Education During the Medieval Times

THE CHRISTIAN ERA

The Early Middle Ages was a period of widespread missionary activity Monasteries serve as havens for those who seek a contemplative life, as repositories of learning for scholars and often as progressive farming centers

One of the great contributions of the monasteries was the preservation of the learning of the classical world and that of the church. Seeing that the ability to read Greek was quickly disappearing, the sixth-century Roman scholar Boethius, an administrator under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, determined to preserve Greek learning by translating all of Plato and Aristotle into Latin. Only Aristotle's treatises on logic were translated, and these remained the sole works of that philosopher available in the West until the twelfth century.

IN all this medieval assimilation, it was but natural that the Church should stand as the chief guide and schoolmaster of the Germanic hosts. Christianity had become the authoritative religion of the Roman world, and, through the complete organization of the Church with the Bishop of Rome as its head, its power became practically unlimited. While Christian culture and education had been greatly influenced by Greco-Roman learning, the Church had become very suspicious of this training, and in 529, by the decree of Justinian, had succeeded in having the pagan schools closed, leaving Christian education without a rival.

Cassiodorus, a contemporary of Boethius who had also served Theodoric, devoted most of his life to the collection and preservation of classical knowledge. By encouraging the monks to copy valuable manuscripts, he was instrumental in making the monasteries centers of learning. Following his example, many monasteries established scriptoria, departments concerned exclusively with copying manuscripts.

During the early Middle Ages most education took place in the monasteries. In the late sixth and seventh centuries, when the effects of the barbarian invasions were still being felt on the Continent, Irish monasteries provided a safe haven for learning. There men studied Greek and Latin, copied and preserved manuscripts, and in illuminating them produced masterpieces of art.

The medieval church became the guide, especially through its monastic schools.

MONASTICISM
Monasticism resulted in a time of moral decay from the desire of some within the Church for a deeper religious life. By the third century Roman society had become most corrupt, All hope of selfgovernment had gone, class was arrayed against class, and the privileged orders revelled in luxury and depravity.

Monasticism is one of the most fundamental institutions of Buddhism. Monks and nuns are responsible for preserving and spreading Buddhist teachings, as well as educating and guiding Buddhist lay followers.

During the 1,000 years since the mid-8th century, when the Samye Monastery in Shannan created its Excellent Buddhist Doctrine School, Buddhism gradually established its ruling position in Tibet and all monasteries made efforts to expand monastic education by encouraging disciples to follow Buddhism and spread Buddhist scripture. In this way, a monastic education system was set up.

Tibetan Buddhism ruled all thinking. "Outside the monastery, there was no school. There was no education except for Buddhist studies, and there was no teachers except lama teachers."

Students of the monastery schools, mainly monks, majored in Buddhist scriptures, but also gained some knowledge of Tibetan language, handwriting, literature and art, philosophy logic, astronomical Calendar and medicine.

Monastic education, as a form of spreading knowledge, had nurtured some intellectuals, created numerous historic books, and made some achievements in architecture, sculpture, painting, astronomical calendar and medicine and public health.

Monastic culture spread beliefs concerning "reincarnation and transmigration," and preached on the entry into the "heavenly kingdom" which is "the extremely happy world after death" to solace those living in harsh conditions. The ideology convinced people they should seek to escape from suffering in the next life. This impeded the progress of their society and the development of science and technology. As a result, Tibetan lagged far behind other nationalities in China.

Monastic institutions and missions became vehicles for the spread of literacy and culture throughout the ancient world and held an important place in promoting charitable causes, building libraries, hospitals, schools, and universities.

SCHOLASTICISM
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics (scholastics, or schoolmen) of medieval universities in Europe from about 11001500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context. It originated as an outgrowth of, and a departure from, Christian monastic schools.

The terms "scholastic" and "scholasticism" were derived from the Latin word scholasticus which means "that [which] belongs to the school." The "scholastics" were, roughly, "schoolmen."

Scholasticism places a strong emphasis on dialectical reasoning (critical thinking about problems and evaluating conflicting viewpoints) to extend knowledge by inference, and to resolve contradictions.

Early Scholasticism
The first significant renewal of learning in the West came with the Carolingian Renaissance of the Early Middle Ages.

Charlemagne, advised by Peter of Pisa and Alcuin of York, attracted the scholars of England and Ireland, and by decree in AD 787 established schools in every abbey in his empire. These schools, from which the name scholasticism is derived, became centers of medieval learning.

Johannes Scotus Eriugena, one of the founders of scholasticism, was the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period, and an outstanding philosopher in terms of originality. He had considerable familiarity with the Greek language, and translated many works into Latin, affording access to the Cappadocian Fathers and the Greek theological tradition.

