Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/295

Germany and Italy 259 island of Paxo [south of Corfu], some nine hundred miles from Constantinople. 1 IV. BRUNO, THE IDEAL OF A SCHOLAR IN THE TENTH CENTURY There was a marked revival of interest in learning in Germany under Otto the Great. We can form some idea of its character from Ruotger's Life of Bruno, Otto's scholarly brother, which is one of the most inter- esting biographies of the earlier Middle Ages. When [in 928] the noble child of kings was four years 106. From old he was sent to Utrecht, to be instructed by the vener- Ruotger's Life of Bruno, able Bishop Baldric in liberal studies. ... Of his progress condensed, we have heard from the bishop's own lips, for he was wont to tell of it often to the glory of God. So we know that when the boy had acquired the first rudiments of grammar he began to read, under his teacher's guidance, the poet Pru- dentius. This poet is Catholic in faith and in aspiration, excellent in eloquence and in truth, pleasing in meter, rich in meaning. His verses delighted the boy's heart. He mastered the words and the inner meaning, and, if I may say so, drank the purest nectar of the spirit like one athirst. As time went on, his eager mind grasped all sorts of liberal studies within the range of Greek and Latin eloquence. . . . He would not allow books which he had studied or had before him to be carelessly torn or creased, or handled heed- lessly in any way. . . . Bruno had given himself to God when he was very young; but when his brother Otto came to the throne, he recalled Bruno from the retirement of the schools to the palace, and gave him an honorable post, as was fitting. Yet he never ceased to seek learning. He was not satisfied to gather in the treasury of his mind lore easy to mine. Nay, he col- lected from far and near riddles and philosophical problems 1 Liutprand appears to have been on his way to Constantinople in 959, for what reason we do not know.