It systematized Church doctrines, and lib

phy from theology

subtopics. After the problem has been stated, first the arguments and authorities for the various solutions other than the orthodox one are given and refuted in regular order, then the proper solution with its arguments is set forth, and finally, the different objections to it are answered in a similarly systematic way. Peter the Lombard's work has a like arrangement.

Its Value and Influence. As a whole, the work of scholastic education has been underestimated. It has been urged that it ruined all spiritual realities by its exerated philoso- treme systemization of religion, that it dealt with mere abstractions, and that it indulged in over-subtle distinctions and verbal quibbles. But the scholastic arguments were not as purposeless or absurd as they seem. For example, the celebrated inquiry of Aquinas as to the number of angels that could stand on the point of a needle is simply an attempt to present the nature of the Infinite in concrete form. It is the characteristic of reasoning beings to analyze, compare, abstract, and classify, and while scholasticism may have carried its abstractions, hairsplittings, and scientific terminology to an extreme, it performed a great service for knowledge. It found a confused mass of traditional and irrational doctrines and practices, made them systematic, rational, and scientific, and greatly assisted accuracy in thinking. The discussions of the schoolmen resulted in liberating philosophy from theology, and, without intending it perhaps, scholastic education aided the cause of human reason against dogmatism and absolute authority. It greatly stimulated intellectual interests, produced the most acute and subtle minds of the age, and helped to prepare the way for the Renaissance.

Fig. 9.-The temple of wisdom.

An allegorical representation of the medieval course of study reproduced from the Margarita Philosophica of Gregorius Reisch, Freiburg, 1504. Donatus (elementary grammar) on the first floor; Priscian (advanced grammar) on second; Aristotle (logic), Cicero (rhetoric), and Boethius (arithmetic) on the third; Pythagoras (music), Euclid (geometry), and Ptolemy (astronomy) on the fourth; Pliny (natural history) and Seneca (ethics) on the fifth; and Peter the Lombard (theology) on top.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Graves, During the Transition (Macmillan, 1910), chap. VI; Monroe, Text-book (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 292-313. For a good account of all The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages (Hodder, London, 1881), see the work of Townsend, W. J.; for the beginnings of scholasticism, Mullinger, J. B., The University of Cambridge (Longmans, Green, 1888), vol. I, pp. 47-64; for the life and influence of Abelard, Compayré, G., Abelard (Scribner, 1893), chap. I; McCabe, J., Abelard (Putnam, 1901); and Rashdall, H., The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1895), vol. I, chap. II.

CHAPTER IX

THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITIES

OUTLINE

Universities began to spring up toward the close of the Middle Ages. Through local conditions, a course in medicine arose at Salerno; in civil and canon law at Bologna; and in theology at Paris. Bologna became the pattern for numerous universities in the South; and Paris for many in the North.

Popes and sovereigns granted privileges by charter to the various universities. The term 'university' originally signified a 'corporation' of students and teachers, and the students were usually grouped according to 'nations.' The teaching body was divided into four or five 'faculties.'

The course in arts included the seven liberal arts and portions of Aristotle; in civil and canon law, the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian and the Decree of Gratian respectively; in medicine, the treatises of Greek and other medical writers; and in theology, mostly the Sententia of Peter the Lombard. The texts were read and explained by the lecturers, and a practical training in debate was furnished.

While the courses and methods were narrow and formal, the mediæval university contained the germ of modern inquiry and did much to foster independence of thought and action.

The Rise of Universities.-A most important effect upon subsequent education came through the foundation of the medieval universities. These institutions grew out of the old cathedral and monastic schools, but found their models largely in the liberal and pro