CHAPTER VII

EDUCATION DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

II. SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED

1. _Elementary instruction and schools_

MONASTIC AND CONVENTIONAL SCHOOLS. In the preceding chapters we found that, by the tenth century, the monasteries had developed both inner monastic schools for those intending to take the vows (oblati), and outer monastic schools for those not so intending (externi). The distinction in name was due to the fact that the _oblati_ were from the first considered as belonging to the brotherhood, participating in the religious services and helping the monks at their work. The others were not so admitted, and in all monasteries of any size a separate building, outside the main portion of the monastery (see Figure 38), was provided for the outer school. A similar classification of instruction had been evolved for the convents.

The instruction in the inner school was meager, and in the outer school probably even more so. Reading, writing, music, simple reckoning, religious observances, and rules of conduct constituted the range of instruction. Reading was taught by the alphabet method, as among the Romans, and writing by the use of wax tablets and the stylus. Much attention was given to Latin pronunciation, as had been the practice at Rome. As Latin by this time had practically ceased to be a living tongue, outside the Church and perhaps in Central Italy, the difficulties of instruction were largely increased. The Psalter, or book of Latin psalms, was the first reading book, and this was memorized rather than read. Copy- books, usually wax, with copies expressing some scriptural injunction, were used. Music, being of so much importance in the church services, received much time and attention. In arithmetic, counting and finger reckoning, after the Roman plan, was taught. Latin was used in conversation as much as possible, some of the old lesson books much resembling conversation books of to-day in the modern languages (R. 75). Special attention seems to have been given to teaching rules of conduct to the _oblati_, [1] and much corporal punishment was used to facilitate learning. Up to the eleventh century this instruction, meager as it was, constituted the whole of the preparatory training necessary for the study of theology and a career in the Church. In the convents similar schools were developed, though, as stated in the last chapter, much more attention was given to the education of those not intending to take the vows.

SONG AND PARISH SCHOOLS. In the cathedral churches, and other larger non- cathedral churches, the musical part of the service was very important, and to secure boys for the choir and for other church services these churches organized what came to be known as _song schools_ (R. 70). In these a number of promising boys were trained in the same studies and in much the same way as were boys in the monastery schools, except that much more attention was given to the musical instruction. The students in these schools were placed under the _precentor_ (choir director) of the cathedral, or other large church, the _scholasticus_ confining his attention to the higher or more literary instruction provided. The boys usually were given board, lodging, and instruction in return for their services as choristers. As the parish churches in the diocese also came to need boys for their services, parish schools of a similar nature were in time organized in connection with them. It was out of this need, and by a very slow and gradual evolution, that the parish school in western Europe was developed later on.

CHANTRY SCHOOLS. Still another type of elementary school, which did not arise until near the latter part of the period under consideration in this chapter, but which will be enumerated here as descriptive of a type which later became very common, came through wills, and the schools came to be known as _chantry schools_, or _stipendary schools_. Men, in dying, who felt themselves particularly in need of assistance for their misdeeds on earth, would leave a sum of money to a church to endow a priest, or sometimes two, who were to chant masses each day for the repose of their souls. Sometimes the property was left to endow a priest to say mass in honor of some special saint, and frequently of the Virgin Mary. As such priests usually felt the need for some other occupation, some of them began voluntarily to teach the elements of religion and learning to selected boys, and in time it became common for those leaving money for the prayers to stipulate in the will that the priest should also teach a school. Usually a very elementary type of school was provided, where the children were taught to know the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Salutation to the Virgin, certain psalms, to sign themselves rightly with the sign of the cross, and perhaps to read and write (Latin). Sometimes, on the contrary, and especially was this the case later on in England, a grammar school was ordered maintained. After the twelfth century this type of foundation (R. 73) became quite common.

2. _Advanced instruction_

CATHEDRAL AND HIGHER MONASTIC SCHOOLS. As the song schools developed the cathedral schools were of course freed from the necessity of teaching reading and writing, and could then develop more advanced instruction. This they did, as did many of the monasteries, and to these advanced schools those who felt the need for more training went. As grammar was, throughout all the early part of the Middle Ages, the first and most important subject of instruction, the advanced schools came to be known as _grammar schools_, as well as cathedral or episcopal schools (R. 72). The cathedral churches and monasteries of England and France early became celebrated for the high character of their instruction (R. 71) and the type of scholars they produced. All these schools, though, suffered a serious set-back during the period of the Danish and Norman invasions, many being totally destroyed. On the continent, due to the greater deluge of barbarism and the more unsettled condition of society, more difficulty was experienced in getting cathedral schools established, as the following decree of the Lateran Church Council of 826 indicates:

Complaints have been made that in some places no masters nor endowment for a grammar school is found. Therefore all bishops shall bestow all care and diligence, both for their subjects and for other places in which it shall be found necessary, to establish masters and teachers who shall assiduously teach grammar schools and the principles of the liberal arts, because in these chiefly the commandments of God are manifest and declared.

These two types of advanced schools--the cathedral or episcopal and the monastic--formed what might be called the secondary-school system of the early Middle Ages (Rs. 70, 71). They were for at least six hundred years the only advanced teaching institutions in western Europe, and out of one or the other of these two types of advanced schools came practically all those who attained to leadership in the service of the Church in either of its two great branches. Still more, out of the impetus given to advanced study by the more important of these schools, the universities of a later period developed; and numerous private gifts of lands and money were made to establish grammar schools to supplement the work done by the cathedral and other large church schools.

THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS. The advanced studies which were offered in the more important monastery and cathedral schools comprised what came to be known as _The Seven Liberal Arts_ [2] of the Middle Ages. The knowledge contained in these studies, taught as the advanced instruction of the period, represents the amount of secular learning which was intentionally preserved by the Church from neglect and destruction during the period of the barbarian deluges and the reconstruction of society.

