The privilege of men who excelled in history is to absorb the whole spirit of an age; the century takes its name from them, there is no literature, no poetry, no history, if not in the shadow of their fame. Such was the century of Augustus in Rome, and such in the Middle Ages, the century of Charlemagne; alongside the broad conquests, and higher than the political order, we see the undeniable empire of knowledge, an immeasurable universal desire to expand it, an overwhelming inclination for classical studies. When I spoke of the glorious wars of Charlemagne, I had to number the valiant and strong counts who were his companions in military enterprises; now it seems necessary to take to consider the men who contributed to advance civilization, much more than in this luminous point, situated between the first and the third lineage, there is some illustrious intellect who wants to take away from the oblivion of the centuries, and such work will form the natural fulfillment of these annals. I have to talk about dead works, about ideas that no longer exist [150]they correspond to nothing of what the current company entices; I have to say how entire generations went to the schools of the monasteries to listen to subtle dissertations; but alas! I am not, by chance, subtle of certain thoughts about the rights and prerogatives of modern podestàs.
Charlemagne, in imitation of the other great men, wanted to master the literature of his time with the same strength he had placed in creating the empire. His nature was not for study; in fact, almost continually busy during his long wars, how could he find the time to devote to reading and meditating on books? And nevertheless he left various works put together with scrupulous accuracy. Among these, the capitulars are not otherwise literary monuments, nor do they have any imprint of the progress of the letters; they are legislative acts, written from hand to hand, according to contingencies; some also (omitted by the compilers and collected by Galdasto alone), although rare and precious monuments, do not consider themselves worthy, nor are they but simple rescripts and diplomas [129]; several of those valiant counts, who had emerged from the lineage of the Saxons, had accompanied the emperor to the war against the Saracens of Spain, and he, with a capitular dictated to his cancellarius, distributed large tracts of land to them in Thuringia, with the right to have them work in the gold and silver mines; or even, the act he dictated was in favor of his beloved city of Aachen, of which he himself recalls the ancient origin, and the splendid privileges; or if you like, in some other person to exalt the title of noble after the Franks and Germans, or he becomes a poet describing the enormous crimes committed in France and Italy, and says: “These sins have provoked the wrath of God , his patience has reached its limit, and he wants to cut them off with the punishment of fire to the unfortunate authors of so many enormousness. ”
In the last century it was like a pilgrimage of scholars in search of the works of Charlemagne, and fathers Martene and Durand, Benedictines, went from city to city passing through Italy, to find the traces of the capitulars and the documents of the Carlinghi times, in which already preceded his father Mabillon had him; and the inquiries they made for the libraries yielded fortunate discoveries, from which the learned later were able to profit. Charlemagne’s letters were then collected and coordinated, and there was a very important letter dictated by him and addressed to Elipando Toletano and to the other bishops of Spain, on the purpose of the heresy of Felice da Urgel, which was struck down by the Council of Frankfurt. «Oh how great is the good that comes from religious unity! And what has he got to do with it [151]more admirable, more holy than the Catholic religion? So why break his venerable authority? Living in the midst of the Saracens of Spain was little for them, who wanted to burden their condition with an even more fatal error, an error unanimously condemned by a council of bishops representing all the churches of the empire. Come on! accept this sentence of the councils in peace, nor do you want to presume yourselves wiser than the universal Church. Such are the words of Charlemagne in that letter authenticated with his seal [130] .
The emperor also acts as a theologian in a curious explanation that he gives about Settuagesima , Sessagesima , Quinquagesima , ecclesiastical names of the three Sundays preceding Lent; and this happens precisely at that time that he has more to do as king than the Franks and the Lombards, and that he awaits several wars all of a sudden. Mind in true supreme and marvelous! The most curious of these letters demonstrates his noble love for studies, wanting that schools be open in all churches. “And ask, he says, to lead these schools men of action.” Then, the proud prince, having come out of the forests, is there to enumerate there at length the advantages of science, mother and source of all things. [131]; where you can already hear the thoughts of those who raced Italy, of Adriano’s friend, of the patrician of Rome! Certainly some of these acts are the work of the cherics surrounding Charlemagne; but doesn’t that noble impulse to study come from him? He works on it ceaselessly; he has a collection of homilies compiled for the benefit of the churches, and prefaces them with a preface, in which his purpose is to prove that study is the first of his duties; and his entire life flows, and if he finds some reason for praise in it, it is only for the little that he has done for the benefit of the sciences; to consider him in his active life you would say that he is all in his conquests, all expected to add new lands to his empire, here against the Huns, there against the Saracens and the Saxons; and yet it is not something that in his writings he gives to know the conqueror; there he hears everything about the legislator and the scholar prince. As big as he is, you can see that he likes himself in theological studies; and which does not seem credible, he composes of his own a treatise on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and goes down to the most minute disquisitions to promote the love of studies, and enters the contest only because it has greater importance and splendor. In fact, can he choose a more sublime subject to deal with, the gifts and attributes of the Holy Spirit? “Did the ancient philosophers receive the gift of the spirit?” Charlemagne denies it: «But he composes a treatise of his own on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and goes down to the most minute disquisitions to promote the love of studies, and enters the contest only because it has greater importance and splendor. In fact, can he choose a more sublime subject to deal with, the gifts and attributes of the Holy Spirit? “Did the ancient philosophers receive the gift of the spirit?” Charlemagne denies it: «But he composes a treatise of his own on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and goes down to the most minute disquisitions to promote the love of studies, and enters the contest only because it has greater importance and splendor. In fact, can he choose a more sublime subject to deal with, the gifts and attributes of the Holy Spirit? “Did the ancient philosophers receive the gift of the spirit?” Charlemagne denies it: «But [152]that we cannot receive such gifts without collecting them all. ” At this other breath the emperor places his great plans for the future in the bosom of his confidants; and he wrote, as an example, to Angilberto, to whom he gave the mysterious name of Homer [132], to go privately to see Pope Leo: “For there are too many filthies in the Church, and in any case I wanted to thwart the pernicious weeds of simony.” And in that way he offers him the money necessary to build a basilica in Rome for St. Paul. The discussions on the spirit form the subject of another letter to the pope, and almost another dogmatic treatise, in the form of a subtle dissertation that seems to be the work of a clergyman rather than a warrior. The present time, with its superb contempt, will certainly not understand how a powerful emperor has descended to these subtleties; but getting lost in subtleties is not the worm of one power or one time alone; every age has its childish things, its childish dissertations on the mysteries of authority; to eighth century Charlemagne made the theologian’s mestier; in other times he would have done the job of the politician.
