Christian Schools and Scholars: or, Sketches of Education from the Christian Era to the Council of TrentDrane, Augusta Theodosia
History
Christian Schools and Scholars: or, Sketches of Education from the Christian Era to the Council of Trent
Drane, Augusta Theodosia
Church and education; Education -- Europe -- History; Renaissance; Scholasticism
Notker was the author of various works, amongst others of a German
translation of the Psalter, which Vadianus speaks of in his treatise
on the “Ancient Colleges of Germany,” and which he says is scarcely
intelligible by reason of the excessive harshness of the old Tudesque
dialect. He gives a translation of the “Creed,” and the “Our Father,”
from Notker’s version, in which it is not difficult to trace the
German idiom.[135] Notker’s German studies were yet more extensively
carried on by his namesake, Notker Labeo, or the Thick-Lipped, who
wrote many learned works in the vernacular, and was also a great
classical scholar. He translated into German the works of Aristotle,
Boëthius, and Marcian Capella, and some musical treatises, all which
are still preserved. His translation of St. Gregory’s “Morals” is
lost. He is commemorated in the chronicles of his House as “the
kind and learned master,” and whilst he presided over the claustral
school, he educated a great many profound scholars, among whom was
Ekkehard junior, the author of the chronicle “De Casibus S. Galli,”
and of the celebrated “Liber Benedictionum.” This Ekkehard, at the
request of the empress, transcribed Notker’s “Paraphrase of the
Psalms” for her use with his own hand, and corrected a certain poem
which his predecessor Ekkehard I. had written when a schoolboy,
and which was full of Tudesque barbarisms, such as the delicate
ear of Ekkehard junior might not abide. He held that the barbarous
idioms could not be translated into Latin without a great deal of
painstaking. “_Think_ in German,” he would say to his scholars, “and
then be careful to render your thought into correct Latin.” There
was yet a third Ekkehard whose memory is preserved in the annals of
St. Gall under the surname of _Palatinus_. He was nephew to Ekkehard
I., and presided over both the exterior and interior schools, and
that with great success. He made no distinction between noble
and plebeian scholars, but employed those who had less talent for
learning in writing, painting, and other like arts. He was able
to take down in shorthand the substance of anything he heard, and
two discourses are still preserved thus noted by his hand. He was
afterwards most unwillingly summoned to the Court of Otho I., who
appointed him his chaplain and secretary, and tutor to his son Otho
II. So venerated was this great man throughout Germany, that when he
attended the council of Mentz in 976, six bishops rose up to salute
their old master, all of them having been educated in the school of
St. Gall. To this list of masters I must add the name of another
Notker, who, from his strict observance of discipline, received the
surname of “Piperis-granum,” or the Peppercorn, though his pungency
of temper did not prevent his brethren from commemorating him in
their obituary as the “Doctor benignissimus.” He was renowned as a
physician, a painter, and a poet, and was also well skilled in music.
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