JOHN OF SALISBURY finds a place, and very deservedly, in every catalogue of learned Englishmen. Hie era was the reign of King Henry IL, the Salisbury from which he took his name was therefore the old town of that name (Old Sarum), and not the present episcopal city, which was not founded till the reign of henry 111. John had studied at Oxford, but he visited also the universities of France and Italy. According to Leland, he was intimately acquainted with the Latin and Greek writers ; he had some knowledge of Hebrew; he was skilled in the mathematics and ovary branch of natural philosophy, as he was also in theology and morals; be was an eloquent orator and an eminent poet. Leland further says of him that he was possessed of the moat amiable disposition, ever cheerful, innocent, and good.
John was much connected with Thomas is Becket, archbishop of Canterbury. Peter of Blois, in the twenty-second of his ' Epistles,' which are collected and printed, calls John the eye and hand of the 'archbishop. John became himself the Bishop of Chartrea in 1164,
He died in 1182.
John's principal historical writings were Lives of Two Archbishops of Canterbury, Anselm and Thomas Is Becket.' But the work by whloh he is beat known to scholars, for the curious matter which it contains can scarcely be said to have found its way into the vernacular literature of his own or any other country, is entitled Polycraticon, de Nugis Curialibus of Vestigiis Philosophorum,' in which he describe* the manners of the great, speaking not unfroquently in the style of sharp satire. There is an edition of it at Paris (1518), and another at Loudon (1595). A large catalogue of his writings may be seen in Pitz and other writers of that class. See also Tanner, ' Bib. Brit. Mb.'