Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/21

 l] INTRODUCTION 3 beginning of the sixth century, however, the barbarians axe not to be sharply set over against Romans and provincials ; they represent all stages of civilization, from bai'barism to the best culture afforded by the time. These processes of overthrow, progress, and change were complex. But it is noticeable that each succeed- ing generation of the mingled denizens of the Empire is further removed from the antique type and nearer to the mediaeval. The Empire remained geographi- cally the source of religion and culture for peoples within it and without; and Christianity, as well as much from the pagan classic past, was passing to the new peoples in forms continually modified and ever nearer to the level of the early mediaeval centuries. For example, Augustine was a Roman Christian ; he was not mediaeval. One hundred and fifty years after him comes Gregory the Great, who is partly Roman still, yet is touched with the new ignorance, the new barbarism. He is, however, close enough to Augustine to appropriate his doctrines and hand them on in modes nearer the level of the seventh and eighth centuries. This is an example of the Christian side of the matter. On the other hand, the classic spirit was dead before ^ Gregory was born, and classic literature was degraded by the way in which it was understood. Virgil, for instance, was no longer Virgil, but incarnate grammar and authoritative history. Antique culture was also undergoing desiccation in compositions of the tran- sition centuries, whose authors took what was spiritu- ally closest to them and made it over in accordance with their own iutelligence and character. J