Chapter XXXII: Part I: The Mythological Poems (1)

[193] The best account of the Sagas, in English, is the Prolegomena to Vigfusson’s edition of the Sturlunga Saga (Clarendon Press, 1878). Dasent’s Introduction to his translation of the Njáls Saga (Edinburgh, 1861) is instructive as to the conditions of life in Iceland in the early times. W. P. Ker’s _Epic and Romance_ (Macmillan & Co., 1897) has elaborate literary criticism upon the Sagas. The following is Vigfusson’s: “The Saga proper is a kind of prose Epic. It has its fixed laws, its set phrases, its regular epithets and terms of expression, and though there is, as in all high literary form, an endless diversity of interest and style, yet there are also bounds which are never over-stepped, confining the Saga as closely as the employment and restrictions of verse could do. It will be best to take as the type the smaller Icelandic Saga, from which indeed all the later forms of composition have sprung. This is, in its original form, the story of the life of an Icelandic gentleman, living some time in the tenth or eleventh centuries. It will tell first of his kin, going back to the settler from whom he sprung, then of his youth and early promise before he left his father’s house to set forth on that foreign career which was the fitting education of the young Northern chief. These _wanderjahre_ passed in trading voyages and pirate cruises, or in the service of one of the Scandinavian kings, as poet or henchman, the hero returns to Iceland a proved man, and the main part of the story thus preluded begins. It recounts in fuller detail and in order of time his friendships and his enmities, his exploits and renown, and finally his death; usually concluding with the revenge taken for him by his kinsmen, which fitly winds up the whole. This tale is told in an earnest, straightforward way, as by a man talking, in short simple sentences, changing when the interest grows into the historic present, with here and there an ‘aside’ of explanation put in.... The whole composition, grouped around a single man and a single place, is so well balanced and so naturally unfolded piece by piece, that the great art shown therein often at first escapes the reader.”

[194] The Story of Burnt Njal (Njáls Saga or Njála), trans. by Dasent (2 vols. Edinburgh, 1861). A prose narrative interspersed with occasional lyric verses is the form which the Icelandic Sagas have in common with the Irish. In view of the mutual intercourse and undoubted mingling of Norse and Celtic blood both in Ireland and Iceland, it is probable that the Norse Saga-form was taken from the Irish. But, except in the Laxdæla Saga (trans. by Mrs. Press in the Temple Classics, Dent, 1899), one seems to find no Celtic strain. The Sagas are the prose complement of the poetic _Edda_. Both are Norse absolutely: fruit of one spirit, part of one literature, a possession of one people. As to racial purity of blood in their authors and fashioners, or in the men of whom the tales are told, that is another matter. Who shall say that Celtic blood and inherited Celtic gifts of expression were not the leaven of this Norse literature? But whatever entered into it and helped to create it, became Norse just as vitally as, ages before, every foreign suggestion adopted by a certain gifted Mediterranean race was Hellenized, and became Greek. In Iceland, in the Orkneys and the Faroes, Viking conditions, the Viking spirit, and Norse blood, dominated, assimilating, transforming and doubtless using whatever talents and capacities came within the vortex of Viking life.

It may be added that there is merely an accidental likeness between the Saga and the Cantafable. In the Saga the verses are the utterances of the heroes when specially moved. One may make a verse as a short death-song when his death is imminent, or as a gibe on an enemy, whom he is about to attack. In the Cantafable--_Aucassin and Nicolette_, for example--the verses are a lyric summary of the parts of the narrative following them, and are not spoken by the _dramatis personae_. The Cantafable (but not the Sagas) perhaps may be traced back to such a work as Boëthius’s _De consolatione_, which at least is identical in form, or Capella’s _De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii_. The _De planctu naturae_ of Alanus de Insulis (_post_, Chapter XXXII. 1) plainly shows such antecedents.

[195] Story of Gisli the outlaw, trans. by Dasent, chap. ix. (Edinburgh, 1866).

[196] The Story of Burnt Njal, chap. i., trans. by Dasent.

[197] The Story of Grettir the Strong (Grettis Saga), chaps. 32-35, trans. by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1869). See also _ibid._ chaps. 65, 66. These accounts are analogous to the story of Beowulf’s fights with Grendal and his dam; but are more convincing.

[198] The stories of the Kings of Norway, called the _Round World_ (Heimskringla), by Snorri Sturluson, done into English by Magnusson and Morris (London, 1893). Snorri Sturluson (b. 1178, d. 1241) composed or put together the _Heimskringla_ from earlier writings, chiefly those of Ari the Historian (b. 1067, d. 1148), “a man of truthfulness, wisdom, and good memory,” who wrote largely from oral accounts.

[199] The Story of Egil Skallagrimson, trans. by W. C. Green (London, 1893).

[200] These poems are in the Saga, and will be found translated in Mr. Green’s edition. They are also edited with prose translations in _C.P.B._, vol. i. pp. 266-280. With Egil one may compare the still more truculent, but very different Grettir, hero of the Grettis Saga. The Story of Grettir the Strong, trans. by Magnusson and Morris (2nd ed., London, 1869).

[201] Bede, _Hist. Ecc._ i. 13. Moreover, the chief partisan of Pelagius (a Briton) was Coelestinus, an Irishman whose restless activity falls in the thirty years preceding the mission of Palladius.

[202] As for the Irish Church in Ireland, there were many differences in usage between it and the Church of Rome. In the matters of Easter and the tonsure the southern Irish were won over to the Roman customs before the middle of the seventh century, and after that the Roman Easter made its way to acceptance through the island. Yet still the Irish appear to have used their own Liturgy, and to have shown little repugnance to the marriage of priests. The organization of the churches remained monastic rather than diocesan or episcopal, in spite of the fact that “bishops,” apparently with parochial functions, existed in great numbers. Hereditary customs governed the succession of the great abbots, as at Armagh, until the time of St. Malachy, a contemporary of St. Bernard. See St. Bernard’s _Life of Malachy_, chap. x.; Migne 182, col. 1086, cited by Killen, _o.c._ vol. i. p. 173. The exertions of Gregory VII. and Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, did much to bring the Irish Church into obedience to Rome. Various Irish synods in the twelfth century completed a proper diocesan system; and in 1155 a bull of Adrian IV. delivered the island over to Henry II. Plantagenet. Cf. Killen, _Eccl. Hist. of Ireland_, vol. i. pp. 162-222.

[203] The works of St. Columbanus or Columban, usually called of Luxeuil, are printed in Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, 80, col. 209-296. The chief source of knowledge of his life is the _Vita_ by Jonas his disciple: Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 87, col. 1009-1046. It has been translated by D. C. Munro, in vol. ii. No. 7 (series of 1895) of _Translations, etc._, published by University of Pennsylvania (Phila. 1897). See also Montalembert, _Monks of the West_, book vii. (vol. ii. of English translation).

