Here is the first draft on "Education of the Middle Ages".
 
Education of the Middle Ages
 
Focused on the Universities since the 11th century




Korean Minjok Leadership Academy
International Program
Hwang, Heeseung
Term Paper, Medieval History Class, June 2013
 
Table of Contents
 
I.                      Introduction
II.                   Monasteries
III.                Universities
III.1   The development of universities
III.2   Subjects dealt in Universities
             III.2.1Arts
             III.2.2 Medicine
             III.2.3Theology
             III.2.4 Law
III.3   How teachers taught students
             III.4      Types of students attending universities of medieval Europe
IV        Schools of the Middle Ages
IV.1   People Related to Medieval Schools
V. Other forms of education
V.1 Education of Chivalry
V.2 Mastering Crafts
VI. Conclusion
VII. Bibliography
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I.                      Introduction
When we say education, people usually think of schools, academies, and institutes. These kinds of education are commonly called as institutional education, meaning that you learn from a school-like environment. However, if we were to have a correct understanding of the education during the Middle Ages, we should widen the definition of education. The process of mastering a craft, preparing to inherit the vocation of one’s parents, learning how to be a knight or behave like a knight, and so on should all be considered as education of the Middle Ages since we have to apply the standards of that era.
While reading this paper, please keep in mind that this writing is trying to prove that education was not only about Christianity in the Middle Ages. Yes, it is true that education was largely affected by Christianity, and some disciplines were even meant to glorify it. However, there were significant intellectual development on the other side of the coin. The value of the Middle Ages really kicks in here, where Middle Ages can be acknowledged as not a dormant, but a preparation time for the renaissance, which is the climax of cultural development regarding humans ourselves.
II.                   Monasteries
Christian monasteries and nunneries which the main purpose was religious discipline, were also the center of economic and social activities in the middle ages. They also undertook the role of schools, so that people who weren’t even monks could come and study reading and writing. The monastery, cathedral, priory, and abbey were the most responsible for education until the 12th century. They taught people how to be responsible Christians. Therefore, medieval education was greatly influenced by the church. These monks engaged in religious duties most commonly, but also became teachers, librarians, and scholars who dealt with various range of subjects that were considered important. The hierarchy that consists of pope at the top and the bishop at the bottom and other Catholic Church officials would function as mangers of local church schools. 
Tree gardening, teaching and learning reading and writing, producing alcohol and cheese, were easily spotted activities in medieval monasteries. The monasteries across Europe were all similar regardless of the country they were located in because they followed the same Christian rules.  In the late Middle Ages, schools began to establish outside the monasteries. However they were still generally staffed by priests, monks, and nuns who taught their courses in Latin, the language of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, such education was focused on kids of the upper class. The serfs couldn’t simply afford the luxurious fees for education. Also, the language used by the monasteries was always Latin. Thus, a number of people weren’t able to understand a thing from religious services and classes unless they receive special education on Latin in church schools.
The church education was far from the words, liberal and secular. They were based on church doctrine. However, there was some vocational education in the middle ages. During the late middle ages, the astonishing expansion of trade and economy stimulated sophisticated levels of vocational education.
III.                Universities
Universities used to be conventions of faculty members from the most common fields of the time, theology, medicine and law. Eventually its meaning changed, and was used to denote the institution of higher learning. 
III.1 The development of universities
The formation of very first universities parallels with the ascending authority of teachers in the Middle Ages. Teachers were able to move freely around different cathedrals and share ideas with other teachers. Therefore, cathedrals with considerable reputation attracted numerous students, and they were particularly located in Paris, Chartres, Bologna, Padua, Salerno, and Cambridge and Oxford which joined the line after wise. The teachers demanded protection of their professionalism and intellect. In the end they have formed an organized union together called universitas, or universities. These guilds wanted academic freedom where they don’t have to pursue their profession for the sake of religion or politics. The universities gradually became more distinctive due to the intellectual purity they pursued.
             Universities of the Middle Ages stood as communities that have chosen academic freedom as the fundamental value. However, such pursuit was limited by internal and external balances that had to be made. Internally, individual freedom had to compete with the solidarity among the constituents of the university, while the autonomy of the university had to balance with the influences of financial supporters.
             Students attending universities of the Middle Ages were incognizant of the importance of examinations. It was not until the late 1500s when examination and graduation was an essential part of academic merits. By then, the majority of students were satisfied with attending the universities itself, since examinations and graduation had little relevance with social prospects.
