612 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
division is derived from St. Augustin,1 and was adopted by Boethius and Cassiodorus. The first and most popular compend of the middle ages was the book of Cassiodorus, De Septem Distiplinis?
These studies were preparatory to sacred learning, which was based upon the Latin Bible and the Latin fathers.
THE CHIEF THEOLOGIANS.
A few divines embraced all the secular and religious know ledge of their age. In Spain, ISIDORE OF SEVILLE (d. 636) was the most learned man at the end of the sixth and the begin ning of the seventh century. His twenty books of " Origins" or " Etymologies'7 embrace the entire contents of the seven liberal arts, together with theology, jurisprudence, medicine, natural history, etc., and show familiarity with Plato, Aristotle, Boethius, Demosthenes, Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Anacreon, Herodotus, Cicero, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Terence, Juvenal, Caesar, Livy, Sallust.3 The VENERABLE BEDE occupied the same height of encyclopaedic knowledge a century later. ALCUIN was the leading divine of the Carol ingian age. From his school proceeded RABANUS MAURUS, the founder of learning and higher education in Germany.4 SCOTUS ERIGENA (d. about 877) was a marvel not only of learning, but also of independent thought, in the reign of Charles the Bald, and showed, by prophetic anticipation, the latent capacity of the Western church for speculative theology.5 With Berengar and
1 De Ordine, II., c. 12 sqq., in Migne's ed. of Augustin, Tom. I. 1011 sqq. Augustin connects poetica with musica.
2 Or, De Artibus ac Disciplinis Lib&ralium Literarum, in Migne's ed. of Caspiodori Opera, II. 1150-1218. It is exceedingly meagre if judged by the stan dard of modern learning, but very useful for the middle ages.
3 "However we may be disposed to treat the labors of Isidore with something of contempt, it is probably not possible to overrate the value and usefulness of this treatise to the age in which he lived, and indeed for many ages it was the most available handbook to which the world had access." Smith & Wace III. 308. Comp. below \ 155.
* See below § 169. 6 Comp. gg 123 and 175.
I 139. EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS OF THE CHURCH. 613
Lanfranc, iu the middle of the eleventh century, dialectical skill was applied in opposing and defending the dogma of transubstantiation.1 The doctrinal controversies about adoptionism, predestination, and the real presence stimulated the study of the Scriptures and of the fathers, and kept alive the intel lectual activity.
BIBLICAL STUDIES.
The literature of the Latin church embraced penitential books, homilies, annals, translations, compilations, polemic dis cussions, and commentaries. The last are the most impor tant, but fall far below the achievements of the fathers and reformers.
Exegesis was cultivated in an exclusively practical and homiletical spirit and aim by Gregory the Great, Isidore, Bede, Alcuin, Claudius of Turin, Paschasius Radbertus, llabanus Maurus, Haymo, Walafrid Strabo, and others. The Latin Vulgate was the text, and the Greek or Hebrew seldom referred to. Augustin and Jerome were the chief sources. Charlemagne felt the need of a revision of the corrupt text of the Vulgate, and entrusted Alcuin with the task. The theory of a verbal inspiration was generally accepted, and opposed only by Agobard of Lyons who confined inspiration to the sense and the arguments, but not to the "ipaa corporalia verba."
The favorite mode of interpretation was the spiritual, that is, allegorical and mystical. The literal, that is, grammaticohistorical exegesis was neglected. The spiritual interpretation was again divided into three ramifications : the allegorical proper, the moral, and the analogical,2 corresponding to the three cardinal virtues of the Christian : the first refers to faith (crcdcnda), the second to practice or charity (agenda), the third to hope (spcranda, desideranda). Thus Jerusalem means lite-
1 See \\ 128-130.
1 From avcryw}'/«(5f, exalting, lifting up; avnywy^, a leading up, is used in ecclesiastical Greek for higher, spiritual interpretation.
614 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
rally or historically, the city in Palestine; allegorically, the church ; morally, the believing soul ; anagogically, the heavenly Jerusalem. The fourfold sense was expressed in the memorial verse :
" Liter a GESTA docet; quid CREDAS, Allegoria; Moralis, quid AGAS; quo TEND AS, Anagogia."
NOTES.
ST. EUCHERIUS, bishop of Lyons, who was first (like Cyprian, and Ambrose) a distinguished layman, and father of four children, before he became a monk, and then a bishop, wrote in the middle of the fifth cen tury (he died c. 450) a brief manual of mediaeval hermeneutics under the title Liber Formularum Spiritalis Intelligentice (Rom., 1564, etc., in Migne's " Patrol." Tom. 50, col. 727-772). This work is often quoted by Bede and is sometimes erroneously ascribed to him. Eucherius shows an extensive knowledge of the Bible and a devout spirit. He anticipates many favorite interpretations of mediaeval commentators and mystics. He vindicates the allegorical method from the Scripture itself, and from its use of anthropomorphic and anthropopathic expressions which can not be understood literally. Yet he allows the literal sense its proper place in history as well as the moral and mystical. He identifies the Finger of God (Digitus Dei) with the Spirit of God (cap. 2; comp. Luke 11 : 20 with Matt. 12 : 28), and explains the several meanings of Jerusalem (ecclesia, vel anima, cap. 10), ark (caro Dominica, corda sanctorum Deo plena, ecclesia intra quam salvanda clauduntur), Babylon (inundus, Roma, inimici),fures (hceretid et pseudoprophetce, gentes, vitia), chirographum, pactum, prceputium, circumcisio, etc. In the last chapter he treats of the sym bolical significance of numbers, as l=Divine Unity ; 2=the two cove nants, the two chief commandments ; 3=the trinity in heaven and on earth (he quotes the spurious passage 1 John 5:7); 4=the four Gospels, the four rivers of Paradise ; 5=the five books of Moses, five loaves, five wounds of Chnist (John 20 : 25) ; 6=the days of creation, the ages of the world ; 7=the day of rest, of perfection ; 8=the day of resurrection ; 10=the Decalogue ; 12=the Apostles, the universal multitude of be lievers, etc.
The theory of the fourfold interpretation was more fully developed by RABANUS MAURUS (776-856), in his curious book, Allegories in Universam Sacram Scripturam ( Opera, ed. Migne, Tom. VI. col. 849-1088). He calls the four senses the four daughters of wisdom, by whom she nourishes her children, giving to beginners drink in lade historic, to the believers food in pane allegoricc, to those engaged in good works encouragement in refectione tropologies, to those longing for heavenly rest delight in vino