These Seven Liberal Arts were comprised of two divisions, known as:

I. THE TRIVIUM: (1) Grammar; (2) Rhetoric; (3) Dialectic (Logic).

II. THE QUADRIVIUM: (4) Arithmetic; (5) Geometry; (6) Astronomy; (7) Music.

Beyond these came Ethics or Metaphysics, and the greatest of all studies, Theology. This last represented the one professional study of the early middle-age period, and was the goal toward which all the preceding studies had tended. This mediaeval system of education is well summarized in the drawing given on the opposite page, taken from an illuminated picture inserted in a famous mediaeval manuscript, recopied at Basle, Switzerland, in 1508.

Not all these studies were taught in every monastery or cathedral school. Many of the lesser monasteries and schools offered instruction chiefly in grammar, and only a little of the studies beyond. Others emphasized the Trivium, and taught perhaps only a little of the second group. Only a few taught the full range of mediaeval learning, and these were regarded as the great schools of the times (R. 71).

Rhabanus Maurus (776-865), one of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages, Abbot for years at Fulda, and a mediaeval textbook writer of importance, has left us a good description of each of the Seven Liberal Arts studies as they were developed in his day, and their use in the Christian scheme of education (R. 74).

I. THE TRIVIUM

Of the three studies forming the _Trivium_, grammar always came first as the basal subject. No uniformity existed for the other two.

1. GRAMMAR. The foundation and source of all the Liberal Arts was grammar, it being, according to Maurus, "the science which teaches us to explain the poets and historians, and the art which qualifies us to speak and write correctly" (R. 74 a). In the introduction to an improved Latin grammar, [3] published about 1119, grammar is defined as "The doorkeeper of all the other sciences, the apt expurgatrix of the stammering tongue, the servant of logic, the mistress of rhetoric, the interpreter of theology, the relief of medicine, and the praiseworthy foundation of the whole quadrivium." Figure 45, from one of the earliest books printed in English, also emphasizes the great importance of grammar with the words: "Wythout whiche science (s)ycherly alle other sciences in especial ben of lytyl recomme(d)." In addition to grammar in the sense we know the study to-day, grammar in the old Roman and mediaeval mind also included much of what we know as the analytical side of the study of literature, such as comparison, analysis, versification, prosody, word formations, figures of speech, and vocal expression (R. 76). These were considered necessary to enable one to read understandingly the Holy Scriptures, and hence, "though the art be secular," says Maurus, "it has nothing unworthy about it."

The leading textbook was that of Donatus, [4] written in the fourth century, and Donatus (_donat_) and grammar came to be synonymous terms. The text by Priscian, [5] written in the sixth century, was also extensively used. The treatment in each was catechetical in form; that is, questions and answers, which were learned. The text was of course in Latin, and the teacher usually had the only copy, so that the pupils had to learn from memory or copy from dictation. The cost of writing-material usually precluded the latter method. After sufficient ability in grammar had been attained, simple reading exercises or colloquies (R. 75), usually of a religious or moralizing nature, were introduced, though where permitted the Latin authors, especially Vergil, [6] were read. At Saint Gall, in Switzerland, and at some other places, many Latin authors were read; at Tours, on the other hand, we find the learned Abbot Alcuin saying to the monks: "The sacred poets are sufficient for you; there is no reason why you should sully your mind with the rank luxuriance of Vergil's verse."

2. RHETORIC. Rhetoric, as defined by Maurus, was "the art of using secular discourse effectively in the circumstances of daily life," and enabling the preacher or missionary to put the divine message in eloquent and impressive language (R. 74 b). Much of the old Roman rhetoric had been taken over by grammar, but in its place was added a certain amount of letter and legal documentary writing. The priest, it must be remembered, became the secretary and lawyer of the Middle Ages, as well as the priest, and upon him devolved the preparation of most of the legal papers of the time, such as wills, deeds, proclamations, and other formal documents. Accordingly the art of letter-writing [7] and the preparation of legal documents were made a part of the study of rhetoric, and some study of both the civil ("worldly") and canon (church) law was gradually introduced.

3. DIALECTIC. Dialectic, or logic, says Maurus, is the science of understanding, and hence the science of sciences (R. 74 c). By means of its aid one was enabled to unmask falsehood, expose error, formulate argument, and draw conclusions accurately. The study was one of preparation for ethics and theology later on. Extracts from the works of Aristotle, prepared by Boethius, and later his complete works, constituted the texts used. While grammar was the great subject of the seven during all the early Middle Ages, dialectic later came to take its place. After the rise of the universities and the organization of schools of theology, with theology more of a rational science and less a matter of dogma, dialectic came to hold first place in importance as a preparation for the disputations of the later Middle Ages. Theological questions formed the practical exercises, and the schools doing most in dialectic attracted many students because of this.

These three studies, constituting the _Trivium_, based as they were directly on the old Roman learning and schools, contained more that was within the teaching knowledge of the time than did the subjects of the _Quadrivium_, and also subject-matter which was much more in demand.

II. THE QUADRIVIUM

The _trivial_ studies, in most cases before the thirteenth century, sufficed to prepare for the study of theology, though those few who desired to prepare thoroughly also studied the subjects of the _quadrivium_. In schools not offering instruction in this advanced group some of the elements of its four studies were often taught from the textbooks in use for the _Trivium_. Particularly was this the case during the early Middle Ages, when the knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy possessed by western Europe was exceedingly small. No regular order in the study of the subjects of this group was followed.

