HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH*
CHAPTER XIII.
THE STATE OF LEARNING.
§ 134. Literature.
Comp. the list of works in vol.
II. 621 sqq.
I. The
ecclesiastical writers of this period are collected for the first time by
Migne, the Greek in his Patrologia Graeca, Tom. 90 (Maximus Confessor)
to 136 (Eustathius); the Latin in his Patrologia Latina, Tom. 69
(Cassiodorus) and 75 (Gregory I.) to 148 (Gregory VII.).
II. General works: Du Pin, Ceillier, and Cave,
and the bibliographical works of Fabricius
(Biblioth. Graeca, and Bibl. Latina); especially the Histoire
Générale des auteurs sacrés ecclésiastiques by the Benedictine Dom Remy Ceillier (1688-1761), first ed., 1729-63, in 23 vols.;
revised ed. by Abbé Bauzon, Paris, 1857-’62, in 14 vols. 4to. This ed. comes
down to St. Bernard and Peter the Lombard. Tom. XI., XII. and XIII. cover the
6th century to the 11th.
A. H. L. Heeren (Prof. in Göttingen): Geschichte
der classischen Literatur im Mittelalter. Göttingen, 1822. 2 Parts. The first part goes from the
beginning of the Middle Age to the 15th century.
Henry Hallam:
State of Europe in the Middle Ages. Ch. IX. (New York ed. of 1880, vol. III.
254 sqq.); and his Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th,
16th and 17th Centuries. Part I., Ch.1 (N. York ed. of 1880, vol. I., p. 25-103).
Hermann Reuter:
Geschichte der relig. Aufklärung in Mittelalter. Berlin, 1875, 2 vols.
III. Special works.
(1) Learning and
Literature in the East: Leo Allatius:
Graeciae
orthodoxae Scriptores. Rom., 1652-’59, 2 vols. The Byzantine Historians, ed. by Niebuhr and others, Gr. and Lat. Bonn,
1828-’78, 50 vols., 8vo. Monographs on Photius, especially Hergenröther (the third volume), and on
John of Damascus by Langen (1879),
etc.; in part also Gass: Symbolik
der griech. Kirche (1872).
(2) Literature in
the Latin church: Johann Christ. Felix
Bähr: Geschichte der römischen Literatur. Carlsruhe, 1836 sqq.; 4th revised ed., 1868-’72, 4 vols. The 4th
vol. embraces the Christian Roman literature to the age of Charlemagne.
This formerly appeared in three supplementary vols., 1836, 1837 and 1840, the
third under the title: Gesch. der röm. Lit. im
karolingischen Zeitalter (619 pages)._Wilhelm S. Teuffel:
Geschichte der römischen Literatur. Leipzig, 1870, 4th ed. edited
by L. Schwabe, 1882. Closes with the middle of the eighth century. Adolph Ebert: Geschichte
der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande. Leipzig, 1874-’80, 2 vols.
Comp. also LĂ©on Maitre: Les Ă©coles
episcopales et monastiques de l’occident depuis Charlemagne jusqu’ Ă
Philippe-Auguste,
1866. H. Jos. Schmitz: Das
Volksschulwesen im Mittelalter. Frankf a. M., 1881.
(3) For Italy: Muratori: Antiquitates italicae medii aevi
(Mediol.,
1738-’42, 6 vols. fol.), and Rerum italicarum Scriptores praecipui ab anno D. ad MD. (Mediol., 1723-’51, 29 vols.
fol.). Tirabsoschi (a very
learned Jesuit): Storia
della letteratura italiana, antica e moderna. Modena, 177l-’82, and again 1787-’94; another
ed. Milan, 1822-26, 16 vols. Gregorovius:
Geschichte ’der Stadt Rom. im Mittelalter. Stuttgart, 1859 sqq., 3rd ed.
1874 sqq., 8 vols.
(4) For France: the Benedictine Histoire
litteraire de la France. Paris, 1733-’63, 12 vols. 4to., continued by members of the Académie
des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 1814 sqq._Bouquet:
Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France. Paris, 1738-1865, 22 vols.
fol.; new ed. 1867 sqq. Guizot: Histoire
générale de la civilisation en Europe et en France depuis la chute de l’empire
romain jusqu’ à la revolution française. Paris, 1830, 6 vols., and many editions, also two
English translations._Ozanam: La
civilisation chrétienne chez les Francs. Paris, 1849.
(5) For Spain: The
works of Isidore of Seville.
Comp. Balmez: European
Civilization, in Spanish, Barcelona, 1842-44, in 4 vols.; transl. into
French and English (against Guizot and in the interest of Romanism).
(6) For England: The
works and biographies of Bede, Alcuin, Alfred. Monumenta Historica Brittannica, ed. by Petrie, Sharpe, and Hardy.
Lond., 1848 (the first vol. extends to the Norman conquest). Rerum
Britannicarum medii xvi Scriptores, or Chronicles and Memorials of Great
Britain. London, 1858-1865, 55 vols. 8vo. Comp. J. R. Lumby: Greek Learning in the Western
Church during the Seventh and Eighth Centuries. Cambridge, 1878.
(7) For Germany: The
works and biographies of Bonifacius,
Charlemagne, Rabanus Maurus. The Scriptores in
the Monumenta Germaniae historica, ed. Pertz
and others, Han., 1826 sqq. (from 500 to 1500); also in a small ed. Scriptores rer. Germ. in usum
scholarum,
1840-1866, 16 vols. 8vo. Wilhelm
Wattenbach: Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter his zur
Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 1858, 4th ed.,
1877-’78, 2 vols.
(8) On the era of
Charlemagne in particular: J. J. Ampere:
Histoire littéraire de la France avant Charlemagne (second ed., 1867, 2 vols.), and
Histoire litteraire de la France sous Charlemagne et
durant les Xe
et XIe siècles. Paris, 1868._Bähr:
De litter. studiis a Carolo M. revocatis ac schola Palatina. Heidelb., 1856._J. Bass Mullinger: The Schools of
Charles the Great, and the Restoration of Education in the Ninth Century.
London, 1877._Ebert:
Die liter. Bewegung zur Zeit Karls des Gr., in "Deutsche Rundschau," XI. 1877.
Comp. also Rettberg: Kirchengeschichte
Deutschlands,
I. 427 sqq., and the works quoted on p. 236. The poetry of the Carolingian age
is collected in two magnificent volumes by E. DĂĽmmler.:
Poëtae Latini
Aevi Carolini.
Berlin, 2 vols. in 3 parts, 1880-’84 (in the Scriptorum series of the Mon. Germania).
§ 135. Literary Character of the Early Middle Ages.
The prevailing character of this
period in sacred learning is a faithful traditionalism which saved the remains
of the ancient classical and Christian literature, and transferred them to a
new soil. The six centuries which intervene between the downfall of the West
Roman Empire (476) and the age of Hildebrand (1049-1085), are a period of
transition from an effete heathen to a new Christian civilization, and from
patristic to scholastic theology. It was a period of darkness with the signs of
approaching daylight. The fathers were dead, and the schoolmen were not yet
born. The best that could be done was to preserve the inheritance of the past
for the benefit of the future. The productive power was exhausted, and gave way
to imitation and compilation. Literary industry took the place of independent
investigation.
