gratuitous act of love, which testifies to God’s mercy. But, after all, it is the integrity of the whole spiritual imperial government of God that is the important thing to consider. The King is law and goodness, and all His subjects are testimonies of His magnificent power. =The Dark Ages= (476–800). The traditional estimate of the Middle Ages as altogether “dark” has been revised by modern scholars. The period now called the Dark Ages has been restricted to the three hundred years between the fall of old Rome (476) and the founding of the empire by Charlemagne (800). Moreover, it is now thought that even in that period the intellectual conditions were better in Italy than north of the Alps. In northern Italy the lay teacher seems always to have existed; and education never to have fallen entirely into the hands of the monastery as it did in northern Europe between 800 and 1000. After 800 the content of education north and south of the Alps seems to have been different. Everywhere, to be sure, education was comprised by the “seven liberal arts,” but the emphasis in the two regions was different. North of the Alps the dialectic was made important, and theology and logic flourished. In Italy the emphasis was upon grammar and rhetoric, and “literary Paganism” was always kept alive. Thus, when the revival came in 1200, it appeared in the form of theological controversy north of the Alps, while in Italy in the form of legal science. The analysis in the summary of the Middle Ages given above (see p. 330) applies more truthfully to the northern countries than to Italy. At the same time it is more pertinent to the history of thought, for in these northern regions, especially at Paris, mediæval philosophy was developed. Nevertheless, it is easy for the modern scholar to go too far in trying to play fair with the Middle Ages. The first three centuries of this time were a Dark Age everywhere in Europe. Wave after wave of barbarian invasion swept over the land. It is not so much a matter of surprise that four hundred years lie between the first two philosophers,――but the matter of surprise is that there were any philosophical fruits whatever. In this respect the year 529 is significant――significant both in pointing backward to ancient culture and also in pointing forward to the feeble effort to retain some of that culture. In 529 Justinian abolished the philosophical Schools at Athens; in 529 also, St. Benedict founded his monastic school at Monte Cassino (near Naples). These two events stand for the death of antiquity and the birth of mediæval life. In this beginning of the monastic movement by St. Benedict in western Europe was lodged, as it turned out, the hope of education for the mediæval man. During the two hundred years between the year 800 and the year 1000 mediæval education was entirely in the hands of the monks.