1. From the 10th century, almost completely destitute of any scientific movement, the so-called Sæculum obscurum, there sprang forth the first buds of scholarship, without, however, any distinct impress upon them of scholasticism.
  2. In the 11th century scholasticism began to show itself, and that in the form of dialectic, both sceptical and dogmatic.
  3. In the 12th century mysticism assumed an independent place alongside of dialectic, carried on a war of extermination against the sceptical dialectic, and finally appeared in a more peaceful aspect, contributing material to the positive dogmatic dialectic.
  4. In the 13th century dialectic scholasticism gained the complete ascendency, and reached its highest glory in the form of dogmatism in league with mysticism, and never, in the persons of its greatest representatives, in opposition to it.

§ 99.5. The Canon Law.—After the Pseudo-Isidore (§ 87, 2) many collections of church laws appeared. They sought to render the material more complete, intentionally or unintentionally enlarging the forgeries and massing together the most contradictory statements without any attempt at comparison or sifting. The most celebrated of these were the collections of bishops Burchard of Worms about A.D. 1020, Anselm of Lucca, who died in A.D. 1086, nephew of the pope of the same name, Alexander II., and Ivo of Chartres, who died in A.D. 1116. Then the Camaldolite monk Gratian of Bologna undertook not only to gather together the material in a more complete form than had hitherto been done, but also to reconcile contradictory statements by scholastic argumentation. His work appeared about A.D. 1150 under the title Concordantia discordantium canonum, and is commonly called Decretum Gratiani. A great impulse was given to the study of canon law by means of this work, especially at Bologna and Paris. Besides the Legists, who taught the Roman law, there now arose numerous Decretists teaching the canon law and writing commentaries on Gratian’s work. Gregory IX. had a new collection of Decrees of Councils and Decretals in five books, the so-called Liber extra Decretum, or shortly Extra or Decretum Gregorii, drawn up by his confessor and Grand-Penitentiary, the learned Dominican Raimundus [Raimund] de Pennaforti [Pennaforte], and sent it in A.D. 1234 to the University of Bologna. Boniface VIII. in A.D. 1298 added to this collection in five parts his Liber Sextus, and Clement V. in A.D. 1314 added what are called after him the Clementinæ. From that time down to A.D. 1483 the decretals of later popes were added as an appendix under the name Extravagantes, and with these the Corpus juris canonici was concluded.An official edition was begun in A.D. 1566 by the so-called Correctores Romani, which in A.D. 1580 received papal sanction as authoritative for all time to come.[292]

§ 99.6. The Schoolmen as such contributed nothing to Historical Literature. Histories were written not in the halls of the universities but in the cells of the monasteries. Of these there were three kinds as we have already seen in § 90, 9. For workers in the department of Biblical History, see § [105, 5]; and of Legends of the Saints, § [104, 8]. For ancient Church History Rufinus and Cassiodorus were the authorities and the common text books (§ 5, 1). An interesting example of the manner in which universal history was treated when mediæval culture had reached its highest point, is afforded by the Speculum magnum s. quadruplex of the Dominican Vincent of Beauvais (Bellovacensis). This treatise was composed about the middle of the 13th century at the command of Louis IX. of France as a hand-book for the instruction of the royal princes. It forms an encyclopædic exposition of all the sciences of that day in four parts, Speculum historiale, naturale, doctrinale, and morale.The Speculum doctrinale breaks off just at the point where it should have passed over to theology proper, and the Speculum morale is a later compilation by an unknown hand.[293]

§ 100. The Sæculum Obscurum: the 10th Century.[294]

In contrast to the brilliant theological scholarship and the activity of religious life in the 9th century, as well as to the remarkable culture and scientific attainments of the Spanish Moors with their world-renowned school at Cordova, the darkness of the 10th century seems all the more conspicuous, especially its first half, when the papacy reached its lowest depths, the clergy gave way to unblushing worldliness and the church was consumed by the foulest corruption. During this age, indeed, there were gleams of light even in Italy, but only like a will o’ the wisp rising from swampy meadows, a fanatical outburst on behalf of ancient classic paganism. The literature of this period stood in direct and avowed antagonism to Christian theology and the Christian church, and commended a godless frivolity and the most undisguised sensuality. A grammarian Wilgard of Ravenna taught openly that Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal were better and nobler than Paul, Peter, and John. The church had still so much authority as to secure his death as a heretic, but in almost all the towns of Italy he had sympathisers, and that among the clergy as well as among laymen. It was only by the influence of the monks of Clugny, the reformatory ascetic efforts of Romuald (§ [98, 1]) and St. Nilus the Younger, a very famous Greek recluse of Gaeta, who died in A.D. 1005, aided by the reformatory measures for the purification of the church taken by the Saxon emperors, that this unclean spirit was gradually driven out. The famous endeavours of Alfred the Great and their temporary success were borne to the grave along with himself. From A.D. 959 however, Dunstan’s reformation awakened anew in England appreciation of a desire for theological and national culture. The connection of the imperial house of Otto with Byzantium also aroused outside of Italy a longing after old classical learning. The imperial chapel founded by the brother of Otto I., Bruno the Great (§ [97, 2]), became the training school of a High-German clergy, who were there carefully trained as far as the means at the disposal of that age permitted, not only in politics, but also in theological and classical studies.

