I.

causes a

to be pre

use in the

services

Meinwerc, the 'clam gram' of bishop Otto's clerk, and our СНАР. own 'mumpsimus.'' As a remedy for these evils Charles sent round to the Charles churches a homilary, or collection of sermons, corrected by corrected the hand of Paulus Diaconus (at that time probably engaged Homilary in teaching at Metz),2 accompanied by the following instruc- pared for tions: Desirous as we are of improving the condition of the churches, we impose upon ourselves the task of reviving, of the with the utmost zeal, the study of letters, well-nigh extinguished through the neglect of our ancestors. We charge all our subjects, as far as they may be able, to cultivate the liberal arts, and we set them the example. We have already, God helping, carefully corrected the books of the Old and New Testaments, corrupted through the ignorance of transcribers. And inasmuch as the collection of homilies for the

service at nocturns was full of errors.. . we have willed that these same should be revised and corrected by Paul the deacon, our well-beloved client; and he has presented us with copies of readings, adapted to every feast day, carefully purged from error and sufficing for an entire year.'

Church.

laries re

In the year 789, another capitulary was circulated en- Capituforcing upon the clergy the necessity for raising their pro- specting fession in public estimation by moral lives, and directing that the clergy. candidates for the priestly office should be sought for not only from among the servile class, but among the sons of freemen.5 Successive capitularies repeated and emphasised with greater distinctness the same injunctions. At a council at Aachen, in the same year, the standard for admission to orders was authoritatively fixed. The Capitulary of Frank

1 For a masterly exposure of these and similar exaggerations, see Maitland, The Dark Ages, Essay No. 8.

2 Encyclica de Emendatione Librorum et Officiorum Ecclesiasticorum (Pertz, Legg. i 44; Baluze, i 204-5). If we accept the date assigned by Pertz to this capitular, i.e. 782, it would appear to have been among Charles' earliest measures of reform.

3 Obliteratam pene majorum nostrorum desidia reparare vigilante studio litterarum satagimus officinam.' Ib.

4 Capitulare Aquisgranense. Baluze, i 209–42.

5 Non solum servilis conditionis infantes sed etiam ingenuorum filios aggregent sibique socient.'

CHAP.

I.

of the year

fort in 794 is entirely taken up with regulations for the discipline of monastic bodies and the clergy. The latter are forbidden to enter taverns, and it is also required that no one shall be ordained a priest under thirty years of age.' In the instructions given to the missi dominici in 802, it is directed that their attention shall be given to canonical societies, to see that the rules of the order are observed.2 Capitulary In a capitulary of 804 many of these instructions are again repeated. At the same time the actual work of education was strenuously pressed on. Let every monastery,' says to have its the capitulary of 789, and every abbey have its school,3 where boys may be taught the Psalms, the system of musical notation, singing, arithmetic, and grammar; and let the books which are given them be free from faults, and let care be taken that the boys do not spoil them either when reading or writing.'

789.

Every

monastery

school.

Theodulfus :

Of the manner in which the movement spread through the different dioceses and was aided by the episcopal order, we are presented with a notable example in Theodulfus, the famous bishop of Orleans. In the year 797, ten years after the appearance of the capitulary addressed by Charles to Baugulfus, Theodulfus drew up a similar document addressed his capitu- to the clergy of his diocese. Apart from his ecclesiastical lary to the clergy of authority, his sentiments, as those of one of the missi domihis diocese. nici, would naturally carry great weight: we infer indeed that when Alcuin retired to Tours, in 796, Theodulfus succeeded him as a kind of minister of education, for the latter styles him the father of the vineyards,' and the Orleans capitulary appears to have been widely adopted in other dioceses.5

He initiates a

This document is remarkable as a combination of lofty sentiment and practical endeavour. St. Benedict himself free educa- could not have impeached the argument in justification of

system of

tion.

1 Capitulare Frankfordiense. Baluze, i 261–270.

2 Capitula data missis dominicis. Ibid. i 360.

3 Et ut scholae legentium puerorum fient.'

4 'Modo, miserante Deo, meliori populo secundus praeest David, et sub

eo nobilior Zabdias cellis praeest vinearum.' Migne, c 394.

5 See Théodulfe, Evêque d'Orléans, par M. l'Abbé Baunard. Paris, 1860.

I.

study, as a means whereby the life of the righteous is CHAP. nourished and ennobled, and the man himself fortified against temptation.' But the feature that has chiefly redeemed this document from oblivion is the clause wherein provision is made for the gratuitous instruction of the children of the laity. Theodulfus required his clergy to open schools in every town and village in the diocese, and to receive the children of the faithful' for instruction, demanding in return no payment, though permitted to accept a gift spontaneously offered. Such is probably the earliest instance on record, in the history of Western Christianity, that answers to the free parish school of modern times.

of Gibbon

and Lo

renz con

trasted.

