to awaken the mediæval mind, especially during the latter part of
the Middle Ages, was the development of the Church philosophy known
as ‘scholasticism.’ This movement does not indicate any one set of
doctrines, but is rather a general designation for the peculiar methods
and tendencies of philosophic speculation that became prominent within
the Church in the eleventh century, came to their height during the
twelfth and thirteenth, and declined rapidly the following century. The
name is derived from _doctor scholasticus_, which was the title given
during the mediæval period to the authorized teachers in a monastic or
episcopal school, for it was among these ‘schoolmen’ that the movement
started and developed. Its most striking characteristics are the
narrowness of its field and the thoroughness with which it was worked.
[Sidenote: Anselm]
[Sidenote: and Abelard.]
=The History of Scholastic Development.=--The history of scholasticism
belongs properly to the field of philosophy, but its influence in
bringing on the Renaissance and its effect upon education make a brief
consideration of its development necessary here. It began as an effort
to vanquish heresy in the interest of the Church dogmas, which until
late in the Middle Ages it had not generally been necessary to explain.
Even then it was assumed that the Church was in possession of all final
truth, which had come to it by Divine revelation, and was in harmony
with reason, when fully understood. It was, therefore, the aim of the
earlier schoolmen to show how these doctrines were consistent with
each other and in accordance with reason. At first, as with Anselm
(1033-1109), it was held that faith must precede reason, and where
reason was incapable of penetrating the mysteries of revealed doctrine,
it must desist from its efforts. But the conviction gradually gained
ground that human reason is reliable and that truth can be reached
only through investigation. Abelard (1079-1142) declared that the only
justification of a doctrine is its reasonableness, that reason must
precede faith, and that it is not sinful to doubt.
[Sidenote: Aquinas, Scotus, and Occam.]
A new epoch for scholasticism dawned in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries through contact with the Greek philosophy of the Moors
in Spain and the subsequent recovery of some original treatises of
Aristotle (see p. 67). For a time the Church endeavored to suppress the
great philosopher, but, failing to do so, soon utilized his works for
its own defense, and even made reason identical with Aristotle, whose
authority was not to be disputed. A group of most prominent schoolmen
arose, and, as a result of the discussions of Aquinas (1225-1274),
Duns Scotus (1274-1308), and William of Occam (1280-1347), it came
to be held that truth is established by the _fiat_ of God, and that
ecclesiastical dogmas are, consequently, not matters of reason, but
purely of faith. As a result of this breach between revelation and
reason, there arose two types of truth, and a tendency to choose that
type which was supported by reason.
[Sidenote: Aim,]
[Sidenote: content,]
[Sidenote: and method.]
=Scholastic Education.=--The schoolmen were thus throughout attempting
to rationalize the teachings of the Church, and to present them
in scientific form. As an education, scholasticism aimed also at
furnishing a training in dialectic and intellectual discipline that
should make the student both keen and learned in the knowledge of
the times. The scholastic course of study, which was given at first
in the monastic and episcopal schools and later in the universities,
consisted in the beliefs of the Church and the limited learning of the
times arranged in a systematized form largely on the deductive basis
of the Aristotelian logic. This knowledge could all be grouped under
the head of philosophical theology. The best illustration of the formal
and dogmatic way in which these doctrines were usually presented can
be found in the _Sententiæ_ of Peter the Lombard (1100-1160) and the
_Summa Theologiæ_ of Aquinas (1225-1274), which were the standard texts
of the day upon theology. The work of Aquinas has four main parts,
under each of which is grouped a number of problems. Every problem
is concerned with some fundamental doctrine, and is further divided
into several subtopics. After the problem has been stated, first the
arguments and authorities for the various solutions other than the
orthodox one are given and refuted in regular order, then the proper
solution with its arguments is set forth, and finally, the different
objections to it are answered in a similarly systematic way. Peter the
Lombard’s work has a like arrangement.
[Sidenote: It systematized Church doctrines, and liberated philosophy
from theology.]
=Its Value and Influence.=--As a whole, the work of scholastic
education has been underestimated. It has been urged that it ruined
all spiritual realities by its extreme systemization of religion, that
it dealt with mere abstractions, and that it indulged in over-subtle
distinctions and verbal quibbles. But the scholastic arguments were
not as purposeless or absurd as they seem. For example, the celebrated
inquiry of Aquinas as to the number of angels that could stand on the
point of a needle is simply an attempt to present the nature of the
Infinite in concrete form. It is the characteristic of reasoning beings
to analyze, compare, abstract, and classify, and while scholasticism
may have carried its abstractions, hair-splittings, and scientific
terminology to an extreme, it performed a great service for knowledge.
It found a confused mass of traditional and irrational doctrines
and practices, made them systematic, rational, and scientific,
and greatly assisted accuracy in thinking. The discussions of the
schoolmen resulted in liberating philosophy from theology, and, without
intending it perhaps, scholastic education aided the cause of human
reason against dogmatism and absolute authority. It greatly stimulated
intellectual interests, produced the most acute and subtle minds of the
age, and helped to prepare the way for the Renaissance.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--The temple of wisdom.
An allegorical representation of the mediæval course of study
reproduced from the _Margarita Philosophica_ of Gregorius Reisch,
Freiburg, 1504. Donatus (elementary grammar) on the first floor;
Priscian (advanced grammar) on second; Aristotle (logic), Cicero
(rhetoric), and Boethius (arithmetic) on the third; Pythagoras (music),
Euclid (geometry), and Ptolemy (astronomy) on the fourth; Pliny
(natural history) and Seneca (ethics) on the fifth; and Peter the
Lombard (theology) on top.]
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Graves, _During the Transition_ (Macmillan, 1910), chap. VI; Monroe,
_Text-book_ (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 292-313. For a good account of all
_The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages_ (Hodder, London, 1881), see
the work of Townsend, W. J.; for the beginnings of scholasticism,
Mullinger, J. B., _The University of Cambridge_ (Longmans, Green,
1888), vol. I, pp. 47-64; for the life and influence of Abelard,
Compayré, G., _Abelard_ (Scribner, 1893), chap. I; McCabe, J.,
_Abelard_ (Putnam, 1901); and Rashdall, H., _The Universities of Europe
in the Middle Ages_ (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1895), vol. I, chap. II.
CHAPTER IX
THE MEDIÆVAL UNIVERSITIES
OUTLINE
Universities began to spring up toward the close of the Middle
Ages. Through local conditions, a course in medicine arose at
Salerno; in civil and canon law at Bologna; and in theology at
Paris. Bologna became the pattern for numerous universities in the
South; and Paris for many in the North.
Popes and sovereigns granted privileges by charter to the various
universities. The term ‘university’ originally signified a
‘corporation’ of students and teachers, and the students were
usually grouped according to ‘nations.’ The teaching body was
divided into four or five ‘faculties.’
The course in arts included the seven liberal arts and portions of
Aristotle; in civil and canon law, the _Corpus Juris Civilis_ of
Justinian and the _Decree_ of Gratian respectively; in medicine,
the treatises of Greek and other medical writers; and in theology,
mostly the _Sententiæ_ of Peter the Lombard. The texts were read
and explained by the lecturers, and a practical training in debate
was furnished.
While the courses and methods were narrow and formal, the mediæval
university contained the germ of modern inquiry and did much to
foster independence of thought and action.
[Sidenote: In general a product of all that was best in the Middle
Ages.]
=The Rise of Universities.=--A most important effect upon subsequent
education came through the foundation of the mediæval universities.
These institutions grew out of the old cathedral and monastic schools,
but found their models largely in the liberal and professional courses
of the Moorish colleges. In general, they came into existence through
the many broadening influences of the later Middle Ages. Their rise
was intimately connected with the stimulus of the Moslem presentation
of Greek philosophy and science, with the interest in dialectic and
theological discussions, which led to the development of scholasticism,
with the reaction from ‘otherworldliness’ resulting from the ideals of
chivalry, and with the growth of cities and wealth, and the consequent
emphasis upon secular interests and knowledge (see chap. xi). However,
while they were all more or less the product of the same factors, no
two sprang from exactly the same set of causes, and special conditions
played a part in the evolution of each university.
[Sidenote: Causes of the medical school at Salerno.]
=The Foundation of Universities at Salerno, Bologna, and Paris.=--The
oldest of these institutions, that at Salerno, near Naples, was simply
a school of medicine, and originated through the survival of the old
Greek medical works in Southwestern Italy, and through the attraction
of the mineral springs and salubrity of this particular place. By the
middle of the eleventh century Salerno was well known as the leading
place for medical study. It was, however, never chartered as a regular
university, although in 1231 Frederick II recognized it as the school
of medicine for the university he had created at Naples some seven
years earlier.
[Sidenote: Origin of the courses at Bologna]
[Sidenote: in civil law]
[Sidenote: and canon law.]
On the other hand, Northern Italy became known as a center for
the study of Roman law. The cities here, in order to defend their
independence, were led to study this subject, and endeavored to find
some special charter, grant, or edict from the old Roman emperors upon
which to base their claims. Several northern centers were renowned for
their investigation of the Roman civil law, but early in the twelfth
century Bologna became preëminent through the lectures of Irnerius.
By him the entire _Corpus Juris Civilis_, a compilation of Roman law
made by eminent jurists in the sixth century at the command of the
emperor Justinian, was collected and critically discussed. Influenced
by this example, a monk of Bologna, named Gratian, undertook to codify
all edicts and formulations of popes and councils in a convenient
text-book. The _Decree_ of Gratian, which resulted, was almost
immediately recognized as the authority upon the subject, and canon law
came to be studied here with the same thoroughness as civil law. The
university at Bologna was regularly chartered by Frederick Barbarossa
in 1158, probably as a recognition of the services of its masters in
support of his imperial claims, and faculties of arts, medicine, and
theology were established at various times. It was thus the first real
university, and its reputation soon became widespread.
[Sidenote: Development of liberal arts and theology at Paris.]
Next in order of foundation came the university at Paris, which was by
far the most famous of all. The special interest here, as in this part
of Europe generally, was dialectic and scholasticism. The university
grew out of the cathedral school at Notre Dame, which had acquired
considerable reputation under the headship of William of Champeaux,
Abelard, and Peter the Lombard, but it was not until 1200, after canon
law and medicine had been added to the liberal arts and theology, that
it received complete recognition by the charter of Philip Augustus.
[Sidenote: ‘Master-universities’ in the North, but
‘student-universities’ in the South.]
=Bologna and Paris as the Models for Other Universities.=--Salerno,
as we have seen, was not a real university, and it did not reproduce
its type; but Bologna, and even more Paris, became the mother of
universities, for many other institutions were organized after their
general plans. At Bologna the students, who were usually mature
men, had entire charge of the government of the university. They
selected the masters and determined the fees, length of term, and
time of beginning. But in Paris, where the students were younger,
the government was in the hands of the masters. Consequently,
new foundations in the North, where Paris was the type, usually
became ‘master-universities,’ while those of the South were
‘student-universities.’ During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
it became fashionable for the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical,
to charter existing organizations or to found new institutions on one
of these two plans, and by the time the Renaissance was well started
about eighty universities had been established in Europe. Not all of
these foundations were permanent, however, for some thirty have, in the
course of time, become extinct, and those which remain are much changed
in character.
[Sidenote: Protection and autonomy.]
[Sidenote: immunity from taxation and military service, and right to
license masters and to ‘strike’.]
=Privileges Granted to the Universities.=--From the time of the
earliest official recognition of the universities, a large variety of
exemptions, immunities, and other special privileges were conferred
upon the organizations or upon their masters and students, by the
charters of popes, emperors, kings, and municipalities. The students
of the universities were in many instances taken under the immediate
protection of the sovereign, and were allowed to be tried in special
courts of their own, independent of civil jurisdiction, and to possess
complete autonomy in all their internal affairs. Generally masters,
students, and their retainers alike were relieved from all taxation
and from military service. Likewise, universities were granted
the right to license masters to lecture anywhere without further
examination (_jus ubique docendi_), and the privilege of ‘striking’
(_cessatio_), when university rights were infringed. If no redress
were given in the latter case, the suspension of lectures was followed
by emigration of the university to another town. This could easily be
done, since none of the mediæval universities had buildings of their
own, and there was no need of expensive libraries, laboratories, and
other equipment.
[Sidenote: Wandering students.]
