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Bernardo Gallegos
Page 01 - Part A
As was stated in the preceding chapter, the
lamp of learning burned low throughout the most of western Europe during
the period of assimilation and partial civilization of the barbarian
tribes. The western portion of the Roman Empire had been overrun, and rude
Germanic chieftains were establishing, by the law of might, new kingdoms
on the ruins of the old. The Germanic tribes had no intellectual life of
their own to contribute, and no intellectual tastes to be ministered unto.
With the destruction of cities and towns and country villas, with their
artistic and literary collections, much that represented the old culture
was obliterated, [2] and books became more and more scarce. [3] The
destruction was gradual, but by the beginning of the seventh century the
loss had become great. The Roman schools also gradually died out as the
need for an education which prepared for government and gave a knowledge
of Roman law passed away, and the type of education approved by the Church
was left in complete control of the field. As the security and leisure
needed for study disappeared, and as the only use for learning was now in
the service of the Church, education became limited to the narrow lines
which offered such preparation and to the few who needed it. Amid the
ruins of the ancient civilization the Church stood as the only
conservative and regenerative force, and naturally what learning remained
passed into its hands and under its control.
The result of all these influences and happenings was that by the
beginning of the seventh century Christian Europe had reached a very low
intellectual level, and during the seventh and eighth centuries conditions
grew worse instead of better. Only in England and Ireland, as will be
pointed out a little later, and in a few Italian cities, was there
anything of consequence of the old Roman learning preserved. On the
Continent there was little general learning, even among the clergy (R. 64
a). Many of the priests were woefully ignorant, [4] and the Latin writings
of the time contain many inaccuracies and corruptions which reveal the low
standard of learning even among the better educated of the clerical class.
The Church itself was seriously affected by the prevailing ignorance of
the period, and incorporated into its system of government and worship
many barbarous customs and practices of which it was a long time in
ridding itself. So great had become the ignorance and superstition of the
time, among priests, monks, and the people; so much had religion taken on
the worship of saints and relics and shrines; and so much had the Church
developed the sensuous and symbolic, that religion had in reality become a
crude polytheism instead of the simple monotheistic faith of the early
Church. Along scientific lines especially the loss was very great.
Scientific ideas as to natural phenomena disappeared, and crude and
childish ideas as to natural forces came to prevail. As if barbarian
chiefs and robber bands were not enough, popular imagination peopled the
world with demons, goblins, and dragons, and all sorts of superstitions
and supernatural happenings were recorded. Intercommunication largely
ceased; trade and commerce died out; the accumulated wealth of the past
was destroyed; and the old knowledge of the known world became badly
distorted, as is evidenced by the many crude mediaeval maps. (See Figure
46.) The only scholarship of the time, if such it might be called, was the
little needed by the Church to provide for and maintain its government and
worship. Almost everything that we to-day mean by civilization in that age
was found within the protecting walls of monastery or church, and these
institutions were at first too busy building up the foundations upon which
a future culture might rest to spend much time in preserving learning,
much less in advancing it.
Source: THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION, by ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY
[ Part A ]
[ Part B ]
[ Part C ]
[ Part D ]
[ Part E ]
[ Part F ]
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