We can scarcely doubt, with the foregoing evidence before us, that the work of reform, urged on by the strong will of Charles and directed by the experience of Alcuin, progressed with marvellous rapidity; and the facts already cited will enable us to form a fairly accurate estimate of the scope and nature of the work. It has been extravagantly extolled and it has also been unjustly depreciated. Gibbon, whose Criticisms jealousy of every measure assignable to ecclesiastical influences led him to disparage the whole movement, has observed, with exaggerated antithesis, that the emperor strove to acquire the practice of writing, which every peasant now learns in his infancy.' An enthusiastic biographer of Alcuin, on the other hand, invites us to believe that there was a more universal education secured to the lower orders at the conclusion of the eighth century than France can boast of in the nineteenth.' 2 It is not difficult to see that the real truth lies somewhere between the theory advanced by the partiality of the professor and that implied by the prejudice of the historian.

6

Of Alcuin's general success and satisfaction with the results of his labours there can be no reasonable doubt; and though the interval that separated Charles intellectually from

1 'Presbyteri per villas et vicos scholas habeant, et si quilibet fidelium suos parvulos ad discendas litteras eis commendare vult, eos suscipere non renuant, sed cum summa charitate eos doceant, etc.' Cossart, xiii 998. 2 Lorenz, Alcuin's Leben, p. 38 (written 1829).

CHAP.

I.

Circum

stances

that induce Alcuin to wish to

retire from his post.

the ablest of his courtiers was considerable, yet it is certain that the circle of able men whom his discerning genius drew round him far surpassed in brilliancy that which surrounded Offa or Alfred the Great. But however little cause the court instructor might have to complain of apathy or insufficient support, we gather from more than one circumstance that he was beginning to grow somewhat weary of his position and his work. It is not difficult to see that the continual questioning and cross-questioning which he underwent in the Palace School often overtaxed both his patience and his resources. M. Monnier indeed inclines to the belief, that in the dialogue on grammar, of which an outline has been given, it was the design of the much-harassed instructor to exhibit, in the characters of the youthful Frank and the youthful Saxon, the kind of ordeal to which he had been subjected by his royal host. There are certainly some passages which almost suggest that nothing but a sense of selfrespect and of what was due to so august a presence, prevented Alcuin from turning on his merciless interrogator much in the fashion in which our great English lexicographer more than once resented the importunity which ultimately immortalised him. In Charles, the ardour of the student seems sometimes to have triumphed over the theory of His ordeals noblesse oblige. He would suddenly bring forward, side by

in the

Palace
School.

side, two explanations, wrung, at long intervals, from his instructor, and ask how this could be, and also that when it needed no knowledge of art dialectical or any other art, in fact nothing but the light of nature, to see that the two statements were absolutely incompatible. The dignified ecclesiastic, accustomed to deliver his decisions at York unchallenged, winced sadly under this treatment. Long after, when he had effected his escape to Tours, and another teacher was enlightening the Palace School, he candidly admnitted certain blunders, but suggests that they are to be condoned. The horse,' he says, which has four legs often

1 'On peut dire qu'Alcuin a voulu représenter ainsi et les importunités de son principal élève, et les services d'instruction qu'il lui a rendus lui-même,' Monnier, p. 90.

stumbles; how much more must man, who has but one СНАР. tongue, often trip in speech.'1

3

I.

Other sources of disquiet were not wanting. The fre- Frequent quent migrations of the Palace School, as it moved from Journeys. Aachen to Thionville, from Thionville to Worms, and thence on to Mayence, Frankfort, or Ratisbon, were peculiarly irksome to one whose habits had been formed in the monotony of canonical life. And if to these journeys are added those to the abbeys committed to his charge (one in the Gâtinais, the other near Troyes),2 we can easily enter into his complaint that his studies are sadly interrupted by secular business, long journeys, and the impossibility of carrying any large number of books with him on such occasions. Then again there was the excitement that necessarily followed upon the setting forth of Charles and his generals to the seat of war, and upon their return. Since 782, not a year Excitehad elapsed that had not been marked by conflict within ment of some portion or other of the Frankish boundaries; while the wars. severity with which Charles treated the vanquished, especially the Saxons, completely shocked the gentle Alcuin, who, when safe at Tours, did not fail to plead for the extension of greater clemency. Even in the monarch's home life there must have the court been much which he could not fail to observe with pain and life. disapproval. For it was not a moral court, even when tried only by the standard of that age. Charles himself must often have scandalised the saintly ecclesiastic by those laxities which tarnish an otherwise heroic character. Then too there were the royal daughters, whom the foolish old father would not suffer to marry, and who, breathing the atmo

1 Epist. 84; Migne, c 27.

2 ... et sic ad St. Lupum.' Epist. 66. 'Et inde ad sanctum Lupum, et ibi maxime spero me manere Septembrium mensem totum'... 'et sic Octobrio mense ad Ferrarias sanctum Petrum visitare, et ibi usque ad medium illum mensem spero me esse.' Epist. 67; Migne, c 255, 266. These letters belong to the year 798; but it is not probable that Alcuin would neglect to visit his abbeys during the earlier part of his residence in Frankland.

3 Præf. ad Genesin. Migne, c 517.

A policy which Dümmler, however, defends on political grounds. See Gesch. d. Ostfränkischen Reichs, p. 282.

successive

Laxity of