The Greek church kept up the connection with classical
and patristic learning, and adhered closely to the teaching of the Nicene
fathers and the seven oecumenical councils. The Latin church bowed before the
authority of St. Augustin and St. Jerome. The East had more learning; the West
had more practical energy, which showed itself chiefly in the missionary field.
The Greek church, with her head turned towards the past, tenaciously maintains
to this day the doctrinal position of the eighth century; the Latin church,
looking to the future, passed through a deep night of ignorance, but gathered
new strength from new blood. The Greek church presents ancient Christianity at
rest; while the Latin church of the middle ages is Christianity in motion
towards the modern era.
§ 136. Learning in the Eastern Church.
The Eastern church had the
advantage over the Western in the knowledge of the Greek language, which gave
her direct access to the Greek Testament, the Greek classics, and the Greek
fathers; but, on the other hand, she had to suffer from the Mohammedan
invasions, and from the intrigues and intermeddling of a despotic court.
The most flourishing seats of
patristic learning, Alexandria and Antioch, were lost by the conquests of
Islam. The immense library at Alexandria was burned by order of Omar (638), who
reasoned: "If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God (the
Koran), they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are
pernicious and ought to be destroyed."766 In the eighth century, however, the Saracens themselves began to
cultivate learning, to translate Greek authors, to collect large libraries in
Bagdad, Cairo, and Cordova. The age of Arabic learning continued about five
hundred years, till the irruption of the Moguls. It had a stimulating effect
upon the scholarship of the church, especially upon the development of
scholastic philosophy, through the writings of Averroës of Cordova (d. 1198),
the translator and commentator of Aristotle.
Constantinople was the centre of
the literary, activity of the Greek church during the middle ages. Here or in
the immediate vicinity (Chalcedon, Nicaea) the oecumenical councils were held;
here were the scholars, the libraries, the imperial patronage, and all the
facilities for the prosecution of studies. Many a library was destroyed, but
always replaced again.767 Thessalonica and Mount Athos were also important seats of
learning, especially in the twelfth century.
The Latin was the official
language of the Byzantine court, and Justinian, who regained, after a divorce
of sixty years, the dominion of ancient Rome through the valor of Belisarius
(536), asserted the proud title of Emperor of the Romans, and published his
code of laws in Latin. But the Greek always was and remained the language of
the people, of literature, philosophy, and theology.
Classical learning revived in
the ninth century under the patronage of the court. The reigns of Caesar Bardas
(860-866), Basilius I. the Macedonian (867-886), Leo VI. the Philosopher
(886-911), who was himself an author, Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus
(911-959), likewise an author, mark the most prosperous period of Byzantine
literature. The family of the Comneni, who upheld the power of the sinking
empire from 1057 to 1185, continued the literary patronage, and the Empress
Eudocia and the Princess Anna Comnena cultivated the art of rhetoric and the
study of philosophy.
Even during the confusion of the
crusades and the disasters which overtook the empire, the love for learning
continued; and when Constantinople at last fell into the hands of the Turks,
Greek scholarship took refuge in the West, kindled the renaissance, and became
an important factor in the preparation for the Reformation.
The Byzantine literature
presents a vast mass of learning without an animating, controlling and
organizing genius. "The Greeks of Constantinople," says Gibbon,768 with some rhetorical exaggeration, "held in their lifeless
hands the riches of the fathers, without inheriting the spirit which had
created and improved that sacred patrimony: they read, they praised, they
compiled; but their languid souls seemed alike incapable of thought and action.
In the revolution of ten centuries, not a single discovery was made to exalt
the dignity or promote the happiness of mankind. Not a single idea has been
added to the speculative systems of antiquity; and a succession of patient
disciples became in their turn the dogmatic teachers of the next servile
generation. Not a single composition of history, philosophy or literature has
been saved from oblivion by the intrinsic beauties of style or sentiment, of
original fancy, and even of successful imitation .... The leaders of the Greek
church were humbly content to admire and copy the oracles of antiquity, nor did
the schools or pulpit produce any rivals of the fame of Athanasius and
Chrysostom."
The theological controversies
developed dialectical skill, a love for metaphysical subtleties, and an
over-estimate of theoretical orthodoxy at the expense of practical piety. The
Monotheletic controversy resulted in an addition to the christological creed;
the iconoclastic controversy determined the character of public worship and the
relation of religion to art.
The most gifted Eastern divines
were Maximus Confessor in the seventh, John of Damascus in the eighth, and
Photius in the ninth century. Maximus, the hero of Monotheletism, was an acute
and profound thinker, and the first to utilize the pseudo-Dyonysian philosophy
in support of a mystic orthodoxy. John of Damascus, the champion of
image-worship, systematized the doctrines of the orthodox fathers, especially
the three great Cappadocians, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzum, and Gregory of
Nyssa, and produced a monumental work on theology which enjoys to this day the
same authority in the Greek church as the "Summa" of Thomas Aquinas
in the Latin. Photius, the antagonist of Pope Nicolas, was the greatest scholar
of his age, who read and digested with independent judgment all ancient heathen
and Christian books on philology, philosophy, theology, canon law, history,
medicine, and general literature. In extent of information and fertility of pen
he had a successor in Michael Psellus (d. 1106).
Exegesis was cultivated by
Oecumenius in the tenth, Theophylact in the eleventh, and Euthymius Zygabenus
in the twelfth century. They compiled the valuable exegetical collections
called "Catenae."769 Simeon
Metaphrastes (about 900) wrote legendary biographies and eulogies of one
hundred and twenty-two saints. Suidas, in the eleventh century, prepared a
Lexicon, which contains much valuable philological and historical information770 The Byzantine historians, Theophanes, Syncellus, Cedrenus, Leo
Grammaticus, and others, describe the political and ecclesiastical events of
the slowly declining empire. The most eminent scholar of the twelfth century,
was Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, best known as the commentator of
Homer, but deserving a high place also as a theologian, ecclesiastical ruler,
and reformer of monasticism.
§ 137. Christian Platonism and the Pseudo-Dionysian Writings.
Literature.
I. Best ed. of
Pseudo-Dionysius in Greek and Latin by Balthasar Corderius (Jesuit),
Antwerp, 1634; reprinted at Paris, 1644; Venice, 1755; Brixiae, 1854; and by
Migne, in "Patrol. Gr.," Tom. III. and IV., Paris, 1857, with the
scholia of Pachymeres, St. Maximus, and various dissertations on the life and
writings of Dionysius. French translations by Darboy
(1845), and Dulac (1865).
German transl. by Engelhardt (see
below). An English transl. of the Mystical Theology in Everard’s Gospel
Treasures, London, 1653.
II. Older treatises
by Launoy: De
Areopagiticis Hilduini (Paris, 1641); and De duabus Dionysiis (Par., 1660). Père Sirmond: Dissert.
in qua ostenditur Dion. Paris. et Dion. Areop. discrimen (Par., 1641). J. Daillé: De
scriptis quo sub Dionys. Areop. et Ignatii Antioch. nominibus circumferuntur (Geneva, 1666, reproduced by Engelhardt).
III. Engelhardt: Die
angeblichen Schriften des Areop. Dion. ĂĽbersetzt
und mit Abhandl. begleitet (Sulzbach, 1823); De Dion.
