CHAP. narrative. 1. Mistrust When accordingly, on turning the pages of Martianus, the faithful followers of St. Gregory and his doctrine read of a great sphere occupying the centre of the heavens, the Platonic idea of the world-of a race of beings. permitted for a time to assume the human form, to mingle with man and to console humanity, returning afterwards to their celestial abodes of three gods' to whom the writer professed to pay special worship, but whom he apparently sequently regarded as simply more powerful or propitious than other regarded and pagan divinities their feelings were much the same as those of a Christian educator of youth in the present day, who might discover lurking in the pages of an elementary treatise on natural philosophy the most advanced conclusions of modern materialism.' with which it was con by the teachers at York. Their siens not without reason. It was Nor can it be any matter for surprise that the teachers apprehen- at York were keenly alive to the risks attendant upon altogether teaching of such a character. Christianity was still a tender plant in England, in some parts of very recent growth. Bede, in his boyhood, must often have heard how pagan sacrifice was still offered upon the altars of Sussex. natural that he and his successors should prefer to give their sanction to authors calculated rather to confirm faith than encourage speculation. So far, therefore, from its being simply fortuitous, there seems to be good reason for regarding it as a fact of considerable significance, that throughout the writings of Alcuin we find no mention of the treatise of Martianus Capella; that the book is similarly absent in a catalogue of the library at St. Riquier in the ninth century'-a monastery of which Angilbert, Alcuin's It is, however, but just to recognise the fact that Capella's speculative tendencies are supposed to have furnished the hint which directed Copernicus to the discovery of his system. In his eighth chapter he points out that Mercury and Venus revolve not round the earth but round the sun. Delambre observes that, if this observation really resulted in so eminent a service to science, nous devons lui pardonner son verbiage, ses bévues et son galimathias.' See edition by Kopp, p. 856. A library, it is to be noted, of 250 volumes. (See Spicilegium Acherii, ii 311.) On the appearance of this author in catalogues of the eleventh and twelfth centuries no stress can be laid, as he had, by that time, become accepted as a classic, and the guardians of orthodoxy found their attention CHAP. I. pupil, was abbat; while its presence, along with the works of Origen, in the catalogue of the library of the monastery at Bobbio, at the same period, a foundation of St. Columban, The and one maintaining the tradition of his teaching, may be absence looked upon as subsidiary evidence of an ascertained fact, sence of that a different school of thought was there recognised and alike sigencouraged. and pre the treatise nificant. on subse In thus endeavouring concisely to point out the distinc- Influence tive characteristics of the school treatises which Alcuin of the foregoing carried with him across the Channel, our task has been text-books one of something more than merely antiquarian interest. quent As text-books of instruction, it is true, Martianus, Boe- learning. thius, Cassiodorus, and Isidorus have, for the last six centuries, been altogether discarded, but their influence has lasted to the present day; and the critic and historian who should affect to consider the theories shadowed forth in these writers, and the speculative or conservative tendencies respectively discernible, as unworthy of serious discussion, would scarcely be wiser than the naturalist who should think it trivial to regard the scarcely perceptible differences that sometimes distinguish the seed of a poisonous or useless plant from that of one eminently serviceable to man. with which At the time that Alcuin made good his promise given to Favour Charles at Parma he was in his forty-eighth year, the Charles monarch in his forty-first. That the reception accorded to regarded the former at Aachen was in every way calculated to inspire foreigners. him with confidence and hope admits of no doubt. Charles was distinguished by the favour with which he regarded guests from other lands. 'Amabat peregrinos,' says Einhard; who indeed adds, that the number of these at court often formed an appreciable addition to the demands on the royal revenues. The attraction was, however, of a very different kind from that which drew the pleasure-loving Aquitanians to the court of Robert Capet; and the encouragement bestowed equally dissimilar from that extended by Henry III or 1 called away to other and more formidable symptoms of heterodox teaching. 