[204] The article of H. Zimmer, “Über die Bedeutung des irischen Elements für die mittelalterliche Cultur,” _Preussische Jahrbücher_, Bd. 59, 1887, presents an interesting summary of the Irish influence. His views, and still more those of Ozanam in _Civilisation chrétienne chez les Francs_, chap, v., should be controlled by the detailed discussion in Roger’s _L’Enseignement des lettres classiques d’Ausone à Alcuin_ (Paris, 1905), chaps. vi. vii. and viii. See also G. T. Stokes, _Ireland and the Celtic Church_, Lect. XI. (London, 1892, 3rd ed.); D’Arbois de Jubainville, _Introduction à l’étude de la littérature celtique_, livre ii. chap. ix.; F. J. H. Jenkinson, _The Hisperica Famina_ (Cambridge and New York, 1909). Obviously it is unjustifiable (though it has been done) to regard the scholarship of gifted Irishmen who lived on the Continent in the ninth century (Sedulius Scotus, Eriugena, etc.) as evidence of scholarship in Ireland in the sixth, seventh, or eighth century. We do not know where these later men obtained their knowledge; there is little reason to suppose that they got it in Ireland.

[205] See the narrative in Green’s _History of the English People_.

[206] There is no positive evidence that Augustine painted the terrors of the Day of Judgment in his first preaching. But it was a chief part of the mediaeval Gospel, and never absent from the soul of Augustine’s master, Gregory. The latter set it forth vividly in his letter to Ethelbert after his baptism (Bede, _Hist. Ecc._ i. 32).

[207] Bede, _Hist. Ecc._ iii. 22, tells how a certain noble gesith slew his king from exasperation with the latter’s practice of forgiving his enemies, instead of requiting them, according to the principles of heathen morality.

[208] Bede, _Hist. Ecc._ i. 30. Well known are the picturesque scenes surrounding the long controversy as to Easter between the Roman clergy and the British and Irish. The matter bulks hugely in Bede’s book, as it did in his mind.

[209] Bede ii. 13.

[210] _E.g._ as in Bede iii. 1.

[211] One may bear in mind that practically all active proselytizing Christianity of the period was of a monastic type.

[212] A.D. 709. _Hist. Ecc._ v. 19, where another instance is also given; and see _ibid._ v. 7.

[213] See the pieces in Thorpe’s _Codex Exoniensis_, _e.g._ the “Supplication,” p. 452.

[214] _Ecc. Hist._ iv. 22.

[215] Bede, _Hist. Ecc._ iii. 19; v. 12, 13, 14. Of these the most famous is the vision of Fursa, an Irishman; but others were had by Northumbrians. Plummer, in his edition of Bede, vol. ii. p. 294, gives a list of such visions in the Middle Ages.

[216] On Aldhelm see Ebert, _Allegemeine Ges. des Lit. des Mittelalters_; and Roger, _L’Enseignement des lettres classiques_, etc., p. 288 _sqq._

[217] This is noticeable in his Commentary on the Gospel of John, Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 92, col. 633 _sqq._

[218] Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 91, col. 9. In another prefatory epistle to the same bishop Acca, Bede intimates that he has abridged the language of the Fathers: he says it is inconvenient always to put their names in the text. Instead he has inscribed the proper initials of each Father in the margin opposite to whatever he may have taken from him (_in Lucae Evangelium expositio_, Migne 92, col. 304).

[219] Migne 90, col. 258; _ibid._ col. 422. I have not observed this statement in Isidore.

[220] All of these are in t. 90 of Migne.

[221] His writings fill about five volumes (90-95) in Migne’s _Patrol. Latina_. A list may be found in the article “Bede” in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. _Beda der Ehrwürdige_, by Karl Werner (Vienna, 1881), is a good monograph.

[222] _Ante_, Chapter IV.

[223] _The Works of King Alfred the Great_ are translated from Anglo-Saxon in the Jubilee edition of Giles (2 vols., London, 1858). The _Pastoral Care_ and the _Orosius_ are translated by Henry Sweet in the publications of the Early English Text Society. W. J. Sedgefield’s translation of Alfred’s version of the _Consolations of Boëthius_ is very convenient from the italicizing of the portions added by Alfred to Boëthius’s original. The extracts given in the following pages have been taken from these editions.

[224] Boëthius’s words, which Alfred here paraphrases and supplements are as follows: “Tum ego, scis, inquam, ipsa minimum nobis ambitionem mortalium rerum fuisse dominatam; sed materiam gerendis rebus optavimus, quo ne virtus tacita consenesceret” (_De consol. phil._ ii. prosa 7).

[225] The substance of this bracketed clause is in Boëthius--the last words quoted in the preceding note.

[226] Toward the close of his life Alfred gathered some thoughts from Augustine’s _Soliloquies_ and from other writings, with which he mingled reflections of his own. He called the book _Blossoms_. He says in his preface: “I gathered me then staves and props, and bars, and helves for each of my tools, and boughs; and for each of the works that I could work, I took the fairest trees, so far as I might carry them away. Nor did I ever bring any burden home without longing to bring home the whole wood, if that might be; for in every tree I saw something of which I had need at home. Wherefore I exhort every one who is strong, and has many wains, that he direct his steps to the same wood where I cut the props. Let him there get him others, and load his wains with fair twigs, that he may weave thereof many a goodly wain, and set up many a noble house, and build many a pleasant town, and dwell therein in mirth and ease, both winter and summer, as I could never do hitherto. But He who taught me to love that wood, He may cause me to dwell more easily, both in this transitory dwelling ... and also in the eternal home which He has promised us” (Translation borrowed from _The Life and Time of Alfred the Great_, by C. Plummer, Clarendon Press, 1902). These metaphors represent Alfred’s way of putting what Isidore or Bede or Alcuin meant when they spoke in their prefaces of searching through the pantries of the Fathers or culling the sweetest flowers from the patristic meadows. See _e.g._ _ante_, Chapter V. and _post_, Chapter X.

[227] Far into the Frankish period there were many heathen in northern Gaul and along the Rhine: Hauck, _Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands_, I. Kap. i. (second edition, Leipzig, 1898). Cf. Vacandard, “L’Idolatrie en Gaule au VI{e} et au VII{e} siècles,” _Rev. des questions historiques_, 65 (1899), 424-454.

[228] _Mon. Germ. hist. Auctores antiquissimi_, tom. i. Cf. Ebert, _Ges. des Lit. des Mittelalters_, i. 452 _sqq._

[229] Cf. _ante_, Chapter VI.

