Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/27

 I] INTRODUCTION 9 tian literature represents much besides decay. For the genius of Christianity could make use of antique pagan elements only by altering and breaking them, or by misapplying them, and all this in ways that were sheer debasement, judged by any classical standard. It was through their distortion that pagan elements became part of the new growth of the human spirit coming with Christianity. There were several ways in which the antique elements of culture passed over to the Middle Ages, or were superseded by Christian ideals. There was, of course, intercourse between the citizens of the Empire and the barbarians. One result of this may be ob- served in the bits of anonymous pagan opinion sub- sisting scattered and impersonal through the Middle Ages, and another in the magic of the great name of Rome and the deathless thought of the Roman Em- pire. These ideas lived in the consciousness of the people, though they were also fostered by literature. The same may be said of the Roman Law. Some popular knowledge of it survived among the inhabit- ants of Italy and Gaul, where it was also preserved in codes and abridgments. In England and Germany, save as an element of Canon Law, the influence of Roman Law was slight until after the rise of the Bologna school. As to the currents of literary influence, the writings of classical Latin authors still survived and were read. Antique culture was also summarized or otherwise remodelled in pagan works of the transi- tion centuries, and so passed on in forms suited to the comprehension of the Middle Ages. Chief examples of this are the De Nuptiia Philologiae et Mercurii of