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invasions repudiated mythology and ancient culture,
but it did not venture to completely banish them. In
the meantime the public schools of antiquity were
gradually closed, rrivate teaching took their place,
but even that formed its pupils, e. g. Sidonius Ap-
poUinaris, accordinfi" to the traditional method.
Christian asceticism, however, developed a strong feel-
ing against secular studies. As early as the fourtn cen-
tury St. Martin of Tours finds that men have better
thines to do than studving. There are lettered monks
at Lerins, but their scholarship is a relic of their early
education, not acquired after their monastic profes-
sion. The Rule of^St. Benedict prescribes reading, it
is true, but only sacred reading. Gregory the Great
condemns the study of literature so far as bishops are
concerned. Isidore of Seville condenses all ancient
culture into a few data gathered into his withered
herbarium known as the ^'Origines'^ just enough to
prevent all further study in the original sources. Cas-
siodorus alone shows a far wider range and makes pos-
sible a deeper and broader study of letters. His en-
cvclopedic grasp of human knowledge links him with
the best literary traditions of pagan antiquity. He
planned a close union of secular and sacred science,
whence ought to issue a complete and truly Christian
method of teaching. Unfortunately the invasions of
the barbarians followed and the Institutiones of Cas-
siodorus remained a mere project.
II. At this period, i. e. about the middle of the sixth century, the nrst indications of classical culture were seen in Britain and a little later, towards the close of the century, in Ireland. Thenceforth a growing liter- ary movement appears in these islands. The Irish, at fint scholars ana then teachcra. create a culture which the Anglo-Saxons develop. Tnis culture places pro- fane hterature and science at the service of theology and exegesis. They seem to have devoted themselves chiefly to grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics. Whence did the Irish monks draw the material of their learn- ing? It is quite unlikely that manuscripts had been brought to the island between 350 and 450, to bring about very much later a literary renaissance. The small ecclesiastical schools almost everywhere pre- served elementary teaching, reading and writing. ' But Irish scholarship w^ent T&t beyond that. During the sixth and seventh centuries, manuscripts were stin being copied in colitinental Europe. The writing of this period is imcial or semi-uncial. Even after elim- inatmg fifth-century manuscripts there still remains a fair number of manuscripts in this style of writing. We find among these profane works practically use- ful writings, glossaries, treatises on land-surveying, medicine, the veterinary art, juridical commentaries. On the other hand, the numerous ecclesiastical manu- scripts prove the persistence of certain scholarly tra- ditions. The continuations of sacred studies sufficed to bring about the Carlovingian revival. It was like- wise a piurely ecclesiastical culture which in their turn the Irish brought back to the continent in the sixth and seventh centuries. The chief aim of these Irish monks was to preserve and develop religious life; for literature as such they did nothing. Wlien we exam- ine closely the scattered items of information, espe- cially the hagiological indications, their importance is peculiarly lessen^, for we find that the teaching in question generally concerns Scripture or theologj'. Even St. Columbanus docs not seem to have organized literary studies in his monasteries. The Irish monks had a personal culture which they did not make any effort to diffuse, for which remarkable fact two general reasons may be given. The times were too barbarous, and the Church of Gaul had too long a road to travel to meet the Church of Ireland. Moreover, the disciples of the Irish were men enamoured of ascetic mortinca- tion, who ahimned an evil world and sought a life of prayer and penance. For such minds, beauty of lan- guage and verbal rhythm were frivolous attractions. IX.— 3
Then, too, the material equipment of the Irish religious
establishments in Gaul scarcely admitted any other
study than that of the Scriptiu^s. Generally these
establishments were but a group of huts surrounding
a small chapel.
Thus, until Charlemagne and Alcuin, intellectual life was confined te Great Britain and Ireland. It re- vived in Gaul with the eighth century, when the clas- sic Latin literature was again studied with ardour. This is not the place to treat of the Carlovingian re- naissance nor to attempt the history of the schools and studies of the Middle Ages. It will be sufficient to point out a few facts. The study of classical texts for their own sake was at that period very uncommon. The pagan authors were read as secondary to Scripture and theolcwgy. Even towards the close of his life, Alcuin forbade his monks to read Vii^gil. Statins is the fa- vourite poet, and, ere long, Ovid whose licentiousness is glossed over by allegorical interpretation. Mediocre abstracts and compilations, products of academic de- cadence, appear among the books frequently read, e. g. Homerus latinus (llias latina), Dictys, Dares, the distichs ascribed to Cato. Cicero is almost over- looked, and two distinct personages are made of Tul- lius and Cicero. However, until the thirteenth century the authors read and known are not a few in number. At the close of the twelfth century, in the early years of the University of Paris, the principal known au- thors are: Statins, Virgil, Lucian, Juvenal, Horace, Ovid (with exception of the erotic poems and the satires), Sallust, Cicero, Martial, Petronius (judged as combining usefiil information and dangerous passages), Symmachus, Solinus, Sidonius, Suetonius, Quintus Curtius, Justin (known as Trogus Pompeius), Livy, the two Senecas (including the tragedies), Donatus, Priscian, Boethius^ Quintilian, Euclid, Ptolemy (Haw- kins, " Harvard Studies", XX, 75). In the thirteenth century the influence of Aristotle restricted the field of reading.
There are, however, a few real Humanists among the medieval writers. Einhard (770-840), Rabanus Maurus (776-856), the ablest scholar of his time, and Walafrid Strabo (809-849) are men of extensive and disinterested learning. Servatus Lupus, Abbot of Ferrit^res (805-862), in his quest for Latin manuscripts labours as zealously as any scholar of the fifteenth century. At a later period Latin literature is more or less felicitously represented by such men a|^Remigius of Auxerre (d. 908), Gerbert (later Pope Sylvester II, d. 1003), Liutprand of Cremona (d. about 972), John of Salisbury (1110-1180), Vincent of Beauvais (d. 1264), Roger Bacon (d. 1294). Naturally enough medieval ]&tin poetry drew its inspiration from Latin poetry. Among the imitations must be mentioned the works of Hroswitha (or Roswitha), Abl)ess of Gan- dersheim (close of the tenth century), whom Virgil, Prudentius, and Sedulius inspired to celebrate the acts of Otho the Great. She is of particular interest in the history of the survival of Latin literature, because of her comedies after the manner of Terence. It 1 iii.s lx*en said that she wished to cause the pagan author to be totally forgotten, but so base a purpose is not recon- cilable with her known simplicity of chara(;t<>r. A certain facility in the dialogue and clearness of style do not offset the lack of ideas in her writings; they ex- hibit only too clearly the fate of classical culture in the Middle Ages. Hroswitha imitates Terence, indeed, but without understanding him, and in a ridiculous manner. The poems on actual life of Hugh of Orlclfans, known as ** Primas " or " Archipoota " are far superior, and betrav genuine talent as well as an intelligent grasp of Horace.
During the Middle Ages the Church preserved sec- ular literature by harbouring and copying its works in monasteries, where valuable libraries existed as early as the ninth centurj'; in Italy, at Monte Cassino (foimded in 529), and. at Bobbio (founded in 612 by
