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 Christian education in 
 Ibe DarK J!ge$ 
 
 (a. d. 476— a. d. 1 100) 
 
 REV. EUGENE MAGEVNEY, SJ* 
 Saint Ignatius College, Chicago, III. 
 
 B^rinted by permission from the American 
 Catholic Quarterly Review Oct. 1898 
 
 New York : 
 
 HB Cathedrai, Library Association, 
 
 123 East 50TH Strbet. 
 
 1900. 
 
 third edition. 
 

Introduction. 
 
 I N preienting this, the fint iirae of the teriei, 
 which we trust will contain many numben, 
 we wish to point out that the apparently wilful 
 misrepresentation of the part enacted by the 
 Catholic Church and Catholic Educators in the 
 development of education in the pretentious his. 
 tories of Pedagogy, which have so long been 
 before the reading public, have made it necessary 
 for steps to be taken to make the truth known to 
 American readers. The most crass ignorance 
 prevails with regard to education in the dark 
 ages. This reprint of an able and attractive 
 article, will, we trust, be found timely. We 
 reapectftiUy solicit the co-operation of all fair- 
 minded people in our endeavor to present the 
 other side of the question that has suffered so 
 much heretofore by misrepresentation or sup- 
 pression. * ' Audiatur et altera pars. " 
 
 The Cathedral Library Association. 
 
"3^ 
 
 THE fifth century closed in darkness, 
 and as we look at the situation of 
 affairs which immediately followed, not 
 with the jaundiced eye of a prejudiced 
 critic, but with the candid fairminded- 
 ness of one in search of the truth, the 
 wonder is, not that the times were dark 
 but that there was any light at all. 
 Historians of the school of Hallam, and 
 especially Robertson, whom the Protest- 
 ant Maitland characterizes as "a very 
 miserable second-hand writer,*' find it to 
 their interest somehow to besmirch the 
 memory of the monks of old, while they 
 heap mountains of calumny and gross 
 misrepresentations upon a system of re- 
 ligious institutions of whose supernatural 
 nature and purport they understood ab- 
 solutely nothing. Their broad and un- 
 substantiated assertions, sad to say, are 
 allowed by many to pass unchallenged. 
 While the continent of Europe was swarm- 
 ing with barbarians and weltering in 
 blood; while its towns and cities with 
 their amassed treasures were given over 
 to pillage and fire; when all seemed lost, 
 the monasteries became the sole reposi- 
 
 5 
 
Christian Educatio7i 
 
 tones of learning, and continued so for 
 many a long, long day. This is the in- 
 contestable fact as it confronts us upon 
 the page of history, and the most inge- 
 nious combinations of talent and bigotry 
 have never been able to disprove it. 
 
 We have seen how from the very out- 
 set monasteries became educational cen- 
 tres. We may form some idea of the in- 
 tellectual atmosphere which they de- 
 veloped if we bear in mind that, with few 
 exceptions, the early fathers and doctors 
 of the Church had been monks or were 
 educated in monasteries — Athanasius, Ba- 
 sil, Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Je- 
 rome, Augustine, Fulgentius, Sulpicius 
 Severus, Vincent of Lerins, Cassian, Sal- 
 vian, and much later, Gregory the Great 
 — not to speak of others, the bare men- 
 tion of whose names is guarantee suf- 
 ficient of the educational value of the 
 ancient monastic training. It was the 
 profound learning of these mighty ones 
 of the elder time, as embalmed in their 
 imperishable works, which for centuries 
 presided over the development of Chris- 
 tian doctrine and formed the groundwork 
 of Scholasticism in a subsequent age. 
 The immortal "Summa" of the Angeli- 
 cal Doctor did but codify and systematize 
 truths upon which these primitive writers, 
 
 6 
 
in the ''Dark Ages r 
 
 pupils of the monasteriet, had rung the 
 magnificent changes ages before. At the 
 end of the fifth century the West, like the 
 East, had become fruitful in these nurse- 
 ries of learning, and when the municipal 
 schools disappeared with the fall of the 
 Empire, children were driven to have re- 
 course to them for whatever learning was 
 saved from the universal wreck. 
 
 There was one flaw, however, in the 
 monastic system as it then existed, and 
 that was the lack of proper organization, 
 in default of which satisfactory and per- 
 manent educational results were less 
 readily attainable. The evil was reme- 
 died by the great patriarch of the West, 
 St. Benedict, who, a. d. 529, at Monte 
 Cassino laid the foundations of an order 
 destined to absorb or supplant all pre- 
 vious monastic institutions in the West 
 and keep alive in its cloisters the torch of 
 learning amid the worse than Cimmerian 
 darkness deepening around. That it filled 
 a pressing need is obvious from the ra- 
 pidity with which it spread. Before the 
 end of the century in which it was born 
 Benedictines were in every country labor- 
 ing and praying and teaching, and by 
 the disinterested holiness of their lives 
 pointing the way to an elevation of 
 character and a meed of civilization of 
 
Christian Education 
 
 which the barbarian had never heard or 
 dreamt. 
 
 The time of the monks was devoted to 
 the inculcation of a knowledge which to 
 us seems scant enough, though it was 
 considerable then. It was mainly ecclesi- 
 astical in character. The fact is quite in- 
 telligible when we remember that the 
 principal object of education in an age so 
 barbarous was not so much cultivation as 
 civilization — finish as foundation. What 
 youth needed most was to outgrow its 
 savage environments, and to this secular 
 education was far less conducive than fa- 
 miliarity with the truths of Holy Writ 
 and the fruitful suggesiiveness of the 
 Church's liturgy. Besides, the primary 
 ^object of the monastic schools was to train 
 * aspirants to the religious or priestly state, 
 and it was only as a matter of necessity 
 that they were thrown open for the pa- 
 tronage of students intended for mere 
 secular avocations. Many were put in 
 the monasteries when very young; some 
 even in their infancy.^ This was ren- 
 dered more or less urgent by the prevail- 
 ing disorders, and found abundant 
 sanction, secular and ecclesiastical, in the 
 admitted customs of the times. Thus, 
 for instance, St. Boniface, the great apos- 
 
 I See Appendix p. 55, note i. 
 
 8 
 
in the ''Dark Ages r 
 
 tie of Germany, became a monk when 
 only five years old.^ Venerable Bede, as 
 he tells us himself, entered the monastery 
 of Wearmouth at seven; while St. Bruno, 
 as late as the tenth century, was com- 
 mitted to the monks at Utrecht at the 
 advanced age of four years. About the 
 age of seven, children began the work of 
 education proper by learning the Psalter. 
 It was of obligation for all monks and ec- 
 clesiastics to know it, and accordingly it 
 was the first thing taken up. When they 
 had mastered it they entered upon their 
 course of profane study, which consisted, 
 presupposing the acquisition of reading 
 and writing, of the three fundamentals; 
 grammar, rhetoric and logic, which con- 
 stituted what was called the Ttiviufn; 
 and the four mathematical and more ad- 
 vanced sciences of arithmetic, music, 
 geometry and astronomy, which were 
 known as the Quadrivium, The two to- 
 gether embraced what was called ' 'The 
 Seven Liberal Arts." By "grammar** 
 was understood something more than ety- 
 mology, syntax and prosody. It included 
 rhetoric and, in a measure, the study of 
 literature. ' * Rhetoric' * in turn was rather 
 declamation and public speaking. By 
 * * music ' ' was understood the science as 
 
 a See Appendix p. 56, note 2. 
 
Christian Education 
 
 far as acquaintance with it then extended, 
 which, we may suppose, was considerable 
 in some cases when we bear in mind that 
 Gregorian chant takes its name from a 
 monk in the sixth century. Pope Gregory 
 the Great, whose famous school of chant 
 was for a long time prominent and be- 
 came the model of many others subse- 
 quently founded in Germany and France 
 by Saint Boniface and Charlemagne.' 
 The language spoken in the class-room 
 was Latin, and children were required to 
 master it even before the vernacular. The 
 literature studied was mainly Roman. 
 In fact, the whole monastic educational 
 system bore a striking resemblance to 
 that of the ancient municipal schools of 
 the Empire, already described. "The 
 curriculum," says Cardinal Newman, 
 * 'derived from the earlier ages of heathen 
 philosophy, was transferred to the use of 
 the Church on the authority of Saint Au- 
 gustine, who in his De Ordine considers 
 it to be the fitting and sufi&cient prepara- 
 tion for theological learning. It is hardly 
 necessary to refer to the history of its for- 
 mation; we are told how Pythagoras pre- 
 scribed the study of arithmetic, music and 
 geometry; how Plato and Aristotle in- 
 
 3 See Appendix p. 57, note 3. 
 
in the * 'Dark Ages. 
 
 sisted on grammar and music, which, 
 with gymnastics, were the substance of 
 Greek education; how Seneca speaks, 
 though not as approving, of grammar, 
 music, geometry and astronomy as the 
 matter of education in his own day; and 
 how Philo, in addition to these, has 
 named logic and rhetoric. Saint Augus- 
 tine in his enumeration of them begins 
 with arithmetic and grammar; including 
 under the latter, history; then he speaks 
 of logic and rhetoric; then of music, un- 
 der which comes poetry as equally ad- 
 dressing the ear; lastly of geometry and 
 astronomy, as addressing the eye. The 
 Alexandrians, whom he followed, ar- 
 ranged them differently, viz., grammar, 
 rhetoric and logic or philosophy, which 
 branched off into the four mathematical 
 sciences of arithmetic, music, geometry 
 and astronomy." 
 
