THE DARK AGES 153 



the labors of Hercules or of Socrates?" Books came to be scarce. . . . 

 But the decline of education was not universal. If studies failed in 

 Gaul or Italy, they flourished in Ireland and afterward in Britain, and 

 returned later from these outer borders to the old central lands of the 

 Empire. Further, in spite of depression and discouragement, there 

 was a continuity of learning even in the darkest ages and countries. 

 Certain school books hold their ground . . . Capella . . . Boethius . . . 

 Cassiodorus . . . And later Isodorus of Seville with a number of other 

 authors are found in the ages of distress and anarchy more or less 

 calmly giving their lectures and preserving the standards of a liberal 

 education. Much of this work was humble enough, but it was of 

 great importance for the times that came after. . . . The darkest 

 ages, with all their negligence, kept alive the life of the ancient 

 world. 



Boethius [in the sixth century A.D., see p. 148] is the interpreter 

 of the ancient world and its wisdom, accepted by all the tribes of 

 Europe from one age to another, and never disqualified in his office 

 of teacher even by the most subtle and elaborate theories of the later 

 schools. . . . Cassiodorus (490-585) is wanting in the graces of 

 Boethius, and he is much sooner forgotten ; but his enormous industry, 

 his organization of literary production, his educational zeal have all 

 left their effects indelibly in modern civilization. By his definition of 

 the seven Liberal Arts, and by his examples of methods in teaching 

 them, he is the spiritual author of the universities, the patron of all 

 the available learning in the world. Ker, Dark Ages. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SCHOOLS BY CHARLEMAGNE. We 

 have seen above how the schools of Athens were closed by 

 Justinian in 529. Such schools as existed after that time were 

 chiefly ecclesiastical and their teachings opposed to pagan or 

 heathen (i.e. Greek) learning. At length, however, in 787 

 Charlemagne, moved it is said by the troublesome variety of 

 writing as well as the general illiteracy of his people, ordered the 

 establishment of schools in connection with every abbey of his 

 realm, and summoned to take charge of them Peter of Pisa and 

 Alcuin of York (735-804) (called by Guizot "the intellectual 

 prime minister of Charlemagne"), whose names stand among the 

 highest in a revival of learning thus begun in western Europe. 



