THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY. During the earlier part of the period under consideration the preparatory study necessary for service in the Church was small, and very elementary in character. The elements of reading, writing, reckoning, and music, as taught to _oblati_ in the monasteries, sufficed. As knowledge increased a little the study of grammar at first, and later all the studies of the _Trivium_ came to be common as preparatory study, while those who made the best preparation added the subjects of the _Quadrivium_. Ethics, or metaphysics, taught largely from the digest of Aristotle's _Ethics_ prepared in the sixth century by Boethius, was the text for this study until about 1200, when Aristotle's _Metaphysics_, _Physics_, _Psychology_, and _Ethics_ were re-introduced into Europe from Saracen sources (R. 87). The theological course proper experienced a similar development. At first, as we saw in chapter V, there were but few principles of belief, and the church organization was exceedingly simple. In 325 A.D. the Nicene Creed was formulated (p. 96), and the first twenty canons (rules) adopted for the government of the clergy. With the translation of the Bible into the Latin language (_Vulgate_, fourth century), the writings of the early Latin Fathers, and additional canons and expressions of belief adopted at subsequent church councils, an increasing amount relating to belief, church organization, and pastoral duties needed to be imparted to new members of the clergy. Still, up to the eleventh century at least, the theological course remained quite meager. In a tenth-century account the following description of the theological course of the time is given: [19] 1. Elements of grammar and the first part of Donatus. 2. Repeated readings of the Old and New Testaments. 3. Mass prayers. 4. Rules of the Church as to time reckoning. 5. Decrees of the Church Councils. 6. Rules of penance. 7. Prescriptions for church services. 8. Worldly laws. 9. Collections of homilies (sermons). 10. Tractates on the Epistles and Gospels. 11. Lives of the Saints. 12. Church music. It will be seen from this tenth-century course of theological study that it was based on reading, writing, and reckoning, and a little music as preparatory studies; that it began with the first of the subjects of the _Trivium_, which was studied only in part; and that its purpose was to impart needed information as to dogma, church practices, canon (church) law, and such civil (worldly) law as would be needed by the priest in discharging his functions as the notary and lawyer of the age. There is no suggestion of the study of Theology as a science, based on evidences, logic, and ethics. Such study was not then known, and would not have been tolerated. There were no other professions to study for.