IV. THEOLOGY AND ITS BATTLES.

§ 90. Scholarship and Theological Science.[252]

With the exception of Ulfilas’ famous efforts, the Arian period of German church history is quite barren in scientific performances. Yet those few who preserved and fostered the scientific gains of earlier times were honoured and made use of by the noble-minded Ostrogoth king Theodoric, and under him Boethius [Boëthius] and Cassiodorus (§ [47, 23]) performed the praiseworthy task of saving the remnants of classical and patristic learning. For Spain the same office was performed by Isidore of Seville, who died in A.D. 636, whose text-books continued for centuries, even on this side the Pyrenees, to supply the groundwork of scholarly studies. The numerous Scottish and Irish monasteries maintained their reputation down to the 9th century for eminent piety and distinguished scholarship. Among the Anglo-Saxons the learned Greek monk Theodore of Tarsus, who died in A.D. 690, and his companion Hadrian, enkindled an enthusiasm for classical studies, and the venerable Bede, who died in A.D. 735, though he never quitted his monastery, became the most famous teacher in all the West, The Danish pirates did indeed crush almost to extinction the seeds of Anglo-Saxon culture, but Alfred the Great sowed them anew, though this revival was only for a little while. In Gaul Gregory of Tours, who died in A.D. 595, was the last representative of Roman ecclesiastical learning. After him we enter upon a chaos without form and void, from which the creative spirit of Charlemagne first called a new day which spread over the whole West its enlightening beams. This light, however, was put out even by the time of the great emperor’s grandson, and then we suddenly pass into the night of the Sæculum Obscurum (§ 100).

§ 90.1. Rulers of the Carolingian Line.—Charlemagne, A.D. 768-814, may be regarded as beginning his scientific undertakings on his first entrance into Italy in A.D. 774. On this occasion he came to know the scholars Peter of Pisa, Paul Warnefrid, Paulinus of Aquileia, and Theodulf of Orleans, and brought them to his palace. From A.D. 782, however, the particularly brilliant star of his court was the Anglo-Saxon scholar Alcuin, whom Charles had met in Italy in the previous year. Scientific studies were now carried on in an exceedingly vigorous manner in the palace. The royal family, the whole court and its surroundings engaged upon them, but of them all Charles himself was the most diligent and successful of Alcuin’s students. In the royal school, Schola palatina, which was ambulatory like the royal residence itself, the sons and daughters of the king with the children of the most distinguished families of the land received a high-class education. The teaching staff was constantly recruited from England, Ireland and Italy. After such preparations Charles issued in A.D. 787 a circular to all the bishops and abbots of his kingdom which enjoined under threat of his severe royal displeasure that schools should be erected in all monasteries and cathedral churches. Meanwhile his endeavours were most successful, but were rather one-sided in the preference given to classical and patristic literature, without a proper national foundation. Charles’s great and generous nature indeed had a warm interest in national culture, but those around him, with the single exception of Paul Warnefrid, had in consequence of their Latin monkish training lost all taste for German thought, language and nationality, and fearing lest such studies might endanger Christianity and cause a relapse into paganism, they did not help but rather hindered the king’s effort to promote a national literature.—Louis the Pious, A.D. 814-840, had his weak government disturbed by the strifes of parties and of the citizens. This period, therefore, was not specially favourable to the development of scientific studies, but the seed sown by his father still bore noble fruit. His son Lothair issued an ordinance which gave a new organization to the educational system of Italy, indeed created it anew. But Italy restless and full of factions was the land where least of all such institutions could be successfully conducted.A new golden age, however, dawned for France under Charles the Bald, A.D. 840-877. His court resembled that of his great grandfather in having gathered to it the élite of scholars from all the West. The royal school gained new renown under the direction of Joannes Scotus Erigena. The cathedral and monastic schools of France vied with the most famous institutions of Germany (St. Gall, Fulda, Reichenau, etc.), and over the French episcopal sees men presided who had the most distinguished reputation for scholarship. But after Charles’s death the bloom of the Carolingian period passed away with almost inconceivable rapidity amid the commotions of the time into thick darkness, chaos and barbarism.

§ 90.2. The most distinguished Theologians of the Pre-Carolingian Age.

