Warning: Very very, boring post to follow. This is for my mom, who wanted to read my paper. Read no further in less you are interested in the 12th century university in Europe, or are very bored right now.
The Medieval University: Cultural Landmark
The history of the first universities of Europe began in a time of cultural obscurity. The Dark Ages of European history are so named because of the relatively great amount of mystery surrounding the society of the sixth and seventh centuries. Following the collapse of the Roman empire in Europe, the countries lost a great deal of the Roman advancements and sophistication they had benefited from, and their culture and way of life changed significantly. It was not until the beginning of the twelfth century that Europe began to regain the richness of society and sophistication that they had lost with the fall of Rome. These developments came gradually and many of them came through education.
According to historian H. Rashdall, the seventh century was one of the darkest times in European intellectual history. He claims that much of the Roman civilization survived only through it is association with the Christian Church. Before Rome lost its empire it gained the Christian faith, and this faith remained after the political power of Rome had gone. The cultural climate of the sixth and seventh centuries was such that anything that was not, as Rashdall says, “obviously and immediately useful was doomed to extinction” (30). The church was able to maintain some semblance of Roman culture because Christianity was able to “widen the limits of utility”, thus maintaining more of the Roman culture through its customs, theologians, and books (31).
Because of the religious nature of those who were interested in learning as well as those capable of teaching, education was done mostly, and most significantly by monasteries, while some work and instruction was done at cathedrals. Towards the end of the dark ages, it was the Benedictine monasteries that provided almost the only places of learning (Rashdall, 28).
It was also the monastery schools that first opened their doors to non-monastic students. At the beginning of the ninth century, all schools with more than local importance were monastic. (Rashdall 30) Though their instruction was open to the public, most of their teaching was with the intention of educating those who were devoting their life to the ministry, such as curates or future monks, thus, though education was becoming more common, it was still mainly religious (Southern, 3).
It was not until approximately the year 1100 when education in Europe began to significantly develop and change into a much more modern structure. Several of the historians referenced in this paper refer to the year 1100 as a main turning point in educational development and they do this for several reasons. Firstly, a new kind of theology was being established and used. The development of scholastic theology by men such as Abelard had a profound effect on the education of the time. The theologian and teacher Abelard, “embodied the spirit of the age” (43) according to Rashdall, and was one of the most famous independent tutors in Europe according to Walter Ruegg (6). The scholastic combination of theology with logic and Aristotelian philosophy reintroduced some of the lost Roman knowledge and values while baptizing their work in the currently dominant Christian faith.
This “renaissance of the twelfth century” began in very much the same way as that of the fifteenth did; with a renewed interest in literature (Rashdall 60). Scholastic theologians used Aristotle’s rigorous logic and analytic method to explain and explore their Christian faith. It was this combination, according to Rashdall, that paved the way for the medieval university and the renaissance of learning (44). Abelard and his contemporaries in the twelfth century embodied the old ideals of the Romans and Greeks, and strove to use their logic and rhetoric to further their Christian cause.
The rediscovering of Roman and Greek work soon trickled down from the top scholars of the day to the monastic schools. The schools developed a curriculum of logic, arithmetic, and theology and they began to teach the art of rhetoric alongside the biblical training they had maintained for centuries (Rashdall 32).
The rediscovered importance of their ancient heritage was only one of many reasons why the middle ages fostered a new surge of educational interest. The church was thriving alongside its schools, and the need for new curates encouraged the church to invest in their education; they needed literate candidates to fill the new places in the growing institution (Southern 2). As the twelfth century progressed, the renewed interest in learning caused a surge of potential students, and raised the demand for tutors and places of learning (1). Rashdall confirms that after the year 1000 the recurrence of culture and education began to be indicated by the number of students thronging to schools (32).
As education became more and more desirable to the population and independent tutors more numerous, churches began to request that their recruits have previous education before entering into a position within the church. This allowed them to spend less of their time teaching, and provided a job for tutors who weren’t already monks or vicars. Southern says, “In the past [the church] educated its own recruits, but they were abandoning this and only accepting those who had been educated in secular schools” (Southern 3).
This transition between the popular monastery schools to private and secular tutors is what historians such as Southern view as an initial step towards the medieval university. It was, in many ways, the beginning of “secular” universities, if they can be called that (as they still very much relied on the support and approval of the church for centuries to come), teaching much more than theology for priests.
Along with this shift in educational priorities and practices, the social and political climate of the European landscape was just right for the development of the university in the twelfth century. The western world at large was becoming a little more secure, more enlightened. Between the civilization and Christianization of the Norman conquerors of Britain, and the enlightened reign of the Ottos in Germany, Rashdall believes that Europe was becoming a safer place to live in and study (34). He says, “Order and peace, leisure and security are the most indispensable conditions of intellectual activity” (32); and these conditions were being established in Europe to a greater degree, allowing the scholars to focus on their work and instruction.
