Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Textbook A Brief History of Universities John C Moore Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook A Brief History of Universities John C Moore Ebook All Chapter PDF
Moore
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/a-brief-history-of-universities-john-c-moore/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...
https://textbookfull.com/product/a-brief-history-of-computing-
gerard-oregan/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-medieval-church-a-brief-
history-second-edition-joseph-lynch-phillip-c-adamo/
https://textbookfull.com/product/a-brief-history-of-geology-
kieran-d-ohara/
https://textbookfull.com/product/a-brief-history-of-mathematical-
thought-1st-edition-luke-heaton/
A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism 1st Edition
Jairus Banaji
https://textbookfull.com/product/a-brief-history-of-commercial-
capitalism-1st-edition-jairus-banaji/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-caribbean-a-brief-
history-3rd-edition-gad-heuman/
https://textbookfull.com/product/a-brief-history-of-comic-book-
movies-1st-edition-wheeler-winston-dixon/
https://textbookfull.com/product/a-brief-history-of-human-
culture-in-the-20th-century-qi-xin/
https://textbookfull.com/product/redbrick-a-social-and-
architectural-history-of-britains-civic-universities-1st-edition-
whyte/
A Brief History of
Universities
John C. Moore
A Brief History of Universities
John C. Moore
A Brief History
of Universities
John C. Moore
Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY, USA
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgements
A note of appreciation to the many people who have made this book
possible:
First of all, to the many scholars who contributed to the four-volume
history of universities, edited by Walter Rüegg and featured in the
“Further Reading” section of this book.
Second, to Professor Joel Rosenthal of the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, who read the entire manuscript. His learned com-
ments and criticism led to substantial improvements. Of course, he is not
responsible for errors or opinions in my text.
Third, to Professor Stanislao Pugliese of Hofstra University (and
my former student at Hofstra), who smoothed the way for the book’s
publication.
Fourth, to my luncheon companions who, for many years, have wel-
comed me to their weekly lunch and who have contributed, directly
or indirectly, to my efforts. All are professors somehow associated with
Indiana University, and most have served there in the Department of
the History and Philosophy of Science: Noretta Koertge, Edward Grant,
John Walbridge, the late Frederick Churchill, Rega Wood, Ronald Giere,
Jon Michael Dunn, and Frances Trix.
Fifth, to the Department of History at Indiana University for facilitat-
ing my access to the Wells Library of Indiana University.
Finally, to my family, who have long provided direct or indirect sup-
port for my scholarly efforts: my late wife, Patricia Ann Moore, and my
children, John Jr., Joan Vanore, Carolyn Moore, and Mary Vukelich.
v
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Index 117
vii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
&&&&&
The great thinkers of the ancient world were not graduates of uni-
versities. We have no reason to believe that Confucius (d. 479 BCE) or
Buddha (fl. 5th c. BCE) attended an educational institution, with profes-
sors and students organized into corporate bodies that gave certificates
of accomplishment. Socrates (d. 399 BCE) and his student Plato (d. 347
BCE) no doubt had teachers for elementary education, but after that,
they relied on their own reading and on the discussions that flourished in
the Athens of their day. Plato’s student Aristotle (d. 322 BCE), perhaps
the greatest human mind in all of history, pursued his intellectual inter-
ests at “Plato’s Academy,” a center in Athens dedicated to informal study
and discussion of many subjects. But no credentialed professors presided
there, there was no basic curriculum, no degrees were given. There were
no certificates guaranteeing that the holders were qualified to teach at all
other similar institutions. The same can be said of centers of learning in
other parts of the world before the advent of the European or Western
University.
1 INTRODUCTION 3
pagan gods and lax morals, or could it somehow be adapted for Christian
believers? Should Christians discard the pagan authors and rely entirely
on the Christian Bible and its Christian commentators? Fortunately,
Christian thinkers in both the Greek East and the Latin West chose to
seek a reconciliation of the pagan and the Christian. Augustine argued
that when Moses led the ancient Jews out of Egypt, they despoiled the
Egyptians of what was needed for their journey to the promised land.
