Cassiodorus on the Trivium

Cassiodorus wrote his Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning around 538AD.  It would serve as a key text copied in monasteries throughout the Middle Ages.  The first half of the work concerns "religious readings" (the scriptures and writing of the fathers of the church).  The second half is about the seven liberal arts of "secular letters".  His exposition of liberal education is both clear and concise.  It was interesting that Cassidorus places the trivium in the following order: grammar, rhetoric, and logic.  He defines each as follows:

• Grammar is the skill of speaking stylishly gathered from famous poets and writers; its function is to compose prose and verse without fault; its purpose is to please by impeccable skill of polished speech and writing.
• The art of rhetoric, as the teachers of secular letters teach, is the knowledge of speaking effectively in civil cases.  Therefore the orator is, as has been said, 'a good man skilled in speaking' in civil cases.  The task of the orator is to speak in such a way as to persuade; his goal is to persuade in a manner of speaking, insofar as the nature of the circumstances and the individuals involved in civil cases seem to allow.
• Logic or dialectic, to the extent that the secular teachers speak of it, separates truth from falsity by subtle and concise discussion.