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Ecclesiastical Legislation on Education, A. D. 300-1200
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
The story of learning in the Middle Ages has been patiently reconstructed from a great many sources, and one of its principal themes has rightly been the preeminent service of the Christian Church in the preservation of classical writings, the stimulation of thought, and the instruction of its members. The distinction is not always carefully drawn, however, between the enthusiasm felt by clerical individuals and the institutional policies of the Church. A detailed enumeration and analysis of its official pronouncements about education may qualify the general impression and, by eliminating certain misconceptions, leave a clearer path for tracing the rise of schools after the barbarian invasions. The legislation will not reveal the whole attitude of the ecclesiastics, since the Middle Ages were less likely to define their institutions than we are, but it provides an indication that should not be minimized.
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References
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4 Ibid., I, 1, p. 538.
5 Ibid., I, 2, p. 998; II, 1, p. 462; II, 2, p. 1062; III, 1, pp. 160, 163-164, 181; Reg., I, No. 787; p. 174.
6 Hefele-Leclercq, III, 1, pp. 160, 163-164. A canon of 549 added that although the time had formerly been longer, the acarcity of priests In proportion to the number of converts made a relaxation of the rule necessary.
7 Hefele-Leclereq, III, 1, p. 181.
8 Ibid., p. 297.
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11 Hefele-Leclercq, III, 1, p. 229.
12 Ibid., 160, 181, 271, 291.
13 Ibid., 312.
14 Ibid., I, 1, p. 237; II, 2, p. 791; Cor. iur. oun., D. LXI, c. i, iv, x; Reg., I, No. 339, No. 371, No. 410.
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18 Ibid., 1111.
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34 Reg., I, No. 2371.
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44 Today when there is no question of suitable masters, salary bonuses and promotion still encourage hesitant students to work for higher degrees.
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46 Hefele-Leclercq, IV, 1, p. 35.
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48 Ibid., 71.
49 Ibid., 77. It is possibly because of the war the next year that we hear no more about the establishment of “imperial” schools.
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54 Arithmetic in the early Middle Ages “was almost exclusively devoted to the work of computing Easter so that during this age the terms ‘computus’ and ‘arithmetic’ became synonymous.” A theoretical treatment of properties and relations of numbers was also attempted. Paul, Abelson, The Seven Liberal Arts (New York, 1906), 94.Google Scholar “It is certain that in England, … from the eighth century to the days of the Norman conquest, no one was ordained to the priesthood who could not compute the date of Easter and teach it after the manner of the writings of the Venerable Bede.” Ibid., 91.
55 Hefelo-Leclercq, III, 2, pp. 777–778, 1125, 1143; Cor. iur. can., I, D. XXXVIII, c. vi.
56 This included the Athanasian and the Apostles' creeds, the Lord's Prayer with a commentary, the sacraments, the office of the masses, a commendatio animae, the Penitential, the ecclesiastical calendar, the Gospels, and the lessons of the Comes. Monks must know the Benedictine Rule and the canons; the canons must be acquainted with Gregory's Pastoral Care, the Liber officiorum, and Gelasius' Pastoral Letter. Hefele-Leclercq, III, 2, p. 1122. See Maitland, S. R., The Dark Ages (London, 1889), 17–18Google Scholar, quoting Regino, Bishop of Prum (c. 900), for a similar list of prerequisites for ordination.
57 Hefele-Leclercq, IV, 1, p. 53. In a circular letter accompanying the collection of homilies made by Paul the Deacon, Charlemagne employed the expression, which had been in use with the qualifying “seven” since the time of Cassiodorus (480–575): “As we have tried unceasingly to improve our churches we have by incessant care restored the literary studies almost forgotten through the negligence of our predecessors and have encouraged the liberal arts.” Monod, , Etudes oritiques, 56.Google Scholar
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63 Cor. iur. can., D. XXXVJ1, c. vi: “The heretics place all their persuasive force in dialectic, which is destructive rather than inspirational. The salvation of God's people does not rely on dialectic, and his realm lies in simple faith—not in contentious words.”
