ABSTRACT

WE know t o what degree the mournful presentiments which strained a t the hearts of men a t the time of the first inrush of the Vandals, Alani, and Suevi a t the beginning of the Vth century were justified and even surpassed by events. During all that century torrential invasions broke like surf over Gaul, Italy, Spain and even Africa. The wealth, works of art, and all the refined outer garb of the privileged classes were scattered and broken up by ignorant and brutal hands, and, what was still more disastrous,-for i t was not only the upper classes who were t o suffer from it-the established institutions were included in the catastrophe, or a t least seriously shaken. The public schools in particular found themselves almost wholly disorganised in more than one part of the Empire. They were able to maintain a t first in the principal cities a small handful of active and lettered men. Then they became rarer, and the greater number disappeared. Teaching was only given, when it could be provided a t all, by private tutors t o whom the members of the aristocracy entrusted their children. There were still educated individuals who sometimes associated together in groups when circumstances permitted, but the general level of educationthat culture which can only be handed on by uninterrupted effort-declined progressively, and presented a fragile and precarious appearance when once the framework, indispensable to its continuity, had been rent asunder.