  1. In Merovingian France flourished Gregory of Tours, sprung of a good Roman family. When in A.D. 573, in order to get cured of an illness, he made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Martin (§ [47, 14]), he had the bishopric of Tours conferred upon him, where he continued till his death in A.D. 595. His Historia Ecclesiastica Francorum in ten Bks. affords us the only exact and trustworthy information we possess of the Merovingian age. The Ll. VII. Miraculorum are a collection of several hagiographic writings, four of them recounting some of the innumerable miracles of St. Martin.
  2. Scientific studies were prosecuted more vigorously on the other side of the Pyrenees than on this. In the empire of the Suevi (§ [76, 4]) archbishop Martin of Braccara, now Braga, distinguished himself in the work of Catholicising the Arian population. He was previously abbot of the monastery of Dumio, and died about A.D. 580. He was a voluminous writer on church law and also in the departments of moral and ascetical theology. His writings in the latter section have so much in common with those of Seneca that they were at one time ascribed to the Roman moralist. The treatise De Correctione Rusticorum is very important for the history of the morals, legal institutions and culture of that period.—The great star of the Spanish Visigothic kingdom was Isidorus [Isidore] Hispalensis, who died in A.D. 636. He was descended from a distinguished Gothic family, and, as successor of his brother Leander, rose to the archbishopric of Seville (Hispalis). His writings are diligent compilations, which have preserved to us many fragments and items of information otherwise unknown. Incomparably greater, however, was the service they rendered in conveying classical and patristic learning to the German world of that age. His most comprehensive work consists of xx. Bks. Originum s. Etymologiarum, an encyclopædic exhibition of the whole field of knowledge of the day. He also wrote a Chronicon reaching down to A.D. 627, and Hist. de regibus Gotorum, a shorter Hist. Vandalorum et Suevorum, and a continuation of Jerome’s Catalogus de viris illustr. Of more importance than his numerous compilations of mystico-allegorical expositions of Scripture are the iii. Bks. Sententiarum, a well-arranged system of doctrine and morals from patristic passages, especially from Augustine and Gregory the Great, and the Lb. II. de ecclest. officiis. The two last-named works were highly prized as text-books throughout the Middle Ages. The two books Contra Judæos belong to the department of apologetics. He also composed a monastic rule (comp. further § [87, 1] and [88, 1]).—Isidore’s elder brother Leander of Seville, who died in A.D. 590, had a good reputation as a church leader (§ [76, 2]; [88, 1]), and had no insignificant rank as a theological writer. The same may be said of the two bishops of Toledo, Ildefonsus, who died in A.D. 669, and Julianus, who died in A.D. 690.
  3. England’s greatest and most famous teacher was the Anglo-Saxon, the Venerable Bede. Trained in the monastery of Wearmouth, he subsequently took up his residence in the monastery of Jarrow, where he died in A.D. 735. He was a proficient in all the sciences of his time and withal a model of humility, piety and amiability. While his numerous pupils reached the highest places in the service of the church, their famous teacher continued in quiet retirement as a simple monk. He himself wished nothing else. Even on his deathbed he continued unweariedly to teach and write. Immediately before his death he dictated the last chapter of an Anglo-Saxon translation of the Gospel of John. By far his most important work for us is the Hist. ecclest. gentis Anglorum in 5 Bks. reaching down to A.D. 731 (Engl. Transl. by Giles, Lond., 1840; and by Gidley, Lond., 1871). Connected with this are his biographies of several saints of his native land, also a history of the monastery of Wearmouth, and a Chronicon de sex ætatibus mundi reaching down to A.D. 729. His commentaries ranging over almost all the books of the Old and New Testament give evidence of a wonderful knowledge of the fathers. His numerous sermons are mostly exegetical and practical, rarely doctrinal. He was distinguished too as a poet in Latin as well as in his mother tongue.

§ 90.3. The most distinguished Theologians of the Age of Charlemagne.

