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READINGS IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION
MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITIES
BY ARTHUR O. NORTON
_Assistant Professor of the History and Art of Teaching in Harvard
University_
CAMBRIDGE
PUBLISHED BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY
1909
PREFACE
These readings in the history of mediaeval universities are the first
installment of a series, which I have planned with the view of
illustrating, mainly from the sources, the history of modern education
in Europe and America. They are intended for use after the manner of the
source books or collections of documents which have so vastly improved
the teaching of general history in recent years. No argument is needed
as to the importance of such a collection for effective teaching of the
history of education; but I would urge that the subject requires in a
peculiar degree rich and full illustration from the sources. The life of
school, college, or university is varied, vivid, even dramatic, while we
live it; but, once it has passed, it becomes thinner and more spectral
than almost any other historical fact. Its original records are, in all
conscience, thin enough; the situation is still worse when they are
worked over at third or fourth hand, flattened out; smoothed down, and
desiccated in the pages of a modern history of education. Such histories
are of course necessary to effective teaching of the subject; but the
records alone can clothe the dry bones of fact with flesh and blood.
Only by turning back to them do we gain a sense of personal intimacy
with the past; only thus can we realize that schools and universities of
other days were not less real than those of to-day, teachers and
students of other generations not less vividly alive than we, academic
questions not less unsettled or less eagerly debated. To gain this sense
of concrete, living reality in the history of education is one of the
most important steps toward understanding the subject.
In selecting and arranging the records here presented I have had in mind
chiefly the needs of students who are taking the usual introductory
courses in the subject. Students of general history--a subject in which
more and more account is taken of culture in the broad sense of the
term--may also find them useful.
Within the necessarily limited space I have chosen to illustrate in some
detail a few aspects of the history of mediaeval universities rather
than to deal briefly with a large number of topics. Many important
matters, not here touched upon, are reserved for future treatment. Some
documents pertinent to the topics here discussed are not reproduced
because they are easily accessible elsewhere; these are mentioned in the
bibliographical note at the close of the volume.
In writing the descriptive and explanatory text I have attempted only to
indicate the general significance of the translations, and to supply
information not easily obtained, or not clearly given in the references
or text-books which, it is assumed, the student will read in connection
with this work. It would be possible to write a commentary of genuinely
mediaeval proportions on the selections here given; doubtless many of
the details would be clearer for such a commentary. Some of these are
explained by cross-references in the body of the text; in the main,
however, I have preferred to let the documents stand for their face
value to the average reader.
I have given especial attention to university studies (pp. 37-80) and
university exercises (pp. 107-134) because these important subjects are
unusually difficult for most students, and because surprisingly few
illustrations of them from the sources have been heretofore easily
accessible in English. In particular, there has not been, I believe, a
previous translation of any considerable passage from the much discussed
and much criticised mediaeval commentaries on university text-books. The
selection here given (pp. 59-75) is not intended for continuous reading;
but it will fully repay close and repeated examination. Not infrequently
single sentences of this commentary are the outcroppings of whole
volumes of mediaeval thought and controversy; indeed anyone who follows
to the end each of the lines of study suggested will have at command a
very respectable bit of knowledge concerning the intellectual life of
the middle ages. The passage requires more explanation by the teacher,
or more preliminary knowledge on the part of the student, than any other
selection in the book.
The sources from which the selections have been made are indicated in
the footnotes to the text My great indebtedness to Mr. Hastings
Rashdall's "Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages" is also there
indicated. Messrs. G.P. Putnam's Sons and Mr. Joseph McCabe generously
gave me permission to quote more extensive passages from the latter's
brilliant biography of Abelard than I finally found it possible to use.
Mr. Charles S. Moore has been my chief assistant in the preparation of
the manuscript; most of the translations not otherwise credited are due
to his careful work, but I am responsible for the version finally
adopted in numerous passages in which the interpretation depends on a
knowledge of detailed historical facts. In conclusion, I have to thank
Professor Charles H. Haskins and Professor Leo Wiener for information
which has spared me many days of research on obscure details, and
Professor Paul H. Hanus for suggestions which have contributed to the
clearness of the text.
