[137] 9, 2, 132.
[138] The basis on which the canon of the seven liberal arts was formed is indicated by a passage in Martianus Capella, who makes Apollo say in regard to the exclusion of medicine and architecture from it that “their attention and skill is given to mortal and earthly things, and they have nothing in common with the ether and the gods; it is not unseemly to reject them with loathing.” (Ed. Eyssenhardt, IV, 13). The Christian Isidore held much the same notion as the pagan Capella. He believed that the order of the seven liberal arts terminating in astronomy was one whose object was “to free souls entangled by secular wisdom from earthly matters and set them at meditation upon the things on high” (3, 71, 41). See also pp. [65], [77]. It is plain enough that education in both the pagan and Christian spheres was strongly affected by the mystical tendency of the time, and it is not too much to say that the seven liberal arts stand not so much for the impracticality of a “gentleman’s” education as for that desirable in the education of a mystic.
[139] Cf. Cañal, San Isidoro (Sevilla, 1897), p. 23.
[140] Cf. Roger, L’Enseignement des lettres classiques d’Ausone à Alcuin (Paris, 1905), pp. 126–129.
[141] Of Augustine’s treatises on grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, and music, all but that on music were lost within a very short time. They could have had but little influence. Cf. Retract., 1, c. 6, and Teuffel and Schwabe, History of Roman Literature, Sect. 440, 7.
[142] M. Aurelii Cassiodori, De Institutione Divinarum Litterarum and De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum. In Migne, P. L., vol. 70.
[143] Cassiodorus, De Institutione Divinarum Litterarum, Migne, P. L., 70, 1108 and 1141. In the former of these passages Cassiodorus discusses also the question whether there should be absolute reliance on divine aid in the interpretation of the Scriptures—in which connection he cites miraculous interpretations by illiterate persons—or “whether it is better to continue in the use of the ordinary learning.” He decides on the whole for the latter course. The fact that Cassiodorus wrote an account of the seven liberal arts shows perhaps that he was more benighted in his theory than in his practice. Gregory the Great, however, was more consistent and thorough-going. He stands as the typical example of extreme illiberality in the history of European education. His position is shown in the notorious letter addressed to the Bishop of Vienne: “A report has reached us which we cannot mention without a blush, that thou expoundest grammar to certain friends; whereat we are so offended and filled with scorn that our former opinion of thee is turned to mourning and sorrow.... If hereafter it be clearly established that the rumor which we have heard is false and that thou art not applying thyself to the idle vanities of secular learning (nugis et secularibus litteris), we shall render thanks to our God.” Gregory the Great, Ep. ix. 54. The translation is that given in R. Lane-Poole, Medieval Thought.
[144] The second council of Toledo (531) devoted especial attention to the subject of preparation for the priesthood. See Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum Collectio (Florence, 1764), vol. 8 (Concilium Toletanum II).
[145] Mansi, vol. 8, p. 785.
[146] Cap. 2.