"Aristotle, Nature's private secretary, dipping his pen in intellect."(Eusebius.)
[8] "As Alexander passed conquering through Asia, he restored to the East, as garnered grain, that Greek civilization whose seeds had long ago been received from the East. Each conqueror in turn, the Macedonian and the Roman bowed before conquered Greece and learnt lessons at her feet." (Butcher, S. H.,Some Aspects of the Greek Genius, p. 43.)
[9] Webster, D. H.,Ancient History, p. 302.
[10] Previous to this, paper had been made from the papyrus plant, but Egypt, having forbidden its export, necessity again became the mother of invention.
[11] With this exception, never before the Italian Renaissance was there such interest in collecting books. Almost every book written in antiquity was gathered here, and the library at Alexandria became the British Museum or the Bibliothèque Nationale of the ancient world. Every book entering Egypt was required to be brought to this library.
[12] He founded the science of geography. Before his time Greek students had concluded that the world was round, instead of flat, as stated in the Homeric poems. By careful measurements he determined its size, within a few thousand miles of its actual circumference, and predicted that one might sail from Spain to the Indies along the same parallel of latitude.
[13] From the tradition that seventy scholars labored on it.
[14] Henry Sumner Maine.
[1] This struggle of the common people (plebeians) for an equal place with the ruling class (patricians) before the law, in religious matters, and in politics, covered two and a half centuries, the old restrictions being broken down but gradually. The most important steps in the process were:
509 B.C. Magistrates forbidden to scourge or execute a Roman citizen without giving him a chance to appeal to the people in their popular assembly. This "right of appeal" was regarded as the Magna Charta of Roman liberty.
494 B.C. Plebeian soldiers granted officers of their own(Tribunes) to protect them against patrician cruelty andinjustice.
451-449 B.C. Laws must be written—Code commission appointed. Result,theLaws of the Twelve Tables(R. 12); these mark thebeginning of the great Roman legal system.
445 B.C. Intermarriage between the two orders legalized.
367 B.C. Right to hold office granted, and one of the Consuls elected each year to be a plebeian.
250 B.C. By this date the distinctions between the two orders had disappeared; patricians and plebeians intermarried and formed one compact body of citizens in the Roman State.
[2] "The scholar who compares carefully the Greek constitutions with the Roman will undoubtedly consider the former to be finer and more finished specimens of political work. The imperfect and incomplete character which the Roman constitution presents, at almost any point of its history, the number of institutions it exhibits which appear to be temporary expedients merely, are necessary results of its method of growth to meet demands as they rose from time to time; they are evidence, indeed, of its highly practical character." (Adams, G. B.,Civilization during the Middle Ages, 2d ed., p. 20.)
[3] The same opportunity came to Athens after the Persian Wars and to Sparta after the Peloponnesian War, but neither possessed the creative power along political and governmental lines, or the tolerance for the ideas and feelings of subject peoples, to accomplish anything permanent. Rome succeeded where previous States had failed because of her larger insight, tolerance, patience, and constructive to create a great world empire.
[4] Caesar extended Roman citizenship to certain communities in Gaul and in Sicily, and began the further extension of the process of assimilation by taking the conquered provincial into citizenship in the Empire. This was carried on and extended by succeeding Emperors until finally, in 212 A.D., Roman citizenship was extended to all free-born inhabitants in all the provinces.
[5] For example, Balbus, a Spaniard, was Consul in Rome forty years before the Christian era, and another Spaniard, Nerva, had become Emperor before the close of the first century A.D. Many commanders in the army and governors in the provinces were provincials by birth.
[6] Roman citizenship was much more than a mere name. A Roman citizen could not be maltreated or punished without a legal trial before a Roman court. If accused in a capital case he could always protect himself from what he considered an unjust decision by an "appeal to Caesar"; that is, to the Emperor at Rome. The protection of law was always extended to his property and himself, wherever in the Roman Empire he might live or travel.
[7] Both literature and inscriptions testify abundantly to the affectionate regard in which Roman rule was held. The rule may have been far from perfect, judged from a modern point of view, but it was so much better and so much more orderly than anything that had gone before that it was accepted in all quarters.
[8] Every house was protected from the evil spirits of the outside world by Janus, and had its sacred fire presided over by Vesta. Every house had its protecting Lares. The cupboard where the food was stored was blest by and under the charge of the Penates. The daily worship of these household deities took place at the family meal, the father offering a little food and a little wine at the sacred hearth. Every house father, too, had his guardian Genius, whose festival was celebrated on the master's birthday. In a similar fashion the State had its temples, its sacred fire and votive offerings, and various divinities ruled the elements and sent or withheld success.
Almost every activity in life was presided over by some deity, whom it was necessary to propitiate before engaging in it. Davidson says, with reference to the practical nature of their religion, that "While the Athenians rejoiced before their gods, the Romans kept a debtor and creditor account with theirs, and were very anxious that the balance should be on the right side."
[9] "Among our ancestors," says Pliny, "one learned not only through the ears, but through the eyes. The young, in observing the elders, learned what they would soon have to do themselves, and what they would one day teach to their successor."
[10] Such careful physical training as was given in a Greekpalaestraandgymnasiumwould have been regarded by the Romans as most effeminate. Unlike the Greeks, who strove for a harmonious bodily development, the Romans exercised for usefulness in war. Cicero exclaims, with reference to Greek gymnasial training: "What an absurd system of training youth is exhibited in theirgymnasia! What a frivolous preparation for the labors and hazards of war!"
[11] Macaulay, in hisHoratius, describes the results of the education of this early period as follows:
"Then none were for the party,But all were for the State;And the rich man loved the poor,And the poor man loved the great.Then lands were fairly portionedAnd spoils were fairly sold;For the Romans were like brothersIn the brave days of old."
[12] "The Romans," says the historian Wilhelm Ihne, "were distinguished from all other nations, not only by the extreme earnestness and precision with which they conceived their law and worked out the consequences of its fundamental principles, but by the good sense which made them submit to the law, once established, as an absolute necessity of political health and strength. It was this severity in thinking and acting which, more than any other cause, made Rome great and powerful."
[13] The lot of a captive in war, everywhere throughout the ancient world, was to be taken and sold as a slave by his captors. Many educated Greeks were thus taken in the capture of Greek cities in southern Italy and sold as slaves in Rome. These were let out by their masters as teachers of the new learning. Even the thrifty Cato, who vigorously opposed the new learning on principle, was not averse to permitting his educated Greek slaves to conduct schools and thus add to his private fortune.