A.O.N.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE RENAISSANCE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 4
III. THE RISE OF UNIVERSITIES 13
1. Teachers and Students of the Twelfth Century
(a) Abelard 13
(b) John of Salisbury 25
2. The New Method 35
3. The New Studies 37
(a) The Works of Aristotle 40
(b) Roman Law 49
(c) Canon Law 55
(d) Theology 76
(e) Medicine 78
(f) Other University Text-books 78
4. University Privileges 80
(a) Special Protection by the Sovereign 81
(b) The Right of Trial in Special Courts 86
(c) Exemption from Taxation 88
(d) The Privilege of Suspending Lectures (Cessatio) 92
(e) The Right of Teaching Everywhere
(Jus ubique docendi) 96
(f) Privileges Granted by a Municipality 98
(g) The Influence of Mediaeval Privileges
on Modern Universities 101
5. Universities Founded by the Initiative of Civil
or Ecclesiastical Powers 102
IV. UNIVERSITY EXERCISES 107
(a) The Lecture 107
(b) The Disputation 115
(c) The Examination 124
(d) A Day's Work in 1476 132
(e) Time-table of Lectures at Leipzig, 1519 132
V. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREES IN ARTS 135
1. Paris, 1254 136
2. Paris, 1366 138
3. Oxford, 1267 and (?) 1408 138
4. Leipzig, A.B., 1410 139
5. Leipzig, A.M., 1410 139
6. Leipzig, A.B. and A.M., 1519 134
VI. ACADEMIC LETTERS 141
1. Letters Relating to Paris 141
2. Two Oxford Letters of the Fifteenth Century 149
READINGS IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION
I
INTRODUCTION
The history of education, like all other branches of history, is based
upon documents. Historical documents are, in general, "the traces which
have been left by the thoughts and actions of men of former times"; the
term commonly refers to the original records or _sources_ from which our
knowledge of historical facts is derived. The documents most generally
used by historians are written or printed. In the history of education
alone these are of the greatest variety; as is shown in the following
pages, among them are university charters, proceedings, regulations,
lectures, text-books, the statutes of student organizations, personal
letters, autobiographies, contemporary accounts of university life, and
laws made by civil or ecclesiastical authorities to regulate university
affairs. Similar varieties of records exist for other educational
institutions and activities. The immense masses of such written or
printed materials produced to-day, even to the copy-book of the primary
school and the student's note-book of college lectures, will, if they
survive, become documents for the future historian of education.
The known sources for the history of education in western Europe since
the twelfth century--to go no further afield--are exceedingly numerous,
and widely spread among various public and private collections; the
labor of a lifetime would hardly suffice to examine them all critically.
Nevertheless many printed and written documents have been collected,
edited, and published in their original languages; and in some instances
the collections are fairly complete, or at least fairly representative
of the documents in existence. Assuming that they are accurate copies of
the original records, many are now easily accessible to students of the
subject, since these reproductions may be owned by all large libraries.
These records, rightly apprehended, have far more than a mere
antiquarian interest. The history of mediaeval universities is
profoundly important, not only for students, but also for
administrators, of modern higher education. For to a surprising degree
the daily and hourly conduct of university affairs of the twentieth
century is influenced by what universities did six centuries ago. On
this point the words of Mr. Hastings Rashdall, a leading authority on
mediaeval universities, are instructive: "... If we would completely
understand the meaning of offices, titles, ceremonies, organizations
preserved in the most modern, most practical, most unpicturesque of the
institutions which now bear the name of 'University,' we must go back to
the earliest days of the earliest Universities that ever existed, and
trace the history of their chief successors through the seven centuries
that intervene between the rise of Bologna or Paris, and the foundation
of the new University of Strassburg in Germany, or of the Victoria
University in England."
Knowledge of the subject should, however, yield much more than
understanding: it should also influence the practical attitudes of those
who are concerned with university affairs. Here I take issue with those
historians who hold that history supplies no "information of practical
utility in the conduct of life"; no "lessons directly profitable to
individuals and peoples." The evidence cannot be exhibited here, but
such information notoriously has been of the utmost practical value in
education, both in shaping influential theories and in determining even
minute details of educational practice. There is no reason to suppose
that it may not continue to be thus serviceable. Other utilities of
university history are less direct, but not less important. The study of
individual institutions and their varying circumstances and problems
"prepares us to understand and tolerate a variety of usages"; the study
of their growth not only "cures us of a morbid dread of change," but
also leads us to view their progressive adaptation to new conditions as
necessary and desirable. If such study teaches only these two lessons to
those who may hereafter shape the course of educational affairs it more
than justifies itself. For to eradicate that intolerance of variety in
educational practice so characteristic of the academic man of the past,
and to diminish in future generations his equally characteristic
opposition to changes involving adaptation to new conditions, is to
render one of the greatest possible services to educational progress.
II
THE RENAISSANCE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY
During the twelfth century a great educational revival manifested itself
in western Europe, following upon several centuries of intellectual
decline or relative inactivity. Though its beginnings may be traced into
the eleventh century, and though its culmination belongs to a much later
period, the movement is often called the Renaissance of the Twelfth
Century. In that century it first appears as a widely diffused and
rapidly growing movement, and it then takes on distinctly the
characteristics which mark its later development. The revival appears
first in Italy and France; from these regions it spreads during the next
three centuries into England, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and
Scotland.
