CHAPTER I. CHARLES THE GREAT AND ALCUIN; OR, THE SCHOOL OF THE PALACE. СНАР. I. umban, b. 543; TOWARDS the commencement of the seventh century, there had appeared at the court of the haughty Brunehaut an Irish monk, the famous St. Columban. He represented a St. Col. different school of theology from that of the Church with which the Frank had made his compact-a school which d. 615. will shortly claim considerable attention at our hands. For the present, however, it will suffice to note the influence of Columban as a monastic reformer in Frankland. of his His appearance in Austrasia appears to have been nearly Character coincident with that of St. Maur in Neustria, but his efforts monastic were directed to the establishment of a rule differing widely rule. from that of St. Benedict, and approaching more closely even than that of Cassian to the discipline of the ascetics of the Thebaïs. The ardour of his genius obtained for this rule a temporary acceptance; but, at the period which we are now approaching, the austerity of the life which it enforced had inevitably led to its abandonment for the rule of St. Benedict, which harmonised far better with the climate and temperaments of northern Gaul.' b. 680; In other respects the influence of Columban in Frankland St. Boniwas superseded by that of a yet more eminent reformer-the face, great St. Boniface, the devoted assertor of the Romish supre- d. 755. macy, the heroic apostle of the faith amid the strongholds of paganism, the energetic advocate of the Benedictine rule, the reformer whose labours paved the way for Alcuin when, 1 See on this subject a note 'sur la Règle suivie dans les Monastères Austrasiens,' in Digot's Histoire du Royaume d'Austrasie, iv, note 41. СНАР. I. Foundation of abbey of Monte Cassino, A.D. 528. Introduction of the Benedictine rule. forty years later, that famous teacher accepted the invitation. of Charles the Great to Aachen. During the period that separates the age of Cassian from that of St. Boniface, monasticism and the cause of letters had found a wiser legislator in Italy. Within a few months of the day when Justinian closed the schools of Athens, and Simplicius and Isidore wandered sadly forth into exile and obscurity, the sound of the axe and the hammer was heard on Monte Cassino. On the summit which overlooks the plains through which the Liris steals slowly in long reaches to the sea, arose the walls from whence proceeded the utterances of the Sinai of the Middle Ages;'-eloquent mount, speaking from beyond the silent river with voices still audible across the centuries! The Benedictine Rule-first and foremost in discretion and clear in style,' as St. Gregory pronounced it was at once more comprehensive and more definite than any by which it had been preceded. It was in no way designed to supplant the rule of Cassian, whose Collationes were especially indicated by Benedict as a text-book for study and second only to the Scriptures in value and edification, but it laid down precise instructions on many points that had before been left discretionary, and invested the whole monastic life with an air Its leading of greater solemnity and importance. It prescribed, for the character istics. Provision made for regular study among the monks. first time, a year's novitiate, after which, if the purpose of the novice remained unchanged, his vow consigned him to a step which was irrevocable. The authority of the abbat was rendered more absolute, and the whole principle of 'obedience' more binding and explicit. The duties of the day were marked out with greater precision, and the regulations as to diet wisely rendered less ascetic. In no respect, however, was the difference from preceding rules so marked as in the provision made for regular daily study. The main energies of the monk were still to be given to active labour, but the grey dawn of the winter day and the meridian heat of summer were allotted to reading; and, in the season of Lent, the time assigned for this purpose was extended. St. Benedict names no authors, only the books of the Old and the New Testaments, 1 Migne, xlix 45 6. together with such expositions thereon as 'the most illustrious doctors of the orthodox faith and the Catholic fathers had compiled.'1 The privilege and duty of study being thus established, the range within which it might be carried on, narrow as it seemed, admitted of a wide interpretation. Who could say what great doctors and fathers might yet arise? Who could say what heresies and erroneous doctrines they might not be called upon to refute? Such refutations almost necessarily involved the perusal of the refuted treatises, and thus the doors were thrown open to much of pagan and heterodox literature. At the time, indeed, that St. Benedict drew up his rule a time when the last upholders of pagan philosophy were about to be expelled from Athens, and the last upholder of Roman learning had recently passed forth to a fearful death from the tower of Pavia-there appeared small danger to be apprehended from a revived activity of speculation; but as monasticism secured the leisure and retirement essential to the religious life, so the Benedictine rule enforced the lawfulness and dignity of study, and letters, sheltered alike from the indifference of the laity and the contempt of the Church, lived on as in some charmed enclosure. CHAP. I. Frank land. Such was the rule that Boniface, early in the eighth Boniface in century, came to restore in Frankland. He came full of the spirit which the great revival under Theodorus had awakened in England-the spirit of loyalty to Rome and reverence for the Benedictine rule. His sorrow and his surprise at the state of the Frankish monasteries and the morals of the clergy surpassed his powers of expression. In an oft-quoted letter to pope Zacharias, written in 742, on the eve of the Council of Saltz, he describes the condition of affairs in unflinching language. For eighty years no council of the Church had met in Frankland; there was no archbishop; 1 Et expositiones earum quae a nominatissimis doctoribus orthodox's et catholicis patribus factae sunt.' Reg. S. Benedicti, c. 8; ed. Waitzmann, 1843, p. 32. 