THE ANCESTOR lOl Gentil furent li capelain, Gentil furent li escrivain, Gentil furent li cunestable E bien poessanz t bien aidable ; Gentil furent li Senescal, Gentil furent li Marescal, Gentil furent li Buteillier, Gentil furent li Despensier ; Li Chamberlenc h li Uissier Furent tuit noble Chevalier.^ These lines occur in the second part of the Roman de RoUy which is supposed to have been finished in its present form in 1 1 70. Wace does not here rely on his usual authorities, Dudo of St. Quentin and William of Jumieges, and he seems to be applying a new-fashioned word to an older state of things. I have not found gentil in any earlier writer, and suspect that its sudden appearance must be connected with the great revival of learning in the first half of the twelfth century, and that the classical use of it may have been revived by Saxo Grammaticus or by one of the group of scholars who studied under Abelard at the University of Paris. But indeed it is doubtful whether gentilisy in the sense of a man of family, was ever completely lost. Selden seems to admit this by his statement that in the dark ages it is ' not a very usual word.'^ Boetius in the sixth century wrote a commentary upon Cicero's Topics^ in which he enlarges upon the latter' s definition of gentilis^ and both ^ Roman de Rou, 5955. According to Du Cange, who had missed these lines, the word occurs elsewhere in the poem : —
- Moult fu beaus, moult fu Gens,
Gentis homs rassembla.' And again : —
- Elle fu de Chartres Comtesse
Espousee au Comte Estevenon Gentilhomme, noble Baron.' The word is also used by Radulfus de Diceto, who is supposed to have died in 1202. 2 I can find no instance. St. Athanasius employs it in the sense of kinship, to denote a man belonging to the same gens. 3 * " Gentiles " are those who have the same name in common, as the Scipios, the Brutuses and the rest. What if they are slaves ? Can there be any Gentilitas of slaves ? By no means. We must add then. Who are born of free parents. But if the descendants of Freedmen who are Roman Citizens are proclaimed by the same name ? Is there any Gentilitas ? Not even so. Since Gentilitas is derived from the antiquity of the free : let it be added then. Whose ancestors have none of them served in bondage. What if by adoption he pass into the family of another I Then, even if he be proclaimed by the name of
