The History of Education Part 11

5. The movement of new peoples into the Roman Empire was much slower than has been the immigration of foreign peoples into the United States, since 1840. Why the difference in a.s.similative power?

6. How do you think the Roman provinces and Italy, after the tribes from the North had settled down within the Empire, compared with Mexico after the years of revolution with peons and brigands in control? With Russia, after the destruction wrought by the Bolshevists?

7. Explain the importance of the long civilizing and educating work of Rome among the German tribes, in preparing the means for the preservation of Roman inst.i.tutions after the downfall of the Roman government.

8. What does the fact that Roman inst.i.tutions and Roman thinking continued and profoundly modified mediaeval life indicate as to the nature of Roman government and the Roman power of a.s.similation?

9. Though Rome never inst.i.tuted a state school system, was there not after all large educational work done by the government through its intelligent administration?

10. Show how the breakdown of Roman government and Roman inst.i.tutions was naturally more complete in Gaul than in northern Italy, and more complete in northern than in central or southern Italy, and hence how Roman civilization was naturally preserved in larger measure in the cities of Italy than elsewhere.

11. Show how the Christian Church, too, could not have completely dispensed with Roman letters and Roman civilization, had it desired to do so, but was forced of necessity to preserve and pa.s.s on important portions of the civilization of Rome.

12. What do you think would have been the effect on the future of civilization had the barbarian tribes overrun Spain, Italy, and Greece during the Age of Pericles?

13. What modern a.n.a.logies do we have to the civilizing work of the monks and clergy during the Middle Ages?

14. Picture the work of the monasteries in handing on to western Europe the arts and handicrafts and skilled occupations of Rome. Cite some examples.

15. What civilizing problem, somewhat comparable to that of barbarian Europe, have we faced in our national history? Why have we been able to obtain results so much more rapidly?

SELECTED READINGS

In the accompanying _Book of Readings_ the following selections are reproduced:

46. Caesar: The Hunting Germans and their Fighting Ways.

47. Tacitus: The Germans and their Domestic Habits.

48. Dill: Effect on the Roman World of the News of the Sacking of Rome by Alaric.

49. Giry and Reville: Fate of the Old Roman Towns.

50. Kingsley: The Invaders, and what they brought.

51. General Form for a Grant of Immunity to a Bishop.

52. Charlemagne: Powers and Immunities granted to the Monastery of Saint Marcellus.

QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS

1. State the differences in character Caesar observes (46) between the Gauls to the west of the Rhine and the Germans to the east.

2. What German characteristics that Tacitus describes (47) would prove good additions to Roman life?

3. Do the emotions of Saint Jerome on hearing of the sacking of Rome (48) reveal anything as to the extent to which the Roman had become a Churchman and the Churchman a Roman? Ill.u.s.trate.

4. Is it probable that a quarter-century of Bolsheviki rule in Russia would produce results comparable to those described by Giry and Reville (49)?

5. Is Kingsley right in stating (50) that the best elements of all the modern European peoples came from the barbarian invaders? State what seem to you to be the important contributions of barbarian invader, Roman, and Churchman.

6. Do the grants of privileges and immunities shown in the general form (51)and the specific form (52) seem to follow naturally from the earlier grants to physicians and teachers (26) and to the clergy (38)? Point out the relations.h.i.+p.

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES

* Adams, G. B. _Civilization during the Middle Ages_.

Church, R. W. _The Beginnings of the Middle Ages_.

Kingsley, Chas. _The Roman and Teuton_.

* Thorndike, Lynn. _History of Mediaeval Europe_.

CHAPTER VI

EDUCATION DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES [1]

I. CONDITION AND PRESERVATION OF LEARNING

THE LOW INTELLECTUAL LEVEL. As was stated in the preceding chapter, the lamp of learning burned low throughout the most of western Europe during the period of a.s.similation and partial civilization of the barbarian tribes. The western portion of the Roman Empire had been overrun, and rude Germanic chieftains were establis.h.i.+ng, by the law of might, new kingdoms on the ruins of the old. The Germanic tribes had no intellectual life of their own to contribute, and no intellectual tastes to be ministered unto.

With the destruction of cities and towns and country villas, with their artistic and literary collections, much that represented the old culture was obliterated, [2] and books became more and more scarce. [3] The destruction was gradual, but by the beginning of the seventh century the loss had become great. The Roman schools also gradually died out as the need for an education which prepared for government and gave a knowledge of Roman law pa.s.sed away, and the type of education approved by the Church was left in complete control of the field. As the security and leisure needed for study disappeared, and as the only use for learning was now in the service of the Church, education became limited to the narrow lines which offered such preparation and to the few who needed it. Amid the ruins of the ancient civilization the Church stood as the only conservative and regenerative force, and naturally what learning remained pa.s.sed into its hands and under its control.