[230] In those of its lands which were granted immunity from public burdens, the Church gradually acquired a jurisdiction by reason of its right to exact penalties, which elsewhere fell to the king.

[231] The synod of 549 declared (ineffectually) for the election of bishops, to be followed by royal confirmation.

[232] Hauck, _Kirchenges. Deutschlands_, Bd. I. Buch ii. Kap. ii.; Möller, _Kirchengeschichte_, Bd. II. p. 52 _sqq._ (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1893).

[233] Carloman went at first to Rome, and built a monastery, in which he lived for a while. But here his _contemptum regni terreni_ brought him more renown than his monk’s soul could endure. So, with a single companion, he fled, and came unmarked and in abject guise to Monte Cassino. He announced himself as a murderer seeking to do penance, and was received on probation. At the end of a year he took the vows of a monk. It happened that he was put to help in the kitchen, where he worked humbly but none too dexterously, and was chidden and struck by the cook for his clumsiness. At which he said with placid countenance, “May the Lord forgive thee, brother, and Carloman.” This occurring for the third time, his follower fell on the cook and beat him. When the uproar had subsided, and an investigation was called before the brethren, the follower said in explanation, that he could not hold back, seeing the vilest of the vile strike the noblest of all. The brethren seemed contemptuous, till the follower proclaimed that this monk was Carloman, once King of the Franks, who had relinquished his kingdom for the love of Christ. At this the terrified monks rose from their seats and flung themselves at Carloman’s feet, imploring pardon, and pleading their ignorance. But Carloman, rolling on the ground before them (_in terram provolutus_) denied it all with tears, and said he was not Carloman, but a common murderer. Nevertheless, thenceforth, recognized by all, he was treated with great reverence (_Regino, Chronicon_, Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 132, col. 45).

[234] For example, immunity (from governmental taxation and visitation) might attach to the lands of bishops and abbots, as it might to the lands of a lay potentate. On the other hand, the lands of bishops and abbots owed the Government such temporal aid in war and peace as would have attached to them in the hands of laymen. Such dignitaries had high secular rank. The king did not interfere with the appointment and control of the lower clergy by their lords, the bishops and abbots, any more than he did with the domestic or administrative appointments of great lay functionaries within their households or jurisdictions.

[235] There are numerous editions of the _Heliand_: by Sievers (1878), by Rückert (1876). Very complete is Heyne’s third edition (Paderborn, 1883). Portions of it are given, with modern German interlinear translation, in Piper’s _Die älteste Literatur_ (Deutsche Nat. Lit.), pp. 164-186. Otfrid’s book is elaborately edited by Piper (2nd edition with notes and glossary, Freiburg i. B., 1882). See also Piper’s _Die älteste Literatur_, where portions of the work are given with modern German interlinear translation. Compare Ebert, _Literatur des Mittelalters_, iii. 100-117.

[236] The _Heliand_ uses the epic phrases of popular poetry: they reappear three centuries later in the _Nibelungenlied_.

[237] _Ante_, Chapter I.

[238] _Ante_, Chapter VI.

[239] _Ante_, Chapter IX.

[240] _E.g._ Charles Martell and Pippin drove the Saracens from Narbonne--not Charlemagne, to whom these _chansons_ ascribe the deed.

[241] The dates are 801 and 765.

[242] Historical atlases usually devote a double map to the Empire of Charlemagne, and little side-maps to the Merovingian realm, which included vast German territories, and for a time extended into Italy.

[243] A part of the serious historian’s task is to get rid of “epochs” and “renaissances”--Carolingian, Twelfth Century, or Italian. For such there should be substituted a conception of historical continuity, with effect properly growing out of cause. Of course, one must have convenient terms, like “periods,” etc., and they are legitimate; for the Carolingian period did differ in degree from the Merovingian, and the twelfth century from the eleventh. But it would be well to eliminate “renaissance.” It seems to have been applied to the culture of the _quattrocento_, etc., in Italy sixty or seventy years ago (1845 is the earliest instance in Murray’s _Dictionary_ of this use of the word), and carries more false notions than can be contradicted in a summer’s day.

[244] The architecture, sculpture, and painting of the Carolingian time continued the Christian antique or Byzantine styles. Church interiors were commonly painted, a custom coming from early Christian mosaic and fresco decoration. Charlemagne’s Capitularies provided for the renovation of the churches, including their decorations. No large sculpture has survived; but we see that there was little artistic originality either in the illumination of manuscripts or in ivory carving. The royal chapel at Aix was built on the model of St. Vitale at Ravenna, and its columns appear to have been taken from existing structures and brought to Aix.

[245] Charlemagne’s famous open letters of general admonition, _de litteris colendis_ and _de emendatione librorum_, and his _admonitio generalis_ for the instruction of his legates (_missi_), show that the fundamental purpose of his exhortations was to advance the true understanding of Scripture: “ut facilius et rectius divinarum scripturarum mysteria valeatis penetrare.” To this end he seeks to improve the Latin education of monks and clergy; and to this end he would have the texts of Scripture emended and a proper liturgy provided; and, as touching the last, he refers to the efforts of his father Pippin before him. The best edition of these documents is by Boretius in the _Monumenta Germaniac historica_.

[246] As to the stylistic qualities of Carolingian prose and metre see _post_, Chapters XXXI., XXXII.

[247] Alcuin’s works are printed conveniently in tomes 100 and 101 of Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_. Extracts are given, _post_, Chapter XXXI., to indicate the place of Carolingian prose in the development of mediaeval Latin styles.

[248] Printed in Migne 101, col. 849-902. Alcuin adopted for his _Grammar_ the dialogue form frequent in Anglo-Saxon literature; and from his time the question and answer of _Discipulus_ and _Magister_ will not cease their cicada chime in didactic Latin writings.

[249] Migne 101, col. 857. See Mullinger, _Schools of Charles the Great_, p. 76 (an excellent book), and West’s _Alcuin_, chap. v. (New York, 1892).

[250] As in his _Disputatio Pippini_ (the son of Charlemagne), Migne 101, col. 975-980, which is just a series of didactic riddles: What is a letter? The guardian of history. What is a word? The betrayer of the mind. What generates language? The tongue. What is the tongue? The whip of the air--and so forth.

[251] _De orthographia_, Migne 101, col. 902-919.

[252] Migne 101, col. 919-950. Mullinger, _o.c._ pp. 83-85.

[253] Migne 101, col. 951-976.

[254] Migne 101, col. 956.

[255] Migne 101, col. 11-56.

[256] Migne 101, col. 613-638.