Through such special rights the universities obtained great power
and became very independent. Soon the liberty allowed to students
degenerated into recklessness and license, and they became dissipated
and quarrelsome. This is especially seen in the life of the so-called
‘wandering students,’ who migrated from university to university,
begging their way, and were shiftless, rollicking, and vicious. The
one compensating feature of such degeneracy was their production of
jovial Latin and German songs to voice their appreciation of forbidden
pleasures and their protest against restraint.
[Sidenote: The ‘university’ a corporation.]
[Sidenote: The nations,]
[Sidenote: councilors,]
[Sidenote: faculties, deans, and rector.]
=Organization of the Universities.=--The term _universitas_, or
‘university,’ did not imply originally, as often claimed since, an
institution where ‘everything’ is taught, but it was used of any legal
corporation, and only in the course of time was it limited to an
organization of masters and students. The phrase _studium generale_
was also often used of a university, to indicate a school where the
students from all parts of civilization were received, and to contrast
it with a _studium particulare_, which was confined to pupils of a
limited neighborhood. The formation of a university had been preceded
by the organization of ‘nations,’ or bodies of students grouped
according to the part of Europe from which they came, but these nations
soon began to combine for the sake of obtaining greater privileges and
power. Every year each nation chose a ‘councilor,’ who was to represent
it and guard its interests. On the side of the masters, the university
became organized into ‘faculties,’ of which there might be at least
four,--arts, law, medicine, and theology; and each faculty came to
elect a ‘dean’ as its representative. The deans and the councilors
jointly elected the ‘rector,’ or head of the university.
[Sidenote: Arts.]
[Sidenote: Law.]
[Sidenote: Medicine.]
[Sidenote: Theology.]
=Course in the Four Faculties.=--The course of study to be offered
by each faculty was largely fixed by papal decree or university
legislation during the thirteenth century. The course in arts, which
occupied six years, included the texts on the liberal arts mentioned
for the monastic schools (see pp. 56 f.) and several of the treatises
of Aristotle, as rapidly as they were recovered. In the law course,
_Corpus Juris Civilis_ was the authorized text for civil law, and the
_Decree_ of Gratian for canon law. The faculty of medicine utilized the
Greek treatises by Hippocrates (c. 460-375 B. C.) and Galen (c. 130-200
A. D.), the _Canon_ of Avicenna (see p. 66), and the works of certain
Jewish and Salernitan physicians. The students of theology put most of
their time upon the four books of Peter the Lombard’s _Sententiæ_ (Fig.
9), although the _Bible_ was studied incidentally.
[Sidenote: Lectures.]
[Sidenote: Debates.]
=The Methods of Instruction.=--The training of a mediæval student
consisted not only in acquiring the subjects mentioned, but in
learning to debate upon them. The acquisition of the subject-matter
was accomplished through lectures, which consisted in reading and
explaining the text-book under consideration (Fig. 10). Beside the text
itself, the teacher would read all the explanatory notes, summaries,
cross-references, and objections to the author’s statements, which
often quite overshadowed the original, and might even add a commentary
of his own. The passage was read slowly and repeated whenever
necessary. The whole exercise was carried on in Latin, which had to be
learned by the student before coming to the university. The training
in debate was furnished by means of formal disputations, in which one
student, or group of students, was pitted against another (Fig. 11).
In these contests, which also were conducted in Latin, not only were
authorities cited, but the debaters might add arguments of their own.
Thus, compared with the memorizing of lectures, debating afforded some
acuteness and vigor of intellect, but by the close of the fifteenth
century it had become no longer reputable. The aim came to be to win
and to secure applause without regard to truth or consistency.
[Sidenote: Master or doctor.]
[Sidenote: Baccalaureate.]
=Examinations and Degrees.=--At the close of the course, the student
was examined in his ability to define and dispute; and if he passed,
he was admitted to the grade of master, doctor, or professor. These
degrees seem originally to have been about on a par with each other,
and signified that the candidate was now ready to practice the craft of
teaching. The baccalaureate was at first not a real degree, but simply
permission to become a candidate for the license to teach. During the
thirteenth century, however, it came to be sought as an honor by many
not intending to teach, and eventually became a separate degree.
[Illustration:
The Mediæval Universities:
Fig. 10.--The lecture.
Fig. 11.--The disputation.
]
[Sidenote: Meager and authoritative,]
[Sidenote: but somewhat productive of inquiry and freedom.]
=The Value and Influence of the University Training.=--Obviously the
mediæval universities had most of the defects of their times. From a
modern point of view, the content of their course of study was meager,
fixed, and formal, and the methods of teaching were stereotyped and
authoritative. They largely neglected the real literature of the
classical age, and permitted but little that savored of investigation
or thinking. Yet the universities were a product of the growing
tendencies that later burst the fetters of mediævalism. They were a
great encouragement to subtlety, industry, and thoroughness, and their
efforts toward philosophic speculation contained the germs of the
modern spirit of inquiry and rationality. They were even of immediate
assistance in promoting freedom of discussion and advancing democracy,
and to their arbitration were often referred disputes between the civil
and ecclesiastical powers. Thus they aided greatly in advancing the
cause of individualism and carrying forward the torch of civilization
and progress.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Graves, _During the Transition_ (Macmillan, 1910), chap. IX; Monroe,
_Text-book_ (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 313-327. Standard works on the
universities in general are Laurie, S. S., _The Rise and Early
Constitution of Universities_ (Appleton, 1886), and the more complete
and accurate _Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_ (Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1895), by Rashdall, H. For a brief source account of
the privileges, courses, methods, and student life of universities,
see Norton, A. O., _Readings in the History of Education; Mediæval
Universities_ (Harvard University, 1909), or Munro, D. C., _The
Mediæval Student_ (Longmans, Green, 1899). For the history of
individual universities, see Compayré, G., _Abelard and the Origin and
Early History of Universities_ (Scribner, 1893); Lyte, H. C. M., _A
History of the University of Oxford_ (Macmillan, 1886); Mullinger, J.
B., _University of Cambridge_ (Longmans, London, 1888); and Paulsen,
F., _The German Universities_ (Macmillan, 1895; Scribner, 1906).
CHAPTER X
THE EDUCATION OF CHIVALRY
OUTLINE
Owing to the weakness of the regular sovereignty after
Charlemagne’s day, the feudal system sprang up, and by the middle
of the twelfth century it had developed a code of manners known as
chivalry.
Out of this there arose a training for knighthood in religion,
honor, and gallantry. Before becoming a knight, the boy was early
trained at home, then at some castle, first as ‘page,’ and later as
‘squire.’
This chivalric education produced many contradictory results, but
it tended to refine the times and to counteract ‘otherworldliness.’
[Sidenote: Dependence upon a powerful neighbor became a regular form of
government.]
=The Development of Feudalism.=--The mediæval education thus far
described has had to do mostly with the schooling of the ecclesiastical
and other select professional classes. Quite a different type of
training was that given the knight. This has generally been known as
the education of chivalry. Chivalry is a name for the code of manners
in usage during the days of the feudal system. By this system is
meant an order of society and government that gradually grew up in
the Middle Ages alongside the regular political organization, and
when, under the successors of Charlemagne, the monarchy became weak,
tended to be substituted for it. Under feudalism small landowners and
freemen lacking land had come to depend upon some powerful neighbor
for protection, and even to seek from him a dependent tenure of land.
Then, in time, the lords acquired a species of sovereignty over their
tenants, and by the tenth century there had come to be a great social
gulf between the nobility, who owned the land and lived in castles, and
the peasantry, who tilled the soil and supported them. The only serious
business of the former was fighting with spear, sword, or battle-axe,
in their own quarrels or those of their feudal superiors. To prepare
for this warfare, mock combats may occasionally have been engaged in as
early as the tenth century (Fig. 12).
[Sidenote: Religion, honor, and gallantry.]
=The Ideals of Chivalry.=--But by the middle of the twelfth century,
when the old heroic age had lapsed into an age of courtesy, with
extravagant devotion to women and romantic adventure as its chief
ideals, these encounters were organized into a definite species of
pastime called ‘tournaments,’ and soon degenerated into mere pageantry.
Hence the rules of chivalry became fixed and formal, and the art of
horsemanship and the management of the lance and spear were developed
and settled. The ideals of knightly conduct and education could then
be stated as ‘service and obedience’ to God, as represented by the
organized church, to one’s lord, or feudal superior, and to one’s lady,
whose favor the knight wore in battle or tournament. The three ruling
motives of chivalric education were, therefore, held to be ‘religion,
honor, and gallantry.’
[Sidenote: Training (1) at home,]
[Sidenote: (2) as a page,]
[Sidenote: and]
[Sidenote: (3) as a squire.]
[Sidenote: The knighting.]
=The Three Preparatory Stages of Education.=--There were three periods
in the preparatory training of a knight. First, until the child was
seven or eight, he was trained in religion, politeness, and physique at
home by his mother. After this he became a ‘valet’ or ‘page’ at the
home of a nobleman, who was generally his father’s feudal superior.
Here he performed personal duties for his lord and lady, and his
education was conducted mostly by the latter. He learned the game of
chess, acquired the etiquette of love and honor, and was taught to
play the harp and pipe and to sing, to read and write, and to compose
in verse. Outside the castle, the pages were trained in running,
wrestling, boxing, riding, and rudimentary tilting (Fig. 14). In the
third stage, at fourteen or fifteen the youth passed to the grade of
‘squire,’ and, while he still attended the lady and carved the meat
or handed around the viands for the guests, his chief service was to
the knight and his training came through him. He slept near him at
night, groomed his horses, kept his armor and weapons in condition,
and attended him at the tournament or upon the battlefield. Through
this service the squire himself was practiced in all the warlike
arts. Toward the close of the period the embryo knight also chose his
lady-love, and learned to write verses and dance. When the squire
became twenty-one, he was knighted with many religious ceremonies.
After a season of fasting, the candidate entered the church in full
armor and spent a night in vigil and holy meditation. In the morning he
confessed, had his sword blessed upon the altar by the priest, and took
an oath to defend the church, protect women, and succor the poor. He
then knelt before his lord, who laid his own sword upon the candidate
and dubbed him knight.
[Sidenote: Courage, but cruelty;]
[Sidenote: self-respect, but pride;]
[Sidenote: liberality, but extravagance;]
[Sidenote: and other anomalies.]
[Sidenote: Counteraction of otherworldliness.]
=The Effects of Chivalric Education.=--Such was the training of the
knight in the ‘rudiments of love, war, and religion.’ It contained
many apparent anomalies and contradictions, and every virtue seems to
have been balanced by a correlative vice. The knights were recklessly
courageous in battle, but their anger was ungovernable and their
cruelty extreme. A great self-respect was supposed to characterize
the true knight, but this often reacted into an overweening pride.
Likewise, while the knights were rated largely according to their
liberality and hospitality, these virtues degenerated into a great
love of display and extravagance beyond measure. Again, although great
respect for womanhood was inculcated, not much consideration could be
expected by the woman beneath a certain rank. Similarly, the knightly
word of honor, if accompanied by certain forms, would be held sacred,
but should these forms be omitted, a decided breach of faith was not
uncommon. As a whole, however, the chivalric training had a beneficial
effect upon the society of the times. It helped to organize the turmoil
and to refine the barbarism of mediæval Europe, and was an effective
instrument in raising the position of women. Moreover, while this
peculiar training was artificial and worldly, by that very tendency it
did much to counteract the ‘otherworldly’ ideal of monasticism and the
general asceticism of the period. It encouraged an activity in earthly
affairs and a frank enjoyment of this life, and thus helped to develop
a striking characteristic of the Renaissance.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Graves, _During the Transition_ (Macmillan, 1910), chap. VII; Monroe,
_Text-book_ (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 284-291. Detailed descriptions of
the stages of chivalric training can be found in Cornish, F. W.,
_Chivalry_ (Sonnenschein, London, 1901) (Macmillan, 1908); Furnival, F.
J., _Early Education in England (Forewords to The Babees Book_, Early
English Text Society, Original Series, vol. 32); and Mills, C., _The
History of Chivalry_ (Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1844), vol.
I, chaps. I-V, and vol. II, chap. VII. An ingenious, but uncritical
reconstruction of the life of a knight in story form, is found in
Gautier, L., _Chivalry_, chaps. V-XX.
[Illustration: The Education of Chivalry:
Figs. 12 and 13.--Preliminaries and termination of a combat.
Fig. 14.--Boys playing tournament with a ‘quintain,’ or dummy opponent.
(Reproduced from Strutt, _Sports and Pastimes of England_.)]
