The History of Education Part 14

CHAPTER VII

EDUCATION DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

II. SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED

1. _Elementary instruction and schools_

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 43. AN OUTER MONASTIC SCHOOL (After an old wood engraving)]

The instruction in the inner school was meager, and in the outer school probably even more so. Reading, writing, music, simple reckoning, religious observances, and rules of conduct const.i.tuted the range of instruction. Reading was taught by the alphabet method, as among the Romans, and writing by the use of wax tablets and the stylus. Much attention was given to Latin p.r.o.nunciation, as had been the practice at Rome. As Latin by this time had practically ceased to be a living tongue, outside the Church and perhaps in Central Italy, the difficulties of instruction were largely increased. The Psalter, or book of Latin psalms, was the first reading book, and this was memorized rather than read. Copy- books, usually wax, with copies expressing some scriptural injunction, were used. Music, being of so much importance in the church services, received much time and attention. In arithmetic, counting and finger reckoning, after the Roman plan, was taught. Latin was used in conversation as much as possible, some of the old lesson books much resembling conversation books of to-day in the modern languages (R. 75).

Special attention seems to have been given to teaching rules of conduct to the _oblati_, [1] and much corporal punishment was used to facilitate learning. Up to the eleventh century this instruction, meager as it was, const.i.tuted the whole of the preparatory training necessary for the study of theology and a career in the Church. In the convents similar schools were developed, though, as stated in the last chapter, much more attention was given to the education of those not intending to take the vows.

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

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

2. _Advanced instruction_

CATHEDRAL AND HIGHER MONASTIC SCHOOLS. As the song schools developed the cathedral schools were of course freed from the necessity of teaching reading and writing, and could then develop more advanced instruction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 44. THE MEDIEVAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION SUMMARIZED Allegorical representation of the progress and degrees of education, from an illuminated picture in the 1508 (Basel) edition of the _Margarita Philosophica_ of Gregory de Reisch.

The youth, having mastered the Hornbook (ABC's) and the rudiments of learning (reading, writing, and the beginnings of music and numbers), advances toward the temple of knowledge. Wisdom is about to place the key in the lock of the door of the temple. On the door is written the word _congruitas_, signifying Grammar. ("Gramaire first hath for to teche to speke upon congruite.") On the first and second floors of the temple he studies the Grammar of Donatus, and of Priscian, and at the first stage at the left on the third floor he studies the Logic of Aristotle, followed by the Rhetoric and Poetry of Tully, thus completing the _Trivium_. The Arithmetic of Boethius also appears on the third floor. On the fourth floor he completes the studies of the _Quadrivium_, taking in order the Music of Pythagoras, Euclid's Geometry, and Ptolemy's Astronomy. The student now advances to the study of Philosophy, studying successively Physics, Seneca's Morals, and the Theology (or Metaphysics) of Peter Lombard, the last being the goal toward which all has been directed.]

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

Not all these studies were taught in every monastery or cathedral school.

Many of the lesser monasteries and schools offered instruction chiefly in grammar, and only a little of the studies beyond. Others emphasized the Trivium, and taught perhaps only a little of the second group. Only a few taught the full range of mediaeval learning, and these were regarded as the great schools of the times (R. 71).

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

I. THE TRIVIUM

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 45. A SCHOOL: A LESSON IN GRAMMAR (After a woodcut printed by Caxton in _The Mirror of the World_, 1481 (?).

From Blades' _Life and Typography of William Caxton_, ii, Plate LVI)

This is a good example of early English printing. Can you read it? This "Old English," like the German type (see Fig. 26), shows the change in Latin letters which came about with the copying of ma.n.u.scripts during the Middle Ages. After the invention of printing the English soon returned to the Latin forms; the Germans are only now doing so.]

The leading textbook was that of Donatus, [4] written in the fourth century, and Donatus (_donat_) and grammar came to be synonymous terms.

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

2. RHETORIC. Rhetoric, as defined by Maurus, was "the art of using secular discourse effectively in the circ.u.mstances of daily life," and enabling the preacher or missionary to put the divine message in eloquent and impressive language (R. 74 b). Much of the old Roman rhetoric had been taken over by grammar, but in its place was added a certain amount of letter and legal doc.u.mentary writing. The priest, it must be remembered, became the secretary and lawyer of the Middle Ages, as well as the priest, and upon him devolved the preparation of most of the legal papers of the time, such as wills, deeds, proclamations, and other formal doc.u.ments.

Accordingly the art of letter-writing [7] and the preparation of legal doc.u.ments were made a part of the study of rhetoric, and some study of both the civil ("worldly") and canon (church) law was gradually introduced.

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

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

II. THE QUADRIVIUM

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

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

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

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

1204 MCCIV I II IV 538 Dx.x.xVIII V III VIII 2455 MMCCCCLV II IV V V 619 DCXIX VI I IX ----- --------- ------------------- 4816 MMMMDCCCXVI IV VIII I VI

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

5. GEOMETRY. This study consisted almost entirely of geography and reasoning as to geometrical forms until the tenth century, when Boethius'

work on _Geometry_, containing some extracts from Euclid, was discovered by Gerbert. The geography of Europe, Asia, and Africa also was studied, as treated in the textbooks of the time, and a little about plants and animals as well was introduced. The nature of the geographic instruction may be inferred from Figure 46, which reproduces one of the best world maps of the day. The main geographical features of the known world can be made out from this, but many of the mediaeval maps are utterly unintelligible.

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 46. AN ANGLO-SAXON MAP OF THE WORLD (From a tenth-century map in the British Museum)

This is one of the better maps of the period. Note the mixture of Biblical and cla.s.sical geography (Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Pillars of Hercules), and the animal life (lion) introduced in the upper corner. The Mediterranean Sea in the center, the Greek islands, the British isles, the Italian peninsula, the Nile, and the northern African coast are easily recognized.

Western Europe, the best-known part of the world at that time, is very poorly done.]