Life in the Medieval UniversityRait, Robert S. (Robert Sangster)
History
Life in the Medieval University
Rait, Robert S. (Robert Sangster)
College students -- Europe -- History; Education, Medieval; Universities and colleges -- Europe -- History
The twelfth century produced in Europe a renewal of interest and a
revival of learning, brought about partly by the influence of great
thinkers like St Anselm and Abelard, and partly by the discovery of
lost works of Aristotle. The impulse thus given to study resulted in
an increase in the numbers of students, and students were naturally
attracted to schools where masters and teachers possessed, or had left
behind them, great names. At Bologna there was a great teacher of the
Civil Law in the first quarter of the twelfth century, and a great
writer on Canon Law lived there in the middle of the same century. To
Bologna, therefore, there flocked students of law, though not of law
alone. In the schools of Paris there were great masters of philosophy
and theology to whom students crowded from all parts of Europe. Many
of the foreign students at Paris were Englishmen, and when, at the
time of Becket's quarrel with Henry II., the disputes between the
sovereigns of England and France led to the recall of English students
from the domain of their King's enemy, there grew up at Oxford a great
school or Studium, which acquired something of the fame of Paris and
Bologna. A struggle between the clerks who studied at Oxford and the
people of the town broke out at the time of John's defiance of the (p. 007)
Papacy, when the King outlawed the clergy of England, and this
struggle led to the rise of a school at Cambridge. In Italy the
institutions of the Studium at Bologna were copied at Modena, at
Reggio, at Vicenza, at Arezzo, at Padua, and elsewhere, and in 1244 or
1245 Pope Innocent IV. founded a Studium of a different constitution,
in dependence upon the Papal Court. In Spain great schools grew up at
Palencia, Salamanca, and Valladolid; in France at Montpellier,
Orleans, Angers, and Toulouse, and at Lyons and Reims. The impulse
given by Bologna and Paris was thus leading to the foundation of new
Studia or the development of old ones, for there were schools of
repute at many of the places we have mentioned before the period with
which we are now dealing (_c._ 1170-1250). It was inevitable that
there should be a rivalry among these numerous schools, a rivalry
which was accentuated as small and insignificant Studia came to claim
for themselves equality of status with their older and greater
contemporaries. Thus, in the latter half of the thirteenth century,
there arose a necessity for a definition and a restriction of the term
Studium Generale. The desirability of a definition was enhanced by the
practice of granting to ecclesiastics dispensations from residence in
their benefices for purposes of study; to prevent abuses it was
essential that such permission should be limited to a number of (p. 008)
recognised Studia Generalia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account