Certain facts concerning this educational Renaissance should be clearly
understood in connection with the following selections:
1. To men of the times it first showed itself as a renewal of activity
in existing schools. Here and there appeared eminent teachers; to them
resorted increasing numbers of students from greater and greater
distances. In a few years some of these institutions became schools of
international fame. The newly roused enthusiasm for study in France at
the opening of the twelfth century is thus described by a modern writer:
The scholastic fever, which was soon to inflame the youth of the
whole of Europe, had already set in. You could not travel far
over the rough roads of France without meeting some footsore
scholar, making for the nearest large monastery or cathedral
town. Before many years, it is true, there arose an elaborate
system of conveyance from town to town, an organization of
messengers to run between the chateau and the school; but in the
earlier days, and, to some extent, even later, the scholar
wandered afoot through the long provinces of France. Robbers,
frequently in the service of the lord of the land, infested every
province. It was safest to don the coarse frieze tunic of the
pilgrim, without pockets, sling your little wax tablets and
stylus at your girdle, strap a wallet of bread and herbs and salt
on your back, and laugh at the nervous folk who peeped out from
their coaches over a hedge of pikes and daggers. Few monasteries
refused a meal or a rough bed to the wandering scholar. Rarely
was any fee exacted for the lesson given. For the rest, none were
too proud to earn a few sous by sweeping, or drawing water, or
amusing with a tune on the reed-flute; or to wear the cast-off
tunics of their masters.[1]
This account refers to the study of logic and theology, which soon
became dominant in Paris and in various cathedral schools in other parts
of France. With slight modifications it would describe also the revival
of interest in Roman law in Italy, especially at Bologna.
2. The revival was concerned mainly with professional, or--as later
appeared--university, education. The prevailing interest was in Law,
Medicine, Theology, and the philosophy of Aristotle. Schools of lower
grade were much influenced by the intellectual activity of the times,
but the characteristic product of this movement was the university. The
universities, organized as corporations, with their teachers divided
into faculties, their definite courses of study, their examinations,
their degrees, their privileges, and their cosmopolitan communities of
students, were not only the result of the revival, but they were
institutions essentially new in the history of education, and the models
for all universities which have since been established.
3. Between the latter part of the twelfth century and 1500 A.D. at least
seventy-nine universities were established in western Europe. There may
have been others of which no trace remains. Several of them were
short-lived, some lasting but a few years; ten disappeared before 1500.
Since that date twenty others have become extinct. The forty-nine
European universities of to-day which were founded before 1500 have all
passed through many changes in character and various periods of
prosperity and decline, but we still recognize in them the
characteristic features mentioned above, and the same features reappear
in the "most modern, most practical, most unpicturesque of the
institutions which now bear the name of 'University.'" This is one
illustration of the statement on page 2 that the daily and hourly
conduct of university affairs in the twentieth century is to a
surprising degree influenced by what universities did seven centuries
ago.
4. The term "University" has always been difficult to define. In the
Middle Ages its meaning varied in different places, and changed somewhat
in the centuries between 1200 and 1500 A.D. In these pages it signifies
in general an institution for higher education; and "institution" means,
not a group of buildings, but a society of teachers or students
organized, and ultimately incorporated, for mutual aid and protection,
and for the purpose of imparting or securing higher education.
Originally, universities were merely guilds of Masters or Scholars; as
such they were imitations of the numerous guilds of artisans and
tradesmen already in existence. Out of the simple organization and
customs of these guilds grew the elaborate organization and ceremonials
of later universities.
There were two main types of university organization,--the University of
Masters, and the University of Students. In the former,--which is the
type of all modern universities,--the government and instruction of
students were regulated by the Masters or Doctors. In the latter, these
matters were controlled by the students, who also prescribed rules for
the conduct of the Masters. Paris and Bologna were, respectively, the
original representatives of these types. Paris was the original
University of Masters; its pattern was copied, with some modifications,
by the universities of England, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Scotland.
Bologna was the archetypal University of Students; its organization was
imitated, also with variations, by the universities Italy, France
(except Paris), Spain, and Portugal.
In and after the thirteenth century, the place or school in which a
university existed was almost always called a _Studium Generale_, i.e. a
place to which students resorted, or were invited, from all countries.
This term was used in contrast to _Studium Particulare_, i.e. any school
in which a Master in a town taught a few scholars. In the _Studium
Generale_ instruction was given by several Masters, in one or more of
the Faculties of Arts, Law, Medicine, and Theology. In time the term
came to be synonymous with "University"; it is so used in this book.
5. The theoretically complete mediaeval university contained the four
faculties of Arts, Theology, Law, and Medicine. These we find reproduced
in some modern universities. Then, as now, however, it was not common to
find them all equally well developed in any single institution; many
possessed only two or three faculties, and some had but one. There are
rare instances of five faculties, owing to the subdivision of Law. At
Paris, the strongest faculties were those of Arts and Theology; Law and
Medicine were in comparison but feebly represented. At Bologna, on the
other hand, the study of Law was predominant, although the Arts,
Medicine, and Theology were also taught there.
