Krey—John of Salisbury and the Classics. 955 
Nor was John alone or the first in this struggle. When he 
was still acquiring his education this movement had already 
begun. The towns were growing rich, France and Eng¬ 
land were thriving and wealth was becoming a commod¬ 
ity. The money fever had begun to affect the schools, 
and students were in a hurry to get an education and go out to 
gather in the golden harvest. A good classical education' occu¬ 
pied too much time. They must find a quicker method and 
dialectics offered itself, to them as a royal road to power. With, 
this knowledge of dialectics they could solve every problem, 
and make the most difficult subject clear in the briefest space of 
time. Such were the inducements held out to prospective 
students by the teachers. They assailed the classics as a waste 
of time not justified by results and the students, lured on by 
Ihese sirens of dialectics, heeded not the safe haven of 
the classical schools. These, then, had to struggle for their very 
existence and they were not slow to meet the enemy. Theodoric, 
one of the masters of Chartres, was already, in the middle of 
the century, engaged in writing polemical essays against these 
enemies of the classics—these Gornificians as he called them— 
and John after a practical experience of eleven years together 
with the advantage of broad training, took up the fight where 
his great teacher had left it. 1 
In a long but extremely significant passage John describes 
these “get-learning-quick” promoters. He describes not only 
their methods but also the character of the struggle and his own 
Moyen—Age,’ pp. 223-4. ‘Telle etait aussi la pensee de Thierry, dans 
son prologue de l’Eptateuchon. Dans cette assemblee des sept arts, 
reunie pour la culture de l’humanite, la Grammaire s’avance la pre- 
mieere, comme une matrone au visage et a l’attitude severe. Elle con- 
voque les enfants et leur inculque l’art de bien ecrire et de bien parler’; 
elle traduit convenablement les langues et reclame comme son bien 
propre l’explication de tous les auteurs: tout ce qui se dit releve de son 
autorite. Sa blancheur venerable lui tient pres de ses disciples d’argu- 
mentation. Jean de Salisbury a fait son metalogique pour venger 
l’importance des belleslettres. En un mot, comme l’a ramarque juste- 
ment R. L. Poole, c’est la marque particuliere de l’ecole de Chartres: 
elle cultive specialement les humanites, et dans ce but, cherche ses 
modeles jusque dans l’antiquite pai’enne.” 
1 Clerval, Les Ecoles de Chartres, pp. 164-224. 