CHAPTER XI
THE BURGHER, GILD, AND CHANTRY SCHOOLS
OUTLINE
In the later Middle Ages the commerce of Europe was greatly
increased. Soon the towns received a large impulse from serfs that
flocked into them, and before long an influential ‘burgher class’
arose.
There also sprang up merchant and craft gilds, which afforded an
industrial training through apprenticeship, and a more formal
education through ‘gild schools.’ As the gilds merged with the
town, these institutions became ‘burgher schools,’ and afforded a
practical education in reading, writing, and reckoning. Various
‘adventure,’ ‘chantry,’ and other schools were also absorbed by the
burgher schools.
Thus these institutions came to represent the educational interests
of the industrial classes, and paved the way for the civic control
of education.
[Sidenote: Impulse caused by Crusades and desire for luxuries.]
=The Rise of Commerce and Industry.=--A most important influence in
producing a transition from the mediæval to modern times is found in
the increase of commerce during the later Middle Ages. From the Roman
days down, trade had never died out in Western Europe, especially
Italy, despite the injuries wrought by barbarian invasions, as the
nobles had always need of luxuries, and the Church of articles of
utility in its services. But the demand for vessels and transports
during the Crusades, and the desire for the precious stones, silks,
perfumes, drugs, spices, and porcelain from the Orient afterward,
gave a tremendous impulse to commercial and industrial activity. The
people of Europe began to think of what articles others outside their
own little groups might want in exchange for these luxuries, and to
strive to produce such commodities. They also undertook themselves
to make some of the new articles, such as light and gauzy cotton and
linen fabrics, silks, velvets, and tapestries. Thus the means of
communication between the European states was greatly facilitated, new
commercial routes and new regions were opened, geographical knowledge
was increased, navigation was developed, maritime and mercantile
affairs were organized, manufactures and industries were enlarged,
currency was increased, and forms of credit were improved. All this
tended toward a larger intellectual view and a partial dissipation of
provincialism and intolerance.
[Sidenote: Contributed to the growth of cities,]
=Development of Cities and the Burgher Class.=--The most noteworthy
consequence of this industrial and commercial awakening was the growth
of towns and cities. There was little town life in Western Europe
during the Middle Ages before the twelfth century, as the old Roman
towns had, through the invasions of the Germans, largely disintegrated,
and but few new organizations had sprung up in their place. While
some towns still existed in Italy and Southern France, most of the
people of Europe lived in the country upon feudal estates. These
little communities were largely isolated and independent of the rest
of the world. They produced among themselves all that their members
needed, and little or no money was necessary for their crude forms of
exchange. Their life was unbroken in its monotony, there was little
opportunity for them to better their condition, and their industries
were carried on in a perfunctory and wasteful fashion. But with the
growth of commerce and population, these serfs began to find it more
profitable to work in the towns and compensate the lord of the manor
with money rather than work, and the lords, in turn, found it of
advantage to accept money in lieu of services, especially as many of
them had been impoverished by the Crusades. Great bodies of serfs
flocked to the towns, and new centers sprang up around the manorial
estates and monasteries as manufactures, trades, and commerce increased.
[Sidenote: and to the development of a burgher class.]
Feudalism thus began to be threatened as early as the twelfth
century, and within a hundred years the extinction of serfdom was
assured. The people soon rebelled against the rule of their lords and
either expelled them altogether or secured from them for a monetary
consideration a charter conferring more liberal rights and privileges.
By these charters, the lord agreed to recognize the gild of merchants,
and to permit the people to govern themselves. As industries, trade,
and commerce continued to develop, the craftsmen and merchants grew
rapidly in wealth and importance. They were soon enabled to rival the
clergy in education, and the nobility in the luxury of their dwellings
and living. They began to read, and books were written or adapted for
their needs. The ‘burgher class’ came to have a recognized position by
the side of the clergy and nobility; and the king, in order to retain
their support, was forced to take counsel with them. This development
of industry and commerce, growth of town and city life, and rise of a
‘third estate’ is one of the most noteworthy changes of the late Middle
Ages.
[Sidenote: Stages of]
[Sidenote: (1) apprentice]
[Sidenote: (2) journeyman, and]
(3) master.]
=The Gilds and Industrial Education.=--Such a new social attitude
naturally gave rise to new forms of education. An informal type of
training soon sprang up in connection with the development of ‘gilds.’
Besides the original gild of merchants, through which the town had
presented a united front and gained its privileges, separate gilds
for the various crafts had been established in each town. These craft
gilds were the sole repositories of the traditional lore of the
vocations, and became the chief channel for transmitting it. While
their number and variety differed in each town, all the gilds sought to
prevent anyone who had not been regularly approved and admitted to the
corporation from practicing the trade he represented. In consequence
of this attempt at regulation, industrial training in the craft of
each gild grew up through an apprenticeship system. This was provided
upon a domestic basis. The ‘apprentice’ entered the household of his
‘master,’ and learned the craft under his direction (Fig. 15). The time
necessary for this varied greatly in different crafts. For example,
in Paris it took two years to learn to become a cook, eight years an
embroiderer, and ten years a goldsmith. While the apprentice received
no wages during this period, he was under the protection of the gild,
and might appeal to the organization against ill-treatment or defective
training. At the end of his apprenticeship, he became a ‘journeyman’
and could earn wages, but only by working for a master, and not through
direct service for the public. After an examination by the gild,
which might include the presentation of a ‘masterpiece,’ or sample of
his work, the journeyman eventually became a master. In other ways,
the organization regulated and protected its craft. In order that
journeymen and masters might not become too numerous, all masters, save
those on the governing board of the gild, were forbidden to take more
than one apprentice. The methods of practicing each trade and the hours
to be devoted to it each day were specified, and the handiwork of each
man carefully scrutinized. In many instances, the gild put its own
stamp upon good work, and might often seize products that it considered
defective.
[Sidenote: A more formal means of education was instituted through
priests of the gilds and endowments.]
=Gild Schools.=--In this way there grew up a species of industrial
education, with three definite stages in its organization and with
inspection at every point. Before long, too, the gilds developed a
more formal means of education. The existing ecclesiastical schools
did not altogether meet the needs of the gilds, and they undertook
the establishment of additional institutions for this purpose. Where
the gilds had retained one or more priests to perform the necessary
religious offices for their members, before long they also utilized
these functionaries to keep a school for the benefit of their own and
sometimes other children in the town. Later, endowments were furnished
especially for a priest to teach school, or an amount sufficient for
the purpose was paid out of the common funds of the gild. Some of these
gild schools, like ‘Merchant Taylors’’ of London, or the Grammar School
at Stratford-on-Avon, where Shakespeare was educated (Fig. 16), still
survive as secondary institutions. Many instances, too, are recorded
where the members of a certain gild were appointed trustees of a
school established by an individual, and were granted the right of
appointing and dismissing the master, admitting the pupils, managing
the property, and formulating statutes. In some such fashion Colet
later vested the management of the famous St. Paul’s school (see p.
118) in the gild of mercers.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Apprenticeship training in a gild. (The master
bootmaker and his wife, two journeymen, and an apprentice.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Gild school and church at Stratford-on-Avon.
(In this ‘grammar’ school Shakespeare learned ‘little Latin and less
Greek.’)]
[Sidenote: Gild schools absorbed by the burgher schools.]
[Sidenote: Practical course.]
=Burgher Schools.=--As the gild organizations gradually merged with
those of the towns, the gild schools were generally absorbed in the
institutions known as ‘burgher’ or town schools. At first these burgher
schools were not very dissimilar to those established by the Church,
except that they were more conveniently located, but later various
types of vernacular schools arose to meet special practical demands,
especially writing and reckoning. The Latin burgher schools were also
somewhat practical in their course, and often admitted some pupils who
desired to learn only to read, write, and reckon. Writing had become
an important vocation, since printing had not yet been invented; and
there was a definite demand for writers in public offices, private
secretaries, letter writers for the illiterate, and teachers of
writing. Reckoning grew directly out of the new commercial life, and
was often taught in the writing schools. It was not taught from the
standpoint of theory or discipline, as was the arithmetic in the Latin
schools, but for the sake of practical calculation and bookkeeping. But
even all the facilities of the regular Latin and vernacular schools of
the town were not sufficient to meet the demand for a more practical
education. In consequence, private ‘adventure’ schools, taught by
wandering teachers or by women, likewise often sprang up, and some
teachers were even licensed by the town authorities to teach the
vernacular. In most instances, however, these institutions were also
combined with the burgher schools.
[Sidenote: Arose from foundations for masses for the dead.]
=Chantry Schools.=--Another type of institution that came into
prominence toward the close of the Middle Ages was the ‘chantry
school.’ Schools of this sort at first arose out of bequests by wealthy
persons to support priests who should ‘chant’ masses for the repose of
their souls. Since these religious duties did not absorb all the time
of the priests, they were able to do some teaching. And before long,
the founders of chantries themselves came to direct that the priests
carrying out their will should be required to teach. Often two chantry
priests were provided, one to teach a ‘grammar’ school, and the other
a ‘song’ or vernacular school. From the first most of these chantry
schools were free of all tuition charges, the priest being requested
to “teach gratis, without asking anything beyond his stipend for his
pains,” but occasionally they were gratuitous only to the children of
his parishioners or to poor children whose parents or guardians asked
for the privilege.
[Sidenote: Paved the way for a more secularized education.]
=Influence of the New Schools.=--The chantry schools likewise were
often united with various other schools within a town, and became
jointly known as ‘burgher schools.’ Many new foundations of a similar
nature were also made. These burgher schools were largely controlled
and supported by the public authorities, although still generally
taught by the priests. They came to represent the interests of the
mercantile and industrial classes, and gave instruction in subjects
of more practical value than had any of the schools hitherto. Such
institutions sprang up everywhere during the later Middle Ages. They
were often strongly opposed by the ecclesiastical authorities, who
struggled hard to abolish them or bring them under control, but they
continued to grow and hold their own. The number of lay teachers in
them gradually increased, and thus paved the way for the tendency
toward the secularization and civic control of education that appeared
later on. The new schools, therefore, that arose in connection with the
development of commerce and industry and the growth of towns, were one
of the largest factors that led into the broadening of outlook known as
the Renaissance.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Graves, _During the Transition_ (Macmillan, 1910), chap. X; Monroe,
_Text-book_ (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 337-339. Adams, G. B., _Civilization
during the Middle Ages_ (Scribner, 1894), furnishes an illuminating
chapter (XII) upon the _Growth of Commerce and Its Results_. The
development of towns and gilds in various countries of Europe is
described in detail by Ashley, W. J., _English Economic History and
Theory_ (Putnam, 1892), vol. I, chap. II; Green, Alice S., _Town Life
in the Fifteenth Century_ (Macmillan, 1894); Gross, C., _The Gild
Merchant_ (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1890); Staley, E., _The Guilds
of Florence_ (Methuen, London, 1906); and Unwin, G., _The Gilds and
Companies of London_ (Methuen, London, 1908; Scribner, 1909). Accounts
of the new types of schools are found in Leach, A. F., _English Schools
at the Reformation_ (Constable, 1896), chaps. 7-9; Nohle, E., _History
of the German School System_ (Report of the U. S. Commissioner of
Education, 1897-1898, vol. I), pp. 22-26; and Watson, F., _English
Grammar Schools to 1660_ (Cambridge University Press, 1909), chap.
VII.
PART III
THE TRANSITION TO MODERN TIMES
CHAPTER XII
THE HUMANISTIC EDUCATION
OUTLINE
By the fourteenth century there appeared an intellectual awakening,
known as the _Renaissance_. It was accompanied by a ‘revival of
learning’ and an education called ‘humanistic.’
Italy first showed evidence of the new movement. The
characteristics of the Renaissance were embodied in Petrarch and
Boccaccio, but little was done with the Greek classics until
Chrysoloras came from Constantinople.
The tyrants of various cities often had humanistic schools started
at their courts. Of these the most typical was that under Vittorino
da Feltre. These schools eventually forced the universities to
admit the humanities to their course. But humanism gradually
degenerated into ‘Ciceronianism.’
Humanistic education also gradually spread to the countries north
of Italy, but it there took on more of a moral color. In France,
the protection of Francis I encouraged the introduction of humanism
into educational institutions by various scholars. The German
universities likewise began to respond to humanistic influences.
The Hieronymians first introduced the classics into the schools,
and Erasmus, who was trained by them, became the leader in
humanistic education. Through other humanistic schools started by
Sturm and others, the ‘gymnasium,’ the typical classical school of
Germany, was evolved, and the humanistic education became fixed and
formal.