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70 Ibid., 618.
71 Ibid., III, 2, p. 1225.
72 Ibid., IV, 1, pp. 210–612.
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75 Ibid., II, v. According to Abbé Duchesne, “the literary renaissance of the Frankish empire scarcely made itself felt at Rome, at least in the offices of pontifical administration.”
76 Ibid., I, 322, n. 3; II, 102, n. 18.
77 Cassiodorus, De institutiones divinarurn Litterarum, praefatio.
78 Among the studies which have portrayed the state of learning during the tenth century are: Clark, J. M., The Abbey of St. Gall as a Centre of Literature and Art (Cambridge, 1926)Google Scholar; Godefroid, Kurth.Notger de Liége et la civilisation au Xe siěcle (Paris, 1905)Google Scholar; Sister, Mary Pia Heinrich, The Canonesse and Education in the Early Middle Ages (Washington, 1924)Google Scholar; S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages; Picavet, F., Gerbert un Pape Philosophe (Paris, 1897)Google Scholar; Reginald, Lane Poole, Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought and Learning (New York, 1920)Google Scholar; Leon Maitre, Lea Écoles épiscopales et monastiques du moyen age; Specht, F. A., Geschichte des Unterrichtswesens in Deutschland von den altesten Zeiten bis zur Mitte des 13 Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1885)Google Scholar; Thompson, J. W., Education of the Laity in the Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1939)Google Scholar; Thompson, J. W., A History of Historical Writing (New York, 1942)Google Scholar; Helen Waddell, The Wandering Scholars.
79 Against the Gerbert legend and the suspicion sometime shown toward the literary ambitions of Bruno of Cologne and Abbo of Fleury, we may set the account of the monks of Lobbes, who asked for their former scholastic as abbot (995), saying: “For many years he has lived among us as a brother, rendering signal services and filling with the greatest zeal for many of us the role of an educator. You have, like us, the assurance that he knows how to teach well, and that he possesses the art of drawing from his treasures the old and the new.” Geata episcoporum Cameracensium, c. 106, quoted in Kurth Notger, 267–278.
80 Ibid., 281: Ordericus Vitalis (Historia ecclesiastica, VIII, 2) tells of Eudes of Bayeux sending his most capable clerks to Liège and other towns where philosophy flourished. See also Clark, , Abbey of St. Gall, 99.Google Scholar
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82 In view of the low level of the papacy at that period, it would be too much to expect any program from it. According to a letter reproduced by Olleris in his Oeuvres de Gerbert, 237–238 (Quoted in Christian, Pfister, Étude sur de régne de Robert le Pieux, Paris, 1885)Google Scholar, John XV (985–996) answered the charges of the French bishops as to papal ignorance by the following words to the kings: “Because the vicars of Peter and his disciples have not wanted to take for a master either Plato or Virgil or Terence or the other floek of philosophers who, in their pride, have presumed to flit through the air like birds, plunge into the seas like the fish, and walk the earth like animals,—because they have not nourished themselves on such ditties, you say they are not worthy to be even the gatekeepers. Know, oh, kings, that they lie; for Peter did not know those things and yet he was made the gatekeeper of Heaven.… From the beginning of the world, God has chosen not orators and philosophers, but unlettered peoples and rnstics.” This letter was not included by Jaffe in the Regesta.
83 Leach, Arthur F., Educational Charters and Documents, 598–1909 (Cambridge, 1911), 35.Google Scholar
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85 Ibid., 26–30, 149–150.