Now here he is a poet, in the act of pronouncing the Latin verses, the scientific idiom of that generation: translating the works of the common language and Romance into Latin was something that was used even under the first lineage; and the same warrior song of the Franks in arms was translated into Latin. In addition to Hadrian’s affectionate epitaph, a son’s farewell to his father, which we saw written by Charlemagne, he had also sent the pope a small psalter which includes an entire poem in praise of the pontificate. Protector as he was of men of letters, he also loved either to meet them, or to call them to himself; wherefore to Paolo Varnefrido, or Paolo Diacono, who retired to Montecassino to live there as a hermit, he addressed some elegiac verses aimed at inducing him to come again to his court, so that you have for Augustus to write to Virgil; and when Alcuin, old and worn out, leaves the court, he writes to him as to his teacher and doctor: «O father, you have retired in solitude, and good for you; help me with your prayers to attain eternal health. ” Then, finding himself in Rome, the emperor dictated new verses from there to the loner of Montecassino, to his Varnefrido, saying to him: “Why not come and visit him in Rome, why forget about his friend like that?”
Then the most powerful prince is converted into a gramatic, and begins to make a lexicon of the German language, with the Latin words as a counterpart, a comparative work he has planted on very large bases; then he corrects the copies of Scripture by his hand, and it is convenient to say that he had arrived [153]to a high degree of perfection in the study of languages, if his annalists took care to note that the king and emperor found with great diligence the four Gospels on the Greek text and the Syriac version [133]. He therefore knew the oriental languages by way of translating the Gospels from the Hebrew language into German, and as an acute critic he found the Evangelists among them, punctuated them and corrected them. Sometimes I love to contemplate great men in small works, when they joke, so to speak, with the destiny to which they were born; and therefore it is still beautiful to see Charlemagne giving life or direction to the Caroline books around the cult of images, explaining the meaning of the Council of Frankfurt, opposed to the cult of the arts, and a middle term between the iconoclastic doctrine, which does not want representations of any fate , and the sentence of some Greek artists, who maintain the adoration of images to be as holy as the Trinity itself. It is difficult for a sovereign man not to interfere with the questions of his time, and all the more so he has an obligation to govern society, because then it is not lawful for him to hijack himself from the opinions that stir around him, since those who govern men have to invest themselves even with their passions. As for the usual language of Charlemagne, we have already said to be German, and we still have of his own, in this language, a formulation for confession. It is indeed curious to see, from history, the brisk activity of this sovereign intellect, who is not frightened by these minutiae and frivolities of life, but rather enjoys engaging in this literary task which he, together with his friends and confidants, has imposed on himself. And this is also a trait of resemblance that history finds in all conquerors; they love to entertain themselves with men of letters and scientists, nor disdain to enter into serious or pleasant conversations with them; but that they know, a nation cannot be great and strong, if not for the works of genius. And what would they be themselves if history did not take possession of their name? The most illustrious name that shines next to Charlemagne, in terms of science and letters, is that of Alcuino, who was promoted to the dignity of abbot of San Martino di Tours. He was born of noble and wealthy relatives, in the year 735, in the province of Jorc, with various brothers, one of whom was bishop of Salzburg, and so much knowledge and ingenuity was in him that he earned the nickname of in matters of science and literature, that is of Alcuin, who was promoted to the dignity of abbot of San Martino di Tours. He was born of noble and wealthy relatives, in the year 735, in the province of Jorc, with various brothers, one of whom was bishop of Salzburg, and so much knowledge and ingenuity was in him that he earned the nickname of in matters of science and literature, that is of Alcuin, who was promoted to the dignity of abbot of San Martino di Tours. He was born of noble and wealthy relatives, in the year 735, in the province of Jorc, with various brothers, one of whom was bishop of Salzburg, and so much knowledge and ingenuity was in him that he earned the nickname ofeagle . He studied as a child in the very strong and very learned school of Jorc, where he taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and where from disciple he became teacher, student, librarian; then he was made deacon of that Church, a worthy sister [154]of the other of Cantorberì, and both of them commissioned by the monks of San Benedetto. Quickly rising in a shout, he visited Rome and Italy, there clashed in Charlemagne and the king and the sage immediately agreed; Alcuin promised to go to France, kept his promise, and had rich abbeys there; then he placed himself in the same palace as Charlemagne, and held a chair of science there, as it seems, reading publicly under the arcades of those royal residences, and restoring the studies of antiquity with the war which he waged both ignorance and heresy. Nor was it difficult that, having retired to the solitude of Tours, he applied to meditating on the Scriptures, and made by his own hand a very correct and perfect copy of the Old and New Testament, which he, with a dedicatory letter, offered to Charlemagne. Alcuin died long ago, and in the ancient church of San Martino I kept the epitaph, full of humility, which he composed for himself for a long time. The works that remain of him are appreciable. His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely goes on discussing those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts that they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the and in the ancient church of San Martino I kept for a long time the epitaph, full of humility, which he composed for himself. The works that remain of him are appreciable. His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely goes on discussing those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts, which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the and in the ancient church of San Martino I kept for a long time the epitaph, full of humility, which he composed for himself. The works that remain of him are appreciable. His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely goes on discussing those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts that they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the ancient church of San Martino preserved for a long time the epitaph, full of humility, which he composed for himself. The works that remain of him are appreciable. His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely discusses those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts, which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the ancient church of San Martino preserved for a long time the epitaph, full of humility, which he composed for himself. The works that remain of him are appreciable. His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely goes on discussing those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts, which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the composed by him for himself. The works that remain of him are appreciable. His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely goes on discussing those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts, which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the composed by him for himself. The works that remain of him are appreciable. His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely goes on discussing those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts, which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely goes on discussing those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the His questions about Genesis are a true philosophical dissertation that knows of the Saxon school of the venerable Bede; there he bravely goes on discussing those words of Jeova: “Let us make man in our image and likeness:” and this writing, of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, founded the first reputation of ‘Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts, which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, founded the first reputation of Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts, which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and the of such merit that there were those who wanted to attribute it to Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, founded the first reputation of Alcuin. He then composed a treatise on the seven penitential psalms, on the use to be made of them and on the notable precepts, which they draw from them to live well. “O holy souls (so he) sing, sing the praises of the Lord,” the hymns of glorification. But and thePange lingua , that sublime canticle, is it the work of Fortunato or of Alcuin? The question still hangs undecided before the court of criticism. Then, again the Saxon doctor, he discusses about Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. What do those words mean: “There are sixty queens and eighty second-rank wives?” How are they opposed to the holy unity of marriage?
