[298] The clerical schools were no less important than the lay, but less distinctive because their fellows existed north of the Alps. Cathedral schools may be obscurely traced back to the fifth century; and there were schools under the direction of the parish priests. In them aspirants for the priesthood were educated, receiving some Latin and some doctrinal instruction. So the cathedral and parochial schools helped to preserve the elements of antique education; but they present no such open cultivation of letters for their own profane sake as may be found in the schools of lay grammarians. The monastic schools are better known. From the ninth century they usually consisted of an outer school (schola exterior) for the laity and youths who wished to become secular priests, and an inner school (interior) for those desiring to become monks. At different times the monastery schools of Bobbio, Farfa, and other places rose to fame, but Monte Cassino outshone them all.
As to the schools and culture of Italy during the early Middle Ages, see Ozanam, Les Écoles en Italie aux temps barbares (in his Documents inédits, etc., and printed elsewhere); Giesebrecht, De literarum studiis apud Italos, etc. (translated into Italian by C. Pascal, Florence, 1895, under the title L’ Istruzione in Italia nei primi secoli del Medio-Evo); G. Salvioli, L’ Istruzione publica in Italia nei secoli VIII., IX., X. (Florence, 1898); Novati, L’ Influsso del pensiero latino sopra la civilità italiana del Medio-Evo (2nd ed., Milan, 1899).
[299] See post, Chapter XXXIII., III.
[300] At Salerno, according to the Constitution of Frederick II., three years’ preliminary study of the scientia logicalis was demanded, because “numquam sciri potest scientia medicinae nisi de scientia logicali aliquid praesciatur” (cited by Novati, L’ Influsso del pensiero latino, etc., p. 220). Just as Law and Medical Schools in the United States may require a college diploma from applicants for admission.
[301] On Constantine see Wüstenfeld, “Übersetzungen arabischer Werke,” etc. Abhand. Göttingen Gesellschaft, vol. 22 (1877), pp. 10-20, and p. 55 sqq. Also on the Salerno school, Daremberg, Hist. des sciences médicales, vol. i. p. 254 sqq.
[302] Traube, “O Roma nobilis,” Abhand. philos.-philol. Classe Bayer. Akad. Bd. 19, p. 301. This poem probably belongs to the tenth century. “Archos” is mediaeval Greek for “The Lord.”
[303] The Rationes dictandi, a much-used book on the art of composing letters, comes from the hand of one Alberic, who was a monk at Monte Cassino in the middle of the eleventh century. He died a cardinal in 1088. The ars dictaminis related either to drawing legal documents or composing letters. See post, Chapter XXX., II.
[304] See E. Bertaux, L’Art dans l’Italie méridionale, i. 155 sqq. (Paris, 1904).
[305] The poems of Alphanus are in Migne, Pat. Lat. 147, col. 1219-1268.
[306] “Ad Romualdum causidicum,” printed in Ozanam, Doc. inédits, p. 259.