III.2 Subjects dealt in Universities
The main subjects the Universities taught were arts, law, philosophy, theology, and medicine. The universities of the Middle Ages had adopted the hierarchy of subjects that was passed down from beliefs of Plato and Aristotle. Plato and Aristotle believed that basic education of rudimentary grammar, literature, music, and arithmetic was an essence for advanced mathematics and philosophy. They believed these subjects led to the acquisition of wisdom, which was considered as the final objective of academics at the time.
Theology was the primary subject in medieval universities. Math, Biology, and Physics were part of Philosophy, and they comprised very small proportion of medieval education. It was not until the 18th century when science gained interest. Since the church exercised tremendous authority upon the university curricula and the appointment of teachers, the importance of Science was also undermined in this sense. Thankfully, the society became more flexible with comparatively practical subjects. However, it wasn’t until the modern age when religion and education became discrete.
III.2.1 Arts
             Similarly to the renowned philosophers’ recognition of liberal arts during antiquity, Arts of the Middle Ages was a gateway to perceiving Christian wisdom by mastering the comprehension of Christian scriptures on top of the faith and love of God. The Arts of the Middle Ages were divided into trivium, and quadrivium. Trivium means threefold ways to wisdom, and included three fields of verbal activities, which are grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Quadrivium on the other hand, means fourfold ways to wisdom, and included four important fields of mathematics, which are arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. All of these subdivisions of Arts developed at different rates, and there the emphasis on each subjects differed as well since they had distinct level of correlations with the higher faculties.
             Firstly, let’s look at grammar of trivium. Grammar was a broad underlying of Arts which stretched to not only other discipline of trivium but also aliterature. Until the twelfth century, the predominant textbook for grammar was Arts major and Arts minor of Donatus, and Institutiones grammaticae by Priscian. Written in the fourth and sixth centuries respectively, they integrated classical grammar and grammar or all levels, from basics to advanced. They served as the mainstream texts until the attention was averted to the new texts writeen by Alexander of Villedieu and Eberhard of Bethune which is about the beginning of 1200s.
            Secondly, logics of the Middle Ages consists majorly of Aristotle’s works which were translated by Boethius. Aristotle’s works on logic was divided into ‘old logic’ and ‘new logic’. The legacy of ‘old logic’ was widespread until the beginning of the 1100s, when ‘new logic started to emerge along with new translations of books related to it by James of Venice.
             Finally, rhetoric is the last way of achieving wisdom in trivium. Rhetoric of the Middle Ages focused on forensic methods that can be implemented in trial situations. However, compared to subjects that can be applied to real life, such as grammar and letter-writing, rhetoric received much less attention. Unlike Rome or periods that came after, it was very rare for the students who studied rhetoric to actually engage in trials. Therefore, during the early Middle Ages rhetoric was inferior to grammar and writing until the 11th century when rhetoric became the fundamental requirement for law. It also started to relate with letter-writing and preaching later on.
             On the other hand, quadrivium begins with music. Before the emergence of medieval universities, music was used for the sake of Christianity. Even the simplest songs were analyzed in a theoretical manner, due to a tendency to prioritize stereotypical theories over practicality. Out of a hundred different kinds of texts of this field, Boethius’s collection of ancient traditions, also known as De institutione musica is the most eminent.
             Secondly, there were a few sources of which the university students of the Middle Ages were replenished with arithmetic. De institutione arithmetica of Boethius was a common text for arithmetic according to tangible records from the era. Euclid also had much influence to this field, and his famous book of Elements was largely responsible for edifying the students. Massa compoti, the union theories pertaining to calendar calculations written by Alexander of Villedieu, and Algorismus written by Socrobosco were the basis for arithmetic as well.
             Thirdly, geometry in the Middle Ages were divided into practical and speculative discipline, and were approached in a somewhat different way than today. Rather than eliciting a chain of theories and rules through logical reasoning, medieval geometry focused on the repetition of already existing rules. The main text was Elements by Euclid.
            The last field of the quadrivium is astronomy. Obviously, before the world had opened their eyes to Copernican system, the Ptolemaic system of understanding the universe with Ptolemaic calculations were established in the society. Unfortunately, astronomy was far from being touched upon with genuine scientific proof due to the lack of technology and observation to record and collect data.
III.2.2 Medicine
             The faculty of medicine enabled the formation of medical elites who had professional information and skills required to treat patients and execute operations. However, things that were practiced by the professionals and theories related to medicine were not always owned by the universities. It was a mixture of medicine from antiquity, Islamic world, lessons from the contemporary medicine practitioners, and other sources outside the universities. The intellectual growth in the field of Medicine was accelerated by the epidemic of the translation of Arabic and Greek texts. Furthermore, the ideological part of medicine started to enlarge as well, since the theoretical part of medical writing and natural philosophy were studied in relation to the practice of medicine. The wave of quantity books regarding medicine, commentaries, suggestions of medicine practitioners, and books on surgery, or consilia also contributed to the nature of medieval medicine mentioned above.              The practice of Medicine was also closely related to religion. Therefore, there was a strong link between healing of the patient, and religious blessing and miracles.
