CHAPTER VI

EDUCATION DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

I. CONDITION AND PRESERVATION OF LEARNING

THE Readings in this chapter deal with the condition of learning after the downfall of the Roman Empire, the work of the monasteries in preserving the old pagan learning and the arts of reading and writing, and the efforts of Kings Charlemagne and Alfred to revive the study of letters in their domains.

To such a low ebb had all learning declined, after the barbarian invasions, that but few schools remained in Gaul and northern Italy, and these were needed only for the purposes of the Church. All through the early Middle Ages the monasteries or the Church offered the only means to an education, and the only type of career for which learning was needed. Parents wishing their children to follow careers usually gave them to a monastery, for which gift fixed forms of dedication (53 a) were used. Beside agriculture, various forms of manual labor, and acts of devotion, life in a monastery also called for some form of literary labor. For most of the monks this meant reading, though a few specialized and became copyists, and some monasteries specialized on book copying and thus became the publishers of the Middle Ages. The work of copying books is well described in Numbers 54 and 55, both being chronicles from old monastic writers. Some nunneries also became noted for their book work, the work of one nun being described in Reading 56. The preparation and binding of books was a long and important process, and the work of the monks is well described in the extract from Symonds (57). When the manufacture of a book had been completed it was customary to inscribe in it an anathema, to protect it from theft. Samples of these anathemas are reproduced from Clark (58 a-f).

During the early part of the Middle Ages learning was better preserved in England than on the Continent, and the extracts from Bede (59 a-c) and Alcuin (60) give good pictures of the teaching of Theodore at Canterbury and Ælbert at York. Alcuin also describes the more important books in the celebrated cathedral library at York (61).

In 768 A.D., there came to the throne as king of the great Frankish nation one of the greatest rulers of all time - Charlemagne. Finding learning in a most deplorable condition in his kingdom, and realizing the need for training for his clergy, he began a series of efforts to bring scholars and teachers into Frankland. The most important man brought in was Alcuin, from York, who arrived in 782, and spent the remainder of his life in educational labors there. Organizing first a Palace School, he began the instruction of Charlemagne's immediate household. A good sample of the instruction prepared for Charlemagne's son, Pepin, is reproduced in Number 62. Under Alcuin's inspiration a number of proclamations on education were issued (64 a-c), and a collection of edited sermons (63) was issued to the churches. After fourteen years as Charlemagne's teacher and minister of education, Alcuin retired to the monastery at Tours, where, as Abbot, he spent the remainder of his life in directing the copying of books and in training scholars. In a letter to Charlemagne, asking for books from England to copy (65), we get a good picture of the deplorable educational conditions of the time, as well as of the old man's thirst for learning.

England, too, was later ravaged by the Danes, as was northern France by the Northmen, and learning fell into decay in both places. England especially suffered, and King Alfred, in his Introduction to Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care (66), gives us a good picture of the sad conditions which had come about in his kingdom. As Charlemagne, before him, he too was forced to seek scholars from abroad (67) to restore learning at home. The education he gave his son (68) is indicative of the best training of the time.

Many of the medieval monasteries grew into large and important institutions, one of the most notable of which was that of Saint Gall, in Switzerland. The ground plan of this monastery in the ninth century (69) shows what a large institution it had become, and the description appended reveals the varied activities carried on within the walls of one of the larger institutions.

53. Form for offering a Child to a Monastery; the Monastic Vow; and a Letter of Honorable Dismissal

(From Migne, Patrologia, 66, col. 842, 821, 859)

The forms which follow represent examples used in offering a child to a monastery, the monastic vows which were taken, and

the letter of honorable dismissal which a monk carried with him when he transferred from one monastery to another. It is interesting, as illustrating the continuity of our intellectual life and legal procedure, to compare these three forms with the modern forms for releasing parentage of a child for adoption by another, any form of modern vow, and the letter of honorable dismissal given a college student leaving one college to enter another.

(a) Form of offering a Child to a Monastery

The dedication of children to the service of God is sanctioned by the example of Abraham and of many other holy men, as related in the Old and the New Testaments. Therefore, I, (name) now offer in the presence of abbot (name), this my son, (name), to omnipotent God and to the Virgin Mary, mother of God, for the salvation of my soul and of the soul of my parents. I promise for him that he shall follow the monastic life in this monastery of (name), according to the rule of St. Benedict, and that from this day forth he shall not withdraw his neck from the yoke of this service. I promise also that he shall never be tempted to leave by me or by anyone with my consent.

(b) The Monastic Vow

I hereby renounce my parents, my brothers and relatives, my friends, my possessions and my property, and the vain and empty glory and pleasure of this world. I also renounce my own will, for the will of God. I accept all the hardships of the monastic life, and take the vows of purity, chastity, and poverty, in the hope of heaven; and I promise to remain a monk in this monastery all the days of my life.

(c) Letter of Honorable Dismissal from a Monastery

This our brother (name), has desired to dwell in another monastery where it seems to him that he can best serve the Lord and save his own soul. Know ye, therefore, that we have given him permission by this letter of dismissal to betake himself thither.