Then follows a treatise on the holy and indivisible Trinity, dedicated to Charlemagne, with which he intends to affirm him in the Catholic faith, and therefore that Charlemagne is still the symbol for him of protection and invocation, he writes to him under the name of David, of the difference between eternity, immortality and perpetuity, between century, age and time [134] . And after this he throws himself into the most sublime philosophy, in a treatise on the reason of the soul [135] , which he addressed to the virgin Eulalia, to whom, following his poetic genius, he sends an oration in verse to God, with a short instruction and litanies, and other prayers. Nor is Alcuin less powerful where he becomes controversial, and if he is [155]he catches with Felice d’Urgel, saying: «And what does this heresiarch teach? Maybe any that new? No, because to say that Christ is the adopted son of God, and no longer, is to resurrect the errors of Nestorius. ” And so where does he enter into controversy with Elipando, bishop of Toledo; and he dictates a book on the Incarnation, defending and sanctifying it, and now unfolds the grandeur of baptism, and now the wonders of the sacraments; it exalts virtue, condemns vice, and declares that life must be a compound of chastity and purity.
Up to now Alcuin has held himself in the field of philosophy, but from now on he flows through that of the most pleasant letters and sciences, and his first work in this matter is a treatise on the seven liberal arts, of which only we remain some chapters. The one that deals with gramatica is in the form of a dialogue between a Franco and a Saxon who argue about punctuation, words, their meaning. The design of this dialogue is ingenious, in which Franco and Saxon speak two distinct languages. Then follows another treatise on rhetoric and virtue, even more curious than the previous one, due to the quality of the interlocutors, who are Alcuin himself and Charlemagne. There the doctor likes to provoke the mighty prince to the highest questions of science, and makes him stand continually on stage, so that you would say he is his providence, his strength, his safeguard, his everything, and he shows him to you as a knowledgeable theologian, and a cathedral doctor. Alcuin studied the works of Cicero, and Aristotile himself is not unknown to him; in every part, at that time, the study of the ancients transpired; in fact this amalgamation of doctrine and virtue in the same treatise is not perhaps a symbol already foreshadowed by Cicero in his family letters? And the art of speaking well, must it not perhaps have its origin in thought and in the intention of doing well? transpires the study of the ancients; in fact this amalgamation of doctrine and virtue in the same treatise is not perhaps a symbol already foreshadowed by Cicero in his family letters? And the art of speaking well, must it not perhaps have its origin in thought and in the intention of doing well? transpires the study of the ancients; in fact this amalgamation of doctrine and virtue in the same treatise is not perhaps a symbol already foreshadowed by Cicero in his family letters? And the art of speaking well, must it not perhaps have its origin in thought and in the intention of doing well?
Everything in Alcuin’s studies refers to Charlemagne, his protector and friend; he writes nothing that is not dedicated to him; he is a master always in commerce with his pupils, the emperor and his children: principle and author as he is of science, and nevertheless descends to teach the first rudiments, and his dialogue with Prince Pippin is an analytical model of human and Christian philosophy for the use of young people. And he writes the life of Saint Vasto, bishop of Arras, and composes sepulchral inscriptions, because the sepulcher was the thought of all that generation. In terms of letters, no one wrote more than Alcuin, and his correspondence is precious, much more than it points to the progress of the arts and sciences, nor is there anything superfluous in this study of the human spirit. [156]Latin and others in prose. Poetry forms the relief of that grave man, and he likes to compose hymns in honor of God and in exaltation of the mysteries of our religion. Leo III comes to France, and Alcuin writes a long poem in his honor; then, mixing the names of Christian saints with the memories of Greece and Rome, he addresses verses to his friends under the pseudonyms of Daphnis and Menalca; then a poem on the vigilance of the rooster, then another on the sadness and servitude of the world, then a long heroic poem, made to celebrate the history of the archbishops of Jorc, and finally composes a genealogy of Christ. His resemblance to Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine is great; he is, like them, a literate philosopher, disputant, pleasant genius for form, and scientific for the memories and profound studies of the Saxon school.
This curious craving that draws some of those scientists towards Greek and Roman antiquity, manifested itself mainly in a simple monk, named Angilbert, who deserved the nickname of Homer of his time, as Charlemagne calls him in his letters. Alcuin came, almost a pilgrim, from Saxony; and Angilbert was from Neustria, and the dearest pupil and disciple that he had, and well as wise and prudent he met Charlemagne, who gave him for primicerius to Pipino, when he was crowned king of Italy. Then from there he returned to France; he married Bertha, the emperor’s own daughter, and came in so much favor of this, that he was made duke and governor of coastal France from the Scheldt to the Seine. Man of the best business of his time, as he was, it was used in the most important legations; while still young, and allowing it, Bertha his wife, retired to the convent of Centula or San Ricchieri, took on the dress of bigello as a simple monk, and dressed in this humble cassock, accompanied Charlemagne to Rome, when he was girded with the imperial crown; finally, renounced the world, he passed of life in his monastery of San Ricchieri, where he was buried, according to his last will, at the threshold of the church, with an epitaph, not so modest as that of Alcuino. This Angilbert, the Homer of Charlemagne’s court, was in fact a poet. He addressed several hundred verses to Pippin, King of Italy, in which he depicts the joy that his father Charles felt when he saw him again after an absence of several years; then Pippin, all youthful strength and valor, he returned victorious over the Huns, and Angilbert celebrated his victories; if he founded a monument, a church, a monastery, and Angilberto exalted these foundations in verse; then now he wrote epitaphs, now church dedications, delighting himself in [157]I will write in the marble those characters which invite to prayer and to the meditation of death.