             Medicine was promoted by a number of factors. Centralization of population to urban regions, and economic growth there during the 12th and the 13th century pushed the development of medicine. In addition, the substantial increase in the number of Latin schools were able to widen the range of potential students who could take classes of medicine which were given in Latin. Lastly, as a society, the public had better awareness of surgeons and physicians and the general willingness to participate and purchase medical utilization contributed highly to the prosperity of medicine.
             Although it might sound awkward, those of who practiced medicine in the Middle Ages were not necessarily the beneficiaries of medicinal faculties of universities, and such circumstances were particularly significant from 13th to 15th century. Furthermore, even if the practitioners did receive such education in universities, it was very unlikely that they attained a master’s degree or a doctorate. For example, between the 12th and the 15th century, only 2000 practitioners actually attended medicine classes in universities, and what is even shocking is that only 417 of them had record of serving as masters or professors.   
             Medicine of the Middle Ages flourished on top of a substantial number of books from Islamic and Greek origin that were translated into Latin. In fact, the texts from Islamic regions had separate books that each dealt with different sectors of medicine, such as Canon of Avicenna, works of Haly Abbas which listed the treatments of medicine, and works of Albucasis on surgeries. These translated books were then grouped into 2 major parties, which were the Hippocrates, and the Galen. 
III.2.3 Theology
             If the faculty of Arts, Medicine, and Law each had their own texts books, the faculty of Theology had the Bible. The bible itself was sufficient enough be a standardized text when it was studied with interpretation. Sometimes the Sentences of Peter Lombard was used as a textbook as well. Unfortunately, only little evidence is left to clarify the content of education of Theology in the Middle Ages. However, what is relatively clear is that students had to be ready for a long journey to be acknowledged as a viable scholar in Theology by the society, and that diverse methods of teaching Theology, which includes sermons, disputations, and lectures resulted in a whole list of genres in Theological works.  
             It was mandatory for students to take passive lectures on the bible and Sentences for several years before they can start giving lectures on 2 books of the bible themselves; one from the Old Testament, and the other from the New testament They were called baccalarius biblicus. After that these students who were also called baccalaii Sententiarii, were given the right to lecture on Sentences which would always start with a ceremony in different scales. The students commence this part of their academic life with a Christian ritual and a firm oath to the church that they would never propose a heresy against it. Therefore, this process burdened the students with the responsibility to maintain loyalty to Christianity and casted trust to religious interpretations and statements of them simultaneously.
             Once these students had served as baccalaiii Sententiarii for a certain number of years, they would move on to baccalarius formatus and kept that title for about four years. Since the late 14th century, this period was reduced to three years. It was not until this period when students were allowed give academic preaches to the public. After a long period of training which ranged from twelve to sixteen years depending on the university, he is now granted the right to hold the license of masters. The minimum age of those who can hold the license varied as well, with 35 in general and 30 in Vienna and Cologne.
III.2.4 Law
             One of the first universities of the world, Bologna University, also erected the first faculty of law which later became the pattern for the ones that ensued. In the Italian peninsula, the faculties of law that were highly influenced by Bologna were established, which were Padua, Pavia, Perugia, and Siena. These schools displayed a typical Bolognese model and contributed to the spread of this prototype by attracting a number of foreign students who mostly studied civil and canon law. Later on newly established law schools assimilated with local environment which led to the diversity in schools of medieval law.
             In France, Montpellier, Orleans, Toulouse, and Avignon were cities where the faculties of law located. Paris was also famous for canon law, while the education of civil law was prohibited since 1219. Along with Italy, France started to be the destination of exotic wave from the 11th century. Averting the attention to the Iberian Peninsula, Salamanca, Lerida, and Coimbra-Lisbon were the leading faculties of law which were exclusive to those who lived there. In Scotland, St Andrews, Glasgow, and Aberdeen were found in the 15th century, but they failed to spark since students migrated to the continent in search for better faculties of law. In the Holy Roman Empire, canon law was a major section of law. Eminent faculties were those located in Prague, Vienna, Heidelberg, Cologne, Erfurt, Leipzig, Rostock, and Freiburg. The ones in Prague and Vienna were established between late 14th and early 15th century. Scandinavia, which did not have as popular faculties, sent scholars to these regions and students from Eastern Europe were also heading towards the same destinations.
