Such was the painfully slow method of producing and multiplying books before the advent of printing, and in days when skill in copying manuscripts was not particularly common, even among the monks. It required from a few months to a year or more to produce a few copies, depending on the size and nature of the work, whereas to-day, with printing-presses, five thousand copies of such a book as this can be printed and bound in a few days.



THE SCRIPTORIUM. An important part of the material equipment of many monasteries, in consequence, came to be a scriptorium, or writing-room, where the copying of manuscripts could take place undisturbed. In some monasteries one general room was provided, though it was customary to have a number of small rooms at the side of the library. In the monastery shown in Figure 38, seven small rooms for this purpose are shown built out on one side of the library. Sometimes individual cells along a corridor were provided. The advantage of the single room in which a number of monks worked came when an edition of eight or ten copies of a book was to be prepared. One monk could then dictate, while eight or ten others carefully printed on the skins before them what was dictated by the reader. [13] Figure 40 shows a monk at work, though here he is copying from a book before him. After an edition of eight or ten copies of a book had been prepared and bound the extra copies were sent to neighboring and sometimes distant monasteries, sometimes in exchange for other books, and sometimes as gifts to brothers who had longed to read the work (R. 55). New monasteries were provided with the beginnings of a library in this way, and churches were supplied with Missals, Psalters, and other books needed for their services.

The writing-room, or rooms, came to be a very important place in those monasteries noted for their literary activity. West gives an interesting description of the scriptorium at Tours, where the learned English monk, Alcuin, was Abbot from 796 to 804, and which at the time was the principal book-writing monastery in Frankland. Describing Alcuin's labors to secure books to send to other monasteries in Charlemagne's kingdom, he says:

We can almost reconstruct the scene. In the intervals between the hours of prayer and the observance of the round of cloister life, come hours for the copying of books under the presiding genius of Alcuin. The young monks file into the scriptorium, and one of them is given the precious parchment volume containing a work of Bede or Isidore or Augustine, or else some portion of the Latin Scriptures, or even a heathen author. He reads slowly and clearly at a measured rate while all the others seated at their desks take down his words, and thus perhaps a score of copies are made at once. Alcuin's observant eye watches each in turn, and his correcting hand points out the mistakes in orthography and punctuation. The master of Charles the Great, in that true humility that is the charm of his whole behavior, makes himself the writing-master of his monks, stooping to the drudgery of faithfully and gently correcting their many puerile mistakes, and all for the love of studies and the love of Christ. Under such guidance, and deeply impressed by the fact that in the copying of a few books they were saving learning and knowledge from perishing, and thereby offering a service most acceptable to God, the copying in the scriptorium went on in sobriety from day to day. Thus were produced those improved copies of books which mark the beginning of a new age in the conserving and transmission of learning. Alcuin's anxiety in this regard was not undue, for the few monasteries where books could be accurately transcribed were as necessary for publication in that time as are the great publishing houses to-day. [14]



MONASTIC COLLECTION. Despite the important work done by a few of the monasteries in preserving and advancing learning, large collections of books were unknown before the Revival of Learning, in the fourteenth century. The process of book production in itself was very slow, and many of the volumes produced were later lost through fire, or pillage by new invaders. During the early days of wood construction a number of monastic and church libraries were burned by accident. In the pillaging of the Danes and Northmen on the coasts of England and northern France, in the ninth and tenth centuries, a number of important monastic collections there were lost. In Italy the Lombards destroyed some collections in their sixth-century invasion, and the Saracens burned some in southern Italy in the ninth. Monte Cassino, among other monasteries, was destroyed by both the Lombards and the Saracens. From a number of extant catalogues of old monastic libraries we know that, even as late as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a library of from two to three hundred volumes was large. [15] The catalogues show that most of these were books of a religious nature, being monastic chronicles, manuals of devotion, comments on the Scriptures, lives of miracle-working saints, and books of a similar nature (Rs. 55, 56). A few were commentaries on the ancient learning, or mediaeval textbooks on the great subjects of study of the time (R. 60). A still smaller number were copies of old classical literary works, and of the utmost value (R. 57).

THE CONVENTS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. The early part of the Middle Ages also witnessed a remarkable development of convents for women, these receiving a special development in Germanic lands. Filled with the same aggressive spirit as the men, but softened somewhat by Christianity, many women of high station among the German tribes founded convents and developed institutions of much renown. This provided a rather superior class of women as organizers and directors, and a conventual life continued, throughout the entire Middle Ages, to attract an excellent class of women. This will be understood when it is remembered that a conventual life offered to women of intellectual ability and scholarly tastes the one opportunity for an education and a life of learning. The convents, too, were much earlier and much more extensively opened for instruction to those not intending to take the vows than was the case with the monasteries, and, in consequence, it became a common practice throughout the Middle Ages, just as it is to-day among Catholic families, to send girls to the convent for education and for training in manners and religion. Many well-trained women were produced in the convents of Europe in the period from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries.

The instruction consisted of reading, writing, and copying Latin, as in the monasteries, as well as music, weaving and spinning, and needlework. Weaving and spinning had an obvious utilitarian purpose, and needlework, in addition to necessary sewing, was especially useful in the production of altar-cloths and sacred vestments. The copying and illuminating of manuscripts, music, and embroidering made a special appeal to women (R. 56), and some of the most beautifully copied and illuminated manuscripts of the mediaeval period are products of their skill. [16] Their contribution to music and art, as it influenced the life of the time, was also large. The convent schools reached their highest development about the middle of the thirteenth century, after which they began to decline in importance,

LEARNING IN IRELAND AND BRITAIN. As was stated earlier in this chapter, the one part of western Europe where something of the old learning was retained during this period was in Ireland, and in those parts of England which had not been overrun by the Germanic tribes. Christian civilization and monastic life had been introduced into Ireland probably as early as 425 A.D., and probably by monastic missionaries from Lerins and Saint Victor (see Figure 41). Saint Patrick preached Christianity to the Irish, about 440 A.D., and during the fifth and sixth centuries churches and monasteries were founded in such numbers over Ireland that the land has been said to have been dotted all over with churches, monasteries, and schools. Saint Patrick had been educated in the old Roman schools, probably at Tours when it was still an important Roman provincial city. Other early missionaries had had similar training, and these, not sharing the antipathy to pagan learning of the early Italian church fathers, had carried Greek and Latin languages and learning to Ireland. Here it flourished so well, largely due to the island being spared from invasion, that Ireland remained a center for instruction in Greek long after it had virtually disappeared elsewhere in western Christendom. So much was this the case, says Sandys, in his History of Classical Scholarship, "that if any one knew Greek it was assumed that he must have come from Ireland."

In 565 A.D., Saint Columba, an eminent Irish scholar and religious leader, crossed over to what is now southwestern Scotland, founded there the monastery of Iona, and began the conversion of the Picts. Saint Augustine landed in Kent in 597, and had begun the conversion of the Angles and Saxons and Jutes who had settled in southeastern Britain, while shortly afterwards the Irish monks from Iona began the conversion of the people of the north of Britain. The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded about 635 A.D., and soon became an important center of religious and classical learning in the north. Irish and English monks also crossed in numbers to northern Frankland, and labored for the conversion of the Franks and Saxons.

In 664 A.D., at a council held at Whitby, the Irish Church in England and the Roman Church were united, and a great enthusiasm for religion and learning swept over the island. In 670, Theodore of Tarsus and the Abbot Hadrian, whom Bede, the scholar and historian of the early English Church, describes as men "instructed in secular and divine literature both Greek and Latin" (R. 59 a), arrived in England from southern Italy and began their work of instructing pupils in Greek and Latin (R. 59 b). Both taught at Canterbury, and raised the cathedral school there to high rank. In 674 the monastery at Wearmouth was founded, and in 682 its companion Yarrow. These were endowed with books from Rome and Vienne, and soon became famous for the instruction they provided. It was at the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Yarrow that the Venerable Bede (673-735), whose Ecclesiastical History of England gives us our chief picture of education in Britain in his time, was educated and remained as a lifelong student. [17] As a result of all these efforts a number of northern monasteries, as well as a few of the cathedral schools, early became famous for their libraries, scholars, and learning. This culture in Ireland and Britain was of a much higher standard than that obtaining on the Continent at the time, because the classical inheritance there had been less corrupted.