Platonizante (Erlangen, 1820); and De Origine script. Dion. Areop. (Erlangen, 1823). Vogt: Neuplatonismus
und Christenthum.
Berlin, 1836. G. A. Meyer: Dionys.
Areop. Halle, 1845. L. Montet:
Les livres du Pseudo-Dionys., 1848. Neander: III. 169
sqq.; 466 sq. Gieseler: I. 468;
II. 103 sq. Baur: Gesch.
der Lehre v. der Dreieinigkeit und Menschwerdung Gottes, II. 251-263. Dorner: Entw.
Gesch. der L. v. d. Pers. Christi, II. 196-203. Fr.
Hipler: Dionys. der Areopagite. Regensb., 1861. E. Böhmer: Dion. Areop., 1864. Westcott:
Dion. Areop. in the
"Contemp. Review" for May, 1867 (with good translations of
characteristic passages). Joh. Niemeyer:
Dion. Areop. doctrina philos. et
theolog. Halle,
1869. Dean Colet: On the
Hierarchies of Dionysius. 1869. J. Fowler:
On St. Dion. in relation to
Christian Art, in the "Sacristy," Febr., 1872. Kanakis: Dionys. der Areop. nach
seinem Character als Philosoph. Leipz., 1881. Möller in "Herzog"2 III. 617 sqq.; and Lupton in "Smith & Wace,"
I. 841 sqq. Comp. the Histories of Philosophy by Ritter, II. 514 sqq., and Ueberweg
(Am. ed.), II. 349-352.
The
Real and the Ficitious Doinysius.
The tendency to mystic
speculation was kept up and nourished chiefly through the writings which
exhibit a fusion of Neo-Platonism and Christianity, and which go under the name
of Dionysius Areopagita, the
distinguished Athenian convert of St. Paul (Acts 17:34). He was, according to a
tradition of the second century, the first bishop of Athens.771 In the ninth century, when the French became acquainted with his
supposed writings, he was confounded with St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris
and patron saint of France, who lived and died about two hundred years after
the Areopagite.772 He thus
became, by a glaring anachronism, the connecting link between Athens and Paris,
between Greek philosophy and Christian theology, and acquired an almost
apostolic authority. He furnishes one of the most remarkable examples of the
posthumous influence of unknown authorship and of the power of the dead over
the living. For centuries he was regarded as the prince of theologians. He
represented to the Greek and Latin church the esoteric wisdom of the gospel,
and the mysterious harmony between faith and reason and between the celestial
and terrestrial hierarchy.
Pseudo-Dionysius is a
philosophical counterpart of Pseudo-Isidor: both are pious frauds in the
interest of the catholic system, the one with regard to theology, the other
with regard to church polity; both reflect the uncritical character of
mediaeval Christianity; both derived from the belief in their antiquity a
fictitious importance far beyond their intrinsic merits. Doubts were
entertained of the genuineness of the Areopagitica by Laurentius Valla,
Erasmus, and Cardinal Cajetan; but it was only in the seventeenth century that
the illusion of the identity of Pseudo-Dionysius with the apostolic convert and
the patron-saint of France was finally dispelled by the torch of historical
criticism. Since that time his writings have lost their authority and
attraction; but they will always occupy a prominent place among the curiosities
of literature, and among the most remarkable systems of mystic philosophy.
Authorship.
Who is the real author of those
productions? The writer is called
simply Dionysius, and only once.773 He
repeatedly mentions an unknown Hierotheos, as his teacher; but he praises also
"the divine Paul," as the spiritual guide of both, and addresses
persons who bear apostolic names, as Timothy, Titus, Caius, Polycarp, and St.
John. He refers to a visit he made with Hierotheos, and with James, the brother
of the Lord (ajdelfovqeo"), and Peter, "the chief
and noblest head of the inspired apostles," to gaze upon the (dead) body
of her (Mary) who was "the beginning of life and the recipient of
God;" on which occasion Hierotheos gave utterance to their feelings in
ecstatic hymns. It is evident then that he either lived in the apostolic age
and its surroundings, or that he transferred himself back in imagination to
that age.774 The
former alternative is impossible. The inflated style, the reference to later
persons (as Ignatius of Antioch and Clement of Alexandria), the acquaintance
with Neo-Platonic ideas, the appeal to the "old tradition" (ajrcai'a paravdosi") of the church as well as the Scriptures, and
the elaborate system of church polity and ritual which he presupposes, clearly
prove his post-apostolic origin. He was not known to Eusebius or Jerome or any
ecclesiastical author before 533. In that year his writings were first
mentioned in a conference between orthodox bishops and heretical Severians at
Constantinople under Justinian I.775 The Severians quoted them as an authority for their Monophysitic
Christology and against the Council of Chalcedon; and in reply to the objection
that they were unknown, they asserted that Cyril of Alexandria had used them
against the Nestorians. If this be so, they must have existed before 444, when
Cyril died; but no trace can be found in Cyril’s writings. On the other hand,
Dionysius presupposes the christological controversies of the fifth century,
and shows a leaning to Monophysitic views, and a familiarity with the last and
best representatives of Neo-Platonism, especially with Proclus, who died in
Athens, a.d. 485. The resemblance
is so strong that the admirers of Dionysius charged Proclus with plagiarism.776 The writer then was a Christian Neo-Platonist who wrote towards
the close of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century in Greece or in
Egypt, and who by a literary fiction clothed his religious speculations with
the name and authority of the first Christian bishop of Athens.777
In the same way the
pseudo-Clementine writings were assigned to the first bishop of Rome.
The
Fortunes of Pseudo-Dionysius.
Pseudo-Dionysius appears first
in the interest of the heretical doctrine of one nature and one will in the
person of Christ.778 But he
soon commended himself even more to orthodox theologians. He was commented on
by Johannes Scythopolitanus in the sixth century, and by St. Maximus Confessor
in the seventh. John of Damascus often quotes him as high authority. Even
Photius, who as a critic doubted the genuineness, numbers him among the great
church teachers and praises his depth of thought.779
In the West the writings of
Pseudo-Dionysius were first noticed about 590 by Pope Gregory I., who probably
became acquainted with them while ambassador at Constantinople. Pope Hadrian I.
mentions them in a letter to Charlemagne. The Emperor Michael II. the
Stammerer, sent a copy to Louis the Pious, 827. Their arrival at St. Denis on
the eve of the feast of the saint who reposed there, was followed by no less
than nineteen miraculous cures in the neighborhood. They naturally recalled the
memory of the patron-saint of France, and were traced to his authorship. The
emperor instructed Hilduin, the abbot of St. Denis, to translate them into
Latin; but his scholarship was not equal to the task. John Scotus Erigena, the
best Greek scholar in the West, at the request of Charles the Bald, prepared a
literal translation with comments, about 850, and praised the author as
"venerable alike for his antiquity and for the sublimity of the heavenly
mysteries" with which he dealt.780 Pope Nicolas I. complained that the work had not been sent to him
for approval," according to the custom of the church" (861); but a
few years later Anastasius, the papal librarian, highly commended it (c. 865).
