The History Of Education by Ellwood P. Cubberley (epub e reader .txt) 📖

East. A desire for a philosophy which would explain the mysteries and contradictions of the Christian faith found expression among the scholars of the time. In the larger cathedral schools, at least, it became common to discuss the doctrines of the Church with much freedom.

 

THE RISE OF SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY. The Church, in a very intelligent and commendable manner, prepared to meet and use this new spirit in the organization, systematization, and restatement of its faith and doctrine, and the great era of Scholasticism [13] now arose. During the latter part of the twelfth and in the thirteenth century Scholasticism was at its height; after that, its work being done, it rapidly declined as an educational force, and the new universities inherited the spirit which had given rise to its labors.

 

With the new emphasis now placed on reasoning, Dialectic or Logic superseded Grammar as the great subject of study, and logical analysis was now applied to the problems of religion. The Church adopted and guided the movement, and the schools of the time turned their energy into directions approved by it. Aristotle also was in time adopted by the Church, after the translation of his principal works had been effected (Rs. 87, 90), and his philosophy was made a bulwark for Christian doctrine throughout the remainder of the Middle Ages. For the next four centuries Aristotle thoroughly dominated all philosophic thinking. [14] The great development and use of logical analysis now produced many keen and subtle minds, who worked intensively a narrow and limited field of thought. The result was a thorough reorganization and restatement of the theology of the Church.

 

[Illustration: PLATE 3. SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS]

 

This was the work of Scholasticism. The movement was not characterized by the evolution of new doctrines, but by a systematization and organization into good teaching form of what had grown up during the preceding thousand years. To a large degree it was also an “accommodation” of the old theology to the new Aristotelian philosophy which had recently been brought back to western Europe, and the statement of the Christian doctrines in good philosophic form.

 

THE ORGANIZING WORK OF THE SCHOOLMEN. Peter the Lombard (1100-1160), whose Book of Sentences, mentioned above, had so completely changed the character of the instruction in Theology, began this work of theological reorganization. Albert the Great (_Albertus Magnus_, 1193-1280) was the first of the great Schoolmen, and has been termed “the organizing intellect of the Middle Ages.” He was a German Dominican monk [15], born in Swabia, and educated in the schools of Paris, Padua, and Bologna. Later he became a celebrated teacher at Paris and Cologne. He was the first to state the philosophy of Aristotle in systematic form, and was noted as an exponent of the work of Peter the Lombard. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274), the greatest and most influential scholastic philosopher of the Middle Ages, studied first at Monte Cassino and Naples, and then at Paris and Cologne, under Albertus Magnus. He later became a noted teacher of Philosophy and Theology at Rome, Bologna, Viterbo, Perugia, and Naples.

Under him Scholasticism came to its highest development in his harmonizing the new Aristotelianism with the doctrines of the Church. His class teaching was based on Aristotle, [16] the Vulgate Bible, and Peter the Lombard’s Book of Sentences. During the last three years of his life he wrote his Summa Theologiae, a book which has ever since been accepted as an authoritative statement of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.

 

The character of the organization made by Peter the Lombard and Thomas Aquinas may be seen from an examination of their method of presentation, which was dogmatic in form and similar in the textbooks of each. The field of Christian Theology was divided out into parts, heads, subheads, etc., in a way that would cover the subject, and a group of problems, each dealing with some doctrinal point, was then presented under each. The problem was first stated in the text. Next the authorities and arguments for each solution other than that considered as orthodox were presented and confuted, in order. The orthodox solution was next presented, the arguments and authorities for such solution quoted, and the objections to the correct solution presented and refuted (R. 152).

 

RESULTS OF THEIR WORK. The work of the Schoolmen was to organize and present in systematic and dogmatic form the teachings of the Church (R.

92). This they did exceedingly well, and the result was a thorough organization of Theology as a teaching subject. They did little to extend knowledge, and nothing at all to apply it to the problems of nature and man. Their work was abstract and philosophical instead, dealing wholly with theological questions. The purpose was to lay down principles, and to offer a training in analysis, comparison, classification, and deduction which would prepare learned and subtle defenders of the faith of the Church. So successful were the Schoolmen in their efforts that instruction in Theology was raised by their work to a new position of importance, and a new interest in theological scholarship and general learning was awakened which helped not a little to deflect many strong spirits from a life of warfare to a life of study. They made the problems of learning seem much more worth while, and their work helped to create a more tolerant attitude toward the supporters of either side of debatable questions by revealing so clearly that there are two sides to every question. This new learning, new interest in learning, and new spirit of tolerance the rising universities inherited.