 Greek was studied very little and an 
 acquaintance with its literature was indi- 
 vidual and exceptional. Hence it does 
 not figure extensively in the class-room 
 until quite late. It was indeed a rare ac- 
 complishment, and with the vast majority 
 served no higher purpose than an elegant 
 affectation. Bede, Alcuin, Paschasius and 
 others, we are told, were familiar with it, 
 and it is no more than likely that they 
 II 
 
Christian Education 
 
 taught it to some of their pupils, without, 
 however, giving it in the school-room the 
 prominence enjoyed by Latin. In a few 
 of the monasteries, notably that of St. 
 Gall, it was studied and taught, and from 
 a very early date. With time it came 
 into more general use and played a more 
 conspicuous part in later monastic curri- 
 cula. This impulse given to its pursuit 
 was due to Charlemagne, who set the seal 
 of his royal approbation, so to speak, 
 upon it and made its cultivation the 
 fashion by having it taught in the college 
 of Osnaberg, established by him, and 
 which attained some renown, but whose 
 history is lost in the darkness and con- 
 fusion which enveloped the period. It is 
 noteworthy that some of the most pro- 
 ficient Greek scholars of the mediaeval 
 times were women. In fact, having the 
 same and in many cases better facilities 
 for mental improvement than the men, 
 and having more time on their hands and 
 nothing but serious books within reach, 
 it is not surprising that the ladies of those 
 days, whether nuns in convents or dames 
 at court, did much to foster the thorough 
 cultivation of the classics — Hebrew, Latin 
 and Greek. Very many or them wrote 
 Lotlii, and a few, Greek verse with finish 
 and ease. Saint Radegundes, a nun of 
 
 12 
 
in the ' 'Dark Ages, ' ' 
 
 the sixth century, found leisure for the 
 study of the Latin and Greek patristic 
 commentaries. Among the friends of 
 Saint Boniface was a community of Eng- 
 lish nuns remarkable for their classical 
 attainments, many of whom at his request 
 followed him to Germany and there 
 opened schools for girls. Foremost among 
 them was Saint Ivioba, who, it is narrated, 
 was thoroughly versed in the Scriptures, 
 the writings of the Greek and Latin fath- 
 ers, and the canons of the Church. The 
 nuns in the convent of the famous but 
 unfortunate Heloise studied Greek as well 
 as Latin, Hebrew and Arabic; while of 
 another we are told that vshe familiarized 
 herself not only with the Greek and 
 Latin classics, but also with the philoso- 
 phical works of Aristotle. 
 
 Physical science, as might be expected, 
 was far less developed in the monastic 
 schools than the study of language. 
 Many of the monks lectured and wrote 
 upon such subjects, some of them volumi- 
 nously, but their views in most cases, if 
 not groundless surmises, were at least 
 broader than their premises, and in the 
 light of subsequent investigation and dis- 
 covery have proven the merest puerilities. 
 But for all that it is to their credit that 
 despite the odds against them they fos- 
 
Christian Education 
 
 tered a spirit of scientific inquiry at all 
 and while, on the one hand, it does not 
 add much to our stock of information to 
 be told, for instance, as Rabanus Maurus, 
 one of the mediaeval lights, tells us, that 
 the mouse and house-fly came originally 
 from Greece, and that birds are divided 
 into big birds and little birds, in which 
 latter class he puts the wasp and the lo- 
 cust, yet, on the other, it is a subject of 
 wonder to see what acquaintance Bede, 
 and centuries later Albertus Magnus, had 
 with matters whose discovery we are ac- 
 customed to look upon as of comparatively 
 recent date. We can afford to marvel 
 when the great naturalist Von Humboldt 
 could not refrain from expressing his 
 surprise. ''Albertus Magnus," he says, 
 "was equally active and influential in 
 promoting the study of natural science 
 and of the Aristotelian philosophy. . . . 
 . . . His works contain some exceedingly 
 acute remarks on the organic structure 
 and physiology of plants. One of his 
 works, bearing the title of ' Liber Cosmo- 
 graphicus de Natura Locorum, ' is a species 
 of physical geography. I have found in 
 it considerations on the dependence of 
 temperature concurrently on latitude and 
 elevation, and on the effect of different 
 angles of incidence of the sun's rays in 
 
 14 
 
in the ' ' Dark Ages. ' ' 
 
 heating the ground, which had excited 
 my surprise."' * 
 
 As text-books were rare, a great deal of 
 dictation was necessary. The weariness 
 which it begot soon led to the invention 
 of shorthand methods of reporting dis- 
 course. Some monasteries became famous 
 for their shorthand classes, and their pro- 
 fessors celebrated not only for their own 
 but for their scholars' proficiency. Of 
 the text-books in use, the most renowned 
 were the "Grammatical Institutions" of 
 Priscian, in eighteen books, of which, so 
 the story goes, Theodosius the younger 
 was so enamored that he copied them 
 with his own hand; the " Distichia Mo- 
 ralia," a popular class-book whose com- 
 position was attributed to Cato, but is 
 more commonly believed to have been 
 the work of a monk in the second cen- 
 tury;** the grammar of Donatus, the 
 teacher of Saint Jerome, which continued 
 a favorite throughout the middle ages; 
 various books of Boetius, a writer of the 
 fifth century and one of the last and 
 brightest scholars of the decline. He 
 wrote original Latin productions for class 
 
 * Cosmos, vol, ii., p. 243 in fine. Translation 
 by n. C. Oite. 
 
 *♦ On this work, cf. Ireland's Ancient Schools 
 and Scholars, Healy, p. 117. 
 
 15 
 
Christian Education 
 
 use, and it was to his translations from 
 the Greek that the mediaeval students 
 owed much of their acquaintance, which 
 was none too extensive, with the writers 
 of Hellas. To these let us add ' 'On the 
 teaching of Sacred Letters" and "The 
 Seven Liberal Arts," written by Cassio- 
 dorus for the school which he founded at 
 Viviers, and which were also works in 
 long and favored repute. The best 
 known and no doubt the most generally 
 used was the "Satyricon" of Martianus 
 Capella, written about the year 460. It 
 was an encyclopaedia in nine books, cover- 
 ing in its treatment the matter embraced 
 in the Trivium and Quadrivium. It con- 
 tained whatever knowledge was then ex- 
 tant upon the so-called "Seven Liberal 
 Arts," and such was its widespread popu- 
 larity that it continued in favor as the 
 text-book by excellence for upwards of a 
 thousand years and was translated into 
 various languages and adopted every- 
 where. Possibly the one who did most 
 in the composition of text-books, and 
 that at a time which Mr. Hallam stigma- 
 tizes as the nadir of European civilization, 
 was Saint Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, 
 and one of the founders of the celebrated 
 seminary to which allusion has already 
 been made in a previous paper. He died 
 
 16 
 
in the ''Dark Ages,** 
 
 in the year 630. Isidore was certainly a 
 learned man, and was looked upon as an 
 intellectual prodigy by his contempora- 
 ries. The work which won him his great 
 reputation is entitled "Origines; sen Ety- 
 mologiarum Libri." It is in twenty 
 books, and not only embraces the Tri- 
 vium and the Quadrivium^ but also the 
 subjects God, man, the world, Scripture, 
 medicine, law, language, geography, ag- 
 riculture, zoology, and a number of other 
 miscellaneous topics. Of these produc- 
 tions, and similar ones of lesser note, 
 Hallam remarks that their very meagre- 
 ness is proof sufficient of an almost total 
 literary decay. True. No one attempts 
 to deny their superficiality of treatment. 
 On the other hand, they are not to be 
 tried by the canons of nineteenth century 
 criticism, which it would be well for Hal- 
 lam, Milman, Robertson, Brucker, and 
 our own Mr. Bmerton always to bear in 
 mind. 
 
 The cloistral and cathedral schools, in 
 default of many of our modern improve- 
 ments, were conducted under difficulties 
 not hard to conceive. The monastic 
 schools for externs was in a building 
 apart from the cloister. There was a 
 head master and an assistant. In the 
 larger monastic institutions the corps of 
 
 17 
 
Christian Education 
 
 professors, as we would now phrase it, was 
 quite numerous. The system was pater- 
 nal, though the rod figured conspicuously 
 in the moral training of the mediaeval 
 "small boy," but hardly to the absurd 
 extent asserted by Laurie, who says that 
 * * in many monasteries all the boys were 
 periodically flogged as a kind of general 
 atonement for sins past and possible;" 
 this, too, on the ridiculous assumption 
 that the devil was in the heart of every 
 boy, and could only be gotten out by 
 trouncing. The students, especially the 
 younger ones, were carefully looked after 
 by the monks appointed to act as prefects, 
 and whose duty it was to remain with 
 their charges night and day — exercising 
 the closest supervision over their conduct. 
 Education was absolutely free, and in 
 many instances, as at Yarrow in the time 
 of Venerable Bede, indigent pupils were 
 even provided with food and clothing at 
 the expense of the cloister. The boys 
 continued at school until fourteen years 
 of age, when they departed to enter their 
 respective fields of labor. If they desired 
 to be monks, they remained in the monas- 
 tery undergoing the discipline suited to 
 that kind of life. Facilities for the pur- 
 suit of higher studies were not to be had 
 until the time of Charlemagne, a. d. 768, 
 
 18 
 
in the ''Dark Ages.'' 
 
