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From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
XXI. MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION
» Contents of this Chapter
Page 15
EDUCATION; THE UNIVERSITIES
COMMON SCHOOLS
Not less important than the Gothic cathedrals for the understanding of medieval civilization were the universities. They grew out of the monastic and cathedral schools where boys were trained to become monks or priests. Such schools had been created or restored by Charlemagne. The teaching, which lay entirely in the hands of the clergy, was elementary in character. Pupils learned enough Latin grammar to read religious books, if not always to understand them, and enough music to follow the services of the Church. They also studied arithmetic by means of the awkward Roman notation, received a smattering of astronomy, and sometimes gained a little knowledge of such subjects as geography, law, and philosophy. Besides these monastic and cathedral schools, others were maintained by the guilds. Boys who had no regular schooling often received instruction from the parish priest of the village or town. Illiteracy was common enough in medieval times, but the mass of the people were by no means entirely uneducated.
RISE OF UNIVERSITIES
Between 1150 and 1500 A.D. at least eighty universities were established in western Europe. Some speedily became extinct, but there are still about fifty European institutions of learning which started in the Middle Ages. The earliest universities did not look to the state or to some princely benefactor for their foundation. They arose, as it were, spontaneously. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries Europe felt the thrill of a great intellectual revival. It was stimulated by intercourse with the highly cultivated Arabs in Spain, Sicily, and the East, and with the Greek scholars of Constantinople during the crusades. The desire for instruction became so general that the common schools could not satisfy it. Other schools were then opened in the cities and to them flocked eager learners from every quarter.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