THE CATHEDRAL SCHOOL AT YORK. One of the schools which early attained fame was the cathedral school at York, in northern England. This had, by the middle of the eighth century, come to possess for the time a large library, and contained most of the important Latin authors and textbooks then known (R. 61). In this school, under the scholasticus Aelbert, was trained a youth by the name of Alcuin, born in or near York, about 735 A.D. In a poem describing the school (R. 60), he gives a good portrayal of the instruction he received, telling how the learned Aelbert "moistened thirsty hearts with diverse streams of teaching and the varied dews of learning," and sorted out "youths of conspicuous intelligence" to whom he gave special attention. Alcuin afterward succeeded Aelbert as scholasticus, and was widely known as a gifted teacher. Well aware of the precarious condition of learning amid such a rude and uncouth society, he handed on to his pupils the learning he had received, and imbued them with something of his own love for it and his anxiety for its preservation and advancement. It was this Alcuin who was soon to give a new impetus to the development of schools and the preservation of learning in Frankland.

CHARLEMAGNE AND ALCUIN. In 768 there came to the throne as king of the great Frankish nation one of the most distinguished and capable rulers of all time—a man who would have been a commanding personality in any age or land. His ancestors had developed a great kingdom, and it was his grandfather who had defeated the Saracens at Tours (p. 113) and driven them back over the Pyrenees into Spain. This man Charlemagne easily stands out as one of the greatest figures of all history. For five hundred years before and after him there is no ruler who matched him in insight, force, or executive capacity. He is particularly the dominating figure of mediaeval times. Born in an age of lawlessness and disorder, he used every effort to civilize and rule as intelligently as possible the great Frankish kingdom. Wars he waged to civilize and Christianize the Saxon tribes of northern Germany, to reduce the Lombards of northern Italy to order, and to extend the boundaries of the Frankish nation. At his death, in 814, his kingdom had succeeded to most of the western possessions of the old Roman Empire, including all of what to-day comprises France, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland, large portions of what is now western Germany and northern Italy, and portions of northern Spain. (See Figure 41.)

Realizing better than did his bishops and abbots the need for educational facilities for the nobles and clergy, he early turned his attention to securing teachers capable of giving the needed instruction. These, though, were scarce and hard to obtain. After two unsuccessful efforts to obtain a master scholar to become, as it were, his minister of education, he finally succeeded in drawing to his court perhaps the greatest scholar and teacher in all England. At Parma, in northern Italy, Charlemagne met Alcuin, in 781, and invited him to leave York for Frankland. After obtaining the consent of his archbishop and king, Alcuin accepted, and arrived, with three assistants, at Charlemagne's court, in 782, to take up the work of educational propaganda in Frankland.



The plight in which he found learning was most deplorable, presenting a marked contrast to conditions in England. Learning had been almost obliterated during the two centuries of wild disorder from 600 on. From 600 to 850 has often been called the darkest period of the Dark Ages, and Alcuin arrived when Frankland was at its worst. The monastic and cathedral schools which had been established earlier had in large part been broken up, and the monasteries had become places for the pensioning of royal favorites and hence had lost their earlier religious zeal and effectiveness. The abbots and bishops possessed but little learning, and the lower clergy, recruited largely from bondmen, were grossly ignorant, greatly to the injury of the Church. The copying of books had almost ceased, and learning was slowly dying out.

THE PALACE SCHOOL. There had for some time been a form of school connected with the royal court, known as the palace school, though the study of letters had played but a small part in it. To the reorganization of this school Alcuin first addressed himself, introducing into it elementary instruction in that learning of which he was so fond. The school included the princes and princesses of the royal household, relatives, attaches, courtiers, and, not least in importance as pupils, the king and queen. To meet the needs of such a heterogeneous circle was no easy task.

The instruction which Alcuin provided for the younger members of the circle was largely of the question and answer (catechetical) type, both questions and answers being prepared by Alcuin beforehand and learned by the pupils. Fortunately examples of Alcuin's instruction have been preserved to us in a dialogue prepared for the instruction of Pepin, a son of Charlemagne, then sixteen years old (R. 62). With the older members the questions and answers were oral. For all, though, the instruction was of a most elementary nature, ranging over the elements of the subjects of instruction of the time. Poetry, arithmetic, astronomy, the writings of the Fathers, and theology are mentioned as having been studied. Charlemagne learned to read Latin, but is said never to have mastered the art of writing. It was not an easy position for any one to fill. To quote from West's description: [18]

Charles wanted to know everything and to know it at once. His strong, uncurbed nature eagerly seized on learning, both as a delight for himself and a means of giving stability to his government, and so, while he knew he must be docile, he was at the same time imperious. Alcuin knew how to meet him, and at need could be either patiently jocular or grave and reproving. Thus, on one occasion when he had been informed of the great learning of Augustine and Jerome, he impatiently demanded of Alcuin, "Why can I not have twelve clerks such as these?" Twelve Augustines and Jeromes! and to be made arise at the king's bidding! Alcuin was shocked. "What!" he discreetly rejoined, "the Lord of heaven and earth had but two such, and wouldst thou have twelve?" But his personal affection for the king was most unselfish, and he consequently took great delight in stimulating his desire for learning....

He studied everything Alcuin set before him, but had special anxiety to learn all about the moon that was needed to calculate Easter. With such an eager and impatient pupil as Charles, the other scholars were soon inspired to beset Alcuin with endless puzzling questions, and there are not wanting evidences that some of them were disposed to levity and even carped at his teachings. But he was indefatigable, rising with the sun to prepare for teaching. In one of his poetical exercises he says of himself that "as soon as the ruddy charioteer of the dawn suffuses the liquid deep with the new light of day, the old man rubs the sleep of night from his eyes and leaps at once from his couch, running straightway into the fields of the ancients to pluck their flowers of correct speech and scatter them in sport before his boys."

CHARLEMAGNE'S PROCLAMATIONS ON EDUCATION. After reorganizing the palace school, Alcuin and Charlemagne turned their attention to the improvement of education among the monks and clergy throughout the realm. The first important service was the preparation and sending out of a carefully collected and edited series of sermons to the churches containing, "in two volumes, lessons suitable for the whole year and for each separate festival, and free from error." These Charlemagne ordered used in the churches (R. 63). He also says, "we have striven with watchful zeal to advance the cause of learning, which has been almost forgotten by the negligence of our ancestors; and, by our example, also we invite those whom we can to master the study of the liberal arts," meaning thereby to incite the bishops and clergy to a study of the learning of the mediaeval time. The volumes and letter were sent out in 786, four years after Alcuin's arrival at the court. Further to aid in the revival of learning, Charlemagne, in 787, imported a number of monks from Italy, who were capable of giving instruction in arithmetic, singing, and grammar, and sent them to the principal monasteries to teach.

In 787 the first general proclamation on education of the Middle Ages was issued (R. 64 a), and from it we can infer much as to the state of learning among the monks and clergy of the time. In this document the king gently reproves the abbots of his realm for their illiteracy, and exhorts them to the study of letters. The signature is Charlemagne's, but the hand is Alcuin's. In it he tells the abbots, in commenting on the fact that they had sent letters to him telling him that "sacred and pious prayers" were being offered in his behalf, that he recognized in "most of these letters both correct thoughts and uncouth expressions; because what pious devotion dictated faithfully to the mind, the tongue, uneducated on account of the neglect of study, was not able to express in a letter without error." He therefore commands the abbots neither to neglect the study of letters, if they wish to have his favor, nor to fail to send copies of his letter "to all your suffragans and fellow bishops, and to all the monasteries." Two years later (789) Charlemagne supplemented this by a further general admonition (R. 64 b) to the ministers and clergy of his realm, exhorting them to live clean and just lives, and closing with:

And let schools be established in which boys may learn to read. Correct carefully the Psalms, the signs in writing, the songs, the calendar, the grammar, in each monastery and bishopric, and the catholic book; because often some desire to pray to God properly, but they pray badly because of incorrect books.

In 802 he further commanded that "laymen shall learn thoroughly the Creed and the Lord's Prayer" (R. 64 c). Finally, in his enthusiasm for schools, Charlemagne went so far as to direct that "every one should send his son to school to study letters, and that the child should remain at school with all diligence until he should become well instructed in learning." Charlemagne, of course, was addressing freemen of the court and the official classes. That he ever meant to include the children of the laboring classes, or that the idea of compulsory education ever entered his head, may well be doubted.

