 trines of Luther first found their way into the North, the 

 greater part of the clergy of Scotland believed him to be the 

 author of the New Testament*. The general synod of Rus- 

 sia having been convened in 1723, for the presentation of a 

 bishop, said to the Czar Peter : *' We can find none other than 

 ignorant persons to proposed The university of Paris worded in 

 the following manner a receipt it gave to the congregation of 

 St. Germain : tenemus nos pknarie pro pagatis ; and the parlia- 

 ment published one of its edi6ts in the following terms : 

 pagatores pagabant pagam die asignato pro pagatione. 



The lustre of the academy of St. Mark has never been tar- 



History of the House of Tudor. 



nished 



