Paetow—Neglect of the Ancient Classics . 
315 
(1) In the twelfth and thirteenth, as well as in all previous 
centuries of the Middle Ages, there cropped out again and again 
a strong clerical feeling against the classics, decrying them as 
useless and dangerous heathen products. Alexander of Ville- 
dieu, (c. 1200) once a professor at the University of Paris, 
warned the masters of Orleans that unless they forsook the clas¬ 
sics, the gates of Paradise would forever remain closed to them. 
Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) in a sermon before the students 
of Paris, said: “In spite of the utility of the art of elo¬ 
quence which we derive from the poets, properly called authors, 
(auctores) it is better to choose for our instruction those works 
which contain moral teaching. . . . Do not books of this 
kind suffice without turning to the historians and the poets for 
excitations which lead to debauch and vanity V’ Sermons often 
fall on deaf ears, but, as we shall see, the minds of those Pari¬ 
sian students had already been molded by various other influ¬ 
ences so that it was easy for them to do for once as their 
preacher bade them. Time and time again protests also arose 
against the positively indecent literature of Pome. Some of 
the best disciples of the famous schools of Chartres, notably 
Peter of Blois (d. 1204), seriously injured the cause of the 
classics by writing light and scurrilous verses which the moral¬ 
ists of the age pointed to as the results of familiarity with 
the Poman poets. 
(2) Especially in the twelfth century a good deal of excellent 
Latin literature was written which deservedly became popular. 
Just as the pagan poets were often crowded out of the schools by 
the early Christian poets such as Prudentius and S'edulius, so 
now the works of modern authors frequently displaced the clas¬ 
sics or at least were read side by side with them. The most re¬ 
nowned of these was the Alexmdreis of Gautier de Lille 
1176-1179), a Latin epic poem recounting the deeds of Alexan¬ 
der the Great. Llenri de Gard (d. 1295) wrote that in his day 
the Alexandreis was read to such an extent, that on this account 
the ancient poets were neglected. A good deal of excellent lit- 
i Sermo coram scolari'hus. Ms. Bibl. Nat. Lat. 17509 fos. 31, 32. Trans¬ 
lated in Lecoy de la Marche, La Chaire Frangaise au Moyen Age, pp. 
474-475. 
