All, or almost all, these works, written as they were in an age sincerely pious, if somewhat grotesque in its piety, and theoretically moral, if somewhat loose in its practice, contained not only abundant moralising, but also more or less theology of the mystical kind. It would therefore have been strange if ethics and theology themselves had wanted special exponents in verse. Before the middle of the twelfth century Samson of Nanteuil (again an Englishman by residence) had versified the Proverbs of Solomon, and in the latter half of the same century vernacular lives of the saints begin to be numerous. Perhaps the most popular of these was the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, of which the fullest poetical form has been left us by an English trouvere of the thirteenth century named Chardry, by whom we have also a verse rendering of the 'Seven Sleepers,' and some other poems[84]. Somewhat earlier, Hermann of Valenciennes was a fertile author of this sort of work, composing a great _Bible de Sapience_ or versification of the Old Testament, and a large number of lives of saints. Of books of Eastern origin, one of the most important was the _Castoiement d'un Pere a son Fils_, which comes from the _Panchatantra_, though not directly. The translated work had great vogue, and set the example of other _Castoiements_ or warnings. The monk Helinand at the end of the twelfth century composed a poem on 'Death,' and a vast number of similar poems might be mentioned. The commonest perhaps of all is a dialogue _Des trois Morts et des trois Vifs_, which exists in an astonishing number of variants. Gradually the tone of all this work becomes more and more allegorical. _Dreams, Mirrors, Castles_, such as the 'Castle of Seven Flowers,' a poem on the virtues, make their appearance. [Sidenote: Allegorical verse.] [Sidenote: The Roman de la Rose.]