Education in England in the Middle Ages Part 18

"On feast days, the masters celebrate a.s.semblies at the churches, _en fete_. The scholars hold disputations, some declaiming, others by way of question and answer. These roll out euthymemes, these use the better form of perfect syllogisms. Some dispute merely for show as they do at collections; others for truth, which is the grace of perfection. The sophists using the Socratic irony are p.r.o.nounced happy because of the ma.s.s and volume of their words; others play upon words. Those learning rhetoric, with rhetorical speeches, speak to the point with a view to persuasion, being careful to observe the precepts of their art, and to leave out nothing that belongs to it.

The boys of the different schools vie with each other in verses; or dispute; or dispute on the principles of grammar, or the rules of preterites and supines."

Fitzstephen concludes with a quotation from Persius:--

"multum ridere parati Ingeminant tremulos naso crispante cachinnos."[708]

We may also note, from the same work, the reference which Fitzstephen gives to the education of Beckett. He tells us that the future archbishop was first brought up "in religiosa domo canonicorum Meritoniae," then he pa.s.sed the years of "infantiae, pueritiae, et p.u.b.ertatis" in the home of his father and "in scholis urbis." When he became a young man, Thomas proceeded to Paris to study.[709]

These accounts we have given of the education of John of Salisbury, Alexander Neckham, and Thomas a Beckett are noteworthy. They show that education in the twelfth century was much more general, and much more advanced, than we usually think. The audiences, a.s.sembled at the school festivities, were able to understand, and thoroughly to appreciate dialectical disputations carried on in Latin. So too, we learn elsewhere, that when Giraldus Cambrensis was giving addresses, he was everywhere understood when he spoke in Latin.

Taking these three accounts together, we are justified in distinguis.h.i.+ng four stages of education during the twelfth century.

I. The Grade of Elementary Instruction.--At this stage, the children would learn from the horn book and primer,[710] and would also commit certain psalms to memory.

II. The Grammar Grade.--The object of the instruction at this stage would be to give the student a working knowledge of the Latin language. The chief grammars used were those of Donatus and Priscian; these would be supplemented by a study of various compilations of proverbs, fables, and dialogues, _e.g._ Cato's "Distichs." Song was studied concurrently with grammar.

III. The Logic Grade.--This would be the study of the boys who had made satisfactory progress with grammar. It consisted of formal logic only. The writings of Boethius were the sources from which the early Middle Ages drew their knowledge of logic.

IV. The University Grade.--This term we use to denote the advanced studies of the period, whether pursued at Paris or Oxford, or at any other famous centre of intellectual activity. The examples we have given, of the studies carried on by John of Salisbury and Alexander Neckham, will serve to ill.u.s.trate the character of the work which was being done at this stage.

In the thirteenth century the only educational reference which throws light on the school curriculum, outside the university of Oxford, which we have been able to trace, is an extract from the Chapter Act Book of Southwell Minster, which states that, in 1248, "non teneantur Scole de Grammatica vel Logica infra prebendas Canonicorum, nisi secundum consuetudinem Ebor."[711] This pa.s.sage serves to ill.u.s.trate the continued existence of the three grades of educational instruction we have enumerated.

The statutes of Merton College, Oxford, which date from the thirteenth century, refer to the study of grammar, which is to be undertaken both by the scholars and the boys. The grammarian is to talk Latin with the boys whenever it shall be to their benefit, or he may talk to them in "idiomate vulgari" (_i.e._ French). The same chapter gives the studies of the scholars as consisting of "arts, philosophy, canon law, or theology."

