IGNORANCE OF THE DARK AGES. 



165 



morality among society at large, it would fit derive their origin, it would introduce a general 

 the inferior ranks of the community for taking a spirit of philanthropy, and give efficacy to the 

 part in the elective franchise and government of means employed for promoting the knowledge of 

 their country, and the higher ranks for promoting Christianity throughout the world, and would, ere 

 the enactment of laws congenial to the spirit of long, usher in the period foretold in ancient pro- 

 true religion, and promotive of the best interests of phecy, when &quot; the knowledge of Jehovah shall 

 the nation, it would tend to secure the peace and cover the earth, as the waters cover the channels 

 tranquillity of nations by undermining the ma- of the deep,&quot; and &quot; when righteousness and praise 

 lignant passions from which wars and contentions shall spring forth before all nations.&quot; 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. Ignorance of the Dark Ages. Page 12- 



THE following facts, chiefly extracted from Dr. 

 Robertson s history of Charles V.,will show the 

 low state of literature, and the deplorable igno 

 rance which characterized the period to which 

 the text refers. In the ninth century, Herbaud 

 Comes Palatii, though supreme judge of the em 

 pire, by virtue of his office, could not subscribe 

 his name. As late as the fourteenth century, 

 Du Guesclin, constable of France, the greatest 

 man in the state, could neither read nor write. 

 Nor was this ignorance confined to laymen, the 

 greater part even of the clergy were not many 

 degrees superior to them in science. Many dig 

 nified ecclesiastics could not subscribe the ca 

 nons of those councils of which they sat as 

 members. One of the questions appointed by 

 the canons to be put to persons who were candi 

 dates for holy orders was this &quot; Whether they 

 could read the Gospels and Epistles, and explain 

 the tenor of them, at least literally?&quot; Alfred the 

 Great complained, that from the Humber to the 

 Thames, there was not a priest who understood 

 the liturgy in his moiher tongue, or who could 

 translate the easiest piece of Latin ; and that 

 from the Thames tu the sea, the ecclesiastics 

 were still more ignorant. The ignorance of the 

 clergy is quaintly described by Alanus, an author 

 of the dark a&amp;lt;jes, in the following words: &quot; Po- 

 tius dediti gulas quam glossae ; potius colli^unt 

 libras quam legunt libros ; libentius in/.uentur 

 Marihamquaai Marcum ; malunt legere in Sal- 

 mone quam in Solomone,&quot; i. e. They gave them 

 selves more willingly to the pleasures of gluttony 

 than to the learning of languages ; they chose 

 rather to collect money than to read books ; they 

 looked upon Martha w\\h a more affectionate eye 

 than upon Mark, and they found more delight &quot;in 

 reading in Salmon than in Solomon. 



One of the causes of the universal ignorance 

 which prevailed during that period, was the scar 

 city of hooks, alon&amp;lt;j with their exorbitant price, 

 and the difficulty of rendering them more com 

 mon. The Romans wrote their books either on 



parchment, or on paper made of the Egyptian pa 

 pyrus. The latter being the cheapest, was, of 

 course, the most commonly used. But after the 

 communication between Europe and Egypt was 

 broken off, on account of the latter having been 

 seized upon by the Saracens, the papyrus was no 

 longer in use in Italy and other European coun 

 tries. They were obliged, on that account, to 

 write all their books upon parchment, and as its 

 price was high, books became extremely rare, and 

 of great value. We may judge of the scarcity of 

 the materials for writing them from one circum 

 stance. There still remain several manuscripts 

 of the eighth, ninth, and following centuries, writ 

 ten on parchment, from which some former writ 

 ing had been erased, in order to substitute anew 

 composition in its place. In this manner, it is 

 probable, several works of the ancients perish 

 ed. A book of Livy, or of Tacitus might be 

 erased, to make room for the legendary tale of a 

 saint, or the superstitious prayers of a missal. 

 Mapy circumstances prove the scarcity of books 

 during these ages. Private persons seldom pos 

 sessed any books whatever. Even monasteries of 

 considerable note had only one missal. Lupus, ab 

 bot of Ferriers, in a letter to the Pope, A. D. 855, 

 beseech eshim to send him a copy of Cicero De 

 Oratore, and Q,uintilian s &quot; Institutions,&quot;&quot; for,&quot; 

 says he, &quot; although we have part of those books, 

 there is no complete copy of them in all France.&quot; 

 The price of books became so high, that persons 

 of a moderate fortune could not afford ;o purchase 

 them. The Countess of Anjou paid for a copy 

 of the Homil ies of Haimon, bishop of Alberstadt, 

 two hundred sheep, five quarters of wheat, and 

 the same quantity of rye and millet. Even so 

 /ate as the year 1471, when Louis XI. borrowed 

 the works of Racis, the Arabian physician, from 

 the faculty of medicine in Paris, he not only de 

 posited in pledge a considerable quantity of plate, 

 but was obliged to procure a nobleman to join 

 with him as surety in a deed, binding himself un. 

 der a great forfeiture to restore it. When any 

 person made a present of a book to a church or 

 monastery, in which were the only libraries dur- 