               Until the 13th century, law was taught in Latin in universities. However, the trend started to change and written documents took advantage of local languages when dealing with legal records. Even the clerics started to translate legal books and commentaries into vernacular which allowed such works and ideas to spread freely to different regions. Law education in the Middle Ages were basically two types; civil law, which derived from Roman law, and canon law. The main texts for these subjects were Corpus iuris civilis and Corpus iuris canonici respectively. These texts were translations from original books written in Latin done by Bartolus de Saxoferrato, Neveu de Montauban, and others.
             Unlike Arts of the Middle Ages, Law had little correlation with history or philosophy. This was because these laws were adopted from centuries ago. They were still in effect despite the fact that they were now anachronisms. Law was taught by dialectical methods, and an important system called puncta, which designates by whom or when certain sections are read and explained. The students who received such education were usually 23 to 30 years old.
III.3 How teachers taught students
Everything the university was able to offer to their students was in Latin. Meaning that you can’t go to university unless you could read and write Latin, which was the language used in almost every documents such as court documents. Although teaching was considered a secondary work after research and writing, it sometimes proved its importance on how they financially support the teachers. University professors used the methods of lecture and disputation when teaching the students. There were two types of lectures, which were ordinary lectures, and extraordinary lectures. Ordinary lectures were held in the mornings while extraordinary lectures were held later in the day for students who wish the classes to be quick. Most professors were priests who came from the Catholic Church. 
III.4      Types of students attending universities of medieval Europe
             The students attending the universities of the Middle Ages can be divided roughly into 5 groups depending on their social and economic classes, level of academic achievements, and access to higher degrees. The unbalanced distribution of students to each class create a diagram which depicts the shape of a pyramid.
             The students who make up the very bottom of the pyramid are those related to the faculty of arts. They were called scholars simplex, and composed about 50% of the entire university attendance which allows them to be the leading factor of these universities. They were usually young men between the ages of 14 and 16 who just had their first step into the university. The students’ family had to be able to fulfill the financial and legal conditions. Usually they were from the middle class with varying amount of wealth who previously acquired basic reading, writing, and grammar skills in Latin from a local Latin school. They would usually end their academic career within the university within approximately 1.8 years due to the dearth of willingness to obtain higher degrees, but until then they deepen their knowledge of arts with the help of the masters they have chosen. In addition, these students were exempt from examinations and pressure to attain an academic title.
             The second largest faction that is responsible are also students of the art faculties. Although their educational and social background is similar to those of the first group, the proportion of poor students wishing to seek personal advance though high level of education was notably larger. Another major difference is that they were eager to gain the degree called, baccalarius atrium, which is similar to the modern bachelor’s degree. It is about two to two and a half year course with the master you chose. After that the students are now between the ages of 16 to 19. In the late Middle Ages, the number of students with this degree would account 20 to 40 percent of university attendance. Unfortunately, only a third of these students would continue to proceed with their academic pursuits for higher degrees.  
             The third group of students are also found in the faculties of arts. Here, the proportion of poor students are substantially cut compared to the previous two divisions. On top of their baccalarius, they would spend extra two or three years for the sake of the master’s degree in arts. By this time they are 19 to 21 years old, and obligated to teach arts for two years. However, there were some students who would rather shift to higher faculties such as medicine, theology, or law. The members of this type were formal students and active teachers at the same time called master-students, and this trend disintegrated the boundaries between them. The proportion of the third group were comparatively regular at ten to twenty percent of university attendance by the end of the Middle Ages. The master-students in the faculty of theology and medicine would usually be chosen by the first two groups as their masters. This group then becomes the financial momentum of these master-students to pursue another bachelor’s degree in higher faculties. On the other hand, there were students who received professorships, college headships, scholarships, prebends, university bursaries, and church bursaries. These students were often taken to higher positions in the university, such as the dean of the faculty of arts, or perhaps the rector of the university in extremely few cases.
             The fourth type of students can be summarized as the ‘students of rank’. They are significantly different from the former groups which shared similar backgrounds. Their social prosperity had affinity with high rank of family origin, nobility, possession of church livings, and middle class of great wealth. Nobles of this group would usually receive education to the master’s level in arts from their private tutors prior to the entrance of the university with familiars which are servants including all sorts of people as well as their private tutors. They sometimes studies arts at a subordinate level but without any examinations or assessments. Graduating and teaching art impaired the dignity of the privileged. On top of that, the society had different expectations from these people. First of all, the faculty of arts were too low of a rank for them, and the faculties of medicine and theology were rejected for similar reasons. Therefore, the ‘students of rank’ would attend even higher faculty, which was law. Secondly, academic title were futile to their lives. They did not seek social advancement through high level of education, thus they believed it was inappropriate for them to long for such high degrees of prestigious faculties that climbed up to doctorates. These students showed up in varying figures, but they were centered in law universities and faculties of southern Europe where it already had a thick layer of student attendance in the field.
