4. _Isidore_, Bishop of Seville (c. 570-636), under the title of _Etymologies_ or _Origines_, prepared an encyclopaedia of the ancient learning for the use of the monks and clergy which was intended to be a summary of all knowledge worth knowing. While he drew his knowledge from the writings of the Greeks and Romans, with many of which he was familiar, contrary to the attitude of Cassiodorus he forbade the monks and clergy to make any use of them whatever. Cassiodorus was still in part a Roman; Isidore was a full mediaeval. 5. _Alcuin_, a learned scholar of the eighth century, whom we met in the preceding chapter (p. 140), wrote treatises on the studies of the _Trivium_ and on astronomy which were used in many schools in Frankland. 6. _Maurus_. In 819 the learned monk of Fulda, Rhabanus Maurus, a pupil of Alcuin, issued his volume _On the Instruction of the Clergy_, in the third part of which he describes the uses and the subject-matter of each of the Arts (R. 74). He also wrote texts on grammar and astronomy, and in 844 issued an encyclopaedia, _De Universo_, based largely on the work of Isidore, but supplemented from other sources. These were the great textbooks for the study of the _Trivium_ and the _Quadrivium_ throughout all the early Middle Ages. Considering that they were in manuscript form and were in one volume, [14] their extent and scope can be imagined. The teacher usually had or had access to a copy, though even a teacher's books in that day were few in number (R. 78). Pupils had no books at all. These "great" texts were composed of brief extracts, bits of miscellaneous information, and lists of names. Their style was uninviting. They were at best a mere shell, compared with the Greek and Roman knowledge which had been lost. Some of these books were in question-and-answer (catechetical) form. Their purpose was not to stimulate thinking, but to transmit that modicum of secular knowledge needed for the service of the Church and as a preparation for the study of the theological writings. For nearly eight hundred years education was static, the only purpose of instruction being to transmit to the next generation what the preceding one had known. For such a period such textbooks answered the purpose fairly well. 3. _Training of the nobility_