In England the movement gradually developed at Oxford and
Cambridge, and Colet started St. Paul’s school, which became the
model for all secondary schools. Humanism in England, however,
soon retrograded into a formalism, and the ‘grammar’ and ‘public’
schools there are little changed to-day.
The first secondary schools in the American colonies were modeled
after the grammar schools of the mother country.
[Sidenote: Mediævalism contained the germ of its own emancipation.]
=The Passing of the Middle Ages.=--It can now be seen that a new
spirit had crept into European civilization, and that the Middle Ages
were passing. We have previously noted (pp. 53f.) that, in order
to bring the German barbarians up to the level of the past, it was
necessary for the Church to set an authoritative standard and repress
all variation on the part of the individual. Yet such bondage of the
human spirit was unnatural, and there were periodic tendencies to
rebel against the system. In fact, mediævalism contained within itself
the germ of its own emancipation. During the eighth century there
came about a new political order, which culminated in Charlemagne’s
revival of education. While conditions were never again as desperate
after this stimulus, with the disruption of Charlemagne’s empire
another decline set in. But by the thirteenth century a new revival,
material and intellectual, had also appeared. Several developments gave
evidence of the expansion within, and assisted in producing it. The
broadening of horizon through contact with the Moors, the development
of scholasticism, the evolution of universities, the worldly appeal
of chivalry, and the growth of cities, gilds, and commerce were all
helping by accumulation to dispel the mediæval spirit.
[Sidenote: The general tendencies of the Awakening]
And by the fourteenth century a new dawn had been ushered in. The
period that followed was marked by a general intellectual and cultural
progress that began to free men from their bondage to ecclesiasticism
and to induce them to look at the world about them. The adherence to
an ‘otherworldly’ ideal, the restriction of learning, the reception of
the teachings of the Church without investigation, and the conformity
of the individual were by this time rapidly disappearing. Such
tendencies were clearly being replaced by a genuine joy in the life
of this world, a broader field of knowledge and thought, a desire to
reason and deal with all ideas more critically, and enlarged ideals of
individualism. The days of mere absorption and assimilation had passed.
[Sidenote: While the Renaissance was caused by internal factors, it was
promoted by the Revival of Learning.]
[Sidenote: Humanists and humanistic education.]
=The Renaissance and the Revival of Learning.=--This tremendous
widening of horizon has been generally known as the _Renaissance_
or ‘new birth.’ The term is used to indicate that the spirit of
the Græco-Roman development had returned, and that opportunity for
expression was granted to the individual once more. But this period
is also appropriately known as the ‘Revival of Learning.’ For, while
the awakening preceded and was caused by internal factors, rather than
by the recovery of classical literature and learning, intellectual
freedom was very greatly heightened and forwarded after a restoration
of the classics once began. The only food at hand that could satisfy
the awakened intelligence of the times was the literature and culture
of the classical peoples. The discovery that the writings of the
ancient world were filled with a genuine vitality and virility, and
that the old authors had dealt with world problems in a profound and
masterly fashion, and with far more vision than had ever been possible
for the mediævalists, gave rise to an eager desire and enthusiasm for
the classics that went beyond all bounds. A knowledge of classical
literature had never altogether disappeared, and various works had
been preserved by the monks and others. To search out the manuscripts
of the Latin and Greek writers, the monasteries, cathedrals, and
castles were now ransacked from end to end. The manuscripts found were
rapidly multiplied, and the greatest pains taken to secure the correct
form of every passage. The devotees of the new movement were generally
called ‘humanists,’ and the training embodying the classics has since
been termed ‘humanistic education.’
[Sidenote: Political storm center.]
[Sidenote: Commercial activity.]
[Sidenote: Home of the classics.]
=Causes of the Awakening in Italy.=--While the general tendency toward
an awakening was apparent throughout Western Europe, it first became
evident in Italy. This was due to the fact that Italy was at the time
a seat of intellectual activity resulting from several factors. It was
a storm center for civic and interstate quarrels, and, as a result
of this political unrest, the citizens were kept constantly on the
outlook for their own safety and interests, and their wits were greatly
sharpened. Even the exile, into which one civic faction or another
was constantly forced, had the effect of broadening their vision
and bringing out the greatest possibilities within them. Again, the
commercial intercourse of the Italian cities with other countries had,
for various physiographic and historic reasons, become extraordinarily
active. This tended to open the minds of the Italians, break up their
old conceptions, free them of prejudice, and increase their thirst for
learning. Furthermore, the ghost of the classic ages still haunted its
old home. A knowledge of the Latin tongue had never ceased to exist in
Italy, and many manuscripts of the Latin and Greek authors had been
preserved. There was only needed an intellectual awakening sufficient
to shake off the thraldom to the Church and produce an appreciation of
classical literature and culture, in order to bring back this spirit of
the past into real pulsating life.
[Sidenote: Petrarch embodied the Renaissance spirit,]
[Sidenote: and was an enthusiast on the Latin classics.]
[Sidenote: His influence.]
=The Revival of the Latin Classics.=--The earliest of the great
humanists was Petrarch (1304-1374). In him we find the very embodiment
of the Renaissance spirit. He completely repudiated the ‘otherworldly’
ideal of mediævalism, and was keenly aware of the beauties and joys of
this life. He did not hesitate to attack the most hoary of traditions,
nor to rely upon observation, investigation, and reason. He likewise
felt a kinship with the thinkers and writers of the classic age, when
independence and breadth were given more scope, and held that their
works must be recovered before their spirit could be continued. This
led to a tremendous enthusiasm for the Latin classics, and he spent
much of his life in restoring ancient culture. He devoted himself
during his extensive travels largely to collecting manuscripts of the
old Latin writers, which previously had been widely scattered, and
endeavoring to repair in them the ravages of time. And he inspired
every one he met with a desire to gather and study the works of the
classic authors. He also wrote a number of Latin works that were
filled with the classic spirit. Among them were several collections
of _Letters_, a work of erudition _On Famous Men_, and an epic poem
in honor of Scipio Africanus that he called _Africa_. Some of his
letters were indited to Cicero, Homer, and other classical authors as
if they were still living. After he had been crowned as poet laureate
by the University of Rome in 1341, he spent most of his time visiting
various Italian cities and spreading the humanistic spirit. Of the
younger scholars and literary men influenced by him probably the most
noted was Boccaccio (1313-1375). Through Petrarch this youthful poet
developed a perfect passion for the ancient writers, and devoted the
rest of his life to classical culture. He obtained a wide knowledge of
the Latin writers, and searched out, preserved, and had copied as many
manuscripts as possible.
[Sidenote: Little was at first known of the Greek classics.]
[Sidenote: Chrysoloras]
[Sidenote: and his pupils.]
=The Development of Greek Scholarship.=--With all this revival of
Latin literature by the _côterie_ of Petrarch, for some time there was
little done with the Greek. That language had almost disappeared in
Europe, and the greatest Greek authors were known only through Latin
translations. But a knowledge of the Greek language and literature
still persisted in the Eastern empire, and the humanists of Italy were,
through the works of the Latin authors, constantly directed back to the
writings of the Greeks. They became eager to read them in the original,
and several humanists began the study of Greek. Nevertheless, Petrarch
pathetically confessed: “Homer is dumb to me, while I am most certainly
deaf to him.” And while, with the aid of his Greek teacher, Boccaccio
made a translation of Homer, it showed little real appreciation of the
original. Not until Chrysoloras (1350-1415) came as an envoy from the
Eastern emperor and was induced in 1396 to settle in Italy and teach
Greek, was any systematic training possible. During the next sixteen
years this man of learning taught in the leading centers, established
schools, made translations of Greek authors, and wrote a Greek grammar.
From his efforts sprang a number of famous scholars, such as Vergerio,
Niccolo de’ Niccoli, Bruni, and Guarino da Verona and his son. These
men collected or copied hundreds of volumes, started libraries and
schools, made excellent translations, wrote treatises on humanistic
education, and trained a number of humanists, who became distinguished
later.
[Sidenote: City tyrants fostered humanism and started court schools.]
=The Court Schools and Vittorino da Feltre.=--A powerful support
for the work of these humanists resulted from the rivalry of the
Italian cities. The princes at the head of these centers were often
usurpers, and depended largely upon city pride to maintain their
power. To appeal to the classical enthusiasm of their people, they
did everything possible to propagate the humanistic movement and make
their cities illustrious. Probably the most typical examples of these
humanistic tyrants are found among the Visconti at Milan and the Medici
at Florence. In some instances these court circles promoted the new
learning informally, but often, where a scholar had been taken into
the family of a prince as private tutor, children of the neighboring
aristocracy were associated and a regular school was started. ‘Court
schools’ of this sort soon existed at Florence, Venice, Padua, Pavia,
Verona, Ferrara, and several other cities, but the best known of all
was that organized by Vittorino da Feltre (1378-1446) at Mantua.
[Sidenote: Types of pupils.]
[Sidenote: The aim was harmonious development of mind, body, and
morals.]
=The Court School at Mantua.=--Vittorino undertook this school at
forty-five, when he had received the best possible education of the
times in Latin, Greek, and mathematics, and had greatly distinguished
himself as a teacher and a man of piety. He received into the school
not only the royal princes and the scions of the leading Mantuan
families, but, by special permission, the sons of his personal friends
and promising boys of every degree. He dwelt with his pupils, and was
most strict in his selection of masters and of attendants, that the
morals of his pupils might be of the highest. Likewise, ‘the father
of his pupils,’ as Vittorino held himself to be, looked out for their
food, clothing, and health, and shared in their games, interests,
and pleasures. It was his intention to secure for his pupils that
harmonious development of mind, body, and morals that the old Greeks
had known as a ‘liberal education,’ but he emphasized the practical and
social side of the individual’s efficiency, and wished to prepare his
pupils for a life of activity and service rather than to create mere
rhetoricians and pedants.
[Sidenote: Course and methods.]
[Sidenote: Classics and mathematical subjects.]
[Sidenote: Physical and moral and religious training.]
This he felt could be accomplished largely through a grammatical and
literary study of the Greek and Roman writers. The pupils learned from
the first to converse in Latin, and there were games with letters for
the youngest and simple exercises to train them in clear articulation
and proper accent and emphasis. Before they were ten, they were also
drilled in memorizing and reciting with intelligence the easier
portions of the classic authors. This elocutionary work, which was
increased in length and difficulty as the boys grew older, gave them an
excellent grasp of vocabulary, rhythm, and style. As they advanced, the
pupils read a variety of Latin writers, and soon took up a study of the
Greek authors and of the Church Fathers. The mathematical subjects were
also taught with an enlarged scope, especially in their applications
to drawing, mensuration, and surveying. Because of the lack of books,
the teaching was carried on largely by dictation. Vittorino, however,
carefully studied the ability, interests, and future career of his
pupils, and selected the subjects and methods best suited to each
intelligence. He thus inaugurated a thoroughly elastic course for the
school. Physical and moral education were likewise insisted upon quite
as fully as intellectual. Vittorino introduced especially fencing,
wrestling, dancing, ball-playing, running, and leaping, in all of
which he was himself an expert, but the purpose of these was to aid
and stimulate the mental powers. He also by both precept and example
inculcated piety, reverence, and religious observances. He believed,
moreover, that truth and moral beauty could be derived not only from
the Christian authors, but also, by means of expurgation, from the
classic writings.
[Sidenote: Rivalry and adoption of the new learning by the
universities.]
=The Relation of the Court Schools to the Universities.=--The court
school at Mantua had thus a most potent influence upon the educational
practice of the times, and trained a large number of distinguished
ecclesiastics, statesmen, scholars, and rulers. It doubtless was
broadly typical of the court schools and of the humanistic education of
Italy in general. These court schools, while taking pupils very early,
often retained them until they were twenty-one, and covered as much,
if not more, ground than the arts course of the university. They were,
in a way, competitors of the older institutions. A student might, for
the sake of a degree, go from a court school to a university, but, as
a rule, if what he wished were a general course, he would be satisfied
with the greater prestige that came from being a pupil of one of the
distinguished humanists that the court schools were generally able to
retain at their head. In fact, the want of hospitality, if not actual
hostility, of universities to the new learning, often stimulated the
growth of court schools. In many instances where the university was
especially conservative, a court school was set up by its side as a
professed rival. Gradually, however, the humanistic training crept
into all the universities of Italy, and the classical literature of
the Greeks and Romans largely took the place of the former grammar,
rhetoric, and dialectic. Before the close of the fifteenth century,
Florence, Padua, Pavia, Milan, Ferrara, Rome, and other cities had
admitted the humanities to their universities, and the other university
seats were not long in following their example.