Landrado [136] , one of the other illustrious scientists, with whom the throne of Charlemagne was surrounded, was a native of Norica, and then came to France or Neustria, certainly called there by Charlemagne, who liked to gather all the others around Alcuin wise, and there he was in a short time raised to the supreme dignity of the century, as the author of his life says, and he became a man very useful to the republic. In the time it belonged to the number of those royal messengers, who flowed through the provinces to dispose them to obey the imperial orders, was elected bishop of Lyons; he visited Narbonese Gaul, making the southern populations observe the capitulars in every place, nor was his life more than a struggle and a continuous vigilance, as a reward for which his services obtained the translation of the relics of St. Cyprian to the cathedral of Lyon , Bishop of Carthage, that the relics of the saints formed in those days the glory of the cities and the pride of the clergy and the people. Landrado’s writings are not even worthy of those of Alcuin, and consist mainly of letters to Charlemagne, in which he gives an account of the way he had to administer the diocese of Lyons. He also has a treatise on baptism, on its pomp and on its ceremonies where he also seeks its origin in the Old Testament. And did not the fathers of the Church point it out to him? In another writing, he is enumerating the duties of the bishop, which are to work and pray; while, in his active life, he is a man in a politician and a man of letters, and always intent on seconding in every part the great intent of Charlemagne, which is the progress of powers and studies.
Landrado had as his successor, in the bishopric of Lyon, a man even more famous than himself in political life, we would say Agobard, a Goth of nation, but a southern genius, who, having come to Lyon, one of the Roman metropolises, to study the letters in that cathedral, there was elected archbishop in time, or in that back, that Lodovico Pio ascended to the throne. A restless and always agitated spirit, he was one of the leaders of that sect of bishops who did not want the absolute supreme supremacy of the popes. The other half, and more active, of his life, passed under the reign of Lodovico, and certainly with his lively, ardent, impetuous nature, he must have had a large part in the league, close between the bishops [158]to lower the crown. Meanwhile, we see this Agobard, already made bishop of Lyons, refute Felix’s heresy, and thereby acquire a very great reputation; afterwards, indefatigable in his proposal, he turned his forces to the detriment of the Jews, and dictated several treaties against them, and wrote to the emperor, so that he might suppress them, in time that they had too much access to the court. And again he writes a treatise against the judicial duel, but that he is the advocate of the tests of iron and fire, and shows a certain superiority of reason in another of his treatises on spells, in which he refutes the obedient ones peoples of Gaul are full, and try to unleash them around the power of the stars they believe in. Agobardo was certainly not an ordinary man, not to mention his political action,
Turpino is always invoked in the chivalric chronicles as a guarantor of what is said; he is like the sworn witness of all marvels. Who was this teller of feats? There was in fact an archbishop of Reims, named Tilpino or Turpino, born towards the beginning of the eighth century, who, being the city disturbed by the uprisings of the people, was, in the midst of that tumult, elected to govern the troubled Church. The reputation he enjoyed was very great, nor could it be otherwise, if six generations, one after the other, invoked his historical testimony. Of scholarly and ready ability in literature, he strove continually, so that his cathedral was provided with good books and ancient manuscripts, and the monastery of San Remigio had its large library at Turpino; and the pontifical book, the most beautiful of all, which she possessed before our civil disturbances was also a gift from him. He also visited, when archbishop, the metropolis of the Christian world, and knew how to deserve the confidence of the popes; trusted advisor to the Carolingians, but never secretary of the same, nor chancellor; of his deeds and his deeds at the side of Carlo only is spoken in the novels of chivalry. He died in Reims, nor did Incmaro himself disdain to compose his epitaph. We do not actually have any work of Turpino, but he is credited with that famous story of the exploits of Charlemagne, which made the delight and pride of the middle centuries; Turpino certainly must have been a luminary of his time,
No one could stand as a worker compared to Theodulf, who is placed on an equal footing with Alcuin by his contemporaries. He was born beyond the Alps, in Lombardy, and since his name has reached Charlemagne, [159]while he was traveling from Ravenna to Rome, he called him, caressed him, and did so much that he induced him to leave his native country for another adoptive one, where he was first made abbot of Fleury, then bishop of Orleans, and together with Landrado and Angilberto included among the royal messengers, who flowed through the provinces, became a man of state like a man of letters. He was endowed with a clear mind and had method in his writings, and an ordinative head, in which he saw the action of the genius who had dictated the capitulars, since the order that Charlemagne placed in the government of his empire, Theodulf placed him in the administration of the his diocese. We are left with a capitular or instruction, which is a kind of rule for his clergy, in those who deal especially with baptism, subject to which Charlemagne wanted the Church to pay its particular attention. He then makes a pompous eulogy of this sacrament, and shows it to that pure and complete mode of regeneration which he is above all; Alcuin wanted to remain among the domains of philosophy, Theodolfo descends on the contrary in practical life. The most eloquent of his writings is the pamphlet which he dedicated to the various states of this world; there he is a moralist who makes virgins, vows, penances, servants pass before him. In a secluded poem, always solicitous of his moral practice, he directs a training to the judges on how to sentence in disputes, and teaches them how they must conduct themselves with the parties, and do justice to all, so that they too deserve supreme justice. He then makes a pompous eulogy of this sacrament, and shows it to that pure and complete mode of regeneration which he is above all; Alcuin wanted to remain among the domains of philosophy, Theodolfo descends on the contrary in practical life. The most eloquent of his writings is the pamphlet which he dedicated to the various states of this world; there he is a moralist who makes virgins, vows, penances, servants pass before him. In a secluded poem, always solicitous of his moral practice, he directs a training to the judges on how to sentence in disputes, and teaches them how they must conduct themselves with the parties, and do justice to all, so that they too deserve supreme justice. He then makes a pompous eulogy of this sacrament, and shows it to that pure and complete mode of regeneration which he is above all; Alcuin wanted to remain among the domains of philosophy, Theodolfo descends on the contrary in practical life. The most eloquent of his writings is the pamphlet which he dedicated to the various states of this world; there he is a moralist who makes virgins, vows, penances, servants pass before him. In a secluded poem, always solicitous of his moral practice, he directs a training to the judges on how to sentence in disputes, and teaches them how they must conduct themselves with the parties, and do justice to all, so that they too deserve supreme justice. Alcuin wanted to remain among the domains of philosophy, Theodolfo descends on the contrary in practical life. The most eloquent of his writings is the pamphlet which he dedicated to the various states of this world; there he is a moralist who makes virgins, vows, penances, servants pass before him. In a secluded poem, always solicitous of his moral practice, he directs a training to the judges on how to sentence in disputes, and teaches them how they must conduct themselves with the parties, and do justice to all, so that they too deserve supreme justice. Alcuin wanted to remain among the domains of philosophy, Theodolfo descends on the contrary in practical life. The most eloquent of his writings is the pamphlet which he dedicated to the various states of this world; there he is a moralist who makes virgins, vows, penances, servants pass before him. In a secluded poem, always solicitous of his moral practice, he directs a training to the judges on how to sentence in disputes, and teaches them how they must conduct themselves with the parties, and do justice to all, so that they too deserve supreme justice. the servants. In a secluded poem, always solicitous of his moral practice, he directs a training to the judges on how to sentence in disputes, and teaches them how they must conduct themselves with the parties, and do justice to all, so that they too deserve supreme justice. the servants. In a secluded poem, always solicitous of his moral practice, he directs a training to the judges on how to sentence in disputes, and teaches them how they must conduct themselves with the parties, and do justice to all, so that they too deserve supreme justice.