[257] Migne 100, cols. 737, 744.

[258] An important person. He was born at Mainz about 776. Placed as a child in the convent of Fulda, his talents and learning caused him to be sent at the age of twenty-one to Alcuin at Tours for further instruction. After Alcuin’s death in 804, Rabanus returned to Fulda and was made Principal of the monastery school. In 822 he was elected Abbot. His labours gained for him the title of Primus praeceptor Germaniae. Resigning in 842, he withdrew to devote himself to literary labours; but he was soon drawn from his retreat and made Archbishop of Mainz. He died in 856. While archbishop, and also while abbot, Rabanus with spiteful zeal prosecuted that rebellious monk, the high-born Saxon Gottschalk, who, among other faults, held too harsh views upon Predestination. His works are published in Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 107-112.

Rabanus has left huge Commentaries upon the books of the Old and New Testaments, in which he and his pupils gathered the opinions of the Fathers. He also added such needful comment of his own as his “exiguity” of mind permitted (Praef. to _Com. in Lib. Judicum_, Migne 108, col. 1110). His Commentaries were superseded by the _Glossa ordinaria_ (Migne 113 and 114) of his own pupil, Walafrid Strabo, which was systematically put together from Rabanus and those upon whom he drew. It was smoothly done, and the writer knew how to eliminate obscurity and prolixity, and in fact make his work such that it naturally became the Commentary in widest use for centuries. The dominant interest of these commentators is in the allegorical significance of Scripture, as we shall see (Chapter XXVII.). On Rabanus and Walafrid, see Ebert, _Allge. Gesch. der Lit. des Mittelalters_, ii. 120-166.

[259] _De cleric. inst._ iii. 26 (Migne 107, col. 404).

[260] _Ibid._ iii. 18.

[261] _Ibid._ iii. 20 (Migne 107, col. 397).

[262] Migne III, col. 9-614.

[263] Raban’s excruciating _De laudibus sanctae crucis_ shows what he could do as a virtuoso in allegorical mystification (Migne 107, col. 137-294).

[264] _De cleric. inst._ iii. 16 (Migne 107, col. 392).

[265] _De cleric. inst._ iii. 25 (Migne 107, col. 403).

[266] Compare his _De magicis artibus_, Migne 110, col. 1095 _sqq._

[267] Migne 107, col. 419 _sqq._

[268] Migne 120, col. 1267-1350.

[269] Ratramnus, _De corpore, etc._ (Migne 121, col. 125-170).

[270] On the Carolingian controversies upon Predestination and the Eucharist, see Harnack, _Dogmengeschichte_, vol. iii. chap. vi.

[271] Migne 119, col. 102. Florus called his tract “Libellus Flori adversus cuiusdam vanissimi hominis, qui cognominatur Joannes, ineptias et errores de praedestinatione,” etc. Florus was a contemporary of Eriugena.

[272] Migne 106.

[273] Hincmar, _Ep._ 23 (Migne 126, col. 153).

[274] Migne 122, col. 357.

[275] _De div. nat._ i. 69 (Migne 122, col. 513).

[276] One may say that the work of Eriugena in presenting Christianity transformed in substance as well as form, stood to the work of such a one as Thomas Aquinas as the work of the Gnostics in the second century had stood toward the dogmatic formulation of Christianity by the Fathers of the Church. With the Church Fathers as with Thomas, there was earnest endeavour to preserve the substance of Christianity, though presenting it in a changed form. This cannot be said of either the Gnostics or Eriugena.

[277] See Prantl, _Ges. der Logik_, ii. 20-36.

[278] Claudius died about 830. His works are in tome 104 of Migne.

[279] Migne 104, col. 147-158.

[280] Compare Agobard’s Ep. _ad Bartholomaeum_ (Migne 104, col. 179).

[281] _Liber contra judicium Dei_ (Migne 104, col. 250-268). Here the powerful Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, is emphatically on the opposite side, and argues lengthily in support of the _judicium aquae frigidae_, in _Epist._ 26, Migne 126, col. 161. Hincmar (cir. 806-882) was a man of imposing eminence. He was a great ecclesiastical statesman. The compass and character of his writings is what might be expected from such an archiepiscopal man of affairs. They include edifying tracts for the use of the king, an authoritative Life of St Remi, and writings theological, political, and controversial. As the writer was not a profound thinker, his works have mainly that originality which was impressed upon them by the nature of whatever exigency called them forth. They are contained in Migne 125, 126.

[282] _Liber de imaginibus sanctorum_ (Migne 104, col. 199-226).

[283] These writings are also in vol. 104 of Migne.

[284] See Wattenbach, _Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen_, i. 130-142 (5th ed.). Writings known as _Annales_ drew their origin from the notes made by monks upon the margin of their calendars. These notes were put together the following year, and subsequently might be revised, perhaps by some person of larger view and literary skill. Thus the Annals found in the cloister of Lorsch are supposed to have been rewritten in part by Einhart.

[285] There were two great earlier examples of such histories: one was the _Historia Francorum_ of Gregory of Tours, the author of which was of distinguished Roman descent, born in 540 and dying in 594; the other was Bede’s _Church History of the English People_, which was completed shortly before its author’s death in 735. In individuality and picturesqueness of narrative, these two works surpass all the historical writings of the Carolingian time.

[286] In _Mon. Germ. hist. scrip._ ii.; also Migne, vol. 116, col. 45-76; trans, in German in _Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit_ (Leipzig). See also Wattenbach, _Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen_, i., and Ebert, _Ges. der Lit._ ii. 370 _sqq._

[287] In both these respects a contrary condition had made possible the endurance of the Roman Empire. Its territories in the main were civilized, and were traversed by the best of roads, while many of them lay about that ancient common highway of peoples, the Mediterranean. Then the whole Empire was leavened, and one part made capable of understanding another, by the Graeco-Roman culture.

[288] Within his hereditary domain, Hugh had the powers of other feudal lords; but this domain, instead of expanding, tended to shrink under the reigns of the Capetians of the eleventh century.

[289] In Conrad’s reign “Burgundy,” comprising most of the eastern and southern regions of France, and with Lyons and Marseilles, as well as Basle and Geneva within its boundaries, was added to the Empire.

[290] Papal elections were freed from lay control, and a great step made toward the emancipation of the entire Church, by the decree of Nicholas II. in 1059, by which the election of the popes was committed to the conclave of cardinals.

[291] For the matter of clerical celibacy, and the part played by monasticism in these reforms, see _post_, Chapter XV.

[292] Gregory VII., _Ep._ iv. 2 (Migne 148, col. 455).

[293] _Ep._ viii. 21 (Migne 148, col. 594).