EFFECT OF THE WORK OF CHARLEMAGNE AND ALCUIN. The actual results of the work of Charlemagne and Alcuin were, after all, rather meager. The difficulties they faced are almost beyond our comprehension. Nobles and clergy were alike ignorant and uncouth. There seemed no place to begin. It may be said that by Charlemagne's work he greatly widened the area of civilization, created a new Frankish-Roman Empire to be the inheritor of the civilization and culture of the old one, checked the decline in learning and reawakened a desire for study, and that he began the substitution of ideas for might as a ruling force among the tribes under his rule. That for a time he gave an important impetus to the study of letters, which resulted in a real revival in the educational work of some of the monasteries and cathedral schools, seems certain. Men knew more of books and wrote better Latin than before, and those who wished to learn found it easier to do so. The state of society and the condition of the times, however, were against any large success for such an ambitious educational undertaking, and after the death of Charlemagne, the division of his empire, and the invasions of the Northmen, education slowly declined again, though never to quite the level it had reached when Charlemagne came to the throne. In a few schools there was no decline, and these became the centers of learning of the future. Charlemagne having substituted merit for favoritism in his realm, promoting to be bishops and abbots the most learned men of his time, many of these became zealous workers in the cause of education and did much to keep up and advance learning after his death.

Among the most able of his helpers was Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans. He carried out most thoroughly in his diocese the instructions of the king, giving to his clergy the following directions:

Let the priests hold schools in the towns and villages, and if any of the faithful wish to entrust their children to them for the learning of letters, let them not refuse to receive and teach such children. Moreover, let them teach them from pure affection, remembering that it is written, "the wise shall shine as the splendor of the firmament," and "they that instruct many in righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and forever." And let them exact no price from the children for their teaching, nor receive anything from them, save what their parents may offer voluntarily and from affection.

Another able assistant was Alcuin himself, who, after fourteen years of strenuous service at Charlemagne's court, was rewarded by the king with the office of Abbot at the monastery of Saint Martin, at Tours. There he spent the last eight years of his life in teaching, copying manuscripts, and writing letters to bishops and abbots regarding the advancement of religion and learning. The work of Alcuin in directing the copying of manuscripts has been described. In a letter to Charlemagne, soon after his appointment, he reviews his labors, contrasts the state of learning in England and Frankland, and appeals to Charlemagne for books from England to copy (R. 65). So important was his work as a teacher as well that at his death, in 814, most of the important educational centers of the kingdom were in the hands of his former pupils. Perhaps the most important of all these was Rabanus Maurus, who became head of the monastery school at Fulda. We shall learn more of him in the next chapter.



NEW INVASIONS; THE NORTHMEN. Five years after Alcuin went to Frankland to help Charlemagne revive learning in his kingdom, a fresh series of barbarian invasions began with the raiding of the English coast by the Danes. In raid after raid, extending over nearly a hundred years, these Danes gradually overran all of eastern and central England from London north to beyond Whitby, plundering and burning the churches and monasteries, and destroying books and learning everywhere. By the Peace of Wedmore, effected by King Alfred in 878, the Danes were finally given about one half of England, and in return agreed to settle down and accept Christianity. The damage done by these invaders was very large, and King Alfred, in his introduction to an Anglo-Saxon translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care (R. 66), gives a gloomy picture of the destruction wrought to the churches and the decay of learning in England.

Other bands of these Northmen (Danes and Norwegians) began to prey on the northern coast of Frankland, and in the tenth century seized all the coast of what is now northern France and down as far as Paris and Tours. From Tours to Corbie (see Figure 41) churches and monasteries were pillaged and burned, Tours and Corbie with their libraries both perishing. Amiens and Paris were laid siege to, and disorder reigned throughout northern Frankland. The Annals of Xanten and the Annals of Saint Vaast, two mediaeval chronicles of importance, give gloomy pictures of this period. Three selections will illustrate:

According to their custom the Northmen plundered East and West Frisia and burned ... towns.... With their boats filled with immense booty, including both men and goods, they returned to their own country. [19]

The Normans inflicted much harm in Frisia and about the Rhine. A mighty army of them collected by the river Elbe against the Saxons, and some of the Saxon towns were besieged, others burned, and most terribly did they oppress the Christians. [20]

The Northmen ceased not to take Christian people captive and kill them, and to destroy churches and houses and burn villages. Through all the streets lay bodies of the clergy, of laymen, nobles, and others, of women, children, and suckling babes. There was no road or place where the dead did not lie, and all who saw Christian people slaughtered were filled with sorrow and despair. [21]

After much destruction, Rollo, Duke of the Normans, finally accepted Christianity, in 912, and agreed to settle down in what has ever since been known as Normandy. From here portions of the invaders afterward passed over to England in the Norman Conquest of 1066. This was the last of the great German tribes to move, and after they had raided and plundered and settled down and accepted Christianity, western Europe, after six centuries of bloodshed and pillage and turmoil and disorder, was at last ready to begin in earnest the building-up of a new civilization and the restoration of the old learning.

WORK OF ALFRED IN ENGLAND. The set-back to learning caused by this latest deluge of barbarism was a serious one, and one from which the land did not recover for a long time. In northern Frankland and in England the results were disastrous. The revival which Charlemagne had started was checked, and England did not recover from the blow for centuries. Even in the parts of England not invaded and pillaged, education sadly declined as a result of nearly a century of struggle against the invaders (R. 66). Alfred, known to history as Alfred the Great, who ruled as English king from 871 to 901, made great efforts to revive learning in his kingdom. Probably inspired by the example of Charlemagne, he established a large palace school (R. 68), to the support of which he devoted one eighth of his income; he imported scholars from Mercia and Frankland (R. 67); restored many monasteries; and tried hard to revive schools and encourage learning throughout his realm, and with some success. [22] With the great decay of the Latin learning he tried to encourage the use of the native Anglo-Saxon language, [23] and to this end translated books from Latin into Anglo- Saxon for his people. In his Introduction to Gregory's volume (R. 66) he expresses the hope, "If we have tranquillity enough, that all the free- born youth now in England, who are rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it ... be set to learn ... English writing," while those who were to continue study should then be taught Latin. The coming of the Normans in 1066, with the introduction of Norman-French as the official language of the court and government, for a time seriously interfered with the development of that native English learning of which Alfred wrote.

In the preceding chapter and in this one we have traced briefly the great invasions, or migrations, which took place in western Europe, and indicated somewhat the great destruction they wrought within the bounds of the old Empire. In this chapter we have traced the beginnings of Christian schools to replace the ones destroyed, the preservation of learning in the monasteries, and the efforts of Charlemagne and Alfred to revive learning in their kingdoms. In the chapter which follows we shall describe the mediaeval system of education as it had evolved by the twelfth century, after which we shall be ready to pass to the beginnings of that Revival of Learning which ultimately resulted in the rediscovery of the learning of the ancient world.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Picture the gradual dying-out of Roman learning in the Western Empire, and explain why pagan schools and learning lingered longer in Britain, Ireland, and Italy than elsewhere.

2. At what time was the old Roman civilization and learning most nearly extinct?

3. Explain how the monasteries were forced to develop schools to maintain any intellectual life.

4. Explain how the copying of manuscripts led to further educational development in the monasteries.

5. Would the convents have tended to attract a higher quality of women than the monasteries did of men? Why?

6. Explain why Greek was known longer in Ireland and Britain than elsewhere in the West.

7. What was the relative condition of learning in Frankland and England, about 900 A.D.?

8. What light is thrown on the conditions of the civilization of the time by the small permanent success of the efforts of Charlemagne, looking toward a revival of learning in Frankland?

9. Explain how Latin came naturally to be the language of the Church, and of scholarship in western Europe throughout all the Middle Ages.

10. After reading the story of the migrations, and of the fight to save some vestiges of the old civilization, try to picture what would have been the result had Rome not built up an Empire, and had Christianity not arisen and conquered.