Theodolfo is a Latin epigrammatic poet, and he suddenly speaks verses, as almost all abbots do; and to the most splendid copies he made of the Bible, he placed in front of them short verses in honor of the Holy Scriptures. In those days great magnificence was used in these copies of the missals and bibles, and they still last all in purple and gold, and with violet characters, resembling sapphire, showing almost every line of Greek art. Theodolfo particularly used his poetic genius to compose hymns, and his is the canticle Gloria, laus et honor, which is still sung by the Church on Palm Day; to which proposed it should be noted that most of the solemn canticles, which still resound, accompanied by the organ in the Catholic temple, were written in the time of Charlemagne. Nothing that is great escapes the poetic inspiration of Theodulf, and now he celebrates the victory of Charlemagne against the Huns, describes the rich remains, and exalts the prince for having converted those peoples to the faith of Christ; now, in an epistle to Angilbert, he mentions the state of the letters under the reign of the emperor; then it touches on the seven liberal arts and scientific studies under the same ruler, and in all his poems dominar you see Christian philosophy. And for example of all the sovereign popes [160]intellect, Theodulf also dictates precepts that are used to form the customs and habits of the priests who live under the episcopal law, so that everything, in these poems, turns and applies to religion, morality, theology ; subtle theology, to tell the truth, but what century does not have its subtleties? Nobody goes without, and when there is no discussion of the nature of God or of the soul, one discusses the latitude of human powers, a certain argument that is neither greater nor solemn than that.
Por two men who lived simultaneously and governed two vast abbeys, stupendous hermitages, are united as brothers; Adalardo, the first abbot of Corbia or Corbeia; Angesiso, the second, abbot of Fontenelle. Fontenelle and Corbeia! who could possibly say the fame of these two monasteries in the ninth century! Angesiso came from the lineage of the Franks in the diocese of Lyon, and made profitable studies in that cathedral, still very young, and all redundant with hope and life, consecrated himself to the solitary life in Fontenelle under the invocation of the glorious Saint Vandregisillo. Angesiso was, more than anything else, a lawyer and compiler, and he was the first to collect the Carlinghi capitulars in one body, distributing them by order of subjects, and recommending their observance to all with equal care. The constitution of the monastery of Fontenelle is also due to Angesiso, which then became the foundation and model for many communities of the Middle Ages, because in all ages, alongside poets and prose writers, there are positive minds that await the social order. Adalardo, abbot of Corbia, boasted very noble births, because he was the son of Count Bernardo, the most famous leudo of his time, the same one who crossed the Alps and the Pyrenees, leading the armies of Charlemagne. Raised in the midst of the delights and idleness of the court, he abandoned them at the age of twenty to become a monk; he traveled to Italy, and then came to sit next to Pippin to direct and advise him in the art of governing, and from there he frequently passed to the plenary courts in France, but that Charlemagne had dear to consult him, so much was the it is necessary to take his advice in public. He died old, and his life, written by Pascasio Radberto, is a true historical document that all learns of his labors and his unfortunate efforts in the scientific way. Adalardo was also, like the abbot of Fontenelle, a political and legislative genius, as testified by his statutes for the administration of the monastery of Corbia, in which he is a sort of classification of persons and of offices. The abbey is divided into six orders: monks, students, servants, proverees, vassals, guests and forastieri. a political and legislative ingenuity, as testified by his statutes for the administration of the monastery of Corbia, in which he is a kind of classification of persons and offices. The abbey is divided into six orders: monks, students, servants, provinces, vassals, guests and forastieri. a political and legislative ingenuity, as testified by his statutes for the administration of the monastery of Corbia, in which he is a kind of classification of persons and offices. The abbey is divided into six orders: monks, students, servants, provinces, vassals, guests and forastieri.
Over the years Adalardo composed a book on the form of Charlemagne’s court, in the shape of the cardinal books of Byzantium, [161]where determined was each office, and each great placed in its place in that hierarchy. Lastly he wrote of the solemn parliaments which were held twice a year, the war parliament and the justice parliament.
