(5) For Spain: The works of Isidore of Seville. Comp. Balmez: European Civilization, in Spanish,
Barcelona, 1842–44, in 4 vols.; transl. into French and English (against Guizot and in the interest
of Romanism).
(6) For England: The works and biographies of Bede, Alcuin, Alfred. Monumenta Historica
Brittannica, ed. by Petrie, Sharpe, and Hardy. Lond., 1848 (the first vol. extends to the Norman
conquest). Rerum Britannicarum medii xvi Scriptores, or Chronicles and Memorials of Great
Britain. London, 1858–1865, 55 vols. 8vo. Comp. J. R. Lumby: Greek Learning in the Western
Church during the Seventh and Eighth Centuries. Cambridge, 1878.
(7) For Germany: The works and biographies of Bonifacius, Charlemagne, Rabanus Maurus. The
Scriptores in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, ed. Pertz and others, Han., 1826 sqq. (from
500 to 1500); also in a small ed. Scriptores rer. Germ. in usum scholarum, 1840–1866, 16 vols.
8vo. Wilhelm Wattenbach: Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter his zur Mitte des
- Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 1858, 4th ed., 1877–’78, 2 vols.
(8) On the era of Charlemagne in particular: J. J. Ampere: Histoire littéraire de la France avant
Charlemagne (second ed., 1867, 2 vols.), and Histoire litteraire de la France sous Charlemagne
et durant les Xe et XIe siècles. Paris, 1868.—Bähr: De litter. studiis a Carolo M. revocatis ac
schola Palatina. Heidelb., 1856.—J. Bass Mullinger: The Schools of Charles the Great, and the
Restoration of Education in the Ninth Century. London, 1877.—Ebert: Die liter. Bewegung
zur Zeit Karls des Gr., in "Deutsche Rundschau," XI. 1877. Comp. also Rettberg:
Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, I. 427 sqq., and the works quoted on p. 236. The poetry of
the Carolingian age is collected in two magnificent volumes by E. Dümmler.: Poëtae Latini
Aevi Carolini. Berlin, 2 vols. in 3 parts, 1880–’84 (in the Scriptorum series of the Mon.
Germania).
§ 135. Literary Character of the Early Middle Ages.
The prevailing character of this period in sacred learning is a faithful traditionalism which saved
the remains of the ancient classical and Christian literature, and transferred them to a new soil. The
six centuries which intervene between the downfall of the West Roman Empire (476) and the age
of Hildebrand (1049–1085), are a period of transition from an effete heathen to a new Christian
civilization, and from patristic to scholastic theology. It was a period of darkness with the signs of
approaching daylight. The fathers were dead, and the schoolmen were not yet born. The best that
could be done was to preserve the inheritance of the past for the benefit of the future. The productive
power was exhausted, and gave way to imitation and compilation. Literary industry took the place
of independent investigation.
The Greek church kept up the connection with classical and patristic learning, and adhered
closely to the teaching of the Nicene fathers and the seven oecumenical councils. The Latin church
bowed before the authority of St. Augustin and St. Jerome. The East had more learning; the West
had more practical energy, which showed itself chiefly in the missionary field. The Greek church,
with her head turned towards the past, tenaciously maintains to this day the doctrinal position of
the eighth century; the Latin church, looking to the future, passed through a deep night of ignorance,
but gathered new strength from new blood. The Greek church presents ancient Christianity at rest;
while the Latin church of the middle ages is Christianity in motion towards the modern era.