wrought by the teachings of such doctrine, that we are concerned.
From an adherence to this method of reasoning arose the whole monkish
system; for, says Mosheim, “This method of reasoning produced strange
effects, and drove many into caves and deserts, where they macerated
their bodies with hunger and thirst, and submitted to all the miseries
of the severest discipline that a gloomy imagination could prescribe.”
Egypt soon swarmed with these fanatics, and the whole history of the
Dark Ages circles around them. They broke the bonds of family affection,
overturned governments, and seated popes. Draper, speaking of the monks,
says: “It is said that there were at one time in that country [Egypt] of
these religious recluses not fewer than seventy-six thousand males and
twenty-seven thousand females. With countless other uncouth forms, under
the hot sun of that climate they seemed to be spawned from the mud of
the Nile.” “From Egypt and Syria monachism spread like an epidemic.” “It
was significantly observed that the road to ecclesiastical elevation lay
through the monastery porch, and often _ambition contentedly wore for a
season the cowl, that it might seize more surely the miter_.”[81]
[Sidenote: Monks control schools]
We shall need to study the monastic system as the repositories of
learning in the Dark Ages, and therefore give but a passing glance at the
origin of the order in the doctrine of mysticism. Its evils can not be
portrayed without a blush, and it was against this system, taking as it
did into its clutches the education of the masses, that the Reformation
thrust its weight. We have seen truth _struggling_ against error. It was
in the _schools_ of _the early Christians_ that wisdom _by faith_ was
taught. It was _into these same schools_ that pagan philosophy crept. It
was the teacher who espoused this philosophy, and again a teacher who
opposed it. Students imbibed the ideas of the leading educators, and
became church teachers. The strongest minds, turning from the Word, and
that alone, became expounders of philosophy and the sciences.
[Sidenote: Schools of the Dark Ages]
Gradually error prevailed, until in the schools, almost entirely in
monastic hands, truth was so covered that D’Aubigné’s description of
the work of the schoolmen of the Dark Ages is striking. He says: “These
industrious artisans of thought had unraveled every theological idea,
and of all their threads had woven a web, under which it would have
been difficult for more skillful persons than their contemporaries to
recognize the truth in its pristine purity.”
It is not the province of this chapter to deal with theological
controversies in themselves. It is only as these controversies took
possession of and molded the courses of study in the schools; only as
they found their strongest supporters in the persons of teachers, and
were carried to the world by students, that our attention is drawn to
another line of argument, which, as it were, clenched the work of the
papacy, and gave it its power over the minds of men.
[Sidenote: Pelagianism taught]
Quoting again from D’Aubigné: “The _Pelagian_ doctrine, expelled by
Augustine from the church when it had presented itself boldly, insinuated
itself as demi-Pelagianism, and under the mask of the Augustine forms
of expression. This error spread with astonishing rapidity throughout
Christendom. The danger of the doctrine was particularly manifested in
this,—that by placing goodness without, and not within, the heart, it set
a great value on external actions, legal observances, and penitential
works.... Whilst Pelagianism corrupted the Christian doctrine, it
_strengthened the hierarchy_.... When it laid down a doctrine that man
could attain a state of perfect sanctification, it affirmed also that
the merits of saints and martyrs might be applied to the church....
Pelagianism multiplied rites and ceremonies.
“But it was especially by the _system of penance_, which flowed
immediately from Pelagianism, that Christianity was perverted. At
first, _penance_ had consisted in certain public expressions of
repentance.... By degrees it was extended to every sin, even to the
most secret.... Instead of looking to Christ for pardon, through faith
alone, it was sought for principally in the church through penitential
works.... _Flagellations_ were superadded to these practices.... They
accordingly invented that system of barter celebrated under the title
of _Indulgences_.... A bull of Clement VII declared it an article
of faith.... The philosophers of Alexandria had spoken of a fire in
which men were to be purified. _Many ancient_ doctors had adopted this
notion; and Rome declared this philosophical opinion a tenet of the
church. _The pope by a bull annexed purgatory to his domain._”[82] “The
Catholic Church was not the papacy,” says D’Aubigné. “The latter was the
oppressor, the former the oppressed.” Draper tersely defines the papacy
as “THE TYRANNY OF THEOLOGY OVER THOUGHT.”