Now here we met two men who tried to succeed in two great intentions: one, Felice da Urgel, to reform dogma, the other, Benedetto d’Aniano, to reform morals. We have already said above what were the cornerstones of Felice da Urgel’s heresy, renewal of the Ario and Nestorian schisms. Felice’s philosophical principle is none other than the spirit; According to him, Christ is nothing other than a luminous emanation of this spirit; nor did he understand and admit that God had a material nature, and this could be transmitted carnally. In all ages there is some question of morality or philosophy, which becomes the favorite subject of the schools, and indeed the foundation of any scientific discussion. And yet Felix too, subtle argumenter as he was, he comes carrying out his principles against the scholars and philosophers who liberate the pure and holy Catholic religion; that there is not even a prelate who does not enter the field against him. The material domain of images and the moral domain of the spirit were the thought of those times and the formula of opposition against Rome. San Benedetto d’Aniano, a southern man like Felice da Urgel, was the restaurateur of the monastic discipline; and from page and cupbearer in the banned courts, where he shone, he became, in the progress of time, an austere reformer of religious orders, so that in the face of him who shakes up the doctrine we always find the rigid intellect that purifies discipline. Benedict retired first to the abbey of San Seino, then to the diocese of Maguelone, where
The monastic orders in the West needed a more solemn and more stable constitution, and a more strict observance in terms of customs, and Benedict of Aniano was the first to give the example. Having become the promoter of scientific studies, he wanted Aniano to have his own library, nor did he spare any care or effort to collect books, and give the greatest impulse he could to study. He had visited Italy, and brought back memories of his art and industry, whereby he built the cells of Aniano on the model of the admirable ones of Montecassino; the other monasteries competed to imitate his example, and therefore the relaxation of morals ceased, so that Benedict of Aniano was soon equalized with St. Benedict, the first institutor of religious orders in the West. The one in fact was the founder, the [162]and who considers that monastic orders were, in the Middle Ages, the principle of every government and every hierarchy; whoever remembers that their statutes became the basis of communes and communities, cannot help but confess that no institution was more favorable than this to knowledge and social discipline. The major work of Benedetto d’Aniano was the drafting of the statutes of all the monastic orders, divided into three distinct parts: the first is the fathers of the East who welcomed among them the Antonii and Pacomii, solitary saints of the desert, philosophers in act , who in the face of the disorders in Egypt and Syria, gave the example of fasting and mortification of the flesh; the second intends to stop and establish the foundations of the order of St. Benedict, his precursor in theTo work, to pray, to study : and the third one entirely destined to the religious, holy virgins who must gather and flee from the world. In this way, St. Benedict of Aniano is the man of the hierarchy, whereas Felice is the man of destruction, two principles that are perpetually at war with each other: on the one hand the mayor and authority, on the other the opposition. and reform. San Benedetto is all about keeping the rules; he interprets it, and agrees with each other, so it is no surprise that he was one of the most loyal opponents of Felice da Urgel, and his speeches against him are still preserved, where the solitary one does not know understand how to break down the principle and the rule, the basic rule and government of all societies, large or small they are.
This literary period of Charlemagne’s empire also had some other writers, more or less famous: Magnone, archbishop of Seus, one of Charlemagne’s royal messengers , wrote about the rite of baptism in the time that the emperor had commanded to explain and analyze this sacrament. Such writings on baptism were requested by the emperor in a circular addressed by him at the same time to all the bishops [137] . Magnone was, like all the other royal messengers, a jurisperist, and he was owed a collection of the ancient annotations of law.
Smaragdo, abbot of San Michele, brought to light a valuable work of morality, entitled the Via regia , and dedicated to the emperor, in which he fulminated the deadly sins and hot passions of the war men of his time. And the Via regia was then followed by the diadem of the monks made to recollect piety which was already nearing its extinction; then, under the name of Charlemagne, the abbot of San Michele addressed to pope [163]Leone a writing on the nature of the spirit, a sublime question of philosophy; then again he explained the Gospels and the Mass, the two foundations of the Catholic faith and of the political subjection of peoples. Vettino, a monk of Richenon, was an enthusiastic and Falotic man who lived and pleased himself in a supernatural world. This is he who saw purgatory, and heaven open to the blessed; and this vision of his was narrated to us by Valfrido Strabo, his disciple, though he saw that Charlemagne also had in the midst of purgatory, in atonement for his sins of concupiscence.
Not far from the monastery of San Dionigi lived a man known under the name of Dungalo. Where did he come from? It is believed that he was a native of Ibernia, and in fact England and Scotland were fertile in those days of fine genius [138] . Having given himself up to education, he taught philosophy and astronomy, and in a long letter to Charlemagne he comes to reasoning about the solar eclipse that occurred in the year 810, and marks its rise and decline, attaching the authorities of Plato, Virgil, of Pliny and Macrobius. All the scholars of that time paid their tribute of admiration to Charlemagne, so even Dungalo did not forget to celebrate in a heroic poem the glorious deeds of that prince, and to make vows for the prosperity of the empire,
In these quick hints on the notable men who illustrated the time of Charlemagne, it has been possible to attach only works that refer to Catholicism and the emperor, since there is nothing extraneous to these two concepts, because there is nothing in it. foreign to these two podestàs. When a generation is under the impression of certain formulas, everything comes to coincide there, and whoever at that time had not thought of the Church, would have been as a stranger to the ideas and customs of the people; whoever did not refer everything to the person of Charlemagne would not have noticed him who was acclaimed by the whole world. The empire and the Church held hands; the pope and the emperor, double and mysterious power, ruled over society, and the effect of the authority of these two dominant thoughts was incessant.
It is also the time in which a renewal of studies takes place, an action of the minds, a fervent, enthusiastic action, as is usual in everything about beginning: the horizon appears to be endless, the future without limits. Oh the sincere joy of all those learned at discovering antiquity with its literature and its wonders! They form, as if to say, an academy around Charlemagne, so that the scholars of the [164]seventeenth century wanted in this congregation to find the origin of the University [139]; there it is about grammar, astronomy, poetry; and it is beautiful to see them sitting around the emperor in the palace of Aachen, disdaining the Frankish and Germanic names of their lineage, only worthy of their magnanimous affection for Rome and Greece. Dameta then writes to Homer, and David is the supreme protector; the one is Virgil, the other Horace, and they love to chant the Latin verses, to them barbarous since the homeland seems to speak; they live under Roman impressions: legends, epics, epigrams, epitaphs, everything is in Latin; and pious Christians, fervent Catholics as they are, also invoke the muses, and divide the reminiscences of profane antiquity from the descriptions of the Church. Virgil’s harmonious verses arouse ineffable enthusiasm in that nascent academy, and weep with Ovid, and regenerated Rome flow with Macrobius in hand; and Homer finds sectarians in all abbeys.
