divine of the Carolingian age. From his school proceeded RABANUS MAURUS, the founder of
learning and higher education in Germany.^827 Scotus Erigena (d. about 877) was a marvel not only
of learning, but also of independent thought, in the reign of Charles the Bald, and showed, by
prophetic anticipation, the latent capacity of the Western church for speculative theology.^828 With
Berengar and Lanfranc, in the middle of the eleventh century, dialectical skill was applied in
opposing and defending the dogma of transubstantiation.^829 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, grammatico-historical exegesis was neglected. The spiritual interpretation was again
divided into three ramifications: the allegorical proper, the moral, and the anagogical^830 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 literally 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;
Moralis, quid Agas; quo Tendas, Anagogia."
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 mediaeval hermeneutics under the
title Liber Formularum Spiritalis Intelligentiae (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 mediaeval 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
(^827) See this vol. § 169.
(^828) Comp. this vol. §§ 123 and 175.
(^829) See this vol. §§ 128-130.
830
Fromἀναγωγικός,exalting, lifting up;ἀναγωγή,a leading up, is used in ecclesiastical Greek for higher, spiritual
interpretation.