The History of Education: Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western CivilizationCubberley, Ellwood Patterson
History
The History of Education: Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization
Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson
Education -- History
THE CHIVALRIC IDEALS. Such, briefly stated, was the education of chivalry.
The cathedral and monastery schools not meeting the needs of the nobility,
the castle school was evolved. There was little that was intellectual
about the training given--few books, and no training in Latin. Instead,
the native language was emphasized, and squires in England frequently
learned to speak French. It was essentially an education for secular ends,
and prepared not only for active participation in the feuds and warfare of
the time, but also for the Seven Perfections of the Middle Ages: (1)
Riding, (2) Swimming, (3) Archery, (4) Fencing, (5) Hunting, (6) Whist or
Chess, and (7) Rhyming. It also represents the first type of schooling in
the Middle Ages designed to prepare for life here, rather than hereafter.
For the nobility it was a discipline, just as the Seven Liberal Arts was a
discipline for the monks and clergy. Out of it later on was evolved the
education of a gentleman as distinct from that of a scholar.
That such training had a civilizing effect on the nobility of the time
cannot be doubted. Through it the Church exercised a restraining and
civilizing influence on a rude, quarrelsome, and impetuous people, who
resented restraints and who had no use for intellectual discipline. It
developed the ability to work together for common ends, personal loyalty,
and a sense of honor in an age when these were much-needed traits, and the
ideal of a life of regulated service in place of one of lawless
gratification was set up. What monasticism had done for the religious life
in dignifying labor and service, chivalry did for secular life. The Ten
Commandments of chivalry, (1) to pray, (2) to avoid sin, (3) to defend the
Church, (4) to protect widows and orphans, (5) to travel, (6) to wage
loyal war, (7) to fight for his Lady, (8) to defend the right, (9) to love
his God, and (10) to listen to good and true men, while not often
followed, were valuable precepts to uphold in that age and time. In the
great Crusades movement of the twelfth century the Church consecrated the
military prowess and restless energy of the nobility to her service, but
after this wave had passed chivalry became formal and stilted and rapidly
declined in importance (R. 80).
[Illustration: FIG. 49. A KNIGHT OF THE TIME OF THE FIRST CRUSADE
(From a manuscript in the British Museum)]
4. _Professional study_
As the one professional study of the entire early Middle-Age period, and
the one study which absorbed the intellectual energy of the one learned
class, the evolution of the study of Theology possesses particular
interest for us.
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