The notes appended to the text will give a general idea of the authorities whence the matter has been derived. The Ecclesiastical Histories of Fleury and Rohrbacher have furnished the groundwork of the general narrative. In the account of the Irish schools, the chronology and the main facts have been drawn from Lanigan’s Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. The sketch of the restoration of letters under Charlemagne has been chiefly taken from Crevier’s _Histoire de l’Université de Paris_, Launoy’s Treatise _De Scholis Celebrioribus_, and the various lives, both ancient and modern, of Charlemagne. In the chapters referring to the subsequent history of the Dark Ages, constant use has been made of the _Acta Sanctorum Ord. S. Benedicti_, by D’Achery and Mabillon, and of the collections of the Lives of the Saints by Surius and the Bollandists; also of the _Vetera Analecta_ of Mabillon, the _Spicilegium_ of D’Achery, the _Amplissima Collectio_ of Martene, and the _Histoire Litteraire de la France_, by the Benedictines of St. Maur. Much valuable matter has also been derived from the _Monumenta Germaniæ Historica_ of Pertz, and the collection of ancient German Chronicles by Meibomius; the account of the school and scholars of St. Gall’s being taken from Ekkehard’s History _De Casibus S. Galli_, printed in the first volume of Goldasti’s collection, and from the Benedictine Life of B. Notker. The notices of the foreign universities are chiefly drawn from Crevier, and from Tiraboschi’s _Storia della Letteratura Italiana_, which latter work has been almost exclusively used in the chapters on the Renaissance in Italy. The chapter on the Dominicans and the Universities is compiled from a considerable number of authorities; chiefly, Touron’s _Vies des Hommes Illustres_, the _Scriptores Ordinis Prædicatorum_ by Echard and Quetil, the French translation of Dr. Sighart’s _Life of Albert the Great_, and the _Constitutions of the Order_. The sketches of our English schools and universities are mostly derived from Wood’s _Antiquities of Oxford_, Ayliffe’s _Ancient and Present State of the University of Oxford_, and Dugdale’s _Monasticon_; whilst various notices of early English scholars have been gathered from Wright’s _Biographia Britannica_, Warton’s _History of English Poetry_, and the original lives of the English Saints, as given in the three collections already named. Hallam’s _Literary History of Europe_, and Ranke’s _History of the Popes_, have also been made considerable use of in treating of the period of the Renaissance, while the sketches of Colet and Pole have been drawn from their respective lives by Knight and Philipps. Pallavicini’s _History of the Council of Trent_, and Touron’s _Life of St. Charles Borromeo_, have furnished the chief materials for the concluding chapter of the work. ST. DOMINIC’S CONVENT, STONE, _May 1867_. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.