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87 Poole, , Illustrations, 80Google Scholar; knowles, , Monastic Order, 94, 97–98.Google Scholar
88 Reg., I, No. 4446, No. 4669.
89 Ibid., No. 4442.
90 Hefele-Leclercq, IV, 2, p. 1124.
91 Ibid., V, 1, p. 113. William I was present at this council.
92 Ibid., 309–310.
93 Ibid., 140.
94 The dignitaries found time solemnly to order laymen to “cut their hair short enough to show the tips of the ears and the eyes,” or to forbid abbesses and canonesses to wear coats of more sumptuous furs than lamb or cat, but left learning to less formal direction. Ibid., 477, 667.
95 Margaret, Deanealey, “Medieval Schools to c. 1300,” in The Cambridge Medieval History (New York, 1926), V, 77Google Scholar. On another occasion Hildebrand included the charge of “ignorance” in his condemnation of a simoniacal bishop (Hefele-Leclercq, V, 1, pp. 123–125).
96 Migne, , P. L., CLXXIX, 99–101.Google Scholar
97 Ibid., col. 685; Hefele-Leclercq, V, 1, p. 687.
98 Leach, , Educational Charters, 59, 61, 69, 75, 77, 83, 95.Google Scholar
99 Migne, , P. L., CLXXIX.Google Scholar It should be noted that the papal chancery, trying at this time to achieve uniform canonical meaning for its “protection,” followed a set form in its confirmation of privileges, with few variations in wording; this might partially explain the omission of schools. Possibly the confirmations of other local powers give a more favorable picture.
100 Hefele-Leclercq, V, 1, p. 687. The Council of Tours (1163) forbade one who had made his profession to leave to study those subjects (Ibid., V, 2, p. 972), while a synod at Paris (1212 or 1213) refused him leave to study anything (Ibid., 1314). The clericus vagans, regular or secular, had been a ceaseless problem for the Church since the Council of Nicaea and sometimes the prohibitions about studies are merely to forestall his current excuse for relaxing his vows. See Waddell, Wandering Scholars, Appendix E, for a collection of canons insisting that he stay at home.
101 Hefele-Laclercq, V, 1, p. 721.
102 Ibid., 542.
103 Reg., II, No. 9534.
104 Ibid., No. 9534.
105 Pool, , Illustrations, 164–166.Google Scholar
106 He summoned an abbot and a master “disputing over the magisterio of the schools of St. Regimius” (Reg., II, No. 9950), and confirmed to a Master Ada the direction of the schools of Meaux (Ibid., No. 10427). On at least one occasion Alexander III also upheld an abbey in its claim to a school. Migne, , P. L., CC, 967–968.Google Scholar
107 Ibid., cols. 299, 737–738, 1157–1158, 1178–1179, 1370–1372.
108 Ibid., cols. 746–747
109 Ibid., cols. 440–441, 840; Reg., II, No. 11329, No. 12096, No. 13779, No. 13780, No. 14157. For a full discussion of the purpose and effect of these orders, see Gaines Post, “Alexander III, the Licentia docendi, and the Rise of the Universities,” in Taylor, C. H., ed., Haskins Anniversary Essays in Medieval History (Boston, 1929), 253–257.Google Scholar
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111 Migne, , P. L., CC, 998Google Scholar; Reg., II, No. 12397.
112 Hefele-Leclercq, V, 2, p. 1101; Cor. iur. can., II, Lib. V. T. v, c. i.
113 Although the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) lamented that the previous canon had not been observed in many cathedrals, the earlier provisions were reenacted with certain additions, and various provisional synods implemented them in several details. Ibid., 1341, 1502, 1504, 1532, 1558, 1573.
114 Coulton, G. G., Five Centurieg of Religion, 3 vols. (Cambridge, 1929–1936), I, 324–334.Google Scholar Peter Damiani, with an almost morbid distrust of his own knowledge, was more nearly typical of the Hildebrandine circle than Desiderius, who in rebuilding Monte Cassino restored its library and encouraged his monks to study.
115 Ferdinand, Lot, Etudes sur le règne de Hugues Capet et la fin de Xe siècle (Paris, 1903), 36.Google Scholar
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