4. ARITHMETIC. Naturally little could be done in this subject as long as the Roman system of notation was in use (see footnote, i, p. 64), and the Arabic notation was not known in western Christian Europe until the beginning of the thirteenth century, and was not much used for two or three centuries later. So far as arithmetic was taught before that time, it was but little in advance of that given to novitiates in the monasteries, except that much attention was devoted to an absurd study of the properties of numbers, [8] and to the uses of arithmetic in determining church days, calculating the date of Easter, and interpreting passages in the Scriptures involving measurements (R. 74 d). The textbook by Rhabanus Maurus _On Reckoning_, issued in 820, is largely in dialogue (catechetical) form, and is devoted to describing the properties of numbers, "odd, even, perfect, imperfect, composite, plane, solid, cardinal, ordinal, adverbial, distributive, multiple, denunciative, etc."; to pointing out the scriptural significance of number; [9] and to an elaborate explanation of finger reckoning, after the old Roman plan (see p. 65). Near the end of the tenth century Gerbert, [10] afterwards Pope Sylvester II, devised a simple abacus-form for expressing numbers, simple enough in itself, but regarded as wonderful in its day. This greatly simplified calculation, and made work with large numbers possible. He also devised an easier form for large divisions.

Gerbert's form for expressing numbers may be shown from the following simple sum in addition:

_Arabic Form_ _Roman Form_ _Gerbert's Form_ _M C X I_

1204 MCCIV I II IV 538 DXXXVIII V III VIII 2455 MMCCCCLV II IV V V 619 DCXIX VI I IX ----- --------- ------------------- 4816 MMMMDCCCXVI IV VIII I VI

No study of arithmetic of importance was possible, however, until the introduction of Arabic notation and the use of the zero.

5. GEOMETRY. This study consisted almost entirely of geography and reasoning as to geometrical forms until the tenth century, when Boethius' work on _Geometry_, containing some extracts from Euclid, was discovered by Gerbert. The geography of Europe, Asia, and Africa also was studied, as treated in the textbooks of the time, and a little about plants and animals as well was introduced. The nature of the geographic instruction may be inferred from Figure 46, which reproduces one of the best world maps of the day. The main geographical features of the known world can be made out from this, but many of the mediaeval maps are utterly unintelligible.

To illustrate the reasoning as to geometrical forms which preceded the finding of Euclid we quote from Maurus, who says that the science of geometry "found realization also at the building of the tabernacle and the temple; and that the same measuring rod, circles, spheres, hemispheres, quadrangles, and other figures were employed. The knowledge of all this brings to him, who is occupied with it, no small gain for his spiritual culture." (R. 74 e). After Gerbert's time some geometry proper and the elements of land surveying were introduced. The real study of geometry in Europe, however, dates from the twelfth century, when Euclid was translated into Latin from the Arabic.

6. ASTRONOMY. In astronomy the chief purpose of the instruction was to explain the seasons and the motions of the planets, to set forth the wonders of the visible creation, and to enable the priests "to fix the time of Easter and all other festivals and holy days, and to announce to the congregation the proper celebration of them." (R. 74 g).

Even after Ptolemy's _Mechanism of the Heavens_ (p. 49) and Aristotle's _On the Heavens_ had filtered across the Pyrenees from the Saracens, in the eleventh century, the Ptolemaic theory of a flat earth located at the center of the heavenly bodies and around which they all revolved, while a very pleasing theological conception, was absolutely fatal to any instruction in astronomy worth while and to any astronomical advance. All mediaeval astronomy, too, was saturated with astrology, as the selection on the motion of the heavenly bodies reproduced from Bartholomew Anglicus shows (R. 77 b), and the supernatural was invoked to explain such phenomena as meteors, comets, and eclipses. The Copernican theory of the motion of the heavenly bodies was not published until 1543, and all our modern ideas date from that time.

Physics was often taught as a part of the instruction in astronomy, and consisted of lessons on the properties of matter (R. 77 a) and some of the simple principles of dynamics. Little else of what we to-day know as physics was then known.

7. MUSIC. Unlike the other studies of the _Quadrivium_, the instruction in music was quite extensive, and from early times a good course in musical theory was taught (R. 74 f). Boethius' _De Musica_, written at the beginning of the sixth century, was the text used. Music entered into so many activities of the Church that much naturally was made of it. The organ, too, is an old instrument, going back to the second century B.C., and the organ with a keyboard to the close of the eleventh century. This instrument added much to the value of the music course, and the hymns composed by Christian musicians form an important part of our musical heritage. [11] The cathedral school at Metz and the monastery at Saint Gall became famous as musical centers, and of the work of one of the teachers of music at Saint Gall (Notker) it was written by his biographer: "Through different hymns, sequences, tropes, and litanies, through different songs and melodies as well as through ecclesiastical science, the pupils of this man made the church of God famous not merely in Alemannia, but everywhere from sea to sea."

THE GREAT TEXTBOOKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. While the textbooks mentioned under the description of each of the Liberal Arts formed the basis of the instruction given, most of the instruction before the twelfth century was not given from editions of the original works, but from abridged compendiums. Six of these were so famous and so widely used that each deserves a few words of description.

1. _The Marriage of Mercury and Philology_, written by Martianus Capella, between 410 and 427 A.D., was the first of the five great mediaeval textbooks. Mercury, desiring to marry, finally settles on the learned maiden Philology, and the seven bridesmaids--Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, and Music--enter in turn at the ceremony and tell who they are and what they represent. The speeches of the seven maidens summarized the ancient learning in each subject. This textbook was more widely used during the Middle Ages than any other book.

2. _Boethius_ (475-524) was another important mediaeval textbook writer, having prepared textbooks on dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and ethics. Nearly all of what the Middle Ages knew of Aristotle's _Logic_ and _Ethics_, and of the writings of Plato, were contained in the texts he wrote. His _De Musica_ was used in the universities as a textbook until near the middle of the eighteenth century.