 who, in imitation of the imperial system 
 of old Rome, whose educational as well as 
 governmental polity he sought in many 
 respects to reproduce, founded advanced 
 schools in various parts of his extensive 
 domain. The most celebrated were at 
 Paris, Tours, Pavia, Rheims, Lyons, Fulda 
 and Bologna. Some see in them the germs 
 of the mediaeval universities, whose ori- 
 gin scholars find it difficult to trace with 
 accuracy. Such were the teachers, 
 such was the learning afforded by the 
 early mediaeval monastic schools. It may 
 be taken as a fair estimate of the educa- 
 tional advantages offered by the mon- 
 asteries in general. We say * 'in general' * 
 for some were, of course, more advanced 
 than others. But our concern is not with 
 the exception, but with the rule. That 
 education under these circumstances, and 
 in spite of the obstacles in the way of its 
 development, did not remain at a stand- 
 still, is sufficiently manifest by the pro- 
 gress made in certain monasteries when 
 the circumstances of the times, especially 
 the royal patronage and the discontinu- 
 ance of wars, were conducive to its rapid 
 and healthy growth. Indeed it is impos- 
 sible not to observe, though the trans- 
 ition be at times ever so gradual and well 
 nigh invisible, as we thread our way 
 
 19 
 
Christian Education, 
 
 through the twilight from the sixth to the 
 twelfth century, a progressive movement 
 towards the broader educational condi- 
 tion of things in which it finally culmin- 
 ated. Where the monks of the fifth 
 and sixth centuries were occupied 
 with saving the remnants of ancient 
 literature, purging and adapting authors 
 for class purposes, and imparting the 
 merest elements to the as yet untutored 
 barbarian, their successors in the eighth 
 and ninth aud eleventh had strung their 
 instruments for songs in a higher key. 
 The monk Gerbert, raised subsequently 
 to the Papal chair under the title of Syl- 
 vester II., was holding forth upon the 
 Categories and Topics of Aristotle. The 
 professors in certain German monasteries 
 were delivering lectures in Greek, Hebrew 
 and Arabic. At Dijon the monks of St. 
 Benignus were discoursing on medicine, 
 while the enterprising inmates of Saint 
 Gall were teaching painting, engraving, 
 and, in the opinion of some, sculpture.* 
 This development would have been more 
 systematic and pronounced from the start 
 if the zeal of the monks, unhampered 
 by endless political and social unrest, 
 had been the only factor in the caJcula- 
 
 4 See Appendix, p. 57, note 4. 
 
in the * * Dark Ages, ' ' 
 
 tion. It was not, however, and these 
 pious men who found so much time for 
 the conduct of schools still felt that the 
 bulk of their energies had to be devoted 
 to the spiritual rather than the intellec- 
 tual benefit of their neighbors. How well 
 they succeeded in their missionary un- 
 dertakings is shown by the fact that 
 within the compass of six centuries they 
 had reclaimed from Arianism the Goths 
 and Vandals, and * 'instructed in the Gos- 
 pel the idolatrous nations of Denmark, 
 Sweden, Norway, Bulgaria, Hungary, 
 Saxony, Poland and Russia." 
 
 Such was the monk at home: such his 
 work. But if we would gauge him aright 
 and allot him his due meed of praise we 
 must follow him abroad and study his 
 endeavors for the widespread diffusion of 
 knowledge. The fifth century, as we have 
 said, closed in darkness. The schools of 
 the Empire and the earliest attempts at 
 Christian education were at first brought 
 to naught by the deluge of barbarism 
 which swept over the continent of Europe, 
 though destined, after years of almost ut- 
 ter obliteration, to revive and become the 
 foundation of modern civilization, reform 
 and culture. In the meanwhile, that is 
 in the sixth and seventh centuries, by a 
 providential arrangement, peace reigned 
 
Christian Education, 
 
 in what are now the British Isles. Thither 
 learning fled. In England and Ireland, 
 during the three centuries following the 
 fall of the Roman empire, monasteries 
 were multiplied, and education diligently- 
 fostered, and scholars nurtured who went 
 forth when the storm abated and set about 
 the process of reconstruction all through 
 Europe. During the sixth and seventh 
 centuries, says Dr. Dollinger, the schools 
 in the Irish cloisters were ** the most cel- 
 ebrated in all the west. " Famous among 
 them were those of Armagh, which at one 
 time could boast of seven thousand pu- 
 pils; Ivismore; Cashel; Kildare; Aran "of 
 the saints;" Clonard, where the great 
 Columba studied ; Clonmacnoise ; Ben- 
 chor, and Clonfert, founded by Saint Bren- 
 dan.^ The arrival of Saint Augustine in 
 England with a colony of monks from 
 Monte Cassino, a.d. 597, inaugurated for 
 the seventh and eighth centuries a most 
 prosperous educational era in that island. 
 Canterbury, Lindisfarne, Malmsbury, 
 Croyland, Yarrow, Wearmouth, York, 
 Oxford and various other centres, are at 
 once suggestive to the student of history 
 of the active spirit which had taken pos- 
 session of the country. To the schools of 
 these isles, and that for upwards of three 
 5 See Appendix, p. 57, note 5. 
 
in the ''Dark Ag-es.'* 
 
 hundred years, students, regardless of the 
 difficulties of the journey, flocked in 
 thousands and from all quarters, even from 
 Greece and Egypt. Of the great men 
 who studied within their enclosure, and 
 who afterwards became the pioneers of 
 the revived learning and civilization 
 throughout the western world, it will suf- 
 fice to mention Saint Columba, the Apos- 
 tle of Caledonia; Saint Columbanus, who 
 evangelized France, Burgundy, Switzer- 
 land and Lombardy; Saint Columbkille; 
 Saint Boniface, the Apostle of Germany; 
 Saint Gall, the Apostle of Switzerland; 
 Saint Fridolin; Saint Sigisbert; Saint 
 Killian; Saint Virgilius; Saint Cataldus; 
 Saint Kentigern; Saint Willibrod; Saint 
 Donatus; Saint Frigdian; Venerable Bede; 
 Aldhelm; Alcuin, and an army of others. 
 Under their influence the barbarian, 
 grown weary of strife and realizing the 
 desolation which he had wrought, was 
 gradually moulded to better things. He 
 became as eager to learn as they were to 
 teach, and their work went on prosper- 
 ously if slowly. "As the Irish mission- 
 aries," to quote Newman again, "trav- 
 elled down through England, France and 
 Switzerland to lower Italy and attempted 
 Germany at the peril of their lives, found- 
 ing churches, schools and monasteries as 
 
 23 
 
Christian Education 
 
 they went along, so, amid the deep pagan 
 woods of Germany and round about, the 
 English Benedictine plied his axe and 
 drove his plough, planted his rude dwell- 
 ing and raised his rustic altar upon the 
 ruins of idolatry, and then, settling 
 down as a colonist upon the soil, began 
 to sing his chants and to copy his old 
 volumes, and thus to lay the slow but 
 sure foundation of the new civilization."* 
 The first of the three most notable 
 movements in the direction of educational 
 progress occurred during the reign of 
 Charles the Great, which extended from 
 A.D. 768 to A.D. 814. This illustrious 
 man — ' * the King of Europe " and *' the 
 Orthodox Emperor," as he was fondly 
 styled on account of the vast extent of 
 territory over which he ruled and his 
 noble defense of religion, though himself 
 a stranger to literary cultivation could 
 nevertheless appreciate the accomplish- 
 ment in others. A journey through Italy 
 about the year 780 brought him in con- 
 tact with certain scholars of whose learn- 
 ing he was in admiration. The event deter- 
 rjined him to do ail in his power to raise 
 the intellectual standard of his subjects 
 by putting within their reach every facil- 
 
 » hoc, dl. 
 
 24 
 
(Tir 
 
 in the ^^Dark Ages.'' 
 
 ity for educational improvement. It was 
 the dream of Charlemagne's lifetime to 
 lay the foundation of an empire destined 
 to rival in splendor the glories of ancient 
 Rome, and he felt that this was impossi- 
 ble without the revival of letters on a 
 scale approaching, if not surpassing, the 
 traditional renown of the Augustan Age. 
 He had heard of the system of higher and 
 secondary education as it had prevailed 
 in the universities of old at Rome, 
 Athens, Constantinople, Alexandria and 
 elsewhere. He had seen it in active 
 though imperfect operation in the Bene- 
 dictine monasteries, in which a partial 
 line of demarcation between the higher 
 and lower studies was drawn. Accord- 
 ingly, his first care was to send earnest 
 instructions to the bishops and abbots 
 and priests, urging them to enter heartily 
 into his scheme of educational reform by 
 exerting themselves vigorously for the 
 benefit of their cathedral and monastic as 
 also of their parochial schools. All this 
 in order to qualify youth to enter into the 
 Palatine or Palace School established at 
 the Court, or similar institutions soon to 
 be modeled upon it in other parts of the 
 kingdom. The text of this capitular or 
 encyclical letter, * 'the first general char- 
 ter of education for the middle ages, ' ' is 
 
 25 
 
Christian Education 
 
 quoted in full by Mr. Mullinger in his 
 popular and well-known work upon the 
 schools of Charlemagne as afifording a 
 marked evidence of the educational status 
 of the times. "We exhort you, there- 
 fore," says the emperor, *'not only not 
 to neglect the study of letters, but to ap- 
 ply yourself thereto with perseverance 
 and with that humility which is well 
 pleasing to God, . . . Let there there- 
 fore be chosen for this work men who are 
 both able and willing to learn and also 
 desirous of instructing others; and let 
 them apply themselves to the work with 
 a zeal equalling the earnestness with 
 which we recommend it to them."^ The 
 emperor's next care was to secure the 
 best professors, and for these he looked to 
 England and Ireland. The most cele- 
 brated of those whose services he engaged 
 was Alcuin, an English monk of the 
 monastery of York. He enjoyed wide- 
 spread fame as a teacher and a scholar, 
 and so impressed Charles, whom he met 
 at Parma on the occasion of the visit al- 
 ready alluded to, that he prevailed upon 
 him to resign his position as head mas- 
 ter of the schools in his monastery and 
 take up his residence in Frankland, there 
 
 6 See Appendix p. 58 note 6 
 
 26 
 
in the '' Dark Ages r 
 
 to become the corner-stone of the new 
 order of things about to be inaugurated.'^ 
 The learning which Alcuin brought with 
 him was signalized and recommended by 
 the tradition which had come down to 
 him through a series of distinguished 
 saints and scholars direct from the See 
 of Peter.^ He continued with very little 
 interruption for fourteen years, from a.d. 
 782 to A.D. 796, co-operating with his 
 royal master for the furtherance of his 
 educational plans. He then severed his 
 connection with the Palace school, re- 
 tired from court, and sought a quiet 
 retreat in the monastery of Saint Martin, 
 at Tours, the incursions of the Norsemen, 
 which had begun in the meantime, ren- 
 dering it impossible for him to return to 
 his much-loved island home. 
 