§ 100.1. The degree to which Classical Studies were pursued in Germany during the period of the Saxon imperial house is shown by the works of the learned nun Roswitha of Gandersheim, north of Göttingen, who died about A.D. 984. The first edition of her works, which comprise six dramas on biblical and ecclesiastical themes in the style of Terence, in prose interspersed with rhymes, also eight legends, a history of Otto I., and a history of the founding of her cloister in leonine hexameters, was issued by the humanist Conrad Celtes, with woodcuts by Dürer in A.D. 1501.—Notker Labeo, president of the cloister school of St. Gall, who died in A.D. 1022, enriched the old German literature by translations of the Psalms, of Aristotle’s Organon, the Moralia of Gregory the Great, and various writings of Boethius [Boëthius].—In England the educational efforts of St. Dunstan (§ [97, 4]) were powerfully supported by Bishop Ethelwold of Winchester, who quite in the spirit of Alfred the Great (§ 90, 10) wrought incessantly with his pupils for the extension and enrichment of the Anglo-Saxon literature. Of his scholars by far the most famous was Aelfric, surnamed Grammaticus, who flourished about A.D. 990.He wrote an Anglo-Saxon Grammar, prepared a collection of homilies for all the Sundays and festivals and a free translation from sermons of the Latin Fathers, translated also the Old Testament heptateuch, and wrote treatises on other portions of Scripture and on biblical questions.[295]

§ 100.2. Italy produced during the second half of the century many theologians eminent and important in their day. Atto, bishop of Vercelli, who died about A.D. 960, distinguished himself by his exegetical compilations on Paul’s epistles, and as a homilist and a vigorous opponent of the oppressors of the church during these rough times. Still more important was his younger contemporary Ratherius, bishop of Verona, afterwards of Liège, but repeatedly driven away from both, who died A.D. 974. A strict and zealous reformer of clerical morals, he insisted upon careful study of the Bible, and wrought earnestly against the unblushing paganism of the Italian scholars of his age as well as against all kinds of hypocrisy, superstition, and ecclesiastical corruptions. This, and also his attachment to the political interests of the German court, exposed him to much persecution. Among his writings may be named De contemptu canonum, Meditationes cordis, Apologia sui ipsius, De discordia inter ipsum et clericos.—In France we meet with Odo of Clugny, who died in A.D. 942, famed as a hymn writer and homilist, and, in his Collationum Ll. iii., as a zealous reprover of the corrupt morals of his age. In England and France, Abbo of Fleury taught toward the end of the century. From England, where he had been induced to go by St. Dunstan, he returned after some years to his own cloister of Fleury, and by his academic gifts raised its school to great renown. He wrote on astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and history. He also composed a treatise on dialectics, in which he makes his appearance as the first and most eminent precursor of the Schoolmen. Chosen abbot of his monastery and exercising strict discipline over his monks, he suffered a martyr’s death by the hand of a murderer in A.D. 1004.—Gerbert of Rheims, afterwards Pope Sylvester II. (§ [96, 3], [4]), during his active career lived partly in France, partly in Italy. Distinguished both for classical and Arabic scholarship, he shone in the firmament of this dark century as it was passing away († A.D. 1003) like a star of the first magnitude in theology, mathematics, astronomy, and natural science, while by the common people he was regarded as a magician. Under him the school of Rheims reached the summit of its fame.

§ 101. The Eleventh Century.

During the 11th century, with the moral and spiritual elevation of the church, eager attention was again given to theological science. It was at first mainly prosecuted in the monasteries of the Cistercians and among the monks of Clugny, but afterwards at the seminaries which arose toward the end of the century. The dialectic method won more and more the upper hand in theology, and in the Eucharist controversy between Lanfranc and Berengar, as well as in the controversy between Anselm and Gaunilo about the existence of God, and between Anselm and Roscelin about the Trinity, Dogmatism obtained its first victory over Scepticism.

§ 101.1. The Most Celebrated Schoolmen of this Century.