Further insight into the conditions of medieval education can be obtained from a study of some of the writings of Roger Bacon. Of his life scarcely anything is known: "Born, studied at Oxford, went to Paris, studied, experimented; is at Oxford again, and a Franciscan; studies, teaches, becomes suspect to his Order, is sent back to Paris, kept under surveillance, receives a letter from the Pope, writes, writes, writes--his three best-known works; is again in trouble, confined for many years, released and dead, so very dead, body and fame alike, until partly unearthed after five centuries."[712]

Whilst at Oxford, Bacon studied under two teachers whose names he gives--Robert Grosseteste, who "knew the sciences better than any other man,"[713] and Adam Marsh, whom he links with Grosseteste as "perfect in divine and human wisdom." From Oxford Bacon went to Paris, where he not only continued his studies but also engaged in teaching. He writes, "I caused youth to be instructed in languages and geometric figures, in numbers and tables and instruments, and many needful matters."[714]

Interest in education was apparently spreading about this time. "Never,"

writes Bacon, "has there been such a show of wisdom, nor such prosecution of study through so many regions as in the last forty years. Doctors are spread everywhere, especially in theology, in every city, castle, and burgh, chiefly through the two student orders."[715] In spite of this general interest Bacon complains that "never was there so much ignorance and so much error." Four causes are enumerated by him to account for this ignorance--"the example of frail and unworthy authority, long established custom, the sense of the ignorant crowd and the hiding of one's own ignorance under the show of Wisdom."[716] The fourth cause, especially, is arraigned by Bacon: "This is a lone and savage beast, which devours and destroys all reason--this desire of seeming wise, with which every man is born."

In addition to this general attack upon the causes of the prevalent ignorance, Bacon specifies seven distinct charges against the teachers of his day.[717]

(1) Though theology is the queen of the sciences, yet philosophy is allowed to dominate.

(2) Theologians do not study sufficiently the "best sciences." By the "best sciences," Bacon meant "the grammar of the foreign tongues, from which all theology comes. Of even more value are mathematics, optics, moral sciences, experimental science, and alchemy." The "common sciences"

(scientiae viles) include "grammar, logic, natural philosophy in its baser part, and a certain side of metaphysic."

(3) Scholars are ignorant of Greek and Hebrew and Arabic, and consequently they are ignorant of what is contained in the books written in these languages.

(4) They lecture on the "Sentences" of Peter Lombard, instead of on the text of Scripture.

(5) The copy of the Vulgate Scripture at Paris is very corrupt.

(6) Through the corrupt condition of the text, both the literal interpretation and the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture is full of error.

The text of the _Opus Minus_ is broken off at this point, so that no information is forthcoming as to the seventh criticism that Bacon desired to offer.[718]

In order to remedy the educational shortcomings, Bacon suggests additions to the usual subjects of study. Special attention, he thinks, should be paid to languages, particularly to Latin and Greek; in addition, Bacon was anxious that Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic should be studied. It is noteworthy that Bacon desired these languages to be studied for the sake of their knowledge-matter, and not for the literature they embodied. Next to languages, Bacon placed the study of mathematics. "I hold mathematics necessary in the second place, to the end that we may know what may be known. It is not planted in us by nature, yet is closest to inborn knowledge, of all the sciences which we know through discovery and learning. For its study is easier than all other sciences, and boys learn its branches easily. Besides, the laity can make diagrams, and calculate and sing, and use musical instruments. These are the 'opera' of mathematics."[719]

From Bacon we learn something of the difficulties with which the medieval scholar had to contend. Among other things, he complains of the indifferent value of the translations, through whose aid alone knowledge was possible. "Though we have numerous translations of all the sciences ... there is such an utter falsity in all their writings that none can sufficiently wonder at it."[720] The scarcity of books placed a great obstacle in the way of those who wished to profit by them. "The scientific books of Aristotle, of Avicenna, of Seneca, of Cicero, and other ancients, cannot be had except at great cost; their princ.i.p.al works have not been translated into Latin, and copies of others are not to be found in ordinary libraries or elsewhere."[721] The scarcity of competent teachers, especially in mathematics, still further intensified the difficulties. "Without mathematics, nothing worth knowing in philosophy can be attained. And, therefore, it is indispensable that good mathematicians be had, who are very scarce. Nor can any obtain their services, especially the best of them, except it be the pope or some great prince."[722] Moreover, there was the scarcity and the expense of obtaining the necessary scientific apparatus: "without mathematical instruments no science can be mastered; and these instruments are not to be found among the Latins, and could not be made for 200 or 300. And besides, better tables are indispensable requisites, for although the certifying of the tables is done by instruments, yet this cannot be accomplished unless there be an immense number of instruments."[723] The question of expense is a matter that Bacon frequently refers to, as he found that inability to meet the expenditure necessary for the work he desired to carry out effectually checked the projects he had in his mind.