 Among the distinguished successors to 
 Alcuin in the Palace School should be 
 mentioned Rabanus Maurus, also Dungal 
 and Clement, two Irish scholars of rare 
 ability, whose proffered services in the 
 cause of education Charlemagne readily 
 accepted and rewarded. At a later date, 
 during the reign of Charles the Bald, and 
 after the school had been transferred 
 
 7 See Appendix p. 58, note 7. 
 
 8 See Appendix p. 58, note 8. 
 27 
 
Christian Education 
 
 from Aix-la-Chapelle to Paris, we find at 
 the head of it the famous Scotus Krigena, 
 with whom theologians are sufiiciently 
 familiar. Scotus was an eminent Orien- 
 tal linguist, had studied in Ireland and 
 travelled much in the Bast, where no 
 doubt the metaphysical speculations for 
 which he had become so celebrated had 
 become tinged with the Platonism of the 
 Alexandrian Schools. His heretical 
 views touching the Eucharist and free 
 will soon led to no end of conflict and 
 controversy, until his public condemna- 
 tion by the Church became an impera- 
 tive necessity. The Palace School and 
 such as were more or less fashioned upon 
 it were intended to furnish every facility 
 for the prosecution of higher studies, and 
 therefore designed to complete the work 
 begun in the primary or parochial 
 schools, and carried on through the 
 minor cathedral and monastery schools. 
 A youth, graduating from one of these 
 latter, passed to one or other of the for- 
 mer or major schools which, by royal 
 decree issued a.d. 789, had been erected in 
 connection with certain of the larger mon- 
 asteries, as, for instance, with those of 
 Saint Gall, Fulda, Fleury, Fontanelles, 
 and at least a dozen more referred to by 
 Mabillon. In the primary or village 
 
 28 
 
in the * * Dark Ages, ' ' 
 
 parochial school reading, writing, arith- 
 metic and singing were all that was 
 taught. In the minor schools the work 
 previously begun was continued and aug- 
 mented by the addition of the Triviufn. 
 In the major schools the Quadriviuin 
 was added, and such special languages 
 and sciences as individual institutions 
 were able to supply, which, in some 
 cases were considerable. Over the pri- 
 mary or parochial school the parish priest 
 presided. Over the monastery school, 
 minor and major, whether conducted for 
 interns or externs, the abbot. Over the 
 cathedral school, the bishop, directly, or 
 indirectly by means of the ScholasticuSy 
 or head master appointed by him. In- 
 struction was gratuitous. The schools 
 were strictly public; equally open to rich 
 and poor. The whole system was capped 
 by the Palace School. From it all others 
 naturally took their cue, as it was gener- 
 ally, though not always, controlled by 
 the best teachers, and consequently was 
 easily able to set the fashion and give the 
 tone to the rest of the country in matters 
 literary and scientific. It is worthy of 
 observation that the Palace School was 
 for girls as well as boys ; women as well 
 as men. It was to one of his female pu- 
 pils that Alcuin dedicated his commenta- 
 29 
 
Christian Education 
 
 ries upon the Gospel of Saint John and 
 his treatise on the nature of the human 
 soul. It goes without saying that 
 throughout the moral training of the pu- 
 pils was most sedulously looked to. Cate- 
 chism, Scripture, ecclesiastical chant and 
 the Church's calendar and ceremonies 
 were carefully taught. It certainly must 
 have been a great stimulus to the dili- 
 gence of scholars everywhere to note the 
 zest with which the Emperor "went to 
 school," taking his place upon the forms 
 in the class-room and asking and answer- 
 ing questions like the youngest pupil, 
 whilst the eloquence of Alcuin opened up 
 to his untutored mind the profundities 
 of grammar and arithmetic or of astron- 
 omy, of which he seems to have been 
 particularly fond. We may thus conceive 
 of the Palace School as a sort of univer- 
 sity centre, though in no sense a univer- 
 sity; nor, in the opinion of Cardinal New- 
 man, even the nucleus of the subsequent 
 mediaeval universities, as Du Boulay, in 
 his eagerness to trace the origin of that 
 of Paris to Charlemagne, so stoutly con- 
 tends. Some idea of the broad gauge 
 upon which the Emperor proposed to 
 operate his plan of educational reform 
 may be gathered from the fact that even 
 the Palace School was not intended ex- 
 
 30 
 
in the ''Dark Ages.'' 
 
 clusively for members of the court, but 
 admitted also those of humble origin 
 whose exceptional talent gave promise of 
 future ability. 
 
 When in this connection we speak of 
 * 'higher studies, ' ' we use the term rela- 
 tively, of course. There was, for instance, 
 in astronomy as taught by Alcuin much 
 that was never dreamt of in Herschel's 
 philosophy or seen through the Lick tel- 
 escope. But all the same, what there . 
 was of endeavor merits praise instead of 
 ridicule, as it pointed distinctly to a for- 
 ward and not to a retrogressive move- 
 ment. It may be said that the great Em- 
 peror brought the full force n6t only of 
 his example but also of his authority to 
 bear upon the promotion of education 
 throughout his dominions. As he had 
 commanded, and that in various capitu- 
 lars, all bishops, abbots and priests to 
 second his ejQforts to provide the necessary 
 learning for his subjects, so in like man. 
 ner he commanded the subjects in their 
 turn to profit to the full by the opportuni. 
 ties afforded. Every inducement in the 
 shape of rewards and preferments was 
 offered, and when these failed compul- 
 sion was had recourse to. In a capitular 
 issued A. D. 812 he ordained that "every 
 one should send his son to study letters, 
 
 31 
 
Christian Education 
 
 and that the child should remain at school 
 and study with all diligence until he 
 should be well instructed in learning." 
 The result of so much activity on the part 
 of Charlemagne and such prompt co-oper- 
 ation on the part of the monks was a 
 general revival of learning within his 
 dominions. Their influence was still 
 more widespread. Wherever the fame of 
 his literary achievements extended ; 
 wherever the pupils of the Prankish 
 schools travelled, there the spirit of in- 
 quiry was awakened and an eager desire 
 to imitate, if not to emulate them, was 
 enkindled. That his scheme of reform, 
 left to itself, would have produced per- 
 manent and happy results there is no 
 questioning. His immediate successors^ 
 Louis le Debonnaire and Charles the 
 Bald, did their utmost to bring it to ma- 
 turity. But political dissensions, whose 
 origin and course it were beyond our pres- 
 ent purpose to trace, begot civil discord, 
 ► and in the social upheavals of protracted 
 war the educational work of Charlemagne 
 was undone. The growth of feudalism • 
 and the dismemberment of the Carlovin- 
 gian Empire, which was in progress for a 
 century and a half— that is to say from 
 the middle of the ninth to the end of the 
 tenth century— played havoc with the 
 
 32 
 
in the ^ ' Dark Ages, * ' 
 
 schools. Yet it were false to say that the 
 interest and industry put out by so many 
 minds and through so long a time upon 
 the advancement of learning were produc- 
 tive of no results. There is a conserva- 
 tion of moral as of physical energy in the 
 world, and the prolific idea, once set in 
 motion, never dies until it has brought 
 forth to fullness, somewhere and some- 
 how, the fruitage of which its pent-up 
 vitality gave hopeful assurance. The ef- 
 forts of Charlemagne, if not altogether 
 successful, were certainly not entirely 
 abortive. The cathedral and conventual 
 schools had been actively revived.^ A 
 new impulse had been given to the study 
 of the German language.* Pupils gradu- 
 ated from his schools had scattered them- 
 selves over Europe, disseminating else- 
 where the seed which could no longer 
 grow in soil now become uncongenial. 
 While the entire life of the great man, in 
 so far as he is connected with the history 
 of education, has built up a tradition 
 whose splendor still hangs, like a sunset 
 glory upon the distant and darkening 
 horizon of those far-off times, and still 
 works like a charm upon the minds of 
 
 9 See Appendix p. 58, note 9. 
 
 *(y. Saint Boniface and the Conversion of Oer- 
 many, Hope, c. 25. 
 