[Sidenote: Summary]
Men departed from the simplicity of a gospel by faith. Reason and
scientific research took the place of faith in the Word. Education turned
men’s minds from God to self, and reason was exalted. The papacy was thus
formed. If we look for a visible union of the church and the state before
recognizing it as the papacy, we shall find ourselves entrapped; _for it
is the working out of a system of education based on human philosophy
that forms the papacy_; and the body which adopts this system of
education naturally turns to the state for support.
[Sidenote: Papacy overthrown by Christian education]
It is because of the truth of this statement that the papacy wields its
influence through its schools; this is why it has always feared a revival
of learning more than the combined forces of all the armies of the world.
A death-blow to the papacy can be struck only by introducing a system of
education founded upon the teachings of Christ, placing God’s Word as
guide, and inspiring faith as the one avenue to wisdom.
XI
EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES
The development of the papacy led directly to the Dark Ages, for “the
noontide of the papacy was the world’s moral midnight.” The papacy
was the logical working out of an educational scheme; hence the moral
darkness which spread over the world during the prophetic period of
twelve hundred and sixty years was due to wrong methods of education.
People do not sink into degradation and sin when properly educated. Truth
elevates, and, when embodied in man, brings him nearer to his Maker.
Faith is the ladder by which he climbs, and when that element has been
lacking in an educational system, the masses have sunk lower and lower.
[Sidenote: Papacy’s tyranny of theology over thought]
Mind is a wonderful thing, the most profound study of the universe. It
was designed to be free, to grasp the mighty laws of its own Creator,
and a means was supplied by which that very thing could be done: “If any
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ... but let him ask in faith,
nothing wavering.”
In order to maintain the supremacy thus gained, it was necessary for the
education of the young to lie wholly within the control of the papal
hierarchy; and it is with their educational institutions and educational
methods that we have now to deal. It is hoped that the study of the Dark
Ages will so accentuate the importance of Protestants’ maintaining their
own schools, that the tendency now so strong in the other direction
may receive a check. The education begun in the schools of the early
Christians has been followed into the monastic institutions of the
Middle Ages. The life and power of Christianity departed, and form alone
remained. It has been said that “paganism in the garb of Christianity
walked into the church,” and it can truthfully be added that _it gained
admittance through the schools_.
[Sidenote: Papal primary schools]
In order to trace carefully the education offered by the papacy,—and that
comprised all that was then offered,—the first quotations are concerning
primary instruction. Laurie says: “Instruction began about the age of
seven. The _alphabet_, written on tables or leaves, was learned by heart
by the children, _then syllables and words_. The first reading-book was
the Latin psalter, and this was read again and again _until it could be
said by heart_; and numerous priests, and even monks, were content all
their lives with the mere sound of Latin words, which they could both
read and recite, but did not understand.”[83]
[Sidenote: Prominence of memory work]
Note carefully that work for these children was almost wholly
_memory_ work. They were to _learn by heart_ and to _repeat without
understanding_. This was the first step in that great system which binds
the minds of the masses to the will of one sovereign mind.