[294] Migne 148, col. 407, 408. Cf. _post_, Chapter XXXIII.

[295] As between the Empire and the Papacy the particular struggle over investitures was adjusted by the Concordat of Worms (1122), by which the Church should choose her bishops; but the elections were to be held in the presence of the king, who conferred, by special investiture, the temporal fiefs and privileges. For translations of Gregory’s Letters and other matter, see J. H. Robinson’s _Readings in European History_, i. 274-293.

[296] See _post_, Chapter XII. The copying of manuscripts was a lucrative profession in Italy.

[297] Tetralogus, Pertz, _Mon. Germ, scriptores_, xi. 251.

[298] The clerical schools were no less important than the lay, but less distinctive because their fellows existed north of the Alps. Cathedral schools may be obscurely traced back to the fifth century; and there were schools under the direction of the parish priests. In them aspirants for the priesthood were educated, receiving some Latin and some doctrinal instruction. So the cathedral and parochial schools helped to preserve the elements of antique education; but they present no such open cultivation of letters for their own profane sake as may be found in the schools of lay grammarians. The monastic schools are better known. From the ninth century they usually consisted of an outer school (_schola exterior_) for the laity and youths who wished to become secular priests, and an inner school (_interior_) for those desiring to become monks. At different times the monastery schools of Bobbio, Farfa, and other places rose to fame, but Monte Cassino outshone them all.

As to the schools and culture of Italy during the early Middle Ages, see Ozanam, _Les Écoles en Italie aux temps barbares_ (in his _Documents inédits, etc._, and printed elsewhere); Giesebrecht, _De literarum studiis apud Italos, etc._ (translated into Italian by C. Pascal, Florence, 1895, under the title _L’ Istruzione in Italia nei primi secoli del Medio-Evo_); G. Salvioli, _L’ Istruzione publica in Italia nei secoli VIII._, _IX._, _X._ (Florence, 1898); Novati, _L’ Influsso del pensiero latino sopra la civilità italiana del Medio-Evo_ (2nd ed., Milan, 1899).

[299] See _post_, Chapter XXXIII., III.

[300] At Salerno, according to the Constitution of Frederick II., three years’ preliminary study of the _scientia logicalis_ was demanded, because “numquam sciri potest scientia medicinae nisi de scientia logicali aliquid praesciatur” (cited by Novati, _L’ Influsso del pensiero latino, etc._, p. 220). Just as Law and Medical Schools in the United States may require a college diploma from applicants for admission.

[301] On Constantine see Wüstenfeld, “Übersetzungen arabischer Werke,” etc. _Abhand. Göttingen Gesellschaft_, vol. 22 (1877), pp. 10-20, and p. 55 _sqq._ Also on the Salerno school, Daremberg, _Hist. des sciences médicales_, vol. i. p. 254 _sqq._

[302] _Traube_, “O Roma nobilis,” _Abhand. philos.-philol. Classe Bayer. Akad._ Bd. 19, p. 301. This poem probably belongs to the tenth century. “Archos” is mediaeval Greek for “The Lord.”

[303] The _Rationes dictandi_, a much-used book on the art of composing letters, comes from the hand of one Alberic, who was a monk at Monte Cassino in the middle of the eleventh century. He died a cardinal in 1088. The _ars dictaminis_ related either to drawing legal documents or composing letters. See _post_, Chapter XXX., II.

[304] See E. Bertaux, _L’Art dans l’Italie méridionale_, i. 155 _sqq._ (Paris, 1904).

[305] The poems of Alphanus are in Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 147, col. 1219-1268.

[306] “Ad Romualdum causidicum,” printed in Ozanam, _Doc. inédits_, p. 259.

[307] Printed in Giesebrecht, _De lit. stud. etc._

[308] Printed by Dummler in _Anselm der Peripatetiker_, pp. 94-102. See also the rhyming colloquy between Helen and Ganymede, of the twelfth century, printed in Ozanam, _Documents inédits, etc._, p. 19.

[309] On Liutprand see Ebert, _Ges. der Lit._ iii. 414-427; Molinier, _Sources de l’histoire de France_, i. 274. His works are in the _Monumenta Ger._, also in 136 of Migne. The _Antapodosis_ and _Embassy to Constantinople_ are translated into German in the _Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit_.

[310] See _Antapod._ vi. 1 (Migne 136, col. 893).

[311] _Antapod._ i. 1 (Migne 136, col. 791).

[312] Migne 136, col. 837.

[313] _Legatio Constantinopolitana_ (Migne 136, col. 909-937).

[314] Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 136, col. 1283-1302.

[315] See Ebert, _Allgem. Ges._ iii. 370, etc.; Novati, _L’Influsso del pensiero latino, etc._, p. 31 _sqq._; and Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 136.

[316] See Novati, _L’Influsso, etc._, pp. 188-191. The passage is from the vituperative polemic of a certain Ademarus (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 141, col. 107-108).

[317] Dummler, “Gedichte aus Abdinghof,” in _Neues Archiv_, v. 1 (1876), p. 181 (cited by Novati, p. 192).

[318] Dummler, _Anselm der Peripatetiker_, p. 36 _sqq._; cf. Hauréau, _Singularités historiques_, p. 179 _sqq._

[319] The account is from Radolphus Glaber, _Historiarum libri_, ii. 12.

[320] On Damiani’s views of classical studies, see _Opusc._ xi., _Liber qui dicitur Dominus vobiscum_, cap. i. (Migne 145, col. 232); _Opusc._ xlv., _De sancta simplicitate_ (_ibid._ col. 695); _Opusc._ lviii., _De vera felicitate et sapientia_ (_ibid._ col. 831). For the life and works of this interesting man see _post_, p. 262 _sqq._, and _post_, Chapter XVI.

[321] _Vita Anselmi_, 1247 (cited by Ronca, p. 227).

[322] Another great politico-ecclesiastical Italian was Lanfranc (cir. 1005-1089), whose life was almost exactly contemporaneous with that of Hildebrand. He was born in high station at Pavia, and educated in letters and the law. Seized with the desire to be a monk, he left his home and passed through France, sojourning on his way, until he came to the convent of Bec in Normandy, in the year 1042. A man of practical ability and a great teacher, it was he that made the monastery great. Men, lay and clerical, noble and base, came thronging to hear him: Anselm came and Ives of Chartres, both future saints, and one who afterwards as Pope Alexander II. rose before Lanfranc, then Archbishop of Canterbury, and said: “Thus I honour, not the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the master of the school of Bec, at whose feet I sat with other pupils.” William the Conqueror made Lanfranc Primate of England and prince-ruler of the land in the Conqueror’s absence.