 33 
 
Christian Education 
 
 scholars. None the less, it is true that at 
 this juncture, the beginning of the tenth 
 century, the continent was lapsing into 
 darkness. Education and learning once 
 again fled to Britain, where peace was be- 
 ginning to reign, and there sought to 
 build themselves a habitation among the 
 ruined and deserted cloisters where the 
 monk of other days had lived and prayed 
 and studied and taught. 
 
 When Alfred the Great, a, d. 872, suc- 
 ceeded to the throne of Britain the aspect 
 of affairs waj dismal in the extreme. The 
 ravages of the Danes had exiled studies 
 from the kingdom and left but little trace 
 of the educational labors of the early 
 monks and missionaries. The churches 
 and monasteries, the only homes of learn- 
 ing had been pillaged. The inmates, 
 its only guardians, had been murdered. 
 Lindisfarne, Coldingham, Tynemouth, 
 Bardney, Croyland, Medeshamstede and 
 Ely amongst the number, were in ashes. 
 •*At this period," says Dr. Lingard, 
 speaking of the close of the Danish in- 
 vasion, "the English church offered to 
 the friends of religion a melancholy and 
 alarming spectacle. The laity had re- 
 sumed the ferocity of their heathen fore- 
 fathers ; the clergy were dissolute and 
 illiterate ; and the monastic order was in 
 
 34 
 
in the ' * Dark Ages, ' ' 
 
 a manner annihilated.* I^ike Charle- 
 magne, Alfred felt that his mission was to 
 be one of reconstruction. Accordingly 
 he set to work to rebuild monasteries, to 
 gather together teachers, open schools, 
 and urge his subjects, by example no less 
 than by precept, to do all in their power 
 for th« furtherance of knowledge. Re- 
 turning from Rome, a visit to the court 
 of Charles the Bald had thrown him in 
 contact with scholarly men and intro- 
 duced him to the workings of the Palace 
 School, which he made it his purpose to 
 reproduce in his own dominions as soon 
 as a lull in the storm of battle would 
 permit. 
 
 During the fifteen years of peace which 
 the country enjoyed immediately after 
 the decisive encounter of Ethandune (a.d, 
 873), Alfred set vigorously to work. He 
 gave himself to diligent study, securing 
 as teacher and head of the Palace School, 
 Asser, a monk of St. David's, or Menevia, 
 in Wales, who subsequently became his 
 biographer. Asser enjoyed a widespread 
 reputation for learning and ability. It 
 was only, however, after considerable de- 
 lay and difficulty that the King prevailed 
 
 * Antiquiiies of the Anglo-Saxon Church, c. 11 
 The Life of King Alfred the Great, Knight ; Annale» 
 Rerum Oeatarum Aelfredi Magni, Asser. 
 
 35 
 
Christian Education 
 
 upon him to spend six out of twelve 
 months each year in England, superin- 
 tending the Palatine and such other 
 schools as were placed under his direc- 
 tion. For it is surmised, and with good 
 reason, that his pedagogical work was not 
 confined to the inmates of the palace, but 
 that, like Alcuin, he travelled from place 
 to place with his royal master, opening 
 schools where at all feasible at the same 
 time that he communicated to those with 
 whom he came in contact, some of the 
 zeal and interest in educational progress 
 which filled his own ardent and devoted 
 soul. In reward for his services he was 
 created abbot of several monasteries, and 
 finally raised to the bishopric of Sher- 
 burne, where he died in the year 910. Un- 
 der such competent guidance Alfred made 
 great progress in his studies, and was 
 enabled gradually to perfect the work he 
 had begun years before. Though we are 
 told that at the age of twelve he could 
 neither read nor write, by dint of perse- 
 vering endeavor he soon became remark- 
 able for his attainments in certain de- 
 partments of learning, and one of the 
 most celebrated men of his times. 
 
 Each day he devoted eight hours out 
 of the twenty-four to prayer, study and 
 composition. He applied himself espec- 
 
 36 
 
in the ''Dark Ages.'' 
 
 ially to philosophy, geometry, music and 
 architecture. At the age of thirty-nine he 
 took up Latin, which he mastered suffic- 
 iently to enable him to compose in it sev- 
 eral works of no mean desert, as well as 
 to translate others into the vernacular — 
 amongst them being "Liber Pastoralis 
 Curae " by Gregory the Great ; ''De Con- 
 solatione Philosophiae " by Boetius, and 
 " Historia Ecclesiastica " by Venerable 
 Bede, together with selections from the 
 "Soliloquies of Saint Augustine." His 
 proficiency in the Saxon tongue, in which 
 he wrote numerous poems, was also re- 
 markable. Add to which the practical 
 turn of his genius, which enabled him to 
 bring to bear upon the material and intel- 
 lectual advancement of his kingdom 
 whatever knowledge he acquired. "In a 
 word," says Edmund Burke, summing up 
 his excellent qualities, * ' he compre- 
 hended in the greatness of his mind the 
 whole of government and its parts at 
 once, and, what is most difficult to human 
 frailty, was at the same time sublime and 
 minute."* A character of such diversi- 
 fied worth was well suited to become the 
 chief instrument of educational reform at 
 an epoch and in conditions sufficiently 
 
 * Abridgment of English Eistory, Book II. 
 37 
 
Christian Education 
 
 dark and desperate. lyike the humblest 
 child he sat at the feet of Asser in the 
 Palace School, and gave peremptory or- 
 ders that all the officials in his kingdom 
 should set the same example of diligence 
 and love of self-improvement by applying 
 themselves immediately and earnestly to 
 the cultivation of learning. If loath to 
 do so, they were to be dismissed from 
 their offices forthwith. To facilitate the 
 execution of his command, he enlisted 
 the services of whatever learned men there 
 were in Britain. These were none too 
 numerous. He himself in a letter to 
 Wulsige had deplored their lamentable 
 scarcity. ^^ Nothing daunted, however, by 
 the obstacles in his way, he sent abroad 
 to solicit aid from other nations — not 
 merely petitioning for scholars to conduct 
 his schools, but even for monks to people 
 his cloisters, the rude Saxon not having 
 developed as yet any particular relish for 
 that species of life. Not only Wales, as 
 we have seen, but Flanders, Germany and 
 France were put under contribution to 
 supply the deficiency. Perhaps the two 
 most prominent whom he succeeded in 
 obtaining were John, surnamed "the Old 
 Saxon," who is thought to have received 
 
 10 See Appendix p. 59, note 10. 
 
 38 
 
in the * ^Dark Ages, 
 
 his education at the monastery of Corby 
 in Westphalia and Grimbald. Both were 
 monks and priests. The former he put in 
 charge of the monastic establishment at " 
 Ethelingey. He is sometimes confounded 
 by historians with John Scotus Erigena, 
 already referred to, and who was not only 
 not abbot of Ethelingey, but most prob- 
 ably, as Dr. Lingard maintains, was 
 never in England at all.^ Grimbald, if 
 certain accounts be credited, was given 
 the direction of the educational institu- 
 tion at Oxford, whose origin would thus 
 be traceable to the ninth, if not to an 
 earlier century, with the honor which it 
 so much craves of having Alfred for its 
 founder. The more likely opinion, how- 
 ever, based upon sounder historical crit- 
 cism, seems to be that all trace of Grim- 
 bald is lost, and his connection with Ox- 
 ford is nothing more than a fiction woven 
 of the fancies of certain romantic writers. ^^ 
 But how bright soever the halo with 
 which a gratefulposterity crowns Alfred's 
 work as an educational reformer, it was 
 comparatively scanty, and in all likeli- 
 hood would have perished with him had 
 
 * Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, c. ii. 
 Note 37. JSistoria Ecclesiastica, Nat. Alexander, 
 vol. xii , c. 9, Art. III. 
 
 II See Appendix p. 59, note 11. 
 39 
 
Christian Education 
 
 not Providence raised up in the person 
 of Dunstan, a saintly monk of Glaston- 
 bury, where the light of learning still 
 flickered, one who could and did, upon his 
 recall from exile by Edgar, take up the 
 work and bring it to a perfection far 
 beyond Alfred's capabilities. His name, 
 coupled with those of Ethelwald, Oswald, 
 Aelfric and Abbo, will ever be associated 
 with an educational development not al- 
 together barren of results in the history 
 of English civilization. Advancing upon 
 the lines marked out by Alfred, he en- 
 larged his scope and infused into the un- 
 dertaking a divine power — the gift of 
 saints — which until then it had not 
 known. The work of restoration was 
 pushed diligently forward. Peterbor- 
 ough, Ely, Malmsbury and Thorney rose 
 from their ruins, and no less than forty 
 abbeys were built or restored under his 
 celebrated primacy. Thus the tenth cen- 
 tury, from A. D. 924 to A. D. 992, saw the 
 beginning of an upward movement in 
 Britain which was to continue with very 
 little interruption until the multiplied 
 misfortunes of the sixteenth century 
 would pour, like a deluge, over the land. 
 The experiment made by Alfred to re- 
 vive learning in England, in imitation of 
 Charlemagne in France, found zealous 
 
 40 
 
iyithe ''Dark Ages.'' 
 
 emulators in Germany in the persons of 
 the Othos, who ruled that country from 
 A.D. 936 to A.D. 1024. Their efforts were 
 as successful as, if not more so than, 
 those in Britain, and form, together with 
 the other two, the only points of relief in 
 the dark ages we are traversing. The 
 pursuit of letters had been steadily on 
 the decline for five hundred years, and, 
 Hallam to the contrary notwithstanding, 
 the general verdict of historians id 
 that it reached its lowest ebb towards the 
 close of the tenth century, which has 
 been not inappropriately styled an age of 
 iron — ''scsculum infelix et obscurum.y^'^ 
 The reason for this lamentable and un- 
 paralleled decadence was the destruction 
 of churches and monasteries at the hands 
 of barbaric Normans, Danes and Saracens 
 whose depredations at this period vividly 
 recalled the invasions of Goth and Visi- 
 goth in the fifth and sixth centuries as 
 they swept over the face of Europe, leav- 
 ing nothing but ruin and desolation in 
 their track. Yet, dark and dismal as the 
 period really was, if we scrutinize the 
 situation closely we will not fail to see 
 that it was not absolutely unproductive 
 
 * ScriptoTum Ecclesiatticorum Historia Litter aria 
 Cave. p. 402. 
 