So, he said, should the Christians of his day take what they needed from
pagan culture for their journey into a new Christian culture. The same
opinion was held by Augustine’s friend and mentor, St. Ambrose, bishop
of Milan (d. 397), and by his less enthusiastic contemporary, St. Jerome
(d. 420).
Jerome’s education in the pagan classics caused him an acute crisis of
conscience, but it still enabled him to translate the Bible from Hebrew
and Greek into the Latin of his day. By the time of Jerome, the Bible
had acquired a normative status for all Christians in the West, so liter-
acy became a requirement at least for Christian leaders, no matter how
the general educational standards weakened within the empire. Jerome’s
Latin Bible, the Vulgate, together with the writings of Augustine,
Ambrose, and many other Roman writers, both pagan and Christian,
would provide the basis of education in the centuries to follow.
In order to understand the pagan and Christian writers, people
needed some preliminary education, and other Latin writers provided
that foundation. Donatus (fl. 350), Lactantius (fl. 310), Martianus
Capellus (fl. 420), Boethius (fl. 524), Cassiodorus (d. ca. 585), and oth-
ers provided works that were to be basic for medieval people who sought
learning, especially monks and other clergy. Donatus, who had been a
tutor of St. Jerome, wrote Ars grammatica, a work that was to find its
way into many a European library, first in manuscript form and later
in print. He provided the grammatical tools for reading, writing, and
understanding Latin.
Boethius was born about 480, part of an important family in north-
ern Italy. The German conquerors had deposed the last Roman emperor
in Italy, leaving only the Greek Roman emperor in Constantinople.
Boethius held high positions in the Germanic Kingdom in Italy, but the
Ostrogoth King Theodoric suspected him of plotting with the Greek
emperor and imprisoned him and ultimately executed him.
Boethius had recognized that by his day, knowledge of Greek thought
was fading and he set out to preserve it. He wrote treatises in Latin
1 INTRODUCTION 5
&&&&&
The weakening of the Roman Empire had begun before the German
invasions and it continued thereafter. The population of the West was
declining, commerce was drying up, cities were shrinking, and govern-
mental ties in the West were weakening. City governments and wealthy
6 J. C. MOORE
landlords throughout the West tried to provide services that the imperial
government could no longer provide.
The followers of Mohammed (d. 632) further disrupted society by
occupying great stretches of the Roman Empire, overrunning the entire
eastern, southern, and western shores of the Mediterranean Sea—which
the Romans had previously considered to be mare nostrum, “our sea.”
Within a hundred years of Mohammed’s death, the threefold division
of the old empire had taken shape, one that would last in one form
or another to the present day: a Latin Christian northeast, a Greek
Christian northwest (governed by Constantinople), and the Arab and
Muslim sprawling remnant to the south of the other two. At the same
time, the two Christian areas, the Latin West and the Greek East, grew
further apart.
The Roman Empire was officially Christian by 400 CE. Besides a new
faith, Christianity introduced new institutions. There was the organized
church itself, mimicking the Roman imperial structure as bishops took
on political as well as religious responsibilities in the major cities. The
bishops presided over formal liturgies set forth in books in Greek and
Latin; they preached the Gospel (soon to be accessible in the West only
in the Latin Vulgate Bible), and they relied on subordinates—priests and
other officials—to help them carry out their work. Literacy was essen-
tial, and literacy required at least elementary education as provided by
towns or by the bishops themselves. Outside the cities, wealthy landlords
also looked to their own resources to protect their lands and the peasants
who worked the land.
In this setting, an entirely new kind of institution, monasticism,
assumed an unexpected role in the Latin West. In their origins, mon-
asteries were intended to be places of retreat from the general society,
places where the monks could spend their days in prayer and work. But
because the Bible and the monastic rule (most commonly that of St.
Benedict [d. ca. 547]) governed life in the monastery, at least some of
the monks needed to be literate. Monasteries, originally thought of as
a way to withdraw from the world, became cultural centers throughout
Europe. The monks could provide expertise in farming and handicraft,
and literate monks could teach Latin to outsiders—priests and sometimes
laypeople. The monasteries also sought and exchanged materials for
themselves to read. They preserved and made copies of both Christian
and pagan Latin authors, even when they could not always understand
them. They lent them out for others to make copies.