[Sidenote: Humanism eventually became formalized and largely a drill in
grammar.]
[Sidenote: ‘Ciceronianism.’]
=Decadence of Italian Humanism.=--Toward the close of the fifteenth
century, however, this liberal education of the humanists in Italy
began to be fixed and formal. Until the middle of the century the
ideals, content, and meaning of this training were constantly
expanding, but after that there was a gradual narrowing and hardening,
and during the early years of the sixteenth century the degeneration
became complete. As the subject-matter became institutionalized,
the literature of the Greeks and Romans failed more and more to be
interpreted in terms of life. Emphasis was placed upon the form rather
than the content of the classical writings, and grammatical drill
was more and more emphasized as a means of formal discipline. Before
long the course was limited largely to Cicero, and the new learning
fell into that decadent state known as ‘Ciceronianism.’ It consisted
simply in an attempt to teach a perfect style with Cicero as a model,
and to give one a conversational knowledge of Ciceronian Latin. The
structure, metaphors, and vocabulary of all Latin writing had to be
copied from the phrases of Cicero, and the literature of the day became
little more than a sequence of model passages from that author.
[Sidenote: Through the invention of printing humanism leaped the Alps.]
=The Spread and Character of Humanism in the Northern Countries.=--Such
was the effect of the Renaissance upon education in the country of its
birth. But the humanistic training could not be confined to Italy. By
the middle of the fifteenth century, with the invention of printing,
the texts of the classic authors were rapidly multiplied and spread
everywhere. The Renaissance and the classic literature leaped the Alps,
and made their way into France, the Teutonic countries, England, and
elsewhere. At first, humanistic scholars wandered into the North, soon
others were invited in large numbers by patrons of learning, and, at
length, students from the Northern countries thronged into Italy for
instruction. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the humanists
outside the peninsula became very numerous, and during the sixteenth
century the movement came to its height in the Northern lands.
[Sidenote: Less individual and more social in the North.]
[Sidenote: Use of Greek and Hebrew.]
But the character and effects of the Renaissance and humanism in the
North differed greatly from those in the country of their origin. The
peoples of the North, especially those of Germanic stock, were by
nature more religious than the brilliant and mercurial Italians. With
them the Renaissance led less to a desire for personal development,
self-realization, and individual achievement, and took on more of
a social and moral color. The prime purpose of humanism became the
improvement of society, morally and religiously, and the classical
revival pointed the way to obtaining a new and more exalted meaning
from the Scriptures. Through the revival of Greek, Northern scholars,
especially the German and English, sought to get away from the
ecclesiastical doctrines and traditions, and turn back to the essence
of Christianity by studying the New Testament in the original. This
suggested a similar insight into the Old Testament, and an interest in
Hebrew was thereby aroused. In consequence, to most people in the North
a renewed study of the Bible became as important a feature of humanism
as an appreciation of the classics.
[Sidenote: Expeditions of French kings into Italy.]
[Sidenote: Francis I,]
=The Development of Humanism in France.=--In France humanism appeared
early. In 1458 a professorship of Greek was established at the
University of Paris, but the humanistic movement did not amount to
much in France until it was stimulated by the expeditions of Charles
VIII (1494) and Louis XII (1498) into Italy. These undertakings of the
monarchs did not attain the military and political objects intended,
but through them France came into direct contact with humanism at
its sources, and a definite impression was made upon French art,
literature, and education. Even then, owing to the conservatism of the
university, the new learning met at first with formidable opposition.
Happily, it found an influential patron in the youthful Francis I (_r._
1515-1547).
[Sidenote: and Budæus.]
[Sidenote: Corderius, and Ramus.]
[Sidenote: College of Guyenne.]
=French Humanistic Educators and Institutions.=--Under the protection
of Francis, many prominent humanistic scholars and educators, like
Budæus (1468-1540), appeared, classical manuscripts were collected,
Greek and Latin authors were translated, treatises on humanistic
education were produced, and the College of France, with chairs of
Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, was established (1530). Humanism was also
introduced into various colleges in Paris and Bordeaux by such scholars
and practical teachers as Corderius (1479-1564) and Ramus (1515-1572),
and many text-books and editions of the classics were published. Soon
most of the schools of France responded to the new training. It would
hardly be possible to consider many of them, but a brief description
of the course and administration in vogue at the College of Guyenne,
taken from an account of one of its teachers, may prove illuminating.
This college contained ten classes in secondary work, and two years
more in philosophy, which partially overlapped the faculty of arts in
the university. Latin and religion were taught throughout the secondary
school, and Greek, mathematics, rhetoric, and declamation could be
taken in the last three or four classes. The pupils were introduced
to the rudiments of Latin through the vernacular, and developmental
methods and enlivening disputations were used. Probably the general
conditions here were typical of the French humanistic schools
everywhere during the sixteenth century.
[Sidenote: Erfurt and other existing universities.]
[Sidenote: New universities.]
=Humanism in the German Universities.=--Before humanism was well
established in France, however, it had also spread through the
Teutonic countries. By the end of the sixteenth century the German
universities had begun to adopt the new learning. In 1494 Erfurt
established a professorship of Poetry and Eloquence, which covered the
field of classic literature, and lectures on humanistic subjects were
before long given in Leipzig, Heidelberg, Tübingen, Ingoldstadt, and
Vienna. Likewise, a number of new universities, Wittenberg, Marburg,
Königsberg, and Jena, were started upon a humanistic basis, and before
the middle of the sixteenth century humanism prevailed in practically
all of the German universities.
[Sidenote: At first instruction only in Bible and vernacular,]
[Sidenote: but humanism added.]
[Sidenote: Wessel, Agricola, Reuchlin,]
[Sidenote: and]
[Sidenote: Wimpfeling.]
=The Hieronymians and Their Schools.=--The earliest factor in Germanic
humanism, however, appeared in the education furnished by the
Hieronymians, or Brethren of the Common Lot. For the instruction of
the poor, this order had started schools, or established teachers in
institutions already existing, throughout the Netherlands, Germany,
and France. At first, they stressed instruction in the Bible and the
vernacular, but, as the Italian influence began to be felt in the
upper countries, they broadened the course by the addition of classic
literature and Hebrew, and the schools soon became recognized centers
of humanism and intellectual interests. The pupils that were trained
there strengthened the new learning as teachers in the universities and
schools throughout Germany and the Netherlands. The first educator of
importance to introduce humanism into the Hieronymian training seems
to have been Wessel (1420-1489). He was preëminently interested in
teaching, and among his earliest pupils of distinction were Agricola
(1443-1485), who had a most potent influence in introducing classics,
and Reuchlin (1455-1522), who taught the classics and Hebrew at various
universities, and produced a monumental grammar and lexicon upon
the latter subject. An even more noteworthy teacher was Wimpfeling
(1450-1528), who became professor, dean, and rector at Heidelberg. He
lectured upon the classical authors and the Church Fathers, and wrote a
number of treatises upon education, in which he held to the attitude
of Northern humanism that all learning is vain which does not lead to
the advancement of mankind. But, while a true reformer, he never broke
from the Church.
[Sidenote: Attitude of Erasmus.]
[Sidenote: His text-books,]
[Sidenote: satires,]
[Sidenote: and educational treatises.]
=Erasmus, Leader in the Humanistic Education of the North.=--A
similar attitude was held by Erasmus (1467-1531), the greatest of the
humanists trained by the Hieronymians. While he was bitterly opposed
to the corruption and obscurantism of ecclesiastics, he believed that
the remedy lay, not in a division of the Church, but in the study
of the classics and the Church Fathers, and in the general removal
of ignorance. Accordingly, to advance education, he assisted in the
preparation of Lily’s Latin grammar, translated into Latin the Greek
grammar of Theodore of Gaza, and wrote a work on Latin composition,
called _De Copia Verborum et Rerum_, and an elementary text-book
of Latin conversation on topics of the day, known as _Colloquies_.
Similarly, he produced treatises on the New Testament, and popularized
the Gospels and Church Fathers through paraphrases. Even better known
are the satires that he wrote in Latin to reform the abuses and
foibles of his times. His _Adages and Praise of Folly_ mercilessly
scored the absurdities and vices of the Church and the priesthood,
and in his _Dialogue on Ciceronianism_ he ridiculed some of the
narrower tendencies into which humanism had fallen. He also made
direct contributions to educational theory in his Latin treatises on
_The Liberal Education of Children_, _The Right Method of Study_, and
_Courteous Manners in Boys_, which are almost modern in some of their
recommendations. Learning, morality, religion, and good manners, he
held, must be trained together, and education must be open to everyone,
according to his or her ability. It should be started in infancy by
the mothers, and reading, writing, drawing, and some knowledge of
familiar animals and objects taught by informal methods. At seven
the boy is to be given a thorough training in the Scriptures, Church
Fathers, and the classics, and the content rather than the language and
form of these works is to be stressed.
[Sidenote: Developed out of old schools for benefit of municipalities.]
[Sidenote: Latin schools for Electorate of Saxony.]
=The Development of Gymnasiums: Melanchthon’s Work.=--It can thus be
seen what a profound effect the humanists trained in the Hieronymian
schools had upon the Teutonic universities and other educational
institutions. But there sprang up another set of schools, known as
_Gymnasien_, that was an even more typical and lasting institutional
development of the Northern Renaissance. These ‘gymnasiums’ grew
largely out of the old cathedral and upper burgher schools, and
were established for the benefit of the municipality, rather than
for State and Church. Their development was gradual, but they were
given their first definite shaping by Melanchthon (1497-1560). After
a thorough humanistic training from his great-uncle, Reuchlin, and
from the universities at Heidelberg and Tübingen, that scholar had
become associated with Luther at the University of Wittenberg, and was
requested by the Elector of Saxony in 1528 to organize the schools in
his state. The ‘Latin Schools,’ which he planned for every town and
village of the electorate, were divided into three classes, and the
work in Latin and religion was adapted to the grade. Not even Greek or
Hebrew appeared in the course; much less the vernacular, mathematics,
science, and history. Nevertheless, it was from these municipal Latin
schools, when the course had been somewhat modified and expanded, that
the ‘gymnasium’ may be said to have sprung.
[Sidenote: Piety, knowledge, and eloquence as ideals.]
[Sidenote: Course of the ten classes.]
=Sturm at Strassburg.=--A further step in fixing the type and the
first use of the term ‘gymnasium’ are found in the case of the
classical school organized by Johann Sturm (1507-1589) at Strassburg
in 1538. Here during his forty-five years as rector, Sturm worked
out a gymnasial course of ten classes, upon which the pupils entered
at six or seven years of age. The aim of this training he held to be
‘piety, knowledge, and eloquence,’ meaning by the last an ability to
speak and write Latin readily. For ‘piety,’ the Lutheran catechism was
studied in German for three years, and in Latin for three years longer.
The _Sunday Sermons_ were read in the fourth and fifth years, and
the _Letters_ of Jerome also in the fifth year, while the _Epistles_
of St. Paul were carefully studied from the sixth year through the
rest of the course. On the ‘knowledge’ and ‘eloquence’ side, Latin
grammar was begun immediately and the drill continued for four years,
during which the pupil passed gradually from memorizing lists of words
used in everyday life and reading dialogues that embodied them to
the translation of Cicero and the easier Latin poets. In the fourth
year exercises in style were begun, and this was accompanied by a
grammatical and literary study of Cicero, Vergil, Plautus, Terence,
Martial, Horace, Sallust, and other authors, together with letter
writing, declamation, disputation, and the acting of plays. Greek was
begun in the fifth year, and after three years of grammatical training,
Demosthenes, the dramatists, Homer, and Thucydides were undertaken.
[Sidenote: Formalism,]
[Sidenote: but wide influence.]
=Formalism in the Gymnasiums.=--This training, like that of the
Italian humanists, soon became set, formal, and mechanical. While other
authors than Cicero were read, the object was to acquire an ability
to read, write, and speak Ciceronian Latin, and words, phrases, and
expressions were carefully committed. The main emphasis throughout was
upon form, with little regard for content, and the Latin and Greek
were largely regarded as an end in themselves. Yet the gymnasium of
Sturm was an enormous success, and was soon crowded with students.