In every part of this vast empire there are public and monastic schools, almost a metropolis of education. Neustria numbered several of these mother schools, which spread knowledge everywhere; the most famous of them, due to its antiquity, was that of San Martino di Tours, under the direction of Alcuin, of which mention was already made above; the lessons were public, and grammar and astronomy were taught there, with the marvelous concurrence of students who came as far as Germany and England. Alcuin was seconded by a young man, named Sigolfo, an ardent admirer of Virgil, whom he studied, to his delight, night and day. There were holy bishops who came to school at San Martino di Tours; the sciences were spreading throughout Neustria;
Another school of Neustria was that of Corbia, under the regiment of the learned Adalardo; in Tours, as it seems, Saxon doctrine and English erudition dominated, in Corbia the Roman authority of the pope ruled. Here the library was perhaps richer than it had [165]San Martino di Tours, and there was preserved, as property of the abbey, a beautiful pontifical in letters of gold, on parchment, and those crammed shelves showed a St. John Chrysostom , with a purple blanket decorated with ivory; and many of those books, entrusted to the custody of the abbots, shone with precious stones. The schools taught science day and night under the famous abbots Pascasio, Radberto and Anscario; in the enclosure of those walls the book of the calculation of times was compiled by Robano Mauro; from Corbia the missionaries moved, who were committed to go to teach science and the Christian religion in northern Europe; and how curious and beautiful is the relation of St.Anscarius, which flows into the Decia and Sweden in the ninth century! What about the schools of San Vasto d’Arras, San Fleury or San Benedetto alla Loira, Fontenelle, the marvelous source of ecclesiastical knowledge! Of Ferrieres, even more famous for his beloved studies of profane antiquity, for his sake Cicero and Sallustio! The works of greatest elegance and beauty were not alien to the occupations of those monks, who commented on Quintilian and Terentius, and had altar boys in the convent, who merely copied the ancient poets and orators. All these schools of Neustria corresponded with the areopagus,
Fulda and San Gallo were the two metropolises of Germanic studies; one almost to the north, the other just to the south of the Alemagna. Fulda took its origin from the Christian preaching of St. Boniface, as the holy bishop, after having preached the Christian religion to the Saxons, believed it essential to establish a center of the human sciences, in order to spread them throughout Germany; and after the episcopate of Mainz, Fulda was his favorite foundation, cast, so to speak, as he had it, among the Saxons, as a sacred source of teachings. Rabano was the most learned and scientist of his abbots, and he was succeeded by Rodolfo, an Alemannic monk, historian, poet and noble aide to all arts [141]. Let us not despise, by God, these pasts, which aroused the attention of a whole century: and who knows if there will remain even a crumb of the works of this generation of ours! Fulda also had its worthy subsidiaries in [166]the school of Irsaugo, in the diocese of Speyer, was also a science, like Corbeia, and the emanation of his studies, where monks of ardent imagination commented on the song of songs and the book of Tobias, directing the music Erderico, with an art so sweet, that from a hundred leagues they flocked to hear it. The origin of Irsaugo was already ancient in the tenth century.
St. Gall, the monastery in southern Germany, saw its library swelling more and more by the care of those religious who mainly waited, with admirable patience, to transcribe books, thus infinitely benefiting the progress of human knowledge. And who doesn’t love to rummage through the relics of St. Gallen, the true monastery of the Carolina age? Mabillon, that learned traveler, described him as he was under Louis the Pious, and we see, as he says in his simple language, schools inside and schools outside, training for monks, education for all. The seven liberal arts were like the great tree of knowledge. In the solitary hours, there on the shores of Lake Constance, those monks gave themselves to the work by hand, with the attitude of those mountaineers, who think, consider and work at the same time in the presence of God. There he lived, in the ninth century, a monk, named Sintrano, who, legend says, was an excellent painter, carver and player of all sorts of instruments. Hence the carving would not be an invention of the fifteenth century, but it would belong to one of the most remote Alemannic periods, to the Germanic Middle Ages. In the womb of that monastery, too, the picturesque and storytelling imagination of the monk of St. Gallen was formed, the chronicler who, by order of composed the story of Charlemagne. Much was forgiven within those walls, but that science purified worldly license, and the legend of the son of Chiburgo[143] shows what indulgence one had for men of letters and scientists.
While the schools of Fulda and St. Gallen were all Germanic, those of Mainz and Metz retained, as it were, a mixture of Austrian and Neustrasian origin: Mainz, on the banks of the Rhine, foundation of St. Boniface, from which he he had left to go to convert the Saxons, the Alemanni, the Bavarians, and had a considerable number of masters and doctors, including the wise Llull, successor of St. Boniface. In that school, Greek was spoken, and several monks also knew Hebrew; and from that holy monastery the schools of Paderborna, Metz, Verdun were born; Metz famous mainly for its gramaticians, and Verdun for its copyists. All which Alemannic schools were also renowned, for ecclesiastical singing, but that a [167]Metz, in Fulda, in St. Gallen, purposely applied to antiphons and hymns, since the Alemanni already had that deep feeling in the art of music. In the midst of those solitudes, when all around was silence, they loved to be heard in chorus, accompanied by the organ. The voice of the Franks was shrill, nor did it have the sweetness of that of the Greeks, or the easy accent of the Italians; but the Alemanni had beautiful low notes and grave and solemn sounds, and they were sublime masters at playing those hymns of the dead or of thanksgiving, which rose to God amid the thunder of organs in the cathedral.
In this way the triple Germanic, Austrian and Neo-Austrian nation, was perfectly reproduced by monastic schools. There remained Italy, and the kingdom of the Lombards, whose nation was represented by the school of Montecassino, where science was pushed to the pinnacle of perfection, after St. Benedict had given it its rules. Located between the Greek civilization and the Latin civilization, the monastery of Montecassino itself received the double reflection of Rome and Byzantium, and in the midst of public storms, it remained standing as a religious monument of ancient times: its very rich library it lasted unscathed by the damages of barbarism; there were Bibles written in gold letters, precious texts like those of Constantinople, the books of the Alexandrian school, the philosophy of Aristotle; and Homer and Cicero worshiped them, like the fathers of the Church. Montecassino was the powerful instructor of the monastic orders, the archetype on which all were based, and this action of his was all the more alive and great, as that all the monks were bound by a sweet and invariable fraternity among themselves. They formed a large republic: if a friar of San Benedetto had to travel, he would find hospitality in every place and protection; he could browse libraries, attend schools; and often the monasteries were branches or colonies founded by the mother churches. There was no homeland for the monks; a friar from England came to Neustria or Australasia, and a friar from Aquitaine went to take refuge in the hospitality of a Lombard or Italian abbey. Hence that reciprocal, scientific action of one abbey on the other was born. When a monastery had a great treasure of science, it donated and united it; all religious foundations had the same rank; there had messenger monks, who went to change parchments, to carry manuscripts or to refresh their studies from one solitude to another.