  1. The brightest star in the theological firmament of this period was the Anglo-Saxon Alcuin (Albinus) with the Horatian surname of Flaccus, which he got for his poetical productions. He was educated in the famous school of York under Egbert and Elbert. When the latter was made archbishop in A.D. 766, Alcuin undertook the presidency of the schools. While on a visit to Rome in A.D. 781 he met Charlemagne who took him to his court, where he became the emperor’s teacher, friend and most trusted counsellor. Down to his death in A.D. 804 he was the king’s right hand in all religious ecclesiastical and educational matters. In order to allay a feeling of home-sickness, he undertook a journey in A.D. 789 to his native country as ambassador of Charlemagne, returned in A.D. 793, and did not again quit France. In A.D. 796 Charles gave him the abbacy of Tours. He soon raised its monastic school to the highest rank as a seminary of learning. His exegetical works are mere compilations. The Ll. II. de fide s. et Individuæ Trinitatis may be regarded as his dogmatic masterpiece; a compendium of dogmatics based upon Augustine’s writings. The Quæstiones de Trin. treat of the same matter in the catechetical form of question and answer. He contributed to the doctrinal controversies of his time the Libellus de processione Spiritus S. (§ [91, 2]) and by several learned controversial tracts against the leaders of the Adoptionists (§ [91, 1]). It is doubtful whether at all, and if so to what extent, he had to do with the composition of the Libri Carolini (§ 94, 1) which appeared during his stay in England. His numerous epistles, about 300 in number, are very important for the history of his times.In his Latin poems he sometimes very happily imitates his classical models.[253]
  2. Paulus Diaconus or Paul (the son of) Warnefrid, of an honourable Longobard family, was next to Alcuin the most distinguished scholar of his age. Probably sorrow at the overthrow of his people (§ [82, 2]) drove him into the monastery of Monte Cassino; but Charlemagne took him to his court in A.D. 782, where he was an object of admiration as a Homer among the Grecians, a Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, among the Latinists, and a Philo (!) among the Hebraists. Love of his native land, however, led him back to his monastery in A.D. 786, where he died at a very advanced age in A.D. 795. What was specially praiseworthy in this learned and amiable man, all the more that few then took interest in those matters, was love and enthusiasm for the language, the national legends and heroic tales, the old laws and customs of his fellow-countrymen. His most important work is the Historia s. de Gestis Langobardorum in 6 bks., reaching down to A.D. 774. The earlier Hist. Romana, composed at the wish of a daughter of king Desiderius, is, so far as its earlier periods are concerned, compiled from the classical historians, but for the later periods down to the overthrow of the Gothic rule is more independent. At the Frankish court he composed the Hist. Episcoporum Mettensium.He was also distinguished as a poet. On his Homiliarius comp. § [88, 1].[254]
  3. Theodulf, bishop of Orleans, distinguished as a Christian poet and learned theologian, and especially as a promoter of popular education, stood in high repute with Charlemagne, but under Louis the Pious, being suspected of treasonable correspondence with Bernard of Italy, was deposed and banished in A.D. 818. Subsequently, however, he was pardoned and recalled, but died in A.D. 821 before he reached his diocese. His book De Spiritu S. was a contribution to the controversy about the procession of the Holy Spirit (§ [91, 2]). At Charlemagne’s request he described and explained the baptismal ceremony in the book De ordine baptismi. His numerous poems have been published in 6 bks.
  4. Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia, who died in A.D. 804, and bishop Leidrad of Lyons, who died in A.D. 813, took part in Alcuin’s controversy against the Adoptionists by the publication of able treatises.
  5. Of the works of Hatto, abbot of Reichenau, subsequently bishop of Basel, who died in A.D. 836, we still have the so-called Capitulare Hattonis, with prefatory directions for the official guidance of the Basel clergy, and the Visio Wettini, describing the vision of a monk of Reichenau called Wettin, who in A.D. 824 three days before his death was conducted by an angel through hell, purgatory and paradise. Hatto wrote it in prose and Walafrid Strabo rendered it into verse. It made a great impression on his contemporaries and was probably not without influence upon Dante’s Divina Comediá.

§ 90.4. The most distinguished Theologians of the Age of Louis the Pious.

