There, Alcuin gave lectures, and published several treatises.  In these, he began with Orthography; then proceeded to Grammar; afterwards to Rhetoric, and Dialectic.  He composed his treatises in the form of dialogues; and, as Charlemagne frequently attended them, Alcuin made him one of his interlocutors.  Few scholars of Alcuin were more attentive than his imperial pupil; he had learned grammar from Peter of Pisa; he was instructed in rhetoric, dialectic, and astronomy by Alcuin.  He also engaged in the study of divinity; and had the good sense to stop short of those subtleties, in which Justinian, Heraclius, and other princes, unfortunately both for themselves and their subjects, bewildered themselves.  Letters from Gisela and Richtrudis, the daughters of Charlemagne, to Alcuin, shew that they partook of their father’s literary zeal:  his favourite study was astronomy.

[Sidenote:  800-911.]

The number of persons in his court, who addicted themselves to pursuits of literature, was so great, and their application so regular, that their meetings acquired the appellation of “The School of Charlemagne.”  Their library was at Aix-la-Chapelle, the favourite residence of the monarch:  but they accompanied him in many of his journies.  Antiquarians have tracked them at Paris, Thionville, Wormes, Ratisbon, Wurtzburgh, Mentz, and Frankfort.

Charlemagne established schools in every part of his dominions.  In 787, he addressed a circular letter to all the metropolitan prelates of his dominions, to be communicated by them to their suffragan bishops, and to the abbots within their provinces.  He exhorted them to erect schools in every cathedral and monastery.  Schools were accordingly established throughout his vast dominions:  they were divided into two classes; arithmetic, grammar, and music were taught in the lower, the liberal arts and theology in the higher.

[Sidenote:  1. 2.  State of Literature in the time of Charlemagne.]

In France, the abbeys of Corbie, Fontenelles, Ferrieres, St. Denis, St Germain of Paris, St. Germain of Auxerre, and St. Benedict on the Loire;—­in Germany, the abbeys of Proom, Fulda, and of St Gall;—­in Italy, the abbey of Mount Casino, were celebrated for the excellence of their schools.  One, for the express purpose of teaching the Greek language, was founded by Charlemagne at Osnabruck.  All were equally open to the children of the nobility and the children of peasants; all received the same treatment.  It happened that, on a public examination of the children, the peasant boys were found to have made greater progress than the noble.  The Emperor remarked it to the latter, and declared with an oath, that “the bishopricks and abbeys should be given to the diligent poor.”  “You rely,” he said to the patrician youths, “on the merit of your ancestors; these have already been rewarded.  The state owes them nothing; those only are entitled to favour, who qualify themselves for serving and illustrating their country by their talents and their merits.”