CHAPTER VII
[1] Anderson tells of a monastic student's notebook on conduct which has been preserved, and which "prescribes that the young man is to kneel when answering the Abbot, not to take a seat unasked, not to loll against the wall, nor fidget with things within reach. He is not to scratch himself, nor cross his legs like a tailor. He is to wash his hands before meals, keep his knife sharp and clean, not to seize upon vegetables, and not to use his spoon in the common dish."
[2] This expression came into common use in the fifth century, when the Christian writers summarized the ancient learning under these seven headings or studies, following earlier Greek and Roman classifications. (See p. 70).
[3] The Doctrinale, by Alexander de Villa Die. This was in rhyme, and became immensely popular. It was the favorite text until the fifteenth century.
[4] Donatus begins as follows:
"How many parts of speech are there?" "Eight."
"What are they?" "Noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle,
conjunction, preposition, and interjection."
"What is a noun?" "A part of speech with case, signifying a
body or thing particularly or commonly."
"How many attributes have nouns?" "Six."
"What are they?" "Quality, comparison, gender, number, figure, case."
Etc., etc.
[5] The following from Priscian, reproduced by Graves, illustrates the method of instruction as applied to the first book of the Aeneid of Vergil.
"What part of speech is arma?" "A noun."
"Of what sort?" "Common."
"Of what class?" "Abstract."
"Of what gender?" "Neuter."
"Why neuter?" "Because all nouns whose plurals
end in a are neuter."
"Why is not the singular used?" "Because this noun expresses many
different things."
Etc., etc.
This form of textbook writing was common, not only during the Middle Ages, but well into modern times. The famous New England Primer was in part in this form, and many early American textbooks in history and geography were written after this plan.
[6] Vergil, due to his beautiful poetic form and to his love of nature and life, was especially guarded against during the early Middle Ages as the most seductive of the ancient Latin writers. It is not at all inappropriate that, in Dante's Inferno, Vergil should have been the person to guide Dante through hell and purgatory, but should not have been allowed to accompany him into paradise.
[7] Textbooks on the art of letter-writing began to appear by the eleventh century, explaining in detail how to prepare the five divisions of a letter: (1) the salutation (salutatio), (2) the art of introducing the subject properly and making a good impression (captatio benevolentiae), (3) the body of the letter (narratio), (4) how to make the request (petitio), and (5) a fitting conclusion (conclusio).
[8] Anderson reproduces a portion of a chapter by Capella on the number four, which is illustrative of the mediaeval study of the properties of number:
"What shall I call four? in which is a certain perfection of solidarity; for it is composed of length and depth, and a full decade is made up from those four numbers added together in order, that is, from one, two, three, four. Similarly a hundred is made up of the four decades, that is, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, which are a hundred; and again four numbers from a hundred on amount to a thousand, that is, 100, 200, 300, 400. So ten thousand is made up of another series. What is to be said of the fact that there are four seasons of the year, four quarters of the heavens, and four principles of the elements? There are also four ages of man, four vices, and four virtues."
[9] Anderson reproduces a paragraph from Maurus, showing how number was applied to Holy Writ. It reads:
"A real thinker," says Maurus, "will not pass on indifferently when he reads that Moses, Elijah, and our Lord fasted forty days. Without strict observance and investigation the matter cannot be explained. The number 40 contains the number 10 four times, by which all is signified which concerns the temporal. For, according to the number 4, the days and the seasons run their course. The day consists of morning, midday, evening, and night, the year of spring, summer, autumn, winter. Further, we have the number 10 to recognize God and the creature. The three (trinity) indicated the Creator; the seven, the creature which consists of body and spirit. In the latter is the three: for we must love God with our whole heart and soul and mind. In the body, on the other hand, the four elements of which it consists reveal themselves clearly. So if we are moved through that which is signified by the number 10 to live in time—for 10 is taken four times—chaste, withholding ourselves from worldly lusts, that means to fast forty days. So the Holy Scriptures contain suggestively in many different numbers all sorts of secrets which must remain hidden to those who do not understand the meaning of numbers."
[10] Gerbert (953-1003) was one of the most learned monks of his day, having studied in the Saracen schools of Spain. He afterwards became Pope Sylvester II (999-1003). Because of his scientific knowledge in an age of superstition he was accused of transactions with the devil.
[11] For example, the Stabat Mater and the Dies Irae, two thirteenth- century hymns. The former has been called the most pathetic and the latter the most sublime of all mediaeval poems.
[12] Cassiodorus was an educated later Roman, who had been chief minister to Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king, and had done much to carry over Latin learning and civilization into the new régime. He later founded the monastery of Viviers, in southern Italy, and spent the latter part of his life there in writing and contemplation. He urged the monks to study, and those who had no head for learning he advised to read Cato and Columella on agriculture, and then to devote themselves to it.
[13] "Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars." (Proverbs, IX, 1.)
[14] Abelson, in his monograph on The Seven Liberal Arts, reduces each of these textbooks to their equivalent in a modern 16mo printed page, with the following results:
Cassi-
Capella Boethius odorus Isidore Alcuin Maurus
Subject (c. 425) (c. 520) (c. 575) (c. 630) (c. 800) (c. 844)
/Grammar…… 11 — 25 50 54 55
|Rhetoric….. 14 — 5-1/2 14 26 —
\Dialectic…. 11 — 18 14 25 —
/Arithmetic… 11 40 2 2 — —
|Geometry….. 15 30 2 1 — —
|Astronomy…. 9 — 15 3 23 60
\Music…….. 11 67 2 12 — —
—- —- —- —- —- —-
Totals in pages 82 137 69-1/2 96 128 115
[15] The mediaeval serf was the successor of the Roman slave, and was a step upward in the process of the evolution of the free man. The serf was tied to the soil and by obligations of personal service to the lord. Gradually, due to economic causes, the personal service was changed from general to definite service, and finally to a fixed rental sum. When a fixed money payment took the place of personal service the free man had been evolved. This took place rapidly with the rise of cities and industry toward the latter part of the Middle Ages.
[16] The German private duel and the American fist fight are the modern survivals of the time when personal insults, easily taken, and private grievances were settled in the "noble way" by sword and battle-axe and torch.
[17] In the earlier days of noblemen's education reading and writing were regarded as effeminate, but in the later times the nobles became increasingly literate. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many began to pride themselves on their patronage of learning.
[18] Rhyming in the vernacular language came to be an important part of the training, and many old love songs and songs expressing the joy of life date from this period. Chaucer's knight is described as:
"Syngynge he was or floytynge [playing], al the day;
He was as fressh as is the monthe of May.
Short was his gowne, with sleves longe and wyde.
Wel cowde he sitte on hors and faire ryde;
He cowde songes make and wel endite,
Juste and eek daunce, and wel purtreye and write.
So hote he loved, that by nighterdale [night time]
He slept no more than doth the nightingale."
[19] From the life of the Frankish Abbot, John of Gorze, Abbot at Gorze in the tenth century.
[20] Leach, A. F., Educational Charters, p. 143.
[21] Ibid., p. 147.
[22] Anselm (1033-1109), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, formulated the early mediaeval view when he said:
"I do not seek to know in order that I may believe, but I believe in
order that I may know."
"The Christian ought to advance to knowledge through faith, not to
come to faith through knowledge."
"The proper order demands that we believe the deep things of Christian
faith before we presume to reason about them."
[23] Monroe, Paul, Text-Book in the History of Education, p. 258.