 12 See Appendix p. 59, note 12, 
 
 41 
 
Christian Education 
 
 of schools and scholars. Both were to be 
 met with at Utrecht, Einsiedeln, Treves, 
 Hildesheim and in other cities. The 
 same spirit of interest in studies which 
 we have seen at the court of Charlemagne 
 was visible in the populous centres of 
 Germany, and especially within the royal 
 household, where a well-conducted palace 
 school was flourishing. It was fashioned 
 upon the same lines as those presided 
 over by Alcuin and Asser, and aimed at 
 systematizing whatever educational en- 
 deavors were possible in an age so unfa- 
 miliar with the arts of peace and the in- 
 stitutions of civilized life.^'' Saint Bruno, 
 raised by popular acclaim to the arch- 
 bishopric of Cologne, and Saint Adelbert 
 to that of Magdeburg, stood out in bold 
 relief as particularly zealous for the edu- 
 cational improvement of their country. 
 Assisted by the unstinted patronage of 
 the Othos and the generous co-operation 
 of a people anxious to learn, the seed of 
 their endeavors fell upon responsive soil 
 and realized a creditable harvest. In- 
 junctions were issued to the bishops 
 ordering them to provide their dioceses 
 with suitable schools. Scholars were 
 brought, especially from Rome, to serve 
 
 13 See Appendix p. 60, note 13. 
 
in the * * Dark Ages. * 
 
 as teachers, and thither students were 
 sent to acquire whatever learning was to 
 be obtained at the heart of Christendom, 
 with the result that not a few, despite the 
 difficulties of the situation, won a fair 
 celebrity by their intellectual attainments. 
 It were needless to recite a mere cata- 
 logue of names. Suffice it to say that 
 the two most celebrated scholars who 
 flourished during this epoch were doubt- 
 les Scotus Erigena and the monk Ger- 
 bert — solitary lights, so to speak, in a 
 firmament grown almost pitchy dark.^* 
 
 But the darkest hour, so the saw has 
 it, is the one before dawn. Whether it 
 be so or not ordinarily, in the present 
 case it certainly was. The elements of a 
 change had been long at work. The 
 change itself was now imminent. Social, 
 political and religious influences long 
 smouldering were about to declare them- 
 selves. Their manifestation was to trans- 
 form Europe, breathe life into the dry 
 bones of the past, and give birth to a 
 civilization whose shibboleth was to be 
 educational reform. It is no easy matter, 
 even for the philosopher of history, to 
 trace to its certain causes the general 
 revival which unmistakably sets in with 
 
 14 See Appendix p. 60, note 14. 
 43 
 
Christian Education 
 
 the eleventh century. The spirit of chi- 
 valry, the Crusades, the birth of com- 
 merce, the formation of European lan- 
 guages, the multiplication of religious 
 orders, the secularization and specializa- 
 tion of learning, and the introduction 
 into Europe from the East of a system of 
 philosophy peculiarly adapted to stimu- 
 late mental exertion, are all advanced as 
 having more or less influenced the turn 
 in the tide so noticeable at this time. To 
 speak of the principal. Chivalry, at once 
 the effect and concomitant of feudalism, 
 with its exalted regard for personal honor 
 and womanly dignity, certainly did much 
 to steady the jarring elements of the bar- 
 baric ages in which it flourished and lift 
 men's thoughts and aspirations from the 
 rude to the refined, from the actual to 
 the possible, from the real to the ideal. 
 The tales of scald and bard ; the songs of 
 troubadour and minnesinger, woven 
 upon the romance of love and rehearsed 
 far and near in wooded bower or castle 
 hall, were indeed a summons to some- 
 thing higher. They were an incentive to 
 a social condition in which delicate fancy 
 and noble sentiment, touchstones of men- 
 tal refinement, were allowed full scope 
 and activity. Allied to religion, the chi- 
 valric spirit did more. It purified and 
 
 44 
 
in tke " Dark Ages.'' 
 
 elevated while it supernaturalized the 
 lives and hopes of men, affording them 
 through the darkness from which they 
 were emerging clearer glimpses of another 
 order of life, moral in character, and 
 founded upon the immutable principles 
 of Christian beauty and truth. It was 
 the dawn of a new civilization, broader 
 and nobler than aught they had ever 
 known, and the national as the individual 
 heart throbbed in responsive unison with 
 its invitation to higher and better things. 
 The Crusades, too, whatever objections 
 may be alleged against them on other 
 grounds, contributed largely to the revi- 
 val of which we are speaking. Until the 
 voice of Peter the Hermit sounded the 
 call throughout Europe and rallied to a 
 common cause so many nations differing 
 in character and thoroughly antagonistic 
 men's lives were comparatively insulated. 
 There was little travel and almost no in- 
 terchange of ideas. What knowledge 
 there was stood, as it were, in stagnant 
 pools awaiting some mystic touch to 
 quicken it into marv^elous life. For want 
 of motion and friction it lacked the vigor 
 which alone could insure its rapid and 
 steady growth. Ireland, England and 
 Germany had indeed made the world their 
 debtors by sending their scholars hither 
 
 45 
 
Chris tia7t Education 
 
 and thither ; but the coming and going 
 of a few only helped to emphasize the de- 
 fect in the general situation. But with 
 the uprising of multitudes the result was 
 quite diflferent. As army met army, as 
 they moved in thousands from place to 
 place, they awoke as from a dream, and 
 what they heard and saw came to them 
 with the force of a revelation. New ideas, 
 new institutions, new scenes, new nations, 
 new laws, new customs, new social and 
 political systems, new libraries, new 
 scholars, new educational facilities, the 
 varied products of the arts and sciences 
 and the fruits ot every industry were all a 
 most effectual stimulus. What they had 
 seen and heard only made them the more 
 eager upon returning home to see and 
 hear more, while it formed the endless 
 burden of romantic stories which excited 
 others to set out in quest of similar infor- 
 mation. The secularization of learning 
 was also acting as a potent factor at this 
 crisis. It is true, there had always existed 
 what were known as ''adventure" or pri- 
 vate schools, whose professors eked out a 
 livelihood shifting from place to place 
 and teaching wherever the experiment 
 seemed to pay. But they were conducted 
 in a manner in harmony with the Chris- 
 tian ages in which they flourished. Now, 
 
 46 
 
in the ''Dark Ages,*'' 
 
 however, a change was coming over their 
 condition. Their number was increasing. 
 The store of learning which they carried 
 was growing every day more considerable 
 while a spirit of mental unrest was fast 
 developing in their midst. Practically 
 divorced from religion, they wanted the 
 safeguards which the monasteries had once 
 supplied. A dangerous spirit of ambitious 
 rivalry soon took possession of them 
 which, while it had the advantage of 
 opening up wider fields of research, was 
 in not a few instances fraught with the 
 still greater disadvantage of not knowing 
 where to draw the line upon its investiga- 
 tions. In its wild chase after the elusive 
 phantom of knowledge it often overlooked 
 its higher obligations and contributed not 
 a little to foster the sceptical spirit of the 
 heresies which began to crop up at this 
 time, and which, in their deification of 
 reason, repudiated the supreme and ina- 
 lienable claims of divine faith. But 
 among the various forces at work 
 we must not omit to mention the 
 introduction into the West of the 
 philosophy of the East with its dis- 
 position to inquiry and its endless meta- 
 physical refinings. Burope was ripe for 
 it. Heretofore education had moved in a 
 beaten track. It had been traditional 
 
 47 
 
Christian Education 
 
 rather than discursive. It had contented 
 itself with guarding and quoting the wis- 
 dom of antiquity without attempting to 
 open up new vistas or cut new paths 
 through the unexplored realms of the 
 mind. Original research was almost un- 
 known. Augustine and Gregory Thau- 
 maturgus might be cited, but to venture 
 a new treatise upon the nature and pro- 
 vince of grace were a boldness akin to 
 impiety. Such a state of affairs could not 
 endure. Too many problems were press- 
 ing for solution and all that was needed 
 to give it was a scientific method of in- 
 vestigation which, while it would throw 
 the searchlight of the subtlest mental 
 acumen into the darkest corners of the 
 most abstruse subjects, could not fail to 
 harmonize, in the rounded fullness of a 
 universal accord, the natural with the 
 supernatural, the human with the divine, 
 the principles of revelation with the laws 
 of perpetual progress. The birth of scho- 
 lasticism, for such was the name which it 
 assumed in Christian hands, marks a 
 prominent point of departure in the in- 
 tellectual history of Europe. The Aristo- 
 telian or Peripatetic philosophy had been 
 imported from Greece and popularized by 
 Arab commentators. Saracenic invasion 
 introduced it into Europe by way of 
 