The Areopagitica stimulated an intuitive
and speculative bent of mind, and became an important factor in the development
of scholastic and mystic theology. Hugo of St. Victor, Peter the Lombard,
Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Robert Grosseteste, and Dionysius Carthusianus
wrote commentaries on them, and drew from them inspiration for their own
writings.781 The
Platonists of the Italian renaissance likewise were influenced by them.
Dante places Dionysius among the
theologians in the heaven of the sun:
"Thou seest
next the lustre of that taper,
Which in the flesh
below looked most within
The angelic nature
and its ministry."782
Luther called him a
dreamer, and this was one of his heretical views which the Sorbonne of Paris
condemned.
The
Several Writings.
The Dionysian writings, as far
as preserved, are four treatises addressed to Timothy, his "fellow-presbyter,"
namely: 1) On the Celestial Hierarchy (peri;
th'" oujraniva" iJerarciva"). 2) On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (peri; th'" ejkklhsiastikh'" iJerarciva"). 3) On the Divine Names (peri; qeivwn ojnomavtwn). 4) On Mystic Theology (peri; mustikh'" qeologiva"). To these are added ten letters addressed to various
persons of the apostolic age.783
The
System of Dionysius.
These books reveal the same
authorship and the same system of mystic symbolism, in which Neo-Platonism and
Christianity are interwoven. The last phase of Hellenic philosophy which heretofore
had been hostile to the church, is here made subservient to it. The connecting
ideas are the progressive revelation of the infinite, the hierarchic triads,
the negative conception of evil, and the striving of man after mystic union
with the transcendent God. The system is a counterpart of the Graeco-Jewish
theology, of Philo of Alexandria, who in similar manner mingled the Platonic
philosophy with the Mosaic religion. The Areopagite and Philo teach theology in
the garb of philosophy; both appeal to Scripture, tradition, and reason; both
go behind the letter of the Bible and the facts of history to a deeper symbolic
and allegoric meaning; both adulterate the revealed truths by foreign elements.
But Philo is confined to the Old Testament, and ignores the New, which was then
not yet written; while the system of the Areopagite is a sort of philosophy of
Christianity.
The Areopagite reverently
ascends the heights and sounds the depths of metaphysical and religious
speculation, and makes the impression of profound insight and sublime
spirituality; and hence he exerted such a charm upon the great schoolmen and
mystics of the middle ages. But he abounds in repetitions; he covers the
poverty of thought with high-sounding phrases; he uses the terminology of the Hellenic
mysteries;784 and his style is artificial, turgid, involved,
and monotonous.
The unity of the Godhead and the
hierarchical order of the universe are the two leading ideas of the Areopagite.
He descends from the divine unity through a succession of manifestations to
variety, and ascends back again to mystic union with God. His text, we may say,
is the sentence of St. Paul: "From God, and through God, and unto God, are
all things" (Rom. 11:36).
He starts from the Neo-Platonic
conception of the Godhead, as a being which transcends all being and existence785 and yet is the beginning and the
end of all existence, as unknowable and yet the source of all reason and
knowledge, as nameless and inexpressible and yet giving names to all things, as
a simple unity and yet causing all variety. He describes God as "a unity
of three persons, who with his loving providence penetrates to all things, from
super-celestial essences to the last things of earth, as being the beginning
and cause of all beings, beyond all beginning, and enfolding all things
transcendentally in his infinite embrace." If we would know God, we must go out of ourselves and become
absorbed in Him. All being proceeds from God by a sort of emanation, and tends
upward to him.
The world forms a double hierarchy,
that is, as he defines it, "a holy order, and science, and activity or
energy, assimilated as far as possible to the godlike and elevated to the
imitation of God in proportion to the divine illuminations conceded to
it." There are two hierarchies,
one in heaven, and one on earth, each with three triadic degrees.
The celestial or supermundane
hierarchy consists of angelic beings in three orders: 1) thrones, cherubim, and
seraphim, in the immediate presence of God; 2) powers, mights, and dominions;
3) angels (in the narrower sense), archangels, and principalities.786 The first order is illuminated, purified and perfected by God, the
second order by the first, the third by the second.
The earthly or ecclesiastical
hierarchy is a reflex of the heavenly, and a school to train us up to the closest
possible communion with God. Its orders form the lower steps of the heavenly
ladder which reaches in its summit to the throne of God. It requires sensible
symbols or sacraments, which, like the parables of our Lord, serve the double
purpose of revealing the truth to the holy and hiding it from the profane. The
first and highest triad of the ecclesiastical hierarchy are the sacraments of
baptism which is called illumination (fwvtisma), the eucharist (suvnaxi", gathering, communion), which is the most sacred of
consecrations, and the holy unction or chrism which represents our perfecting.
Three other sacraments are mentioned: the ordination of priests, the
consecration of monks, and the rites of burial, especially the anointing of the
dead. The three orders of the ministry form the second triad.787 The third triad consists of monks, the holy laity, and the
catechumens.
These two hierarchies with
their nine-fold orders of heavenly and earthly ministrations are, so to speak,
the machinery of God’s government and of his self-communication to man. They
express the divine law of subordination and mutual dependence of the different
ranks of beings.
The Divine Names or
attributes, which are the subject of a long treatise, disclose to us through
veils and shadows the fountain-head of all life and light, thought and desire.
The goodness, the beauty, and the loveliness of God shine forth upon all
created things, like the rays of the sun, and attract all to Himself. How then
can evil exist? Evil is nothing real
and positive, but only a negation, a defect. Cold is the absence of heat,
darkness is the absence of light; so is evil the absence, of goodness. But how
then can God punish evil? For the
answer to this question the author refers to another treatise which is lost.788
The Mystic Theology briefly
shows the way by which the human soul ascends to mystic union with God as
previously set forth under the Divine Names. The soul now rises above signs and
symbols, above earthly conceptions and definitions to the pure knowledge and
intuition of God.
Dionysius distinguishes between cataphatic or affirmative theology)789 and apophatic or negative theology.790 The former descends from the infinite God, as the unity of all
names, to the finite and manifold; the latter ascends from the finite and
manifold to God, until it reaches that height of sublimity where it becomes
completely passive, its voice is stilled, and man is united with the nameless,
unspeakable, super-essential Being of Beings.
The ten Letters treat of
separate theological or moral topics, and are addressed, four to Caius, a monk
(qerapeuvth"), one to Dorotheus, a deacon (leitourgov"), one to Sosipater, a priest (iJereuv"), one to Demophilus, a monk,
one to Polycarp (called iJeravrch", no doubt the well-known bishop
of Smyrna), one to Titus (iJeravrch", bishop of Crete), and the
tenth to John, "the theologian," i.e. the Apostle John at
Patmos, foretelling his future release from exile.
Dionysian
Legends.
Two legends of the
Pseudo-Dionysian writings have passed in exaggerated forms into Latin
Breviaries and other books of devotion. One is his gathering with the apostles
around the death-bed of the Virgin Mary.791 The other is the exclamation of Dionysius when he witnessed at
Heliopolis in Egypt the miraculous solar eclipse at the time of the
crucifixion:792 "Either the God of nature is suffering, or
He sympathizes with a suffering God."793 No such sentence occurs in the writings of Dionysius as his own
utterance; but a similar one is attributed by him to the sophist Apollophanes,
his fellow-student at Heliopolis.794
The Roman Breviary has given
solemn sanction, for devotional purposes, to several historical errors
connected with Dionysius the Areopagite: 1) his identity with the French St.