54. The Copying of Books at a Monastery

(From Abbot Heriman's account of the restoration of the monastery of Saint Martin, at Tournay, in Flanders; trans. in Maitland, S. R., The Dark Ages, pp. 413-14. London, 1844)

The writer here relates how the first Abbot, who was installed in 1093, not being much of a manager, turned the organization and direction of the work of the monastery over to the Prior, with good results.

...The abbot greatly rejoiced, and used to thank God, who had given him a man that had relieved him from the anxiety and bustle of worldly

affairs. For, committing to him the whole charge of the external affairs of our monastery, he gave himself up so entirely to the duties of a monk, and to silence, that frequently he did not go out of the monastery for a month together, but, being devoted to reading, he took the utmost pains to promote the writing of books. He used, in fact, to exult in the number of writers which the Lord had given him; for if you had gone into the cloister, you might in general have seen a dozen young monks sitting on chairs in perfect silence, writing at tables carefully and artificially constructed. All Jerome's Commentaries on the Prophets, all the works of Saint Gregory, and everything that he could find of Saint Augustine, Ambrose, Isidore, Bede, and the Lord Anselm, then Abbot of Bec, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, he caused to be diligently transcribed. So that you would scarcely have found such a library at any monastery in that part of the country, and everybody was begging for our copies to correct their own. Our monastery was at that time in great reputation, and in a high state of discipline; for in the whole province of Rheims there were at that period only three monasteries which followed the customs of Clugni - namely, Anchin, Afflighem, and our own. The monastery of Clugni at that time excelled all others belonging to the kingdom of the Francs in monastic order; for the rigor of the Cistercians had not then sprung up, and the Lord Norbert had not as yet been heard of.

55. Work of a Monk in writing and copying Books (From Othlonus' De ipsius tentationibus, varia fortuna, et scriptis; trans. in Maitland, S. R., The Dark Ages, pp. 417-19. London, 1844)

Othlonus, a monk of Saint Emmeram's, at Ratisbon, born about 1013 A.D., has left us an interesting picture of his work as author and copyist, which shows how he disposed of the books produced. Just what books he copied he does not say, and we do not know.

For the same reason I think it proper to add an account of the great knowledge and capacity for writing which was given me by the Lord in my childhood. When as yet a little child, I was sent to school, and quickly learned my letters; and I began, long before the usual time of learning, and without any orders from the master, to learn the art of writing. But in a furtive and unusual manner, and without any teacher, I attempted to learn that art. From this circumstance I got a habit of holding my pen in a wrong manner; nor were any of my teachers afterwards able to correct me in that point; for I had become too much accustomed to it to be capable of altering. Many who saw this unanimously decided that I should never write well; but, by the grace of God, it turned out otherwise, as is known to many persons. For, even in my

childhood, and at the time when, together with the other boys, the tablet was put into my hands, that I might learn to write, it appeared that I had some notion of writing, to the no small surprise of those who saw it. Then, after a short time, I began to write so well, and was so fond of it, that in the place where I learned, that is, in the monastery of Tegernsee, (in Bavaria, almost in a line between Munich and Innsbruck,) I wrote many books. And being sent into Franconia while I was yet a boy, I worked so hard at writing while I was there, that before I returned I had nearly lost my sight. This I resolved to mention, in the hope that I may excite some others to a similar love of labour; and that, by recounting to others the grace of God which had granted to me such benefits, I may lead them to magnify that grace of God with me. And the better to do this, I think it proper to relate how I laboured in writing afterwards, when I had returned from Franconia, for I was there when the Emperor Henry died, and Conrad came to the throne (in the year 1024).

Then, after I came to be a monk in the monastery of St. Emmeram, I was soon induced, by the request of some of them, again to occupy myself so much in writing that I seldom got any interval of rest, except on festivals, and at such times as work could not be performed. In the meantime, there came more work upon me; for, as they saw that I was generally reading, or writing, or composing, they made me the schoolmaster. By all which things I was, through God's grace, so fully occupied, that I frequently could not allow my body the necessary rest. And when I had a mind to compose anything, I very commonly could not find time for it, except on holydays, or by night, being tied down to the business of teaching the boys, and the transcribing which I had been persuaded to undertake. Therefore, beside the books which I composed myself, which I wrote to give away for the edification of those who asked for them, and of others to whom I gave them unasked, I wrote nineteen missals - ten for the abbots and monks in our own monastery, four for the brethren at Fulda, five for those in other places; three books of the Gospels, and two with the Epistles and Gospels, which are called Lectionaries; beside which I wrote four service books for matins. Afterwards, old age and infirmity of various kinds hindered me; especially the tedious interruption which lasted for a very long time through various anxieties, and the grief which was caused by the destruction of our monastery; but to Him who is the Author of all good, and who alone governs all things, and who has vouchsafed to give many things to me unworthy, be praise eternal, be honour everlasting.

I think it right also to relate, as far as I am able to recollect, how many books I have given to different monasteries and friends; and first I would mention the monks at Fulda, because, as I worked a great deal in their monastery, writing many books which I sent to our monastery, so in ours I wrote out some books which they had not; and, if I