Germany had no lack of schools and universities, but it can scarcely be
said that they did more than serve as a preparation for the entrance of
the Renaissance movement. During the fifteenth century all the
Universities were under the influence of the Church, and Scholasticism
prescribed the methods of study. Very little of the New Learning was
allowed to enter. It is true that if Köln and perhaps Ingolstadt be
excepted, the Scholastic which was taught represented what were supposed
to be the more advanced opinions—those of John Duns Scotus, William of
Occam, and Gabriel Biel, rather than the learning of Thomas Aquinas and
other great defenders of papal traditions; but it lent itself as
thoroughly as did the older Scholastic to the discussion of all kinds of
verbal and logical subtleties. Knowledge of every kind was discussed under
formulæ and phrases sanctioned by long scholastic use. It is impossible to
describe the minute distinctions and the intricate reasoning based upon
them without exceeding the space at our disposal. It is enough to say that
the prevailing course of study furnished an imposing framework without
much solid content, and provided an intellectual gymnastic without much
real knowledge. A survival can be seen in the Formal Logic still taught.
The quantity of misspent ingenuity called forth to produce the figures and
moods, and bestowed on discovering and arranging all possible moods under
each figure and in providing all with mnemonic names,—_Barbara, Celarent,
Darii, Ferioque prioris_, etc.,—affords some insight into the scholastic
methods in use in these universities of the fifteenth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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