3. _Cassiodorus_ [12] (c. 490-585), in his _On the Liberal Arts and Sciences_, prepared a digest of each of the Seven Liberal Arts for monastic use, fixing the number at seven by scriptural authority. [13]

4. _Isidore_, Bishop of Seville (c. 570-636), under the title of _Etymologies_ or _Origines_, prepared an encyclopaedia of the ancient learning for the use of the monks and clergy which was intended to be a summary of all knowledge worth knowing. While he drew his knowledge from the writings of the Greeks and Romans, with many of which he was familiar, contrary to the attitude of Cassiodorus he forbade the monks and clergy to make any use of them whatever. Cassiodorus was still in part a Roman; Isidore was a full mediaeval.

5. _Alcuin_, a learned scholar of the eighth century, whom we met in the preceding chapter (p. 140), wrote treatises on the studies of the _Trivium_ and on astronomy which were used in many schools in Frankland.

6. _Maurus_. In 819 the learned monk of Fulda, Rhabanus Maurus, a pupil of Alcuin, issued his volume _On the Instruction of the Clergy_, in the third part of which he describes the uses and the subject-matter of each of the Arts (R. 74). He also wrote texts on grammar and astronomy, and in 844 issued an encyclopaedia, _De Universo_, based largely on the work of Isidore, but supplemented from other sources.

These were the great textbooks for the study of the _Trivium_ and the _Quadrivium_ throughout all the early Middle Ages. Considering that they were in manuscript form and were in one volume, [14] their extent and scope can be imagined. The teacher usually had or had access to a copy, though even a teacher's books in that day were few in number (R. 78). Pupils had no books at all. These "great" texts were composed of brief extracts, bits of miscellaneous information, and lists of names. Their style was uninviting. They were at best a mere shell, compared with the Greek and Roman knowledge which had been lost. Some of these books were in question-and-answer (catechetical) form. Their purpose was not to stimulate thinking, but to transmit that modicum of secular knowledge needed for the service of the Church and as a preparation for the study of the theological writings. For nearly eight hundred years education was static, the only purpose of instruction being to transmit to the next generation what the preceding one had known. For such a period such textbooks answered the purpose fairly well.

3. _Training of the nobility_

TENTH-CENTURY CONDITIONS. Following the death of Charlemagne and the break-up of the empire held together by him, a period of organized anarchy followed in western Europe. Authority broke down more completely than before, and Europe, for protection, was forced to organize itself into a great number of small defensive groups. Serfs, [15] freemen lacking land, and small landowners alike came to depend on some nobleman for protection, and this nobleman in turn upon some lord or overlord. For this protection military service was rendered in return. The lord lived in his castle, and the peasantry worked his land and supported him, fighting his battles if the need arose. This condition of society was known as _feudalism_, and the feudal relations of lord and vassal came to be the prevailing governmental organization of the period. Feudalism was at best an organized anarchy, suited to rude and barbarous times, but so well was it adapted to existing conditions that it became the prevailing form of government, and continued as such until a better order of society could be evolved. With the invention of gunpowder, the rise of cities and industries, the evolution of modern States by the consolidation of numbers of these feudal governments, and the establishment of order and civilization, feudalism passed out with the passing of the conditions which gave rise to it. From the end of the ninth to the middle of the thirteenth centuries it was the dominant form of government.

The life of the nobility under the feudal régime gave a certain picturesqueness to what was otherwise an age of lawlessness and disorder. The chief occupation of a noble was fighting, either in his own quarrel or that of his overlord. It is hard for us to-day to realize how much fighting went on then. Much was said about "honor," but quarrels were easily started, and oaths were poorly kept. It was a day of personal feuds and private warfare, and every noble thought it his right to wage war on his neighbor at any time, without asking the consent of any one. [16] As a preparation for actual warfare a series of mimic encounters, known as tournaments, were held, in which it often happened that knights were killed. In these encounters mounted knights charged one another with spear and lance, performing feats similar to those of actual warfare. This was the great amusement of the period, compared with which the German duel, the Mexican bullfight, or the American game of football are mild sports. The other diversions of the knights and nobles were hunting, hawking, feasting, drinking, making love, minstrelsy, and chess. Intellectual ability formed no part of their accomplishments, and a knowledge of reading and writing was commonly regarded as effeminate.

To take this carousing, fighting, pillaging, ravaging, destructive, and murderous instinct, so strong by nature among the Germanic tribes, and refine it and in time use it to some better purpose, and in so doing to increasingly civilize these Germanic lords and overlords, was the problem which faced the Church and all interested in establishing an orderly society in Europe. As a means of checking this outlawry the Church established and tried to enforce the "Truce of God" (R. 79), and as a partial means of educating the nobility to some better conception of a purpose in life the Church aided in the development of the education of chivalry, the first secular form of education in western Europe since the days of Rome, and added its sanction to it after it arose.

THE EDUCATION OF CHIVALRY. This form of education was an evolution. It began during the latter part of the ninth century and the early part of the tenth, reached its maximum greatness during the period of the Crusades (twelfth century), and passed out of existence by the sixteenth. The period of the Crusades was the heroic age of chivalry. The system of education which gradually developed for the children of the nobility may be briefly described as follows:

1. _Page._ Up to the age of seven or eight the youth was trained at home, by his mother. He played to develop strength, was taught the meaning of obedience, trained in politeness and courtesy, and his religious education was begun. After this, usually at seven, he was sent to the court of some other noble, usually his father's superior in the feudal scale, though in case of kings and feudal lords of large importance the children remained at home and were trained in the palace school. From seven to fourteen the boy was known as a page. He was in particular attached to some lady, who supervised his education in religion, music, courtesy, gallantry, the etiquette of love and honor, and taught him to play chess and other games. He was usually taught to read and write the vernacular language, and was sometimes given a little instruction in reading Latin. [17] To the lord he rendered much personal service such as messenger, servant at meals, and attention to guests. By the men he was trained in running, boxing, wrestling, riding, swimming, and the use of light weapons.

