SCHOOLS OF GAUL IN THE LAST CENTURY OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY HUMPHREY MILFORD PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY SCHOOLS OF GAUL A STUDY OF PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN THE LAST CENTURY OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE BY THEODORE HAARHOFF LECTURER IN LATIN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS HUMPHREY MILFORD 1920 MATRI MEAE CVIVS VITA SCHOLASTICAE LICET DOCTRINAE EXPERS VERIOR TAMEN MIHI EDVCATIO QVAM PRAECEPTA PROFESSORVM OMNIA HOC OPVSCVLVM REVERENTER DICAVI PREFACE Education in Gaul during the fourth and fifth centuries after Christ has curiously escaped the makers of books. Yet it has more than one claim to notice. It was an age, like our own, of transition, and we see education passing through the last stage of official paganism in the Western Empire, and entering into the Christian era. Movements and counter-movements (which have a considerable measure of modern interest) pass before our eyes. For behind the shifting scenes of Roman and Barbarian, Pagan and Christian, there is a continuity which reaches to the present day. That continuity is the immense fabric of Roman Education which passed through the Church into the Middle Ages, and shaped the thought and culture of modern nations.