[Sidenote:  II. 2.  State of Literature during the Saxon Dynasty.]

A curious altercation between Nicephorus Phocas, the Greek emperor, and Luitprand bishop of Cremona, ambassador from Otho I. to the Greek sovereign, shews the state of Germany during this period.  “Your nation,” said the empire to the ambassador, “does not know how to sit on horseback; or how to fight on foot:  your large shields, massive armour, long swords, and heavy helmets, disable you for battle.”—­Luitprand told the emperor that “he would, the first time they should meet in the field, feel the contrary.”  Luitprand observed, that “Germany was so little advanced in ecclesiastical worth; that no council had been held within its precincts:”  the ambassador remarked, that “all heresies had originated in Greece.”  The emperor asserted, that “the Germans were gluttons and drunkards:”  Luitprand replied, that “the Greeks were effeminate.”  All writers agree, that, in what each party to this conversation asserted, there was too much truth.

We have noticed the advance towards civilization which Henry I, made by the construction of towns; he effected another, by the introduction of tournaments and field sports, on a large, orderly and showy plan.  Speaking generally, society in Germany during the Saxon line of its princes, was always improving.

II. 2.

State of Literature during the Saxon Dynasty.

[Sidenote:  911-1024.]

“In the school of Paderborn,” says the biographer of Meinwert, as he is cited by Schmidt, “there are famous musicians, dialecticians, orators, grammarians, mathematicians, astronomers and geometricians.  Horace, the great Virgil, Sallust, and Statius, are highly esteemed.  The monks amuse themselves with poetry, books and music.  Several are incessantly employed in transcribing and painting.”

A German translation of the Psalms, by Notker, a monk of the abbey of St. Gall, shews that some attention was paid to the language of the country.  The Greek was cultivated; the writers of the times mention several persons skilled in it.  Notker, in a letter to one of his correspondents, informs him, that “his Greek brothers salute him.”

[Sidenote:  II. 2.  State of Literature during the Saxon Dynasty.]

Poetry was a favourite study:  the celebrated Gerbert, afterwards Pope Silvester II, and Waldram, bishop of Strasburgh, were the best poets of their times.  Hroswith,[004] a nun in the monastery of Gardersheim, published comedies:  “Many Catholics,” she says, in her preface to them, “are guilty of a fault, from which I myself am not altogether free; they prefer profane works, on account of their style, to the holy Scriptures.  Others have the Scriptures always in their hands, and despise profane authors; yet they often read Terence, and their attention to the beauties of his style does not prevent the objectionable passages in his writings from making an impression on them.”