Book Description

Excerpt from The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages These processes of overthrow, progress, and change were complex. But it is noticeable that each succeed ing generation of the mingled denizens of the Empire is further removed from the antique type and nearer to the mediaeval. The Empire remained geographi cally the source of religion and culture for peoples within it and without; and Christianity, as well as much from the pagan classic past, was passing to the new peoples in forms continually modified and ever nearer to the level of the early mediaeval centuries. For example, Augustine was a Roman Christian; he was not mediaeval. One hundred and fifty years after him comes Gregory the Great, who is partly Roman still, yet is touched with the new ignorance, the new barbarism. He is, however, close enough to Augustine to appropriate his doctrines and hand them on in modes nearer the level of the seventh and eighth centuries. This is an example of the Christian side of the matter. On the other hand, the classic spirit was dead before Gregory was born, and classic literature was degraded by the way in which it was understood. Virgil, for instance, was no longer Virgil, but incarnate grammar and authoritative history. Antique culture was also undergoing desiccation in compositions of the tran sitiou centuries, whose authors took what was spiritu ally closest to them and made it over in accordance with their own intelligence and character. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.