PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 599 



If, as is alleged, Romulus was regarded by the Romans as one 

 of their great gods, honored by a temple and a sacrificing priest, 

 it seems inferable that the story of his deeds which, mythical as 

 it may have chiefly been had probably some nucleus of fact, was 

 from time to time repeated in the laudations of his priest ; and 

 that the speech or hymn uttered by his priest at festivals, had, 

 like the kindred ones which Greek priests uttered, a biographico- 

 historical character. 



Though but indirectly relevant to the immediate issue, it is 

 worth while adding that the earliest Roman historian, Ennius, 

 was also an epic poet " the Homer of Latium," as he called him- 

 self. The versified character of early history exemplified in his 

 writings, as also we shall presently see in later writings, is, of 

 course, congruous with that still earlier union of the two, which 

 was seen in the laudatory narratives of the primitive priest-poet. 



Of evidences furnished by Northern Europe, we meet first with 

 those coming from the pre-Christian world. Though the stories 

 of the Teutonic epic, The Nibelungen, were gathered together in 

 Christian times, yet they manifestly belonged to pagan times ; and 

 we may fairly assume were originally recited, as among other 

 European peoples, by attendants of the great courtiers while 

 these lived, priest-poets after they died. But for a long time after 

 Christianity had been victorious, the Christian narrative alone, in 

 which, as in other primitive narratives, biography and history are 

 united, furnished the only subject-matter for literature, and priests 

 were its vehicles. 



" From the fourth to the eighth century, there is no longer any profane 

 literature ; sacred literature stands alone ; priests only study or write ; and 

 they only study, they only write, save some rare exceptions, upon religious 

 subjects." 



So, also, the 57 authors named by Guizot as belonging to the 9th 

 and 10th centuries (of whom only five were laymen), were doubt- 

 less similarly occupied. 



Nevertheless, while the ordinary biographico-historical matter 

 which priests devoted themselves to was that which their creed 

 presented or suggested, there appear to have been, after the 8th 

 century, some cases in which such matter furnished by other than 

 Christian traditions, occupied them ; as in the Rolandslied and 

 Alexander sited, written in the 12th century by the monks Konrad 

 and Lamprecht. 



For the rest it will suffice if we take the case of our own coun- 

 try. Chronicles and histories " were mostly compiled in the mon- 

 asteries." Taking the illustrations in order, we come first to Bede, 

 who was monk and historian ; Cynewulf, bishop or abbot and 

 writer of sacred history ; Gildas, monk and chronicler ; Asser, 



