610 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
cil of Constantinople (869) into Latin by order of Pope Ha drian II.1
Isidore of Seville (d. 636) mentions a learned Spanish bishop, John of Gerona, who in his youth had studied seven years in Constantinople. He himself quotes in his "Etymologies" from many Greek authors, and is described as " learned in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew."
Ireland was for a long time in advance of England, and sent learned missionaries to the sister island as well as to the Conti nent. That Greek was not unknown there, is evident from Scotus Erigena.
England derived her knowledge of Greek from Archbishop Theodore, who was a native of Tarsus, educated in Athens and appointed by the pope to the see of Canterbury (A. D. 668 ).2 He and his companion Hadrian,3 an Italian abbot of African descent, spread Greek learning among the clergy. Bede says that some of their disciples were living in his day who were as well versed in Greek and Latin as in their native Saxon. Among these must be mentioned Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, and Tobias, bishop of Rochester (d. 726).4 The Venerable Bede (d. 735) gives evidence of Greek knowledge in his commentaries,5 his references to a Greek Codex of the Acts of the Apostles, and especially in his book on the Art of Poetry.6
In France, Greek began to be studied under Charles the Great. Alcuin (d. 804) brought some knowledge of it from
1 See Hefele, IV. 385 sq. •
2 Bede (Hist. Ecd. IV. 1) calls him "vir et sceculari et divina literatura et Greece instructus et Latine" Pope Zachary speaks of Theodore as " Aihenis eruditus" and " GriKco-Latinus philosophw."
3 William of Malmesbury calls this Hadrian "a fountain of letters and a river of arts."
4 L. c. IV. c. 2, and V. 8, 23.
6 He quotes e. g. In Luc. 6 : 2 the Greek, for Sabbatum secundum primum (tievTepdTTpurov}. Opera, ed. Migne, III. 392.
8 De Arte Metrica, Opera, 1. 150-176. He explains here the different metres of Greek poetry.
2 139. EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS OF THE CHURCH. 611
his native England, but his references may all have been de rived from Jerome and Cassiodorus.1 Paul us Diaconus fre quently uses Greek words. Charlemagne himself learned Greek, and the Libri Cardlini show a familiarity with the details of the image-controversy of the Greek Church. His sister Giesela, who was abbess of Challes near Paris, uses a few Greek words in Latin letters,2 in her correspondence with Alcuin, though these may have been derived from the Latin.
The greatest Greek scholar of the ninth century, and of the whole period in the West was John Scotus Erigena (850), who was of Irish birth and education, but lived in France at the court of Charles the Bald. He displays his knowledge in his Latin books, translated the pseudo-Dionysian writings, and at tempted original Greek composition.
In Germany, Rabanus Maurus, Haymo of Halberstadt, and Walafrid Strabo had some knowledge of Greek, but not sufficient to be of any material use in the interpretation of the Scriptures.
THE COURSE OF STUDY.3
Education was carried on in the cathedral and conventual schools, and these prepared the way for the Universities which began to be founded in the twelfth century.
The course of secular learning embraced the so-called seven liberal arts, namely, grammar, dialectics (logic), rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. The first three consti tuted the Triviunij the other four the Quadrivium.4 Seven, three, and four were all regarded as sacred numbers. The
1 Lumby (/. c., p. 15) mentions his allusions to Eusebius, Athanasius, and Chrysostom, and a few familiar words, as CTr/ff/coTroc, TrapaftdTiff, and dv$pw7rof.
2 As paradeigma, gazophylacia, paraditus.
3 Com p. besides the lit. already quoted on p. 584, the following: HEPPE: Das Schulwesen des Mittdalters. Marburg, I860. KAMMEI,: MittehlterHches Schulwesen, in Schmid's " Encykl. des gesammten Erziehungs und Unter richswesens." Gotha. Bd. IV. (1865), p. 766-826.
4 The division is expressed in the memorial lines:
" Grammatica loquitur, Dialfctica verba docet, Rhetorica verba colorat; Musica canit, Arithmetica numeral, Gcometria ponderat, Astronomia colit astro,"