HISTORY 101

DR. SCHUERMAN

FALL 2000

   

CLASS LECTURE NOTES (Set 2) ON MATERIAL  NOT COVERED IN CLASS

(these notes are to augment, not substitute for, the textbook and readings book)

 

Revival of Learning

A cultural flowering occurred at the end of  the 11th cent which led to vital and rich civilization uniting an educated elite in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Conditions contributing to this 12th century awakening:

  1. The end of raids by Viking, Magyars, Muslims and the opening of trade and communication.
  2. The need for literacy in the growing business of commerce and trade and the life of towns.
  3. Economic prosperity which supported learning.
  4. Contact with Byzantine and Islamic cultures (due in large part to the crusades) led to translation of ancient Greek works into Latin.
  5. The legacy of the brief Carolingian renaissance provided a stimulus.

 The Rise of Universities

Although learning and schools flourished under the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Muslims, it was not until the 12th century that true universities in the modern sense emerged.

Characteristics of medieval universities:

  1. Permanent institutions
  2. Regular teaching staffs
  3. Formal course of study--a "curriculum"
  4. "Chartered" with certain privileges by a secular or ecclesiastical (Church) power.
  5. Administers formal examinations
  6. Grants certificates of academic accomplishment in the form of "diplomas" or "degrees"

Background:

In the early middle ages the little formal education that existed centered around rural based monasteries for the education of monks.

With growth of towns in the high middle ages, educational began to be centered around "Cathedral schools", schools sponsored by the bishops for the education and training of "clerics" to serve the administrative, ecclesiastical, and  liturgical needs of the Church.  These schools were different than monastic education:

  1. They were urban centered and focused on educating a "secular clergy" (rather than monastic or "regular" clergy.)
  2. There was a formal course of study based on the ancient studies of

·        Grammar

·        Rhetoric

·        Logic

  1. Individual "masters" (master teachers) became connected with these schools and their reputations attracted students.

The great Cathedral schools at Chartres, Orleans, Rheims, Laon, York and Salisbury were soon overshadowed by great new urban centers of learning which became the first European universities.

Universities grew "spontaneously" under the following conditions:

  1. Explosion of knowledge brought by crusades and contact with Islam and Byzanatine cultures.
  2. Need for lawyers, doctors, administrators, notaries, ecclesiastics, doctors, etc.
  3. Guilds of students and guilds of masters were established on the guild model to protect their self interests against church and town authorities.

Two major types of universities

 Student dominated universities were exemplified by the University of Bologna.

In these types of universities the students were normally older and more mature involved in "professional" studies such as law and medicine..

To protect themselves against the masters and townsmen, students formed guilds called "universitates".  They used their power to negotiate rents, food prices, local taxes, exemptions from military service, the right to appoint teachers and prescribe procedures for presentation of material.

Masters retained the right to give examinations, admit members to their own guild, grant degrees signifying admission to their professions.

Bologna became the model to be followed by student dominated universities in Europe.

Master dominated universities were exemplified by the University of Paris.

In these types of universities the students were young (as young as 14), less mature, and concentrating in the study of theology and philosophy and other of the "arts liberales" or the "liberal arts".

Masters were in a dominant position over the much younger and less dependent students preparing for careers the church and secular administration.

Masters organized guilds and organized themselves into the specialties of their particular fields of studies, called "faculties".  They prescribed such things as the curriculum, academic dress, etc.

The university of Paris became the model to be followed by the master dominated universities in Europe.

Universities spread throughout Europe and England  (see map on lecture outline) as learning and the rediscovery of knowledge became a major force in the High Middle Ages.

Scholasticism and the Medieval World View

The middle ages was dominated by Christian belief as formulated by the Church and a world view that was very hierarchal. 

This world view provided comfort and security and the promise that man could climb the hierarchal ladder to heaven and gain salvation in heaven through God's direction provided in scripture and revelation as interpreted by Mother Church.

 Medieval Scholasticism was the form of medieval philosophy that grew out of the new universities and was the attempt to reconcile "reason" with the theological "doctrine" of the Church.  Scholasticism was the application of the tools of classical philosophy (reason and logic) to explain and clarify Christian teaching and doctrine.  The medieval scholastics used reason in service to Faith--not to challenge it.

The greatest of the medieval scholastic philosophers was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1271).  A Dominican monk who taught at the University of Paris and then Naples, he sought to reconcile Aristotle's philosophy with Christianity.  His major work was the Summa Theologica is one of the greatest works of Christian thought.  It was a systematic exposition of all the principle questions of Christian thought and ethics.  It covered every question explored by medieval theologians and became the standard theological textbook for centuries and the most authoritative statement of Church doctrine until the 1960's.