SELECTED READINGS

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are reproduced:

53. Migne: Forms used in connection with monastery life: (a) Form for offering a Child to a Monastery. (b) The Monastic Vow. (c) Letter of Honorable Dismissal from a Monastery. 54. Abbot Heriman: The Copying of Books at a Monastery. 55. Othlonus: Work of a Monk in writing and copying Books. 56. A Monk: Work of a Nun in copying Books. 57. Symonds: Scarcity and Cost of Books. 58. Clark: Anathemas to protect Books from Theft. 59. Bede: On Education in Early England. (a) The Learning of Theodore. (b) Theodore's Work for the English Churches. (c) How Albinus succeeded Abbot Hadrian. 60. Alcuin: Description of the School at York. 61. Alcuin: Catalogue of the Cathedral Library at York. 62. Alcuin: Specimens of the Palace School Instruction. 63. Charlemagne: Letter sending out a Collection of Sermons. 64. Charlemagne: General Proclamations as to Education. (a) The Proclamation of 787 A.D. (b) General Admonition of 789 A.D. (c) Order as to Learning of 802 A.D. 65. Alcuin: Letter to Charlemagne as to Books and Learning. 66. King Alfred: State of Learning in England in his Time. 67. Asser: Alfred obtains Scholars from Abroad. 68. Asser: Education of the Son of King Alfred. 69. Ninth-Century Plan of the Monastery at Saint Gall.

QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS

1. Point out the similarity between: (a) The form for offering a child to a monastery and the monastic vow (53 a-b), and a modern court form for renouncing or adopting a child. (b) The letter of dismissal from a monastery (53 c), and the modern letter of honorable dismissal of a student from a college or normal school.

2. Compare the type of books copied by the Abbot of Saint Martins (55) and those copied by the nun at Wessebrunn (56).

3. Was the evolution of the school-teacher out of the copyist at Ratisbon (55), by a specialization of labor, analogous to the process in more modern times?

4. Explain the mediaeval belief in the effectiveness to protect books from theft of such anathemas as are reproduced in 58.

5. What do the selections from Bede (59 a-c) indicate as to the preservation of the old learning in the cities of southern Italy? What as to the condition of learning and teaching in England in Bede's day?

6. What is the status of education indicated by the selections from Alcuin, on the cathedral school at York (60) and the palace school instruction of Pepin (62)?

7. What was the condition of learning among the higher clergy and monks as shown by Charlemagne's proclamations (64)?

8. What was the extent of the destruction wrought by the Danes in England, as indicated by King Alfred's Introduction to Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care (66), and his efforts to obtain scholars from abroad (67)?

9. What was the character of the education King Alfred provided for his son (68)?

10. Study out the plan of the monastery of Saint Gall (69), and enumerate the various activities of such a center.

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES

* Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. * Clark, J. W. Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Period. * Cutts, Edw. L. Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages. * Eckenstein, Lina. Women under Monasticism. Leach, A. F. The Schools of Mediaeval England. Munro, D. C. and Sellery, G. E. Medieval Civilization. Montalembert, Count de. The Monks of the West. Taylor, H. O. Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages. Thorndike, Lynn. History of Mediaeval Europe. West, A. F. Alcuin, and the Rise of Christian Schools. * Wishart, A. W. Short History of Monks and Monasticism.



CHAPTER VII

EDUCATION DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

II. SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED

1. Elementary instruction and schools

MONASTIC AND CONVENTIONAL SCHOOLS. In the preceding chapters we found that, by the tenth century, the monasteries had developed both inner monastic schools for those intending to take the vows (oblati), and outer monastic schools for those not so intending (externi). The distinction in name was due to the fact that the oblati were from the first considered as belonging to the brotherhood, participating in the religious services and helping the monks at their work. The others were not so admitted, and in all monasteries of any size a separate building, outside the main portion of the monastery (see Figure 38), was provided for the outer school. A similar classification of instruction had been evolved for the convents.



The instruction in the inner school was meager, and in the outer school probably even more so. Reading, writing, music, simple reckoning, religious observances, and rules of conduct constituted the range of instruction. Reading was taught by the alphabet method, as among the Romans, and writing by the use of wax tablets and the stylus. Much attention was given to Latin pronunciation, as had been the practice at Rome. As Latin by this time had practically ceased to be a living tongue, outside the Church and perhaps in Central Italy, the difficulties of instruction were largely increased. The Psalter, or book of Latin psalms, was the first reading book, and this was memorized rather than read. Copy- books, usually wax, with copies expressing some scriptural injunction, were used. Music, being of so much importance in the church services, received much time and attention. In arithmetic, counting and finger reckoning, after the Roman plan, was taught. Latin was used in conversation as much as possible, some of the old lesson books much resembling conversation books of to-day in the modern languages (R. 75). Special attention seems to have been given to teaching rules of conduct to the oblati, [1] and much corporal punishment was used to facilitate learning. Up to the eleventh century this instruction, meager as it was, constituted the whole of the preparatory training necessary for the study of theology and a career in the Church. In the convents similar schools were developed, though, as stated in the last chapter, much more attention was given to the education of those not intending to take the vows.

SONG AND PARISH SCHOOLS. In the cathedral churches, and other larger non- cathedral churches, the musical part of the service was very important, and to secure boys for the choir and for other church services these churches organized what came to be known as song schools (R. 70). In these a number of promising boys were trained in the same studies and in much the same way as were boys in the monastery schools, except that much more attention was given to the musical instruction. The students in these schools were placed under the precentor (choir director) of the cathedral, or other large church, the scholasticus confining his attention to the higher or more literary instruction provided. The boys usually were given board, lodging, and instruction in return for their services as choristers. As the parish churches in the diocese also came to need boys for their services, parish schools of a similar nature were in time organized in connection with them. It was out of this need, and by a very slow and gradual evolution, that the parish school in western Europe was developed later on.

CHANTRY SCHOOLS. Still another type of elementary school, which did not arise until near the latter part of the period under consideration in this chapter, but which will be enumerated here as descriptive of a type which later became very common, came through wills, and the schools came to be known as chantry schools, or stipendary schools. Men, in dying, who felt themselves particularly in need of assistance for their misdeeds on earth, would leave a sum of money to a church to endow a priest, or sometimes two, who were to chant masses each day for the repose of their souls. Sometimes the property was left to endow a priest to say mass in honor of some special saint, and frequently of the Virgin Mary. As such priests usually felt the need for some other occupation, some of them began voluntarily to teach the elements of religion and learning to selected boys, and in time it became common for those leaving money for the prayers to stipulate in the will that the priest should also teach a school. Usually a very elementary type of school was provided, where the children were taught to know the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Salutation to the Virgin, certain psalms, to sign themselves rightly with the sign of the cross, and perhaps to read and write (Latin). Sometimes, on the contrary, and especially was this the case later on in England, a grammar school was ordered maintained. After the twelfth century this type of foundation (R. 73) became quite common.

2. Advanced instruction

CATHEDRAL AND HIGHER MONASTIC SCHOOLS. As the song schools developed the cathedral schools were of course freed from the necessity of teaching reading and writing, and could then develop more advanced instruction. This they did, as did many of the monasteries, and to these advanced schools those who felt the need for more training went. As grammar was, throughout all the early part of the Middle Ages, the first and most important subject of instruction, the advanced schools came to be known as grammar schools, as well as cathedral or episcopal schools (R. 72). The cathedral churches and monasteries of England and France early became celebrated for the high character of their instruction (R. 71) and the type of scholars they produced. All these schools, though, suffered a serious set-back during the period of the Danish and Norman invasions, many being totally destroyed. On the continent, due to the greater deluge of barbarism and the more unsettled condition of society, more difficulty was experienced in getting cathedral schools established, as the following decree of the Lateran Church Council of 826 indicates:

Complaints have been made that in some places no masters nor endowment for a grammar school is found. Therefore all bishops shall bestow all care and diligence, both for their subjects and for other places in which it shall be found necessary, to establish masters and teachers who shall assiduously teach grammar schools and the principles of the liberal arts, because in these chiefly the commandments of God are manifest and declared.

These two types of advanced schools—the cathedral or episcopal and the monastic—formed what might be called the secondary-school system of the early Middle Ages (Rs. 70, 71). They were for at least six hundred years the only advanced teaching institutions in western Europe, and out of one or the other of these two types of advanced schools came practically all those who attained to leadership in the service of the Church in either of its two great branches. Still more, out of the impetus given to advanced study by the more important of these schools, the universities of a later period developed; and numerous private gifts of lands and money were made to establish grammar schools to supplement the work done by the cathedral and other large church schools.

THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS. The advanced studies which were offered in the more important monastery and cathedral schools comprised what came to be known as The Seven Liberal Arts [2] of the Middle Ages. The knowledge contained in these studies, taught as the advanced instruction of the period, represents the amount of secular learning which was intentionally preserved by the Church from neglect and destruction during the period of the barbarian deluges and the reconstruction of society.

