Only a systematic history of literature could undertake to name the minor figures of this or of subsequent periods. It must suffice here to select a few men and books that stand out from a crowd which begins to thicken rapidly.
Alcuin, dying in 804, was the first after Paul the Deacon to disappear. Einhard and the rest were considerably younger men, and Einhard lived till 840. Before we take up the direct line of succession to Alcuin, we will devote a few words to one who stood outside the circle that has been engaging our attention, and who was just about coeval with Einhard. This is Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons (769-840). Like Theodulf he was a Spaniard. It is no part of my purpose to trace his career or catalogue his many tracts: three points only shall be noted as germane to the subject of this chapter. First, he was instrumental in preserving, in a manuscript which he gave to a church at Lyons, and which is now at Paris, a very large proportion of the extant works of Tertullian. Next, though he shews no interest in classical learning, it is curious to find that he had some knowledge of Jewish lore. In his fierce attack on the Jews he quotes Rabbinic teaching about the seven heavens, and also some form of the Jewish libel on our Lord which is commonly called the Toledoth Jesu. Lastly, two of his tracts have a bearing on folklore: one of them denounces the current belief in Tempestarii, people who could produce storms at will: the other tells of a mysterious epidemic which had induced people in the district of Uzès to revert to pagan observances. These, two of which are no doubt small matters, are samples of the odds and ends of strange information which may be picked up from the literature of the time.
The most influential of the diadochi of Alcuin was perhaps his pupil Magnentius Hrabanus Maurus (Raban) (784-856), Abbot of Fulda for twenty years (822-842) and from 847 Archbishop of Mayence. He was no original genius, but a great channel of learning, which he transmitted through compilations in the form of commentaries and of an encyclopaedia founded on Isidore. The achievement which his contemporaries admired most was his book In Praise of the Holy Cross. This too is closely modelled on an older book, the panegyric on Constantine by Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius. Pages of capital letters in which some are picked out in red, meet the eye, and it is realised that the red letters not only have their proper part in the text, but also form some device or picture, and that they make up some sentiment or verse independently. Such carmina figurata, of terrible ingenuity and infinitesimal value, were popular throughout these centuries.
Raban Maur not only found a precious library at Fulda, but increased it substantially. It can have had few rivals in quality by the time he left it. To Fulda we owe, it appears, the preservation of Suetonius, of Tacitus, of Ammianus Marcellinus, to name three leading examples: it has been shewn, too, that Rabun had access to Lucretius.
