Hexham', the latter of which is said by the biographer of Wilfred to have been superior to anything north of the Alps, display to us the progress made by the love of art among the clergy, even at so great a distance from Rome, whence were derived many of the outward ceremonies as well as the doctrines of religion2. Again, the historian sponse, in conspectu populorum corde credentium et fide confitentium, auro et argento purpuraque varia mirifice decoravit: nam in Hrypis basilicam polito lapide a fundamentis in terra usque ad summum ædificatam variis columnis et porticibus suffultam in altum erexit et consummavit. Quatuor Evangelia de auro purissimo in membranis depurpuratis coloratis pro animæ suæ remedio scribere jussit; necnon et bibliothecam librorum eorum omnem de auro purissimo et gemmis pretiosissimis fabrefactam compaginare inclusores gemmarum præcepit." Eddi Vit. Wilf. 17.

1 66

Cujus profunditatem in terra cum domibus mirifice politis lapidibus fundatam, et super terram multiplicem domum, columnis variis et porticibus multis suffultam, mirabilique longitudine et altitudine murorum ornatam, et variis linearum anfractibus viarum aliquando sursum aliquando deorsum per cochleas circumductam, --non est meæ parvitatis hoc sermone explicare quod sanctus ipse Præsul animarum a spiritu Dei doctus opere facere excogitavit: neque ullam domum aliam citra Alpes montes talem ædificatam audivimus. Porro beatæ memoriæ adhuc vivens gratia Domini Acca Episcopus, qui magnalia ornamenta hujus multiplicis domus de auro et argento lapidibusque pretiosis; et quomodo altaria purpura et serico induta decoravit quis ad explanandum sufficere poterat ?" Eddi, Vit. Wilf. 22. Compare Bede, H. E. v. 20.

2 In 710, Naiton king of the Picts, wrting to Ceolfrid abbot of Wearmouth, "architectos sibi mitti petiit, qui juxta morem Romanorum ecclesiam de lapide in gente ipsius facerent, promittens hanc in honorem beati Apostolorum principis dedicandam; se quoque ipsum cum suis omnibus morem sanctæ Romanæ et apostolicæ ecclesiæ semper imitaturum, in quantum duntaxat tam

of the Benedictine order has given an elaborate description of the great abbey of Jumiéges on the Seine, founded by Filibert in the year 615; from which we may conclude that the architectural display of the exterior and the lavish magnificence of the interior were scarcely surpassed by the astonishing erections of a later date. It was natural that architecture, the most practical of the arts, should first rise to eminence in a rude society, and that the monks, accustomed as they were to occupy edifices of surpassing size and magnificence, should have been the designers of so many ornaments of a succeeding age. But it was hardly to have been anticipated that painting was to owe its revival to the spirit of mediæval asceticism. Yet that such was the case is attested beyond a doubt to us by the purely religious subjects of the earliest works preserved to our own day; and if we look back farther still, we shall find the origin of the art in the clumsy but characteristic devices with which the early monks decorated the Bible and the missal. The third art which naturally associated itself with the monastic life was that of music, which had indeed at all times and in all countries been looked upon as an almost necessary part of a clerical education. We have seen it obtaining for one of its zealous patrons the praise of Sidonius Apollinaris in a preceding century', and it reached in consequence of the spread of religious houses

longe a Romanorum loquela et natione segregati hunc ediscere potuissent." Bede, H. E. v. 21.

1 See p. 73.

a far greater perfection in the age now before us1. Notker, a monk of St Gallen, and a distinguished theological writer under Louis le Débonnaire *, is said to have made himself remarkable among his contemporaries by his proficiency in sacred music, and to have composed a scientific treatise on the subject 2. And we may believe that he was not

1

In England we hear of James the deacon at York (Bede, H. E. ii. 20), Eddi Stephen at York (iv. 2; see also Eddi Stephani Vit. Wilfridi, c. 14, where he is associated with Æona), Putta at Rochester (ibid.), John, abbot of St Martin's, at Bishopwearmouth (iv. 18), and Acca and Maban at Hexham (v. 20), as actively engaged in diffusing a knowledge of Roman church music through the country round them. Of John it is said (Bede, l. c.): "Non solum autem Johannes ipsius monasterii fratres docebat, verum de omnibus pene ejusdem provinciæ monasteriis ad audiendum eum qui cantandi erant periti confluebant. Sed et ipsum per loca in quibus doceret multi invitare curabant." See also Bede, Vita Abb. Wiremuth. 6. Wilfrid bishop of York, when rebutting the charges of his enemies by the recital of his own services, mentions (Eddi Vit. Wilf. 45) “quomodo juxta ritum primitivæ Ecclesiæ consono vocis modulamine binis adstantibus choris persultare [Ultra-Umbrensem gentem] responsoriis antiphonisque reciprocis instruerem." Heriveus bishop of Rheims in the tenth century is praised for his skill in church music as well as his excellent administration of his see (Frodoard, Hist. Ec. Rem. lib. iv. c. 11. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mém. v. 531; Couvenier, p. 645).