These Seven Liberal Arts were comprised of two divisions, known as:

I. THE TRIVIUM: (1) Grammar; (2) Rhetoric; (3) Dialectic (Logic).

II. THE QUADRIVIUM: (4) Arithmetic; (5) Geometry; (6) Astronomy; (7) Music.

[Illustration: FIG. 44. THE MEDIEVAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION SUMMARIZED Allegorical representation of the progress and degrees of education, from an illuminated picture in the 1508 (Basel) edition of the Margarita Philosophica of Gregory de Reisch.

The youth, having mastered the Hornbook (ABC's) and the rudiments of learning (reading, writing, and the beginnings of music and numbers), advances toward the temple of knowledge. Wisdom is about to place the key in the lock of the door of the temple. On the door is written the word congruitas, signifying Grammar. ("Gramaire first hath for to teche to speke upon congruite.") On the first and second floors of the temple he studies the Grammar of Donatus, and of Priscian, and at the first stage at the left on the third floor he studies the Logic of Aristotle, followed by the Rhetoric and Poetry of Tully, thus completing the Trivium. The Arithmetic of Boethius also appears on the third floor. On the fourth floor he completes the studies of the Quadrivium, taking in order the Music of Pythagoras, Euclid's Geometry, and Ptolemy's Astronomy. The student now advances to the study of Philosophy, studying successively Physics, Seneca's Morals, and the Theology (or Metaphysics) of Peter Lombard, the last being the goal toward which all has been directed.]

Beyond these came Ethics or Metaphysics, and the greatest of all studies, Theology. This last represented the one professional study of the early middle-age period, and was the goal toward which all the preceding studies had tended. This mediaeval system of education is well summarized in the drawing given on the opposite page, taken from an illuminated picture inserted in a famous mediaeval manuscript, recopied at Basle, Switzerland, in 1508.

Not all these studies were taught in every monastery or cathedral school. Many of the lesser monasteries and schools offered instruction chiefly in grammar, and only a little of the studies beyond. Others emphasized the Trivium, and taught perhaps only a little of the second group. Only a few taught the full range of mediaeval learning, and these were regarded as the great schools of the times (R. 71).

Rhabanus Maurus (776-865), one of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages, Abbot for years at Fulda, and a mediaeval textbook writer of importance, has left us a good description of each of the Seven Liberal Arts studies as they were developed in his day, and their use in the Christian scheme of education (R. 74).

I. THE TRIVIUM

Of the three studies forming the Trivium, grammar always came first as the basal subject. No uniformity existed for the other two.

1. GRAMMAR. The foundation and source of all the Liberal Arts was grammar, it being, according to Maurus, "the science which teaches us to explain the poets and historians, and the art which qualifies us to speak and write correctly" (R. 74 a). In the introduction to an improved Latin grammar, [3] published about 1119, grammar is defined as "The doorkeeper of all the other sciences, the apt expurgatrix of the stammering tongue, the servant of logic, the mistress of rhetoric, the interpreter of theology, the relief of medicine, and the praiseworthy foundation of the whole quadrivium." Figure 45, from one of the earliest books printed in English, also emphasizes the great importance of grammar with the words: "Wythout whiche science (s)ycherly alle other sciences in especial ben of lytyl recomme(d)." In addition to grammar in the sense we know the study to-day, grammar in the old Roman and mediaeval mind also included much of what we know as the analytical side of the study of literature, such as comparison, analysis, versification, prosody, word formations, figures of speech, and vocal expression (R. 76). These were considered necessary to enable one to read understandingly the Holy Scriptures, and hence, "though the art be secular," says Maurus, "it has nothing unworthy about it."



The leading textbook was that of Donatus, [4] written in the fourth century, and Donatus (donat) and grammar came to be synonymous terms. The text by Priscian, [5] written in the sixth century, was also extensively used. The treatment in each was catechetical in form; that is, questions and answers, which were learned. The text was of course in Latin, and the teacher usually had the only copy, so that the pupils had to learn from memory or copy from dictation. The cost of writing-material usually precluded the latter method. After sufficient ability in grammar had been attained, simple reading exercises or colloquies (R. 75), usually of a religious or moralizing nature, were introduced, though where permitted the Latin authors, especially Vergil, [6] were read. At Saint Gall, in Switzerland, and at some other places, many Latin authors were read; at Tours, on the other hand, we find the learned Abbot Alcuin saying to the monks: "The sacred poets are sufficient for you; there is no reason why you should sully your mind with the rank luxuriance of Vergil's verse."

2. RHETORIC. Rhetoric, as defined by Maurus, was "the art of using secular discourse effectively in the circumstances of daily life," and enabling the preacher or missionary to put the divine message in eloquent and impressive language (R. 74 b). Much of the old Roman rhetoric had been taken over by grammar, but in its place was added a certain amount of letter and legal documentary writing. The priest, it must be remembered, became the secretary and lawyer of the Middle Ages, as well as the priest, and upon him devolved the preparation of most of the legal papers of the time, such as wills, deeds, proclamations, and other formal documents. Accordingly the art of letter-writing [7] and the preparation of legal documents were made a part of the study of rhetoric, and some study of both the civil ("worldly") and canon (church) law was gradually introduced.

3. DIALECTIC. Dialectic, or logic, says Maurus, is the science of understanding, and hence the science of sciences (R. 74 c). By means of its aid one was enabled to unmask falsehood, expose error, formulate argument, and draw conclusions accurately. The study was one of preparation for ethics and theology later on. Extracts from the works of Aristotle, prepared by Boethius, and later his complete works, constituted the texts used. While grammar was the great subject of the seven during all the early Middle Ages, dialectic later came to take its place. After the rise of the universities and the organization of schools of theology, with theology more of a rational science and less a matter of dogma, dialectic came to hold first place in importance as a preparation for the disputations of the later Middle Ages. Theological questions formed the practical exercises, and the schools doing most in dialectic attracted many students because of this.

These three studies, constituting the Trivium, based as they were directly on the old Roman learning and schools, contained more that was within the teaching knowledge of the time than did the subjects of the Quadrivium, and also subject-matter which was much more in demand.

II. THE QUADRIVIUM

The trivial studies, in most cases before the thirteenth century, sufficed to prepare for the study of theology, though those few who desired to prepare thoroughly also studied the subjects of the quadrivium. In schools not offering instruction in this advanced group some of the elements of its four studies were often taught from the textbooks in use for the Trivium. Particularly was this the case during the early Middle Ages, when the knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy possessed by western Europe was exceedingly small. No regular order in the study of the subjects of this group was followed.

4. ARITHMETIC. Naturally little could be done in this subject as long as the Roman system of notation was in use (see footnote, i, p. 64), and the Arabic notation was not known in western Christian Europe until the beginning of the thirteenth century, and was not much used for two or three centuries later. So far as arithmetic was taught before that time, it was but little in advance of that given to novitiates in the monasteries, except that much attention was devoted to an absurd study of the properties of numbers, [8] and to the uses of arithmetic in determining church days, calculating the date of Easter, and interpreting passages in the Scriptures involving measurements (R. 74 d). The textbook by Rhabanus Maurus On Reckoning, issued in 820, is largely in dialogue (catechetical) form, and is devoted to describing the properties of numbers, "odd, even, perfect, imperfect, composite, plane, solid, cardinal, ordinal, adverbial, distributive, multiple, denunciative, etc."; to pointing out the scriptural significance of number; [9] and to an elaborate explanation of finger reckoning, after the old Roman plan (see p. 65). Near the end of the tenth century Gerbert, [10] afterwards Pope Sylvester II, devised a simple abacus-form for expressing numbers, simple enough in itself, but regarded as wonderful in its day. This greatly simplified calculation, and made work with large numbers possible. He also devised an easier form for large divisions.

Gerbert's form for expressing numbers may be shown from the following simple sum in addition:

Arabic Form Roman Form Gerbert's Form M C X I

1204 MCCIV I II IV 538 DXXXVIII V III VIII 2455 MMCCCCLV II IV V V 619 DCXIX VI I IX ——- ————- —————————- 4816 MMMMDCCCXVI IV VIII I VI

No study of arithmetic of importance was possible, however, until the introduction of Arabic notation and the use of the zero.