             At the peak of the pyramid, there lies the students who devoted themselves to reach the climax of the academic achievement. They would finish their academic career with an examination or perhaps a doctorate. These students would start off with a baccalarius from one of the higher faculties, continue on with the licentiate in medicine, theology, civil law, and finally reach to the point where they can have the doctorate on the table provided that they can afford such enormous costs of the academic investment. They were well over their twenties and sometimes over thirties by this time. It is very important that they have indeed achieved social advancements up to urban upper-class or upper middle class especially for the students of the relatively poor families. The biggest difference between these students and those nowadays, is that this type of students in the Middle Ages already had a viable job at municipal service, court, or church offices before their graduation. A doctorate was merely an additional prestige and honor for them.  
IV.       Schools of the Middle Ages
IV.1   People Related to Medieval Schools
Firstly, the students were the customers of education who had to burden the fees. They even formed student guilds in order to prevent the abuse of authority in universities and protects their own rights.
Secondly, there were teachers who were called by different names such as masters or doctors respectively in different areas. The influx of professors who used to be scholars that dedicated their lives to research and writing appreciated the status and reputation of the occupation. Charlemagne, a renowned French ruler, was a king who insisted the importance of the teachers’ capacity to read and write, church build free schools. The professors of universities experienced somewhat different problems such as having enough students enrolled to their classes, since they were paid according to the number of students willing to take his class.
Thirdly, the scholars were people who dedicate their life to research. Sometimes, they would be employed and paid as teachers. 

Lastly, girls had discernibly lacking chances of education compared to those of the boys. Only girls of the wealthy, or the noble class could attend schools.
V. Other forms of Education
There were several ways that young boys were raised in the middle ages. Most kids inherited what their predecessors have been doing in the past. For example, if one’s father is a baker, he was socially expected to be a baker after my father. For people who wish to try crafts, they would visit a master. Such are also known as a typical vocational education. Since the 11th century the system of instructing vocational apprentices developed as guilds began to emerge and form exclusive cliques. 
The churches and the monasteries were not the only education facilities. Outside the monasteries, especially in Italy, a few public and private schools were operational. Also there were public support system that required fees and private tutoring as well. A great example of a public school is Eton, founded by Henry VI in 1440.
V.1 Education of Chivalry
Chivalrous education of the knight was another form of secular education in the middle ages. The overlord would systematically open classes and invite teachers and instructors from various fields of the time. These people are expected to be loyal aristocrats who have certain authority in the society. The participants would learn proper manners and etiquette of a knight, dancing, singing, conversational skills, and some intellectual matters although its importance was lighter than social and military training listed above. 
V.2 Mastering crafts
Mastering crafts was a widespread method of schooling which involved an indenture, or a contractual agreement, between the boy and a master craftsman. The master’s duty was to teach the boy essential skills and knowledge of the craft, as well as reading and writing. Also, the master must be responsible for the boy’s moral and religious growth. The boy, on the other hand, was obligated to work diligently under his master and keep what he has learned from his master to himself. This enabled guilds to exclusively dominate the market by minimizing competition and taking the role of high price setters.
VI.   Conclusion
In conclusion, education in the Middle Ages were far sophisticated, contrary to how most people think of it. It is true, and the writer concedes that Christianity was big part of Medieval Education, but that was not the end of it. Things that were necessary to sustain the maintenance of the society were still taught to the students. Even by looking at the different kinds of courses, the higher faculties have the tendency to move away from Christianity, while the subordinate subjects of the era were the main factors related to religion. Furthermore, the essence of university itself was about academic freedom. On top of that, many textbooks which were limited to a few per subjects were usually translated versions of those written in the antiquity, where Christianity was out of the table. For all these reasons, It is legitimate to say the education of the Middle Ages was not necessarily about teaching Christianity to the public.
VII.          Bibliography
Primary Sources(Books)
1.     Rüegg, Walter, and De Ridder-Symoens, H, eds. A History of the University in Europe. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. Print.
2.     Cantor, Norman F. The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The Life and Death of a Civilization. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. Print.
3.     Franck, Irene M., and David M. Brownstone. Scholars and Priests. New York: Facts on File, 1988. Print.
 
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