SOURCE: McGurk, J. J. N. “John of Salisbury.” History Today 25, no. 1 (January 1975): 40-47.

In the following essay, McGurk offers a portrait of John's life and works, focusing on his humanism.

In the 1140s an Englishman from Salisbury arrived at the Papal Court of Pope Eugenius III to seek employment and advancement. John of Salisbury, or Johannes Parvus, as he was known to the Middle Ages, did not merely become an ordinary Papal chancery clerk but the outstanding scholar of his age, memorable in his elegant writings for the light he threw on so many of the more important figures in church and state of the second half of the twelfth century. Popes, prelates and kings stand out the more distinctly from the praises and criticism of this articulate yet unmalicious observer of their characters and actions. But he was not simply a good journalist of his times; for...