* See the Hist. Litt. de Fr. t. vi. p. 134.

2

Notker, Ratpert, and Turtilo are mentioned together by Ekkehard (Casus S. Galli. 3. ap. Pertz. ii. 94-101) as pupils of Marcellus, an Irish monk settled at St Gallen, "qui in divinis æque potens et humanis septem liberales eos duxit ad artes, maxime autem ad musicam." Turtilo "erat eloquens, voce clarus, celaturæ elegans et picturæ artifex, musicus sicut et socii ejus sed in omni genere fidium et fistularum præ omnibus. Nam et filios nobilium in loco ab abbatede stinato in fidibus edocuit.

alone in devoting himself to an art which, while in its simpler stage it adapts itself to the most uneducated society, assumed under clerical influence so important a place in the training which the Church bestowed upon her ministers1.

So it is that, as we examine one after another of the innumerable means by which the civilization of the human race may be advanced, and nations raised from a savage state to the full exercise of those talents which it is one of the noblest objects of life to develop, we discover that they were without a single exception in the hands of the priestly order. And though, in the gentler arts as in the severer studies, we must ever regret that for so many centuries the knowledge and cultivation which was turned freely to the profit of the Church should have been denied to the laity, yet we ought not on that account to refuse due praise to those men who by exerting the faculties of research and application, of which the cloister is so successful a nurse, handed down through an unbroken

Sed inter hæc omnia, quod præ aliis est, in choro strenuus, in latebris erat lacrimosus; versus et melodias facere præpotens." "Quæ autem Turtilo dictaverat, singularis et agnoscibilis melodie sunt, quia per psalterium seu per rothtam, qua potentior ipse erat, neumata inventa dulciora sunt, ut apparet in Hodie cantandus et Omnium virtutum gemmis, quos quidem tropos ad offerendam quam ipse rex fecerat Karolus obtulit canendos."

On the efforts of Charlemagne to reform Church music in France, by means of instruction from Rome, see the 'Monach. Sangallensis,' Gest. Kar. i. 10. (Also Ekkehard, Casus S. Galli, 3. ap. Pertz. ii. 102.) Among his favourites was an "incomparabilis clericus," who excelled every one in his knowledge "cantilene

intellectual series those acquirements whose final enjoyment was reserved for the laity of a more fortunate era1.

ecclesiasticæ vel jocularis, novaque carminum compositione vel modulatione, insuper et vocis dulcissima plenitudine inestimabilique delectatione" (ibid. i. 33). Overhearing the ambassadors from the Greek emperor chanting, he ordered his clerks to taste nothing till they had presented to him the same antiphones "in Latinum conversas. Inde est, quod omnes ejusdem sunt toni, et quod in una ipsarum pro contrivit'' conteruit' positum invenitur. Adduxerunt etiam idem missi omne genus organorum, set et variarum rerum secum. Quæ cuncta, ab opificibus sagacissimi Karoli quasi dissimulanter aspecta, accurratissime sunt in opus conversa, et præcipue illud musicorum organum præstantissimum, quod, doliis ex ære conflatis follibusque taurinis per fistulas æreas mire perflantibus, rugitum quidem tonitrui boatu, garrulitatem vero lyræ vel cymbali dulcedine coæquabat” (ibid. ii. 7).

1 "Of the Anglo-Saxon husbandry we may remark that Domesday Survey gives us some indications that the cultivation of the Church lands was much superior to that of any order of society. They have much less wood upon them, and less common of pasture; and what they had appears often in smaller and more irregular pieces: while their meadow was more abundant, and in more numerous distributions" (Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. p. 528, ed. 1823. App. iv. c. 1). "Some of the clergy, as we advance to the age preceding the Norman Conquest, appear to us as labouring to excel in the mechanical arts. Dunstan, besides being competent to draw and paint the patterns for a lady's robe, was also a smith, and worked on all the metals. Among other labors of his industry, he made two great bells for the church at Abingdon, &c. He also displayed much art in the fabrication of a large silver table of curious workmanship. Stigand, the bishop of Winchester, made two images and a crucifix, and gilt and placed them in the cathedral of his diocese. One of our kings made a monk, who was a skilful goldsmith, an abbot” (vol. iii. pp. 109, 110, book vii. c. 11). Then follow references to the various enactments enjoining handicrafts on the clergy.