1 Vita Caroli, c. xxi; Carolina, p. 528. CHAP. 1. Distrac tions of the time. war. Edward II to the Poitevin and Anjevin of their day. It was the sympathy of a truly imperial nature, singularly intolerant of narrow traditions and local prejudices, and keenly alive to the advantages to be derived from intercourse with minds formed under other conditions and reflecting the results of different experiences. The supposition of one of Alcuin's biographers, that the new teacher arrived at a juncture when cessation from warfare enabled Charles to give less distracted attention to the promotion of learning, The Saxon seems to be scarcely in harmony with the facts. In the very same year the Saxons broke out into formidable insurrection,' and upwards of four thousand prisoners were massacred by the incensed monarch on the banks of the Aller; while for more than four years after his arrival, Alcuin must have been constantly hearing of sanguinary conflicts on the Weser and the Elbe. Though far more nearly allied to the pagan foe than to the Frank by race, we should hardly expect to find him much moved at the sufferings and gradual subjugation of the former. The instincts of the churchman were paramount, and Witikind seemed to him only another Penda; but though he regarded the conversion of these stubborn Saxons at the point of the sword as wellnigh an indispensable process, it is evident that he would gladly have seen the vigorous policy of the subjugator combined with something more of mercy.2 Question of the previous existence of the Palace It is a striking illustration of Charles' immense energy and activity, that amid distractions like these he yet found time to welcome his new instructor, and to aid him in imparting fresh life to the Palatine school. Whether, as some writers have maintained, this famous school dates as far back as the time of Pepin-le-Bref, or even to that of the Merovingian dynasty, is a question into which it scarcely seems necessary here to enter.3 The testimony of the monk of Angoulême that, before the time of Charles, there 1 Vita Caroli, c. 7. Carolina, p. 515. 2 Migne, c 142, 362. 3 See, on this point, Pitra, Hist. de S. Léger, cc. 2 and 3: also passages quoted in favour of the hypothesis by Ozanam, pp. 462-3. Also Léon Maitre, p. 34; Monnier, pp. 62-3. CHAP. I. existed in Gaul scarcely a trace of the liberal arts'-Charles' 1 Constitutio de emendatione Librorum, etc. Baluze, i 204–5. Gregorian CHAP. I. of its members. Practical nature of Charles' designs. Charles' Own acquire ments. see, would have been confined within far narrower limits. But the circle which he found himself called upon to inCharacter struct at Charles' court craved for something more than to learn to chant, read Latin, and calculate the return of Easter. Ecclesiastics or lords of monasteries though some of them might be, they were also statesmen, courtiers, and men of the world. Palgrave has justly observed that in thus patronising learning Charles' purpose was quite as much to benefit the state as dictated by any abstract appreciation of the value of mental culture; the Greek professorships, for example, which he sought to establish at Osnaburg and Salzburg, were designed for the practical end of facilitating intercourse with the eastern empire.' With respect to his own acquirements, the circumstances of his early life, the character of his genius, and the explicit testimony of his biographer, alike point to the conclusion that they represented the results of an unusually quick perception and retentive memory rather than of laborious application and early training. His knowledge of the colloquial Latin of the age was equal to that of his native German. He appears to have understood Greek, though he spoke it very imperfectly. His natural facility of expression was such that, as Einhard admits, his discourse sometimes bordered on loquacity.2 He had acquired when young some knowledge of grammar from Peter of Pisa, but whatever he knew of rhetoric, logic, or arithmetic he was yet to gain from the teaching of Alcuin.3 He aspired to master the art of penmanship; but, says his biographer, his efforts in this respect, commenced too late in life, were attended with little success; 94 nor is it difficult to 6 1 Hist. of England and Normandy, i 27-8. Baluze, i 418. Charles' scheme never came to successful accomplishment. 2 Adeo quidem facundus erat, ut etiam dicaculus apparerat.' Caroli Vita, c. 25; Carolina, p. 531. 'Dicaculus' is the reading accepted by Dümmler, and we can hardly doubt that this, and not 'didasculus,' is the right one. 3 In discenda grammatica Petrum Pisanum, diaconum, senem audivit in caeteris disciplinis Albinum, cognomento Alcoinum, item diaconum de Britannia, Saxonici generis hominem praeceptorem habuit.' Ibid. 4 Sed parum successit labor praeposterus ac sero inchoatus.' Ibid. The attempt made by some writers (see Einhard, ed. Teulet, i 83) to shew that |