6. The studies pursued in the various faculties in and after the
thirteenth century were in general as follows:
In the Faculty of Arts:
1. The "three philosophies"--Natural, Moral, and Rational--of Aristotle,
together with his Logic, Rhetoric, and Politics. Of these, Logic and
Rhetoric are included below.
2. The Seven Liberal Arts, comprising
{Grammar.
(_a_) {Rhetoric.
{Logic.
{Arithmetic.
(_b_) {Geometry.
{Music.
{Astronomy.
In the Faculty of Law:
1. The _Corpus Juris Civilis_, or body of Roman Civil Law, compiled at
Constantinople 529-533 A.D., under direction of the Roman Emperor
Justinian.
2. The Canon Law, or law governing the Church, of which the first part
was compiled by the monk Gratian about the year 1142. His compilation of
the Canon Law is usually referred to as the _Decretum Gratiani_.
In the Faculty of Theology:
1. The "Sentences" of Peter Lombard.
2. The Bible.
In the Faculty of Medicine:
1. The works of Hippocrates.
2. The works of Galen.
3. Medical treatises of various Arabic and Jewish writers of the
seventh century A.D. and later.
These studies will be described more fully in connection with the
selections on pages 37-83.
Not all of the works mentioned under these divisions were included in
the regular programme of any university; the actual studies required for
the various degrees consisted rather in selections from these works. The
selections chosen varied somewhat in different universities; moreover,
the course in any given university changed from time to time.
Consequently the degrees of A.B. and A.M., as well as degrees in Law,
Medicine, and Theology, probably never represented exactly the same set
of studies in any considerable number of universities, nor did they even
represent exactly the same work for many years in any single university.
This corresponds exactly with the situation in modern universities,
although at present the variations in studies for the same degree are
greater and the changes in any given university are usually more rapid
than they were in the universities of the Middle Ages.
It is necessary to remember that all the text-books were in Latin. Those
written originally in other tongues were translated into Latin. All
university exercises were conducted in that language, and frequently the
regulations required students to use Latin in conversation outside the
lecture halls. Latin was, in short, the universal academic tongue.
Obviously, the use of the same language everywhere facilitated the
migration of students and teachers from one university to another.
7. Although the first universities were not established as organized
institutions until the latter part of the twelfth century, the
intellectual movement which gave rise to them was well under way a
century earlier. It showed itself first in the rise of great teachers,
some of whom were also notable scholars. There has never been a clearer
demonstration of the central importance in education of the
distinguished teacher:
At the beginning of the twelfth century three schools are
distinguished in the contemporary literature above the multitude
which had sprung into new life in France and were connected with
so many of her cathedrals and religious houses. These three were
at Laon, Paris, and Chartres. It would be more accurate to say,
they were the schools of Anselm and Ralph, of William of
Champeaux, and of Bernard Sylvester. For in those days the school
followed the teacher, not the teacher the school. Wherever a
master lived, there he taught; and thither, in proportion to his
renown, students assembled from whatever quarter.... The tie was
a personal one, and was generally severed by the master's death.
A succession of great teachers in one place was a rare exception;
nor is such an exception afforded by the history of any of the
three schools to which we have referred.[2]
In these days, when education requires a more and more elaborate
equipment of buildings, libraries, laboratories, and museums, it is no
longer possible for teachers, however distinguished, to attract throngs
of students to places absolutely unprovided with the resources for
teaching, or to provide these resources anywhere on the spur of the
moment In the twelfth century, on the contrary, the only necessary
equipment consisted in the master, his small library which could be
carried by one man; wax tablets, or pens, ink, and vellum or parchment
for the students; and any kind of a shelter which would serve as a
protection from the weather. Not even benches or chairs were necessary,
for students commonly sat upon the straw-strewn floors of the lecture
rooms. Thus the school might easily follow the teacher in his
migrations, and easily sink into obscurity or disappear upon his death
or cessation from teaching. The autobiography of Abelard (see page 14),
recounts an experience unusual in itself, but perfectly illustrative of
the point. After relating various misfortunes and persecutions he
continues:
So I betook myself to a certain wilderness previously known to
me, and there on land given to me by certain ones, with the
consent of the Bishop of the region, I constructed out of reeds
and straw a sort of oratory in the name of the Holy Trinity
where, in company with one of our clergy, I might truly chant to
the Lord: "Lo I have wandered far off, and have remained in the
wilderness."
As soon as Scholars learned this they began to gather from every
side, leaving cities and castles to dwell in the wilderness, and
in place of their spacious homes to build small tabernacles for
themselves, and in place of delicate food to live on herbs of the
fields and coarse bread, and in place of soft couches to make up
[beds of] straw and grass, and in place of tables to pile up
sods.[3]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Adapted from Joseph McCabe, _Abelard_, pp. 7, 8.]
[Footnote 2: R.L. Poole, _Illustrations from the History of Medieval
Thought_, p. 109.]
[Footnote 3: _Petri Abaelardi Opera_, edd. Cousin et Jourdain, I, p.