6 2 of the foundation at Fulda he writes to Pope Zacharias, monachos constituimus sub regula sancti Patris Benedicti viventes.' Migne, lxxxix 778; see also 808; and Life by Willibald, c. 8, ib. p. 607; Pertz, Legg. 1 17. CHAP. I. Measures reform. no one enforced or re-enacted the canonical laws. Deacons and priests alike led lives of open immorality; the bishops, though abstaining from such open scandal, were drunkards, injurious, brawlers, bearing arms in regular battle, and shedding with their own hands the blood of their fellowmen, heathen or Christian, no matter.' To use the language of the summons convening the council, the law of God and the religion of the Church had gone to ruin under former princes.' 91 However little reason we may see for attributing any but for Church purely political motives to Charles Martel, it is certain that his support, and that of his two sons, largely conduced to Boniface's success. The reformer himself candidly admits the fact. The Councils of 742 and 743 restored in some measure the discipline of the Church. The bishops were reduced to obedience; and the Act of Secularisation,' though seemingly an encroachment on ecclesiastical privileges, was in reality of signal service in the manner in which it effected the expulsion of the more unworthy members of the episcopal order. Upon the whole order indeed a heavy penalty was imposed. Deeply scandalised at the spirit of lawless license which they exhibited, Boniface seems to have concluded that no expedient was to be left untried to reduce them to a position of immediate and strict accountability to Rome.2 Hence, in the first German Christian Council ever held, and summoned through his instrumentality, one of the earliest measures was formally to recognise the complete subjection of the Frankish Church to the Roman See; his own oath of fidelity, taken twenty years before, had admitted in unequivocal language the special powers and privileges vested 3 1 'Quomodo lex Dei et ecclesiastica religio recuperetur, quae in diebus praeteritorum principum dissipata corruit.' Migne, lxxxix 807. 2 Guizot pronounces in favour of Boniface's disinterestedness (ii 253–4), but at the same time admits 'il est impossible de soumettre plus formellement à la papauté la nouvelle Eglise, les nouvelles peuples chrétiens.' Milman also pronounces his allegiance to Rome 'filial not servile.' 'Had it not been for the reformation begun by Boniface,' says professor Stubbs, ' and worked out by the Karolings, the Gallican Church might have sunk to the level of the Italian or Byzantine.' Const. Hist. i 8. 3 Cossart, iii 1925; Migne, lxxxix 765. 2 CHAP. tion of abbey at between in St. Peter and his successors; and the famous abbey at Fulda, which rose under his auspices, and was, in his later years, his most cherished retreat, is the first, and an Foundaeminently notable, example of the transfer of monastic allegiance from what was then the tyranny of the episco- Fulda. pate to the papal jurisdiction and authority. These new relations, again, were further strengthened and consolidated by the community of interests established between the Roman pontiff and the Carolingian dynasty. The Frankish Alliance monarch became the devoted son of the Church. He pro- Rome and tected her from sacrilege and enriched her with temporal the Carolingian power. Confronted by his aegis, the insolent Lombard dynasty. turned back from the walls of Rome. To the league ratified by Clovis and St. Remy, between the Frankish power and the Latin faith, was now added the compact between the same power and the ecclesiastical conceptions of Rome, signalised, on the one hand, by the consecration of king Pepin by Boniface at Rheims, and on the other, by the gift of the Exarchate. Of all nations under heaven,' wrote Stephen, when he summoned Pepin to his aid, 'the Franks are highest in the esteem of St. Peter: to me you owe all your victories.' 'From thenceforth,' says Milman, with something of rhetorical exaggeration, but with substantial truth, from thenceforth Christianity had assumed the complete power, not only of the life to come, but of the present life, with all its temporal advantages. It now leagued itself with barbarians, not to soften, to civilise, to imbue with devotion, to lead to Christian worship; but to give victory in all their ruthless wars, to confer the blessings of heaven on their schemes of ambition and conquest. The one title to eternal life is obedience to the Church-the Church no longer the community of pious and holy Christians, 1 Juramentum quo S. Bonifacius se Gregorio II Papae astrinxit: . . . nullo modo me contra unitatem communis et universalis ecclesiae, suadente quopiam, consentire, sed, ut dixi, fidem et puritatem meam atque concursum, tibi et utilitatibus tuae Ecclesiae, cui a Domino Deo potestas ligandi solvendique data est, et praedicto vicario tuo atque successoribus ejus, per omnia exhibere. Migne, lxxxix 803. 111. 2 On ne rencontre jusques-là aucun exemple semblable.' Guizot, ii |