“Writing followed.” “The elements of arithmetic were also taught, but
merely with a view to the calculation of church days and festivals.”[84]
[Sidenote: Early use of Latin]
“Latin was begun very early (apparently immediately after the
psaltery was known), with the _learning by heart_ of declensions and
conjugations and lists of vocables. The rule was to use Latin in the
school in conversing.... In the eleventh century, if not earlier, Latin
conversation-books ... were not only read, but, like everything else,
_learned by heart_.”[85] Their method of studying Latin emphasizes
the thought of the formal abstract way of teaching, which tended
to conservatism and mental subjection. “Memory is the faculty that
subordinates the present under the past, and its extensive training
develops a habit of mind that holds by what is prescribed, and recoils
from the new and untried. In short, the educational curriculum that lays
great stress on memorizing, produces a class of conservative people.”[86]
The papal schools employed methods which, in themselves, in the course
of a few generations would develop dependent rather than independent
thinking; therefore methods are as important as the subject taught.
[Sidenote: Result of universal language]
Again it is well to remember that there was a deep design in making the
Latin tongue universal. It was one of the ways by which the papacy kept
its control of all nations and tongues. Draper explains it thus:—
“The unity of the church, and, therefore, _its power_, required the use
of Latin as a sacred language. Through this Rome had stood in an attitude
strictly European, and was enabled to maintain a general international
relation. It gave her far more power than her asserted celestial
authority.... Their officials could pass without difficulty into every
nation, and communicate without embarrassment with each other, from
Ireland to Bohemia, from Italy to Scotland.”[87]
[Sidenote: Fables and traditions of men]
The character of the youth was formed, says Painter, from memorizing “the
_fables of Æsop_ and collections of maxims and proverbs. After this,
Virgil was usually the text-book, and was handled in the same style.”
[Sidenote: Studies of Monastic schools]
Of the monastic schools Mosheim says: “In most of the schools, the
so-called seven liberal arts were taught. The pupil commenced with
grammar, then proceeded to rhetoric, and afterward to logic or
dialectics. Having thus mastered the Trivium, as it was called, those
who aspired to greater attainments proceeded with slow steps through
the _Quadrivium_ [a course including arithmetic, music, geometry, and
astronomy] to the honor of perfectly learned men.”[88]
Says Painter: “Seven years were devoted to the completion of the course
in liberal arts [the Trivium and the Quadrivium].... Dialectic or logic
was based somewhat remotely on the writings of Aristotle. At a later
period, logic was rigidly applied to the development of theology, and
gave rise to a class of scholars called the schoolmen.... Arithmetic was
imperfectly taught, importance being attached to the supposed secret
properties of numbers. Geometry was taught in an abridged form, while
astronomy did not differ materially from astrology. The study of music
consisted chiefly in learning to chant the hymns of the church.”[89]
[Sidenote: Greater emphasis on logic]
Mosheim thus continues his description of the work of the schools in the
eleventh century: “This course of study, adopted in all the schools of
the West, was not a little changed after the middle of this century. For
logic, ... having been improved by the reflection and skill of certain
close thinkers, and being taught more fully and acutely, acquired such
an ascendency in the minds of the majority, that they neglected grammar,
rhetoric, and the other sciences, both the elegant and the abstruse, and
devoted their whole lives to dialectics, or to logical and metaphysical
discussions. For whoever was well acquainted with dialectics, or what we
call logic and metaphysics, was supposed to possess learning enough, and
to lose nothing by being ignorant of all other branches of learning....
In this age, the philosophy of the Latins was confined wholly to what
they called dialectics; and the other branches of philosophy were unknown
even by name. Moreover their dialectics was miserably dry and barren.”[90]
[Sidenote: Patristical Geography]
This is sufficient, perhaps, on the use of language and logic, and we
turn to geography and some of the sciences. Even the children to-day will
smile at the teachings of some of the Church Fathers on the subject of
geography. Says Draper: “In the Patristic Geography the earth is a flat
surface bordered by the waters of the sea, on the yielding support of
which rests the crystalline dome of the sky. These doctrines were for
the most part supported by passages from the Holy Scriptures, perversely
wrested from their proper meaning. Thus Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose
Patristic Geography had been an authority for nearly eight hundred years,
triumphantly disposed of the sphericity of the earth by demanding of its
advocates, how, in the day of judgment, men on the other side of a globe
could see the Lord descending through the air!”[91]
[Sidenote: The beneficial work of explorers]
It was in opposition to such theories, and a hundred absurdities
concerning the ocean, the boiling waters of the equator, the serpents
in the West, etc., that Columbus, De Gama, and other explorers had to
contend; and one of the most wonderful effects of the work of these
navigators was the thrust given papal education. A wound was then
received which was incurable.
