Foundation Of Mediaeval Culture

Schools never wholly disappeared from Western society, either during the

barbarian invasion or in the even more troublous times that followed.

Secular schools continued throughout the fifth century. During the sixth

century they gave way for the most part to schools fostered by the Church,

or were thoroughly transformed by ecclesiastical influences. In the fifth

and sixth centuries, the great compends were made that served as

text-books for centuries. Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville, and

Bede represent great steps in the preparation for the mediaeval schools.

But, apart from the survival of old schools, there was a real demand for

the establishment of new schools. The new monasticism needed them. It

required some reading and study every day by the monks. As children were

constantly being received, ordinarily at the age of seven, these oblati

needed instruction. The monastic schools, which thus arose, early made

provision for the instruction of those not destined for the monastic life

in the external schools of the monasteries. Then again, the need of clergy

with some literary training, however simple, was felt, especially as the

secular schools declined or were found not convenient, and conciliar

action was taken in various countries to provide for such education. In

the conversion of the English, schools seem very early to have been

established, and the encouragement given these schools by the learned

Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury, bore splendid fruit, not

merely in the great school of Canterbury but still more in the monastic

schools of the North, at Jarrow and Wearmouth and at York. It was from the

schools in the North that the culture of the Frankish kingdom under

Charles the Great largely came. There was always a marked difference of

opinion as to the value of secular literature in education, as is shown by

the attitude already taken by Gregory the Great in his letter to

Desiderius of Vienne, a letter which did much to discourage the literary

study of the classics.





(a) Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, II, 40 (§ 60). (MSL, 34:63).





The Christian's use of heathen writers.





The whole book should be examined carefully to see the working out

of the same idea in detail. St. Augustine was a man of literary

culture, although he was imperfectly acquainted with Greek. He

speaks from his own experience of the help he had derived from

this culture. The work On Christian Doctrine is, in fact, not at

all a treatise on theology but on pedagogy, and was of immense

influence in the Middle Ages.





If those who are called philosophers and especially the Platonists have

said anything true and in harmony with the faith, we ought not only not to

shrink from it, but rather to appropriate it for our own use, taking it

from them as from unlawful possessors. For as the Egyptians had not only

the idols and heavy burdens, which the people of Israel hated and fled

from, but also vessels and ornaments of gold and silver and clothing which

the same people on going out of Egypt secretly appropriated to themselves

as for a better use, not on their own authority but on the command of God,

for the Egyptians in their ignorance lent those things which they

themselves were not using well [Ex. 3:22; 12:35]; in the same way all

branches of heathen learning have not only false and superstitious fancies

and heavy burdens of unnecessary toil which each of us, in going out under

the leadership of Christ from the fellowship of the heathen, ought to hate

and avoid; but they contain also liberal instruction which it is well to

adapt to the use of truth and some most useful precepts of morality; and

some truths in regard even to the worship of the one God are found among

them. Now these are, so to speak, their gold and silver, which they

themselves did not create, but dug, as it were, out of certain mines of

God's providence, which are everywhere scattered abroad, and are

perversely and unlawfully misused to the worship of devils. These,

therefore, the Christian, when he separates himself in spirit from the

miserable fellowship of these men, ought to take away from them for their

proper use in preaching the Gospel. Their clothing also, that is, human

institutions, adapted to that intercourse with men which is indispensable

for this life, it is right to take and to have so as to be turned to

Christian use.





(b) John Cassian. Institutiones, V, 33, 34. (MSL, 49:249.)





Cassian, born 360, was one of the leaders of the monastic

movement. He founded monasteries near Marseilles, and did much to

spread the monastic movement in Gaul and Spain. His

Institutiones and Collationes were of influence, even after

his monasteries had been entirely supplanted by the Benedictines.

The opinion here given is probably that prevalent in the

monasteries in Egypt. It is utterly different from the spirit of

Basil, and the great theologians of Asia Minor who, in the matter

of secular studies, hold the same opinion as the older Alexandrian

school of Clement and Origen.





Ch. 33. We also saw the abbot Theodore, a man endowed with the utmost

holiness and with perfect knowledge not only of things of the practical

life but also of the meaning of the Scriptures, which he had acquired, not

so much by study and reading, or secular scholarship, as by purity of

heart alone; since he was able only with difficulty to understand or speak

even but a few words in the Greek language. This man, when he was seeking

an explanation of some most difficult question, continued indefatigably

seven days and nights in prayer until, by a revelation of the Lord, he

knew the answer to the question propounded.