[323] _Petri Damiani Ep._ i. xvi. (Migne 144, col. 236). Damiani’s works are contained in Migne 144 and 145. Alexander II. was pope from 1061 to 1073, when he was succeeded by Hildebrand.

[324] Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 145, col. 961, 967.

[325] _Opusculum_, xxxvi. (Migne 145, col. 595). It is also bad to be an abbot, as Damiani shows in plaintive and almost humorous verses:

“Nullus pene abbas modo
Valet esse monachus,
Dum diversum et nocivum
Sustinet negotium:
Et, quod velit sustinere,
Velut iniquus patitur

* * *

“Spiritaliter abbatem
Volunt fratres vivere,
Et per causas saeculares
Cogunt illum pergere;
Per tam itaque diversa
Quis valet incedere?”
_De abbatum miseria rhythmus_
(Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 145, col. 972).

[326] Lib. v. Ep. iv.; cf. Jer. xiii.

[327] Ep. iv. 11 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 144, col. 313).

[328] He died in 1072, a year before Hildebrand was made pope.

[329] _Opusc._ xvii., _De coelibatu_; _Opusc._ xviii., _Contra intemperantes clericos_; _Opusc._ xxii., _Contra clericos aulicos_, etc.

[330] Lib. iv. Ep. 5 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 144, col. 300).

[331] Lib. v. Ep. 3 (Migne 144, col. 343).

[332] Lib. v. Ep. 2 (Migne 144, col. 340). Damiani’s _Rhythmus poenitentis monachi_ (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 145, col. 971) expresses the passionate remorse of a sinful monk.

[333] _Post_, Chapter XIX.

[334] Lib. vii. Ep. 18 (Migne 144, col. 458).

[335] Much is contained in the eighth book of his letters. The third letter of this book is addressed to a nobleman who did not treat his mother as Peter would have had him. The whole family situation is given in two sentences: “But you may say: ‘My mother exasperates me often, and with her rasping words worries me and my wife. We cannot endure such reproaches, nor tolerate the burden of her severity and interference.’ But for this, your reward will be the richer, if you return gentleness for contumely, and mollify her with humility when you are sprinkled with the salt of her abuse” (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 144, col. 467). Some sentences from this letter are given _post_, Chapter XXXI., as examples of Latin style.

The next letter is addressed to the same nobleman and his wife on the death of their son. It gently points out to them that his migration to the _coelestia regna_, where among the angels he has put on the garment of immortality, is cause for joy.

[336] _Opusc._ ix., _De eleemosyna_ (Migne 145, col. 207 _sqq._).

[337] _Opusc._ ix., _De eleemosyna_, cap. i.

[338] Seneca, _De vita beata_, 20.

[339] Lib. viii. Ep. 8 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 144, col. 476). Cf. _ante_, p. 260.

[340] Extracts will be given _post_, Chapter XVI., together with Damiani’s remarkable Life of Romuald.

[341] Migne 158, col. 50 _sqq._

[342] Anselm was born in 1033 and died in 1109. His works are in Migne 158, 159. See also Domet de Vorges, _S. Anselme_ (Les grands Philosophes, 1901).

[343] “Districtio ordinis,” _Vita_, i. 6. This indicates that liberal studies were not favoured in Cluny at this time, cir. 1060.

[344] In a convent where there is an abbot, the prior is the officer directly under him.

[345] _Ante_, Chapter X.

[346] _Cur Deus homo_, i. 1 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 158, col. 361).

[347] In the _Cur Deus homo_, i. 2, Anselm has his approved disciple state the same point of view: “As the right order prescribes that we should believe the profundities of the Christian Faith, before presuming to discuss them by reason, so it seems to me neglect if after we are confirmed in faith we do not study to understand what we believe. Wherefore, since by the prevenient grace of God, I deem myself to hold the faith of our redemption, so that even if I could by no reason comprehend what I believe, there is nothing that could pluck me from it, I ask from thee, as many ask, that thou wouldst set forth to me, as thou knowest it, by what necessity and reason, God, being omnipotent, should have assumed the humility and weakness of human nature for its restoration.”

[348] There is indeed an early treatise, _De grammatico_ (Migne 158, col. 561-581), in which Anselm seems to abandon himself to dialectic concerned with an academic topic. The question is whether _grammaticus_, a grammarian, is to be subsumed under the category of substance or quality; dialectically is a grammarian a man or an incident?

[349] Cf. Kaulich, _Ges. der scholastischen Philosophie_, i. 293-332; Hauréau, _Histoire de la philosophie scholastique_, i. 242-288; Stöckl, _Philosophie des Mittelalters_, i. 151-208; De Wulf, _History of Medieval Philosophy_, 3rd ed. (Longmans, 1909), p. 162 _sqq._, and authorities.

[350] The _locus classicus_ is _Proslogion_, cap. 2.

[351] _Cur Deus homo_, i. 12.

[352] _Ibid._ i. 5.

[353] _Ibid._ i. 7.

[354] Examples of Anselm’s prose are given _post_, Chapter XXXI.

[355] On Gerbert see _Lettres de Gerbert publiées avec une introduction, etc._, par Julien Havet (Paris: Picard, 1889; I have cited them according to this edition); _Œuvres de Gerbert_, ed. by Olleris (Clermont and Paris, 1867); also in Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 139; Richerus, _Historiarum libri IV._ (especially lib. iii. cap. 55 _sqq._); _Mon. Germ. script._ iii. 561 _sqq._; Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 138, col. 17 _sqq._ Also Picavet, _Gerbert, une pape philosophe_ (Paris: Leroux, 1897); Cantor, _Ges. der Mathematik_, i. 728-751 (Leipzig, 1880); Prantl, _Ges. der Logik_, ii. 53-57 (Leipzig, 1861).

[356] _Ep._ 12.

[357] _Mon. Germ. scriptores_, iii. 686.

[358] _Ep._ 44.

[359] Presumably Gerbert’s German-speaking scholars are meant.

[360] _Ep._ 45, _Raimundo monacho_.

[361] _Ep._ 46, _ad Geraldum Abbatem_.

[362] _I.e._ on the affairs of the monastery of Bobbio.

[363] A Greek doctor of Augustus’s time, who wrote on the diseases of the eye.

[364] _Ep._ 130.

[365] _Ep._ 167 (in Migne, _Ep._ 174).

[366] Richer, _Hist._ iii. 47, 48.

[367] Several of his compositions are extant.

[368] Richer, _Hist._ iii. 48-53.

[369] Richer, _Hist._ iii. cap. 55-65.