2. _Squire._ At fourteen or fifteen he became a squire. While continuing to serve his lady, with whom he was still in company, and continuing to render personal service in the castle, the squire became in particular the personal servant and bodyguard of the lord or knight. He was in a sense a _valet_ for him, making his bed, caring for his clothes, helping him to dress, and looking after him at night and when sick. He also groomed his horse, looked after his weapons, and attended and protected him on the field of combat or in battle. He himself learned to hunt, to handle shield and spear, to ride in armor, to meet his opponent, and to fight with sword and battle-axe. As he approached the age of twenty-one, he chose his lady- love, who was older than he and who might be married, to whom he swore ever to be devoted, even though he married some one else. He also learned to rhyme, [18] to make songs, sing, dance, play the harp, and observe the ceremonials of the Church. Girls were given this instruction along with the boys, but naturally their training placed its emphasis upon household duties, service, good manners, conversational ability, music, and religion.

3. _Knight._ At twenty-one the boy was knighted, and of this the Church made an impressive ceremonial. After fasting, confession, a night of vigil in armor spent at the altar in holy meditation, and communion in the morning, the ceremony of dubbing the squire a knight took place in the presence of the court. He gave his sword to the priest, who blest it upon the altar. He then took the oath "to defend the Church, to attack the wicked, to respect the priesthood, to protect women and the poor, to preserve the country in tranquillity, and to shed his blood, even to its last drop, in behalf of his brethren." The priest then returned him the sword which he had blessed, charging him "to protect the widows and orphans, to restore and preserve the desolate, to revenge the wronged, and to confirm the virtuous." He then knelt before his lord, who, drawing his own sword and holding it over him, said: "In the name of God, of our Lady, of thy patron Saint, and of Saint Michael and Saint George, I dub thee knight; be brave (touching him with the sword on one shoulder), be bold (on the other shoulder), be loyal (on the head)."

THE CHIVALRIC IDEALS. Such, briefly stated, was the education of chivalry. The cathedral and monastery schools not meeting the needs of the nobility, the castle school was evolved. There was little that was intellectual about the training given--few books, and no training in Latin. Instead, the native language was emphasized, and squires in England frequently learned to speak French. It was essentially an education for secular ends, and prepared not only for active participation in the feuds and warfare of the time, but also for the Seven Perfections of the Middle Ages: (1) Riding, (2) Swimming, (3) Archery, (4) Fencing, (5) Hunting, (6) Whist or Chess, and (7) Rhyming. It also represents the first type of schooling in the Middle Ages designed to prepare for life here, rather than hereafter. For the nobility it was a discipline, just as the Seven Liberal Arts was a discipline for the monks and clergy. Out of it later on was evolved the education of a gentleman as distinct from that of a scholar.

That such training had a civilizing effect on the nobility of the time cannot be doubted. Through it the Church exercised a restraining and civilizing influence on a rude, quarrelsome, and impetuous people, who resented restraints and who had no use for intellectual discipline. It developed the ability to work together for common ends, personal loyalty, and a sense of honor in an age when these were much-needed traits, and the ideal of a life of regulated service in place of one of lawless gratification was set up. What monasticism had done for the religious life in dignifying labor and service, chivalry did for secular life. The Ten Commandments of chivalry, (1) to pray, (2) to avoid sin, (3) to defend the Church, (4) to protect widows and orphans, (5) to travel, (6) to wage loyal war, (7) to fight for his Lady, (8) to defend the right, (9) to love his God, and (10) to listen to good and true men, while not often followed, were valuable precepts to uphold in that age and time. In the great Crusades movement of the twelfth century the Church consecrated the military prowess and restless energy of the nobility to her service, but after this wave had passed chivalry became formal and stilted and rapidly declined in importance (R. 80).

4. _Professional study_

As the one professional study of the entire early Middle-Age period, and the one study which absorbed the intellectual energy of the one learned class, the evolution of the study of Theology possesses particular interest for us.

THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY. During the earlier part of the period under consideration the preparatory study necessary for service in the Church was small, and very elementary in character. The elements of reading, writing, reckoning, and music, as taught to _oblati_ in the monasteries, sufficed. As knowledge increased a little the study of grammar at first, and later all the studies of the _Trivium_ came to be common as preparatory study, while those who made the best preparation added the subjects of the _Quadrivium_. Ethics, or metaphysics, taught largely from the digest of Aristotle's _Ethics_ prepared in the sixth century by Boethius, was the text for this study until about 1200, when Aristotle's _Metaphysics_, _Physics_, _Psychology_, and _Ethics_ were re-introduced into Europe from Saracen sources (R. 87).

The theological course proper experienced a similar development. At first, as we saw in chapter V, there were but few principles of belief, and the church organization was exceedingly simple. In 325 A.D. the Nicene Creed was formulated (p. 96), and the first twenty canons (rules) adopted for the government of the clergy. With the translation of the Bible into the Latin language (_Vulgate_, fourth century), the writings of the early Latin Fathers, and additional canons and expressions of belief adopted at subsequent church councils, an increasing amount relating to belief, church organization, and pastoral duties needed to be imparted to new members of the clergy. Still, up to the eleventh century at least, the theological course remained quite meager. In a tenth-century account the following description of the theological course of the time is given: [19]

1. Elements of grammar and the first part of Donatus. 2. Repeated readings of the Old and New Testaments. 3. Mass prayers. 4. Rules of the Church as to time reckoning. 5. Decrees of the Church Councils. 6. Rules of penance. 7. Prescriptions for church services. 8. Worldly laws. 9. Collections of homilies (sermons). 10. Tractates on the Epistles and Gospels. 11. Lives of the Saints. 12. Church music.