5. GEOMETRY. This study consisted almost entirely of geography and reasoning as to geometrical forms until the tenth century, when Boethius' work on Geometry, containing some extracts from Euclid, was discovered by Gerbert. The geography of Europe, Asia, and Africa also was studied, as treated in the textbooks of the time, and a little about plants and animals as well was introduced. The nature of the geographic instruction may be inferred from Figure 46, which reproduces one of the best world maps of the day. The main geographical features of the known world can be made out from this, but many of the mediaeval maps are utterly unintelligible.

To illustrate the reasoning as to geometrical forms which preceded the finding of Euclid we quote from Maurus, who says that the science of geometry "found realization also at the building of the tabernacle and the temple; and that the same measuring rod, circles, spheres, hemispheres, quadrangles, and other figures were employed. The knowledge of all this brings to him, who is occupied with it, no small gain for his spiritual culture." (R. 74 e). After Gerbert's time some geometry proper and the elements of land surveying were introduced. The real study of geometry in Europe, however, dates from the twelfth century, when Euclid was translated into Latin from the Arabic.

6. ASTRONOMY. In astronomy the chief purpose of the instruction was to explain the seasons and the motions of the planets, to set forth the wonders of the visible creation, and to enable the priests "to fix the time of Easter and all other festivals and holy days, and to announce to the congregation the proper celebration of them." (R. 74 g).



Even after Ptolemy's Mechanism of the Heavens (p. 49) and Aristotle's On the Heavens had filtered across the Pyrenees from the Saracens, in the eleventh century, the Ptolemaic theory of a flat earth located at the center of the heavenly bodies and around which they all revolved, while a very pleasing theological conception, was absolutely fatal to any instruction in astronomy worth while and to any astronomical advance. All mediaeval astronomy, too, was saturated with astrology, as the selection on the motion of the heavenly bodies reproduced from Bartholomew Anglicus shows (R. 77 b), and the supernatural was invoked to explain such phenomena as meteors, comets, and eclipses. The Copernican theory of the motion of the heavenly bodies was not published until 1543, and all our modern ideas date from that time.

Physics was often taught as a part of the instruction in astronomy, and consisted of lessons on the properties of matter (R. 77 a) and some of the simple principles of dynamics. Little else of what we to-day know as physics was then known.

7. MUSIC. Unlike the other studies of the Quadrivium, the instruction in music was quite extensive, and from early times a good course in musical theory was taught (R. 74 f). Boethius' De Musica, written at the beginning of the sixth century, was the text used. Music entered into so many activities of the Church that much naturally was made of it. The organ, too, is an old instrument, going back to the second century B.C., and the organ with a keyboard to the close of the eleventh century. This instrument added much to the value of the music course, and the hymns composed by Christian musicians form an important part of our musical heritage. [11] The cathedral school at Metz and the monastery at Saint Gall became famous as musical centers, and of the work of one of the teachers of music at Saint Gall (Notker) it was written by his biographer: "Through different hymns, sequences, tropes, and litanies, through different songs and melodies as well as through ecclesiastical science, the pupils of this man made the church of God famous not merely in Alemannia, but everywhere from sea to sea."



THE GREAT TEXTBOOKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. While the textbooks mentioned under the description of each of the Liberal Arts formed the basis of the instruction given, most of the instruction before the twelfth century was not given from editions of the original works, but from abridged compendiums. Six of these were so famous and so widely used that each deserves a few words of description.

1. The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, written by Martianus Capella, between 410 and 427 A.D., was the first of the five great mediaeval textbooks. Mercury, desiring to marry, finally settles on the learned maiden Philology, and the seven bridesmaids—Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, and Music—enter in turn at the ceremony and tell who they are and what they represent. The speeches of the seven maidens summarized the ancient learning in each subject. This textbook was more widely used during the Middle Ages than any other book.

2. Boethius (475-524) was another important mediaeval textbook writer, having prepared textbooks on dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and ethics. Nearly all of what the Middle Ages knew of Aristotle's Logic and Ethics, and of the writings of Plato, were contained in the texts he wrote. His De Musica was used in the universities as a textbook until near the middle of the eighteenth century.

3. Cassiodorus [12] (c. 490-585), in his On the Liberal Arts and Sciences, prepared a digest of each of the Seven Liberal Arts for monastic use, fixing the number at seven by scriptural authority. [13]

4. Isidore, Bishop of Seville (c. 570-636), under the title of Etymologies or Origines, prepared an encyclopaedia of the ancient learning for the use of the monks and clergy which was intended to be a summary of all knowledge worth knowing. While he drew his knowledge from the writings of the Greeks and Romans, with many of which he was familiar, contrary to the attitude of Cassiodorus he forbade the monks and clergy to make any use of them whatever. Cassiodorus was still in part a Roman; Isidore was a full mediaeval.

5. Alcuin, a learned scholar of the eighth century, whom we met in the preceding chapter (p. 140), wrote treatises on the studies of the Trivium and on astronomy which were used in many schools in Frankland.

6. Maurus. In 819 the learned monk of Fulda, Rhabanus Maurus, a pupil of Alcuin, issued his volume On the Instruction of the Clergy, in the third part of which he describes the uses and the subject-matter of each of the Arts (R. 74). He also wrote texts on grammar and astronomy, and in 844 issued an encyclopaedia, De Universo, based largely on the work of Isidore, but supplemented from other sources.

These were the great textbooks for the study of the Trivium and the Quadrivium throughout all the early Middle Ages. Considering that they were in manuscript form and were in one volume, [14] their extent and scope can be imagined. The teacher usually had or had access to a copy, though even a teacher's books in that day were few in number (R. 78). Pupils had no books at all. These "great" texts were composed of brief extracts, bits of miscellaneous information, and lists of names. Their style was uninviting. They were at best a mere shell, compared with the Greek and Roman knowledge which had been lost. Some of these books were in question-and-answer (catechetical) form. Their purpose was not to stimulate thinking, but to transmit that modicum of secular knowledge needed for the service of the Church and as a preparation for the study of the theological writings. For nearly eight hundred years education was static, the only purpose of instruction being to transmit to the next generation what the preceding one had known. For such a period such textbooks answered the purpose fairly well.

3. Training of the nobility

TENTH-CENTURY CONDITIONS. Following the death of Charlemagne and the break-up of the empire held together by him, a period of organized anarchy followed in western Europe. Authority broke down more completely than before, and Europe, for protection, was forced to organize itself into a great number of small defensive groups. Serfs, [15] freemen lacking land, and small landowners alike came to depend on some nobleman for protection, and this nobleman in turn upon some lord or overlord. For this protection military service was rendered in return. The lord lived in his castle, and the peasantry worked his land and supported him, fighting his battles if the need arose. This condition of society was known as feudalism, and the feudal relations of lord and vassal came to be the prevailing governmental organization of the period. Feudalism was at best an organized anarchy, suited to rude and barbarous times, but so well was it adapted to existing conditions that it became the prevailing form of government, and continued as such until a better order of society could be evolved. With the invention of gunpowder, the rise of cities and industries, the evolution of modern States by the consolidation of numbers of these feudal governments, and the establishment of order and civilization, feudalism passed out with the passing of the conditions which gave rise to it. From the end of the ninth to the middle of the thirteenth centuries it was the dominant form of government.

The life of the nobility under the feudal regime gave a certain picturesqueness to what was otherwise an age of lawlessness and disorder. The chief occupation of a noble was fighting, either in his own quarrel or that of his overlord. It is hard for us to-day to realize how much fighting went on then. Much was said about "honor," but quarrels were easily started, and oaths were poorly kept. It was a day of personal feuds and private warfare, and every noble thought it his right to wage war on his neighbor at any time, without asking the consent of any one. [16] As a preparation for actual warfare a series of mimic encounters, known as tournaments, were held, in which it often happened that knights were killed. In these encounters mounted knights charged one another with spear and lance, performing feats similar to those of actual warfare. This was the great amusement of the period, compared with which the German duel, the Mexican bullfight, or the American game of football are mild sports. The other diversions of the knights and nobles were hunting, hawking, feasting, drinking, making love, minstrelsy, and chess. Intellectual ability formed no part of their accomplishments, and a knowledge of reading and writing was commonly regarded as effeminate.

To take this carousing, fighting, pillaging, ravaging, destructive, and murderous instinct, so strong by nature among the Germanic tribes, and refine it and in time use it to some better purpose, and in so doing to increasingly civilize these Germanic lords and overlords, was the problem which faced the Church and all interested in establishing an orderly society in Europe. As a means of checking this outlawry the Church established and tried to enforce the "Truce of God" (R. 79), and as a partial means of educating the nobility to some better conception of a purpose in life the Church aided in the development of the education of chivalry, the first secular form of education in western Europe since the days of Rome, and added its sanction to it after it arose.