[370] See _post_, Chapter XXXV. If one should hesitate to find a phase of the veritable Gerbert in Richer’s report of the disputation with Otric, one may turn to Gerbert’s own philosophic or logical _Libellus--de rationali et ratione uti_ (Migne 139, col. 159-168). It is addressed to Otto II., and the opening paragraph recalls to the emperor the disputation which we have been following. The _Libellus_ is naturally more coherent than the disputation, in which Otric’s questions seem intended rather to trip his adversary than to lead a topic on to its proper end. It is devoted, however, to a problem exactly analogous to the point taken by Otric, that the term rational was not as broad as the term mortal. For the _Libellus_ discusses whether the use of reason (_ratione uti_) can be predicated of the rational being (_rationale_). The concept of the predicate should be the broader one, but here it might seem less broad, since all reasonable beings do not exercise reason. The discussion closely resembles the dispute in the character of the intellectual interests disclosed, and its arguments are not more original than those employed against Otric. Disputation and _Libellus_ alike represent necessary endeavours of the mind, which has reached a certain stage of tuition and development, to adjust itself with problems of logical order and method.

[371] _Post_, Chapter XV.

[372] Cf. Sackür, _Die Cluniacenser_, ii. 330 _sqq._; Pfister. _Études sur le règne de Robert le Pieux_, p. 2 _sqq._ (the latter takes an extreme view).

[373] Aimoin’s _Vita Abbonis_, cap. 7 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 139, col. 393). The same volume contains most of Abbo’s extant writings, and those of Aimoin. On Abbo see Sackür, _Die Cluniacenser_, ii. 345 _sqq._

An incredibly large number of students are said to have attended Abbo’s lectures. His studies and teaching lay mainly in astronomy, mathematics, chronology, and grammar. The pupil Aimoin cultivated history and biography, compiling a History of the Francs and a History of the miracles of St. Benedict, the latter a theme worthy of the tenth century. One leaves it with a sigh of relief, so barren was it save for its feat of gestation in giving birth to Gerbert.

[374] Jotsaldus, _Vita Odilonis_ (Migne 142, col. 1037).

[375] Odilo, _Vita Maioli_ (Migne 142, col. 951).

[376] See Taylor, _Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages_, p. 74 _sqq._ One may compare the influence of Cicero’s _De amicitia_ on the _De amicitia Christiana_ of Peter of Blois (cir. 1200), Migne 207, col. 871-898.

[377] _Vita Odilonis_, chaps. vi.-xiii. (Migne 142, col. 909 _sqq._).

[378] _Bellum Gallicum_, vi. 13.

[379] Migne 143, col. 1290.

[380] For a description of these works, see _post_, Chapter XXX. II.

[381] The substance of this sketch of the school of Chartres is taken chiefly from the Abbé Clerval’s exhaustive study, “Les Écoles de Chartres au moyen âge,” _Mémoires de la Société archéologique d’Eure-et-Loir_, xi., 1895. For the later fortunes of this school see _post_, Chapter XXX.

[382] The Histories of Gerbert’s pupil Richer are somewhat better, and show an imitation of Sallust.

[383] Cf. Molinier, _Les Sources de l’histoire de France_, v., lxix.

[384] _Post_, Chapters XXXIV.-XLII.

[385] Born 1078; king from 1108-1137.

[386] _Ante_, Chapter X.

[387] _Ante_, Chapter IX.

[388] On Notker see Piper, _Die älteste Litteratur_ (Deutsche Nat. Lit.), pp. 337-340.

[389] _Ante_, Chapter XI., where something was said of Liutprand also. Ratherius was a restless intriguer and pamphleteer, a sort of stormy petrel, who was born in 890 near Liège. In the course of his career he was once bishop of that northern city, and three times bishop of Verona, where he died, an old man of angry soul and bitter tongue. Two years and more had he passed in a dungeon at Pavia--a sharpening experience for one already given overmuch to hate. There he compiled his rather dreary six books of _Praeloquia_ (Migne 136, col. 145-344), preparatory discourses, perhaps precursive of another work, but at all events containing moral instruction for all orders of society. It was in the nature of a compilation, and yet touched with a strain of personal plaint, which sometimes makes itself clearly audible in words that show this work to have been its author’s prison _consolatio_: “Think what anguish impelled me to it, what calamity, what necessity showed me these paths of authorship. Dread of forgetting was my first reason for writing. Buried under all sorts of the rubbish of wickedness, surrounded by the darkness of evil, and distracted with the clamours of affairs, I feared that I should forget, and was delighted to find how much I could remember. Books were lacking, and friends to talk with, while sorrow gnawed the soul; so I used this book of mine as a friend to chat with, and was comforted by it as by a companion. Nor did I worry, asking who will read it; since I knew me for its reader, and as its lover, if it had none other” (_Praeloq._ vi. 26; Migne 136, col. 342). On Ratherius see Ebert, _Ges. der Lit._, iii. 375 _sqq._

[390] _Vita Brunonis_, caps. 4, 6.

[391] _Vita Brunonis_, cap. 8.

[392] Cf. _post_, Chapter XXXII., III.

[393] Enough will be found regarding Hrotsvitha and her works in Ebert, _Allgem. Ges. der Lit._, iii. 285-329.

[394] _Vita Bernwardi_, 6 (Migne 140, col. 397), by Thangmar, who was Bernward’s teacher and outlived him to write his Life.

[395] Migne 141, col. 1229.

[396] See Froumundus, _Ep._ 9, 11, 13 (Migne 141, col. 1288 _sqq._). A number of his poems are published by F. Seiler, _Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie_, Bd. 14, pp. 406-442.

[397] Migne 141, col. 1292. I am not sure that I have caught Froumund’s meaning.

[398] _Mon. Ger. Scriptores_, v. 134 _sqq._ (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 146, col. 1027 _sqq._).

[399] _Vita Hermanni_ (Migne 143, col. 29).

[400] The writings of Hermannus Contractus are in Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 143. The poem is reprinted from Du Meril’s _Poésies populaires_; a more complete text is in Bd XI. of the _Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum_.

[401] _Ante_, Chapter XII., 1.

[402] Prantl, _Ges. Logik_, ii. 83.

[403] Cf. Endres, “Othloh’s von St. Emmeram Verhältnis zu den freien Kunsten,” _Philos. Jahrbuch_, 1904.

[404] _Liber visionum._

[405] Othloh’s works are all in tome 146 of Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_.

[406] _Ante_, Chapter XII. 11.

[407] _Ante_, Chapters VIII., IX.

[408] Printed in Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 139, col. 871 _sqq._ and elsewhere. For editions see Wattenbach, _Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen_, 6th ed. i. 485.

[409] _Post_, Chapter XVI.