It will be seen from this tenth-century course of theological study that it was based on reading, writing, and reckoning, and a little music as preparatory studies; that it began with the first of the subjects of the _Trivium_, which was studied only in part; and that its purpose was to impart needed information as to dogma, church practices, canon (church) law, and such civil (worldly) law as would be needed by the priest in discharging his functions as the notary and lawyer of the age. There is no suggestion of the study of Theology as a science, based on evidences, logic, and ethics. Such study was not then known, and would not have been tolerated. There were no other professions to study for.

SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION BEGINS. About 1145 Peter the Lombard published his _Book of Sentences_, and this worked a revolution in the teaching of the subject. In topics, arrangement, and method of treatment the book marked a great advance, and became the standard textbook in Theology for a long time. It did much to change the study of Theology from dogmas to a scientific subject, and made possible schools of Theology in the universities now about to arise. In the thirteenth century it was made the official textbook at both the universities of Oxford and Paris. The studies of dialectic and ethics were raised to a new plane of importance by the publication of this book.

By the close of the twelfth century the interest of the Church in a better-trained clergy had grown to such an extent that theological instruction was ordered established wherever there was an Archbishop. In a decree issued by Pope Innocent III and the General Council it was ordered:

In every cathedral or other church of sufficient means, a master ought to be elected by the prelate or chapter, and the income of a prebend assigned to him, and in every metropolitan church a theologian also ought to be elected. And if the church is not rich enough to provide a grammarian and a theologian, it shall provide for the theologian from the revenues of his church, and cause provision to be made for the grammarian in some church of his city or diocese. [20]

We also, in the early thirteenth century, find bishops enforcing theological training on future priests by orders of which the following is a type:

Hugh of Scawby, clerk, presented by Nigel Costentin to the church of (Potter) Hanworth, was admitted and canonically instituted in it as parson, on condition that he comes to the next orders to be ordained subdeacon. But on account of the insufficiency of his grammar, the lord bishop ordered him on pain of loss of his benefice to attend school. And the Dean of Wyville was ordered to induct him into corporal possession of the said church in form aforesaid, and to inform the lord bishop if he does not attend school. [21]

5. _Characteristics of mediaeval education_

FOUNDATIONS LAID FOR A NEW ORDER. The education which we have just described covers the period from the time of the downfall of Rome to the twelfth or the thirteenth century. It represents what the Church evolved to replace that which it and the barbarians had destroyed. Meager as it still was, after seven or eight centuries of effort, it nevertheless presents certain clearly marked lines of development. The beginnings of a new Christian civilization among the tribes which had invaded and overrun the old Roman Empire are evident, and, toward the latter part of the Middle Ages, we note the development of a number of centers of learning (R. 71) and the beginnings of that specialization of knowledge (church doctrine, classical learning, music, logic and ethics, theology), at different church and monastery schools, which promised much for the future of learning. We also notice, and will see the same evidence in the following chapter, the beginnings of a class of scholarly men, though the scholarship is very limited in scope and along lines thoroughly approved by the Church.

In education proper, in the sense that we understand it, the schools provided were still for a very limited class, and secondary rather than elementary in nature. They were intended to meet the needs of an institution rather than of a people, and to prepare those who studied in them for service to that institution. That institution, too, had concentrated its efforts on preparing its members for life in another world, and not for life or service in this. There were as yet no independent schools or scholars, the monks and clergy represented the one learned class, Theology was the one professional study, the ability to read and write was not regarded by noble or commoner as of any particular importance, and all book knowledge was in a language which the people did not understand when they heard it and could not read. Society was as yet composed of three classes--feudal warriors, who spent their time in amusements or fighting, and who had evolved a form of knightly training for their children; privileged priests and monks and nuns, who controlled all book learning and opportunities for professional advancement; and the great mass of working peasants, engaged chiefly in agriculture, and belonging to and helping to fight the battles of their protecting lord.

For these peasants there was as yet no education aside from what the Church gave through her watchful oversight and her religious services (R. 81), and but little leisure, freedom, wealth, security, or economic need to make such education possible or desirable. Moreover, the other-worldly attitude of the Church made such education seem unnecessary. It was still the education of a few for institutional purposes, though here and there, by the close of the twelfth century, the Church was beginning to urge its members to provide some education for their children (R. 82), and the world was at last getting ready for the evolution of the independent scholar, and soon would be ready for the evolution of schools to meet secular needs.

REPRESSIVE ATTITUDE OF THE MEDIAEVAL CHURCH. The great work of the Church during this period, as we see it to-day, was to assimilate and sufficiently civilize the barbarians to make possible a new civilization, based on knowledge and reason rather than force. To this end the Church had interposed her authority against barbarian force, and had slowly won the contest. Almost of necessity the Church had been compelled to insist upon her way, and this type of absolutism in church government had been extended to most other matters. The Bible, or rather the interpretations of it which church councils, popes, bishops, and theological writers had made, became authoritative, and disobedience or doubt became sinful in the eyes of the Church. [22] The Scriptures were made the authority for everything, and interpretations the most fantastic were made of scriptural verses. Unquestioning belief was extended to many other matters, with the result that tales the most wonderful were recounted and believed. To question, to doubt, to disbelieve--these were among the deadly sins of the early Middle Ages. This attitude of mind undoubtedly had its value in assimilating and civilizing the barbarians, and probably was a necessity at the time, but it was bad for the future of the Church as an institution, and utterly opposed to scientific inquiry and intellectual progress. Monroe well expresses the situation which came to exist when he says:

