Charlemagne, Emperor of Germany, who is known as a Christian prince, and
Alfred the Great, of England, lived in the eight and ninth centuries.
The darkest period in the dark ages was between the fifth and the
eleventh, but they are known as the _earliest_ luminaries of the modern
world. They encouraged learning both by example and patronage, but they
could not overcome the gross ignorance of their times; nevertheless they
shed a strong and living lustre over the age in which they lived. (See
_Elements of General Knowledge_, by Henry Kelt, Fellow and Tutor of
Trinity College, Oxford, p. 246.) Where, and under what circumstances,
were their schools established? They were confined to churches and
monasteries, and the monks presided over them, but they were inadequate
to the task of diffusing knowledge in any extensive circle. The reign of
heathenism and ignorance continued.
The Arabians had introduced the knowledge of arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy, chemistry, medicine, and the philosophy of Aristotle into
Spain. (See Warton on Pope, vol. 1, p. 184.) At the beginning of the
eleventh century several enlightened scholars undertook to educate the
youth of the cities of Italy, and at a later period those of France,
England and Germany. To the stability and prevalence of the education
thus begun is the establishment of the universities of Europe
attributable. Those of Paris and Oxford carry their claims to antiquity
to the times of Alfred and Charlemagne, but it is said that the real
claims of Paris stop with Phillip Augustus in the twelfth century. In
the year 1264 Merton College was founded by Walter de Merton, Lord
Chancellor of England and Bishop of Rochester, but the honorable title,
"Mother of Universities of Europe" is due to Bologna. It was in her
walls that learning, in the eleventh century, first attempted to raise
her head.
It is said upon good authority that 10,000 students were assembled here
in the next century, that is, somewhere about the beginning of the
fourteenth century, and that each country in Europe had its resident
regents and professors at Bologna. Here the studies of the civil and
canon law constituted the almost exclusive objects of application, but
Paris directed the attention of her scholars to theology. Oxford began
at this time to acquire fame and to rival the foreign universities in
the ability of its professors and the multitude of its members; in the
year 1340 they amounted to 30,000. Many other universities were soon
established upon the models of Bologna, Paris and Oxford. In these logic
and scholastic divinity were for centuries the reigning subjects of
pursuit. The works of Aristotle were studied with great eagerness. Upon
the logic of Aristotle was founded the cultivation of scholastic
theology and casuistry, which is a department of morals; its object is
to lay down rules for directing us _how_ to act where there is any room
for doubt or hesitation. To this belongs the decision of what are called
cases of conscience, that is, cases in which we are under obligation,
but which, from certain surroundings, give rise to doubt, or how far the
obligation may be dissolved; such as the obligation to keep a promise
obtained by fraud or force.
To make nice distinctions between one word and another, to separate
subjects by infinite divisions, not as the real nature of things, but as
fancy directed, and to draw conclusions with no moral end in view, were
the pursuits of the schoolmen. The decrees of the councils of the Church
of Rome, its edicts and ceremonial and ritual observances, were
scrupulously regarded instead of obedience to the pure and practical
elements of Christianity. Classical learning was entirely neglected.
Here is the feature of Roman church history which infidels have
endeavored to use falsely against _even Rome_, to wit: the opposition of
the churchmen of those times to _classical learning_. This was
considered dangerous to true piety, and calculated to corrupt the pure
theology of the gospel, because the orators of Greece and Rome were
regarded as blind guides of erring reason and seducers to the paths of
sin and destruction. Virgil and Horace were looked upon merely as the
advocates of a profane and idolatrous mythology, and Cicero was regarded
as a vain declaimer, impiously elated with the talent of Pagan
eloquence, but the infidel charge that the church has always been in the
way of scientific education, _expressed in unqualified terms_, is simply
false in fact. That there was a time when she was opposed to classical
learning is a well attested fact, but she, at the same time, taught and
operated in universities and monasteries, as stated above. The first
dawnings of modern literature are seen in connection with the
cultivation of the language of Provence and the productions of the
Troubadours. The first great teacher in this connection was William,
Count of Poiton, a nobleman, distinguished by his powers in the
crusades. Many of the men of note who were in the crusades, were of his
character. Their writings upon the topics of war, gallantry, satire and
history, first roused Europe from her ignorance and lethargy, first
taught her to think and reflect and judge upon subjects of imagination.
The Troubadours sustained the middle place between Gothic ignorance and
Italian excellence, and literature is indebted to them for rearing the
first fruits of European genius and inspiring the moderns with the love
of poetry. Their influence and language spread over all the countries of
Europe. Their bards were in the courts of kings and the castles of
barons. The commencement of the crusades and the beginning of the
fifteenth century, mark the limits of their fame. Their romance had its
rise in the manners of chivalry, and fell into disrepute when chivalry
declined. In the fourteenth century men of intellectual genius in Italy
resolved to cultivate their own native language and to combine with its
grandeur the charms of imagination and the acquirements of classical
learning. The poetry of the Tuscan school, the works of Dante, Ariosto,
Boccio and Petrarch, have never yet been excelled by four succeeding
centuries of genius and literature. The way was open for the revival of
classical learning in the fifteenth century, and for the cultivation of
all the arts and sciences connected with its cultivation.
The downfall of the Roman Empire in the east and the discovery of the
art of printing happened about the same time. Scholars had long trembled
in view of the approach of Mahomet the second. Constantinople was
captured by the Turks in 1458; then Chrysoloras, Gaza of Thessalonica,
Demetrius Chalcondyles, Johannes Lascaris, Callistus, Constantius,
Johannes Andronicus, and many other learned Greeks, fled into Italy for
protection, where they found, at Florence, several Greek professors who
had been persuaded by Cosmo de Medici to settle in that city. They
settled in Florence and there interpreted the ancient writings which had
been kept in the eastern metropolis. The best Italian scholars fell in
with them and soon became enamored with the spirit of poetry, eloquence
and history. Here a better philosophy was soon taken up, and the cunning
of scholasticism, as known in the empty speculations of metaphysicians,
gave place to the more profitable principles of moral philosophy. The
study of the Greek language was introduced in England by William Grocyn,
a fellow of New College, Oxford, who died about the year 1520.
"To the mechanical genius of Holland we must ascribe the discovery of
the art of printing, for the original inventor was Laurentius John
Coster, of Haerlem, who made his first essay with wooden types about the
year 1430. The art was communicated by his servant to John Faust and
John Guttenberg, of Mentz. It was carried to perfection by Peter
Shoeffer, the son-in-law of Faustus, who invented the modes of casting
metal types."
Trihemius, in his Chronicle, written A.D. 1514, says he had it from the
mouth of Peter Shoeffer that the first book they printed with movable
types was the Bible, about the year 1450, in which the expenses were so
great that 4,000 florins were expended before they completed twelve
sheets. The author of a manuscript, Chronicle of Cologne, compiled in
1499, also says that he was told by Ulric Zell, of Cologne, who himself
introduced printing there in 1466, that the Latin Bible was first begun
to be printed in the year of Jubilee, 1450, and that it was in large
type. Mr. Edwards, of Pall Mall possessed a copy of this curious Bible
in three volumes, bound in morocco. In his catalogue it was valued at
£126. There, is a beautiful copy of this work in the Bodleian (or
Bodleyan) Library in the University at Oxford.
The art of printing soon spread over the greater part of Europe, and
to-day our world is a world of books, and the love of the Bible was the
origin of printing.