One of Charlemagne's chief claims to distinction is that his reign, largely through his own influence, comprised the most important period of the so-called Carolingian renaissance, or revival of learning. From the times of the Frankish conquest of Gaul until about the middle of the eighth century, education in western Europe, except in Ireland and Britain, was at a very low ebb and literary production quite insignificant. The old Roman intellectual activity had nearly ceased, and two or three centuries of settled life had been required to bring the Franks to the point of appreciating and encouraging art and letters. Even by Charlemagne's time people generally were far from being awake to the importance of education, though a few of the more far-sighted leaders, and especially Charlemagne himself, had come to lament the gross ignorance which everywhere prevailed and were ready to adopt strong measures to overcome it. Charlemagne was certainly no scholar, judged even by the standards of his own time; but had he been the most learned man in the world his interest in education could not have been greater. Before studying the selection given below, it would be well to read what Einhard said about his master's zeal for learning and the amount of progress he made personally in getting an education [see pp. 112--113]. The most conspicuous of Charlemagne's educational measures was his enlarging and strengthening of the Scola Palatina, or Palace School. This was an institution which had existed in the reign of his father Pepin, and probably even earlier. It consisted of a group of scholars gathered at the Frankish court for the purpose of studying and writing literature, educating the royal household, and stimulating learning throughout the country. It formed what we to-day might call an academy of sciences. Under Charlemagne's care it came to include such men of distinction as Paul the Deacon, historian of the Lombards, Paulinus of Aquileia, a theologian, Peter of Pisa, a grammarian, and above all Alcuin, a skilled teacher and writer from the school of York in England. Its history falls into three main periods: (1) from the middle of the eighth century to the year 782--the period during which it was dominated by Paul the Deacon and his Italian colleagues; (2) from 782 to about 800, when its leading spirit was Alcuin; and (3) from 800 to the years of its decadence in the later ninth century, when Frankish rather than foreign names appear most prominently in its annals.