The validity of any statement, the actuality of any alleged instance, came to be determined, not by any application of rationalistic principle, not by inherent plausibility, not by actual inquiry into the facts of the case, but by its agreement with religious feelings or beliefs, its effect in furthering the influence of the Church or the reputation of a saint--in general, by its relationship to matters of faith. Thus it happens that the chronicles of the monks and the lives of the saints, charming and interesting as they are in their naïveté, their simplicity, their trustful credulity, and their pictures of a life and an attitude of mind so remote from ours, are filled with incidents given as facts that test the greatest faith, strain the most vivid imagination, and shock that innate respect for reality, that it is the purpose of modern education to inculcate. [23]

This authoritative and repressive attitude of the Church expressed itself in many ways. The teaching of the period is an excellent example of this influence. The instruction in the so-called Seven Liberal Arts remained unchanged throughout a period of half a dozen centuries--so much accumulated knowledge passed on as a legacy to succeeding generations. It represented mere instruction; not education. As a recent writer has well expressed it, the whole knowledge and culture contained in the Seven Liberal Arts remained "like a substance in suspension in a medium incapable of absorbing it; unchanged throughout the whole mediaeval period." Inquiry or doubt in religious matters was not tolerated, and scientific inquiry and investigation ceased to exist. The notable scientific advances of the Greeks, their literature and philosophy, and particularly their genius for free inquiry and investigation, no longer influenced a world dominated by an institution preparing its children only for life in a world to come. Not until the world could shake off this mediaeval attitude toward scientific inquiry and make possible honest doubt was any real intellectual progress possible. In a rough, general way the turn in the tide came about the beginning of the twelfth century, and for the next five centuries the Church was increasingly busy trying, like King Canute of old, to stop the waves of free inquiry and scientific doubt from rising higher against the bulwarks it had erected.

THE MEDIAEVAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. The educational system which the Church had developed by 1200 continued unchanged in its essential features until after the great awakening known as the Revival of Learning, or Renaissance. This system we have just sketched. For instruction in the elements of learning we have the inner and outer monastery and convent schools, and, in connection with the churches, song schools, and chantry or stipendary schools. In these last we have the beginnings of the parish school for instruction in the elements of learning and the fundamentals of faith for the children of the faithful. In the monasteries, convents, and in connection with the cathedral churches we have the secondary instruction fairly well organized with the _Trivium_ and the _Quadrivium_ as the basis. At the close of the period under consideration in this chapter a few privately endowed grammar schools were just beginning to be founded to supplement the work of the cathedral schools (RS. 141-143). In some of the inner monastery schools and a few of the cathedral schools we also have the beginnings of higher instruction, with theology as the one professional subject and the one learned career.

All these schools, too, were completely under the control of the Church. There were no private schools or teachers before about 1200. Only the chivalric education was under the control of princes or kings, and even this the Church kept under its supervision. The Church was still the State, to a large degree, and the Church, unlike Greece or Rome, took the education of the young upon itself as one of its most important functions. The schools taught what the Church approved, and the instruction was for religious and church ends. The monks who gave instruction in the monasteries were responsible to the Abbot, who was in turn responsible to the head of the order and through him to the Pope at Rome. Similarly the _scholasticus_ in the cathedral school and the _precentor_ in the song school were both responsible to the Bishop, and again through Archbishop and Cardinal to the Pope.

THE FIRST TEACHER'S CERTIFICATES AND SCHOOL SUPERVISION. Toward the latter part of the period under consideration in this chapter an interesting development in church school administration took place. As the cathedral and song schools increased assistant teachers were needed, and the _scholasticus_ and _precentor_ gradually withdrew from instruction and became the supervisors of instruction, or rather the principals of their respective schools. As song or parish schools were established in the parishes of the diocese teachers for these were needed, and the _scholasticus_ and _precentor_ extended their authority and supervision over these, just as the Bishop had done much earlier (p. 97) over the training and appointment of priests. By 1150 we have, clearly evolved, the system of central supervision of the training of all teachers in the diocese through the issuing, for the first time in Europe, of licenses to teach (R. 83). The system was finally put into legal form by a decree adopted by a general council of the Church at Rome, in 1179, which required that the _scholasticus_ "should have authority to superintend all the schoolmasters of the diocese and grant them licenses without which none should presume to teach," and that "nothing be exacted for licenses to teach" issued by him, thus stopping the charging of fees for their issuance. The _precentor_, in a similar manner, claimed and often secured supervision of all elementary, and especially all song-school instruction. Teachers were also required to take an oath of fealty and obedience (R. 84 b).

As a result of centuries of evolution we thus find, by 1200, a limited but powerful church school system, with centralized control and supervision of instruction, diocesan licenses to teach, and a curriculum adapted to the needs of the institution in control of the schools. We also note the beginnings of secular instruction in the training of the nobility for life's service, though even this is approved and sanctioned by the Church. The centralized religious control thus established continued until the nineteenth century, and still exists to a more or less important degree in the school systems of Italy, the old Austro-Hungarian States, Germany, England, and some other western nations. As we shall see later on, one of the big battles in the process of developing state school systems has come through the attempt of the State to substitute its own organization for this religious monopoly of instruction.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Outline the instruction in an inner monastery school.

2. Show how the mediaeval parish school naturally developed as an offshoot of the cathedral schools, and was supplemented later by the endowed chantry schools.

3. What effect did the development of song-school instruction have on the instruction in the cathedral schools?

4. Why was it difficult to develop good cathedral schools during the early Middle Ages?

5. About how much training would be represented to-day by the Seven Liberal Arts, (_a_) assuming the body of knowledge then known? (_b_) assuming the body of knowledge for each subject known to-day?