1 INTRODUCTION 7
Between 500 and 1000, the culture of Europe was at a low point.
Some Germanic strongmen like Charlemagne (d. 814) sought to
revive the Roman Empire with all its vitality, hoping to restore the Pax
Romana and to establish schools that would raise the cultural level of the
Christians of Europe. But with its shrunken population, its more primi-
tive political ideas, and the continued influx of hostile invaders—Norse-
men, Magyars, Muslims—Europe could not support and develop those
efforts. Only when Western Europe experienced a new vitality ca. 1000
was the value of the monastic libraries fully realized.
CHAPTER 2
The need for education, both religious and secular, was never lost in the
last days of the Roman Empire or in the early days of the new Germanic
kingdoms (Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, Franks, Angles, Saxons, and
others). First and foremost, Latin literacy was required. Young clergy
needed to be taught to read the Bible, but also to understand it, and to
bring its message to the non-clergy. Similarly, Christian rituals and the
liturgical calendars depended on some knowledge of astronomy and on
Then, in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, Europe expe-
rienced new stimuli to learning. Population and economic productivity
were growing, with increasing commerce and expanding towns. A vigor-
ous religious revival brought movements that would welcome educated
personnel. Church leaders who gathered in Rome decreed that to meet
the need for educated clergy, all bishops were to provide a teacher and
free education in their cathedral schools.
Although rivalries continued to be settled by the sword, there
was growing hope that differences could be settled, or at least argu-
ments buttressed, by reasoned arguments and reliance on written law.
Moreover, people high and low found that the new fashion of relying
on written law and written documents made it easier to reinforce unwrit-
ten customs they liked—or to discard unwritten customs they did not
like. Nearly every well-to-do property owner, be it monastery or town
or prince, found it extremely useful to have written, legal documents to
support their claims to ownership. The people who knew how to pro-
duce and understand those documents were the educated.
For better or for worse, the growing hopes for a more secure and
more stable world found leadership in two different—and rival—places.
The German king and Roman Emperor Henry IV (d. 1106) saw his mis-
sion to be the maintenance of peace, justice, and the Christian faith. To
carry it out, he expected to control the appointments of high ecclesiasti-
cal officers, including the bishop of Rome (the pope). After all, he bore
the title of Roman Emperor (later, Holy Roman Emperor). He was sup-
ported and encouraged in these expectations by his educated advisers,
mainly clergy.
But in Rome, the other group of clergy was gathering with the pope,
also committed to peace, justice, and the Christian faith, but their pro-
gram insisted that bishops and popes should not be chosen by secular
rulers, even Roman emperors. Emperors, kings, and other secular rulers,
they believed, were responsible for the material well-being of their sub-
jects, for their bodies, but the clergy were responsible for their souls—a
higher calling, a greater responsibility. The papal party argued that when
Jesus was told by his disciples that they had two swords, and Jesus said,
“It is enough” (Luke 22:38), the two swords were the spiritual and secu-
lar swords, and the spiritual sword had primacy.
The resulting conflict, called the Investiture Controversy, need not
be examined here, but it meant that both sides looked to law, to scrip-
ture, to tradition, to make their cases. Both sides needed to persuade
12 J. C. MOORE
the Christian world at large that justice was on their side. Scholars were
much in demand, men who had studied the Bible, who had located old
texts of Roman law, who could put together persuasive legal and doctri-
nal arguments to support the respective sides.
So the economic, social, religious, and political ferment of the late
eleventh and early twelfth centuries created a demand not only for edu-
cated men, but also for teachers who could train those who aspired to be
educated men. And inevitably, many of these newly educated men would
not be limited to practical necessities. Curiosity, the love of learning,
the example of the great minds of pagan and Christian antiquity, moved
many to pursue their intellectual interests regardless of immediate prac-
tical questions, and they often inspired their students with a love of the
intellectual life. This pursuit of learning, for itself and for its applications,
appeared all over Europe in the late eleventh century, but it did not yet
take the institutional form of the university.