[14] These men had little choice otherwise. Grain from Spain and Africa became so cheap that a farmer could not raise enough on his small farm to pay his taxes and support his family, so he was obliged to sell his land to men who turned it into large cattle and sheep ranches. He would not emigrate to the provinces, as Englishmen have done to Canada and Australia, but instead went to the cities, where he led a hand-to-mouth existence in a type of tenement house. It was from such sources that the Roman mob, demanding free grain and entertainment in return for its votes, was made up.
[15] Arithmetic was not easy for the Romans, partly because they had no figure or other sign for zero, partly because they used a decimal system for counting and a duodecimal for their money, and partly because the Roman system of notation (I, V, X, L, C, D, M) did not adapt itself to quick calculation. Try, for example, these simple sums:
Add: CCLVII Subtract: LXVIIICIX XXXIV——— ———
Multiply: CXXV Divide: XII |CXXXIIXII —————
[16] Finger reckoning (whencedigits) with the Romans attained a prominence probably never reached with any other people. Bills and accounts were reckoned up on the fingers, in the presence of the patron. Eighteen positions of the fingers of the left hand stood for the nine units and the nine tens, and eighteen positions of the fingers of the right hand stood for the nine hundreds and the nine thousands. For larger sums, such as ten thousand and more, various parts of the body were touched. Any one who betrayed, according to Quintilian, "by an uncertain or awkward movement of his fingers, a want of confidence in his calculations," was thought to be but imperfectly trained in arithmetic.
[17] There was much complaint that parents were slow with their fees, and at times forgot them entirely if the boy did not turn out well. Finally, in the reign of Diocletian (284-305 A.D.), in an effort to relieve the distress of schoolmasters, prices were legally fixed at approximately the equivalent of $1.20 per month per pupil for teaching reading and $1.80 for arithmetic, measured in money values of a decade ago. These were regarded as "hard times prices."
[18] "Reading aloud, with careful attention to pronunciation, accent, quantity, and expression, formed an important part of the training in literature of a Latin youth. Correct reading of Latin was a much more difficult art, as practiced, than is the reading of English, as all of us well know who learned properly to intone our
"Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab orisItaliam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit."
The lack of use of small letters and spacing between the words (R. 21), as well as poor punctuation, also added to the difficulty.
[19] A nonsensical minuteness was followed here, and many trivialities were emphasized. Juvenal tells us, in his Seventh Satire, written about 130 A.D., that "a teacher was expected to read all histories and know all authors as well as his finger ends. That, if questioned, he should be able to tell the name of Anchises' nurse, and the name and native land of the stepmother of Anchemotus—tell how many years Acestes lived—how many flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians." This reminds us of some of the dissected study of English and Latin until recently given in our colleges and high schools.
[20] Quintilian well states the aim of this higher education when he says that "the man who can duly sustain his character as a citizen, who is qualified for the management of public and private affairs, and who can govern communities by his counsels, settle them by means of laws, and improve them by judicial enactments, can certainly be nothing else but an orator."
[21] In hisLives of Eminent Grammarians and Rhetoricians, chap. I. Suetonius lived from 75 to 160 A.D., and was an advocate at Rome and private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian.
[22] There was a general dread of Greek higher learning on the part of the older Romans, and this found expression in many ways. Among these was an edict of the Senate, in 161 B.C., directing the Praetor to see that "no philosophers or rhetoricians be suffered at Rome" (R. 20), a decree which could not be enforced, and the edict of the Censors, in 92 B.C. (R. 20), expressing their disapproval of the Latin schools of rhetoric.
[23] These seven studies became the famous studies of the church schools of the Middle Ages, with Grammar as the greatest and most important study (see chap. VII; R. 74). The curriculum of the Middle Ages was a direct inheritance from Rome.
[24] See Quintilian,Institutes of Oratory, book I, chap. X, 22, 37, and 46. This chapter is devoted largely to a description of the use of these studies.
[25] Sample questions which were debated to bring out the fine distinctions in Roman Law and Ethics were:
(a) Was a slave about whose neck a master had hung the leather or golden token (worn by free youths only), in order to smuggle him past the boundary, freed when he reached Roman soil wearing this insignia of freedom?
(b) If a stranger buys a prospective draught of fishes and the fisherman draws up a casket of jewels, does the stranger own the jewels?
[26] In the later centuries of the Empire, people went to hear a man who could orate or declaim, as people now do to hear a great political orator, a revivalist preacher, or a popular actor or singer. A form of amusement for distinguished travelers passing through a city was to have some one orate before them. "This power of using words for mere pleasurable effect," says Professor Dill, in hisRoman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire, "on the most trivial or the most extravagantly absurd themes, was for many ages, in both West and East, esteemed the highest proof of talent and cultivation."
[27] Each Greek rhetorician in Rome was given one hundredsestertia(about $4000) yearly from the Imperial Treasury, Quintilian probably being one of the first to receive a state salary.
[28] "He [Claudius] was also attentive to provide a liberal education for the sons of their chieftains;… and his attempts were attended with such success that they, who lately disdained to make use of the Roman language, were now ambitious of becoming eloquent. Hence the Roman habit began to be held in honor, and the toga was frequently worn." Tacitus's Account of Britain,Agricola, chap. 21.
[29] England offers us the nearest modern analogy. This was one of the last of the great European nations to establish popular education, but for centuries previous thereto the great private, tuition, grammar schools of England—Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, and others—together with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, prepared a succession of leaders for the State—men who have steered England's destinies at home and abroad and made her a great world power.
[30] This grew up, as all law grows, by enacted laws and decisions of the courts, and in time came to be an enormous body of law. Lacking the printed law books and indices of to-day, to obtain a knowledge of Roman law became a formidable task. Finally the practical Roman mind codified it, and reduced it to system and order. The Theodosian Code, of 438 A.D., and the Justinian Code, of 528 and 534 A.D., were the final results. These codes were compact, capable of duplication with relative ease, and later became the standard textbooks throughout the Middle Ages. The great importance of these codifications may be appreciated when we know that almost all the original laws and decisions from which they were compiled have been lost.
[31] The Romanic countries—France, Spain, Italy—have drawn their law most completely from the Justinian Code. Due to Spanish and French occupation of parts of America, Roman legal ideas also entered here, the Louisiana Code of 1824 being Roman in law and technical expressions and spirit, though English in language. Spanish and Portuguese settlement of the South American continent has carried Roman law there.
[32] The Roman alphabet is the alphabet of all North and South America, Australia, Africa, and all of Europe except Russia, Greece, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and a few minor Slavic and Teutonic peoples. Even in Germany and Austria, Roman letters were rapidly superseding the more difficult German letters in the printing of papers and books for the better-educated classes before the Great War. In India, Siam, China, and Japan, Roman letters are also being increasingly used.
