Troyes, Old Corbey and New Corbey, Metz, St. Gall, Utrecht, Lüttich.^835 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 the French and German languages were not yet
organs of literature. This fact explains the speedy decay, as well as the subsequent revival in close
connection with the Roman church.
The creations of Charlemagne were threatened with utter destruction during the civil wars
of his weak successors. But Charles the Bald, a son of Louis the Pious, and king of France (843–877),
followed his grandfather in zeal for learning, and gave new lustre to the Palace School at Paris
under the direction of John Scotus Erigena, whom he was liberal enough to protect, notwithstanding
his eccentricities. The predestinarian controversy, and the first eucharistic controversy took place
during his reign, and called forth a great deal of intellectual activity and learning, as shown in the
writings of Rabanus Maurus, Hincmar, Remigius, Prudentius, Servatus Lupus, John Scotus Erigena,
Paschasius Radbertus, and Ratramnus. We find among these writers the three tendencies,
conservative, liberal, and speculative or mystic, which usually characterize periods of intellectual
energy and literary productivity.
After the death of Charles the Bald a darker night of ignorance and barbarism settled on
Europe than ever before. It lasted till towards the middle of the eleventh century when the Berengar
controversy on the eucharist roused the slumbering intellectual energies of the church, and prepared
the way for the scholastic philosophy and theology of the twelfth century.
The Carolingian male line lasted in Italy till 875, in Germany till 911, in France till 987.
§ 141. Alfred the Great, and Education in England.
Comp. the Jubilee edition of the Whole Works of Alfred the Great, with Preliminary Essays
illustrative of the History, Arts and Manners of the Ninth Century. London, 1858, 2 vols. The
biographies of Alfred, quoted on p. 395, and Freemann’s Old English History 1859.
In England the beginning of culture was imported with Christianity by Augustin, the first
archbishop of Canterbury, who brought with him the Bible, the church books, the writings of Pope
Gregory and the doctrines and practices of Roman Christianity; but little progress was made for a
century. Among his successors the Greek monk, Theodore of Tarsus (668–690), was most active
in promoting education and discipline among the clergy. The most distinguished scholar of the
Saxon period is the Venerable Bede (d. 735), who, as already stated, represented all historical,
exegetical and general knowledge of his age. Egbert, archbishop of York, founded a flourishing
school in York (732), from which proceeded Alcuin, the teacher and friend of Charlemagne.
During the invasion of the heathen Danes and Normans many churches, convents and
libraries were destroyed, and the clergy itself relapsed into barbarism so that they did not know the
meaning of the Latin formulas which they used in public worship.
In this period of wild confusion King Alfred the Great (871–901), in his twenty-second
year, ascended the throne. He is first in war and first in peace of all the Anglo-Saxon rulers. What
(^835) The Histoire litteraire de France, Tom. III., enumerates about twenty episcopal schools in the kingdom of the Franks.