It seems to have been love of learning that led a young man in north-
ern Italy to pursue the liberal arts early in the eleventh century. His
name was Lanfranc (d. 1089). About 1039, after studying in Italian
schools, he was appointed the master (teacher) of the cathedral school
of Avranches in Normandy in northern France. From there, he entered
the nearby Benedictine monastery of Bec, and soon his reputation as
a teacher of logic and theology was attracting students from all over
northern Europe. When the duke of Normandy conquered England in
1066, he brought Lanfranc there as well to become the archbishop of
Canterbury. His enthusiasm for logic and theology brought more stu-
dents to Canterbury.
The fame of Lanfranc and the monastery of Bec attracted another
young man from northern Italy, one who was in turn to enhance greatly
the fame of Bec: St. Anselm (d. 1109). He is commonly called Anselm
of Canterbury because he was to end his career, like Lanfranc, as arch-
bishop of Canterbury. Anselm continued Lanfranc’s tradition as a teacher
of logic, but he wandered even further into theology and philosophy.
Looking for ways to elucidate and support the beliefs of Christianity, he
offered philosophical discussions of the existence of God and of human
nature.
Just as Lanfranc and Anselm attracted students to their schools,
Irnerius (d. ca. 1125) drew students to Bologna, where he taught Roman
law. Since late antiquity, Roman law had continued to be relevant to life
in Italy, though in simplified and varied forms, but Irnerius seems to have
2 THE MIDDLE AGES: 500–1500 13
been the first medieval scholar to have access to the entire Corpus Iuris
Civilis—the grand summary of Roman law that had been prepared under
the Roman Emperor Justinian (d. 565). Even before Irnerius, Bologna
was already a center of legal studies, but he was soon attracting students
from all over Europe, eager to use the “new” ideas of Roman law to
advance their careers. Irnerius demonstrated the relevance of Roman law
by using it during the Investiture Controversy to support the cause of the
German Roman Emperor Henry V (d. 1125) against the pope.
Another contemporary of Lanfranc had a very different personal
history, but he played his role in the intellectual revival of his time:
Constantine the African (d. ca. 1090). He was a Muslim, born in North
Africa, where he flourished as a merchant. His travels led him to Salerno
in southern Italy, where some sort of medical school already existed. He
was surprised at how primitive it was. He soon made it his business to
capture the medical wisdom of the ancient Greco-Roman world, as well
as that of Muslim-Arabic physicians, and to make it available to the Latin
Christian West. He collected Arabic manuscripts and translated them
into Latin. He continued this process especially after his conversion to
Christianity and his entrance into the Benedictine monastery at Monte
Cassino. His translations soon made their way to medical schools else-
where in Europe.
As the twelfth century progressed, the increasing numbers of intel-
lectuals were equally important as precursors of the universities. Urban
schools were attracting young scholars whose ambition was disturbing to
some of the more conservative monks. To traditional monks, the func-
tion of learning was to deepen one’s understanding of the Christian faith
and to enhance the love of God. But for many of the new intellectu-
als, learning was the way to fame and fortune. A good example is Peter
Abelard (d. 1142). He became famous for his love affair with Eloise and
his subsequent castration, but he was already famous for his learning and
his aggressive style of debating. He had made his name partly by logical
attacks on his former teacher William of Champeaux, partly by being an
extremely effective teacher. He taught at many schools, and his devoted
students followed him wherever he went until he retired (under attack)
to the monastery of Cluny.
Of Peter’s many written works, Sic et non (Yes and No) may be his
most important. Responding to some conservative churchmen who crit-
icized his emphasis on reason when discussing the faith, he wrote Sic
et non. There he quoted, without comment, texts from early Christian
14 J. C. MOORE
authorities (the “Fathers”) that seemed to take one position and then
other authoritative texts that seemed to say the opposite. His message
was clear: Conflicting texts from the Bible and from other Christian
authorities could not be reconciled and understood without applying
reason. He was demonstrating what was already becoming the funda-
mental principle of “scholastic” philosophy and theology: Given author-
itative texts like the Bible and Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis, as well as
the writings of authorities like Aristotle and St. Augustine, the serious
student needed reason as the essential instrument in understanding and
reconciling, as far as possible, conflicting texts.