His pupils became the headmasters of all the most prominent schools,
and through his wide correspondence with sovereigns and educators,
the course of study formulated by Sturm became a model not only for
Germany, but, in a sense, for the rest of Europe. At any rate, most
of the existing secondary schools in Germany, and many founded later,
became gymnasiums. The majority of the Hieronymian schools soon adopted
the gymnasial course. This was also the case with the _Fürstenschulen_,
or ‘princes’ schools,’ a type of institution started in 1543 by Duke
Moritz of Saxony to train well-prepared officials for Church and
State at public expense, and afterward absorbed into the gymnasial
system. And the gymnasiums have to-day changed but little from Sturm’s
organization. Owing to the later influence of realism, the addition of
mathematics, modern languages, and the natural sciences has somewhat
mitigated the amount of classics prescribed, but otherwise the German
gymnasiums adhere to their formal humanism as tenaciously as in the
sixteenth century.
[Sidenote: Grocyn and Linacre.]
[Sidenote: Erasmus, Colet, and More.]
[Sidenote: Cheke and Ascham.]
=The Humanistic Movement in England: Greek at Oxford and
Cambridge.=--In its northward march the humanistic education also
effected profound changes in England. By the middle of the fifteenth
century many former students of Oxford began to study at various
humanistic centers in Italy. But the influence of such innovators was
scarcely felt until Grocyn and Linacre, who had gone to Florence about
1488, undertook to introduce Greek into education upon their return
home. Grocyn (1442-1519) became the first lecturer on Greek at Oxford,
but he was greatly assisted in the humanistic training by Linacre
(1460-1524), although his lectureship was nominally on medicine. Among
their pupils were Erasmus, More, and Colet. Humanistic education
did not reach Cambridge, however, until the close of the fifteenth
century, but, with the progress of the sixteenth, that university
rapidly overtook her sister institution. The real development began
when Erasmus, while a professor of theology at Cambridge (1510-1514),
consented also to lecture upon Greek as a labor of love. Erasmus was
succeeded by a number of lecturers, and in 1540 the new _regius_
professorship was held for four years each by the great teachers, Cheke
(1514-1557) and Ascham (1515-1568).
[Sidenote: More and Wolsey.]
[Sidenote: Ascham’s _Scholemaster_.]
=Humanism at the Court.=--As Cheke became private tutor to Prince
Edward and Ascham to Princess Elizabeth, an Hellenic atmosphere
was soon promoted in royal circles. A powerful assistance to the
development of humanism was also found at the court through the
influence of More, who was especially close to Cardinal Wolsey, and
so for a time to the king, Henry VIII. A number of treatises upon
humanistic education were written by members of the court, like More
and Vives; while Ascham produced his _Scholemaster_, a well-known work
on teaching Latin and Greek by ‘double translation.’ This famous
method consisted in having the child translate a passage into English,
and then, after an hour, render it back into the original and have the
master compare it with the text.
[Sidenote: Religious training combined with the classics.]
[Sidenote: Influence upon other grammar schools.]
=Colet and His School at St Paul’s.=--The humanistic changes in English
education, however, were not limited to the universities and the
court. The schools also felt the effect of the new movement, and the
most important factor in bringing this about was the foundation of
St. Paul’s School in 1509 by Colet. This scholar devoted most of the
fortune left him by his father to establishing a humanistic school in
St. Paul’s churchyard, dedicated to ‘the child Jesus.’ The institution
was thus an outgrowth of Northern humanism, and combined religious
training with a study of the classics. In connection with certain
Latin authors and Church Fathers, the pupils studied the catechism in
English, the _Latin Grammar_ of Lily, who was the first headmaster of
the school, and the _De Copia_ of Erasmus. St. Paul’s school trained a
long list of brilliant scholars, literary men, clergy, and statesmen,
and became the immediate model for a host of other institutions. There
were in existence at the time St. Paul’s was founded some three hundred
‘grammar’ schools of various types. These had come down from the Middle
Ages, and their chief purpose had been the training of young men for
the priesthood. Their curriculum was usually of the mediæval monastic
type, but they soon felt the influence of the new school. Those which
survived the general dissolution of ecclesiastical foundations by Henry
VIII and Edward VI were gradually remodeled on the classical basis of
St. Paul’s. New schools were also established in accordance with the
humanistic ideals.
[Sidenote: Soon became narrow and formal.]
=Humanism in the English ‘Grammar’ Schools.=--But the humanism of the
‘grammar’ schools in England, as in Italy and Germany, soon became
narrow and formal. The purpose of humanistic education came to be
not so much a real training in literature as a practical command of
Latin as a means of communication in all lands and ages. Accordingly,
the training became one of dictionaries, grammars, and phrase-books.
Expressions and selections were culled from authors and treasured in
notebooks, and the methods became largely _memoriter_ and passive.
The formalism into which the schools of England had thus fallen by
the seventeenth century is depicted in Brinsley’s _Ludus literarius:
or the Grammar Schoole_, a work intended to ridicule and reform these
conditions. It indicates that the training in Latin was devoted to
drill in inflecting, parsing, and construing a fixed set of texts.
Lily’s _Grammar_ was memorized by the pupils, and references to it
were glibly repeated, with little understanding of their meaning. All
conversation was based upon some phrase-book, like the _Colloquies_ of
Corderius, and a Latin theme had to be ground out each week.
[Sidenote: Largely unchanged.]
[Sidenote: The great ‘public’ schools.]
=English ‘Grammar’ and ‘Public’ Schools To-day.=--Although reforms have
since been made in many of these directions, the organization and the
formal humanism of the English ‘grammar’ school have been preserved
in principle even to this day. Mathematics, modern languages, and
sciences have been added, and a ‘modern side’ has been established
as an alternate for the old course, but the classics are still the
emphasized feature, and, to a large degree, the drill methods prevail.
But, while it was originally intended that the grammar schools should,
by means of the endowment, be open to rich and poor alike, because of
the great increase in expenses, necessary and unnecessary, there are
now not many opportunities for any one in the lower classes of society
to attend a grammar school. Similarly, a distinction has come to be
drawn between ‘grammar’ and ‘public’ schools, although it is not a
very clear one. In general, a ‘public school’ has a more aristocratic
and wealthier patronage. Nine ‘great public schools’ were recognized
by the Clarendon Commission in 1864,--Winchester (Fig. 17), Eton, St.
Paul’s, Shrewsbury, Westminster, Rugby, Harrow, Merchant Taylors’,
and Charterhouse; but several other old schools and a number of the
stronger foundations of Victoria’s reign are generally admitted, and
many others claim the dignity of the name that would not be considered
eligible outside of the immediate locality.
[Sidenote: First American secondary schools modeled after English.]
=The ‘Grammar’ Schools in the American Colonies.=--It was after these
‘grammar’ schools of the mother country that the first secondary
schools in America were modeled and named. In many instances the
fathers of the colonies, such as Edward Hopkins, William Penn, and
Roger Williams, had been educated in the grammar schools of England,
and naturally sought to model the institutions in their new home after
them as nearly as the different conditions would permit. The Boston
Latin (Grammar) School was founded as early as 1635 (Fig. 23), and
other towns of Massachusetts,--Charlestown, Ipswich, Salem, Dorchester,
Newbury, Cambridge, and Roxbury, also before long established grammar
schools. Similarly, towns of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the other colonies, had in many cases
founded grammar schools before the close of the century. Moreover,
the legislatures of Massachusetts (1647) and Connecticut (1650) soon
ordered that a ‘grammar’ school be established in every town having one
hundred families. The American grammar schools, like their prototypes,
were secondary and sustained no real relation to the elementary
schools. They were mostly intended to fit pupils for college, although
sometimes the college had not yet been established, and thus to
furnish a preliminary step to preparation for the Christian ministry.
Hence their course consisted chiefly in reading the classics and the
New Testament, and used among its texts Lily’s _Grammar_ and the
_Colloquies_ of Corderius. And while the hold of formal humanism upon
secondary education was somewhat relaxed during the subsequent stages
of the ‘academy’ and the ‘high school,’ the formal classical training
was considered the only means of a liberal education until well into
the nineteenth century.
[Illustration:
_a._ Drawing of Winchester College and its inmates by Warden Chandler
of New College, Oxford, in 1460. The picture reveals the relationship
of Winchester to the old monastic institutions, before it became
humanistic.]
[Illustration: _b._ Eton College in 1688, from the drawing of David
Loggan.
Fig. 17.--Great English Public Schools.]
[Sidenote: Interests of this life.]
[Sidenote: More social and moral in the North, and more individual in
Italy.]
=The Aim and Institutions of Humanistic Education.=--It can now be
seen how far the ideals of humanism had departed from those of the
mediæval period. The ‘otherworldly’ aim, the monastic isolation, and
the scholastic discussions had given way to the interests of this
life, personal and social development, and a study of the classics.
In the North the movement took on rather a different color from what
it did in the peninsula that gave it birth. While Northern humanism
was narrower in not concerning itself so much with self-culture,
personal expression, and the various opportunities of life, it had a
wider vision through interesting itself in society as a whole and in
endeavoring to advance morality and religion. It was democratic and
social in its trend, where Italian humanism was more aristocratic and
individual.
[Sidenote: Organization,]
[Sidenote: content,]
[Sidenote: methods,]
[Sidenote: and effect.]
In Italy the chief educational institutions resulting from the
humanistic movement were the schools that arose at the brilliant courts
of the city tyrants. These institutions were sometimes connected with
the universities, and gradually the universities themselves were forced
to admit the new learning to the curriculum. In the North a number of
new institutions--Hieronymian schools, princes’ schools, gymnasiums,
and grammar schools--were developed from humanism, and the existing
institutions soon showed the influence of the movement, but all of
them stressed moral and religious studies, as well as classical.
Everywhere the curriculum of the humanistic foundations consisted
mostly in the mastery of Latin and Greek, but in the North the renewal
of Greek meant also a study of the New and Old Testaments and the
Church Fathers. Where the Italian Renaissance re-created the liberal
education of Plato and Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian, the movement
in its Northern spread found in the classical revival a means of moral
and religious training. But just as humanism in Italy by the beginning
of the sixteenth century had degenerated into mere Ciceronianism,
so the humanistic education in the North, after about a century of
development, began to grow narrow, hard, and fixed. By the middle of
the sixteenth century the spirit of criticism, investigation, and
intellectual activity had begun to abate, and by the opening of the
seventeenth humanism had been completely formalized. In the study of
the classics all emphasis was placed upon grammar, linguistics, and
style; form was preferred to content; and methods became _memoriter_
and imitative. Humanism had largely performed its mission, and a new
awakening was needed to revivify education and society in general.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Graves, _During the Transition_ (Macmillan, 1910), chaps. XII-XIV;
Monroe, _Text-book_ (Macmillan, 1905), chap. VI. An interesting
interpretation of the Renaissance both in Italy and the North is found
in Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_ (Scribner,
1894), chap. XV. An account of the movement, including its educational
aspects in Italy, is found in Burckhardt, J., _Civilization of the
Renaissance in Italy_ (Sonnenschein, London, 1892; Macmillan), vol.
I, especially part III; Symonds, J. A., _Renaissance in Italy_ (Holt,
Scribner), vol. II, especially chaps. III-VIII; or Symonds’ _Short
History of the Renaissance_ (Holt, 1894), especially chaps. I and
VII, and IX-XI. Woodward, W. H., gives us a vivid account of the
educational work of _Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators_
(Cambridge University Press, 1897), and of _Erasmus concerning
Education_ (Cambridge University Press, 1904), and of _Education
during the Renaissance_ (Cambridge University Press, 1906) as a whole.
_Peter Ramus and the Educational Reformation of the Sixteenth Century_
(Macmillan, 1912), by Graves, F. P., furnishes some idea of conditions
in France. _The Italian Renaissance in England_ (Columbia University
Press, 1905), especially chap. I, is succinctly described by Einstein,
L.; and an account of Colet and St. Paul’s School can be found in
Barnard, H., _English Pedagogy_, second series, pp. 49-117.
CHAPTER XIII
EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE REFORMATION
OUTLINE
Luther’s educational positions are most fully revealed in his
well-known _Letter_ and _Sermon_. He holds that education should
prepare for citizenship, and should be state-supported, and these
recommendations were somewhat embodied in actual schools by his
associates.
Zwingli was killed before he could greatly influence education,
but the educational institutions of Calvin spread rapidly through
Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Puritan England, and Scotland.
In England Henry VIII and Edward VI confiscated the property of
some three hundred monastic and other ecclesiastical schools, but
subsequently many of these were refounded.