[1] The Farmer's Calendar, given in the accompanyingBook of Readings(R. 14), illustrates very well the gods and sacrifices for one phase of Roman life. Petronius, in his Satires, says, "Our country is so full of divinities that it is much easier to find a god than a man."
[2] "The chief objects of pagan religion were to foretell the future, to explain the universe, to avert calamity, and to obtain the assistance of the gods. They contained no instruments of moral teaching analogous to our institution of preaching, or to the moral preparation for the reception of the sacrament, or to confession, or to the reading of the Bible, or to religious education, or to united prayer for spiritual benefits. To make men virtuous was no more the function of the priest than of the physician." (Lecky, W. E. H.,History of European Morals, chap, iv.)
[3] Seneca (4-65 A.D.), the tutor of the Emperor Nero, and the Greek freedman Epictetus (d. 100 A.D.) both expounded Stoicism at Rome during the first Christian century, and theThoughtsof the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 A.D.) represents one of the finest expositions of the application of this philosophy to the problems of human life.
[4] See Proverbs, xxxi, for a good statement of the ancient Hebrew ideal of womanhood.
[5] This collective term is applied to the first five books of the Old Testament, and includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These five books form a wonderful collection of the historical and legal material relating to the wanderings and experiences and practices of the people.
[6] Chapter 1 of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew gives, in detail (1-16), the genealogy of Jesus, concluding with the following verse:
"17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."
[7] To many of these churches he wrote a series of epistles. These constitute a little more than one fourth of the New Testament. See accompanyingBook of Readings(or Romans, I, 1-17) for the introductory part of Paul's Epistle to the Romans.
[8] "Its missionaries were Jews, a turbulent race, not to be assimilated, and as much despised and hated by pagan Rome as by the mediaeval Christians. Wherever it attracted any notice, therefore, it seems to have been regarded as some rebel faction of the Jews, gone mad upon some obscure point of the national superstition—an outcast sect of an outcast race." (Adams, G. B.,Civilization during the Middle Ages, p. 39.)
[9] "Starting from an insignificant province, from a despised race, proclaimed by a mere handful of ignorant workmen, demanding self-control and renunciation before unheard of, certain to arouse in time powerful enemies in the highly cultivated and critical society which it attacked, the odds against it were tremendous." (Ibid., p. 41.)
[10] "It is not easy to imagine how, in the face of an Asia Minor, a Greece, an Italy the Roman split up into a hundred small republics; of a Gaul, a Spain, an Africa, an Egypt, in possession of their old national institutions, the apostles could have succeeded, or even how their project could have been started. The unity of the Empire was a condition precedent of all religious proselytism on a grand scale if it was to place itself above the nationalities." (Renan, E.,Hibbert Lectures, 1880; Influence of Rome on the Christian Church.)
[11] In Acts xxv, 1-12, it is recorded that the Apostle Paul, accused by the Jews and virtually on trial for his life before the provincial governor Festus, fell back on his Roman citizenship and successfully "appealed to Caesar." (See footnote 3, page 57.)
[12] "The miracle of miracles, greater than dried-up seas and cloven rocks, greater than the dead rising again to life, was when the Augustus on his throne, Pontiff of the gods of Rome, himself a god to the subjects of Rome, bent himself to become the worshiper of a crucified provincial of his Empire." (Freeman, E. A.,Periods of European History, p. 67.)
[13] In 319 and 326 the clergy were exempted from all public burdens, and only the poor were to be admitted to the clergy. In 343 the clergy were exempted "from public burdens and from every disquietude of civil office." In 377 all clergy were exempted from personal taxes. (See R. 38.)
[14] From the Roman world the idea has spread, through the Greek Catholic Church, to Greece, parts of the Balkans, and Russia; through the Roman Catholic Church to all western Europe and the two Americas; and through the Protestant churches which sprang from the Roman Catholic by secession, and the Mohammedan faith, to include almost all the world. Only among uncivilized tribes and in Asia do we find any great number of fundamentally different religious conceptions.
[15] Paul to the Romans (x, 9) stated the fundamentals of belief as follows: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
[16] M. Boissier.La Fin du Paganisme, vol. 1, p. 200.
[17]Justin Martyr(105?-167), a former Greek teacher and philosopher, continued to follow his profession, wear his Greek philosopher's garb, and held that the teachings of Christianity were already contained in Greek philosophy, and that Plato and Socrates were Christians before the coming of the Christian faith.
Clement(c. 160-c. 215), the successor of Pantaeus as head of the catechetical school at Alexandria, held to the harmony of the Gospels with philosophy, and that "Plato was Moses Atticized."
Origen(c. 185-c. 254), a pupil and successor of Clement, and the most learned of all the early Christian Fathers, labored to harmonize the Christian faith with Greek learning and philosophy, and did much to formulate the dogmas of the early Church.
Saint Basil(331-379) tried to allay the rising prejudice against pagan learning, and to show the helpfulness to the Christian life of the Greek literature and philosophy.
Gregory of Nazianzus(c. 330-c. 390) was filled with indignation and protested loudly at the closing of the pagan schools to Christians by the edict of the Emperor Julian, in 362.
[18]Tertullian(c. 150-230) had been well educated in Greek literature and philosophy, and had attained distinction as a lawyer.
Saint Jerome(c. 340-420) was saturated with pagan learning, but later advised against it.
Saint Augustine(354-430), the master mind among the Latin Fathers, was for years a teacher of oratory and rhetoric in Roman schools, and had written part of an encyclopaedia on the liberal arts before his conversion. Many others who became prominent in the Western Church had in their earlier life been teachers in the Roman higher schools.
[19] Dreaming that he had died and gone to Heaven, he was asked, "Who art thou?" On replying, "A Christian," he heard the awful judgment, "It is false: thou art no Christian; thou art a Ciceronian; where the treasure is, there the heart is also."
[20] The knowledge of Greek remained alive longer in Ireland than anywhere else in the western world, being known there as late as the seventh century. Greek was also preserved in parts of Spain for two centuries after it had died out in Italy.
[21] In the West there was no other great city than Rome. At the period of its maximum greatness, in the first century B.C., it was a city of approximately 450,000 people.
[22] After many struggles and conflicts between the Bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Rome, the Bishop of Rome was finally recognized by the second great Church Council, held at Constantinople in 381, as the head of the entire Church (Canon 3), corresponding to the Emperor on the political side of the dying Empire. The separation of the eastern and western churches was rapid after this time. (See Map, p. 103.)
[23] The wordpaganas applied to unbeliever illustrates this progress of the Church, being derived from the Latinpaganus, meaning countryman, villager, rustic.
