e were
analogous to those which occurred in France, though we do not find in
writings any unequivocal specimens of a new formation at so early a
period. But the old inscriptions, even of the fourth and fifth
centuries, are full of solecisms and corrupt orthography. In legal
instruments under the Lombard kings the Latin inflections are indeed
used, but with so little regard to propriety that it is obvious the
writers had not the slightest tincture of grammatical knowledge. This
observation extends to a very large proportion of such documents down to
the twelfth century, and is as applicable to France and Spain as it is
to Italy. In these charters the peculiar characteristics of Italian
orthography and grammar frequently appear. Thus we find, in the eighth
century, diveatis for debeatis, da for de in the ablative, avendi for
habendi, dava for dabat, cedo a deo, and ad ecclesia, among many similar
corruptions.[501] Latin was so changed, it is said by a writer of
Charlemagne's age, that scarcely any part of it was popularly known.
Italy indeed had suffered more than France itself by invasion, and was
reduced to a lower state of barbarism, though probably, from the greater
distinctness of pronunciation habitual to the Italians, they lost less
of their original language than the French. I do not find, however, in
the writers who have treated this subject, any express evidence of a
vulgar language distinct from Latin earlier than the close of the tenth
century, when it is said in the epitaph of Pope Gregory V., who died in
999, that he instructed the people in three dialects--the Frankish or
German, the vulgar, and the Latin.[502]

[Sidenote: Ignorance consequent on the disuse of Latin.]

When Latin had thus ceased to be a living language, the whole treasury
of knowledge was locked up from the eyes of the people. The few who
might have imbibed a taste for literature, if books had been accessible
to them, were reduced to abandon pursuits that could only be cultivated
through a kind of education not easily within their reach. Schools,
confined to cathedrals and monasteries, and exclusively designed for the
purposes of religion, afforded no encouragement or opportunities to the
laity.[503] The worst effect was, that, as the newly-formed languages
were hardly made use of in writing, Latin being still preserved in all
legal instruments and public correspondence, the very use of letters, as
well as of books, was forgotten. For many