Abelard taught for a while at the cathedral school of Paris, a city
already prestigious as a center of learning. In the same city, there were
other schools, including the two abbeys of canons regular: St. Genevieve
and St. Victor. The latter was home to leading intellectuals, such as
Hugh of St. Victor (d. 1141), a German scholar who taught there and
wrote major works on theology and education, and Richard of St. Victor
(d. 1173), a prolific writer and mystic.
Another figure from among the many scholars of the twelfth cen-
tury must be mentioned: Peter (the) Lombard (d. 1160). He studied at
cathedral schools in Italy and France, became a teacher at the cathedral
school of Paris, and, near the end of his life, became the bishop of that
city. He was the author of several treatises, but most influential was a
textbook of theology. The Four Books of Sentences was a comprehensive
and structured treatment of all reality as seen through his theological
understanding. Each of the four books treated a major topic: God and
the Trinity, the Creation, Christ and the Virtues, the Sacraments and the
Last Judgment. Peter examined the opinions of ancient authorities and
also those of his own contemporaries (including Abelard and Richard of
St. Victor), using reason to analyze, criticize, and sometimes reject those
opinions.
Sentences soon became the basic text for the faculty of theology in the
universities, and its structure provided the framework for most theolog-
ical discourse. It was studied and cited for centuries by university men,
including the Protestants Martin Luther (d. 1546) and John Calvin
(d. 1564). The Sentences played a role in theology analogous to that
played in law by Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis. Once again, the key
trait of what is called scholasticism appears: the use of reason to under-
stand and reconcile authoritative texts, Christian and non-Christian. It
took various forms in the following centuries, but it remained the basic
2 THE MIDDLE AGES: 500–1500 15
&&&&&
subdivisions of two groups, students from the Italian side of the Alps
(cismontane) and those from the other side (ultramontane).
In both Bologna and Paris, higher authorities were certainly interested
in maintaining law and order, but they could also see the great value
of their burgeoning schools, for both wealth and prestige. Popes and
church councils defended the right of students to be educated and to live
in a secure environment. In 1155, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa,
who very much appreciated the value of Roman lawyers for his rule,
placed the students of Bologna directly under his protection and granted
to lay (non-clergy) students and faculty the same immunity from the civil
law that the clerical students enjoyed. This privilege (“benefit of clergy”
or privilegium fori) was soon taken for granted throughout Europe, a
great advantage for universities in centuries to come. This clerical status
might well be seen as the beginning of academic freedom of university
students and faculty.
In Paris, beginning students were younger than in Bologna. They
came as young teenagers to study the liberal arts curriculum with the
possibility of continuing to study other subjects. Those students who
stayed long enough sometimes became masters or teachers, and it was to
the masters that leadership fell. They were not citizens of Paris; they were
outsiders in need of protection. So the university became the organiza-
tion of teachers, not directly of students.
Although the students and masters were legally treated like clergy,
and some had received minor (clerical) orders, they were like young
males in other times and places, sometimes given to strong drink and
rowdy behavior. That tendency often created conflicts with the towns-
people (“town-gown conflicts”), and the task of containing those con-
flicts fell usually on minor officials of the bishop of Paris and of the king.
The roles of the bishop and king themselves, however, turned out to be
somewhat surprising—they commonly took the side of the students and
masters against their own local officials.
In 1200, King Philip (II) Augustus of France responded angrily to
reports that students in Paris had been attacked by a local official. He not
only punished the official severely, he required all the citizens of Paris to
swear to come to the aid of any student they saw being attacked.