The result of all these influences and happenings was that by the beginning of the seventh century Christian Europe had reached a very low intellectual level, and during the seventh and eighth centuries conditions grew worse instead of better. Only in England and Ireland, as will be pointed out a little later, and in a few Italian cities, was there anything of consequence of the old Roman learning preserved. On the Continent there was little general learning, even among the clergy (R. 64 a). Many of the priests were woefully ignorant, [4] and the Latin writings of the time contain many inaccuracies and corruptions which reveal the low standard of learning even among the better educated of the clerical cla.s.s.

The Church itself was seriously affected by the prevailing ignorance of the period, and incorporated into its system of government and wors.h.i.+p many barbarous customs and practices of which it was a long time in ridding itself. So great had become the ignorance and superst.i.tion of the time, among priests, monks, and the people; so much had religion taken on the wors.h.i.+p of saints and relics and shrines; and so much had the Church developed the sensuous and symbolic, that religion had in reality become a crude polytheism instead of the simple monotheistic faith of the early Church. Along scientific lines especially the loss was very great.

Scientific ideas as to natural phenomena disappeared, and crude and childish ideas as to natural forces came to prevail. As if barbarian chiefs and robber bands were not enough, popular imagination peopled the world with demons, goblins, and dragons, and all sorts of superst.i.tions and supernatural happenings were recorded. Intercommunication largely ceased; trade and commerce died out; the acc.u.mulated wealth of the past was destroyed; and the old knowledge of the known world became badly distorted, as is evidenced by the many crude mediaeval maps. (See Figure 46.) The only scholars.h.i.+p of the time, if such it might be called, was the little needed by the Church to provide for and maintain its government and wors.h.i.+p. Almost everything that we to-day mean by civilization in that age was found within the protecting walls of monastery or church, and these inst.i.tutions were at first too busy building up the foundations upon which a future culture might rest to spend much time in preserving learning, much less in advancing it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37. A TYPICAL MONASTERY of SOUTHERN EUROPE]

THE MONASTERIES DEVELOP SCHOOLS. In this age of perpetual lawlessness and disorder the one opportunity for a life of repose and scholarly contemplation lay in the monasteries. Here the rule of might and force was absent (R. 52), and the timid, the devout, and the studiously inclined here found a refuge from the turbulence and brutality of a rude civilization. The early monasteries, and especially the monastery of Saint Victor, at Ma.r.s.eilles, founded by Ca.s.sian in 404, had represented a culmination of the western feeling of antagonism to all ancient learning, but with the founding of Monte Ca.s.sino by Saint Benedict, in 529 A.D., and the promulgation of the Benedictine rule (R. 43), a more liberal att.i.tude was shown. [5] This rule was adopted generally by the monasteries throughout what is now Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and England, and the Benedictine became the type for the monks of the early Middle Ages. To this order we are largely indebted for the copying of books and the preservation of learning throughout the mediaeval period.

The 48th rule of Saint Benedict, it will be remembered (R. 43), had imposed reading and study as a part of the daily duty of every monk, but had said nothing about schools. Subsequent regulations issued by superiors had aimed at the better enforcement of this rule (R. 44), that the monks might lead devout lives and know the Bible and the sacred writings of the Church. Imposed at first as a matter of education and discipline for the monks, this rule ultimately led to the establishment of schools and the development of a system of monastic instruction. As youths were received at an early age [6] into the monasteries to prepare for a monastic life, it was necessary that they be taught to read if they were later to use the sacred books. This led to the duty of instructing novices, which marks the beginning of monastic instruction for those within the walls. As books were scarce and at the same time necessary, and the only way to get new ones was to copy from old ones, the monasteries were soon led to take up the work once carried on by the publis.h.i.+ng houses of ancient Rome, and in much the same way. This made writing necessary, and the novices had to be instructed carefully in this, as well as in reading. [7] The chants and music of the Church called for instruction of the novices in music, and the celebration of Easter and the fast and festival days of the Church called for some rudimentary instruction in numbers and calculation.

Out of these needs rose the monastery school, the copying of ma.n.u.scripts, and the preservation of books. Due to their greater security and quiet the monasteries became the leading teaching inst.i.tutions of the early part of the Middle-Age period, and those who wished their children trained for the service of the Church gave them to the monasteries (R. 53 a). The development of the monastic schools was largely voluntary, though from an early date bishops and rulers began urging the monasteries to open schools for boys in connection with their houses, and schools became in time a regular feature of the monastic organization. From schools only for those intending to take the vows (_oblati_), the instruction was gradually opened, after the ninth century, to others (_externi_) not intending to take the vows, and what came to be known as "outer" monastic schools were in time developed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 38. BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF A MEDIAEVAL MONASTERY (From an engraving by Viollet-le-Duc, dated 1718, of the Cistercian Abbey of Citeaux, in France) This monastery was founded in the forests of what is now northeastern France, in 1198 A.D., and was the first of a reformed Benedictine order, known as Cistercians. For an explanation of the monastery, see the opposite page. (Note: explanation follows.)