The Jesuit colleges were organized to extend Catholic Christianity.
The lower colleges were humanistic, and the higher taught
‘philosophy’ and theology. The teachers were trained, and the
methods, though _memoriter_ and emulative, were effective. The
influence of the Jesuit colleges was phenomenal, but they have
failed to meet new conditions.
The Port Royalists held that reason was more important than memory,
but, while their ‘little schools’ stressed vernacular, logic, and
geometry, they offered nothing beyond the best elements in the
education of the past.
Elementary and industrial education was given an impulse for
the Catholics by the schools of the Christian Brothers. They
also opened training schools for teachers, and perfected the
‘simultaneous’ method.
Among the Protestants and some Catholics in Germany, Holland,
Scotland, and certain of the American colonies, the Reformation
inclined toward universal elementary education and control of the
schools by the state. The secondary schools in Protestant countries
also came largely under civic authorities, although the clergy
still taught and inspected them; while Catholic secondary education
was furnished mostly by the Jesuit colleges. In many instances the
universities turned Protestant; and new universities, Protestant
and Catholic, were founded.
[Sidenote: A series of revolts from the Church accompanied Northern
humanism.]
=The Relation of the Reformation to the Renaissance.=--The series
of revolts from the Catholic Church, generally known collectively
as the ‘Reformation,’ may be regarded as closely connected with the
Renaissance. As shown in the last chapter, humanism in the North led
to a renewed study of the Scriptures and a reform of ecclesiastical
doctrines and abuses, and took on a moral and religious color.
Reformers arose, like Wimpfeling and Erasmus, who, while remaining
within the Church, sought to purify it of corruption and obscurantism.
But the Church at first stubbornly resisted all efforts at internal
reform. Its immense wealth, large numbers, and training enabled it
for a long time to thwart the spirit of the age, and a condition of
ecclesiastical upheaval followed. Revolts against papal authority
ensued in various parts of Europe north of Italy, and were furnished
support by the awakened intellectual and social conditions of the
sixteenth century. The result was the establishment of a church, or
rather a set of churches, outside of Catholic Christianity. While
each revolt had some peculiarities of its own, there were underlying
them all certain general causes that indicated their relation to the
Renaissance.
[Sidenote: In his revolt, Luther relied upon the individualistic spirit
of the times.]
=The Revolt and Educational Works of Luther.=--Even the attitude
of Martin Luther (1483-1546) seems to have been bound up with the
tendencies of the day. Apparently he had at first no idea of breaking
from the Church, and supposed that the ninety-five theses he nailed
to the church door at Wittenberg (1517) were quite consistent with
Catholic allegiance. But even before this he had attacked Aristotle and
scholasticism with great vigor, appealing to primitive Christianity
and the right of free thought, and thus identified himself in spirit
with the Northern Renaissance. And two years later, in his contest
with Eck, when he was actually led to deny the authority of both
pope and council, he was evidently relying upon the humanistic and
individualistic atmosphere of the times.
[Sidenote: His translation of the Bible]
[Sidenote: and his catechisms.]
[Sidenote: His _Letter_ and _Sermon_.]
When once he had revolted, Luther gave much of his time to promoting
the reform and education of the masses by writing. All his works,
whether religious or pedagogical, were clearly intended, in a broad
sense, to be educational. After his condemnation at the Diet of Worms
(1521), when he had taken refuge at the Wartburg, he undertook to
awaken the minds and hearts of the common people by a translation of
the Greek Testament. Contrary to general opinion, a large number of
translations had preceded that of Luther, and their popularity must
have proved suggestive to him, but his edition was unusually close
to the colloquial language of the times. A dozen years later, he
had completed a translation of the entire Bible, which contributed
greatly to education by getting the masses to read and reflect. For
the further instruction of the people, he also followed the fashion of
the day in producing two catechisms, one for adults and the other for
children, together with many tracts, addresses, and letters, filled
with allusions to the organization and methods of education. But the
documents which most fully reveal his educational positions are his
_Letter to the Mayors and Aldermen of All Cities of Germany in behalf
of Christian Schools_ (1524), and his _Sermon on the Duty of Sending
Children to School_ (1530).
[Sidenote: Civic aim.]
[Sidenote: Industrial and academic training.]
[Sidenote: Enlarged content.]
[Sidenote: Rational methods.]
=Luther’s Ideas on Education.=--The purpose of education, Luther
everywhere holds, involves the promotion of the State’s welfare quite
as much as that of the Church. The schools were to make good citizens
as well as religious men. Educational institutions should, on that
account, be maintained at public expense for every one,--rich and poor,
high and low, boys and girls, alike, and attendance should be compelled
by the civic authorities. Realizing that some pupils may find it hard
to give the time to school, Luther planned that “they should spend an
hour or two a day in school, and the rest of the time in work at home,
learn some trade and do whatever is desired, so that study and work may
go on together.” But he also desired a more academic course “for the
brightest pupils, who give promise of becoming accomplished teachers,
preachers, and workers.” In any case, Luther naturally believed that
the chief studies should be the Bible and the catechism. But, as a
Northern humanist, he recommended the ancient languages--Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew--for the light they would throw on the Scriptures and the
patristic writers. He likewise approved of rhetoric and dialectic,
which were very valuable subjects in those days of controversy; and
he made a decided advance in advocating history, natural science,
vocal and instrumental music, and gymnastic exercises. History is
advised, not only, as was common with the humanists, for the sake of
illustrating moral truth, but also for the purpose of understanding
social institutions. The study of nature was intended to reveal “the
wonders of Divine Goodness and the omnipotence of God.” Gymnastics he
considered of value both for the body and the soul, and music a means
of “driving away all care and melancholy from the heart.” The methods
he recommended were equally rational. He would utilize the natural
activity of children and not attempt to repress them, and would make
use of concrete examples, wherever possible. Languages he would teach
less by grammar than by practice. This belief in the importance of
selecting the proper content and method in education led him to rate
the function of the teacher as higher, if anything, than that of the
preacher.
[Sidenote: Melanchthon and Sturm.]
[Sidenote: Bugenhagen in Northern Germany.]
[Sidenote: Other associates.]
=The Embodiment of Luther’s Ideas in Schools by His Associates.=--These
recommendations of Luther were largely embodied in actual institutions
by his associates. The year after his _Letter to the Mayors_ was
published, the Protestants were requested by the Count of Mansfeld
to establish in Luther’s native town, Eisleben, a school that should
put his educational theories into practice, and this was performed by
Melanchthon. The subsequent organization of Latin schools throughout
the Electorate of Saxony, and the foundation of the gymnasium of Sturm
at Strassburg upon the Protestant basis have already been touched upon
(pp. 114 ff.). But of fully as much importance were the educational
foundations of Bugenhagen (1485-1558). While engaged in reorganizing
the churches in the cities and states of Northern Germany, by his
general ‘church orders’ to each, he made ample provision for schools
of the Lutheran type. For instance, at Hamburg in 1520 he organized a
single Latin school with a rector and seven teachers, together with a
German school for boys and one for girls in every parish. Eight years
afterward, the ‘church orders’ of Brunswick provided two classical
schools, two vernacular schools for boys, and four for girls, so
located in the city that all children could conveniently reach a
school. Within a half dozen years he made similar requirements for
Lübeck, Minden, Göttingen, Soest, Bremen, Osnabrück, and other cities,
and throughout some entire states of Germany, such as Holstein and his
own native duchy of Pomerania. The educational theories of Luther were
also put into practice in a number of schools taught by Trotzendorf,
Neander, and other pupils of Melanchthon.
[Sidenote: Sprang from Northern humanism.]
[Sidenote: Schools and course similar to Luther’s.]
=The Revolt and Educational Ideas of Zwingli.=--The revolt under
Zwingli (1484-1531) was more directly the outcome of Northern humanism
than was that of Luther. Through Erasmus and others he had come to
believe that there was little basis in the Bible for the traditional
theology, and he carefully read the accounts himself in the original
Greek and Hebrew. After he took charge of the cathedral at Zurich, he
began his attack upon the dogmas and traditions of the Church, and, by
securing the support of the town, managed in a fairly peaceful way to
drop one form of the Church after another, until, within five years,
he had abolished even the mass. Zwingli likewise made the extension
of educational facilities a part of his reform. He founded a number
of humanistic institutions, and introduced elementary schools into
Switzerland. He also published a _Brief Treatise on the Christian
Education of Youth_ (1523), which recommended a course of studies not
unlike that of Luther, except that, from his practical temperament, he
did not mention history, but did add arithmetic and surveying.
[Sidenote: Also began through Northern humanism.]
[Sidenote: Calvin’s colleges]
[Sidenote: and Corderius.]
=Calvin’s Revolt and His Encouragement of Education.=--While
endeavoring to spread his reforms, Zwingli was slain in the prime of
life. His positions were maintained by his successor in the cathedral,
but the work was soon overshadowed and merged in the movement of Calvin
(1509-1564). Calvin’s break with the Church, like that of French
Protestants generally, also began through the influence of Northern
humanism and the study of the Greek Testament. He had, however,
received an excellent legal and theological education, and did not
content himself with merely attacking Catholic doctrine, but was the
first Protestant to formulate an elaborate system of theology. The
call of Calvin to reorganize the civil and religious administration of
the city of Geneva gave him an excellent opportunity for working out
his theories. Although he was much engrossed in religious disputes,
he established ‘colleges’ at Geneva and elsewhere, and in other ways
undertook to found schools and promote education. He succeeded, too,
in persuading his former teacher, Corderius (see p. 111), to come
to Switzerland, and organize, administer, and teach in the reformed
colleges.
[Sidenote: Aim, content, and organization.]
[Sidenote: Spread in Switzerland, France, Netherlands, England, and
Scotland.]
=The Colleges of Calvin.=--Corderius here wrote four books of
_Colloquies_, with the purpose of training boys by means of
conversation on timely topics to speak Latin with facility, and from
this work we can learn much of the character of the Calvinistic
colleges. Clearly the ideal was the ‘learned piety’ of Melanchthon,
Sturm, and the other Northern humanists and Protestants. An attempt
seems to have been made to teach Latin in such a way as to cultivate a
moral and religious life, and psalms were sung, public prayers offered,
and selections from the Bible repeated each day. We also know that in
the seven classes of a college at Geneva the pupils learned reading
and grammar from the Latin catechism, and then studied Vergil, Cicero,
Ovid, Cæsar, Livy, and Latin composition. Greek seems to have been
begun in the fourth year, and, beside classical Greek authors, the
Gospels and Epistles were read. Likewise, as in the other Reformation
schools, logic and rhetoric were studied in the higher classes.
The colleges of this type not only spread rapidly among Calvin’s
co-religionists in Switzerland and France, but, as Geneva became a city
of refuge for all the oppressed, a regard for humanistic, religious,
and universal education was absorbed by the persecuted Netherlander,
the English Protestants of Mary’s time, and the Scotch under the
leadership of Knox in the days of Mary, Queen of Scots (1505-1572).
[Sidenote: Due to personal reasons.]
[Sidenote: Suppression of grammar schools.]
=Henry VIII’s Revolt and Its Effect upon Education.=--In England a
revolt from the Church likewise occurred. This also may have been
due in part to the investigative spirit of Northern humanism, but
the immediate cause of the breach was the desire of Henry VIII (_r._
1509-1547) to control the national Church, that he might divorce
his wife, and there was at first little change in doctrine. Once in
ecclesiastical power, Henry began in 1536 to confiscate the monastic
lands and property, and enlarged the scope of his operations until
he had suppressed a large number of monastic, cathedral, collegiate,
hospital, and other schools. During the reign (1547-1553) of his
successor, Edward VI, the acts of suppression were extended to chantry
and gild foundations, and it is estimated that, of the three hundred
grammar schools that had come down in England from the Middle Ages,
but few were not destroyed under Henry and Edward. Some, however,
remained by the terms of the parliamentary acts of suppression, and
popular sentiment caused others to be refounded. And during the reign
of Elizabeth (1558-1603) and of the first two Stuart kings (1603-1649)
these foundations were greatly increased out of royal funds or through
the philanthropy of wealthy men. All of these schools, as we have seen
(p. 118), following the example of St. Paul’s, adopted the Northern
ideals of humanism and furnished a curriculum of classics and religious
training. The latter became based, of course, upon the teachings of the
Church of England.
[Sidenote: Aimed to strengthen the authority of the pope.]
