siastical, as opposed to the 'religious,' education of the time, for the chancellor of the cathedral had jurisdiction over the schools for the clergy throughout the diocese. At a later period we find this latter functionary asserting claims over abbey lands, claims not unchallenged by the abbat, and endeavouring to levy a tax on all who assumed the office of teacher-but these encroachments belong to the tenth and eleventh centuries. СНАР. III. of the The education provided in these schools may be described Character as a kind of minor to the Benedictine major. In the range education of subjects it probably went little beyond the teaching of the there given. schools of Cassian, but its method was more careful and efficient. We may picture to ourselves a group of lads seated on the floor, which was strewn with clean straw, their waxen tablets in their hands, and busily engaged in noting down the words read by the scholasticus from his manuscript volume. So rarely did the pupil, in those days, gain access to a book, that to read (legere) became synonymous with to teach. The scholars traced the words on their tablets, and afterwards, when their notes had been corrected by the master, transferred them to a little parchment volume, the treasured depository, with many, of nearly all the learning they managed to acquire in life.' We have already investigated the probable extent and character of that learning, and it may safely be assumed that in the cathedral school the customary limits were seldom passed. In the ninth century, at least, only two centres of Church education in Frankland stand forth as examples of a higher culture—the one, that at Orleans, under Theodulfus; the other, that at Rheims. schools at Orleans The lively interest taken by Theodulfus in everything The that related to the education of his day is attested by numerous facts, though in his leaning to a policy of conser- and vatism he strongly resembled Alcuin. He mistrusted the 1 So Rabanus Maurus, when petitioning the abbat of Fulda for the return of his books, says, 'Me quia quaecumque docuerunt ore magistri, Ne vaga mens perdat, cuncta dedi foliis.' Migne, cxii 1600-1. Rheims. CHAP. tendencies exhibited in Martianus Capella, but he could not fail to be aware how great an attraction that writer's allegorical method of treatment possessed for the ordinary learner. He accordingly himself composed a poem of about a hundred lines containing a fanciful description of the subjects of the trivium and quadrivium, wherein, however, all sceptical or speculative discourse was carefully eschewed.1 We can hardly suppose, from the character of the composition, that it enjoyed much popularity beyond the range of the bishop's own diocese. Ably seconded by the poet Wulfin, Theodulfus raised the school at Orleans to considerable eminence. It became especially famous for the number, beauty, and accuracy of its manuscripts. Léon Maitre, on somewhat doubtful evidence, inclines to the belief that it was also distinguished as a school of civil law. Yet more renowned was the episcopal school at Rheims, which, under the protection of Hincmar, the oracle and arbiter of the state in the days of Charles the Bald, and under the teaching of archbishop Fulk, of Remy of Auxerre, and of Hucbald, claims the proud distinction of having preserved, in this century, that tradition of learning which links the episcopal schools with the University of Paris. But throughout the ninth century, and indeed for the greater part of the period known as 'the Benedictine era,'the four centuries preceding the reign of Philip Augustus,the work of the episcopal schools was completely eclipsed by that of the monasteries. At Corbey, near Amiens, under Adelhard and Wala, who both retired thither, and under Paschasius Radbertus, was gathered a society eminent for its learning and illustrious as a parent foundation. It disappears beneath the waves of the Norman invasion; but its Corbey, St. namesake, New Corbey, in Saxony, sustained with equal Riquier, St. Martin of reputation, and more auspicious fortunes, the scholarly traditions of the age. The great abbey of St. Riquier, under the rule of Angilbert, rivalled the school at Rheims in lit The monastic schools at Metz, St. Bertin, &c. 2 1 See De Septem Liberalibus in quadam pictura depictis. Migne, cv 333-5. 2 Walae Vita. Mabillon, vol. v; Pertz, ii 578-81. erary activity; and an inventory of its possessions, made in the year 831 by the direction of Lewis the Pious, included a library of no less than 231 volumes. The abbey of St. Martin at Metz, under the rule of Aldricus, was scarcely less celebrated; 2 a Bible presented by its monks to Charles the Bald and the missal of bishop Drogo are still preserved, and rank among the most valued specimens of ninth-century art. The society of St. Mihiel-sur-Meuse enjoyed the instruction of Smaragdus, whose compend from Donatus frequently appears in the catalogues of the libraries of the period. St. Bertin, in the diocese of Cambrai, laid claim to the distinguished honour of having educated Grimbald, king Alfred's able seconder in his efforts towards a restoration of learning in England.3 At Ferrières, in the Gâtinais, the genius of Lupus Servatus shone forth in the troublous and disheartening period which immediately preceded and followed upon the division of the empire. The South and the South-West present fewer evidences of culture; and in the ninth century no foundation, either in Normandy or Brittany, can be said to have reached celebrity; while in Aquitaine, if we except the labours of Benedict of Aniane in the diocese of