242 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



685. 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 mani 

 festly 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 Chris 

 tianity 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. 



&quot;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 excep 

 tions, upon religious subjects. &quot; 



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

 the 9th and 10th centuries (of whom only four were lay 

 men), were doubtless 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 Kolandslied and Alexander slied, written in the 

 12th century by the priests Konrad and Lamprecht. 



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

 country. Chronicles and histories &quot; were mostly compiled 

 in the monasteries.&quot; Taking the illustrations in order, we 

 come first to Bede, who was monk and historian; Cyiie- 

 wulf , abbot and writer of history ; Gildas, monk and chroni 

 cler; Asser, bishop and biographer. The Anglo-Saxon 

 chronicle was a year-book of events recorded by monks from 

 the 9th to the 12th century. After the Conquest the chief 

 authors were still ecclesiastics, and their works were usually 

 chronicles or lives of saints. Among them were Marianus 



