540 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
The text-books in use for centuries were still popular, such as Cassiodorus, the Isagoge of Porphyry, Aristotle on the Cate gories, and his De interpretation, Boethius on Music and the Consolations of Philosophy, Martianus Capella and the gram mars of Priscian and Donatus.1 A new movement, however, was distinctly perceptible, and nothing is more sure proof of it than the open use of the classics by some of the leading educa tors in their lectures and their use in the writings of the time.
The condemnation, passed by Jerome on the ancient classics, was adopted by Cassian and handed down to the later generations. The obscurantists had the field with little or few exceptions for centuries. It is not to Alcuin's credit that, in his latter years, he turned away from Virgil as a col lection of "lying fables " and, in a letter to a novice, advised him not to assoil his mind with that poet's rank luxuriance.2 It was argued by Leo, in his reply to Arnulf of Orleans, 991, that the Apostle Peter was not acquainted with such writers as Plato, Virgil, and Terence, or any of the pseudo-philos ophers, and God had from the beginning not chosen orators and philosophers but ignorant and rustic men as His agents.3 Peter the Venerable raised his voice against them. But such warnings4 were not sufficient to induce all men to hold themselves aloof from the fascinations of the Latin writers.
Gerbert taught Virgil, Statius, Terence, Juvenal, Persius, Horace, and Lucan.5 From these he passed on to the depart ment of philosophy. Peter Damiani compared the study of the poets and philosophers to the spoiling of the Egyptians. They served to sharpen the understanding ; the study of the writers of the Church to build a tabernacle to God. Anselm of Bee recommended the study of Virgil and other classics, counselling the exclusion of such treatises as con tained suggestions of evil.6 John of Salisbury's teachers
1 See Laurie, pp. 62 sq. ; Mullinger, pp. 63 sq., etc.
2 Quoted by Mullinger, p. 110.
3Migne, 139. 337 sq., quoted by Schmid, p. 243.
4Migne, 189. 77. For other warnings, see Wattenbach, pp. 324 sqq., and Sandys, pp. 595 sq.
5 Richer, Historice, III. 45, quoted by Schmid, p. 241. 0 Ep., I. 55, exceptis hia in quibns aliqua turpitudo sonat.
§ 88. SCHOOLS.
were zealous in reading such writings. John, who in the small compass of the Metalogicus quotes no less than seven classical poets, Statius, Martian, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Catul lus, and Persius, and some of these a number of times, says that if you search in Virgil and Lucan, you will be sure to find the essence of philosophy, no matter what philosophy you may profess.1 He complained of the old school who compared the student of the classic poets and historians to the slow-going ass, and laughed at him as duller than a stone.2 Abeelard gave to Virgil the esteem due a prophet. Peter of Blois, d. 1204, the English archdeacon, quotes Cicero, Sallust, Livy, Curtius, Tacitus, Suetonius, Seneca (Letters), and other writers. Grosseteste was familiar with Ovid, Seneca, Horace, and other classics. But the time for the full Renaissance had not yet come. In the earliest statutes of the University of Paris the classics were ex cluded from the curriculum of studies. The subtle processes of the Schoolmen, although they did not altogether ignore the classic compositions, could construct the great theological systems without their aid, though they drew largely and confidently upon Aristotle.
The Discipline of the schools was severe. A good flog ging was considered a wholesome means of educational ad vancement. It drove out the evil spirits of intellectual dulness and heaviness. Degere sub virga, to pass under the rod, was another expression for getting an education. At a later date, the ceremony of inducting a schoolmaster included the presentation of a rod and required him, at least in England, to show his prowess by flogging a boy publicly.3 If the case of Guibert of Nogent was a typical one, then the
1 Migne, 199. 854. The quotations from the poets in the Poly cr aliens are even more numerous. John also quoted the historians Sallust, Suetonius, Valerius Maximus, etc., but does nothing more than to refer by name to Livy, Csesar, and Tacitus. See Sandys, 521.
2 Metal., I. 3 ; Migne* 199. 830. See Sandys, pp. 504 sqq., for Latin quota tions from 1100 on.
3 "Then shall the Bedell purvay for every master in Gramer a shrewde boy whom the master in Gramer shall bete openlye in the Scolys," etc. Mul- Jinger, Univ. of Cambridge, I, 345.