 48 
 
frj^r^:i''.r 
 
 in the ''Dark Ages.^' 
 
 Spain, and it was not long ere it was 
 caught up and assimilated into the life of 
 the leading educational institutions of 
 the West. Cleared of its Pagan dross, it 
 was easily moulded into an effective in- 
 strument in the hands of saints and scho- 
 lars, and made to serve the higher and 
 holier purpose of an aid to the fuller illus- 
 tration, by rational methods, of the truths 
 of the gospel. It took speedy possession 
 of the existing schools; infused new vi- 
 tality into the studies of the Trivium 
 and Quadrivium, imparting to them a 
 life and a relish they had never known 
 before. The quiet atmosphere of the 
 class-room became alive with the fire of 
 disputation. The fervor spread from in- 
 stitution to institution. Students thronged 
 from everywhere to the various schools, 
 until their number became so great as ta 
 necessitate an increase of lecturers and an 
 organization sufficiently compact and 
 effective to hold this eager and turbulent 
 body in due control. The enthusiasm 
 which had formerly marked the lectures 
 of Gerbert and Scotus was now aroused 
 by numerous professors who could drink 
 of the same fountain of wisdom without 
 crossing the threshold of their respective 
 monasteries. Which of all these forces 
 was the most operative it were impossible 
 
 49 
 
Christia7i Education 
 
 to say. While Paulsen emphasizes the 
 Crusades and Professor Laurie the secu- 
 larization of education, Cardinal Newman 
 insists upon the Greek philosophy as the 
 most efifective and significant force then 
 at work. 
 
 The age of the universities had not yet 
 come. Still who can fail to see in the 
 features which distinguish this transi- 
 tional epoch the dawnings of that activity 
 which in the twelfth century would be 
 thrown into definite shape and in the fif- 
 teenth would strike the zenith of its de- 
 velopment for the weal of some and the 
 woe of others? Professors and depart- 
 ments in the various schools were multi- 
 plied. Studies were organized. Superior 
 schools were started in great numbers as 
 supplementary aids in the shadow of 
 great educational centres. A system of 
 interdependence, co-ordinate and subor* 
 dinate, was forming amongst the various 
 institutions. Learning, as well as the 
 methods adopted for its inculcation, 
 was assuming a universal character which 
 was gradually lifting education from the 
 contracted and hampering environments 
 of the past to the world-wide field it was 
 destined to range after a few years. Who 
 was the master spirit of the hour can only 
 be surmised. The names of Anselm, Lan- 
 
 50 
 
in the * 'Dark Ages. * * 
 
 franc, William de Champeaux, Abelard 
 and others, pass in celebrated train before 
 us in answer to the question. Laurie 
 finds even in the rebellion of Berengarius 
 and the rationalism of Scotus sufiicient 
 explanation of the great awakening as he 
 conceives it. This much, however, we do 
 know — that in the monastery of Le Bee, 
 in Normandy, especially under the regen- 
 cies of Lanfranc and Anselm, the new 
 philosophy was chastened and wedded to 
 theological truth in a way to establish its 
 practical value when properly applied and 
 thus was furnished with credentials which 
 made it welcome wherever it went;* that 
 it was in and about the School of Paris 
 that the new life was manifesting itself 
 most strikingly. Having passed through 
 the various stages of a long development, 
 that institution was now preparing more 
 evidently and rapidly than ever, under 
 the salutary influences of position and 
 patronage, to assume at the end of the 
 eleventh century the higher role of uni- 
 versity, and thus merit for itself the dis- 
 tinction of having led off in the great 
 transformation so near at hand. Inciden- 
 tally, and while the scene is shifting, it is 
 interesting to observe, as an unmistakable 
 
 * The Life and Times of Saint Anselm. Rule. 
 
 51 
 
Christian Education 
 
 sig^ of her zeal for educational progress, 
 how the Church, as she had done her ut- 
 most to save the relics of ancient learning 
 in the dark days of barbaric invasion, in 
 the present emergency contributes her 
 vast and varied influence towards lifting 
 it on to the higher plane for which it was 
 certainly making, ^^ She favored rational 
 investigation — the application of philoso- 
 phy to dogma — provided it were distin- 
 guished throughout by a humility and 
 faith which could recognize and respect 
 the claims of revelation as against the as- 
 sumptions of a vain and unbridled reason. 
 With her blessing and co-operation, with 
 the favor of the State as well, with the 
 combined energies of inspirited multitudes 
 the forces now set in motion were not to 
 be stopped, but moved on powerfully to 
 their appointed ends — to their far-reach- 
 ing and lasting results. The night had 
 passed. The day was slowly breaking. 
 
 13 See Appendix p. 60, note 15. 
 
 5* 
 
(^ppenbi;c. 
 
Appendix. 
 
 I "The custom," says Doctor Lingard, "of 
 offering children to be devoted for life to the 
 monastic or clerical profession, was early adop- 
 ted in the Christian Church, in imitation of the 
 oblation of the prophet Samuel in the temple of 
 Jerusalem. The idea that the determination of 
 his parents was no less binding on the child 
 than the voluntary profession of adults was first 
 embraced in the sixth century, and followed 
 until the pontificate of Celestine III., who, ac- 
 cording to the more ancient discipline, permit- 
 ted the child at a certain age to decide for him- 
 self."— iZts^. and Antiq. of the Anglo-Saxon Church 
 p. 23T, note 6. 
 
 "The fierce northern warriors," says Cardinal 
 Newman, " who had won for themselves the 
 Aands of Christendom with their red hands, 
 rejoiced to commit their innocent offspring to 
 the custody of religion and peace. Nay, some- 
 times with the despotic will of which I have just 
 now spoken, they dedicated them, from or betore 
 their birth, to the service of Heaven. They de- 
 termined that some at least of thtir lawless race 
 should be rescued from the contamination of 
 blood and license, and should be set apart in 
 sacred places to pray for the kindred. The 
 little beings, of three or four or five years old, 
 were brought in the arms of those who gave 
 them life to accept at their bidding the course 
 in which that life was to run. They were brought 
 into the sanctuary, spoke by the mouth of their 
 parents, as at the font, put out their tiny hand 
 for the sacred corporal to be wrapped round it, 
 received the cowl and took their places as monks 
 in the monastic community. In the first ages 
 of the Benedictine Order, these children were 
 placed on a level with their older brethren. 
 They took ])recedence according to the date of 
 their admission, and the grey head gave way to 
 them in choir and refectory, if junior to them in 
 monastic standing They even voted in the 
 election of Abbot, being considered to speak by 
 divine instinct, as the child who cried out, 
 'Ambrose is Bishop.' If they showed wayward- 
 ness in community meetings, inattention at 
 choir, ill-behavior at table, which certainly was 
 not an impossible occurrence, they were cor- 
 rected by the nods, the words, or the blows of 
 the grave brother who happened to be next 
 them; it was not till an after time that they had 
 a prefect of their own, except in school hoars. 
 That harm came from this remarkable disci- 
 
 55 
 
Appendix 
 
 pline is only the suggestion of o«r modern 
 habits and ideas ; that it was not expedient for 
 all times, follows from the fact that at a certain 
 date it ceased lo be permitted. However, that 
 in those centuries in which it was in force, its 
 result was good is seen in the history of the 
 heroic men whom it nurtured and might have 
 been anticipated from the principle which it 
 embodied." — Historical Sketches, vol. ii. art. 
 " The Benedictine Schools." 
 
 2 Which rather conflicts with Mr. Rmerton's 
 amusing statement that Boniface, for a time 
 carried on his missions in Germany on his own 
 account, but finding that it would help his enter- 
 prise immensely, eventually allied himself with 
 the Church of Rome. He says: "The famous 
 Englishman Boniface, the Apostle to the Ger- 
 mans, had come over Irom England and en- 
 tered upon the work of a missionary among the 
 Frisians along the shores of the North Sea. 
 From there he had gone over into the valleys of 
 the Main and Danube, and had had remarkable 
 success in founding churches and monasteries, 
 which were to be so many centres of light in 
 these still barbarous regions. For a time he had 
 carried on this work on his own account, but 
 soon he s.uv that if he could make himself the 
 agent of Rome he would strengthen his cause 
 very greatly. The papacy was the more ready 
 to adopt him as its own, because there were 
 already missionaries at work in these parts who 
 had taught a form of Christianity different in 
 many ways from that of Rome. These mission- 
 aries had come from the Keltic church which we 
 saw established in the west of England and in 
 parts of Scotland and Ireland at the time when 
 Augustine had carried the Roman form to the 
 Anglo-Saxons, and the conflict between them and 
 Boniface was the same which went on there 
 between Augustine and the ancient British 
 church. The question in both cases was the 
 same: Should Rome become the one centre of 
 church life in the West, or should the life of the 
 church, like that of the state, gather about 
 several centres? Should there be national 
 churches, or but one all-embracing Church, 
 Catholic of which Rome should be the single 
 and supreme head? In great partsof Germany, 
 as in Great Britain, it had seemed as if a local, 
 national church might grow up quite indepen- 
 dent of Rome ; but after the work of Boniface it 
 
 56 
 
Appendix 
 
 was clear that the hold of Rome upon Germany 
 was fixed forever." - {An Introduction to the 
 Study of the Middle Ages ( 375-814), b};; Ephraim 
 Emerton, Ph.D., Professor of History in Harvard 
 University. Boston: Ginn & Companv, 1888 
 P- 131.) 
 
