Maimesbury, who flourished in the reign of Henry I.and King Stephen, quotes Livy's description of Caesar's passage over the Rubicon.

Fitz-Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II., alludes to a passage in the larger history of Sallust.

In the collection of letters which passes under the name of Thomas a Becket, we see how familiar all the ancient history and ancient books were to the more ingenious and more dignified churchmen of that time, and consequently how much that order of men must have surpassed all the other members of the society.
That prelate and his friends call each other philosophers in all the course of their correspondence, and consider the rest of the world as sunk in total ignorance and barbarism.].