One catalogue shows a Horace, and one
manuscript dates from the time. England and France are united by the
Norman Conquest in much the same way as Germany and France had been
associated in the kingdom of Charlemagne. It is the century of Roger
Bacon. Especially in Germany, England, and France, it is the age of the
Crusades and the knightly orders. It is an age of the spread of culture
among the common people. In France, it is the age of the monastery of
Cluny, and the age of Abelard. Education and travel became the mode. In
general, acquaintance with Horace among cultivated men may now be taken
for granted. The _Epistles_ and _Satires_ find more favor than the
_Odes_. Five hundred and twenty citations of the former and
seventy-seven of the latter have been collected for the twelfth century.
The thirteenth century marks a decline in the intellectual life. The
Crusades exhaust the energies of the time, and detract from its literary
interest. The German rulers and the Italian ecclesiasts are absorbed in
the struggle for supremacy between pope and emperor. Scholasticism
overshadows humanism. The humanistic tradition of Charlemagne has died
out, and the intellectual ideal is represented by Vincent of Beauvais
and the _Speculum Historiale_.
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