If, in the mind of the reader, the question arises, Why should the papal
schools teach such things? simply consider that the whole system of papal
theology was intended to make the people feel that the world was the
center of the universe, and that the pope was the center of the world.
Christ and his position in creation were usurped by the head of the
church. THIS WAS THE PAPACY.
[Sidenote: Modern schools cling to papal methods]
This could be brought about _only by education_, and could be maintained
only as generation after generation was _taught_ from infancy to old age
to place faith in man, not God. Not only the subjects taught, but the
manner of teaching them, served well the purpose of the papacy. Only
within the last few years, comparatively speaking, have our own schools
seen the necessity of breaking away from some of those relics of the
educational system of the Dark Ages.
[Sidenote: Detection of wrong methods]
Memory work, pure and simple, has given way in a great measure to
research and experiment, even in the primary grades. The alphabet is no
longer driven into the childish mind by the ferule, nor kept there by
mere force of repetition. The advanced methods in dealing with the mind
are a step in the right direction. The pity is that educators, while
groping for light, while casting off some of the moth-eaten garments of
past ages, have failed to see the cause of the evil, and deal so largely
with results instead of removing the cause. The evil began by renouncing
the Scriptures and faith in Holy Writ as a part of education. The spirit
and power will accompany reform only when these are replaced in their
proper setting.
[Sidenote: New books]
While educators of the world are realizing the need of a change in
methods, it is time for them to see also the need of a change in subject
matter and text-books. _Protestants_ in particular _should arouse_ to
the times. If the study of paganism, instead of Christianity or truth,
produced the Dark Ages, and if wrong methods held the minds of men and
prolonged that darkness, forbidding the shining of the light, it is time
for both _methods and material_ to be reconstructed in the schools of
to-day.
[Sidenote: Science in the papal schools]
We can with profit notice the attitude of the papal schools toward
some of the sciences, taking for example that most practical of modern
branches, the science of medicine. What was the work of the physician
during the Dark Ages? Draper says: “Physicians were viewed by the church
with dislike, and regarded as atheists by the people, who held firmly to
the lessons they had been taught, that cures must be wrought by relics of
martyrs and bones of saints, by prayers and intercessions.”[92]
[Sidenote: True healing forsaken]
It is well to remember that Christ was the Great Physician, healing not
only soul maladies, but physical infirmities as well; and to the apostles
was given the commission to heal the sick and restore sight to the blind.
Gradually, however, as the power of the gospel in its purity was lost by
the substitution of error for truth, the leaders of the church introduced
miracle cures, and preached the efficacy of the bones of saints, etc., in
the cure of disease. This became popular, and increased throughout the
Dark Ages.