Such was the literary spirit of that time. Charlemagne wanted to centralize it in his hands, but it did not have to survive that sublime impulse, and the emperor was extinguished, his studies also had to [168]disappear with him. In fact, the beginning of the reign of Lodovico Pio still offers some fine talent in the sciences and letters, as to say, Incmaro, archbishop of Reims, the writer who celebrated with his pompous style the customs and habits of Charlemagne’s palace; Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, even more a statesman than a man of letters, since there was no event of any significance at that time, whose name is not mixed with him; Pascasio Radberto, who has a firmly scholastic nature, and cultivates studies as studies, applying to what they have the most liberal and active; Anscarius, traveling bishop, the preacher who runs to learn the Christian religion and civilization to the savage nations, St. Boniface of Scandinavia. But whatever these men of genius and worth, you cannot help but realize that knowledge and studies, favored under the empire of Charlemagne, are already in full decline under Lodovico Pio. Schools no longer have their value, studies their ardor; the populations have returned to their state of ignorance, and this proceeds from several reasons.
He was the same of Charlemagne’s literary work as of his political conceptions; the unity was connected to his person, but it was not a point in the ideas and customs of that society; closed that the emperor was in the tomb, there was no more knowledge, no more education, because the people did not want it. Could the servant want the light? The man in arms despised books, even Christian and devout ones, or only appreciated them to remove the carbuncles from which they shone outside; far more dear to them was to fight and agitate in the fields, and therefore what mattered to the accounts and to the leuds of the progress of science? Not a single one of those iron men is named who has put a thought on paper; hence the impulse was all of Charlemagne himself, and after him they returned to the crude institute of conquest,
Studies disappeared in the crumbling of the empire; there was no longer a center, no more ordering movement, and although some here and there still waited for the letters, there was no longer that ardent inclination to study which ruled the reign of Charlemagne. And on the other hand was the time for the peaceful progress of knowledge? Charlemagne had, on the other hand, prepared for such an administrative order the peace or general truce of society, so that one could study freely and surely without fear of the violence of soldiers and bullies, with that calmness of mind and frankness of life that study requires. ; but this peace vanished in the sudden and strong agitation that brought with it the end of Charlemagne. Society was broken into a thousand fragments, and the feudal system began to reign as the code of [169]generation; neither the empire was only put into pieces, but each of these pieces was still left in the counties, and in such small lordships, that there could now be no more communication of ideas, nor of wits, and not even of government: the counts became one foreign to another, and each castle was a principality. Constantinople and Rome, which had been in correspondence with Charlemagne to open to him the immense treasures of antiquity, were then entirely unknown to feudal society, and it was scarcely known that they were in the world, but that those violent men despised human disciplines. In fact, what could hell be good for them? The art of war alone was perfected, because it was a need for everyone. Hence the tenth century had no correlation with the end of the eighth century and with the beginning of the ninth:
But will the monastery at least remain a noble source of science, and safe from the world and its shocks, the monks will patiently give themselves over to copy the manuscripts, and to teach in their modest schools? Mainò: the decline is just as rapid and great there as in the general society, and this depends on the calamities that weigh on the ecclesiastical foundations as well as on the people. The ages which preceded the ninth century had seen monastic institutions flourish greatly, and the Order of St. Benedict resplendent everywhere; the silent peace of the cloister had favored the scientific schools, and we have just seen how generalized there was the love of them. But Charlemagne died, even the peace of solitude no longer lasts, and together with that of the world it goes under the double invasion of the Normans and the Saracens. The Normans, cruel opponents of the monasteries, knock down the altars, burn the walls, strip the arches; even before seeing rich cells still being built and solidly built churches, and now the Normans no longer leave stone on stone, they slaughter the religious or force them to hide in the basement. Most of the monasteries situated on the banks of the rivers or in the vast plains which surround the Seine, the Loire and the Saône, were thus placed in sacks, while in the South the Moors and the Saracens penetrated as far as the Rhone. How to find time to meditate and apply to scientific work in the midst of these desolations? How to be comfortable studying when the voracious flames shake the walls? What else was left for those poor friars to do but implore God’s mercy with gloomy litanies against the massacres of the Normans? Ond ‘ it is that often, in the midst of some serious study, the monk suddenly suspended the book he had begun to transcribe, the text perhaps of Cicero and of Ovid, in order to cry out in a lamentable voice: «Ah! frees us from the fury of the Normans,Libera nos a furore Normannorum . ” And this [170]it was the lament of all that sad and disconsolate generation; that even if the monks had in their long night no moment of respite, and they began to write some gloomy and funeral legend, but that all was sadness around them, or trembling in the face of the danger from which they had almost miraculously escaped, they described the translation of the relics, and it was necessary to keep it in mind, however that when the Barbarians approached a monastery, the great care of those devoted fathers was to save the ark of the relics, and to transport it as they could from a solitude to the other, and steal it in unknown places. This was the holy journey that the monks described with oppressed hearts and tears in their eyes: at every step there were miracles, at every danger lamentations,
In this way the empire of Charlemagne is a circumscribed period as much for the letters as for the political constitution, nothing of the foregoing seems to be comparable with it, it is a time of exception that everything adheres to. a man, and who vanishes with him. The scientific movement was not otherwise in the spirits, nor is there ingenuity down here that has the faculty to draw a whole from nothing, which would be one of the attributes of God. One can well make companions some chosen men who drag and lord it for a little over civilization , but when a generation does not have the impression of certain ideas, they cannot be born. The desire and need for studies were just superficial, literary ingenuity in a few men just, while the multitude remained ignorant among the double servitude of the body and the spirit. From whence it proceeds that everything, after the reign of Charlemagne, was again buried in darkness. What had byzantine and Roman in the work of the Western empire disappeared; nor did the literary period of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, under Philip Augustus, have any more correlation with the studies of the Carlinghi times: there is a new, tempting, national, chivalrous literature that arises from feudalism. Something strange and fantastic had also been created under Charlemagne’s empire; but it was as if you were saying a bright flash that appeared in the darkness: it illuminates for an instant with a great glow all around, but then that he is gone the night becomes thicker and whole than before.
