Table of Contents
Boundaries and Devolution of the Empire of Germany during the Carlovingian Dynasty.
800–911.
The Ocean on the north, the Danube on the south, the Rhine on the west, and the Sarmatian Provinces on the east, are the boundaries assigned by Tacitus to Antient Germany. It formed the most extensive portion of the territories of Charlemagne; descended, at his decease, to his son, Lewis the Debonnaire; and, on the partition between his three sons, was allotted to Lewis, his second son.
All the territories of Charlemagne were united in Charles the Fat; he was deposed by his subjects, and his empire divided. Germany was assigned to his third son, Charles the Brave. On his decease, it was possessed by Arnold, a natural son of Carloman, the elder brother of Charles: from him it descended to Hedwiges, the wife of Otho, Duke of Saxony, and she transmitted it to their son Henry the Fowler, the first emperor of that house.
800–911.
From the skirts of Germany and France two new kingdoms arose: the kingdom of Lorraine, which comprised the countries between the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheld; or the modern Lorraine, the province of Alsace, the Palatinate, Treves, Cologne, Juliers, Liêge and the Netherlands;—and the kingdom of Burgundy: This was divided into the Cis-juranan, or the part of it on the east, and the Trans-juranan, or the part of it on the west of Mount Jura. The former comprised Provençe, Dauphiné, the Lyonese, Franche-comté, Bresse, Bugey, and a part of Savoy; the latter comprised the countries between Mount Jura and the Pennine Alps, or the part of Switzerland between the Reus, the Valais, and the rest of Savoy.
Such was the geographical state of Germany at the close of the Carlovingian Dynasty.
State of Literature in the time of Charlemagne.
So far as Literature depends upon the favour of the monarch, no æra in history promised more than the reign of Charlemagne. His education had been neglected; but he had real taste for learning and the arts, was sensible of their beneficial influence both upon the public and the private welfare of a people; and possessed the amplest means of encouraging and diffusing them; his wisdom would suggest to him the properest means of doing it, and the energy of his mind would excite him to constant exertions.
I. 2. State of Literature in the time of Charlemagne.
Nothing that could be effected by a prince thus gifted and disposed, was left untried by Charlemagne. He drew to him the celebrated Alcuin, Peter of Pisa, Paul Warnefrid, and many other distinguished literary characters: he heaped favours upon them; and a marked distinction was always shewn them at his court. He formed them into a literary society, which had frequent meetings. Their conversation was literary, he often bore a part in it; and, what was at least equally gratifying, he always listened with a polite and flattering attention while others spoke. To establish perfect equality among them, the monarch, and, after his example, the other members of this society, dropt their own and adopted other names. Angelbert was called Homer, from his partiality to that poet; Riculphus, archbishop of Mentz, chose the name of Damétas, from an eclogue of Virgil: another member took that of Candidus; Eginhard, the Emperor's biographer, was called Calliopus, from the Muse Calliope; Alcuin received, from his country, the name of Albinus; the archbishop Theodulfe was called Pindar; the abbot Adelard was called Augustine; Charlemagne, as the man of God's own heart, was called David.
800–911
The Emperor corresponded with men of learning, on subjects of literature; they generally related to religion. In one of his letters, he requires of Alcuin an explanation of the words Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima, which denote the Sundays which immediately precede, and the word Quadragesima, which denotes the first Sunday which occurs in Lent. The denominations of those Sundays give rise to two difficulties; one, that they seem to imply that each week consists of ten, not of seven days; the other, that the words sound as if Septuagesima were the seventieth, when it is only the sixty-third day before Easter Sunday; Sexagesima, as if it were the sixtieth, when it is only the fifty-sixth; Quinquagesima, as if it were the fiftieth, when it is the forty-ninth; Quadragesima, as if it were the fortieth, when it is the forty-second. Alcuin's answer is more subtle than satisfactory.
At the meals of Charlemagne some person always read to him. His example was followed by many of his successors, particularly by Francis I. of France, who, in an happier era for learning, imitated with happier effects, the example of the Emperor.
I. 2. State of Literature in the time of Charlemagne.
Alcuin was general director of all the literary schemes of Charlemagne. He was an Englishman by birth; skilled both in the Greek and Latin language, and in many branches of philosophy. Having taught, with great reputation and success, in his own country, he travelled to Rome. In 780, Charlemagne attracted him to his court.
There, Alcuin gave lectures, and published several treatises. In these, he began with Orthography; then proceeded to Grammar; afterwards to Rhetoric, and Dialectic. He composed his treatises in the form of dialogues; and, as Charlemagne frequently attended them, Alcuin made him one of his interlocutors. Few scholars of Alcuin were more attentive than his imperial pupil; he had learned grammar from Peter of Pisa; he was instructed in rhetoric, dialectic, and astronomy by Alcuin. He also engaged in the study of divinity; and had the good sense to stop short of those subtleties, in which Justinian, Heraclius, and other princes, unfortunately both for themselves and their subjects, bewildered themselves. Letters from Giséla and Richtrudis, the daughters of Charlemagne, to Alcuin, shew that they partook of their father's literary zeal: his favourite study was astronomy.
800–911.
The number of persons in his court, who addicted themselves to pursuits of literature, was so great, and their application so regular, that their meetings acquired the appellation of "The School of Charlemagne." Their library was at Aix-la-Chapelle, the favourite residence of the monarch: but they accompanied him in many of his journies. Antiquarians have tracked them at Paris, Thionville, Wormes, Ratisbon, Wurtzburgh, Mentz, and Frankfort.
Charlemagne established schools in every part of his dominions. In 787, he addressed a circular letter to all the metropolitan prelates of his dominions, to be communicated by them to their suffragan bishops, and to the abbots within their provinces. He exhorted them to erect schools in every cathedral and monastery. Schools were accordingly established throughout his vast dominions: they were divided into two classes; arithmetic, grammar, and music were taught in the lower, the liberal arts and theology in the higher.
1. 2. State of Literature in the time of Charlemagne.
In France, the abbeys of Corbie, Fontenelles, Ferrieres, St. Denis, St. Germain of Paris, St. Germain of Auxerre, and St. Benedict on the Loire;—in Germany, the abbeys of Proom, Fulda, and of St. Gall;—in Italy, the abbey of Mount Casino, were celebrated for the excellence of their schools. One, for the express purpose of teaching the Greek language, was founded by Charlemagne at Osnabruck. All were equally open to the children of the nobility and the children of peasants; all received the same treatment. It happened that, on a public examination of the children, the peasant boys were found to have made greater progress than the noble. The Emperor remarked it to the latter, and declared with an oath, that "the bishopricks and abbeys should be given to the diligent poor." "You rely," he
