CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS.
CHRISTIAN
SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS
OR
_SKETCHES OF EDUCATION FROM
THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE
COUNCIL OF TRENT_
BY
AUGUSTA THEODOSIA DRANE
AUTHOR OF “THE THREE CHANCELLORS,” “KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN,”
“THE HISTORY OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA,” ETC.
Anastatic Reprint of the Second Edition
Published in London 1881.
NEW YORK
G. E. STECHERT & Co.
1910.
PREFACE.
The following pages have been written with the view of presenting a
general and connected sketch of the history of Christian Education
down to the period of the Council of Trent, illustrated from the
lives of those who have, in successive ages, taken part in that great
work. A subject extending over so wide a field could of necessity be
only partially treated, and it seems desirable, therefore, to explain
certain omissions which might otherwise cause disappointment. It was
believed that the object aimed at would, in most cases, be better
accomplished by introducing the reader to the teachers themselves,
than by undertaking to give a complete account and critical
examination of their writings. Such an examination would properly
enter into a history of Christian Literature, a grand _desideratum_
indeed, but one which the present volumes makes no pretensions to
supply. Again, for obvious reasons, the philosophical and theological
controversies connected with the lives of the great men who form the
subjects of the following studies, have been designedly touched on
with the greatest possible brevity: the history of such controversies
seeming to belong to Ecclesiastical History, and to be unsuitable in
a work like the present.
It has been the wish of the writer to treat the subject from a purely
historical point of view, and to increase the value of the narrative
by, as far as possible, preserving the colouring, and sometimes even
the very language, of the original historians.
The notes appended to the text will give a general idea of the
authorities whence the matter has been derived. The Ecclesiastical
Histories of Fleury and Rohrbacher have furnished the groundwork
of the general narrative. In the account of the Irish schools,
the chronology and the main facts have been drawn from Lanigan’s
Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. The sketch of the restoration
of letters under Charlemagne has been chiefly taken from Crevier’s
_Histoire de l’Université de Paris_, Launoy’s Treatise _De Scholis
Celebrioribus_, and the various lives, both ancient and modern, of
Charlemagne. In the chapters referring to the subsequent history of
the Dark Ages, constant use has been made of the _Acta Sanctorum Ord.
S. Benedicti_, by D’Achery and Mabillon, and of the collections of
the Lives of the Saints by Surius and the Bollandists; also of the
_Vetera Analecta_ of Mabillon, the _Spicilegium_ of D’Achery, the
_Amplissima Collectio_ of Martene, and the _Histoire Litteraire de la
France_, by the Benedictines of St. Maur. Much valuable matter has
also been derived from the _Monumenta Germaniæ Historica_ of Pertz,
and the collection of ancient German Chronicles by Meibomius; the
account of the school and scholars of St. Gall’s being taken from
Ekkehard’s History _De Casibus S. Galli_, printed in the first volume
of Goldasti’s collection, and from the Benedictine Life of B. Notker.
The notices of the foreign universities are chiefly drawn from
Crevier, and from Tiraboschi’s _Storia della Letteratura Italiana_,
which latter work has been almost exclusively used in the chapters
on the Renaissance in Italy. The chapter on the Dominicans and the
Universities is compiled from a considerable number of authorities;
chiefly, Touron’s _Vies des Hommes Illustres_, the _Scriptores
Ordinis Prædicatorum_ by Echard and Quetil, the French translation of
Dr. Sighart’s _Life of Albert the Great_, and the _Constitutions of
the Order_.
The sketches of our English schools and universities are mostly
derived from Wood’s _Antiquities of Oxford_, Ayliffe’s _Ancient
and Present State of the University of Oxford_, and Dugdale’s
_Monasticon_; whilst various notices of early English scholars
have been gathered from Wright’s _Biographia Britannica_, Warton’s
_History of English Poetry_, and the original lives of the English
Saints, as given in the three collections already named. Hallam’s
_Literary History of Europe_, and Ranke’s _History of the Popes_,
have also been made considerable use of in treating of the period of
the Renaissance, while the sketches of Colet and Pole have been drawn
from their respective lives by Knight and Philipps. Pallavicini’s
_History of the Council of Trent_, and Touron’s _Life of St. Charles
Borromeo_, have furnished the chief materials for the concluding
chapter of the work.
ST. DOMINIC’S CONVENT, STONE,
_May 1867_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
RISE OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS.--A.D. 60 TO 543.
PAGE
St. Mark at Alexandria. The canonical life of the clergy gives
rise to the foundation of the Episcopal schools. The school of
the Patriarchium at Rome. Decrees of early Councils regarding the
education of the clergy. Catechetical schools. The public schools
of the Empire, and their distinctive character. The Christian
method of education, as explained by St. Basil and St. Augustine.
The Monks of the desert, and the first germ of monastic schools.
The rules of St. Pachomius, St. Cæsarius, and St. Leander of
Seville. Domestic education among the early Christians. The
destruction of the Imperial schools on the fall of the Empire.
General decay of letters. Some degree of learning survives in the
ecclesiastical schools. The schools of Gaul in the fifth century.
Boëthius and Cassiodorus. The academy of Toulouse. The seminaries
of Tours and Lerins. 1