=The Nature of Scholasticism.=--One of the movements that most tended to awaken the mediæval mind, especially during the latter part of the Middle Ages, was the development of the Church philosophy known as ‘scholasticism.’ This movement does not indicate any one set of doctrines, but is rather a general designation for the peculiar methods and tendencies of philosophic speculation that became prominent within the Church in the eleventh century, came to their height during the twelfth and thirteenth, and declined rapidly the following century. The name is derived from _doctor scholasticus_, which was the title given during the mediæval period to the authorized teachers in a monastic or episcopal school, for it was among these ‘schoolmen’ that the movement started and developed. Its most striking characteristics are the narrowness of its field and the thoroughness with which it was worked. [Sidenote: Anselm] [Sidenote: and Abelard.] =The History of Scholastic Development.=--The history of scholasticism belongs properly to the field of philosophy, but its influence in bringing on the Renaissance and its effect upon education make a brief consideration of its development necessary here. It began as an effort to vanquish heresy in the interest of the Church dogmas, which until late in the Middle Ages it had not generally been necessary to explain. Even then it was assumed that the Church was in possession of all final truth, which had come to it by Divine revelation, and was in harmony with reason, when fully understood. It was, therefore, the aim of the earlier schoolmen to show how these doctrines were consistent with each other and in accordance with reason. At first, as with Anselm (1033-1109), it was held that faith must precede reason, and where reason was incapable of penetrating the mysteries of revealed doctrine, it must desist from its efforts. But the conviction gradually gained ground that human reason is reliable and that truth can be reached only through investigation. Abelard (1079-1142) declared that the only justification of a doctrine is its reasonableness, that reason must precede faith, and that it is not sinful to doubt. [Sidenote: Aquinas, Scotus, and Occam.]