be attributed the foundation
of the medical school of Salerno, where Benedictine influence was so
strong. It is probable, therefore, that to Cassiodorus must be
attributed the preservation in as perfect a state as we have them of the
old Greek medical writers.

His main idea was, of course, the study of Scriptures, but with just as
many helps as possible. He thought that commentators, and historians,
not alone Christian, but also Hebrew and Pagan, should be studied to
illustrate it, and then the commentaries of the Latin fathers, so that a
thoroughly rounded knowledge of it should be obtained. He thus began an
"Encyclopedia Biblica," and set a host of workers at its accomplishment.

Every country in Europe shared this movement for the diffusion of
information during the early Middle Ages, and the works of men from each
of these countries in succeeding centuries has come down to us,
preserved in spite of all the vicissitudes to which they were so liable
during the centuries before the invention of printing and the easy
multiplication of books. To many people it will seem surprising to learn
that the next evidence of deep broad interest in knowledge is to be
found in the next century in the distant west of Europe, in the Spanish
Peninsula. It is a long step from the semi-barbaric splendor of the
Gothic court at Verona, to the bishop's palace in Seville in Andalusia.
The two cities are separated by what is no inconsiderable distance in
our day. In the seventh century they must have seemed almost at the
other end of the world from each other. Those who recall what we have
insisted on in several portions of the body of this work with regard to
the high place Spanish genius won for itself in the Roman Empire, and
how much of culture among the Spaniards of that time the occurrence of
so many important writers of that nationality must imply, will not be
surprised at the distinguished work of a great Christian Spanish writer
of the seventh century.

Indeed, it would be only what might be expected for evidences of early
awakening of the broadest culture to be found in Spain. The important
name in the popularization of science in the seventh century is St.
Isidore of Seville. He made a compendium of all the scattered scientific
traditions and information of his time with regard to natural phenomena
in a sort of encyclopedia of science. This consisted of twenty
books--chapters we would call them now--treating almost _de omni re