Denis of the third century; 2) his authorship of the books upon "The Names
of God," upon "The Orders in Heaven and in the Church," upon
"The Mystic Theology," and "divers others," which cannot
have been written before the end of the fifth century; 3) his witness of the
supernatural eclipse at the time of the crucifixion, and his exclamation just
referred to, which he himself ascribes to Apollophanes. The Breviary also
relates that Dionysius was sent by Pope Clement of Rome to Gaul with Rusticus,
a priest, and Eleutherius, a deacon; that he was tortured with fire upon a
grating, and beheaded with an axe on the 9th day of October in Domitian’s
reign, being over a hundred years old, but that "after his head was cut
off, he took it in his hands and walked two hundred paces, carrying it all the
while!"795
§ 138. Prevailing Ignorance in the Western Church.
The ancient Roman civilization
began to decline soon after the reign of the Antonines, and was overthrown at
last by the Northern barbarians. The treasures of literature and art were
buried, and a dark night settled over Europe. The few scholars felt isolated
and sad. Gregory, of Tours (540-594) complains, in the Preface to his Church History
of the Franks, that the study of letters had nearly perished from Gaul, and
that no man could be found who was able to commit to writing the events of the
times.796
"Middle Ages" and
"Dark Ages" have become synonymous terms. The tenth century is
emphatically called the iron age, or the saeculum obscurum.797 The
seventh and eighth were no better.798 Corruption of morals went hand in hand with ignorance. It is
re-ported that when the papacy had sunk to the lowest depth of degradation,
there was scarcely a person in Rome who knew the first elements of letters. We
hear complaints of priests who did not know even the Lord’s Prayer and the
Creed. If we judge by the number of works, the seventh, eighth and tenth
centuries were the least productive; the ninth was the most productive; there
was a slight increase of productiveness in the eleventh over the tenth, a much
greater one in the twelfth, but again a decline in the thirteenth century.799
But we must not be misled by
isolated facts into sweeping generalities. For England and Germany the tenth
century was in advance of the ninth. In France the eighth and ninth centuries produced
the seeds of a new culture which were indeed covered by winter frosts, but not
destroyed, and which bore abundant fruit in the eleventh and twelfth.
Secular and sacred learning was
confined to the clergy and the monks. The great mass of the laity, including
the nobility, could neither read nor write, and most contracts were signed with
the mark of the cross. Even the Emperor Charlemagne wrote only with difficulty.
The people depended for their limited knowledge on the teaching of a poorly
educated priesthood. But several emperors and kings, especially Charlemagne and
Alfred, were liberal patrons of learning and even contributors to literature.
Scarcity
of Libraries.
One of the chief causes of the
prevailing ignorance was the scarcity of books. The old libraries were
destroyed by ruthless barbarians and the ravages of war. After the conquest of
Alexandria by the Saracens, the cultivation and exportation of Egyptian papyrus
ceased, and parchment or vellum, which took its place, was so expensive that
complete copies of the Bible cost as much as a palace or a farm. King Alfred
paid eight acres of land for one volume of a cosmography. Hence the custom of chaining
valuable books, which continued even to the sixteenth century. Hence also the
custom of erasing the original text of manuscripts of classical works, to give
place to worthless monkish legends and ascetic homilies. Even the Bible was
sometimes submitted to this process, and thus "the word of God was made
void by the traditions of men."800
The libraries of conventual and
cathedral schools were often limited to half a dozen or a dozen volumes, such
as a Latin Bible or portions of it, the liturgical books, some works of St.
Augustin and St. Gregory, Cassiodorus and Boëthius, the grammars of Donatus and
Priscianus, the poems of Virgil and Horace. Most of the books had to be
imported from Italy, especially from Rome.
The introduction of cotton paper in the tenth or
eleventh century, and of linen paper in the twelfth, facilitated the
multiplication of books.801
§ 139. Educational Efforts of the Church.
The mediaeval church is often
unjustly charged with hostility to secular learning. Pope Gregory I. is made
responsible for the destruction of the Bibliotheca Palatina and the classical
statues in Rome. But this rests on an unreliable tradition of very late date.802 Gregory was himself, next to Isidore of Seville (on whom he
conferred the pall, in 599), the best scholar and most popular writer of his
age, and is lauded by his biographers and Gregory of Tours as a patron of learning.
If he made some disparaging remarks about Latin grammar and syntax, in two
letters addressed to bishops, they must be understood as a protest against an
overestimate of these lower studies and of heathen writers, as compared with
higher episcopal duties, and with that allegorical interpretation of the Bible
which he carried to arbitrary excess in his own exposition of Job.803 In the Commentary on Kings ascribed to him, he commends the study
of the liberal arts as a useful and necessary means for the proper
understanding of the Scriptures, and refers in support to the examples of
Moses, Isaiah, and St. Paul.804 We may say then that he was an advocate of learning and art, but
in subordination and subserviency to the interests of the Catholic church. This
has been the attitude of the papal chair ever since.805
The preservation and study of
ancient literature during the entire mediaeval period are due chiefly to the
clergy and monks, and a few secular rulers. The convents were the nurseries of
manuscripts.
The connection with classical
antiquity was never entirely broken. Boëthius
(beheaded at Pavia, c. 525), and Cassiodorus
(who retired to the monastery, of Viviers, and died there about 570),
both statesmen under Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king of Italy, form the
connecting links between ancient and mediaeval learning. They were the last of
the old Romans; they dipped the pen of Cicero and Seneca in barbaric ink,806 and stimulated the rising
energies of the Romanic and Germanic nations: Boëthius by his "Consolation
of Philosophy" (written in prison),807 Cassiodorus by his encyclopedic
"Institutes of Divine Letters," a brief introduction to the
profitable study of the Holy Scriptures.808 The former looked back to Greek philosophy; the latter looked
forward to Christian theology. The influence of their writings was enhanced by
the scarcity of books beyond their intrinsic merits.
Boëthius has had the singular
fortune of enjoying the reputation of a saint and martyr who was put to death,
not for alleged political treason, but for defending orthodoxy against the
Arianism of Theodoric. He is assigned by Dante to the fourth heaven in company
with Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Gratian, Peter the Lombard, Dionysius the
Areopagite, and other great teachers of the church:
"The saintly
soul that maketh manifest
The world’s
deceitfulness to all who hear well,
Is feasting on the
sight of every good.
The body, whence it
was expelled, is lying
Down in Cieldauro,
and from martyrdom
And exile rose the
soul to such a peace."809
And yet it is doubtful whether
Boëthius was a Christian at all. He was indeed intimate with Cassiodorus and
lived in a Christian atmosphere, which accounts for the moral elevation of his
philosophy. But, if we except a few Christian phrases,810 his "Consolation"
might almost have been written by a noble heathen of the school of Plato or
Seneca. It is an echo of Greek philosophy; it takes an optimistic view of life;
it breathes a beautiful spirit of resignation and hope, and derives comfort
from a firm belief in God; in an all-ruling providence, and in prayer, but is
totally silent about Christ and his gospel.811 It is a dialogue partly in prose and partly in verse between the
author and philosophy in the garb of a dignified woman (who sets as his
celestial guide, like Dante’s Beatrice). The work enjoyed an extraordinary
popularity throughout the middle ages, and was translated into several languages,
Greek, Old High German (by Notker of St. Gall), Anglo-Saxon (by King Alfred),
Norman English (by Chaucer), French (by Meun), and Hebrew (by Ben Banshet).
