Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/615

Rh If, as is alleged, Romulus was regarded by the Romans as one of their great gods, honored by a temple and a sacrificing priest, it seems inferable that the story of his deeds which, mythical as it may have chiefly been had probably some nucleus of fact, was from time to time repeated in the laudations of his priest; and that the speech or hymn uttered by his priest at festivals, had, like the kindred ones which Greek priests uttered, a biographicohistorical character.

Though but indirectly relevant to the immediate issue, it is worth while adding that the earliest Roman historian, Ennius, was also an epic poet—"the Homer of Latium," as he called himself. The versified character of early history exemplified in his writings, as also we shall presently see in later writings, is, of course, congruous with that still earlier union of the two, which was seen in the laudatory narratives of the primitive priest-poet.

Of evidences furnished by Northern Europe, we meet first with those coming from the pre-Christian world. Though the stories of the Teutonic epic, The Nibelungen, were gathered together in Christian times, yet they manifestly belonged to pagan times; and we may fairly assume were originally recited, as among other European peoples, by attendants of the great—courtiers while these lived, priest-poets after they died. But for a long time after Christianity had been victorious, the Christian narrative alone, in which, as in other primitive narratives, biography and history are united, furnished the only subject-matter for literature, and priests were its vehicles.

"From the fourth to the eighth century, there is no longer any profane literature; sacred literature stands alone; priests only study or write; and they only study, they only write, save some rare exceptions, upon religious subjects."

So, also, the 57 authors named by Guizot as belonging to the 9th and 10th centuries (of whom only five were laymen), were doubtless similarly occupied.

Nevertheless, while the ordinary biographico-historical matter which priests devoted themselves to was that which their creed presented or suggested, there appear to have been, after the 8th century, some cases in which such matter furnished by other than Christian traditions, occupied them; as in the Rolandslied and Alexanderslied, written in the 12th century by the monks Konrad and Lamprecht.

For the rest it will suffice if we take the case of our own country. Chronicles and histories "were mostly compiled in the monasteries." Taking the illustrations in order, we come first to Bede, who was monk and historian; Cynewulf, bishop or abbot and writer of sacred history; Gildas, monk and chronicler; Asser,