THE EDUCATION OF CHIVALRY. This form of education was an evolution. It began during the latter part of the ninth century and the early part of the tenth, reached its maximum greatness during the period of the Crusades (twelfth century), and passed out of existence by the sixteenth. The period of the Crusades was the heroic age of chivalry. The system of education which gradually developed for the children of the nobility may be briefly described as follows:

1. Page. Up to the age of seven or eight the youth was trained at home, by his mother. He played to develop strength, was taught the meaning of obedience, trained in politeness and courtesy, and his religious education was begun. After this, usually at seven, he was sent to the court of some other noble, usually his father's superior in the feudal scale, though in case of kings and feudal lords of large importance the children remained at home and were trained in the palace school. From seven to fourteen the boy was known as a page. He was in particular attached to some lady, who supervised his education in religion, music, courtesy, gallantry, the etiquette of love and honor, and taught him to play chess and other games. He was usually taught to read and write the vernacular language, and was sometimes given a little instruction in reading Latin. [17] To the lord he rendered much personal service such as messenger, servant at meals, and attention to guests. By the men he was trained in running, boxing, wrestling, riding, swimming, and the use of light weapons.

2. Squire. At fourteen or fifteen he became a squire. While continuing to serve his lady, with whom he was still in company, and continuing to render personal service in the castle, the squire became in particular the personal servant and bodyguard of the lord or knight. He was in a sense a valet for him, making his bed, caring for his clothes, helping him to dress, and looking after him at night and when sick. He also groomed his horse, looked after his weapons, and attended and protected him on the field of combat or in battle. He himself learned to hunt, to handle shield and spear, to ride in armor, to meet his opponent, and to fight with sword and battle-axe. As he approached the age of twenty-one, he chose his lady- love, who was older than he and who might be married, to whom he swore ever to be devoted, even though he married some one else. He also learned to rhyme, [18] to make songs, sing, dance, play the harp, and observe the ceremonials of the Church. Girls were given this instruction along with the boys, but naturally their training placed its emphasis upon household duties, service, good manners, conversational ability, music, and religion.

3. Knight. At twenty-one the boy was knighted, and of this the Church made an impressive ceremonial. After fasting, confession, a night of vigil in armor spent at the altar in holy meditation, and communion in the morning, the ceremony of dubbing the squire a knight took place in the presence of the court. He gave his sword to the priest, who blest it upon the altar. He then took the oath "to defend the Church, to attack the wicked, to respect the priesthood, to protect women and the poor, to preserve the country in tranquillity, and to shed his blood, even to its last drop, in behalf of his brethren." The priest then returned him the sword which he had blessed, charging him "to protect the widows and orphans, to restore and preserve the desolate, to revenge the wronged, and to confirm the virtuous." He then knelt before his lord, who, drawing his own sword and holding it over him, said: "In the name of God, of our Lady, of thy patron Saint, and of Saint Michael and Saint George, I dub thee knight; be brave (touching him with the sword on one shoulder), be bold (on the other shoulder), be loyal (on the head)."



THE CHIVALRIC IDEALS. Such, briefly stated, was the education of chivalry. The cathedral and monastery schools not meeting the needs of the nobility, the castle school was evolved. There was little that was intellectual about the training given—few books, and no training in Latin. Instead, the native language was emphasized, and squires in England frequently learned to speak French. It was essentially an education for secular ends, and prepared not only for active participation in the feuds and warfare of the time, but also for the Seven Perfections of the Middle Ages: (1) Riding, (2) Swimming, (3) Archery, (4) Fencing, (5) Hunting, (6) Whist or Chess, and (7) Rhyming. It also represents the first type of schooling in the Middle Ages designed to prepare for life here, rather than hereafter. For the nobility it was a discipline, just as the Seven Liberal Arts was a discipline for the monks and clergy. Out of it later on was evolved the education of a gentleman as distinct from that of a scholar.

That such training had a civilizing effect on the nobility of the time cannot be doubted. Through it the Church exercised a restraining and civilizing influence on a rude, quarrelsome, and impetuous people, who resented restraints and who had no use for intellectual discipline. It developed the ability to work together for common ends, personal loyalty, and a sense of honor in an age when these were much-needed traits, and the ideal of a life of regulated service in place of one of lawless gratification was set up. What monasticism had done for the religious life in dignifying labor and service, chivalry did for secular life. The Ten Commandments of chivalry, (1) to pray, (2) to avoid sin, (3) to defend the Church, (4) to protect widows and orphans, (5) to travel, (6) to wage loyal war, (7) to fight for his Lady, (8) to defend the right, (9) to love his God, and (10) to listen to good and true men, while not often followed, were valuable precepts to uphold in that age and time. In the great Crusades movement of the twelfth century the Church consecrated the military prowess and restless energy of the nobility to her service, but after this wave had passed chivalry became formal and stilted and rapidly declined in importance (R. 80).



4. Professional study

As the one professional study of the entire early Middle-Age period, and the one study which absorbed the intellectual energy of the one learned class, the evolution of the study of Theology possesses particular interest for us.

THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY. During the earlier part of the period under consideration the preparatory study necessary for service in the Church was small, and very elementary in character. The elements of reading, writing, reckoning, and music, as taught to oblati in the monasteries, sufficed. As knowledge increased a little the study of grammar at first, and later all the studies of the Trivium came to be common as preparatory study, while those who made the best preparation added the subjects of the Quadrivium. Ethics, or metaphysics, taught largely from the digest of Aristotle's Ethics prepared in the sixth century by Boethius, was the text for this study until about 1200, when Aristotle's Metaphysics, Physics, Psychology, and Ethics were re-introduced into Europe from Saracen sources (R. 87).

The theological course proper experienced a similar development. At first, as we saw in chapter V, there were but few principles of belief, and the church organization was exceedingly simple. In 325 A.D. the Nicene Creed was formulated (p. 96), and the first twenty canons (rules) adopted for the government of the clergy. With the translation of the Bible into the Latin language (Vulgate, fourth century), the writings of the early Latin Fathers, and additional canons and expressions of belief adopted at subsequent church councils, an increasing amount relating to belief, church organization, and pastoral duties needed to be imparted to new members of the clergy. Still, up to the eleventh century at least, the theological course remained quite meager. In a tenth-century account the following description of the theological course of the time is given: [19]

1. Elements of grammar and the first part of Donatus. 2. Repeated readings of the Old and New Testaments. 3. Mass prayers. 4. Rules of the Church as to time reckoning. 5. Decrees of the Church Councils. 6. Rules of penance. 7. Prescriptions for church services. 8. Worldly laws. 9. Collections of homilies (sermons). 10. Tractates on the Epistles and Gospels. 11. Lives of the Saints. 12. Church music.

It will be seen from this tenth-century course of theological study that it was based on reading, writing, and reckoning, and a little music as preparatory studies; that it began with the first of the subjects of the Trivium, which was studied only in part; and that its purpose was to impart needed information as to dogma, church practices, canon (church) law, and such civil (worldly) law as would be needed by the priest in discharging his functions as the notary and lawyer of the age. There is no suggestion of the study of Theology as a science, based on evidences, logic, and ethics. Such study was not then known, and would not have been tolerated. There were no other professions to study for.

SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION BEGINS. About 1145 Peter the Lombard published his Book of Sentences, and this worked a revolution in the teaching of the subject. In topics, arrangement, and method of treatment the book marked a great advance, and became the standard textbook in Theology for a long time. It did much to change the study of Theology from dogmas to a scientific subject, and made possible schools of Theology in the universities now about to arise. In the thirteenth century it was made the official textbook at both the universities of Oxford and Paris. The studies of dialectic and ethics were raised to a new plane of importance by the publication of this book.