The political and cultural situation was one which allowed the universities to develop, but there still must have been a proactive cause behind their establishment. Many enlightenment-influenced thinkers such as the nineteenth century historian C. Meiner attributed the foundation of the university to, “a manifestation of the powerful progress of spirit”. He believed it was through the great increase of scholars and teachers in the middle ages and the successful struggle for the recognition of their rights and privileges that the university developed. According to some, these liberties and privileges could have initially been associations of students in Bologna and groups of students and professors together in Paris that were granted particular “liberties” that then turned into the stadium generale, which became the medieval university ( Ruegg 5).
Ruegg believes that the university began because of the landscape it was placed into. “The new social institution, the university, could have arisen only in the particular economic, political, and social circumstances obtaining in certain cities in the Middle Ages” (11). Not only did they reflect a rediscovered passion for learning and education, universities such as Oxford forwarded the personal agendas of the parties in power, both in the church and government. According to Ruegg, the Popes and church authorities wanted, “rationally intelligible doctrine that could stand up against the varied religious orders and to help wage the battle against the many heresies” (15-16), and the universities were exactly where they could train and find the scholars they needed. The kings on the other hand, liked the universities because it gave their subjects the opportunity to study law and ethics, and they expected their university graduates to be an asset in the administration of government (17). Ralph Evans dates the establishment of the three major universities at Bologna, Paris, and Oxford to approximately 1200, approximately two hundred years after Rashdall indicated a change in educational value (Evans’ lecture).
Though each of the three initial universities began a little differently, it is helpful to trace the history of at least one specifically to understand the development of this new form of education in a particular situation. Since Oxford is where we are, it shall be what we study as one of the first established universities.
Rashdall writes that there is no evidence that any town of Oxford existed before the year 721, when a group of nuns in the order of St. Frideswide began a convent there. The house they inhabited was supposedly on the grounds of the current Christ Church. The first actual notice of “Oxeneford” however, does not appear until 912. According to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, it was in that year that Edward the Elder “took possession of London and Oxford” (2).
Because of its obscure beginnings, many historians have wondered why a university was started in Oxford in the first place. According to Gordon Leff, Oxford’s greatest initial quality was location. It was the meeting place of many major roads, going to almost all the important cities, and Henry II built a castle a few miles from the town in Woodstock, making it even more convenient for the monarch and his court to come to Oxford (77).
Rashdall, also stresses the importance of geography to Oxford’s development. Though ecclesiastically insignificant, it was a great meeting place for government officials, and was right on the border of Wessex and Mercia, the two most important of the southern kingdoms. It was also relatively close to London, and central enough to be convenient for students coming from the north. Its other significant advantage was its location on the major aquatic thoroughfare, the Thames river . “In short,” says, Rashdall, “Oxford must be content to accept its academic position as an accident of its convenient situation” (9).
This presence of the court and other governing officials is one of the reasons why Oxford became a university, according to Ruegg. Oxford was established as seat of the royal administration and ecclesiastical courts in the 1150’s. This position brought with it wealthy lawyers willing to teach. Within a decade the Oxford school of Law attracted students from all over the country and from the continent. This encouraged one of the best known theologians of the time, Alexander Neckman, to teach at Oxford, and soon others like him. According to this theory, Oxford developed out of collection of private law schools, which explains another of the mysteries of Oxford’s seemingly random development (Ruegg 10).
Oxford is unusual in that it has its origin is seemingly independent of the normal ecclesiastical establishments that produce great places of learning. Oxford had no cathedral or great monastery that the university could have sprung from, as its original location was near to the parish church of St. Mary’s, not St. Frideswides monastery (Evans). Ruegg’s idea of Oxford laying its foundation as a law school makes the absence of a great cathedral or monastic school les mystifying.
Historians such as Rashdall and Leff also believe the school’s development was dramatically increased by a political feud. When Henry II forbade English scholars to work in France in 1167 (during the time of his intense feud with his former friend Thomas Beckett (Schama)), Rashdall claims a university was bound to develop in England. Though neither man is sure why the displaced scholars chose Oxford (perhaps it was the established school of law from Ruegg’s theory), Rashdall says that the course of history proves that Oxford was the place chosen by many (Leff 77, Rashdall 9).
Oxford is a good example of a university that was established because of the ideals and advancements of the age, but it also demonstrates the personal and particular nature of the three original universities’ position in their society. Oxford was not just medieval, it was established and increased because of how well it fit into the local landscape and political workings of England.
Rashdall claims that the medieval university, as is the case with all such institutions, is the reflection of the ideals of its society. “Ideals pass into great historical forces by embodying themselves in institutions” (28). If great institutions are the manifestation of the ideas of the culture that produced them, then there are few better examples of this than the medieval university. The universities on the continent and at Oxford demonstrated the particular aspects of political and social change, in the twelfth century as well as the greater, longer lasting ideals of education and enlightenment that have remained throughout European history.
