In the midst of such great agitations of peoples and changes in government as were at tendant upon the incursions of the barbarians, it is natural that there was felt the need for establishing a standard of law by combining the dispositions of the Roman laws with the new barbarian constitutions. In the West attempts to satisfy the new needs are found in the 'Edictum Theoderici Regis> (500), the 'Lex Romana Visigothorum' or Alarici> (506) and the 'Lex Romana Burgundionum) (516). But the most important was the 'Corpus Tuns' prepared in the East by Justinian (527 565), consisting in two principal parts, the law of the juriseonsults (gius vetus") and the perial law (gius principale"). The latter was codified in the 'Codex justinianus) (528 and 534), the former was divided into 50 books called (Digesta) or (Pandecte' and was pre pared (530-532) by a commission of jurists under the leadership of the famous Tribonian. Contemporaneously there was prepared a new book of fundamental doctrine in the 'Insti tutiones> (four books), based principally on that of Gaius. Later, to this Justinian collec tion were added the subsequent dispositions under the title of 'Novella' in several private collections. This grand collection of juridical works is perhaps the greatest inheritance that Roman antiquity has bequeathed to modern civilization.
By the 7th century all literature had ceased in Italy and in France. Only in the Visigothic kingdom in Spain did some remnants of the ancient culture remain. There we find the bishops Eugenius and Julian of Toledo, but the most prominent figure of this time is Isidore (c. 570-636), bishop of Seville, the author of many historical, grammatical and theological writings. The most important is the work en titled 'Etymologiarum Libri XX,' containing the exposition of the seven liberal arts, of med icine, of jurisprudence, of religious history and finally the treatise (books 9-20) on questions of language. For the knowledge assembled there, it has considerable importance, notwithstanding the lack of critical discrimination.
The deterioration of classical culture be comes very marked in this century. Quite bar baric is the Latin of the Frank Fredegar and his continuators, who wrote an extremely valu able chronicle of the times. An echo of classic culture, however, resounds in England with Aldhelm (c. 650-709), the writer on prosody, with the Venerable Bede (674-735) of North umberland, whose erudition arose above the standard of his time, with Tatwine (d. 734), archbishop of Canterbury, grammanan and poet, and with Boniface (683-755), the author of a grammatical manual, who later became the °Apostle of the Germans." Bede was a prolific writer in nearly every field of literature. Be sides lives of the saints in metrical form and other poems, he wrote grammatical, mathemat ical and theological treatises, sermons, and espe cially the 'Historia ecclesiastica gentis An glonim> and the In the works of all of the above writers, however, with the classical elements are now commingled many elements of strictly medieval culture.
To this century also belong the Irish poet, Columbanus (543-615), the founder of the monastery of Bobbio which later became famous as the home of learning in northern Italy, and his fellow-countryman, Adamnan (c. 624-704), the author of a biography of Saint Columba, ethe most complete piece of biography that all Europe can boast of through out the Middle Ages." 2. Carolingian Carolingian Age marks a comparatively sharp division in the literary history of Latin. It brought learn ing into good repute again and furnished ma terial for writers. Besides a theological litera ture of imposing proportions, this period pro duced a vast body of poetry, epistles and his torical writings, all based more or less con sciously on classical models. The leader of this revival was Alcuin (c. 735-804), although his importance as a teacher surpasses that as a writer. After teaching 15 years at York he went over to France and presided over the court school of Charlemagne. Besides several treatises on grammar and rhetoric in dialogue form, he also composed scriptural commen taries, works upon astronomy and metrics and poems.
The teacher of Greek at Charlemagne's court school was Paul Warnefrid, better known as Paulus Diaconus (c. the first ant historian of the Middle Ages after Gregory of Tours. He was also prominent on account of the extent of his classical culture and lit erary skill, which were singularly displayed in the six books of his Langobardorum,> written at Monte Cassino, and in his sum mary of the abridgment of Varrius Flaccus by Pompeius Festus. In the latter half of the 8th century the Irish monk, Dicuil, composed a summary of geography.
Linking the 8th to the 9th century the tradition of learning which Alcuin had brought from York to Tours was transmitted through Rabanus Maurus (c. 776-856) to Fulda. Apart from extensive commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, he wrote several educational treatises and a sort of encyclopedia entitled 'De universo.> Among the pupils of Rabanus was the future abbot of Reichenau, Walafrid Strabo (c. 809-849), who studied Christian and pagan poets and wrote on sacred as well as secular themes. His 'Hortulus,> a description of plants in the monastery garden, was widely read during the years following, while his Wino Wettini' is justly regarded as a proto type of Dante's 'Divine Comedy.' Four biog raphies of saints, two in prose and two in verse, are also attributed to him.