Skills

Begin as the monks began their hours: with a Psalm. Pray together a few verses of Psalm 95 (the 'Venite'), the traditional opening of the monastic day: 'Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.' Then quickly review from Monday: Who is the visible head of the Church? (The pope, successor of St. Peter.) What is the special mission of the laity? (To make the world holy from within.) What three vows do many religious take? (Poverty, chastity, obedience.) Praying a Psalm aloud connects you to the unbroken chant of the monasteries.

Last week you met participles (verbals used as adjectives). This week, two more verbals. A GERUND is a verb form ending in -ing used as a NOUN. Because it is a noun, it can be a subject, an object, or a predicate noun. 'Copying preserved the books.' (Copying is the subject — the thing that did the preserving.) 'The monks loved praying.' (Praying is the direct object — what they loved.) 'Their work was farming.' (Farming is a predicate noun.) Be careful: a gerund and a present participle both end in -ing, so you must check the JOB it is doing. If the -ing word is naming a thing (acting as a noun), it is a gerund; if it is describing a noun (acting as an adjective), it is a participle. Compare: 'Reading is good' (gerund — subject) versus 'the reading monk' (participle — describes monk). An INFINITIVE is the base form of a verb usually preceded by 'to' (to copy, to pray, to build), and it can act as a NOUN, an ADJECTIVE, or an ADVERB. 'To learn was Charlemagne's goal.' (noun — subject) 'He had books to copy.' (adjective — which books?) 'Monks rose early to pray.' (adverb — why did they rise?) A GERUND PHRASE or INFINITIVE PHRASE includes the verbal plus its objects and modifiers. Worked example: 'Charlemagne wanted to revive learning.' — 'to revive learning' is an infinitive phrase used as a noun (the direct object of 'wanted'); inside it, 'learning' is a gerund? No — here 'learning' is simply the noun object of 'revive.' Focus on the main verbal: the infinitive 'to revive learning.'

Charlemagne's empire was the largest in Europe since Rome, and drawing it — and its breakup — explains the shape of Europe to this day. At its height around 800, the empire (centered on FRANCIA, the land of the Franks) covered roughly modern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, much of Germany and Austria, and northern Italy, with its capital at AACHEN. But Frankish custom divided inheritance among a ruler's sons rather than giving it all to the eldest. So after Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious died, the empire was split among his three grandsons by the TREATY OF VERDUN in 843 — one of the most consequential maps in European history. WEST FRANCIA (the western third) went to Charles the Bald — this would grow into modern FRANCE. EAST FRANCIA (the eastern third) went to Louis the German — this would grow into modern GERMANY. And a long, awkward MIDDLE KINGDOM (Lotharingia/Middle Francia), stretching from the Low Countries down through the Rhineland and into Italy, went to the eldest, Lothair. This thin middle strip had no natural unity and was soon fought over — and the lands along it (Alsace-Lorraine, the Low Countries, northern Italy) would be contested between France and Germany for the next thousand years, right up to the World Wars. So a single inheritance decision in 843 helped set the borders and the future conflicts of Europe.

From memory, name the two modern countries that grew from West Francia and East Francia, and why the middle kingdom caused trouble. Then write one original sentence containing a gerund and one containing an infinitive, and label each verbal.