Other Writers of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Who Preceded
Chaucer.


Robert Manning, a canon of Bourne--called also Robert de Brunne:
Translated a portion of Wace's _Brut_, and also a chronicle of Piers de
Langtoft bringing the history down to the death of Edward I. (1307.) He is
also supposed to be the author of a translation of the "Manuel des Pêchés,"
(Handling of Sins,) the original of which is ascribed to Bishop Grostête
of Lincoln.

_The Ancren Riwle_, or _Anchoresses' Rule_, about 1200, by an unknown
writer, sets forth the duties of a monastic life for three ladies
(anchoresses) and their household in Dorsetshire.

Roger Bacon, (1214-1292,) a friar of Ilchester: He extended the area of
knowledge by his scientific experiments, but wrote his Opus Magus, or
_greater work_, in comparison with the Opus Minus, and numerous other
treatises in Latin. If he was not a writer in English, his name should be
mentioned as a great genius, whose scientific knowledge was far in advance
of his age, and who had prophetic glimpses of the future conquests of
science.

Robert Grostête, Bishop of Lincoln, died 1253, was probably the author of
the _Manuel des Pêchés_, and also wrote a treatise on the sphere.

Sir Michael Scott: He lived in the latter half of the thirteenth century;
was a student of the "occult sciences," and also skilled in theology and