=The Revival of Charlemagne= (800–900). The darkness of the Early Period of the Middle Ages is broken by the somewhat abortive renaissance of Charlemagne. Connected with this revival is the name of John Scotus Erigena (810–880). Note that during these five hundred years there are only two notable philosophers, Augustine and Erigena. Note that a span of four hundred years lies between them. Also note that the first philosopher, Augustine, was a Roman and the second, Erigena, was an Irishman. Thereby hangs a tale. During all those long centuries of the Dark Ages after Augustine and until Charlemagne, the light of science shone scarcely in northwestern Europe. In the whole western hemisphere there were only three places where learning prospered: one was in the far east, among the Arabians; another was at Constantinople; the third was in the far west, in Britain. Thus it was from Britain that Charlemagne had to call his educators, Alcuin and Clement, to promote learning among the Franks; and it was from Britain, too, that his successor, Charles the Bald, called the Irishman, Erigena, for the same purpose. During the renaissance of the great Charles and his successors, Irish scholars could be found in every monastery and cathedral in the empire. The teaching was soon called the “Irish learning.” Still it must be said in qualification that the renaissance at the court of Charlemagne was a rather childish attempt to unite antiquity with theology. Excepting in the case of Scotus Erigena, the revival was very feeble. It consisted of a new effort to understand Augustine, to master the simplest rules of logic, and to think out dogma by means of Hellenism. The period from 800 to 1000 is called the Benedictine Age, because learning was entirely in the hands of the Benedictine monks. From the impulse given by the Irish scholars many celebrated monastic and cathedral schools originated, like those of Tours, Fulda, Rheims, Chartres, and the school at Paris. From the many monastic schools emerge the names of Alcuin of York, Rhabanus Maurus of Fulda, and Gerbert at Rheims. But among these scholars the only one of philosophical importance is John Scotus Erigena.