=Foundation of the Society of Jesus.=--We may now turn back to
the Mother Church and see what efforts she was putting forth in
behalf of education during the period of Protestant revolts. Both
before and after the time of Luther there were reformers inside the
Church who wished to improve its practices without changing its
administration, but the Catholics in general felt it their chief
duty to crush the Protestant heresy and recover the ground they had
lost. This resulted in a number of religious wars, in which both
sides displayed great bitterness and cruelty. But a more effective
and constructive instrument in advancing the interests of Catholicism
was the organization of the ‘Society of Jesus.’ This order was
founded by Ignatius de Loyola (1491-1556) in 1534. He persuaded six
fellow-students at Paris to join with him in devoting themselves to
the conversion of the heathen, and to strengthening the authority of
the pope. Six years later, after considerable opposition, the new order
was recognized by the pope and began to add rapidly to its numbers.
The Jesuits have always striven first through missionary labors to
extend Catholic Christianity throughout the world, and then by means
of schools to hold their converts and educate all peoples to papal
allegiance.
[Sidenote: The _Constitution_ and the _Ratio Studiorum_.]
[Sidenote: The ‘general,’]
[Sidenote: ‘provincial,’]
[Sidenote: ‘rector,’ and other officials.]
=Organization of the Jesuits.=--The organization of the Society of
Jesus was outlined in its _Constitution_. This fundamental document of
the order received its final revision shortly after Loyola’s death,
but the _Ratio Studiorum_, which was an expansion of Part IV of the
_Constitution_ and described the educational administration in detail,
was not finally formulated until 1599. It thus summed up the experience
of the Jesuit schools during more than sixty years. The administration
of the society has always been of a military type. Loyola had
originally started upon the career of a soldier, and did not believe
that any system could be effective unless it were based upon implicit
obedience to one’s official superiors. At the head of the order is the
‘general,’ who is elected for life and has vast administrative powers.
As the society spread, the countries that came under its control were
divided into provinces, and at the head of the Jesuit interests in
each of these districts is the ‘provincial,’ who is appointed by the
general for three years. In each province there are various colleges,
whose presiding officer, or ‘rector,’ is chosen for three years by the
general, but is directly responsible to the provincial and reports
to him. Similarly, within each college are ‘prefects,’ immediately
subordinate to the rector, but selected by the provincial; and under
the inspection of the prefects are the ‘professors’ or ‘preceptors.’
[Sidenote: The lower colleges are secondary and humanistic,]
[Sidenote: with curriculum largely unchanged.]
=The Jesuit Colleges.=--The Jesuits have never engaged in elementary
education, but have required that pupils know how to read and write
before being admitted to any of their schools. This may have been
brought about in the first place by the fact that the number of their
teachers was limited, or that the public elementary school was just
coming to be regarded as of importance, and secondary education of
the humanistic type was everywhere dominant. The Jesuit educational
organization has, therefore, consisted of ‘lower colleges’ with a
gymnasia course, and of ‘upper colleges,’ which are of university
grade. Boys are admitted to the lower colleges at from ten to fourteen
years of age, and spend five or six years there. The first three
classes were at first devoted to a careful study of Latin grammar, and
a little of Greek; in the fourth year a number of the Greek and Latin
poets and historians were read; while the last class, to which two
years were usually given, took up a rhetorical study of the classical
authors. Only slight variations in the curriculum have ever been
allowed since the _Ratio Studiorum_ was issued, until the revision
in 1832. In that year work in mathematics, natural science, history,
and geography was added in the lower colleges, but the classics still
compose the body of the course.
[Sidenote: The upper colleges furnish training in ‘philosophy’ and
theology.]
The full course of the upper colleges lasts seven or nine years,-the
first three in ‘philosophy,’ followed by four or six in theology. The
training in ‘philosophy’ now includes not only logic, metaphysics,
psychology, ethics, and natural theology, but also work in algebra,
geometry, trigonometry, analytics, calculus, and mechanics, and such
natural sciences as physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, and
physiology. A successful completion of the course leads to the degree
of Master of Arts. After the course in philosophy, most of the Jesuits
teach in the lower colleges five or six years before going on with the
work in theology. In the theological course four years are devoted to a
study of the Scriptures, Hebrew, and other Oriental languages, together
with Church history, canon law, and various branches of theology.
After this one may elect a further training of two years, to review
the work in philosophy and theology, and to prepare a thesis. After a
public examination and defense of his thesis, the successful candidate
is awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Hence a complete Jesuit
training will take from eighteen to twenty years, and a member of the
order may be from thirty to thirty-five years of age before completing
his formal education.
[Sidenote: Trained teachers,]
[Sidenote: the ‘prelection,’]
[Sidenote: memorizing,]
[Sidenote: reviews,]
[Sidenote: and rivalry.]
=The Jesuit Methods of Teaching.=--The methods of teaching and
the splendid qualification of the instructors were from the first
distinctive features in the Jesuit colleges, especially when one
considers how little attention up to their time had been given to the
preparation of teachers. No one could teach in the lower colleges who
had not passed through the course in philosophy, while professors
in the universities had first to complete the theological course.
Instruction was generally imparted orally, and then memorized or taken
down in lecture notes. The method was the ‘prelection,’ which meant
a preliminary explanation of the passage or lectures upon the topic
under consideration by the teacher. It consisted in giving, first, the
general meaning of the whole passage or proposition; then, a more
detailed explanation of the construction or phraseology; next similar
thoughts in other authors; fourthly, ‘erudition’, or informational
comment upon the passage; then, a study of the rhetorical figures; and
finally, the moral lesson to be drawn. Obviously, with such a method,
great stress would be placed upon memorizing, especially in the lower
colleges. To fix subjects firmly in mind, short hours, few studies, and
brief lessons were early found to be necessary. Likewise, reviews have
always been frequent and systematic, and the Latin motto of the Jesuit
method declares that “repetition is the mother of learning.” Each day
begins with a review of the preceding day’s work, and closes with a
review of the work just accomplished. Each week ends with a repetition
of all that has been covered in that time, and the last month of every
year reviews the course of the year. To maintain interest in the midst
of so much memorizing and reviewing, many devices to promote emulation
are used. The pupils are arranged in pairs as ‘rivals,’ whose business
it is to check on the conduct and studies of each other (Fig. 18); and
public ‘disputations’ between two sides are engaged in each week.
[Sidenote: Systematic,]
[Sidenote: interesting, and devoted,]
[Sidenote: but authoritative and uniform.]
=Value and Influence of the Jesuit Education.=--The Jesuit system,
then, seems to have been in advance of that in the schools at the time
of its foundation. It was organized upon a systematic and thorough
basis, and was administered by a set of splendidly trained teachers
through the best methods that were known in that day. The schools were
interesting and pleasant, and were free to all who had the ability and
desire to attend. The Jesuit teachers, too, were indefatigable and
devoted to their duty. The criticism that has been offered to this
educational system is based on its insistence upon absolute authority
and the consequent opposition to the development of individuality. The
Jesuit courses, subjects, and methods have become somewhat uniform and
fixed. In the lower colleges they depend largely upon memory and appeal
to interest through a system of rivalry, honors, and rewards. Such a
system is likely to tend toward a reproductive attitude in the pupil.
[Illustration: _a._ Jesuit College at Regensburg in 1600.]
[Illustration:
_b._ Plan of a Jesuit schoolroom of the seventeenth century. B
represents the teacher, C the monitors, and D, E, O, X, and I various
student officials. The numbered lines represent rows of students, known
as _decuriae_. When a student was called upon, his ‘rival’ arose from
the corresponding place in the other group; and as each recited, the
other endeavored to correct him in some error.
Fig. 18.--Education of the Jesuits.]
[Sidenote: Phenomenal growth of the number of colleges and students.]
[Sidenote: Prominent graduates.]
[Sidenote: Quarrels and banishments.]
Nevertheless, the Jesuits furnished the most effective education during
the latter half of the sixteenth, the entire seventeenth, and the
early part of the eighteenth centuries. The growth of their schools
was phenomenal. By the death of Loyola (1556) there were already one
hundred colleges, and a century and a half later they had increased
to seven hundred and sixty-nine institutions, spread throughout the
world. The average number of students in attendance at any of these
colleges during the seventeenth century was about three hundred, and in
several of the larger centers there were between one and two thousand,
and the famous College of Clermont (now _Lycée Louis le Grand_) at
Paris is said to have run up to three thousand. At a modest estimate,
there must have been some two hundred thousand students in the Jesuit
colleges when they were at their height. Their graduates seem to have
become prominent in every important activity of life, and included a
large number of the noted authors, prelates, statesmen, and generals of
the time. By the middle of the eighteenth century, however, the ideals
and content of education had somewhat changed, and the Jesuits did
not adapt their course to the new conditions. Moreover, the Jesuits
seem to have become powerful, ambitious, and somewhat arrogant. They
quarreled frequently with bishops, other monastic orders, governments,
and universities. Finally, after they had been banished from France,
Spain, and Portugal, in 1773 the pope himself dissolved the Society
of Jesus. Forty years later the order was restored, but, owing to the
development of educational ideals and organization and the increase of
educational institutions, their work has never since become relatively
as effective or held as important a place in education.
[Sidenote: Adopted rationalistic philosophy.]
[Sidenote: ‘Little’ schools.]
=The Organization of the Education of the Port Royalists.=--A type
of Catholic education radically opposed to that of the Jesuits was
created by a group of men belonging to the religious body known as
the Jansenists. The doctrines of the Jansenists were formulated in
1621 by Cornelius Jansen, a professor in the University of Louvain.
While striving to retain their place within the Church, the Jansenists
opposed the prevailing doctrines of confession and penance, and adopted
the rationalistic philosophy of Descartes. They also held that humanity
is naturally corrupt, except as it is watched and guided, and that only
a relatively few can be saved. These doctrines probably influenced
a body of Jansenists that established a new departure in the way of
education at the convent of Port Royal at Chevreuse. In 1643 the ‘Port
Royalists’ endeavored to remove what few children they could from the
temptations of the world to a school started in this convent. Similar
institutions quickly sprang up in the vicinity and then spread through
Paris. To carry out their ideal of careful oversight, these schools
usually took only twenty to twenty-five pupils, and each master had
under him five or six boys, whom he never allowed out of his immediate
supervision day or night. Hence these institutions were known as
‘little schools.’
[Sidenote: Reason rather than memory.]
[Sidenote: Latin through the vernacular.]
[Sidenote: Logic and geometry.]
[Sidenote: Phonetic method.]
[Sidenote: Indifference.]
=The Port Royal Course and Method of Teaching.=--Since the Port
Royalists held that character was of more importance than knowledge,
and reason was to be developed rather than memory, these ‘little
schools’ sought to impart an education that should be sound and
lasting, rather than brilliant. Unlike the Jesuits, they did not start
their pupils with Latin, but with the vernacular, since this was within
their comprehension. As soon as they possessed a feeling for good
literature, they began the study of Latin through a minimum grammar
written in French, and soon took up the Latin authors, rendering them
into the vernacular. Greek literature was treated in similar fashion.
To train the reason, the older pupils were also taught logic and
geometry. The course of study, however, was mostly literary, and had
no regard for science or investigation. Port Royal presented the best
elements of the education of the past, but did not see beyond it. The
methods introduced some striking innovations. The leaders in the Port
Royal education departed from the alphabetic plan in teaching their
pupils to read, and developed a phonetic method. The Port Royalists
also refused to permit the use of emulation and prizes in their
schools, but their exclusion of rivalry resulted in indifference.
They were never able to secure the energy, earnestness, and pleasing
environment of the Jesuit colleges. They did, however, succeed in
inculcating a general spirit of piety without the formal teaching of
doctrine.
[Sidenote: Jesuits lost sympathy.]
[Sidenote: Port Royalists produced educational treatises.]
=Closing of the Port Royalist Schools and Its Effects.=--In 1661 the
Port Royalist schools were closed by the order of Louis XIV through the
influence of the Jesuits. But this act cost the Jesuits dearly. Not
only did it lose them sympathy, but it furnished the Port Royalists
occasion to issue tracts against Jesuitism that have injured its repute
ever since. This closing of their schools also gave the Port Royalists
the opportunity of becoming educators in a larger sense by producing
a great variety of writings upon their system. Later on, too, Rollin
(1661-1741), who was twice elected rector of the University of Paris,
summarized in his _Treatise on Studies_ the Port Royalist reforms
wrought in that institution.
[Sidenote: Little elementary education before La Salle.]
[Sidenote: Development of the schools at Rheims:]