The other three founders of scholasticism were the 11th century scholars Peter Abelard, Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury and Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury. Anselm is sometimes misleadingly called the "Father of scholasticism," owing to the prominence accorded to reason in his theology. Rather than establish a position by appeal to authority, he used argument to demonstrate why what he believed on authority must be so.

High Scholasticism
The early 13th century witnessed the culmination of the recovery of Greek philosophy. Schools of translation grew up in Italy and Sicily, and eventually in the rest of Europe

The universities developed in the large cities of Europe during this period, and rival clerical orders within the church began to battle for political and intellectual control over these centers of educational life. The two main orders founded in this period were the Franciscans and the Dominicans.

The Franciscans were founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209. Their leader in the middle of the century was Bonaventure, a traditionalist who supposed that reason can only discover truth when philosophy is illuminated by religious faith.

The Dominican order, a teaching order founded by St Dominic in 1215, to propagate and defend Christian doctrine, placed more emphasis on the use of reason.

Medieval Universities
Medieval university is an institution of higher learning which was established during High Middle Ages period.

These were the product of what was highest and best in the Middle Ages, and their growth is necessarily bound up with all the history and contributions of the times. The development of universities is intimately connected with that of the Empire, the Church and papacy, the older schools, and many other institutions of medieval days. They arose from the old cathedral and monastic schools; and were brought into prominence through the broadening influences of the later Middle Ages.

The first institutions generally considered to be universities were established in Italy, France, and England in the late 11th and the 12th centuries for the study of arts, law, medicine, and theology.

"The word universitas originally applied only to the scholastic guild (or guilds)that is, the corporation of students and masterswithin the studium, and it was always modified, as universitas magistrorum, or universitas scholarium, or universitas magistrorum et scholarium. In the course of time, however, probably toward the latter part of the 14th century, the term began to be used by itself, with the exclusive meaning of a self-regulating community of teachers and scholars whose corporate existence had been recognized and sanctioned by civil or ecclesiastical authority

Initially medieval universities did not have a campus. Classes were taught wherever space was available, such as churches and homes. A university was not a physical space but a collection of individuals banded together as an universitas. Soon, however, some universities began to buy or rent rooms specifically for the purposes of teaching.

CHIVALRY
The serious business of the feudal noble was fighting, and to prepare him for this, mock battles were engaged in, which eventually degenerated into a pastime and pageant.

Chivalric ethics originated chiefly in France and Spain and spread rapidly to the rest of the Continent and to England. They represented a fusion of Christian and military concepts of morality and still form the basis of gentlemanly conduct.

Noble youths became pages in the castles of other nobles at the age of 7; at 14 they trained as squires in the service of knights, learning horsemanship and military techniques, and were themselves knighted, usually at 21. The chief chivalric virtues were piety, honor, valor, courtesy, chastity, and loyalty.

Chivalry deals almost entirely with the knight and his ideal behavior. While chivalry differed somewhat in different places and from time to time, it may in general divided into two periods. Chivalry before the middle of the twelfth century may be considered that of the heroic age, during which the ideal knight was extraordinarily strong and brave, and was devoted to God, his country, and king, and that afterward an 'age of courtesy.'

The Rise of the Middle Class

In the past, historians have argued that an industrious middle-class made great fortunes in the early days of the industrial revolution and converted economic success into political power in the 1832 Reform Act.

Through education reform, schemes of civic improvement and the growth of the market, the Victorian middle class saw themselves as facilitating equality of opportunity by enabling the working classes to realise their abilities.

The Victorian middle-class is largely associated with the growth of cities and the expansion of the economy. The term was used from around the mid-eighteenth century to describe those people below the aristocracy but above the workers.

Samuel Smiles, in his best seller Self Help published in 1859, argued, along with others of his time, that individuals were responsible for their own future: men had the same characteristics and potentialities that could be maximised through hard work, perseverance, thrift, prudence and self-reliance. These ideas emphasised individuals rather than classes, morals rather than economic realities, and talked of the deserving and undeserving, the rough and the respectable, thus reducing persistent inequalities to moral rather than economic causes.

Middle-class values were carved out in the attempts to define a society based on merit rather than aristocratic privilege.

The success of the middle-classes in the Victorian period can be seen in their ability to universalise a set of principles based on individuality and progress. In moving from a society based on rank and privilege to one based on free exchange, the very idea that an individual, through hard work, thrift and self reliance, could achieve social and economic success provided an equalising principle.

THANK YOU!! =)