286 F. M. Warren, 



of years, under Gauzlin, not under Abbo.i And much earlier than 

 Andre's record, back in the previous centur}', before the death of 

 Louis, king of France (f 987), and therefore about the time of Ger- 

 bert's first letter to his absent pupil, a former fellow-student at 

 Rheims had addressed some verses to Constantine. In obscure 

 phrases the unknown poetaster expresses his sorrow over his old com- 

 rade's change of residence, and then proceeds to praise the poetry 

 he used to write, in excellence rivalling the lines of Sophocles. ^ 



Piecing out the hints afforded by this effusion with the statements 

 made by Andre of Fleury, we can construct an outline of Constantine's 

 youth. He had been nurtured by the monks at Fleury, had won J 

 their admiration as a student of promise, had been sent by them ' 

 to Gerbert's school, then at the height of its prosperity, had there 

 attained proficiency in music, one of the Seven Arts for which 

 Gerbert was famous, had composed verse of considerable merit, and 

 had returned to Fleury by the end of 986. He was now twenty- 

 five or thirty years old, assuming that Gerbert's words of commen- 

 dation indicate a man of some maturity. 



But what of Constantine's surroundings at Fleur}' ? Gerbert's first 

 letter, an answer to one received from Constantine, more than 

 intimates that there was dissension in the abbey. The scolasticits 

 was evidentl}^ in open revolt against his superior, Abbot Oilbodus, 

 whom Gerbert does not call by name but whom he stigmatizes as 

 " pervasor." The date of this epithet is July or August, 986, ac- 

 cording to Havet,3 who is undoubtedly correct in his surmise. For 



' His etenim diebus, historia patris Benedicti adventus, quam Coiistan- 

 tinus, illius loci iiiiti'itius, atque abbatiae Miciacensis honore ab Ai'iiulfo, 

 Aurelianensium presule donatus, niusicae artis dictaverat pneumatibus, 

 suasu Helgaudi precentoris, permissuque Gauzlini abbatis, Floriacensi loco 

 primo insonuit. — See Vita Gmtzlini in N^eues Archw^ vol. iii, p. 352. — The 

 precentor Helgaud lias come down to posteritj' as the biographer of 

 Hobert the Pious. Constantine may have written the poem as well as 

 composed the music. But it should be said that his contemporary at 

 Fleury, Aimoin, author of a life of Abbot Abbo (988-1004), closes another 

 work, the Historia Francomm^ with a poem in hexameters on the trans- 

 lation to France of St. Benedict's remains. See Migne, Patrologia Latifia, 

 vol. 139, col. 797-802. 



2 Eia cara chelis, protelans vocibus aptis, 



Carmina pange viro morum probitate colendo, 

 Solo Soffocleo quae sint condigna coturno. 

 Neues Archiv^ vol. ii, pp. 222—227. Lines 62—64 contain the quotation, 

 a plagiarism from Virgil. 



» Letter 86. 



