THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
concerning angels and demons, light, and color (i.— ii.), astronomy and astrology, space, time, motion, air, echo, rain, lightning, and clouds (iii—iv.), the sea, tides, healing springs, minerals, plants, and gardens (v.-xiv.), birds and fishes (xvi.—xvii.), reptiles, mammals, and the anatomy, physiology, and psychology of man (xviii.xxviii.), sin (xxix.), generation (xxxi.), and the geography of the three divisions of the world with their importance for the history of man (xxxii.). History itself is divided, in Augustinian fashion, not only into sections ‘ before the law,” ‘‘ under the law,” and “‘ under grace,” but also into six ages, corresponding to the six days of creation, and to six ages of man according to his varying attitude toward the divine law, these being infancy (from Adam to Noah), boyhood (to Abraham), adolescence (to David), youth (to the exile), manhood (to Christ), and old age (to the Last Day), the seventh age being the eternal rest of the saints. The second part, the Speculum doctrinale, in seventeen books, forms an encyclopedia of science. After an introduction (i. 3), the origin and division of sciences are discussed, and a vocabulary of unusual terms is appended (i. 10 sqq.). Then follow the elements of grammar (ii.) and a compend of logic, rhetoric, and poetry (iii.). Passing to “‘ practical learning,” Vincent takes up virtues and religion (iv.), social life (v. 38), ‘‘ economics’”’ (marriage, education, friends, house, agriculture, etc.; vi.), then political science (vii.), jurisprudence (viii.), and crimes (ix.-x.); the mechanical arts (xi.), medicine (xii—xiii.), special diseases (xiv.); ‘‘ natural philosophy ”’ (the elements, minerals, trees, zoology, etc.; xv.) and mathematics, music, geometry, astronomy, and metaphysics (xvi.). The concluding book treats of theological science. The third portion, or Speculum historiale, is introduced by a brief presentation of the doctrine of God, the heavenly hierarchy, matter, creation, man, the fall, sin, the fourteen articles of faith, the three theological and the four cardinal virtues, and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Early history is summarized from the Bible (i.). The second book extends from Moses to the period of the kings, including the account of Hercules, the Trojan war, Lycurgus, Romulus, the seven wise men, etc.; and the third treats of Aisop’s Fables, the fall of Babylon, Hippias, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Ezra, Nehemiah, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, ete. Books iv.-vi. recount the history of Philip, Alexander, and the Diodochi to Augustus and Herod. The seventh book begins with Tiberius, and is devoted especially to the birth of Christ; and the eighth develops the essence of Christianity and the seven sacraments. The ninth book contains accounts of Nero, Simon Magus, and the Roman primate Clement, legends of the apostles, and histories of the martyrs, etc. The tenth book is a record of the emperors from Vespasian to Commodus, the destruction of Jerusalem, John, Pliny, and the Church Fathers. The eleventh book extends to Origen and Tertullian; the twelfth book contains the history of the Diocletian persecution, and the thirteenth and fourteenth the record of the period of Constantine, with the Church Fathers of the fourth century. The fifteenth and sixteenth books tell of India (according to the legend of Bar-
laam and Josaphat, q.v.), Persia, Rome, France, England, the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Huns; while books xvii.-xxiv. are devoted to the period from Theodosius to the Carolingians, with thorough discussion of the principal ecclesiastical authors. Books XXV.-xxx. recount the events from the reign of Henry II. to the author’s own time. The thirtyfirst book contains an account of the council held at Lyons in 1245,*the sending of Dominicans to the Tatars in 1245, and the crusade of St. Louis with his captivity in Damietta until 1250. The last date given is 1253, but the Speculum was completed in thirty books in 1244, the thirty-first being added nine years later.
The method of Vincent was to take his data from some chronology, as that of Eusebius, and to fill in with material drawn from biographies or similar historical sources. There are few attempts at analysis or interpretation, the Speculum being rather a gigantic chronicle or work of reference. His purpose was to gather together all the learning of his time, and its gigantic and all-embracing scope is characterististic of the endeavor of religious erudition to establish the supremacy of the Church on every side, even learning being made a means of grace, and knowledge serving to promote piety.