[24] See the accompanyingBook of Readingsfor a drawing and detailed explanation of the monastery of Saint Gall, in Switzerland (R. 69). This was one of the most important monasteries of the Middle Ages.
[1] The period from the reign of Augustus Caesar through that of Marcus Aurelius (31 B.C.-192 A.D.) was known as "the good Roman peace." No other large section of the western world has ever known such unbroken peace and prosperity for so long a time. Piracy ceased upon the seas, and trade and commerce flourished. The cities and the great middle class in the population were prosperous. Travel was safe and common, and men traveled both for business and pleasure. The Christian State within a State had not yet taken form. Literature and learning flourished. The law became milder. The rights of the accused became better recognized. A certain broad humanity pervaded the administration of both law and government. There was much private charity. Hospitals were established. Women were given greater freedom, larger intellectual advantages, and a better position in the home than they were to know again until the nineteenth century. It was the Golden Age of the Empire. Toward the close of the period the Christian Father, Tertullian, wrote: "Every day the world becomes more beautiful, more wealthy, more splendid. No corner remains inaccessible…. Recent deserts bloom…. Forests give way to tilled acres…. Everywhere are houses, people, cities. Everywhere there is life."
[2] Slavery in Rome came to be much more demoralizing than ever was the case in the United States. Instead of an ignorant people of an inferior race, the Roman slave was often the superior of his master—the unfortunate captive in an unsuccessful war against an oppressor. The holding of such educated and intelligent people in slavery was far more degrading to a ruling people than would have been the case had their slaves been ignorant and of inferior racial stock.
[3] The Roman State had come to be essentially a collection of cities. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Corinth, Carthage, Ephesus, and Lyons were great cities, judged even by present-day standards, throbbing with varied industries and a strong intellectual life. In addition there were hundreds of other cities scattered all over the Empire, each with its own municipal life, while on the frontier were stockaded villages serving as centers of trade with the barbarian tribes beyond.
[4] Chief among the new ideals that sapped the old Roman strength must be mentioned the new Christian religion, with its doctrine of other- worldliness and its system of government not responsible to the Empire. Another influence was the rise of a super-civic philosophy, derived chiefly from the writings of Plato (see footnote 1, page 42), which held that certain men could be above the State and yet by their wisdom in part direct it. The two influences combined to undermine the resisting strength of the State.
[5] Not only was the future of western European civilization settled there, but that of North and South America as well. Had Saracenic civilization come to dominate Europe, the Koran might have been taught to- day in the theological schools of Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, and Valparaiso, and the Christian religion been the possession only of the Greek and Russian churches, while our literature and philosophy and civilization would have been tinctured, through and through, with oriental ideas and Mohammedan conceptions.
[6] It is hard for us to imagine what happened, for the Indians we know to-day represent a much higher grade of civilization than did the German invaders. If we could imagine the United States overrun by the Indians of a hundred and fifty years ago, as the German tribes overran the Roman Empire, and becoming the rulers of a people superior to them in numbers and intellect, we should have something analogous to the Roman situation.
[7] As allies, citizens, soldiers, colonists, and slaves the Germans had long been filtering into the Roman world, and the Roman world was in part Germanized before the barriers were broken. These German-Romans helped to assimilate the Germans who came later, much as Italian-Americans in the United States help to receive and assimilate new Italians when they come.
[8] "The historical importance of the mere fact that it was an organic unity which Rome established, and not simply a collection of fragments artificially held together by military force, that the civilized world was made, as it were, one nation, cannot be overstated…. It was a union, not in externals merely, but in every department of thought and action; and it was so thorough, and the Gaul became so completely a Roman, that when the Roman government disappeared he had no idea of being anything else than a Roman…. It was because of this that, despite the fall of Rome, Roman institutions were perpetual." (Adams, G. B.,Civilization during the Middle Ages, 2d ed., p. 30.)
[9] A Germanic king, when he feared no Roman general or emperor, could usually be made to stand in awe when a Christian priest or bishop appealed to Heaven and the saints, and threatened him with eternal hell-fire if he did not do his bidding.
[10] The Church, it must be remembered, maintained its separate system of government and kept up the old forms of the Roman law. It had also its courts and its exemptions for the clergy, and these it forced the barbarians to respect. During half a dozen centuries it was the chief force that made life tolerable for myriads of men and women, and almost the only force upholding any semblance of humane ideals.
[11] Clotilda, wife of the heathen Clovis, was a Burgundian princess and a devout Christian, who had long tried to persuade her husband to accept her faith. In 496, during a battle with the Alemanni, near the present city of Strassburg, Clovis vowed that if the God of Clotilda would give him victory, he would do as she desired. The Alemanni were crushed, and he and three thousand of his chiefs were at once baptized.
[12] Draper, John W.,Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. II, pp. 145-46.
[13] The extent of the Benedictine order alone may be seen from the Benedictine statement that "Pope John XXII, who died in 1334, after an exact inquiry, found that, since the first rise of the order, there had been of it 24 popes, near 200 cardinals, 7000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops, 15,000 abbots of renown, above 4000 saints, and upwards of 37,000 monasteries. There had been likewise, of this order, 20 emperors, 10 empresses, 47 kings and above 50 queens, 20 sons of emperors and 48 sons of kings, about 100 princesses and daughters of kings and emperors, besides dukes, marquises, earls, countesses, etc., innumerable." From this it may be inferred how fully the Church was the State during the long period of the Middle Ages.
[14] Draper, John W.,Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. I, p. 437.
[1] From the sixth to the twelfth centuries.
[2] The story which has come down to us of the German warrior who, on being shown into an anteroom, saw some ducks swimming in the floor and dashed his battle-axe at them to see if they were real, thus ruining the beautiful mosaic, is typical of the time.
[3] During the period of Rome's greatness the publishing business became an important one. Manuscripts were copied in numbers by trained writers, and books were officially published. Both public and private libraries became common, men of wealth often having large libraries. These were found in the provincial towns as well as in the large Italian cities, and in country villas as well as in town houses.
By the beginning of the eighth century books had become so scarce that monasteries guarded their treasures with great care (R. 65), and books were borrowed from long distances that copies might be made.
[4] Charlemagne (King of Frankland, 768-814), for example, found it necessary to order that priests and monks must show themselves capable of changing the wording of the masses for the living and the dead, as circumstances required, from singular to plural, or from masculine to feminine.
[5] Longfellow's poemMonte Cassinois interesting reading here. Of Benedict he says:
"He founded here his Convent and his RuleOf prayer and work, and counted work as prayer;The pen became a clarion, and his schoolFlamed like a beacon in the midnight air."
