Schools of Gaul in the last century of the Western Empire : $b A study of pagan and Christian education in the last century of the Western empire

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.

Gaul raises the problem of complex nationality. The old Celtic
population, overlaid with Roman civilization, penetrated by Germanic
tribes—Goths, Franks, Burgundians—is about to enter on a new period
of history, and the blending of these elements has an influence on
education which is interesting. Nations, when they become great, are
prone to emphasize the purity of their race and language. They exclude
foreign words and customs whenever they can, they raise the boast of a
pure and unique culture. It is an empty boast. Thousands of ‘foreign’
elements have mingled to make them what they are, and unconsciously
they daily absorb fresh elements that are ‘foreign’. But so far do they
forget this, that sometimes pride, and the ignorance that is born of
exclusiveness, lead them to impose their culture on others by force.
Complex nationality, while it is in the making, means friction; but once
that stage is passed the result is almost always a richer and better
culture. So it was with Gaul. Her position as leader of the Roman Empire
in education was undoubtedly due largely to her complexity.

At the same time, there is the problem of recognition. The elements of
the complex whole cannot be kept from discord unless there is recognition
of their individuality. Not till then will they make their positive
contribution to enrich the State. How far the Romans recognized the
individuality of those whom they governed, and with what results, is a
question of interest for modern political thought. And the effect of such
recognition (or the lack thereof) on the school curriculum, for example,
in the teaching of history, is a pertinent problem for those who live in
countries where there is a dual nationality.

It has been borne in upon us that the teaching of history is
all-important. Everybody is seeking to find the ultimate causes of the
war, and one of the most far-reaching answers that can be given is that
history has been wrongly taught. The fireworks of history have been
displayed to us, but the permanent forces behind events, the thought and
psychology of nations, the human interest of character, in fine, all that
truly makes for understanding and progress has been neglected. It was
neglected in the Roman Empire, and it is instructive to note the results.

To a South African the situation in Gaul at this time is particularly
illuminating. After all the troubles (still fresh in our memory)
attaching to the solution of the language question, it is almost
startling to note a similar situation in Roman Gaul. There the question
of teaching Greek and Latin was not so acute as in South Africa, for
Greek was dying out, and had no racial background, but the effects
of a wrong handling of ‘the second language’ are as unmistakable and
instructive. It is not time or place or circumstance that matters in
educational method so much as psychology—a study that is only beginning
to come into its heritage—and the psychology of the child is the same
yesterday as to-day.

To us the language question in Gaul is interesting from another point
of view too.