[410] Cf. Taylor, _Ancient Ideals_, chaps. xv., xvi.; _Classical Heritage_, chaps. ii., iii.

[411] Hosea i.-iii.

[412] Sulpicius Severus, _Epist._ iii.

[413] These words occur in Jerome’s famous letter (_Ep._ xiv.), in which he exhorts the wavering Heliodoras to sever all ties and affections: “Do not mind the entreaties of those dependent on you, come to the desert and fight for Christ’s name. If they believe in Christ, they will encourage you; if they do not,--let the dead bury their dead. A monk cannot be perfect in his own land; not to wish to be perfect is a sin; leave all, and come to the desert. The desert loves the naked. O desert, blooming with the flowers of Christ! O solitude, whence are brought the stones of the city of the Great King! O wilderness rejoicing close to God! What would you, brother, in the world,--you that are greater than the world? How long are the shades of roofs to oppress you? How long the dungeon of a city’s smoke? Believe me, I see more of light! Do you fear poverty? Christ called the poor “blessed.” Are you terrified at labour? No athlete without sweat is crowned. Do you think of food? Faith fears not hunger. Do you dread the naked ground for limbs consumed with fasts? The Lord lies with you. Does the infinite vastness of the desert fright you? In the mind walk abroad in Paradise. Does your skin roughen without baths? Who is once washed in Christ needs not to wash again. And in a word, hear the apostle answering: The sufferings of the present time are not to be compared with the glory to come which shall be revealed in us!”

[414] In my _Classical Heritage_, pp. 136-197, I have given an account of the origins of monasticism, and of its distinctive western features. There I have also set out the Rule of Benedict, with sketches of the early monastic character.

[415] Cyprian said in the third century, addressing himself to Christian virgins: “Dominus vester et caput Christus est ad instar ad vicem masculi” (_De habitu virginum_, 22). To realize how near to the full human relationship was this wedded love of Christ, one should read the commentaries and sermons upon Canticles. Those of a later time--St. Bernard’s, for example--are the best, because they sum up so much that had been gathering fervour through the centuries. One might look further to those mediaeval instances that break through mysticism to a sensuousness in which the man Christ becomes an almost too concrete husband for ecstatic women. See _post_, Chapter XIX.

[416] The whole Christian love, first the love of God and then the love of man, is felt and set forth by Augustine. “Thou hast made us toward thee, and unquiet is our heart until it rests in thee.... That is the blessed life to rejoice toward thee, concerning thee and because of thee.... Give me thyself, my God.... All my plenty which is not my God is need.” With his love of God his love for man accords. “This is true love, that cleaving to truth we may live aright; and for that reason we contemn all mortal things except the love of men, whereby we wish them to live aright. Thus can we profitably be prepared even to die for our brethren, as the Lord Jesus Christ taught us by His example.... It is love which unites good angels and servants of God in the bond of holiness, joins us to them and them to us, and subjoins all unto God.” These passages are from the _Confessions_ and from the _De Trinitate_.

[417] Cf. _Classical Heritage_, p. 123 _sqq._

[418] Augustine, _Epp._ 155, c. 13.

[419] _Ante_, Chapter V.

[420] _Ante_, Chapter IX.

[421] Alcuin, _Ep._ 40 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 100, col. 201).

[422] Cf. Odo’s _Collationes_, in Migne 133, and Chapter XII. II., _ante_. Gregory was Odo’s favourite author.

[423] Before Constantine’s reign there had been few Christian basilicas; Christian art was sepulchral, drawing upon the galleries of the Catacombs, in meagre and monotonous designs, the symbols of the soul’s deliverance from death. These designs were antique in style and poor in execution.

[424] See Taylor, _Classical Heritage_, chap. x. sec. 2.

[425] See _Classical Heritage_, p. 267, and cf. _ibid._ chap. ix. sec. 1.

[426] See _post_, Chapter XXXII. II.

[427] The account of the evolution of the hymn from the prose sequence is given _post_, Chapter XXXII. III.

[428] Further illustrations of the mediaeval emotionalizing of Latin Christianity could be made from the history of certain Christian conceptions, angels for example:--the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha contain the revelation of their functions; next, their natures are defined in the works of the Fathers and the _Celestial Hierarchy_ of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The matter is gone over at great length, and their nature and functions logically perfected, by the schoolmen of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But, all the while, religious feeling, popular credences, and the imagination of poet and artist went on investing with beauty and loveliness these guardian spirits who carried out God’s care of man. Thus angels became the realities they were felt to be.

[429] Hartmann belongs to that great group of courtly German poets whose lives surround the year 1200. He was the translator of Chrètien de Troye’s _Erec_ and _Ivain_. See Bech’s _Hartmann von Aue_ (Deutsche klassiker). The verses quoted can hardly be rendered; but the meaning is as follows:

“My joys were never free from care until the day which showed me the flowers of Christ which I wear here (_i.e._ the Crusader’s cross). They herald a summer-time leading to sweet pastures of delight. God help us thither! The world has treated me so that my spirit yearns therefor;--well for me! God has been good to me, so that I am released from cares which tie the feet of many, chaining them here, while I in Christ’s band with blissful joys fare on.”

These lines carry that same yearning of the simple soul for heaven, _its home_, which was expressed, some centuries before, in Otfried’s _Evangelienbuch_ (_ante_, Chapter IX.). The words and their connotations (_augenweide_, _wünneclich_) are utterly German. Yet the author lived in a literary atmosphere of translation from the French.

[430] _Post_, Chapter XXV.

[431] The makers of love poems borrowed expressions from poems to the Virgin. Cf. Wilmanns, _Leben und Dichtung Walter’s Von der Vogelweide_, p. 179. Touches of mortal passion sometimes appear in the adoration of men for the Blessed Virgin. See _Caesar of Heisterbach_, vii. 32 and 50, and viii. 58. Of course, many suggestions were drawn also from the antique literature. See _post_, Chapter XXXII. IV. The subject of courtly and romantic love will come up properly for treatment in Chapter XXIII.

[432] One will bear in mind that much mediaeval phraseology goes back to the Fathers. For example, in monkish vilification of woman there is no phrase more common than _janua diaboli_, and it was Tertullian’s, who died in the first part of the third century.

[433] For the different meanings of the term _clericus_ see Du Cange, _Glossarium_, under that word.

[434] For the meanings of this term also see Du Cange, _Glossarium_, under that word.

[435] Regular clergy are the monks, who live under a _regula_.

[436] _Dialogus miraculorum_, ed. J. Strange, iv. i. (Cologne, 1851). Of course Caesar was a monk.

[437] _Ante_, Chapter XIV.