  1. Agobard of Lyons, a Spaniard by birth, died as archbishop of Lyons in A.D. 840. As the resolute defender of the integrity of the empire and the head of the national church party among the Frankish clergy, he was drawn into a conspiracy against Louis the Pious in A.D. 833 (§ [82, 4]), which led to his deposition and banishment in A.D. 835. After two years, however, he was pardoned. He was a man of remarkable culture and extraordinary force of character, and withal a vigorous opponent of all ecclesiastical and extra-ecclesiastical superstition. On his writings referring to these matters see § [92, 2]. In the book Adv. dogma Felicis he contended against Adoptionism (§ [91, 1]). In connection with his battle against the insolence and pride of the numerous and wealthy Jews in his diocese he wrote and dedicated to the emperor the accusatory tract De insolentia Judæorum, followed by several similar addresses to the most influential councillors of the crown. Another series of writings from his pen was devoted to the vindication of the attitude which he had assumed in the struggle between Louis the Pious and his sons. Several treatises on the position and task, the rights and duties of the ministerial office show a reformatory tendency. He engaged in a passionate controversy with Amalarius of Metz about the necessity of a liturgical reform. Against Fredigis of Tours, Alcuin’s successor, he maintained the view regarding the prophets and apostles that the Holy Spirit non solum sensum prædicationis et modos vel argumenta dictionum inspiraverit, sed etiam ipsa corporalia verba extrinsecus in ora illorum ipse formaverit.
  2. Claudius, bishop of Turin, who died in A.D. 839, was also a Spaniard by birth and a scholar of Felix of Urgel (§ [91, 1]), without, however, imbibing his heretical views. He was throughout his whole career a zealous and determined reformer. His reformatory notions were set forth first of all in his exegetical works that covered almost the whole range of Scripture. Of these only the commentary on Galatians is now extant. He also vindicated his position against the attacks of his old friend the abbot Theodemir in his Apologeticus (§ [92, 2]).
  3. Jonas of Orleans, the successor of Theodulf, was one of the most distinguished prelates of his age, who wrought earnestly and successfully for the restoring of discipline and order in his diocese. In the struggle between Louis the Pious and his sons he resolutely took the side of the old king. He died in A.D. 844. His three books, De institutione laicali constitute a handbook of morals for married persons, which also, because it deals with the sins and vices that were then rampant, is of value as a picture of the moral condition of his age. The book De institutione regia, addressed to Louis’ son Pepin, may be regarded as an appendix to the former treatise. In opposition to the iconoclastic opinions of Claudius (§ [92, 2]) he wrote Ll. III. De cultu imaginum.
  4. The principal work of the priest Amalarius of Metz is his De ecclesiasticis officiis in 4 bks., a detailed description of all the ceremonies of public worship and the ecclesiastical furniture and vestments, with many arbitrary mystico-allegorical explanations, which called forth a crushing rejoinder from Agobard. On his revision of the rule of Chrodegang, see § [84, 4].
  5. From the pen of the German monk Christian Druthmar of Old Corbei we have a commentary on Matthew, which is remarkable for the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper which it sets forth (§ [91, 3]), as well as for the hermeneutical principle there laid down, that first and foremost the exegete must secure a thorough understanding of the historical literal sense, before he may think of developing the spiritual sense, which must have the former as its basis.
  6. Rabănus [Rabanus] Magnentius Maurus, the most distinguished scholar of his age, was descended from an old Roman family but one that had long been Germanized at Mainz. His earliest education was received at the monastery of Fulda. He then became a pupil of Alcuin at Tours. In A.D. 803 he became himself a teacher at Tours, and in A.D. 822 was made abbot of Fulda. After the death of Louis the Pious he took the side of Lothair against Louis the German, and was consequently obliged to resign his position as abbot and to quit Fulda in A.D. 842. Subsequently, however, he obtained Louis’ favour, and upon Otgar’s death in A.D. 847 (§ [87, 3]) was appointed his successor in the archiepiscopal see of Mainz. He died in A.D. 856. The monastic school at Fulda was raised by him to the highest eminence. His commentaries extending over almost all the Old and New Testaments are mainly occupied with the development of the so-called spiritual sense, manifest wonderful familiarity with the writings of the Latin fathers from Ambrose to Bede, and were held in the highest esteem throughout the Middle Ages. The same may be said of his numerous homilies. The encyclopædic work De universo in 22 bks., is a continuation of Isidore’s Origines. His book De institutione clericorum in 3 bks. affords a summary of all that was then to be learnt by the clergy for the practical work of the ministry. The Tractatus de diversis quæstionibus ex V. et N. T. contra Judæos is an apologetic treatise. He wrote against Gottschalk’s doctrine of predestination in a letter to bishop Noting of Verona (§ [91, 5]), and another to the abbot Eigil of Prüm against Radbert’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper (§ [91, 3]). Of his many other works we may mention a Martyrologium based upon ancient authorities.
  7. Walafrid Strabo received his early training in the monastery of Reichenau. He studied subsequently under Rabanus at Fulda, in which institution he became a teacher. About A.D. 842 he was made abbot of Reichenau; the seminary here he raised to high repute, although he died in his early prime in A.D. 849. Among his evangelical writings his so-called Glossæ ordinariæ, i.e. short explanations of the Latin text of the Bible, mostly culled from the commentaries of Rabanus, were extremely popular, and continued in use throughout the Middle Ages as an exegetical handbook. In the liturgical department we have his treatise De exordiis et incrementis rerum ecclesiasticarum, in which he expresses himself on the image controversy in the spirit of the old Frankish church (§ [92, 1]). Walafrid was also famous as a writer of sacred and secular poems.