SOURCE: “The World of Culture” in Charlemagne: From the Hammer to the Cross, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1954, pp. 138-55.

In the following excerpt, Winston examines the accomplishments of two of Charlemagne’s greatest scholars: Alcuin, who was charged with improving literacy and who initiated a teacher-training program, and Paul, a natural scientist and historian who wrote the History of the Lombards.

A recent French historian has disdainfully dismissed the Carolingian revival of learning in a few words: “What possible point can there be in trying to rehabilitate this gloomy age, to glorify this abortive renaissance? Neither Charlemagne nor his companions were responsible for its failure. They were too close to their barbaric past, and were not ripe for civilization.”¹

Monsieur Sedillot has fallen into the trap that awaits historical tourists who pay only the briefest of visits to a past civilization and then flit on to the next...