By the close of the twelfth century the interest of the Church in a better-trained clergy had grown to such an extent that theological instruction was ordered established wherever there was an Archbishop. In a decree issued by Pope Innocent III and the General Council it was ordered:

In every cathedral or other church of sufficient means, a master ought to be elected by the prelate or chapter, and the income of a prebend assigned to him, and in every metropolitan church a theologian also ought to be elected. And if the church is not rich enough to provide a grammarian and a theologian, it shall provide for the theologian from the revenues of his church, and cause provision to be made for the grammarian in some church of his city or diocese. [20]

We also, in the early thirteenth century, find bishops enforcing theological training on future priests by orders of which the following is a type:

Hugh of Scawby, clerk, presented by Nigel Costentin to the church of (Potter) Hanworth, was admitted and canonically instituted in it as parson, on condition that he comes to the next orders to be ordained subdeacon. But on account of the insufficiency of his grammar, the lord bishop ordered him on pain of loss of his benefice to attend school. And the Dean of Wyville was ordered to induct him into corporal possession of the said church in form aforesaid, and to inform the lord bishop if he does not attend school. [21]

5. Characteristics of mediaeval education

FOUNDATIONS LAID FOR A NEW ORDER. The education which we have just described covers the period from the time of the downfall of Rome to the twelfth or the thirteenth century. It represents what the Church evolved to replace that which it and the barbarians had destroyed. Meager as it still was, after seven or eight centuries of effort, it nevertheless presents certain clearly marked lines of development. The beginnings of a new Christian civilization among the tribes which had invaded and overrun the old Roman Empire are evident, and, toward the latter part of the Middle Ages, we note the development of a number of centers of learning (R. 71) and the beginnings of that specialization of knowledge (church doctrine, classical learning, music, logic and ethics, theology), at different church and monastery schools, which promised much for the future of learning. We also notice, and will see the same evidence in the following chapter, the beginnings of a class of scholarly men, though the scholarship is very limited in scope and along lines thoroughly approved by the Church.

In education proper, in the sense that we understand it, the schools provided were still for a very limited class, and secondary rather than elementary in nature. They were intended to meet the needs of an institution rather than of a people, and to prepare those who studied in them for service to that institution. That institution, too, had concentrated its efforts on preparing its members for life in another world, and not for life or service in this. There were as yet no independent schools or scholars, the monks and clergy represented the one learned class, Theology was the one professional study, the ability to read and write was not regarded by noble or commoner as of any particular importance, and all book knowledge was in a language which the people did not understand when they heard it and could not read. Society was as yet composed of three classes—feudal warriors, who spent their time in amusements or fighting, and who had evolved a form of knightly training for their children; privileged priests and monks and nuns, who controlled all book learning and opportunities for professional advancement; and the great mass of working peasants, engaged chiefly in agriculture, and belonging to and helping to fight the battles of their protecting lord.

For these peasants there was as yet no education aside from what the Church gave through her watchful oversight and her religious services (R. 81), and but little leisure, freedom, wealth, security, or economic need to make such education possible or desirable. Moreover, the other-worldly attitude of the Church made such education seem unnecessary. It was still the education of a few for institutional purposes, though here and there, by the close of the twelfth century, the Church was beginning to urge its members to provide some education for their children (R. 82), and the world was at last getting ready for the evolution of the independent scholar, and soon would be ready for the evolution of schools to meet secular needs.

REPRESSIVE ATTITUDE OF THE MEDIAEVAL CHURCH. The great work of the Church during this period, as we see it to-day, was to assimilate and sufficiently civilize the barbarians to make possible a new civilization, based on knowledge and reason rather than force. To this end the Church had interposed her authority against barbarian force, and had slowly won the contest. Almost of necessity the Church had been compelled to insist upon her way, and this type of absolutism in church government had been extended to most other matters. The Bible, or rather the interpretations of it which church councils, popes, bishops, and theological writers had made, became authoritative, and disobedience or doubt became sinful in the eyes of the Church. [22] The Scriptures were made the authority for everything, and interpretations the most fantastic were made of scriptural verses. Unquestioning belief was extended to many other matters, with the result that tales the most wonderful were recounted and believed. To question, to doubt, to disbelieve—these were among the deadly sins of the early Middle Ages. This attitude of mind undoubtedly had its value in assimilating and civilizing the barbarians, and probably was a necessity at the time, but it was bad for the future of the Church as an institution, and utterly opposed to scientific inquiry and intellectual progress. Monroe well expresses the situation which came to exist when he says:

The validity of any statement, the actuality of any alleged instance, came to be determined, not by any application of rationalistic principle, not by inherent plausibility, not by actual inquiry into the facts of the case, but by its agreement with religious feelings or beliefs, its effect in furthering the influence of the Church or the reputation of a saint—in general, by its relationship to matters of faith. Thus it happens that the chronicles of the monks and the lives of the saints, charming and interesting as they are in their naivete, their simplicity, their trustful credulity, and their pictures of a life and an attitude of mind so remote from ours, are filled with incidents given as facts that test the greatest faith, strain the most vivid imagination, and shock that innate respect for reality, that it is the purpose of modern education to inculcate. [23]

This authoritative and repressive attitude of the Church expressed itself in many ways. The teaching of the period is an excellent example of this influence. The instruction in the so-called Seven Liberal Arts remained unchanged throughout a period of half a dozen centuries—so much accumulated knowledge passed on as a legacy to succeeding generations. It represented mere instruction; not education. As a recent writer has well expressed it, the whole knowledge and culture contained in the Seven Liberal Arts remained "like a substance in suspension in a medium incapable of absorbing it; unchanged throughout the whole mediaeval period." Inquiry or doubt in religious matters was not tolerated, and scientific inquiry and investigation ceased to exist. The notable scientific advances of the Greeks, their literature and philosophy, and particularly their genius for free inquiry and investigation, no longer influenced a world dominated by an institution preparing its children only for life in a world to come. Not until the world could shake off this mediaeval attitude toward scientific inquiry and make possible honest doubt was any real intellectual progress possible. In a rough, general way the turn in the tide came about the beginning of the twelfth century, and for the next five centuries the Church was increasingly busy trying, like King Canute of old, to stop the waves of free inquiry and scientific doubt from rising higher against the bulwarks it had erected.

THE MEDIAEVAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. The educational system which the Church had developed by 1200 continued unchanged in its essential features until after the great awakening known as the Revival of Learning, or Renaissance. This system we have just sketched. For instruction in the elements of learning we have the inner and outer monastery and convent schools, and, in connection with the churches, song schools, and chantry or stipendary schools. In these last we have the beginnings of the parish school for instruction in the elements of learning and the fundamentals of faith for the children of the faithful. In the monasteries, convents, and in connection with the cathedral churches we have the secondary instruction fairly well organized with the Trivium and the Quadrivium as the basis. At the close of the period under consideration in this chapter a few privately endowed grammar schools were just beginning to be founded to supplement the work of the cathedral schools (RS. 141-143). In some of the inner monastery schools and a few of the cathedral schools we also have the beginnings of higher instruction, with theology as the one professional subject and the one learned career.



All these schools, too, were completely under the control of the Church. There were no private schools or teachers before about 1200. Only the chivalric education was under the control of princes or kings, and even this the Church kept under its supervision. The Church was still the State, to a large degree, and the Church, unlike Greece or Rome, took the education of the young upon itself as one of its most important functions. The schools taught what the Church approved, and the instruction was for religious and church ends. The monks who gave instruction in the monasteries were responsible to the Abbot, who was in turn responsible to the head of the order and through him to the Pope at Rome. Similarly the scholasticus in the cathedral school and the precentor in the song school were both responsible to the Bishop, and again through Archbishop and Cardinal to the Pope.

THE FIRST TEACHER'S CERTIFICATES AND SCHOOL SUPERVISION. Toward the latter part of the period under consideration in this chapter an interesting development in church school administration took place. As the cathedral and song schools increased assistant teachers were needed, and the scholasticus and precentor gradually withdrew from instruction and became the supervisors of instruction, or rather the principals of their respective schools. As song or parish schools were established in the parishes of the diocese teachers for these were needed, and the scholasticus and precentor extended their authority and supervision over these, just as the Bishop had done much earlier (p. 97) over the training and appointment of priests. By 1150 we have, clearly evolved, the system of central supervision of the training of all teachers in the diocese through the issuing, for the first time in Europe, of licenses to teach (R. 83). The system was finally put into legal form by a decree adopted by a general council of the Church at Rome, in 1179, which required that the scholasticus "should have authority to superintend all the schoolmasters of the diocese and grant them licenses without which none should presume to teach," and that "nothing be exacted for licenses to teach" issued by him, thus stopping the charging of fees for their issuance. The precentor, in a similar manner, claimed and often secured supervision of all elementary, and especially all song-school instruction. Teachers were also required to take an oath of fealty and obedience (R. 84 b).