EXTINCTION OF LEARNING 



crowds of the young ecclesiastics thronged to them 

 eager to learn, so that the schools in such communi- 

 ties became flourishing. In other places illiterate 

 and indolent bishops violently opposed them; de- 

 clared themselves the enemies of all learning, saying 

 that it was a sin even to read the Scriptures ; they 

 scorned as meddling mischief-makers those who spent 

 their time meditating over the law of God. They 

 were not enough in numbers, however, to stop the 

 progress of the schools. In vain they groaned, de- 

 claimed and threatened. The people in every town 

 solicited a school ; when the request was refused, they 

 complained to the Bishop of bishops the Pope 

 Eugene II. (824-827), who ordered that in all the 

 dioceses, dependent towns, and wherever it might be 

 needed, masters should be appointed to teach belles- 

 lettres and the liberal arts. " Thus was revoked the 

 labor and instructions of St. Gregory, and the door 

 was opened in the church for teaching to the youth 

 among the Gauls the writings of the ancient philoso- 

 phers, who were well named the Patriarchs of the 

 Heretics. Then, after some centuries of arduous 

 work by the poor clerks in restoring to available 

 shape the literature of the past ; after the schools had 

 grown beyond the study of grammar and rhetoric 

 into the higher study that we now call philosophy, the 

 church, condemning the work of its own hands, 



ii 