Montpellier, the efforts of Lewis the Pious on behalf of his patrimonial kingdom seem to have been baffled by the frequent recurrence of war. CHAP. III. the school at Tours. Amid the evidence of these widespread results from the Decline of movement with which Alcuin's name is identified, it is melancholy to note how completely his own monastery failed to maintain the reputation acquired under his sway. Learning has rarely prospered in conjunction with inordinate wealth, and Tours proved no exception to the rule. Fredegis, the Fredegis. new abbat, with his worldly tastes and fantastic notions in philosophy, was not the man to enforce discipline or give example to a learned community. He was, however, from his influence at court, where he was in frequent attendance on the emperor, and often employed on diplomatic missions, well able to watch over the material interests of the abbey, 1 Léon Maitre, p. 66. 2 Baluze, Miscell. i 19. 3 Bollandus, Juillet, ii 651. CHAP. Alcuin's forebodings verified. Fees exacted from the scholars. and his appointment was consequently popular with the monks. As for the monastery itself, Alcuin, long before his death, seems to have clearly foreseen that its enormous revenues, the frequent visits of aristocratic guests with their retinues, and almost incessant commerce with the world without, rendered it in the highest degree improbable that the Benedictine rule would long continue to be faithfully observed. He had done what lay in his power to found a house of stricter discipline, by sending twenty monks from his own cell of St. Judoc1 to form the nucleus of a new society at Cormery. In relation to Tours, his forebodings proved only too just; within a few years, this richly-endowed foundation acquired an unenviable notoriety from the fact that it demanded the payment of fees from its scholars. The school for the externi, by a kind of tacit agreement, seems to have been converted into an exclusive and aristocratic centre of education for the sons of the wealthier laity. Amalaric, the archbishop of the diocese-who claimed jurisdiction over the school, as one partly designed for the education of his own clergy-energetically denounced what he stigmatised as an abominable practice, and ordered that no fees should be taken except those that were spontaneously offered. We may willingly conclude, indeed, that Tours was an exception to the rule; it must certainly have appeared a singular contrast when the traveller saw inscribed over the portals of the far less wealthy foundation of St. Peter at Salzburg, the encouraging words, Discere si cupias, gratis, quod quaeris, habebis.3 Towards the middle of the century, the position of the monastery of Tours on the banks of the Loire exposed it to the full brunt of the Norman invasion. It was mercilessly plundered; and when, two centuries later, it again became famous, it was in connexion with the brilliant heterodoxy of Berengar. 1 'Cellam sancti Judoci, quam magnus Carolus quondam Alcuino ad eleemosynam exhibendam peregrinis commiserat.' Lupus Serv. Epist. 11. It was given to Alcuin in 792. Gallia Christiana, x 1289. 2 Léon Maitre, pp. 49, 203. 3 The concluding line of some verses attributed to Alcuin. Migne, ci 757. СНАР. III. It is not, however, only in separate dioceses and isolated monasteries that we have evidence of well-sustained efforts towards bringing about a more general diffusion of education. To Lewis the Pious the Church and the culture of her ministers were objects of increasing, care. 'The state's advancement in holy learning and holy life,' one admiring biographer assures us, absorbed alike his hours of business and of recreation.' And while his incapacity for military and political affairs excited the contempt of count Wala and the nobility, he had, in Benedict of Aniane, a friend ever ready to advise and to strengthen his natural feebleness of purpose. It is possible that Benedict's death, in 821, caused a temporary suspension of the emperor's efforts, for in the following year, at the Council of Attigny,-on the same occasion as that on which he did public penance for his cruelty towards his nephew Bernard and his severity towards Adelhard and Wala,-the language of a new decree concerning the schools for the clergy implies a consciousness of undue remissness in this respect. Learning and preaching, Lewis' says this capitulary, are essential to the welfare of the reforms. state; but the preacher's office can be rightly discharged only by learned men; hence it is of primary importance that such men should be found in every locality. It is accordingly decreed that every individual, whether a youth or an adult, in course of training with the view of occupying any position in the Church, shall have a fixed place of resort and a suitable master. If the extent of a parish should render it impracticable to assemble the scholars at any one centre, other schools are to be opened, to meet the difficulty. Parents and lords are required to provide for the maintenance of each scholar in order that indigence may not debar him from a course of study.'2 In the following year, 1 'Haec erat sancti Imperatoris exercitatio, hic cotidianus ludus, haec palaestrica agonia, spectante eo quo civitas in sancta doctrina et operatione clarius eniteret.' Vit. Ludov. c. 28; Pertz, ii 622. 2 Quia vero liquido constat, quod salus populi maxime in doctrina et praedicatione consistat, et praedicatio eadem impleri ita ut oportet non potest, nisi a doctis, necesse est, ut ordo talis in singulis sedibus inveniatur, per quam et praesens emendatio et futura utilitas sanctae ecclesiae preparetur; |