[6] Sometimes as early as eleven to twelve years of age. The novitiate course was two years, but as the vows could not be taken before eighteen, the course of instruction often covered six to eight years.
[7] To teach a novice to copy accurately a manuscript book was quite a different thing from the teaching of writing to-day, It was more nearly comparable to present-day instruction in lettering in a college engineering course, as it called for a degree of workmanship and accuracy not required in ordinary writing.
[8] The Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible made by Saint Jerome, at the close of the fourth century. The Old Testament he translated mostly from the Hebrew and Chaldaic, and the New Testament he revised from the older Latin versions. This is the only version of the Scriptures which the Roman Catholic Church admits as authentic.
[9] Letters from one monastery to another, and from one country to another, begging the loan of some ancient book, have been preserved in numbers. Lupus, Abbot of Ferrières in France, for example, wrote to Rome in 855, and addressing himself to the Pope in person, requested a complete copy of Cicero'sDe Oratore, which he desired.
[10] The Missal is a book containing the service of the mass for the entire year. The Psalter the book of Psalms.
[11] Frommanu scriptum, meaning written by hand.
[12] So expensive of time and effort was the production of books by this method that many of the manuscripts now extant were written crosswise on sheets from which the previous writing had been largely erased by chemical or mechanical means. How many valuable ancient manuscripts were lost in this manner no one knows. Fortunately the practice was not common until after the thirteenth century, when the rise of the universities and the spread of learning made new demands for skins for writing purposes.
[13] That the printing was not always carefully done is shown by the constant need, throughout the Middle Ages, of correct copies for comparison. The following injunction of the Abbot Alcuin to the monks at Tours, given at the beginning of the ninth century, is illustrative of the need for care in copying:
"Here let the scribes sit who copy out the words of the Divine Law, and likewise the hallowed sayings of Holy Fathers. Let them beware of interspersing their own frivolities in the words they copy, nor let a trifler's hand make mistakes through haste. Let them earnestly seek out for themselves correctly written books to transcribe, that the flying pen may speed along the right path. Let them distinguish the proper sense by colons and commas, and set the points, each one in its due place, and let not him who reads the words to them either read falsely or pause suddenly. It is a noble work to write out holy books, nor shall the scribe fail of his due reward. Writing books is better than planting vines, for he who plants a vine serves his belly, but he who writes a book serves his soul."
[14] West, A. F.,Alcuin, pp. 72-73.
[15] The largest monastic library on the Continent was Fulda, which specialized in the copying of manuscripts. In 1561 it had 774 volumes. In England the largest collections were at Canterbury, which in the fourteenth century possessed 698 volumes, and at Peterborough, which had 344 volumes at about the same time. The library of Croyland, also in England, burned in 1091, at that time contained approximately 700 volumes. These represented the largest collections in Europe.
[16] TheHortus Delicarumof the Abbess Herrard, of the convent of Hohenburg, in Alsace, was a famous illustration of artistic workmanship. This was an attempt to embody, in encyclopaedic form, the knowledge of her time. The manuscript was embellished with hundreds of beautiful pictures, and was long preserved as a wonderful exhibition of mediaeval skill. It was lost to civilization, along with many other treasures, when the Prussians bombarded Strassburg, in 1870.
[17] He there "enjoyed advantages which could not perhaps have been found anywhere else in Europe at the time—perfect access to all the existing sources of learning in the West. Nowhere else could he acquire at once the Irish, the Roman, the Gallician, and the Canterbury learning; the accumulated stores of books which Benedict (founder and abbot) had bought at Rome and at Vienne; or the disciplinary instruction drawn from the monasteries on the Continent, as well as from Irish missionaries." (Bishop Stubbs,Dictionary of Christian Biography, article on Bede.)
[18] West, A. F.,Alcuin, pp. 45-47.
[19]Annals of Xanten, 846 A.D.
[20]Ibid., 851 A.D.
[21]Annals of Saint Vaast, 884 A.D.
[22] It is related that ignorant court officials, fearing the king's displeasure, sought to learn from their children.
[23] Through Alfred's efforts, the compilation of theAnglo-Saxon Chroniclewas begun, that the people of England might be able to read the history of their country in their own language.
[1] Anderson tells of a monastic student's notebook on conduct which has been preserved, and which "prescribes that the young man is to kneel when answering the Abbot, not to take a seat unasked, not to loll against the wall, nor fidget with things within reach. He is not to scratch himself, nor cross his legs like a tailor. He is to wash his hands before meals, keep his knife sharp and clean, not to seize upon vegetables, and not to use his spoon in the common dish."
[2] This expression came into common use in the fifth century, when the Christian writers summarized the ancient learning under these seven headings or studies, following earlier Greek and Roman classifications. (See p. 70).
[3] TheDoctrinale, by Alexander de Villa Die. This was in rhyme, and became immensely popular. It was the favorite text until the fifteenth century.
[4] Donatus begins as follows:
"How many parts of speech are there?" "Eight."
"What are they?" "Noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle,conjunction, preposition, and interjection."
"What is a noun?" "A part of speech with case, signifying abody or thing particularly or commonly."
"How many attributes have nouns?" "Six."
"What are they?" "Quality, comparison, gender, number, figure, case."
Etc., etc.
[5] The following from Priscian, reproduced by Graves, illustrates the method of instruction as applied to the first book of the Aeneid of Vergil.
"What part of speech isarma?" "A noun.""Of what sort?" "Common.""Of what class?" "Abstract.""Of what gender?" "Neuter.""Why neuter?" "Because all nouns whose pluralsend inaare neuter.""Why is not the singular used?" "Because this noun expresses manydifferent things."Etc., etc.
This form of textbook writing was common, not only during the Middle Ages, but well into modern times. The famousNew England Primerwas in part in this form, and many early American textbooks in history and geography were written after this plan.
[6] Vergil, due to his beautiful poetic form and to his love of nature and life, was especially guarded against during the early Middle Ages as the most seductive of the ancient Latin writers. It is not at all inappropriate that, in Dante'sInferno, Vergil should have been the person to guide Dante through hell and purgatory, but should not have been allowed to accompany him into paradise.
[7] Textbooks on the art of letter-writing began to appear by the eleventh century, explaining in detail how to prepare the five divisions of a letter: (1) the salutation (salutatio), (2) the art of introducing the subject properly and making a good impression (captatio benevolentiae), (3) the body of the letter (narratio), (4) how to make the request (petitio), and (5) a fitting conclusion (conclusio).
