but his references may all have been derived from Jerome and Cassiodorus.^820 Paulus Diaconus
frequently uses Greek words. Charlemagne himself learned Greek, and the Libri Carolini show a
familiarity with the details of the image-controversy of the Greek Church. His sister Giesela, who
was abbess of Challes near Paris, uses a few Greek words in Latin letters,^821 in her correspondence
with Alcuin, though these may have been derived from the Latin.
The greatest Greek scholar of the ninth century, and of the whole period in the West was
John Scotus Erigena (850), who was of Irish birth and education, but lived in France at the court
of Charles the Bald. He displays his knowledge in his Latin books, translated the pseudo-Dionysian
writings, and attempted original Greek composition.
In Germany, Rabanus Maurus, Haymo of Halberstadt, and Walafrid Strabo had some
knowledge of Greek, but not sufficient to be of any material use in the interpretation of the Scriptures.
The Course of Study.^822
Education was carried on in the cathedral and conventual schools, and these prepared the
way for the Universities which began to be founded in the twelfth century.
The course of secular learning embraced the so-called seven liberal arts, namely, grammar,
dialectics (logic), rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. The first three constituted
the Trivium, the other four the Quadrivium.^823 Seven, three, and four were all regarded as sacred
numbers. The division is derived from St. Augustin,^824 and was adopted by Boëthius and Cassiodorus.
The first and most popular compend of the middle ages was the book of Cassiodorus, De Septem
Disciplinis.^825
These studies were preparatory to sacred learning, which was based upon the Latin Bible
and the Latin fathers.
The Chief Theologians.
A few divines embraced all the secular and religious knowledge of their age. In Spain,
Isidore of Seville (d. 636) was the most learned man at the end of the sixth and the beginning of
the seventh century. His twenty books of "Origins" or "Etymologies" embrace the entire contents
of the seven liberal arts, together with theology, jurisprudence, medicine, natural history, etc., and
show familiarity with Plato, Aristotle, Boëthius, Demosthenes, Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Anacreon,
Herodotus, Cicero, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Terence, Juvenal, Caesar, Livy, Sallust.^826 The Venerable
Bede occupied the same height of encyclopaedic knowledge a century later. Alcuin was the leading
(^820) Lumby (l.c., p. 15) mentions his allusions to Eusebius, Athanasius, and Chrysostom, and a few familiar words, as
ἐπίσκοπος,παραβάτης,andα νθρωπος.
(^821) As paradeigma, gazophylacia, paraclitus.
(^822) Comp. besides the Lit. already quoted in this vol. §134, the following:Heppe:Das Schulwesen des Mittelalters.
Marburg, 1860.Kämmel:Mittelalterliches Schulwesenin Schmid’s "Encykl. des gesammten Erziehungs und Unterrichswesens."
Gotha. Bd. IV. (1865), p. 766-826.
(^823) The division is expressed in the memorial lines:
"Grammatica loquitur, Dialectica verba docet, Rhetorica verba colorat;
Musica canit, Arithmetica numerat, Geometria ponderat, Astronomia colit astra."
(^824) De Ordine, II., c. 12 sqq., in Migne’s ed. of Augustin, Tom. l. 1011 sqq. Augustin connects poëtica with musica.
(^825) Or, De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Literarum, in Migne’s ed. of Cassiodori Opera, II. 1150-1218. It is exceedingly
meagre if judged by the standard of modern learning, but very useful for the middle ages.
(^826) "However we may be disposed to treat the labors of Isidore with something of contempt, it is probably not possible
to overrate the value and usefulness of this treatise to the age in which he lived, and indeed for many ages it was the most
available handbook to which the world had access." Smith & Wace III. 308. Comp. this vol. § 155.