Gibbon admires it all the more for its ignoring Christianity, and calls it
"a golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully, but which
claims incomparable merit from the barbarism of the times and the situation of
the author. The celestial guide whom he had so long invoked at Rome and Athens,
now condescended to illumine his dungeon, to revive his courage, and to pour
into his wounds her salutary balm .... From the earth Boëthius ascended to
heaven in search of the Supreme Good;
explored the metaphysical labyrinth of chance and destiny, of prescience and
freewill, of time and eternity; and generously attempted to reconcile the
perfect attributes of Deity with the apparent disorders of his moral and
physical government."812
Greek
And Hebrew Learning.
The original languages of the
Scriptures were little understood in the West. The Latin took the place of the
Greek as a literary and sacred language, and formed a bond of union among
scholars of different nationalities. As a spoken language it rapidly
degenerated under the influx of barbaric dialects, but gave birth in the course
of time to the musical Romanic languages of Southern Europe.
The Hebrew, which very few of
the fathers (Origen and Jerome) had understood, continued to live in the
Synagogue, and among eminent Jewish grammarians and commentators of the Old
Testament; but it was not revived in the Christian Church till shortly before
the Reformation. Very few of the divines of our period (Isidore, and, perhaps,
Scotus Erigena), show any trace of Hebrew learning.
The Greek, which had been used
almost exclusively, even by writers of the Western church, till the time of
Tertullian and Cyprian, gave way to the Latin. Hence the great majority of
Western divines could not read even the New Testament in the original. Pope
Gregory did not know Greek, although he lived several years as papal ambassador
in Constantinople. The same is true of most of the schoolmen down to the
sixteenth century.
But there were not a few
honorable exceptions.813 The
Monotheletic and Iconoclastic controversies brought the Greek and the Latin
churches into lively contact. The conflict between Photius and Nicolas
stimulated Latin divines to self-defence.
As to Italy, the Greek continued
to be spoken in the Greek colonies in Calabria and Sicily down to the eleventh
century. Boëthius was familiar with the Greek philosophers. Cassiodorus often
gives the Greek equivalents for Latin technical terms.814
Several popes of this period
were Greeks by birth, as Theodore I. (642), John VI. (701), John VII. (705),
Zachary (741); while others were Syrians, as John V. (685), Sergius I. (687),
Sisinnius (708), Constantine I. (708), Gregory III. (731). Zachary translated
Gregory’s "Dialogues" from Latin into Greek. Pope Paul I. (757-768)
took pains to spread a knowledge of Greek and sent several Greek books,
including a grammar, some works of Aristotle, and Dionysius the Areopagite, to
King Pepin of France. He provided Greek service for several monks who had been
banished from the East by the iconoclastic emperor Copronymus. Anastasius,
librarian of the Vatican, translated the canons of the eighth general Council
of Constantinople (869) into Latin by order of Pope Hadrian II.815
Isidore of Seville (d. 636)
mentions a learned Spanish bishop, John of Gerona, who in his youth had studied
seven years in Constantinople. He himself quotes in his "Etymologies"
from many Greek authors, and is described as "learned in Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew."
Ireland was for a long time in
advance of England, and sent learned missionaries to the sister island as well
as to the Continent. That Greek was not unknown there, is evident from Scotus
Erigena.
England derived her knowledge of
Greek from Archbishop Theodore, who was a native of Tarsus, educated in Athens
and appointed by the pope to the see of Canterbury (a.d. 668).816 He and his companion Hadrian,817 an Italian abbot of African
descent, spread Greek learning among the clergy. Bede says that some of their
disciples were living in his day who were as well versed in Greek and Latin as
in their native Saxon. Among these must be mentioned Aldhelm, bishop of
Sherborne, and Tobias, bishop of Rochester (d. 726).818 The Venerable Bede (d. 735) gives evidence of Greek knowledge in
his commentaries,819 his references to a Greek Codex of the Acts of
the Apostles, and especially in his book on the Art of Poetry.820 In France, Greek began to be studied under Charles the Great.
Alcuin (d. 804) brought some knowledge of it from his native England, but his
references may all have been derived from Jerome and Cassiodorus.821 Paulus Diaconus frequently uses Greek words. Charlemagne himself
learned Greek, and the Libri Carolini show a familiarity with the details of the image-controversy of the Greek
Church. His sister Giesela, who was abbess of Challes near Paris, uses a few
Greek words in Latin letters,822 in her correspondence with
Alcuin, though these may have been derived from the Latin.
The greatest Greek scholar of
the ninth century, and of the whole period in the West was John Scotus Erigena
(850), who was of Irish birth and education, but lived in France at the court
of Charles the Bald. He displays his knowledge in his Latin books, translated
the pseudo-Dionysian writings, and attempted original Greek composition.
In Germany, Rabanus Maurus,
Haymo of Halberstadt, and Walafrid Strabo had some knowledge of Greek, but not
sufficient to be of any material use in the interpretation of the Scriptures.
The
Course of Study.823
Education was carried on in the
cathedral and conventual schools, and these prepared the way for the
Universities which began to be founded in the twelfth century.
The course of secular learning
embraced the so-called seven liberal arts, namely, grammar, dialectics (logic),
rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. The first three
constituted the Trivium, the other four the Quadrivium.824 Seven, three, and four were all regarded as sacred numbers. The
division is derived from St. Augustin,825 and was adopted by Boëthius and
Cassiodorus. The first and most popular compend of the middle ages was the book
of Cassiodorus, De
Septem Disciplinis.826
These studies were preparatory
to sacred learning, which was based upon the Latin Bible and the Latin fathers.
The
Chief Theologians.
A few divines embraced all the
secular and religious knowledge of their age. In Spain, Isidore of Seville (d. 636) was the most learned man at the
end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century. His twenty books of
"Origins" or "Etymologies" embrace the entire contents of
the seven liberal arts, together with theology, jurisprudence, medicine,
natural history, etc., and show familiarity with Plato, Aristotle, Boëthius,
Demosthenes, Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Anacreon, Herodotus, Cicero, Horace,
Virgil, Ovid, Terence, Juvenal, Caesar, Livy, Sallust.827 The Venerable Bede occupied
the same height of encyclopaedic knowledge a century later. Alcuin was the leading divine of the
Carolingian age. From his school proceeded RABANUS MAURUS, the founder of learning
and higher education in Germany.828 Scotus Erigena (d.
about 877) was a marvel not only of learning, but also of independent thought,
in the reign of Charles the Bald, and showed, by prophetic anticipation, the
latent capacity of the Western church for speculative theology.829 With Berengar and Lanfranc, in the middle of the eleventh century,
dialectical skill was applied in opposing and defending the dogma of
transubstantiation.830 The
doctrinal controversies about adoptionism, predestination, and the real
presence stimulated the study of the Scriptures and of the fathers, and kept
alive the intellectual activity.