25.]
III
THE RISE OF MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITIES
The influences contributing to the rise of universities were numerous,
and in many cases obscure. The most important were: 1. Inspiring and
original teachers, who gathered about them great numbers of students. 2.
A new method of teaching. 3. A new group of studies. 4. Privileges
granted to scholars and masters by civil and ecclesiastical authorities.
5. The direct initiative of those authorities in establishing
universities by decree. The readings which follow are chosen to
illustrate these influences.
1. TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY
(a) _A Pre-University Teacher: Abelard_
Among the teachers of the early part of the twelfth century, two were of
especial significance in the later intellectual development of the
period,--Irnerius (_ca._ 1070-1130) at Bologna, and Abelard (1079-1142)
at Paris. They were the forerunners of the universities which began to
take form at the end of the twelfth century in those cities. Irnerius
marks a new epoch in the study of the body of Roman Law; following the
traditions of teaching which he established, the University of Bologna
became the most prominent school of law in Europe. In a similar way
Abelard marks at Paris the introduction of a new method of teaching and
investigation, an attitude of intellectual independence on theological
questions, and a permanently influential position in scholastic
philosophy; following his initiative the University of Paris became the
leading school of Philosophy and Theology. These two
institutions,--Bologna and Paris,--were in turn the models for all other
mediaeval universities, not only in organization, but also so far as the
study of Law, Theology, and Philosophy was concerned. Hence, indirectly,
the influence of Abelard and Irnerius was widely diffused and long
continued.
The documents relating to Irnerius are scanty. For a discussion of his
influence on the teaching of Roman Law, see Rashdall, I, ch. iv, and
especially pages 121-127. Concerning Abelard the records are abundant.
Abelard, the eldest son of a noble family of Pallet (Palais), Brittany,
was in his day the most renowned teacher in France. Instead of becoming
the head of his family and adopting the career of a soldier, he
abandoned his birthright and the profession of arms for the life of the
scholar and the battlefields of debate. His early life as a student
wandering from school to school is thus described by himself:
The more fully and easily I advanced in the study of letters the
more ardently I clung to them, and I became so enamored of them
that, abandoning to my brothers the pomp of glory, together with
my inheritance and the rights of the eldest son, I resigned from
the Councils of War that I might be educated in the camp of
Minerva. And since among all the weapons of philosophy I
preferred the arms of logic, I exchanged accoutrements and
preferred the conflicts of debate to the trophies of war.
Thenceforward I walked through the various provinces engaging in
debates wherever I had heard that the study of this art [logic]
flourished, and thus became a rival of the Peripatetics.
At length [about 1100 A.D.] I reached Paris, where for some time
this art had been prospering, and went to William of Champeaux,
my instructor, distinguished at the time in this particular by
his work and reputation as a teacher. Staying with him for a
while, I was at first acceptable, but shortly after was very
annoying to him, namely, when I tried to refute some of his
opinions, and often ventured to argue against him and, not
seldom, seemed to surpass him in debate.[4]
_In scholis militare_--to wage war in the schools--was the phrase aptly
used to describe this mode of debate. William of Champeaux was then the
head of the cathedral school of Notre Dame and the leading teacher of
logic in France. "Within a few months Abelard made his authority totter,
and set his reputation on the wane. In six or seven years he drove him
in shame and humiliation from his chair, after a contest which filled
Christendom with its echoes." By overcoming William in debate he
established his own reputation as a teacher. At various times between
1108 and 1139 he taught in Paris, whither crowds of students came to
hear him. His fame was at its height about 1117, shortly after his
appointment to the chair which William himself had held. Few teachers
have ever attracted a following so large and so devoted. His remarkable
success in drawing to Paris students from all quarters is vividly
described by a modern writer:
The pupil who had left Paris when both William and Abelard
disappeared in 1113 would find a marvellous change on returning
to it about 1116 or 1117. He would find the lecture hall and the
cloister and the quadrangle, under the shadow of the great
cathedral, filled with as motley a crowd of youths and men as any
scene in France could show. Little groups of French and Norman
and Breton nobles chattered together in their bright silks and
fur-tipped mantles, with slender swords dangling from embroidered
belts, vying with each other in the length and crookedness of
their turned-up shoes. Anglo-Saxons looked on, in long fur-lined
cloaks, tight breeches, and leathern hose swathed with bands of
many colored cloth. Stern-faced northerners, Poles and Germans,
in fur caps and with colored girdles and clumsy shoes, or with
feet roughly tied up in the bark of trees, waited impatiently for
the announcement of _Li Mestre_. Pale-faced southerners had
braved the Alps and the Pyrenees under the fascination of "the
wizard." Shaven and sandalled monks, black-habited clerics, black
canons, secular and regular, black in face too, some of them,
heresy hunters from the neighboring abbey of St. Victor, mingled
with the crowd of young and old, grave and gay, beggars and
nobles, sleek citizens and bronzed peasants....
