[Illustration: PLATE 2. THE LIBRARY OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT WALLBERG, AT ZUTPHEN, HOLLAND
This shows the large oak-bound and chained books as well as a common type of bookrack used in churches and monasteries during the earlier period.]
The plight in which he found learning was most deplorable, presenting a marked contrast to conditions in England. Learning had been almost obliterated during the two centuries of wild disorder from 600 on. From 600 to 850 has often been called the darkest period of the Dark Ages, and Alcuin arrived when Frankland was at its worst. The monastic and cathedral schools which had been established earlier had in large part been broken up, and the monasteries had become places for the pensioning of royal favorites and hence had lost their earlier religious zeal and effectiveness. The abbots and bishops possessed but little learning, and the lower clergy, recruited largely from bondmen, were grossly ignorant, greatly to the injury of the Church. The copying of books had almost ceased, and learning was slowly dying out.
THE PALACE SCHOOL. There had for some time been a form of school connected with the royal court, known as the _palace school_, though the study of letters had played but a small part in it. To the reorganization of this school Alcuin first addressed himself, introducing into it elementary instruction in that learning of which he was so fond. The school included the princes and princesses of the royal household, relatives, attachés, courtiers, and, not least in importance as pupils, the king and queen. To meet the needs of such a heterogeneous circle was no easy task.
The instruction which Alcuin provided for the younger members of the circle was largely of the question and answer (catechetical) type, both questions and answers being prepared by Alcuin beforehand and learned by the pupils. Fortunately examples of Alcuin's instruction have been preserved to us in a dialogue prepared for the instruction of Pepin, a son of Charlemagne, then sixteen years old (R. 62). With the older members the questions and answers were oral. For all, though, the instruction was of a most elementary nature, ranging over the elements of the subjects of instruction of the time. Poetry, arithmetic, astronomy, the writings of the Fathers, and theology are mentioned as having been studied. Charlemagne learned to read Latin, but is said never to have mastered the art of writing. It was not an easy position for any one to fill. To quote from West's description: [18]