[8] Anderson reproduces a portion of a chapter by Capella on the number four, which is illustrative of the mediaeval study of the properties of number:
"What shall I call four? in which is a certain perfection of solidarity; for it is composed of length and depth, and a full decade is made up from those four numbers added together in order, that is, from one, two, three, four. Similarly a hundred is made up of the four decades, that is, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, which are a hundred; and again four numbers from a hundred on amount to a thousand, that is, 100, 200, 300, 400. So ten thousand is made up of another series. What is to be said of the fact that there are four seasons of the year, four quarters of the heavens, and four principles of the elements? There are also four ages of man, four vices, and four virtues."
[9] Anderson reproduces a paragraph from Maurus, showing how number was applied to Holy Writ. It reads:
"A real thinker," says Maurus, "will not pass on indifferently when he reads that Moses, Elijah, and our Lord fasted forty days. Without strict observance and investigation the matter cannot be explained. The number 40 contains the number 10 four times, by which all is signified which concerns the temporal. For, according to the number 4, the days and the seasons run their course. The day consists of morning, midday, evening, and night, the year of spring, summer, autumn, winter. Further, we have the number 10 to recognize God and the creature. The three (trinity) indicated the Creator; the seven, the creature which consists of body and spirit. In the latter is the three: for we must love God with our whole heart and soul and mind. In the body, on the other hand, the four elements of which it consists reveal themselves clearly. So if we are moved through that which is signified by the number 10 to live in time—for 10 is taken four times—chaste, withholding ourselves from worldly lusts, that means to fast forty days. So the Holy Scriptures contain suggestively in many different numbers all sorts of secrets which must remain hidden to those who do not understand the meaning of numbers."
[10] Gerbert (953-1003) was one of the most learned monks of his day, having studied in the Saracen schools of Spain. He afterwards became Pope Sylvester II (999-1003). Because of his scientific knowledge in an age of superstition he was accused of transactions with the devil.
[11] For example, theStabat Materand theDies Irae, two thirteenth- century hymns. The former has been called the most pathetic and the latter the most sublime of all mediaeval poems.
[12] Cassiodorus was an educated later Roman, who had been chief minister to Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king, and had done much to carry over Latin learning and civilization into the new régime. He later founded the monastery of Viviers, in southern Italy, and spent the latter part of his life there in writing and contemplation. He urged the monks to study, and those who had no head for learning he advised to read Cato and Columella on agriculture, and then to devote themselves to it.
[13] "Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars." (Proverbs, IX, 1.)
[14] Abelson, in his monograph onThe Seven Liberal Arts, reduces each of these textbooks to their equivalent in a modern 16mo printed page, with the following results:
Cassi-Capella Boethius odorus Isidore Alcuin MaurusSubject (c. 425) (c. 520) (c. 575) (c. 630) (c. 800) (c. 844)/Grammar…… 11 — 25 50 54 55|Rhetoric….. 14 — 5-1/2 14 26 —\Dialectic…. 11 — 18 14 25 —/Arithmetic… 11 40 2 2 — —|Geometry….. 15 30 2 1 — —|Astronomy…. 9 — 15 3 23 60\Music…….. 11 67 2 12 — ——- —- —- —- —- —-Totals in pages 82 137 69-1/2 96 128 115
[15] The mediaeval serf was the successor of the Roman slave, and was a step upward in the process of the evolution of the free man. The serf was tied to the soil and by obligations of personal service to the lord. Gradually, due to economic causes, the personal service was changed from general to definite service, and finally to a fixed rental sum. When a fixed money payment took the place of personal service the free man had been evolved. This took place rapidly with the rise of cities and industry toward the latter part of the Middle Ages.
[16] The German private duel and the American fist fight are the modern survivals of the time when personal insults, easily taken, and private grievances were settled in the "noble way" by sword and battle-axe and torch.
[17] In the earlier days of noblemen's education reading and writing were regarded as effeminate, but in the later times the nobles became increasingly literate. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many began to pride themselves on their patronage of learning.
[18] Rhyming in the vernacular language came to be an important part of the training, and many old love songs and songs expressing the joy of life date from this period. Chaucer's knight is described as:
"Syngynge he was or floytynge [playing], al the day;He was as fressh as is the monthe of May.Short was his gowne, with sleves longe and wyde.Wel cowde he sitte on hors and faire ryde;He cowde songes make and wel endite,Juste and eek daunce, and wel purtreye and write.So hote he loved, that by nighterdale [night time]He slept no more than doth the nightingale."
[19] From the life of the Frankish Abbot, John of Gorze, Abbot at Gorze in the tenth century.
[20] Leach, A. F.,Educational Charters, p. 143.
[21]Ibid., p. 147.
[22] Anselm (1033-1109), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, formulated the early mediaeval view when he said:
"I do not seek to know in order that I may believe, but I believe inorder that I may know."
"The Christian ought to advance to knowledge through faith, not tocome to faith through knowledge."
"The proper order demands that we believe the deep things of Christianfaith before we presume to reason about them."
[23] Monroe, Paul,Text-Book in the History of Education, p. 258.
[1] "In the school of Nisibis the Church possessed an institution, which for centuries secured her a system of higher education, and therewith an important social and political position. To the older literature, consisting of translations, there was added, from the middle of the fifth century onward, a large number of philosophical, scientific, and medical treatises belonging to Greek antiquity, and especially the works of Aristotle. Through these Greek wisdom and learning, clothed in Syrian attire, found a home on these borders of Christendom." (Müller, D. K.,Kirchengeschichte, vol. I, p. 278.)
[2] "By the year 600 A.D. the triumph of the oriental element in Christendom had well-nigh banished learning and education from the domain of the Church, giving place to a gloomy, unquestioning faith which sank ever deeper and deeper in the mire of superstition. What enlightenment survived had found a home beyond the limits of the Roman Empire,—in Ireland, in the extreme West; in Syria, in the far East." (Davidson, Thomas,History of Education, p. 133.)
[3] This was determined as being 56-1/3 miles, which would make the circumference of the earth 20,280 miles. The correct distance is 69 miles.
[4] The fanaticism of the eastern Arabs now reasserted itself, and higher education In the Mohammedan countries of the East drew permanently to a close. A harsh, rigid orthodoxy, fatal to educational progress, now triumphed. The coming of the Turks only made matters worse, and with their advent education throughout Arabia and Asia Minor became a thing of the past. Some day it will be the task of western Europe to hand back schools and learning to the Mohammedan East. This may be one of the by-products of the great World War.
[5] The Alhambra, built between 1238 and 1354, at Granada, is an exquisite example of their art. (See plate in vol. 1, p. 658, of theEncyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., for an illustration of their architecture and art.)