"I know how to proceed," he writes, "and with what means, and what are the impediments; but I cannot go on for lack of the necessary funds. Through the twenty years in which I laboured specially in the study of wisdom, careless of the crowd's opinion, I spent more than two thousand pounds on occult books and various experiments and languages and instruments and tables and other things."[724]

Details are also available of the curriculum for the bachelors who were to determine at Oxford in 1267. This included:--

_Logic._ The bachelors "shall swear on the gospels that they have gone through all the books of the old Logic in lectures at least twice, except Boethius, for which one hearing is enough, and the Fourth Book of Boethius' Topics, which they are not bound to hear at all; in the new Logic, the book of Prior a.n.a.lytics, Topics and Fallacies twice; but the book of Posterior a.n.a.lytics, they shall swear that they have heard at least once."

_Grammar._ Priscian and Donatus.

_Natural Philosophy._ "De Anima, De Generatione et Corruptione."[725]

For the fourteenth century we have the writings of Chaucer, which serve to throw some light upon what was taught in the schools. He tells us of:--

"A litel scole of Cristen folk ther stood Doun at the ferther ende, in which ther were Children an heep, y comen of Christen blood That lerned in that scole yeer by yeer, Swich maner doctrine as men used there, That is to seyn, to singen and to rede, As smale children doon in hir childhede."[726]

Among these children, he describes a "widwes sone, a lytel clergeon, seven yeer of age" who had been taught by a pious mother to kneel down and say an "Ave Marie" whenever he saw "th' image of Cristes moder." The little boy heard his elders singing the "Alma redemptoris," and asked one of them to "expounden this song in his langage, or telle him why this song was in usage." The older boy explains that it was sung in honour of the Mother of Christ, "Hir to salue and eek hir for to preye." However, he could tell his questioner little more.

"I can no more expounde in this matere; I lerne song, I can but smal grammere,"

_i.e._ he was learning how to read and sing, but his knowledge of Latin was slight.

These extracts from Chaucer enable us to see that schools were common at this time, and that the curriculum of the schools consisted of Latin reading, of song, and, for those who showed apt.i.tude, a further study of Latin grammar.

Chaucer also describes for us:--

"A clerk ther was of Oxenford also, That unto logik hadde longe y go,"

but the only information we glean of the academic studies of this clerk was, that he had,

"at his beddes heed, Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed, Of Aristotle and his philosophye."[727]

At the close of the fourteenth century, the statutes of New College, Oxford, which were also partly those of Winchester College, give us the curriculum of the time. The university scholars were to study Theology, Canon and Civil Law, Arts, and Philosophy; the choristers were to be taught to read and sing; this is subsequently explained to mean "reading, plain song and old Donatus." The "pauperes scholares" of Winchester were expected to be proficient in grammar.[728]

From this time onwards we begin to get fuller particulars of the school curriculum. Hence it is only necessary for us to quote representative examples.

I. IPSWICH.

Some particulars of the curriculum of a grammar school may be gleaned from an extract from an entry in the Ipswich Court Book of 1476-7. It runs:--

"The grammar master shall henceforth have the jurisdiction and governaunce of all scholars within the liberty and precinct of this town, except only petties called "Apeseyes" and song, taking for his salary from each grammar scholar, psalter scholar, and primer scholar, according to the tariff fixed by the Bishop of Norwich, viz. for each grammarian 10d., psalterian 8d., and primerian 6d. a quarter."[729]

This extract brings out four grades of instruction.

1. The petties or infants, consisting of those who learnt the A B C.[730]

2. Those who were studying a primer.[731]