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522
MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
logy and law. The influence of these developments was soon
felt in England, as scholars crossed overseas to avail themselves
ofthe better facilities for study, and as scholars trained in conx
tinental schools came to win a livelihood by opening schools
in England where clerks might study these subjects. There
were bishops in twelftlvcentury England, who by their own
eminence in learning or by their employment oftrained scholars
from abroad in their households, were in a position
to lend
encouragement to the growth of a similar movement in this
country. Archbishop Theobald (d. 1161) by his choice of
able scholars for hisfamilia stimulated the study ofecclesiastical
law. Thefamilia of his successor, Archbishop Becket, which
was noted for its eruditi, included John of Salisbury (d. 1180),
one ofthe greatest
scholars of his age, and Herbert ofBosham,
the hebraist. During the course ofthe century the secular cathe/
dral churches were all influenced by this new movement. The
study of law at Lincoln was in sufficient repute by 1160 to
attract St. Thorlak from Iceland; but with the appointment of
William de Monte as chancellor about 1 190, Lincoln became
more noted for theology. The study oflaw prospered at Exeter
during the time of Bishop
Bartholomew. Gerald of Wales
(d. c. 1220), who studied theology at Lincoln when he could
not cross to France, was told on his appointment as a canon of
Hereford that the liberal arts were better studied there than
elsewhere in England.
These promising developments were not confined to the
cathedral cities. Other 'towns more favourably placed were
sought by masters who were minded to set up schools in this
had received their
country on the lines ofthose in which they
training abroad. For this purpose, owing to the centrality of
their
position, Northampton and Oxford offered ideal alterx
natives. Towards the close of the twelfth century there were
schools at Northampton of sufficient repute to attract lecturers
ofthe calibre ofDaniel of Morley, who had studied at Paris and
Toledo, and Geoffrey of Vinsauf, the accomplished author of
a treatise on the art of poetry. Oxford had other advantages
besides its central position at the crossing of two important