6. What great subject of study has been developed out of one part of the study of mediaeval rhetoric?

7. Why would dialectic naturally not be of much importance, so long as instruction in theology was dogmatic and not a matter of thinking?

8. Characterize the instruction in arithmetic, geometry, and geography during the early Middle Ages. Would we consider such knowledge as of any value? Explain the attention given to such instruction.

9. What great modern subjects of study have been developed out of the mediaeval subjects of arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy?

10. Compare the knowledge of mediaevals and moderns in (a) geography, (b) astronomy.

11. What does the fact that the few great textbooks were in use for so many centuries indicate as to the character of educational progress during the Middle Ages?

12. Was the Church wise in adopting and sanctifying the education of chivalry? Why?

13. What important contributions to world progress came out of chivalric education?

14. What ideals and practices from chivalry have been retained and are still in use to-day? Does the Boy Scouts movement embody any of the chivalric ideas and training?

15. Compare the education of the body by the Greeks and under chivalry.

16. Compare the Athenian ephebic oath with the vows of chivalry.

17. Picture the present world transferred back to a time when theology was the one profession.

18. What educational theory, conscious or unconscious, formed the basis for mediaeval education and instruction?

19. Explain why the Church, after six or seven centuries of effort, still provided schools only for preparation for its own service.

20. What does the lack of independent scholars during the Middle Ages indicate as to possible leisure?

21. Was the attitude of Anselm a perfectly natural one for the Middle Ages? Can progress be made with such an attitude dominant?

22. Contrast the deadly sins of the Middle Ages with present-day conceptions as to education.

23. Contrast the purposes of mediaeval education and the education of to- day.

24. When Greece and Rome offered no precedents, how did the Church come to so fully develop and control the education which was provided?

25. Compare the supervisory work of a modern county superintendent with that of a _scholasticus_ of a mediaeval cathedral.

SELECTED READINGS

In the accompanying _Book of Readings_ the following selections are reproduced:

70. Leach: Song and Grammar Schools in England. 71. Mullinger: The Episcopal and Monastic Schools. 72. Statutes: The School at Salisbury Cathedral. 73. Aldwincle: Foundation Grant for a Chantry School. 74. Maurus: The Seven Liberal Arts. 75. Leach: A Mediaeval Latin Colloquy. 76. Quintilian: On the Importance of the Study of Grammar. 77. Anglicus: The Elements, and the Planets. (a) Of the Elements. (b) Of Double Moving of the Planets. 78. Cott: A Tenth Century Schoolmaster's Books. 79. Archbishop of Cologne: The Truce of God. 80. Gautier: How the Church used Chivalry. 81. Draper: Educational Influences of the Church Services. 82. Winchester Diocesan Council: How the Church urged that the Elements of Religious Education be given. 83. Lincoln Cathedral: Licenses required to teach Song. 84. English Forms: Appointment and Oath of a Grammar-School Master. (a) Northallerton: Appointment of a master of Song and Grammar. (b) Archdeacon of Ely: Oath of a Grammar-School Master to.

QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS

1. Distinguish between song and grammar schools (70), and state what was taught in each. Do we have any modern analogy to the same teacher teaching both schools, as was sometimes done?

2. Distinguish between monastic and episcopal (cathedral) schools (71). When was the great era of each? How do you explain the change in relative importance of the two?

3. Explain the process of evolution of a parish school out of a chantry school.

4. What was the nature of the cathedral school at Salisbury (72)?

5. What type of a school was provided for in the Aldwincle chantry (73)? Why was it not until after the twelfth century that the endowing of schools (73) began to supersede the endowing of priests, churches, and monasteries?

6. How do you explain the need for so many years to master the Seven Liberal Arts (74)?

7. Into what subjects of study have we broken up the old subject of grammar, as described by Quintilian (76), and how have we distributed them throughout our school system? Is technical grammar at present taught in the best possible place?

8. What stage in scientific knowledge do the selections from Anglicus (77 a-b) indicate? What rate of scientific progress is indicated by its translation and length of use?

9. What scope of knowledge is represented in the library (78) of the tenth-century schoolmaster? What does the list indicate as to the state of learning of the time?

10. Picture the manners and morals of a time which called for the proclamation of a Truce of God (79). Would the rate of progress of civilization and the rate of elimination of warfare up to then, and since, indicate that the Church has been very successful in imposing its will?

11. Show how Chivalry was made a great asset to the Church (80).

12. How do you explain the much greater simplicity of the church service of modern Protestant churches than that of the Roman (81) or Greek Catholic churches?

13. Explain the form of mild compulsion toward learning which the diocesan council of Winchester (82) attempted to institute.

14. Is the modern state teacher's certificate a natural outgrowth of the mediaeval licenses (83) to teach grammar and song? Why did the Church insist on these when Rome had not required such?

15. Show how the modern oath of office of a teacher, and the possibility of dismissal for insubordination, is a natural development from the oath of fealty and obedience (84 b) of the mediaeval teacher? Is this true also for our modern notices of appointment (84 a)?

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES

* Abelson, Paul. _The Seven Liberal Arts_. Addison, Julia de W. _Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages_. Besant, W. _The Story of King Alfred_. * Clark, J. W. _The Care of Books_. Davidson, Thomas. "The Seven Liberal Arts"; in _Educational Review_, vol. II, pp. 467-73. (Also in his _Aristotle_.) Mombert, J. I. _History of Charles the Great_. * Mullinger, J. B. _The Schools of Charles the Great_. Sandys, J. E. _History of Classical Scholarship_, vol. I. Scheffel, Victor. _Ekkehard_. (Historical novel of monastic life.) Steele, Philip. _Mediaeval Lore_. (Anglicus' Cyclopaedia.)