Biblical
Studies.
The literature of the Latin
church embraced penitential books, homilies, annals, translations,
compilations, polemic discussions, and commentaries. The last are the most
important, but fall far below the achievements of the fathers and reformers.
Exegesis was cultivated in an exclusively
practical and homiletical spirit and aim by Gregory the Great, Isidore, Bede,
Alcuin, Claudius of Turin, Paschasius Radbertus, Rabanus Maurus, Haymo,
Walafrid Strabo, and others. The Latin Vulgate was the text, and the Greek or
Hebrew seldom referred to. Augustin and Jerome were the chief sources.
Charlemagne felt the need of a revision of the corrupt text of the Vulgate, and
entrusted Alcuin with the task. The theory of a verbal inspiration was
generally accepted, and opposed only by Agobard of Lyons who confined
inspiration to the sense and the arguments, but not to the "ipsa corporalia verba."
The favorite mode of
interpretation was the spiritual, that is, allegorical and mystical. The
literal, that is, grammatico-historical exegesis was neglected. The spiritual
interpretation was again divided into three ramifications: the allegorical
proper, the moral, and the anagogical831 corresponding to the three
cardinal virtues of the Christian: the first refers to faith (credenda), the second to practice or
charity (agenda), the third to hope (speranda, desideranda). Thus Jerusalem means
literally or historically, the city in Palestine; allegorically, the church;
morally, the believing soul; anagogically, the heavenly Jerusalem. The fourfold
sense was expressed in the memorial verse:
"Litera Gesta docet; quid Credas, Allegoria;
Moralis, quid Agas; quo Tendas, Anagogia."
Notes.
St. Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, who was first (like Cyprian, and
Ambrose) a distinguished layman, and father of four children, before he became
a monk, and then a bishop, wrote in the middle of the fifth century (he died c.
450) a brief manual of mediaeval hermeneutics under the title Liber Formularum Spiritalis
Intelligentiae (Rom.,
1564, etc., in Migne’s "Patrol." Tom. 50, col. 727-772). This
work is often quoted by Bede and is sometimes erroneously ascribed to him.
Eucherius shows an extensive knowledge of the Bible and a devout spirit. He
anticipates many favorite interpretations of mediaeval commentators and
mystics. He vindicates the allegorical method from the Scripture itself, and
from its use of anthropomorphic and anthropopathic expressions which can not be
understood literally. Yet he allows the literal sense its proper place in
history as well as the moral and mystical. He identifies the Finger of God (Digitus Dei) with the Spirit of God (cap.
2; comp. Luke 11:20 with Matt. 12:28), and explains the several meanings of Jerusalem
(ecclesia,
vel anima, cap.
10), ark (caro
Dominica, corda sanctorum Deo plena, ecclesia intra quam salvanda clauduntur), Babylon (mundus, Roma, inimici), fures (haeretici et pseudoprophetae,
gentes, vitia),
chirographum,
pactum, praeputium, circumcisio, etc. In the last chapter he treats of the symbolical
significance of numbers, as 1=Divine Unity; 2=the two covenants, the two chief
commandments; 3=the trinity in heaven and on earth (he quotes the spurious
passage 1 John 5:7); 4=the four Gospels, the four rivers of Paradise; 5=the
five books of Moses, five loaves, five wounds of Christ (John 20:25); 6=the
days of creation, the ages of the world; 7=the day of rest, of perfection;
8=the day of resurrection; 10=the Decalogue; 12=the Apostles, the universal
multitude of believers, etc.
The theory of the fourfold
interpretation was more fully developed by Rabanus
Maurus (776-856), in his curious book, Allegoriae in Universam Sacram Scripturam (Opera, ed. Migne, Tom.
VI. col. 849-1088). He calls the four senses the four daughters of wisdom, by
whom she nourishes her children, giving to beginners drink in lacte historiae, to the believers food in pane allegoriae, to those engaged in good works
encouragement in
refectione tropologiae, to those longing for heavenly rest delight in vino anagogiae. He also gives the following
definition at the beginning of the treatise: "Historia
ad aptam rerum
gestarum narrationem pertinet, quae et in superficie litterae continetur, et
sic intelligitur sicut legitur. Allegoria vero aliquid in se plus continet, quod per hoc
quod locus [loquens] de rei veritate ad quiddam dat
intelligendum de fidei puritate, et sanctae Ecclesiae mysteria, sive
praesentia, sive futura, aliud dicens, aliud significans, semper autem
figmentis et velatis ostendit. Tropologia quoque et ipsa, sicut allegoria, in figuratis,
sive dictis, sive factis, constat: sed in hoc ab allegoria distat quod Allegoria
quidem fidem, Tropologia vero aedificat moralitem. Anagogia autem, sive velatis, sive
apertis dictis, de aeternis supernae patriae gaudiis constat, et quae merces
vel fidem rectam, vel vitam maneat sanctam, verbis vel opertis, vel apertis
demonstrat. Historia
namque
perfectorum exempla quo narrat, legentem ad imitationem sanctitatis excitat; Allegoria in fidei revelatione ad
cognitionem veritatis; Tropologia in instructione morum ad amorem virtutis; Anagogia in manifestatione sempiternorum
gaudiorum ad desiderium aeternae felicitatis. In nostrae ergo animae domo Historia
fundamentum
ponit; Allegoria
parietes erigit; Anagogia tectum supponit; Tropologia vero tam interius per affectum
quam exterius per effectum boni operis, variis ornatibus depingit."
§ 140. Patronage of Letters by Charles the Great, and Charles the
Bald.
Comp. §§ 56, 90, 134 (pp. 236,
390, 584).
Charlemagne stands out like a
far-shining beacon-light in the darkness of his age. He is the founder of a new
era of learning, as well as of a new empire. He is the pioneer of French and
German civilization. Great in war, he was greater still as a legislator and
promoter of the arts of peace. He clearly saw that religion and education are
the only solid and permanent basis of a state. In this respect he rose far
above Alexander the Great and Caesar, and is unsurpassed by Christian rulers.
He invited the best scholars
from Italy and England to his court,_Peter of Pisa, Paul Warnefrid, Paulinus of
Aquileia, Theodulph of Orleans, Alcuin of York.832 They formed a sort of royal academy of sciences and arts, and held
literary symposiacs. Each member bore a nom de plume borrowed from the Bible or classic lore: the king
presided as "David" or "Solomon"; Alcuin, a great admirer
of Horace and Virgil, was "Flaccus" Angilbert (his son-in-law) was
"Homerus"; Einhard (his biographer), "Bezaleel," after the
skilful artificer of the Tabernacle (Ex. 31:2); Wizo, "Candidus";
Arno, "Aquila"; Fredegisus, "Nathanael"; Richbod,
"Macarius," etc. Even ladies were not excluded: the emperor’s sister,
Gisela, under the name "Lucia"; his learned cousin, Gundrad, as
"Eulalia;" his daughter, Rotrude, as "Columba." He called Alcuin, whom he first met in Italy
(781), his own "beloved teacher," and he was himself his most docile
pupil. He had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and put all sorts of
questions to him in his letters, even on the most difficult problems of
theology. He learned in the years of his manhood the art of writing, the Latin
grammar, a little Greek (that he might compare the Latin Testament with the
original), and acquired some knowledge of rhetoric, dialectics, mathematics and
astronomy. He delighted in reading the poets and historians of ancient Rome,
and Augustin’s "City of God."