The high regard in which popes held the incipient university in Paris
was shown in 1205, when Pope Innocent III, who had himself been
a student there, wrote all the masters and students of Paris (uinver-
sis magistris et scolaribus Parisiensibus), urging that many should go to
18 J. C. MOORE
at the time. “Lecture” means “reading.” The master would read passages
to students and then provide explanations. Cardinal Robert wrote:
…to all the masters and scholars [students] of Paris eternal greeting in the
Lord. Let all know that since we have a special mandate from the pope to
take effective measures to reform the state of the Parisians scholars for the
better, wishing with the counsel of good men to provide for the tranquility
of the scholars in the future, we have decreed and ordained in this wise:
No one shall lecture in the arts at Paris before he is twenty-one years of
age, and he shall have heard lectures for at least six years before he begins
to lecture, and he shall promise to lecture for at least two years, unless
a reasonable cause prevent, which he ought to prove publicly or before
examiners. He shall not be stained by any infamy and when he is ready to
lecture, he shall be examined according to the form which is contained
in the writing of the lord bishop of Paris, where is contained the peace
confirmed between the chancellor and scholars by judges delegated by the
pope, namely, by the bishop and dean of Troyes and by P. the bishop and
J. the chancellor of Paris approved and confirmed. And they shall lecture
on the books of Aristotle on dialect old and new in the schools ordinarily
and not ad cursum. They shall also lecture on both Priscians [on gram-
mar, by Priscian ca. 500] ordinarily, or at least on one. They shall not
lecture on feast days except on philosophers and rhetoric and the quad-
rivium [arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy] and Barbarismus
[on grammar and composition, by Donatus, a fourth century teacher of
grammar and rhetoric] and ethics, if it please them, and the fourth book
of the Topics [Aristotle on logic]. They shall not lecture on the books
of Aristotle on metaphysics and natural philosophy … [a limitation soon
ignored at Paris]. ….
Donations of clothing or other things as has been customary, or more,
we urge should be made, especially to the poor. None of the masters lec-
turing in arts shall have a cope except one round, black and reaching to the
ankles, at least while it is new. …. No one shall wear the round cope shoes
that are ornamented or with elongated pointed toes. If any scholar in arts
or theology dies, half of the masters of arts shall attend the funeral at one
time, the other half the next time, and no one shall leave until the sepul-
ture is finished, unless he has reasonable cause. …. On the day when the
master is buried, no one shall lecture or dispute. ….
Each master shall have jurisdiction over his scholar. No one shall occupy
a classroom or house without asking the consent of the tenant, provided
one has a chance to ask it. No one shall receive the licentiate from the
chancellor or another for money given or promise made or other condi-
tion agreed upon. Also, the masters and scholars can make both between
20 J. C. MOORE
The final passage of the document gives authority to enforce these reg-
ulations to “the university of masters and scholars [universitate magis-
trorum et scholarium] or other persons constituted by the university”
(Thorndike, 27–30).
The basic components of the “Western University” are here: (a) a cor-
porate identity with legal rights of its own, (b) consisting of teachers and
students using an established curriculum, (c) a curriculum consisting of
introductory studies in the liberal arts and advanced specialized studies—
in this case a faculty of theology, and (d) an established system for certi-
fying or licensing those who have completed the curricula and acquired
the right to teach. This document can be considered the birth certifi-
cate of the Western University. An expanded version was issued by Pope
Gregory IX in 1231 in his decretal Parens scientiarum. Interestingly, the
pope confirmed the university’s right to strike, that is, “to stop lectures
immediately,” if their rights were violated and not promptly restored.
&&&&&
First, I shall give you the summaries of each title before I come to the text.
Second, I shall put forth well and distinctly and in the best terms I can
the purport of each law. Third, I shall read the text in order to correct
it. Fourth, I shall briefly restate the meaning. Fifth, I shall solve conflicts,
adding general matters … and subtle and useful distinctions and questions
with solutions, so far as divine Providence shall assist me. And if any law is
deserving of a review by reason of its fame or difficulty, I shall reserve it for
an afternoon review. (Thorndike, 67)
At first, students copied down texts as read by the lecturers. But the
rapid expansion of universities created commercial opportunities that
were quickly seized by merchants. There were bookstores, where man-
uscripts were copied and the copies sold, but even more useful for the
poor students in thirteenth-century Paris were peciae, parts of books
which could be rented by students, copied, and then returned to the
shop. Still, the best bet for the poorest students was to copy down the
text as the lecturer read it.