Ch. 34. This man, therefore, when some of the brethren were wondering at

the splendid light of his knowledge, and were asking him some meanings of

Scripture, said: "A monk desiring to attain to a knowledge of the

Scriptures ought in no wise to spend his labor on the books of the

commentators, but rather to keep all the efforts of his mind and the

intentions of his heart set on purification from carnal vices. When these

are driven out, at once the eyes of the heart, when the veil of passions

has been removed, will begin, as it were, naturally to gaze on the

mysteries of Scripture, since these were not declared unto us by the grace

of the Holy Ghost to remain unknown and obscure; but they are rendered

obscure by our vices, as the veil of our sins cover the eyes of the heart,

and for these, when restored to their natural health, the mere reading of

Holy Scripture is amply sufficient for the perception of the true

knowledge; nor do they need the instruction of commentators, just as these

eyes of flesh need no man's assistance to see provided they are free from

the dimness or darkness of blindness."





(c) Gregory the Great, Ep. ad Desiderium, Reg. XI, ep. 54. (MSL,

77:1171.)





Desiderius was bishop of Vienne. This letter was sent with several

others written in connection with the sending of Mellitus to

England; see Bede, Hist. Ec., I, 27, 29.





Many good things have been reported to us regarding your pursuits, and

such joy arose in our hearts that we could not bear to refuse what your

fraternity had requested to have granted you. But afterward it came to our

ears, what we cannot mention without shame, that thy fraternity is in the

habit of expounding grammar to certain persons. This thing pained us so

and we so strongly disapproved of it that we changed what had been said

before into groaning and sadness, since the praises of Christ cannot find

room in the one mouth with the praises of Jupiter. And consider thyself

what a grave and heinous offence it is for bishops to sing what is not

becoming even for a religious layman. And, though our most beloved son

Candidus, the presbyter, who was strictly examined on this matter when he

came to us, denied it and endeavored to excuse you, yet still the thought

has not left our mind that, in proportion as it is execrable for such a

thing to be related of a priest, it ought to be ascertained by strict and

veracious evidence whether or not it be so. If, therefore, hereafter what

has been reported to us should prove to be evidently false, and it should

be clear that you do not apply yourself to trifles and secular literature,

we shall give thanks to God, who has not permitted your heart to be

stained with the blasphemous phrases of what is abominable; and we will

treat without misgiving or hesitation concerning granting what you have

requested.



We commend to you in all respects the monks whom, together with our most

beloved son Laurentius, the presbyter, and Mellitus, the abbot, we have

sent to our most reverend brother and fellow-bishop Augustine, that by the

help of your fraternity no delay may hinder their journey.





(d) Council of Vaison, A. D. 529, Canon 1. Bruns, II, 183.





Vaison is a small see in the province of Arles. The synod was

attended by about a dozen bishops. It is, therefore, not

authoritative for a large district, but when taken in connection

with the following selection indicates a wide-spread custom.





That presbyters in their parishes shall bring up and instruct young

readers in their houses. It was decided that all presbyters who are placed

in parishes should, according to a custom which we learn is very

beneficially observed throughout Italy, receive young readers, as many as

they have who are unmarried, into their house where they dwell, and as

good fathers shall endeavor to bring them up spiritually to render the

Psalms, and to instruct them in the divine readings, and to educate them

in the law of the Lord, that so they may provide for themselves worthy

successors, and receive from the Lord eternal rewards. But when they come

to full age, if any of them, on account of the weakness of the flesh, wish

to marry, they shall not be denied the right of doing so.





(e) II Council of Toledo, A. D. 531, Canon 1. Bruns, I, 207.





Concerning those whom their parents voluntarily give in the first years of

their childhood to the office of the clergy, we have decreed this to be

observed; namely, that as soon as they have been tonsured or have been

given to the care of appointed persons, they ought to be educated by some

one set over them, in the church building, and in the presence of the

bishop. When they have completed their eighteenth year, they shall be

asked by the bishop, in the presence of all the clergy and people, their

will as to seeking marriage. And if by God's inspiration they have the

grace of chastity, and shall have promised to observe the profession of

their chastity without any necessity of marriage, let these who are more

desirous of the hardest life put on the most gentle yoke of the Lord, and

first let them receive from their twentieth year the ministry of the

subdiaconate, probation having been made of their profession, that, if

blamelessly and without offence they attain the twenty-fifth year of their

age, they may be promoted to the office of the diaconate, if they have

been proved by their bishop to be able to fulfil it.





(f) Bede, Hist. Ec., III, 18. (MSL, 95:144.)





Sigebert became king of the East Angles about 631 and died 637.

The facts known of him are briefly recorded in DCB.





At this time the kingdom of the East Angles, after the death of Earpwald,

the successor of Redwald, was subject to his brother Sigebert, a good and

religious man, who long before had been baptized in France, whilst he

lived in banishment, flying from the enmity of Redwald; when he returned

home and had ascended the throne he was desirous of imitating the good

institutions which he had seen in France, and he set up a school for the

young to be instructed in letters, and was assisted therein by Bishop

Felix, who had come to him from Kent and who furnished him with masters

and teachers after the manner of that country.





(g) Bede, Hist. Ec., IV, 2. (MSL, 95:173.)