Over mountains and over seas the mingled reputation of the city
and the school were carried, and a remarkable stream set in from
Germany, Switzerland, Italy (even from proud Rome), Spain, and
England; even "distant Brittany sent you its animals to be
instructed," wrote Prior Fulques to Abelard (a Breton) a year or
two afterwards.[5]
What was there in the teaching of Abelard which brought together this
extraordinary gathering? One may admit the presence of unanalysable
genius in this master, and still find certain qualities indispensable to
the efficient teacher of to-day,--a winning personality, fulness of
knowledge, and technical skill as a teacher. These are admirably set
forth in the following description:
It is not difficult to understand the charm of Abelard's
teaching. Three qualities are assigned to it by the writers of
the period, some of whom studied at his feet; clearness, richness
in imagery, and lightness of touch are said to have been the
chief characteristics of his teaching. Clearness is, indeed, a
quality of his written works, though they do not naturally convey
an impression of his oral power. His splendid gifts and
versatility, supported by a rich voice, a charming personality, a
ready and sympathetic use of human literature, and a freedom from
excessive piety, gave him an immeasurable advantage over all the
teachers of the day. Beside most of them, he was as a butterfly
to an elephant. A most industrious study of the few works of
Aristotle and of the Roman classics that were available, a
retentive memory, an ease in manipulating his knowledge, a clear,
penetrating mind, with a corresponding clearness of expression, a
ready and productive fancy, a great knowledge of men, a warmer
interest in things human than in things divine, a laughing
contempt for authority, a handsome presence, and a musical
delivery--these were his gifts.[6]
He takes his place in history, apart from the ever-interesting
drama and the deep pathos of his life, in virtue of two
distinctions. They are, firstly, an extraordinary ability in
imparting such knowledge as the poverty of the age afforded--the
facts of his career reveal it; and, secondly, a mind of such
marvellous penetration that it conceived great truths which it
has taken humanity seven or eight centuries to see--this will
appear as we proceed. It was the former of these gifts that made
him, in literal truth, the centre of learned and learning
Christendom, the idol of several thousand eager scholars. Nor,
finally, were these thousands the "horde of barbarians" that
jealous Master Roscelin called them. It has been estimated that a
pope, nineteen cardinals, and more than fifty bishops and
archbishops were at one time among his pupils.[7]
Abelard's fame as a teacher, with the consequent increase of masters and
students at Paris, undoubtedly paved the way for the formation of the
University later in the century. This is not however his greatest
distinction in the history of education. His most enduring influences
came from (1) his independence in thinking, (2) his novel method of
dealing with debatable questions, and (3) his contributions to
scholastic philosophy and theology. The first two of these are
considered below; the last belongs more properly to the history of
philosophy.
(1) Nothing singles Abelard out more clearly among the teachers of his
time than his intellectual independence. Most of his contemporaries
accepted unquestioningly the view that in religious matters faith
precedes reason. One might seek to justify one's faith by reason, but
preliminary doubt as to what should be the specific articles of one's
faith was inadmissible. As they supposed, these articles had been
determined by the church fathers--Augustine, Jerome, and others--and by
the Bible. Their view had been formulated by Anselm of Canterbury in the
preceding century:
"I do not seek to know in order that I may believe, but I believe
in order that I may know." "The Christian ought to advance to
knowledge through faith, not come to faith through knowledge."
"The proper order demands that we believe the deep things of
Christian faith before we presume to reason about them."
With his keenly critical, questioning mind Abelard found a flaw in this
position: on many questions of faith the authorities themselves
disagreed. "In such cases,"--he said in effect,--"how shall I come to
any definite belief unless I first reason it out?" "By doubting we are
led to inquiry, and by inquiry we attain the truth." His attitude--as
contrasted with that of Anselm, given above--is set forth in the
prologue to his _Sic et Non_ (Yes and No):
In truth, constant or frequent questioning is the first key to
wisdom; and it is, indeed, to the acquiring of this [habit of]
questioning with absorbing eagerness that the famous philosopher,
Aristotle, the most clear sighted of all, urges the studious when
he says: "It is perhaps difficult to speak confidently in matters
of this sort unless they have often been investigated. Indeed, to
doubt in special cases will not be without advantage." For
through doubting we come to inquiry and through inquiry we
perceive the truth. As the Truth Himself says: "Seek and ye shall
find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." And He also,
instructing us by His own example, about the twelfth year of His
life wished to be found sitting in the midst of the doctors,
asking them questions, exhibiting to us by His asking of
questions the appearance of a pupil, rather than, by preaching,
that of a teacher, although there is in Him, nevertheless, the
full and perfect wisdom of God.
Now when a number of quotations from [various] writings are
introduced they spur on the reader and allure him into seeking
the truth in proportion as the authority of the writing itself is
commended ...