[Sidenote: Medical study discouraged]
Draper describes the fanaticism of the monastic schools, and finally
assigns a reason for the exclusion from them of the study of physiology
and anatomy and the science of medicine. “The body,” he says, “was under
some spiritual charge,—the first joint of the right thumb being in the
care of God the Father, the second under that of the blessed Virgin,
and so on of other parts. For each disease there was a saint. A man
with sore eyes must invoke St. Clara, but if it were an inflammation
elsewhere, he must turn to St. Anthony.... For the propitiation of these
celestial beings it was necessary that fees should be paid, and thus the
practice of imposture—medicine became a great source of profit. In all
this there was no other intention than that of extracting money.”[93]
[Sidenote: Doctors in secret]
While such was the teachings of the papacy, the Jews and Mohammedans were
achieving wonderful success, and making discoveries of lasting benefit to
mankind in Spain and Asia Minor. “Bishops, princes, kings, and popes had
each in private his Hebrew doctor; though all understood that he was a
contraband luxury, in many countries pointedly and absolutely prohibited
by the law. In the eleventh century nearly all the physicians in Europe
were Jews.” One reason for this was: “The church would tolerate no
interference with her spiritual methods of treating disease, which formed
one of her most productive sources of gain; and the study of medicine had
been formally introduced into the rabbinical schools.”[94]
[Sidenote: Jewish physicians prohibited]
The bitter hatred of the papacy toward independence of mind is well
illustrated in the treatment that the Jewish physicians received from the
popes. Draper says: “The school at Salerno was still sending forth its
doctors. In Rome, Jewish physicians were numerous, the popes themselves
employing them.... At this period Spain and France were full of learned
Jews; and perhaps partly by their exerting too much influence upon the
higher classes with whom they came in contact (for the physician of a
Christian prince was very often the rival of his confessor), and partly
because the practice of medicine, as they pursued it, interfered with the
gains of the church, the clergy took alarm, and caused to be re-enacted
or enforced the ancient laws. The Council of Beziers (A.D. 1246) and the
Council of Alby (A.D. 1254) prohibited all Christians from resorting to
the services of an Israelitish physician.”[95]
[Sidenote: Hatred of physicians]
To show that this was a matter which concerned the _schools_, and in
proof of the statement that papal schools still adhere to formalism,
miracle cure, and relic worship, we need only to notice that “the
faculty of Paris [University], awakening at last to the danger of the
case, caused, A.D. 1301, a decree to be published prohibiting either
man or woman of the religion of Moses from practicing medicine upon any
person of the Catholic religion. A similar course was pursued in Spain.
At this time the Jews were confessedly at the head of French medicine. It
was the appointment of one of their persuasion, Profatius, _as regent_ of
the faculty of Montpellier, A.D. 1300, which drew upon them the wrath of
the faculty of Paris.”
[Sidenote: Jews banished]
“The animosity of the French ecclesiastics against the Jewish physicians
at last led to the banishment of all the Jews from France, A.D.
1306.”[96] The papal universities were unwilling to teach medicine, and
finding that the Jewish schools of science were greatly weakening papal
authority in France, this race was banished bodily.
[Sidenote: Position of physiology]
Comparing this history with the present work of the medical fraternity,
and especially with that class of medical students whose life work is to
spread the gospel while relieving the body, one better understands that
physiology should be the basis of every educational effort, and the place
that it and kindred sciences should occupy in the courses of instruction
pursued by our children, youth, and maturer minds; and also the cause of
that spiritual darkness which is even now hanging over the world, and
for centuries held Europe in its clutches; but it shall be pierced by
Christian education.
[Sidenote: Papal method of meeting opposition]
The papacy, in case of opposition which threatened her authority, had
two methods of procedure. The first was an attempt to annihilate both
the trouble and the troublers. Thus she simply banished all Jews from
France that her own universities might not be overshadowed by the light
of truth. Her second method of procedure was a counter-reformation; that
is, if a reform in education arose outside the church which threatened
to undermine her doctrines, it might be met by a partial reform within
her borders, the reform going only so far as was absolutely necessary to
satisfy the cravings of minds that dared think for themselves.
[Sidenote: Papacy can compromise]
It was not always possible to completely crush a reformation, or the
reformers; and as was quite often the case in the schools, studies which
could not be entirely banished, were taught, but in such a way as best
to conserve the needs of the church. That medicine, as well as law, was
taught in the higher papal schools, can not be denied. Says Mosheim:
“The seven liberal arts [The Trivium and the Quadrivium] were gradually
included under the term _philosophy_; to which were added _theology_,
_jurisprudence_, and _medicine_. And thus these four _faculties_, as they
are called, were in the next century formed in the universities.”[97]
[Sidenote: Medical study corrupted]