[6] It was an age of superstition and miracles, diabolic influences, witchcraft and magic, private warfare, trials by ordeal, robber bands, little dirty towns, no roads, unsanitary conditions, and miserable homes. Even the nobility had few comforts and conveniences, and personal cleanliness was not common. Disease was punishment for sin and to be cured by prayer, while the insane were scourged to cast out the devils within them.
[7] Frederic II was Emperor of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire, ruling from 1227 to 1250. Though a German by birth, he had lived long in Sicily, and spent most of his time in Italy after becoming Emperor. He greatly admired the Saracens for their learning, and tried to transfer some of their knowledge to Christian Europe. He lived, however, at a time when the Papacy was cementing its temporal power and the Pope was becoming the Emperor of Europe. This encroachment Frederick resisted and tried to break, but without success. At his death the mediaeval German dream of world empire perished; Germany was left a collection of feudal States; and the temporal power of the Pope was henceforth for centuries to come undisputed.
[8] Christianity had not as yet been introduced among the mixed Slavic and Germanic tribes along the eastern Baltic. In Prussia and Lithuania, where missionary efforts had been made from 900 on, success did not come until more than three centuries later. (See art. "Missions,"Ency. Brit., 11th ed., vol. 18.)
[9] The more important questions arising concerned the Trinity, the Eucharist, and Transubstantiation.
[10] This discussion was over what was known as nominalism vs. realism. Anselm of Canterbury (1034-1109), basing his argument largely on some parts of Plato, had declared that ideas constituted our real existence. Roscellinus of Compiègne (1050-1105), basing his argument on parts of theOrganonof Aristotle, had held that ideas or concepts are only names for real, concrete things. Anselm, as a realist, contended that the human senses are deceptive, and that revealed truth alone is reliable. Roscellinus, as a nominalist, held that truth can be reached only through investigation and the use of reason. The church accepted the realism of Anselm as correct, and Roscellinus was compelled to recant. The stifling effect of such an attitude toward honest doubt can be imagined.
[11] McCabe, Joseph,Peter Abelard, p. 7.
[12] By the beginning of the eleventh century this cathedral school had become the most important in France, a position which it retained for centuries. It was the great center for theological study, and drew to it a succession of eminent teachers—William of Champeaux, Abelard, Peter the Lombard—and, in time, thousands of students.
[13] The termscholasticismcomes fromscholasticus, because it was chiefly in the cathedral schools that scholasticism arose. It means, literally, the method of thinking worked out by the teachers in the cathedral schools.
[14] The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) once said that when he considered the inertness of the Middle Ages he was led to think that God had been content to make man a two-legged animal, leaving to Aristotle the task of making him a thinking being. The worship of Aristotle is easily explained by the great amount of information his works contained, his logical method and skillful classification of knowledge, and the way his ideas as to causes fitted into Christian reasoning.
[15] The Dominicans, or Black Friars, were a new teaching and preaching monastic order, founded in 1216. It was a revival of monasticism, directed toward more modern ends. The Dominicans established themselves in connection with the new universities, and sought to control education and to defend orthodoxy. Another new order of this same period was that of the Franciscans, or Gray Friars, founded by Saint Francis in 1212. Their work was directed still more to preaching, missions, and public service. They were a less intellectual but a more democratic brotherhood. It was the Franciscans who followed the armies of Spain to Mexico, and later built and conducted the missions of the central and southern California coast.
[16] Special translations of Aristotle'sRhetoricandPolitics, from the original Greek texts, obtained at Constantinople by the Crusaders, were made for Thomas Aquinas at his special request, about 1260, by William of Moerbeke, who knew enough Greek to perform the task. This gave him better translations from which to lecture and write.
[17] In 529 the Eastern Emperor, Justinian (see p. 76), directed that an orderly compilation be prepared of the many and confused laws and decisions which had been made in the Roman Empire, with a view to producing a standard body of Roman law in place of the unwieldy mass of contradictory material then existing. The result was theCorpus Juris Civilis, worked out by a staff of eminent lawyers between 529 and 533 (R. 93). This consisted of
I. TheCode, in twelve books, containing the Statutes of theEmperors;
II. TheDigest, in fifty books, containing pertinent extractsfrom the opinions of celebrated Roman lawyers;
III. TheInstitutes, in four books, being an elementarytextbook on the law for the use of students;
IV. TheNovellae, or new Statutes, the final edition of which was issued in 565, and included the laws from 533 on. This was preserved and used in the East, but came too late to be of much service to the Western Empire.
[18] The subdivisions were as follows: I. Contained 106 "distinctions," relating to ecclesiastical persons and affairs. II. Contained 36 "distinctions," relating to problems arising in the administration of canon law. III. Contained 5 "distinctions," relating to the ritual and sacraments of the Church.
[19] The additions were:
I. TheDecretalsof Pope Gregory IX, issued in 1234, in fivebooks.II. A Supplement to the above by Pope Boniface VIII (LiberSextus), issued in 1298.III. TheConstitutionsof Clementine, issued in 1317.IV. Several additions of Papal Laws, not included in any of theabove.
[20] He held that the body contained four humors—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Disease was caused by an undue accumulation of some one of the four. Hence the office of the physician was to reduce this accumulation by some means such as blood-letting, purging, blisters, diaphoretics, etc. In the monastery of Saint Gall (see Diagram, R. 69) a blood-letting room was a part of the establishment, and this practice was continued until well into the nineteenth century.
[21] Galen was born at Pergamon, in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. He studied medicine at Pergamon, Smyrna, and Alexandria, and for a time lived in Rome. Returning to Pergamon he was appointed physician to the athletes in the gymnasium there. He later went back to Rome and became physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He is credited with five hundred works on literature, philosophy, and medicine, one hundred and eighteen of which have survived. In medicine he wrote on anatomy, physiology, diagnosis, pathology, therapeutics, materia medica, surgery, hygiene, and dietetics. He was the first to use the pulse as a means of detecting physical condition.
[22] Saint Augustine,The City of God, book xxii, chap. 24.
[23] Often spoken of as Constantius Africanus. It is recorded that he studied the arts in Babylon, visited Egypt and India, and returned to his home in Carthage one of the most learned men of his age. Suspected of dealings with the Devil he fled to Salernum (c. 1065), taught there for many years, published many medical works of his own, and finally retired to the monastery of Monte Cassino, dying there in 1087.
[24] In 1064 a company of seven thousand is said to have started for the Holy Land.
[25] Adams, G. B.,Civilization during the Middle Ages, 2d ed., p. 261.