In accordance, then, with these forecasts it is our pleasure to
collect different sayings of the holy Fathers as we planned, just
as they have come to mind, suggesting (as they do) some
questioning from their apparent disagreement, in order that they
may stimulate tender readers to the utmost effort in seeking the
truth and may make them keener as the result of their seeking.[8]
(2) The new method which Abelard formed for discovering the truth is
presented in the "Yes and No." He first stated in the form of a thesis
for debate the question on which doubt existed. The book contains one
hundred and fifty-eight such questions. He then brought together under
each question the conflicting opinions of various authorities, and,
without stating his own view, left the student to reason for himself in
the matter. There is no doubt that this method served his purpose to
"stimulate tender readers to the utmost effort in seeking the truth."
His boldness in considering some of these questions debatable at all,
the novelty of the doubt which they imply, and their incisive challenge
to keen thinking are evident from the following list:
1. That faith is based upon reason, _et contra_.
5. That God is not single, _et contra_.
6. That God is tripartite, _et contra_.
8. That in the Trinity it is not to be stated that there is more than
one Eternal being, _et contra_.
11. That the Divine Persons mutually differ, _et contra_.
12. That in the Trinity each is one with the other, _et contra_.
13. That God the Father is the cause of the son, _et contra_.
14. That the Son is without beginning, _et contra_.
27. That God judges with foreknowledge, _et non_.
28. That the providence of God is the cause of things happening, _et
non_.
32. That to God all things are possible, _et non_.
36. That God does whatever he wishes, _et non_.
37. That nothing happens contrary to the will of God, _et contra._
38. That God knows all things, _et non_.
53. That Adam's sin was great, _et non_.
84. That man's first sin did not begin through the persuasion of the
devil, _et contra_.
55. That Eve only, not Adam, was beguiled, _et contra_.
56. That by sinning man lost free will, _et non_.
69. That the Son of God was predestinated, _et contra_.
79. That Christ was a deceiver, _et non_.
85. That the hour of the Lord's resurrection is uncertain, _et contra_.
116. That the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, _et
contra_.
122. That everybody should be allowed to marry, _et contra_.
141. That works of sanctity do not justify a man, _et contra_.
144. That at times we all sin against our will, _et contra_.
150. That sins are not remitted without confession, _et contra_.
153. That a lie is never permissible, _et contra_.
154. That a man may destroy himself for some reasons, _et contra._
155. That Christians may not for any reason kill a man, _et contra_.
156. That it is lawful to kill a man, _et non_.
How he brought out the conflict of opinions is shown by the following
example:
THAT IT IS LAWFUL TO KILL A MAN, AND THE OPPOSITE THESIS.
_Jerome on Isaiah, Bk. V._ He who cuts the throat of a man of
blood, is not a man of blood.
_Idem, On the Epistle to the Galatians:_ He who smites the
wicked because they are wicked and whose reason for the murder is
that he may slay the base, is a servant of the Lord.
_Idem, on Jeremiah:_ For the punishment of homicides, impious
persons and poisoners is not bloodshed, but serving the law.
_Cyprian, in the Ninth Kind of Abuse:_ The King ought to restrain
theft, punish deeds of adultery, cause the wicked to perish from
off the face of the earth, refuse to allow parricides and
perjurers to live.
_Augustine:_ Although it is manslaughter to slaughter a man, a
person may sometimes be slain without sin. For both a soldier in
the case of an enemy and a judge or his official in the case of a
criminal, and the man from whose hand, perhaps without his will
or knowledge, a weapon has flown, do not seem to me to sin, but
merely to kill a man.
_Likewise:_ The soldier is ordered by law to kill the enemy, and
if he shall prove to have refrained from such slaughter, he pays
the penalty at the hands of his commander. Shall we not go so far
as to call these laws unjust or rather no laws at all? For that
which was not just does not seem to me to be a law.
_Idem, on Exodus ch. xxvii:_ The Israelites committed no theft in
spoiling the Egyptians, but rendered a service to God at his
bidding, just as when the servant of a judge kills a man whom the
law hath ordered to be killed; certainly if he does it of his own
volition he is a homicide, even though he knows that the man whom
he executes ought to be executed by the judge.
_Idem, on Leviticus ch. lxxv:_ When a man is justly put to death,
the law puts him to death, not thou.
_Idem, Bk. I of the "City of God":_ Thou shall not kill, except
in the case of those whose death God orders, or else when a law
hath been passed to suit the needs of the time and express
command hath been laid upon a person. But he does not kill who
owes service to the person who gives him his orders, for he is
as it were a mere sword for the person who employs his
assistance.
_Likewise:_ When a soldier, in obedience to the power under which
he is legitimately placed, kills a man, by no law of the state is
he accused of murder; nay if he has not done it, he is accused of
desertion and insubordination. But if he had acted under his own
initiative and of his own will, he would have incurred the charge
of shedding human blood. And so he is punished if he does not do
when ordered that for which he would receive punishment if he did
it without orders.
