at Bagdad, at a distance from his
library, an analysis of 280 works he had formerly read. [Sidenote: The
absurdity of its intellectual pursuits.] The final age of the city was
signalized by the Baarlamite controversy respecting the mysterious light
of Mount Thabor--the possibility of producing a beatific vision and of
demonstrating, by an unceasing inspection of the navel for days and
nights together, the existence of two eternal principles, a visible and
an invisible God!

[Sidenote: Cause of all this.] What was it that produced this
barrenness, this intellectual degradation in Constantinople? The tyranny
of Theology over Thought.

But with the capture of Constantinople by the Latins other important
events were occurring. Everywhere an intolerance of papal power was
engendering. [Sidenote: Heresy follows literature.] The monasteries
became infected, and even from the holy lips of monks words of ominous
import might be heard. In the South of France the intellectual
insurrection first took form. There the influence of the Mohammedans and
Jews beyond the Pyrenees began to manifest itself. [Sidenote: Spread of
gay literature from Spain.] The songs of gallantry; tensons, or poetical
contests of minstrels; satires of gay defiance; rivalry in praise of the
ladies; lays, serenades, pastourelles, redondes, such as had already
drawn forth the condemnation of the sedate Mussulmen of Cordova, had
gradually spread through Spain and found a congenial welcome in France.
[Sidenote: The Troubadours and Trouveres.] The Troubadours were singing
in the langue d'Oc in the south, and the Trouveres in the langue d'Oil
in the north. Thence the merry epidemic spread to Sicily and Italy. Men
felt that a relief from the grim ecclesiastic was coming. Kings, dukes,
counts, knights, prided themselves on their gentle prowess. The humbler
minstrels found patronage among ladies and at courts: sly satires
against the priests, and amorous ditties, secured them a welcome among
the populace. When the poet was deficient in voice, a jongleur went with
him to sing; and often there was added the pleasant accompaniment of a
musical instrument. The Provencal or langue d'Oc was thus widely
diffused; it served the purposes of those unacquainted with Latin, and
gave the Italians a model for thought and versification, to Europe the
germs of many of its future melodies. While the young were singing, the
old were thinking; while the gay were carried away with roman