Читать книгу The History of Education - Ellwood Patterson Cubberley - Страница 74

THE ELEVENTH CENTURY A TURNING POINT. By the end of the eleventh century a distinct turning-point had been reached in the struggle to save civilization from perishing. From this time on it was clear that the battle had been won, and that a new Christian civilization would in time arise in western Europe. Much still remained to be done, and centuries of effort would be required, but the Church, almost for the first time in more than six hundred years, felt that it could now pause to organize and systematize its faith. The invasions and destruction of the Northmen had at last ceased, the Mohammedan conquests were over, almost the last of the Germanic tribes in Europe had settled down and had accepted Christianity, [8] and the fighting nobility of Europe were being held somewhat in restraint by the might of the Church, the "Truce of God" (R. 79), and the softening influence of chivalric education (R. 80). There were many evidences, too, by the end of the eleventh century, that the western Christian world, after the long intellectual night, was soon to awaken to a new intellectual life. The twelfth century, in particular, was a period when it was evident that some new leaven was at work.

Up to about the close of the eleventh century western Europe had been living in an age of simple faith. The Christian world everywhere lay under "a veil of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession." The mysteries of Christianity and the many inconsistencies of its teachings and beliefs were accepted with childlike docility, and the Church had felt little call to organize, to systematize, or to explain. Here and there, to be sure, some questioning monk or cleric had raised questions over matters [9] of faith which his reason could not explain, and had, perhaps, for a time disturbed the peace of orthodoxy, but a statement somewhat similar to that made by Anselm of Canterbury (footnote, p. 173), as to the precedence of faith over reason, had usually been sufficient to silence all inquiry. Once, in the latter part of the eleventh century, when a great discussion as to the nature of knowledge had taken place among the leaders of the Church, a church council had been called to pass upon and give final settlement to the questions raised. [10]

RISE OF THE SPIRIT OF INQUIRY. As the cathedral schools grew in importance as teaching institutions, and came to have many teachers and students, a few of them became noted as places where good instruction was imparted and great teachers were to be found. Canterbury in England, Paris and Chartres in France, and several of the cities in northern Italy early were noted for the quality of their instruction. The great teachers and the keenest students of the time were to be found in the cathedral schools in these places, and the monastic schools now lost their earlier importance as teaching institutions. By the twelfth century they had been completely superseded as important teaching centers by the rapidly developing cathedral schools. To these more important cathedral schools students now came from long distances to study under some noted teacher. Says McCabe: [11]

The scholastic fever which was soon to influence the youth of Europe, had already set in. You could not travel far over the rough roads of France without meeting some footsore scholar, making for the nearest large monastery or cathedral town. Robbers, frequently in the service of the lord of the land, infested every province. It was safest to don the coarse frieze tunic of the pilgrim, without pockets, sling your little wax tablets and stylus at your girdle, strap a wallet of bread and herbs and salt on your back, and laugh at the nervous folk who peeped out from their coaches over a hedge of pikes and daggers. Few monasteries refused a meal or a rough bed to the wandering scholar. Rarely was any fee exacted for the lesson given.

The cathedral school in connection with the church of Notre Dame [12] became especially famous for its teachers of the Liberal Arts (particularly Dialectic) and of Theology, and to this school, just as the eleventh century was drawing to a close, came a youth, then barely twenty years of age, who is generally regarded as having been the keenest scholar of the twelfth century. His brilliant intellect soon enabled him to refute the instruction of his teachers and to vanquish them in debate. His name was Abelard. Before long he himself became a teacher of Grammar and Logic at Paris, and later of Theology, and, so widely had he read, so clearly did he appeal to the reason of his hearers, and so incisive was his teaching, that he attracted large numbers of students to his lectures. To assist in his teaching of Theology he prepared a little textbook, Sic et Non (Yea and Nay), in which he raised for debate many questions as to church teachings (R. 91 b), such as "That faith is based on reason, or not." In the introduction to this textbook he held that "constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom" (R. 91 a). His method was to give the authorities on both sides, but to render no decision. His boldness in raising such questions for debate was new, and his failure to give the students a decision was quite unusual, while his claim that reason was antecedent to faith was startling. Even after being driven from Paris, in part because of this boldness and in part because of a most unfortunate incident which deservedly ruined his career in the Church, students in numbers followed him to his retreat and listened to his teachings. His method of instruction was for the time so unusual and his spirit of inquiry so searching that he stimulated many a young mind to a new type of thinking. One of his pupils was Peter the Lombard (p. 171), who completely redirected the teaching of theology with his Book of Sentences (c. 1145)—This was based largely on Abelard's method, except that a positive and orthodox decision was presented for each question raised.

[Illustration: FIG. 53. THE CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME, AT PARIS The present cathedral was begun in 1163, consecrated in 1182, and completed in the thirteenth century. It is built on an island in the Seine, and on the site of a church built in the fourth century. The little community which grew up about the cathedral church formed the nucleus about which the city of Paris eventually grew. This cathedral front, with its statues and beautiful carving, formed a type much followed during the great period of cathedral-building (thirteenth century) in Europe. The school in connection with this cathedral early became famous.]

What took place at Paris also took place, though generally on a smaller scale, at many other cathedral and monastery schools of western Europe. The spirit of inquiry had at last been awakened, the Church was being respectfully challenged by its children to prove its faith, and the learning of the Saracens in Spain, which now began to filter across the Pyrenees, added to the strength of their challenge. Returning pilgrims and crusaders (First Crusade, 1099) also began to ask for an explanation of the doubts which had come to them from the contact with Greek and Arab in the 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.