 

III. LAW AND MEDICINE AS NEW STUDIES

 

THE OLD ROMAN CITIES. The old Roman Empire, it will be remembered, came to be largely a collection of provincial cities. These were the centers of Roman civilization and culture. After the downfall of the governing power of Rome, the great highways were no longer repaired, brigandage became common, trade and intercourse largely ceased, and the provincial cities which were not destroyed in the barbarian invasions declined in population and number, passing under the control of their bishops who long ruled them as feudal lords. During the long period of disorder many of the old Roman cities entirely disappeared (R. 49). Only in Italy, and particularly in northern Italy, did these old cities retain anything of their earlier municipal life, or anything worth mentioning of their former industry and commerce. But even here they lost most of their earlier importance as centers of culture and trade, becoming merely ecclesiastical towns. After the death of Charlemagne, the break-up of his empire, and the institution of feudal conditions, the cities and towns declined still more in importance, and few of any size remained.

 

In Italy feudalism never attained the strength it did in northern Europe.

Throughout all the early Middle Ages the cities there retained something of their old privileges, though ruled by prince-bishops residing in them.

They also retained something of the old Roman civilization, and Roman legal usages and some knowledge of Roman law never quite died out. In other respects they much resembled mediaeval cities elsewhere.

 

REESTABLISHMENT OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. After the disintegration of Charlemagne’s empire, the portion of it now known as Germany broke up into fragments, largely independent of one another, and full of fight and pride. The result there was continual and pitiless warfare. This, coupled with the raids of the Northmen along the northern coast and the Magyars on the east, led to the election of a king in 919 (Henry the Fowler) who could establish some semblance of unity and order. By 961 the German duchies and small principalities had been so consolidated that a succeeding king (Otto I) felt himself able to attempt to re�stablish the Holy Roman Empire by subjugating Italy and annexing it as an appendage under German rule.

 

He descended into Italy (961), subjugated the cities, overthrew the Papacy, created a pope to his liking, and re�stablished the old Empire, in name at least. For a century the German rule was nominal, but with the outbreak of the conflict in the eleventh century between king and pope over the question of which one should invest the bishops with their authority (known as the investiture conflict, 1075-1122), Pope Gregory VII humbled the German king (Henry IV) at Canossa (1077) and won a partial success. Then followed repeated invasions of Italy, and a century and a half of conflicts between pope and king before the dream of universal empire under a German feudal king ended in disaster, and Italy was freed from Teutonic rule.

 

[Illustration: FIG. 54, THE CITY-STATES OF NORTHERN ITALY

All of the cities in the valley of the Po, except Turin, Pavia, and Mantua, were members of the Lombard League of 1167.]

 

THE ITALIAN CITIES REVIVE THE STUDY OF ROMAN LAW. As was stated above, Roman legal usages and some knowledge of Roman law had never quite died out in these Italian cities. But, while regarded with reverence, the law was not much understood, little study was given to it, and important parts of it were neglected and forgotten. The struggle with the ruling bishops in the second half of the eleventh century, and the discussions which arose during the investiture conflict, caused new attention to be given to legal questions, and both the study of Roman (civil) and Church (canon) law were revived. The Italian cities stood with the Papacy in the struggles with the German kings, and, in 1167, those in the Valley of the Po formed what was known as the Lombard League for defense. Under the pressure of German oppression they now began a careful study of the known Roman law in an effort to discover some charter, edict, or grant of power upon which they could base their claim for independent legal rights. The result was that the study of Roman law was given an emphasis unknown in Italy since the days of the old Empire. What had been preserved during the period of disorder at last came to be understood, additional books of the law were discovered, and men suddenly awoke to a realization that what had been before considered as of little value actually contained much that was worth studying, as well as many principles of importance that were applicable to the conditions and problems of the time.

 

[Illustration: FIG. 55. FRAGMENT FROM THE RECOVERED “DIGEST” OF JUSTINIAN

Capitals and small letters are here used, but note the difficulty of reading without spacing or punctuation.]

 

The great student and teacher of law of the period was Irnerius of Bologna (c. 1070-1137), who began to lecture on the Code and the Institutes of Justinian about 1110 to 1115, and soon attracted large numbers of students to hear his interpretations. About this same time the Digest, much the largest and most important part of the old law, was discovered and made known. [17]

 

This gave clearness to the whole, as before its discovery the study of Roman law was like the study of Aristotle when only parts of the Organon

were known. Irnerius and his co-laborers at Bologna now collected and arranged the entire body of Roman civil law (Corpus Juris Civilis) (R.

93), introduced the Digest to western Europe, and thus made a new contribution of first importance to the list of possible higher studies.

Law now ceased to be a part of Rhetoric (p. 157) and became a new subject of study, with a body of material large enough to occupy a student for several years. This was an event of great intellectual significance. A new study was now evolved which offered great possibilities for intellectual activity and the exercise of the critical faculty, while at the same time showing veneration for authority. Law was thus placed alongside Theology as a professional subject,