Students who had obtained copies of the texts and studied them
would be best prepared for the disputations. But even without written
texts, medieval scholars and masters were not without resources. In the
study of rhetoric, students in the liberal arts curriculum would com-
monly receive training of the memory. Scholars had access to ancient
treatises on that subject, treatises by Cicero and others, and in the
twelfth and later centuries, masters wrote their own treatises on memory
for the benefit of students. In ancient Greece and Rome, the educated
citizen was expected to be able to address his fellow citizens in coherent
and persuasive public speaking, and that skill depended on a well-trained
memory. In the Middle Ages, a trained memory also worked to the great
profit of scholars—beginners as well as professors. Engaged in disputa-
tions or in writing their own treatises, scholars who could readily intro-
duce apt quotations from the Bible, from Peter Lombard’s Sentences,
from Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis, or from the works of Aristotle or
of the Greek physician Galen (d. ca. 200) enjoyed a great advantage over
less resourceful scholars.
The fundamental method for memorization was to place the items to
be memorized in some sort of imagined grid—perhaps numerical, per-
haps architectural, perhaps chronological. The ten commandments might
be imagined with each in one of ten different market stalls, with some
action in each stall that called to mind the commandment—the more
22 J. C. MOORE
&&&&&
A powerful new stimulus to learning came in the late twelfth and early
thirteenth centuries in the form of a flood of new texts for scribes and
scholars to deal with. Latin translations of the medical works of Arabic
physicians, of the scientific and philosophical works of Arabic and Greek
thinkers, and most especially of Aristotle, flowed into the Latin world.
These translations were the work of Latin and Greek Christians as
well as Jews and Muslims, working in Spain, Sicily, and North Africa.
Whereas the Western world already had some knowledge of Aristotle’s
works on logic, thanks to the early translations of Boethius, the West
now had additional works on logic as well as his Physics, Metaphysics,
The Soul, Nicomachean Ethics, Generation and Corruption, Meteors, The
Heavens, Politics, and Poetics. At the same time, works by Greek physi-
cians (Hippocrates, Galen) and Muslim and Jewish thinkers (Avicenna,
Averroës, Maimonides) were being absorbed by the West. The scholastic
method already employed in the universities, using reason to interpret and
reconcile conflicting texts—philosophical, theological, legal, medical—
proved to be an admirable instrument for integrating all these new materi-
als into the Western intellectual tradition.
One result of this flood of new material was largely to reorganize
some of the liberal arts into three new categories: natural philosophy
(science), moral philosophy (ethics), and metaphysical philosophy. These
subjects, together with logic, were pursued in the arts faculty, but were
very influential in the graduate faculties, especially theology and medi-
cine, since those teachers and students had first been educated by the arts
2 THE MIDDLE AGES: 500–1500 23
&&&&&
"Niin sitä nyt ollaan! mutta harvoin onkin häisiä päiviä", sanoi
Pekka, joka oli pihalla vastassa.
"Jaa, hyvä kyllä, ja vielä parempi että tekin tulitte niihin osaa
ottamaan, vaikka ei täällä ole paljoa tarjona!"
"Te olette jalo mies", sanoi Mikko, "nyt vasta voimmekin viettää
oikein iloisia häitä, koska tiedämme, että näitten toimeentulo on
turvattu vielä sittenkin, kun me vanhat olemme päivämme
päättäneet, ja kyllä kai niin kauan sovimme."
Iloisina tanssivat nuoret, mutta kaikista iloisin oli Alpert herra, hän
tanssi, laski leikkiä ujosteleville tytöille, häntä huvitti nähdä kansansa
lapsia heidän teeskentelemättömässä yksinkertaisuudessaan.
Loppu.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TAKAMAAN
TORPPARIT ***
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also
govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most
countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside the
United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms
of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying,
performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this
work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes
no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in
any country other than the United States.
• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the
method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The
fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark,
but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty
payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on
which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your
periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked
as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information
about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation.”
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
1.F.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of
other ways including checks, online payments and credit card
donations. To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.
Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.