Theodore arrived at his church the second year after his consecration, on

Sunday, May 27, and held the same twenty-one years, three months and

twenty-six days. Soon after he visited all the islands, wherever the

tribes of the Angles dwelt, for he was willingly entertained and heard by

all persons. Everywhere he was attended and assisted by Hadrian, and he

taught the right rule of life and the canonical custom of celebrating

Easter.(278) This was the first archbishop whom all the English Church

obeyed. And forasmuch as both of them were, as has been said, well read in

sacred and secular literature, they gathered a crowd of scholars and there

daily flowed from them rivers of knowledge to water the hearts of their

hearers; and together with the books of the holy Scriptures they also

taught them the arts of ecclesiastical poetry, astronomy, and arithmetic.

A testimony of which is that there are still living at this day [circa

A. D. 727] some of their scholars who are as well versed in the Greek and

Latin tongues as in their own, in which they were born. Never were there

happier times since the English came to Britain; for their kings were

brave men and good Christians and were a terror to all barbarous nations,

and the minds of all men were bent upon the joys of the heavenly kingdom

of which they had just heard. And all who desired instruction in sacred

reading had masters at hand to teach them. From that time also they began

in all the churches of the English to learn sacred music which till then

had been only known in Kent. And excepting James, mentioned above, the

first singing-master(279) in the churches of the Northumbrians was Eddi,

surnamed Stephen, invited from Kent by the most reverend Wilfrid, who was

the first of the bishops of the English nation that taught the churches of

the English the Catholic mode of life.





(h) Council of Clovesho, A. D. 747, Canon 7. Haddan and Stubbs, III,

360.





They decreed in the seventh article of agreement that bishops, abbots, and

abbesses should by all means take care and diligently provide that their

families should incessantly apply their minds to reading, and that

knowledge be spread by the voices of many to the gaining of souls and to

the praise of the eternal King. For it is sad to say how few(280) in these

times do heartily love and labor for sacred knowledge and are willing to

take pains in learning, but they are from their youth up rather employed

in divers vanities and the affectation of vainglory; and they rather

pursue the amusements of this present unstable life than the assiduous

study of holy Scriptures. Therefore let boys be kept and trained up in

such schools, to the love of sacred knowledge, and that, being by this

means well learned, they may become in all respects useful to the Church

of God.







Chapter IV. The Revolution In The Ecclesiastical And Political Situation

Due To The Rise Of Islam And The Doctrinal Disputes In The Eastern Church





In the course of the seventh and eighth centuries, the ecclesiastical and

political situation altered completely. This change was due, in the first

place, to the rise of the religion and empire of the Moslems, whereby a

very large part of the Eastern Empire was conquered by the followers of

the Prophet, who had rapidly extended their conquests over Syria and the

best African provinces. Reduced in extent and exposed to ever fresh

attacks from a powerful enemy, the Eastern Empire had to face new

political problems. In the second place, as the provinces overrun

contained the greater number of those dissatisfied with the doctrinal

results of the great councils, the apparently interminable contests over

the question as to the two natures of Christ came to an unexpected end.

This did not take place until a new cause for dispute had arisen among the

adherents of Chalcedon, due to an attempt to win back the Monophysites by

accounting for the unity of the person of Christ by positing one will in

Jesus. Monotheletism at once became among the adherents of Chalcedon a

burning question. It was finally condemned at the Sixth General Council,

Constantinople, A. D. 683, at which Pope Agatho played a part very similar

to that played by Pope Leo at Chalcedon, but at the cost of seeing his

predecessor, Honorius, condemned as a Monothelete. It was the last triumph

of the West in the dogmatic controversies of the East. The Eastern

ecclesiastics, irritated at the diplomatic triumph of Rome, expressed

their resentment at the Concilium Quinisextum, in 692, where, in passing

canons to complete the work of the Fifth and Sixth Councils, an

opportunity was embraced of expressly condemning several Roman practices.

In the confusion resulting in the next century from the attempt of Leo the

Isaurian to put an end to the use of images in the churches, the Roman see

was able to rid itself of the nominal control which the Emperor still had

over the papacy by means of the exarchate of Ravenna. When the Lombards

pressed too heavily upon the papacy it was easy for the Bishop of Rome to

make an alliance with the Franks, who on their side saw that it was

profitable to employ the papacy in the advancement of their own schemes.

In this way arose that alliance between the pontiff and the new Frankish

monarchy upon which the ecclesiastical development of the Middle Ages

rests. But Iconoclasm suffered defeat at the Seventh General Council, 787,

in which the doctrinal system of the East was completed. As this was the

last undisputed general council, it may be taken as marking the

termination of the history of the ancient Church. In following the further

course of the Western Church there is no longer need of a detailed tracing

of the history of the Eastern Church, which ceased to be a determining

factor in the religious life of the West. The two parts of Christendom

come in contact from time to time, but without formal schism they have

ceased to be organically united.