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Evolution and

trivium and

whose educational scheme included a higher group of studies, consisting of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy; and during the later days of Greece and Rome these 'liberal' subjects of Plato were combined with the 'practical' studies of the sophists,-grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. These 'seven liberal arts' were definitely fixed during the fifth and sixth centuries A. D., through several treatises by such writers as Martianus scope of the Capella, Boëthius, and Cassiodorus; and the grammar, quadrivium. rhetoric, and dialectic eventually became classed as the trivium or lower studies, and the arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy as the quadrivium or higher (Fig. 9). While this curriculum was not a broad one; the scope was much wider than would be supposed. 'Grammar' was an introduction to literature, 'rhetoric' included some knowledge of law and history, 'dialectic' paved the way for metaphysics, 'arithmetic' extended beyond mere calculation, 'geometry' embraced geography and surveying, 'music' covered a broad course in theory, and 'astronomy' comprehended some physics and advanced mathematics.

The Methods and Texts.-The general method of teaching in the monastic schools was that of question and answer. As copies of the various books were scarce, the instructor often resorted to dictation, explaining the meaning as he read, and the pupils took the passage Dictation and down upon tablets and committed it. The reading memorizing. books preparatory to the study of literature, many of which are still extant, were generally arranged by each teacher, and careful attention was given to the etymological and literary study of the authors to be read. As to texts, the leading works upon grammar were at first

Priscian,

Donatus and the elementary work of Donatus (fourth century) and the more advanced treatise of Priscian (sixth century), but by the thirteenth century there had sprung up a series of simplified grammars, which, for the sake of memorizing, were often written in verse. As rhetoric was no longer much concerned with declamation, Cicero and Quintilian were rarely used as texts, but various mediæval treatises upon official letters, legal documents, and forms came into use. Dialectic was studied through translations of the Organon of Aristotle, Euclid furnished Boëthius, and the text on geometry, the works of Boëthius were generPtolemy.

Aristotle,

Euclid,

Maintenance of classical

education.

ally used for arithmetic and music, and in astronomy adaptations of the treatises of Aristotle and Ptolemy became the texts.

Effect upon Civilization of the Monastic Schools.Thus monasticism accomplished not a little for civilization. While the works produced in the monasteries were literature and uncritical and superstitious, they compose most of our historical documents and sources in the Middle Ages. And, although monastic schools were decidedly hostile to classical literature as representing the temptations of the world, and at all times their rigid orthodoxy prevented every possibility of science and the development of individualism, they, together with the cathedral schools, preserved a considerable amount of GræcoRoman culture. Without the cathedral and monastic schools, the Latin and Greek manuscripts and learning could scarcely have survived and have been available at the Renaissance.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Graves, History of Education during the Middle Ages and the Transition to Modern Times (Macmillan, 1910), chaps. I-II; Monroe, Text-book (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 243-274. For the evolution of the ascetic life, see Lecky, History of European Morals (Appleton, 1869), vol. II, pp. 101-274; for the development of monasticism, Taylor, H. O., The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages (Macmillan, 1913), chap. VII, and Wishart, A. W., A Short History of Monks and Monasticism (Brandt, Trenton, 1902). The contribution of Irish monasticism is shown in Healy, J., Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum (Sealy, Dublin, 1897), and Zimmer, H., The Irish Element in Medieval Culture (Putnam, 1891). Succinct articles on Abbey Schools, Bishop's Schools, Church Schools, and Cloister Schools by Leach, A. F. (Monroe Cyclopædia of Education, vols. I and II), furnish the most accurate ideas of monastic education as far as it is known. An account of the monastic libraries is given in Clark, J. W., Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Monasteries (Macmillan and Bowes, Cambridge, 1894), and Putnam, G. H., Books and Their Makers during the Middle Ages (Putnam, 1896). The best account of The Seven Liberal Arts in English is that by Abelson, P. (Columbia University, Teachers College Contributions, No. 11, 1906).

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