[26] "From Clermont the enthusiasm spread over France like wildfire. Stirring preachers, whereof the most notable was Peter the Hermit, set all France, peasant and noble, to arming. It was the old gospel of Mohammed recast in Christian guise:—pardon for sin and the spoils of the infidel if victorious!—a swift road to heaven if slain in the battle! Pressed with this hope and enthusiasm, armies to be reckoned by the hundreds of thousands were launched upon the East." (Davis, W. S.,Mediaeval and Modern Europe, p. 95).
[27] Of the thousands of petty lords and knights who went to the hot East, clad in the heavy armor of northern Europe, large numbers left their bones along the way or in the Syrian sands, and the landholdings at home reverted to the Crown. This was a crushing blow to the old feudal regime, advanced the cause of civilization, and helped in the rise of the modern nations. Especially was this true in France and England, whose knights went in large numbers to the East. In Germany the knights and nobles, as a class, refused to have anything to do with the Crusades, and hence they were not killed off or impoverished, but remained to rule and multiply and be troublesome. This is one reason for the much earlier rise and greater strength of French than German nationality, and one reason why Germany has been so much slower than France and England in developing a democratic type of civilization.
[28] "As presented to the eye, a typical mediaeval city would be a remarkable sight. Its extent would be small, both because of the limited population, and the need of making the circuit of the walls to be defended as short as possible; but within these walls the huge, many-storied houses would be wedged closely together. The narrow streets would be dirty and ill-paved—often beset by pigs in lieu of scavengers; but everywhere there would be bustling human life with every citizen elbowing close to everybody else. Out of the foul streets here and there would rise parish churches of marvelous architecture, and in the center of the town extended the great square—market-place—where the open-air markets would be held, and close by it, dwarfing the lesser churches, the tall gray cathedral— the pride of the community; close by, also, the City Hall, an elegant secular edifice, where the council met, where the great public feasts could take place, and above which rose the mighty belfry, whence clanged the great alarm-bell to call the citizens together in mass meeting, or to don armor and man the walls." (Davis, W. S.,Mediaeval and Modern Europe, p. 146.)
[29] In Italy, in particular, the cities became strong and powerful, and eventually overthrew the rule of the bishops and defeated the German Emperor, Frederick I, in a long battle to preserve their independence. In Flanders such cities as Ypres, Bruges, and Ghent, came to dominate there. In 1302 their burghers defeated the French army; and in the sixteenth century they helped to break the autocratic power of Spain in a great struggle for human and civic freedom. By the thirteenth century Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen, Augsburg, and Nuremburg were important commercial cities in Germany.
[30] They came there because, due to their plundering and murdering proclivities, Venice forbade her merchants to go to them.
[31] So poor were the mediaeval bridges that the old prayer-books contained formulas for "commending one's soul to God ere starting to cross a bridge."
[32] The peasants were of two classes: (1) serfs, who were not free and who were attached to the soil, but unlike slaves had plots of land of their own and could not be sold off the land; and (2) villeins, who were personally free, but still were bound to their lord for much menial service and for many payments in produce and money.
[33] The Church originally held many serfs and villeins, as did the nobles. It began the process of setting them free, encouraging others to do likewise. In time it became common, as it did in our Southern States before the Civil War, for nobles in dying to set free a certain number of their serfs and villeins. These went as free men to the rising cities.
[34] The mediaeval guild was an important institution, and the guild idea was applied to many forms of mediaeval associations. Thus we read of guilds of notaries in Florence, pleaders' and attorneys' guilds in London, medical guilds and barber-surgeons' guilds in various cities, and of the book-writers-and-sellers' guild in Paris. In a religious pageant given at York, England, on Corpus Christi Day, 1415, fifty-one different local guilds presented each a scene. (See Cheyney, E. P.,English Towns and Gilds., Pa. Sources, vol. II, no. I.)
[35] "The ready money of the merchant was as effective a weapon as the sword of the noble, or the spiritual arms of the Church. Very speedily, also, the men of the cities began to seize upon one of the weapons which up to that time had been the exclusive possession of the Church, and one of the main sources of its power,—knowledge and intellectual training. With these two weapons in its hands, wealth and knowledge, the Third Estate forced its way into influence, and compelled the other two (Estates) to recognize it as a partner with themselves in the management of public concerns." (Adams, G. B.,Civilization during the Middle Ages, 2d ed. p. 299.)
[36] In Hamburg, for example, the city council established four writing schools in 1402, to which the church authorities objected. The council refused to give them up, and for this was laid under the ban of the Church, compelled to recede, admit that it had no right to establish such schools, and pay the costs involved in the contest.
[37] For example, the three most widely read books of the thirteenth century wereReynard the Fox, a profoundly humorous animal epic;The Golden Legend, which so deeply impressed Longfellow; and theRomance of the Rose, for three centuries the most read book in Europe.
[38] Despite all the criticisms one may offer against business, commerce has always been a great civilizing force. While not anxious to pay heavy taxes, the merchant has always been willing to pay what has been necessary to support a public power capable of maintaining order and security for property. Feudal turmoil, private warfare, and plundering are deadly foes of commerce, and these have come to an end where commerce and industry have gained the ascendant.
[39] As a rule a master craftsman might teach his trade to all his sons, but could have only one other apprentice who received board, lodging, clothing, and training, as one of the family. The guild still supervised the apprentice, protecting him from bad usage or defective training by the master.
[40] This required the production of a "masterpiece." This piece of work had to be produced to prove high competency. For example, in the shoemakers' guild of Paris, a pair of boots, three pairs of shoes, and a pair of slippers, all done in the best possible manner, were required.
[41] Of thirty-three guilds investigated by Leach, all maintained song schools, and twenty-eight maintained a grammar school as well. In London, Merchant Taylors' School, Stationers' School, and the Mercers' School are present-day survivals of these ancient guild foundations.
[1] By the twelfth century the cathedral schools had passed the monastic schools in importance, and had obtained a lead which they were ever after to retain (R. 71).
[2] As contrasted with the monasteries, which were under a "Rule." The opportunities offered by such open institutions in the Middle Ages can hardly be overestimated.
[3] Frederick I, of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire of Germany and Italy.
[4] "No individual during the Middle Ages was secure in his rights, even of life or property, certainly not in the enjoyment of ordinary freedom, unless protected by specific guarantees secured from some organization. Politically, one must owe allegiance to some feudal lord from whom protection was received; economically, one must secure his rights through merchant or craft guild; intellectual interests and educational activities were secured and controlled by the Church." (Monroe, P.,Text Book in the History of Education, p. 317.)
[5] At first the older institutions organized themselves without charter, securing this later, while the institutions founded after 1300 usually began with a charter from pope or king, and sometimes from both (R. 100).
[6] The degree of master was originally the license to practice the teaching trade, and analogous to a master shoemaker, goldsmith, or other master craftsmen.