 3 "After the manner of a wise Solomon,'' says 
 an ancient writer speaking of Gregory, " being 
 touched by the sweetness of music he carefully 
 compiled his Centon, or Antiphonary of chants, 
 and established a school of those chants which 
 had hitherto been fcung in the Roman Church, 
 and built for this purpose two houses, one 
 attached to the church of St. Peter the Apostle 
 and the other near the Lateran Patriarchium. 
 where, up to this day, are preserved with becom- 
 ing veneration the couch whereon he was accus- 
 tomed to rest when singing; and the rod where- 
 with he was accustomed to threaten the boys, 
 together with the authentic copy of his Anti- 
 phonary." — Christian Schools and Scholars, 
 Drane, p. 60. 
 
 4 '^Rabanus Maurus was about the first to 
 comment on the Introduction of Porphyry, and 
 on portions of the Organon. In the year 935, 
 whilst Reinard of S. Burchard, in Wurtemburg, 
 commented on Aristotle's Categories, Poppo was 
 elucidating, at Fulda, the Commentary ol Bcethius 
 Notker I^abeo, who died in 1022, translated into 
 German the Commentary of Boethius, and the 
 Categories and Interpretation of the Stagr>-rite. 
 Abbo of Fleury (1004 ) wrote a clever and original 
 work on the Conclusions ?in6. Adelberon, Bishop 
 of Laon (1030), disciple of Gerbeit, wrote a dis- 
 sertation De Modo recte Argumentandi et Prsedi- 
 candi Dialecticam. — St. Thomas of Aquin, Vaughan 
 p. 188. 
 
 5 "During the sixth and seventh centuries the 
 church of Ireland stood in the full beauty of its 
 bloom. . . . The schools in the Irish Cloisters 
 were at that time the most celebrated in all the 
 West; and in addition to those which have been 
 already mentioned, there flourished the schools 
 of Saint Finian of Clonard, founded in 530, and 
 those of Saint Cataldus, founded in 640. Whilst 
 almost the whole of Europe was desolated by 
 war, peaceful Ireland, free from the invasions 
 of external foes, opened to the lovers of learn- 
 
 57 
 
Appendix, 
 
 ing and piety a welcome asylum. The strangers 
 who visited Ireland not only from the neighbor- 
 ing shores of Britain, but also from the most 
 remote nations of the continent, received from 
 the Irish people the most hospitable reception, 
 a gratuitous entertainment, free instruction, 
 and even the books that were necessary for 
 their studies."— JEfMtory 0/ iht Church. Dollinger 
 vol. II., p. 31. 
 
 6 The Scfiools 0/ Charles the Oreat, J. Bass Mul- 
 linger, M.A., pp. 97-g9; Scfwola of Charlemagne, 
 Newman, Edinburgh Review, vol, 151; Hiat, Sket., 
 vol. III. 
 
 7 According to some writers. I^aurie says they 
 met at Padua; Newman, at Pa via. 
 
 8 We refer particularly to the celebrated Theo- 
 dore, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose achieve- 
 ments have been rightly said to constitute an 
 era in the history of the English Church. For 
 an account of his zeal in behalf of schools and 
 letters, vide Conversion of the Teutonic Race, Hope, 
 c. xi.; Newman, loc. cU., 451; Antiquities of the 
 Anglo-Saxon Church, c. 11. 
 
 9 The Episcopal or Cathedral schools which 
 had almost, if not entirely disappeared during 
 the dreadful period of the barbaric invasions, 
 had been gradually re-established whenever or 
 wherever an altered condition of affairs a Uowed. 
 Under the Merovingians, according to Ozanam, 
 at least twenty could be enumerated in France 
 alone. Charlemagne ^ave a new impulse to 
 their revival and multiplication. It was in the 
 Assembly of Aix-la-Chapelle and in the year 789 
 that bishops received their first command to 
 open, in connection with their cathedrals, 
 schools that were both public and free. Allud- 
 ing to their general character at this time, West 
 says: **The Episcopal or Cathedral schools 
 were neither so strict nor so flourishing as the 
 monastic schools whose exterior side they re- 
 sembled, educating candidates for the priest- 
 hood and children of laymen generally. . . . 
 Apart from the rigorous discipline of monastic 
 life exacted from thcdblati, there is, however, no 
 essential distinction to be drawn between the 
 instruction furnished in the monasteries and 
 Cathedrals."— .4/Cifct7i and the Rise of the Christian 
 Schools, p, 57. 
 
 58 
 
Appendix. 
 
 10 • Adeo funditus concidit," he writes, " apud 
 Centem Angllcanam (learning) ut paucissimi 
 fuerint cis Humbrum, qui vcl prcces suas com- 
 munes in sermone Anglico intelligere potuerunt 
 Tel scriptum aliquod a I^atino in Anglicum trans- 
 ferre: tarn sane pauci fuerunt, ut ne unum qui- 
 dem recordari possim ex australi parte Thame- 
 ■is, turn cum ego regnare coepcram." Pastoral 
 of Gregory, Introduction. 
 
 11 " The connection of the University of Paris 
 with the Palatine Schools of Charles the Great," 
 •ays Rashdall, "rests only upon a series of arbi- 
 trary assumptions. The theory which traces the 
 origin of Oxford to Alfred the Great aspires to 
 a foundation in contemporary evidence. The 
 Oxford myth was long accepted on the authority 
 of a passage in the annals of Asser, Bishop of 
 St. David's. The passage is found neither in 
 any extant MS. nor in the earliest printed edi- 
 tions, but made its first appearance in Camden's 
 Britanniain 1600 a. d.; whence three years after- 
 wards it was transferred to the edition of Asser. 
 The spuriousness of the passage, which is in- 
 deed sufficiently betrayed by its affected classi- 
 cality of style, was demonstrated as long as 1843 
 in a dissertation appended to the English trans- 
 lation of Huber's English Universities. The myth 
 recently received its coup de grace at the hands 
 of Mr. James Parker {The Early History of Oxford, 
 Oxf. Hist. Soc, 1885). . . . When the supposed 
 authority of Asser is put out of court, the Alfre- 
 dian legend even in its simplest and least elabo- 
 rate form cannot be traced further back than the 
 Polychronicon of Ralph Higden, who died in 
 1363. In fact the whole story with the vast cycle 
 of legend of which it is the nucleus . . . 
 may now be abandoned to students of compara- 
 tive mythology and of the patholopy of the 
 human mind." — The Universities of Europe in the 
 Middle Ages, by Hastings Rashdall, vol. ii., part 
 ii., p. 322, Oxford,Clarendon Press. 
 
 12 "En incipit," sa^'S Baronius, "annus Re- 
 demptoris nongentesimus, tertia indictione no- 
 tatus, quo et novum inchoatur sceculura, quod sui 
 asperitate an boni sterilitate ferreum, malique 
 exundantisdeformitate plutnbeum, atque inopia 
 scriptorum appellari consuevit obscurum." — 
 Anriales Ecclesiastici, vol. x. 
 
 Bellarmine says of it, "nullum saeculo decimo 
 indoctius,"-— De Controversiis. de E. Fontif. lib. 
 iv., c. 12. 
 
 59 
 
Appendix, 
 
 13 Hence to avoid repetition we can afford to 
 be brief in its description. Possibly nothing 
 contributed more generallv to the realization of 
 educational results than the hearty co operation 
 of the episcopacy of which one historian writes: 
 "In no age perhaps, did Germany possess more 
 learned and virtuous churchmen of the episcopal 
 order than in the latter half of the tenth and the 
 beginning of the eleventh century." — Introduc- 
 tion to the Literature 0/ Europe, Hallam, vol. i., 
 p. 28. 
 
 14 As the eleventh century opened in the dark- 
 ness of the tenth, so its close ushered in the 
 dawn of an epoch ever memorable as a transi- 
 tion period in the history of Christian education. 
 The forces which effected the tremendous change 
 had been silently and imperceptibly at work for 
 years, maybe for centuries, meanwhile held in 
 abeyance by the deplorable social and moral 
 condition of the times. With the advent of new 
 and more favorable circumstances, however, 
 they were free to declare themselves and did so 
 with permanent and universal effect. Nowhere 
 was their influence felt more lastingly than in 
 the schools, both monastic and cathedral, which 
 from this point on — from Anselm to Peter the 
 IvOmbard — are scarcely recognizable as identical 
 with their former selves. An altogether new 
 spirit had taken possession of them. Their re- 
 sources were being multiplied daily, while the 
 whole trend of their steady development was in 
 the direction of the universities into which they 
 were to be eventually merged. Of their relation, 
 in transitu, to the universities, and of the univer- 
 sities themselves — their organization and consti- 
 tution—we hope to speak somewhat in detail 
 later. For a summary account of the transition 
 to which we allude, the reader is referred to ^. 
 Thomas of Aquin, Vaughan, pp. 76 77; EiseandCan- 
 stUution of Universities, Laurie Lect. vi., pp. gbet 
 seq. For an e'aborate treatment of the entire 
 subject, vid. History of the Universities of the Middle 
 Aqes before 1400, Denifle; The Universities of the 
 Middle Ages, Rashdall ; Idea of a University and 
 Rise and Progress of Universities, Newman {Histori- 
 cal Sketches, vol. iii). 
 
 15 For an enumeration of various councils con- 
 vened by the Church in behalf of popular edu- 
 cation, especially during the ninth centur}', cf. 
 The Bible in the Middle Ages. Buckingham. 
 
 60 
 
Organizatjoti of Smalt Eibrarlei 
 
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