He longed for a dozen Jeromes and Augustins, but Alcuin told him to be
content since the Creator of heaven and earth had been pleased to give to the
world only two such giants. He had some share in the composition of the Libri Carolini, which raised an enlightened
protest against the superstition of image-worship. Poems are also attributed to
him or to his inspiration. He ordered Paul Warnefrid (Paulus Diaconus) to
prepare a collection of the best homilies of the Latin fathers for the use of
the churches, and published it with a preface in which he admonished the clergy
to a diligent study of the Scriptures. Several Synods held during his reign
(813) at Rheims, Tours, Chalons, Mainz, ordered the clergy to keep a
Homiliarium and to translate the Latin sermons clearly into rusticam Romanam linguam aut
Theotiscam, so
that all might understand them.
Charles aimed at the higher
education not only of the clergy, but also of the higher nobility, and state
officials. His sons and daughters were well informed. He issued a circular
letter to all the bishops and abbots of his empire (787), urging them to
establish schools in connection with cathedrals and convents. At a later period
he rose even to the grand but premature scheme of popular education, and required
in a capitulary (802) that every parent should send his sons to school that
they might learn to read. Theodulph of Orleans (who died 821) directed the
priests of his diocese to hold school in every town and village,833 to receive the pupils with
kindness, and not to ask pay, but to receive only voluntary gifts.
The emperor founded the Court or
Palace School (Schola
Palatina) for
higher education and placed it under the direction of Alcuin.834 It was an imitation of the Paedagogium ingenuorum of the Roman emperors. It
followed him in his changing residence to Aix-la-Chapelle, Worms, Frankfurt,
Mainz, Regensburg, Ingelheim, Paris. It was not the beginning of the Paris
University, which is of much later date, but the chief nursery of educated
clergymen, noblemen and statesmen of that age. It embraced in its course of
study all the branches of secular and sacred learning.835 It became the model of similar schools, old and new, at Tours,
Lyons, Orleans, Rheims, Chartres, Troyes, Old Corbey and New Corbey, Metz, St.
Gall, Utrecht, LĂĽttich.836 The rich
literature of the Carolingian age shows the fruits of this imperial patronage
and example. It was, however, a foreign rather than a native product. It was
neither French nor German, but essentially Latin, and so far artificial. Nor
could it be otherwise; for the Latin classics, the Latin Bible, and the Latin
fathers were the only accessible sources of learning, and the French and German
languages were not yet organs of literature. This fact explains the speedy
decay, as well as the subsequent revival in close connection with the Roman
church.
The creations of Charlemagne
were threatened with utter destruction during the civil wars of his weak
successors. But Charles the Bald, a son of Louis the Pious, and king of France
(843-877), followed his grandfather in zeal for learning, and gave new lustre
to the Palace School at Paris under the direction of John Scotus Erigena, whom
he was liberal enough to protect, notwithstanding his eccentricities. The
predestinarian controversy, and the first eucharistic controversy took place
during his reign, and called forth a great deal of intellectual activity and
learning, as shown in the writings of Rabanus Maurus, Hincmar, Remigius,
Prudentius, Servatus Lupus, John Scotus Erigena, Paschasius Radbertus, and
Ratramnus. We find among these writers the three tendencies, conservative,
liberal, and speculative or mystic, which usually characterize periods of
intellectual energy and literary productivity.
After the death of Charles the
Bald a darker night of ignorance and barbarism settled on Europe than ever
before. It lasted till towards the middle of the eleventh century when the
Berengar controversy on the eucharist roused the slumbering intellectual
energies of the church, and prepared the way for the scholastic philosophy and
theology of the twelfth century.
The Carolingian male line lasted in Italy till 875, in
Germany till 911, in France till 987.
§ 141. Alfred the Great, and Education in England.
Comp. the Jubilee
edition of the Whole Works of Alfred the Great, with Preliminary
Essays illustrative of the History, Arts and Manners of the Ninth Century.
London, 1858, 2 vols. The biographies of Alfred, quoted on p. 395, and Freemann’s Old English History 1859.
In England the beginning of
culture was imported with Christianity by Augustin, the first archbishop of
Canterbury, who brought with him the Bible, the church books, the writings of
Pope Gregory and the doctrines and practices of Roman Christianity; but little
progress was made for a century. Among his successors the Greek monk, Theodore
of Tarsus (668-690), was most active in promoting education and discipline
among the clergy. The most distinguished scholar of the Saxon period is the
Venerable Bede (d. 735), who, as already stated, represented all historical,
exegetical and general knowledge of his age. Egbert, archbishop of York,
founded a flourishing school in York (732), from which proceeded Alcuin, the
teacher and friend of Charlemagne.
During the invasion of the
heathen Danes and Normans many churches, convents and libraries were destroyed,
and the clergy itself relapsed into barbarism so that they did not know the
meaning of the Latin formulas which they used in public worship.
In this period of wild confusion
King Alfred the Great (871-901),
in his twenty-second year, ascended the throne. He is first in war and first in
peace of all the Anglo-Saxon rulers. What Charlemagne was for Germany and
France, Alfred was for England. He conquered the forces of the Danes by land
and by sea, delivered his country from foreign rule, and introduced a new era
of Christian education. He invited scholars from the old British churches in Wales,
from Ireland, and the Continent to influential positions. He made collections
of choice sentences from the Bible and the fathers. In his thirty-sixth year he
learned Latin from Asser, a monk of Wales, who afterwards wrote his biography.
He himself, no doubt with the aid of scholars, translated several standard
works from Latin into the Anglo-Saxon, and accompanied them with notes, namely
a part of the Psalter, Boëthius on the Consolation of Philosophy, Bede’s
English Church History, Pope Gregory’s Pastoral Theology, Augustin’s
Meditations, the Universal History of Orosius, and Aesop’s Fables. He sent a
copy of Gregory’s Pastoral Theology to every diocese for the benefit of the
clergy. It is due to his influence chiefly that the Scriptures and service-books
at this period were illustrated by so many vernacular glosses.
He stood in close connection
with the Roman see, as the centre of ecclesiastical unity and civilization. He
devoted half of his income to church and school. He founded a school in Oxford
similar to the Schola Palatina; but the University of Oxford, like those of
Cambridge and Paris, is of much later date (twelfth or thirteenth century). He
seems to have conceived even the plan of a general education of the people.837 Amid great physical infirmity (he had the epilepsy), he developed
an extraordinary activity during a reign of twenty-nine years, and left an
enduring fame for purity, and piety of character and unselfish devotion to the
best interests of his people.838
His example of promoting
learning in the vernacular language was followed by Aelfric, a grammarian, homilist and hagiographer. He has been
identified with the archbishop Aelfric of Canterbury (996-1009), and with the
archbishop Aelfric of York (1023-1051), but there are insuperable difficulties
in either view. He calls himself simply "monk and priest." He left behind him a series of eighty
Anglo-Saxon Homilies for Sundays and great festivals, and another series for
Anglo-Saxon Saints’ days, which were used as an authority in the Anglo-Saxon
Church.839