_Explanation of the Monastery opposite_: The cross, by the roadside, indicates the entrance gate. Pa.s.sing through the orchards and fields, the traveler reached the outer gate-house. At the almonry (_C_) food and drink were given out; on the second floor rooms for the night could be had; in the little chapel (_D_) prayers could be said; and in the stable (_F_) the traveler's horse could be cared for for the night. An inner gate through (_E_) opened into an inner court, around which were the barns, chicken- yards, cow-sheds, etc. The Abbot lived at _H_. _G_ was a dormitory for the lay brothers who did the heavy work of the monastery, and who entered the church (_N_) at the rear through a special doorway (_S_). All of these buildings were considered as outside the monastery proper.

Inside were the great church (_N_), with the library (_P_) in the rear.

Seven _scriptoria_ are shown on the side of the library building. _M_ was the large dormitory for the monks, and _R_ the infirmary for old and sick brothers. _I_ was the kitchen, _K_ was the dining-hall (refectory), and _L_ the stairs to the upper dormitory rooms. _C_ and _E_ are two cloisters with corridors on the four sides, somewhat similar to the cloisters shown for the monastery on Plate I. The copying of books often took place in these cloisters, though a _scriptorium_ was usually found under the library, the library proper, as in Plate 2, being on the second floor (_P_) and reached by a winding stair. A wall surrounded the monastery grounds, and a stream of running water pa.s.sed through them.]

The monasteries became the preservers of learning. Another need developed the copying of pagan books, and incidentally the preservation of some of the best of Roman literature. The language of the Church very naturally was Latin, as it was a direct descendant of Roman life, governmental organization, citizens.h.i.+p, and education. The writings of the Fathers of the Western Church had all been in Latin, and in the fourth century the Bible had been translated from the Greek into the Latin. This edition, known as the _Vulgate_ [8] _Bible_, became the standard for western Europe for ten centuries to come. The German tribes which had invaded the Empire had no written languages of their own, and their spoken dialects differed much from the Latin speech of those whom they had conquered. Latin was thus the language of all those of education, and naturally continued as the language of the Church and the monastery for both speech and writing.

All books were, of course, written in Latin.

Under the rude influences and the general ignorance of the period, though, the language was easily and rapidly corrupted, and it became necessary for the monasteries and the churches to have good models of Latin prose and verse to refer to. These were best found in the old Latin literary authors--particularly Caesar, Cicero, and Vergil. To have these, due to the great destruction of old books which had taken place during the intervening centuries, it was necessary to copy these authors, [9] as well as the Psalter, the Missal, [10] the sacred books, and the writings of the Fathers of the Church (Rs. 55, 56). It thus happened that the monasteries unintentionally began to preserve and use the ancient Roman books, and from using them at first as models for style, an interest in their contents was later awakened. While many of the monasteries remained as farming, charitable, and ascetic inst.i.tutions almost exclusively, and were never noted for their educational work, a small but increasing number gradually acc.u.mulated libraries and became celebrated for their literary activity and for the character of their instruction. The monasteries thus in time became the storehouses of learning, the publis.h.i.+ng houses of the Middle Ages (Rs. 54, 55, 56), teaching inst.i.tutions of first importance, and centers of literary activity and religious thought, as well as centers for agricultural development, work in the arts and crafts, and Christian hospitality. Many developed into large and important inst.i.tutions (R. 69).

THE COPYING OF Ma.n.u.sCRIPTS. [11] The work of the more important monasteries and the monastic churches in copying books was a service to learning of large future significance. While many of the books copied were for the promotion of the religious service, such as Missals and Psalters (R. 55), and many others were tales of saints and wearisome comments on the sacred writings, a few were old cla.s.sical texts representing the best of Roman literary work. A few monastic chronicles and histories of importance were composed by the brothers, and also preserved for us by the copying process.

The production of a single book was a task of large proportions, and explains in part the small number of volumes the monasteries acc.u.mulated.

After the raids of the Mohammedans across Egypt, in the seventh century, the supply of Egyptian papyrus stopped because of the interruption of communications, and the only writing material during the Middle Ages was the skin of sheep or goats or calves. Sheepskins were chiefly used, and a book of size might require a hundred or more skins. These were first soaked in limewater to loosen the hair, then sc.r.a.ped clean of hair and flesh, and then carefully stretched on board frames to dry. After they had dried they were again sc.r.a.ped with sharp knives to secure an even thickness, and then rubbed smooth with pumice and chalk. When finished, the clean, s.h.i.+ning, cream-colored skin was known as vellum, [12] or parchment. This was next cut into pages of the desired size and arranged ready for writing. The larger pieces were used for large books, such as are shown in Plate 2, and the remnants to produce small books. The inks, too, had to be prepared, and the pages ruled.