_Idem, to Publicola:_ Counsel concerning the slaying of men
pleaseth me not, that none may be slain by them, unless perhaps a
man is a soldier or in a public office, so that he does the deed
not in his own behalf, but for others and for the state,
accepting power legitimately conferred, if it is consonant with
the task imposed on him.
_Likewise:_ It has been said: let us not resist the evil man, let
not the vengeance delight us which feeds the mind on others' ill,
let us not neglect the reproofs of men.
_Idem, to Marcella:_ If that earthly commonwealth of thine keep
to the teachings of Christ, even wars will not be waged without
goodwill, for with pitying heart even wars if possible will be
waged by the good, so that the lusts of desire may be subdued and
those faults destroyed which ought under just rule to be either
rooted out or chastised. For if Christian training condemned all
wars, this should rather be the advice given in the gospel for
their safety to the soldiers who ask for it, namely to throw
aside their arms and retire altogether from the field. But this
is the word spoken to them: Do violence to no man, neither accuse
any falsely; and be content with your wages.
He warns them that the wages that belong to them should satisfy
them, but he by no means forbids them to take the field.
_Idem, to his comrade Boniface:_ "I will give thee and thine a
useful counsel: Take arms in thy hands; let prayer strike the
ears of the creator; because in battle the heavens are opened,
God looks forth and awards the victory to the side he sees to be
the righteous one."
_Idem:_ The wars to be waged we undertake either at the command
of God or under some lawful rule. Else John when the soldiers to
be baptized came to him saying, "And what shall we do?" would
make answer to them: "Cast aside your arms, leave the service;
smite no man; ruin no man."
But because he knew that they did these things because they were
in the service, that they were not slayers of men, but servants
of the law; and not avengers of their own injuries, but guardians
of the public safety, his answer to them was: "Do violence to no
man," etc.
_Isidore, Etymologiae, Bk. XVIII, ch. iii:_ A righteous war is
one waged according to orders, to recover property or drive back
the enemy.
_Pope Nicholas to the questions of the Bulgarians:_ If there is
no urgent need, not only in Lent but at all times, men should
abstain from battles. If however there is an unavoidable and
urgent occasion, and it is not Lent, beyond all doubt
preparations for wars should be sparingly made in one's own
defence or in that of one's country or the laws of one's fathers;
lest forsooth this word be said: A man if he has an attack to
make, does not carefully take counsel beforehand for his own
safety and that of others, nor does he guard against injury to
holy religion.[9]
This example shows the scholastic method in its earliest form,--the
statement of the thesis, followed by the simple citation of authorities,
_pro_ and _con_. Later writers added the conclusion which they wished to
support, or at least indicated it in the statement of the thesis. This,
of course, robbed the method of much of its stimulus to independent
thinking. Other modifications also appeared. See the examples on pages
58 ff., 121 ff. The point to be noted here is that in the "Yes and No"
Abelard struck out definitely the method which was followed for
centuries in a large part of university instruction. How great a part it
played can be understood only by an extended study of university
history. A brief discussion of the subject is given on pages 35-37. The
stimulating way in which Abelard used it was potent in drawing students
to Paris. Among those who came to hear him was John of Salisbury.
(b) _A Pre-University Scholar: John of Salisbury_
John of Salisbury (c. 1120-1180), "for thirty years the central figure
of English learning," "beyond dispute the best-read man of his time," is
a good example of the more serious students among those who travelled
abroad for study in the early days of the revival described above. He
spent twelve years (1136-1148) at Paris and at Chartres. His
"Metalogicus" (completed about 1159) is perhaps the best contemporary
account of educational affairs in France in the twelfth century.
The book is interesting now mainly for its account of the writer's
training, for its advocacy of liberal studies as a preparation for
logic, and for its vigorous argument in favor of using all of the works
of Aristotle then known, several of which had only recently become
accessible. It was written originally, however, to discredit the
educational practices of a certain person--designated by the pseudonym
"Cornificius "--who was offering a short and showy education, and
spreading it abroad through his disciples. The description of
"Cornificius" and his school is not necessarily true, but some passages
are quoted from it to illustrate a mode of educational argument
thoroughly characteristic of the Middle Ages,--and not unknown to-day.
They also give point, by contrast, to the education and views of John
Salisbury himself. John begins by personal abuse of "Cornificius":
The shamelessness of his looks, the rapacity of his hands, the
frivolousness of his bearing, the foulness of his manners (which
the whole neighborhood spews out), the obscenity of his lust, the
ugliness of his body, the baseness of his life, his spotted
reputation, I would lay bare and thrust into the face of the
public, did not my respect for his Christian name restrain me.
For being mindful of my profession, and of the fraternal
communion which we have in the Lord, I have believed that
indulgence should be given to his person while, nevertheless,
indulgence is not given to his sin.
Having fairly joined battle by several pages of vituperation, John
proceeds to describe his opponent's manner of teaching: