Lanfranc, in the middle of the eleventh century, dialectical skill was applied in opposing and defending the dogma of transubstantiation. The doctrinal controversies about adoptionism, predestination, and the real presence stimulated the study of the Scriptures and of the fathers, and kept alive the intellectual activity. BIBLICAL STUDIES. The literature of the Latin church embraced penitential books, homilies, annals, translations, compilations, polemic discussions, and commentaries. The last are the most important, but fall far below the achievements of the fathers and reformers. Exegesis was cultivated in an exclusively practical and homiletical spirit and aim by Gregory the Great, Isidore, Bede, Alcuin, Claudius of Turin, Paschasius Radbertus, Rabanus Maurus, Haymo, Walafrid Strabo, and others. The Latin Vulgate was the text, and the Greek or Hebrew seldom referred to. Augustin and Jerome were the chief sources. Charlemagne felt the need of a revision of the corrupt text of the Vulgate, and entrusted Alcuin with the task. The theory of a verbal inspiration was generally accepted, and opposed only by Agobard of Lyons who confined inspiration to the sense and the arguments, but not to the "ipsa corporalia verba." The favorite mode of interpretation was the spiritual, that is, allegorical and mystical. The literal, that is, grammaticohistorical exegesis was neglected. The spiritual interpretation was again divided into three ramifications: the allegorical proper, the moral, and the anagogical, corresponding to the three cardinal virtues of the Christian: the first refers to faith (credenda), the second to practice or charity (agenda), the third to hope (speranda, desideranda). Thus Jerusalem means lite 1 See 128-130. From ȧvaywyιkós, exalting, lifting up; ȧvaywyh, a leading up, is used in ecclesiastical Greek for higher, spiritual interpretation. rally or historically, the city in Palestine; allegorically, the church; morally, the believing soul; anagogically, the heavenly Jerusalem. The fourfold sense was expressed in the memorial verse: "Litera GESTA docet; quid CREDAS, Allegoria; NOTES. ST. EUCHERIUS, bishop of Lyons, who was first (like Cyprian, and Ambrose) a distinguished layman, and father of four children, before he became a monk, and then a bishop, wrote in the middle of the fifth century (he died c. 450) a brief manual of medieval hermeneutics under the title Liber Formularum Spiritalis Intelligentiæ (Rom., 1564, etc., in Migne's "Patrol." Tom. 50, col. 727-772). This work is often quoted by Bede and is sometimes erroneously ascribed to him. Eucherius shows an extensive knowledge of the Bible and a devout spirit. He anticipates many favorite interpretations of medieval commentators and mystics. He vindicates the allegorical method from the Scripture itself, and from its use of anthropomorphic and anthropopathic expressions which can not be understood literally. Yet he allows the literal sense its proper place in history as well as the moral and mystical. He identifies the Finger of God (Digitus Dei) with the Spirit of God (cap. 2; comp. Luke 11: 20 with Matt. 12: 28), and explains the several meanings of Jerusalem (ecclesia, vel anima, cap. 10), ark (caro Dominica, corda sanctorum Deo plena, ecclesia intra quam salvanda clauduntur), Babylon (mundus, Roma, inimici), fures (hæretici et pseudoprophetæ, gentes, vitia), chirographum, pactum, præputium, circumcisio, etc. In the last chapter he treats of the symbolical significance of numbers, as 1-Divine Unity; 2=the two cove nants, the two chief commandments; 3=the trinity in heaven and on earth (he quotes the spurious passage 1 John 5 : 7); 4=the four Gospels, the four rivers of Paradise; 5=the five books of Moses, five loaves, five wounds of Christ (John 20: 25); 6=the days of creation, the ages of the world; 7=the day of rest, of perfection; 8=the day of resurrection; 10 the Decalogue; 12 the Apostles, the universal multitude of believers, etc. The theory of the fourfold interpretation was more fully developed by RABANUS MAURUS (776–856), in his curious book, Allegoriæ in Universam Sacram Scripturam (Opera, ed. Migne, Tom. VI. col. 849-1088). He calls the four senses the four daughters of wisdom, by whom she nourishes her children, giving to beginners drink in lacte historia, to the believers food in pane allegoria, to those engaged in good works encouragement in refectione tropologia, to those longing for heavenly rest delight in vino anagogia. He also gives the following definition at the beginning of the treatise: "HISTORIA ad aptam rerum gestarum narrationem pertinet, quæ et in superficie litteræ continetur, et sic intelligitur sicut legitur. ALLEGORIA vero aliquid in se plus continet, quod per hoc quod locus [loquens] de rei veritate ad quiddam dat intelligendum de fidei puritate, et sanctæ Ecclesiæ mysteria, sive præsentia, sive futura, aliud dicens, aliud significans, semper autem figmentis et velatis ostendit. TROPOLOGIA quoque et ipsa, sicut allegoria, in figuratis, sive dictis, sive factis, constat : sed in hoc ab allegoria distat quod ALLEGORIA quidem fidem, TROPOLOGIA vero ædificat moralitem. ANAGOGIA autem, sive velatis, sive apertis dictis, de æternis supernæ patriæ gaudiis constat, et quæ merces vel fidem rectam, vel vitam maneat sanctam, verbis vel opertis, vel apertis demonstrat. HISTORIA namque perfectorum exempla quæ narrat, legentem ad imitationem sanctitatis excitat, ALLEGORIA in fidei revelatione ad cognitionem veritatis; TROPOLOGIA in instructione morum ad amorem virtutis; ANAGOGIA in manifestatione sempiternorum gaudiorum ad desiderium æternæ felicitatis. In nostræ ergo animæ domo HISTORIA fundamentum ponit; ALLEGORIA parietes erigit; ANAGOGIA tectum supponit; TROPOLOGIA vero tam interius per affectum quam exterius per effectum boni operis, variis ornatibus depingit.” § 140. Patronage of Letters by Charles the Great, and Charles the Bald. Comp. 22 56, 90, 134 (pp. 236, 390, 584). Charlemagne stands out like a far-shining beacon-light in the darkness of his age. He is the founder of a new era of learning, as well as of a new empire. He is the pioneer of French and German civilization. Great in war, he was greater still as a legislator and promoter of the arts of peace. He clearly saw that religion and education are the only solid and permanent basis of a state. In this respect he rose far above Alexander the Great and Cæsar, and is unsurpassed by Christian rulers. He invited the best scholars from Italy and England to his court,-Peter of Pisa, Paul Warnefrid, Paulinus of Aquileia, Theodulph of Orleans, Alcuin of York.' They formed a sort of royal academy of sciences and arts, and held literary symposiacs. Each member bore a nom de plume borrowed from the Bible or classic lore: the king presided as "David" or "Solomon"; 1" Toutes les provinces de l'occident," says Ozanam, "concoururent au grand ouvrage des écoles carlovingiennes." Alcuin, a great admirer of Horace and Virgil, was "Flaccus"; Angilbert (his son-in-law) was "Homerus"; Einhard (his biographer), "Bezaleel," after the skilful artificer of the Tabernacle (Ex. 31: 2); Wizo, "Candidus"; Arno, "Aquila "; Fredegisus, "Nathanael"; Richbod, "Macarius," etc. Even ladies were not excluded: the emperor's sister, Gisela, under the name "Lucia"; his learned cousin, Gundrad, as "Eulalia;" his daughter, Rotrude, as "Columba." He called Alcuin, whom he first met in Italy (781), his own "beloved teacher," and he was himself his most docile pupil. He had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and put all sorts of questions to him in his letters, even on the most difficult problems of theology. He learned in the years of his manhood the art of writing, the Latin grammar, a little Greek (that he might compare the Latin Testament with the original), and acquired some knowledge of rhetoric, dialectics, mathematics and astronomy. He delighted in reading the poets and historians of ancient Rome, and Augustin's "City of God." He longed for a dozen Jeromes and Augustins, but Alcuin told him to be content since the Creator of heaven and earth had been pleased to give to the world only two such giants. He had some share in the composition of the Libri Carolini, which raised an enlightened protest against the superstition of image-worship. Poems are also attributed to him or to his inspiration. He ordered Paul Warnefrid (Paulus Diaconus) to prepare a collection of the best homilies of the Latin fathers for the use of the churches, and published it with a preface in which he admonished the clergy to a diligent study of the Scriptures. Several Synods held during his reign (813) at Rheims, Tours, Chalons, Mainz, ordered the clergy to keep a Homiliarium and to translate the Latin sermons clearly into rusticam Romanam linguam aut Theotiscam, so that all might understand them. Charles aimed at the higher education not only of the clergy, but also of the higher nobility and state officials. His sons and daughters were well informed. He issued a circular letter to all the bishops and abbots of his empire (787), urging them to establish schools in connection with cathedrals and convents. At a later period he rose even to the grand but premature scheme of popular education, and required in a capitulary (802) that every parent should send his sons to school that they might learn to read. Theodulph of Orleans (who died 821) directed the priests of his diocese to hold school in every town and village,' to receive the pupils with kindness, and not to ask pay, but to receive only voluntary gifts. 2 The emperor founded the Court or Palace School (Schola Palatina) for higher education and placed it under the direction of Alcuin. It was an imitation of the Pædagogium ingenuorum of the Roman emperors. It followed him in his changing residence to Aix-la-Chapelle, Worms, Frankfurt, Mainz, Regensburg, Ingelheim, Paris. It was not the beginning of the Paris University, which is of much later date, but the chief nursery of educated clergymen, noblemen and statesmen of that age. It embraced in its course of study all the branches of secular and sacred learning. It became the model of similar schools, old and new, at Tours, Lyons, Orleans, Rheims, Chartres, Troyes, Old Corbey and New Corbey, Metz, St. Gall, Utrecht, Lüttich.1 The rich literature of the Carolingian age shows the fruits of this imperial patronage and example. It was, however, a foreign rather than a native product. It was neither French nor German, but essentially Latin, and so far artificial. Nor could it be otherwise; for the Latin classics, the Latin Bible, and the Latin fathers were the only accessible sources of learning, and 1 "per villas et vicos." * A similar school had existed before under the Merovingians, but did not accomplish much. * Comp. Oebeke, De academia Caroli M. Aachen, 1847. Philips, Karl der Gr. im Kreise der Gelehrten. Wien, 1856. The Histoire litteraire de France, Tom. III., enumerates about twenty episcopal schools in the kingdom of the Franks. |