sophistes, il se laissa entraîner par leur exemple, pour ne pas voir déserter son école.' The same statement involves also the character of William's colleague, Richard l'Évêque, and is accordingly repeated under his article in the b fourteenth volume of the Histoire. It has become the accepted view in regard to William, and is adopted, to give a single instance, in c Ritter's Geschichte der Christlichen Philosophie. It is therefore the more necessary to subject the hypothesis to a close examination.[1] The part of it, however, concerning the sequence of William's works needs no refutation, since it is directly contradicted by his own d statement that he wrote the Philosophia in his youth, many years before John of Salisbury came in contact with him.
2. John of Salisbury's words are as follows:
Ad huius magistri [Bernardi Carnotensis] formam praeceptores mei in grammatica, Gulielmus de Conchis et Richardus cognomento episcopus, officio nunc archidiaconus Constantiensis, vita et conversation vir bonus, suos discipulos aliquandiu informaverunt. Sed postmodum, ex quo opinio veritati praeiudicium fecit et homines videri quam esse philosophi maluerunt, professoresque artium se totam philosophiam brevius quam triennio aut biennio transfusuros auditoribus pollicebantur, impetu multitudinis imperitae victi, cesserunt. Exinde autem minus temporis et diligentiae in grammaticae studio impensum est, etc.
The language is no doubt ambiguous, and everything hangs on the sense we give to cesserunt. We may understand the passage, 'Once they taught well, but after a while they yielded to the rush of incompetent rivals and followed their example;' or equally legitimately, 'Once these worthy successors of Bernard handed on his tradition, but after a while, disgusted with the prevalent method of teaching, they withdrew from the field.' The words will bear either rendering; but John of Salisbury's other evidence about
- ↑ The only writer I have found who interprets the passage of John of Salisbury as I do, is M. Léon Maitre, Écoles épiscopales et monastiques 209; but he does not seem to be aware of the difference of opinion that has arisen on the point.
