Medieval university

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about Western European institutions. For other early centers of higher learning, see Ancient higher-learning institutions. For an overview of medieval foundations, see List of medieval universities.
medieval Italy (1088), is the world's oldest university in continuous operation
.

A medieval university was a

arts and the higher disciplines of theology, law, and medicine.[1] These universities evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools,[2][3][4] and it is difficult to define the exact date when they became true universities, though the lists of studia generalia for higher education in Europe held by the Vatican
are a useful guide.

The word universitas originally applied only to the scholastic guilds—that is, the corporation of students and masters—within the studium, and it was always modified, as universitas magistrorum, universitas scholarium, or universitas magistrorum et scholarium. Eventually, probably in the late 14th century, the term began to appear by itself to exclusively mean a self-regulating community of teachers and scholars recognized and sanctioned by civil or ecclesiastical authority.[5]

From the

Early Modern period onward, this Western-style organizational form gradually spread from the medieval Latin West across the globe, eventually replacing all other higher-learning institutions and becoming the pre-eminent model for higher education everywhere.[6]

Antecedents

Main articles: Byzantine university, Carolingian schools, and Studium generale
Further information: Classical education and List of oldest universities in continuous operation
medieval universities in Europe

The

Europe.[7][8] For hundreds of years prior to the establishment of universities, European higher education took place in Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools (scholae monasticae), where monks and nuns taught classes.[clarification needed] Evidence of these immediate forerunners of the university at many places dates back to the 6th century AD.[2]

With the increasing growth and urbanization of European society during the 12th and 13th centuries, a demand grew for

burghers in smaller towns. As a result, cathedral schools migrated to large cities, like Bologna, Rome, and Paris
.

S. F. Alatas has noted some parallels between

Christian Europe and highlighting the differences in the structure, methodologies, procedures, curricula and legal status of the "Islamic college" (madrasa) versus the European university.[11][12][13]

Establishment

Established by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1224, the University of Naples Federico II is the world's oldest state-funded university in continuous operation.[14][15]

Hastings Rashdall set out the modern understanding[16] of the medieval origins of European universities, noting that the earliest universities emerged spontaneously as "a scholastic Guild, whether of Masters or Students... without any express authorization of King, Pope, Prince or Prelate".[17]

Among the earliest universities of this type were the

Charles University in Prague (1348), Jagiellonian University (1364), University of Vienna (1365), University of Pécs (1367), Heidelberg University, (1386) and the University of St Andrews (1413) begun as private corporations of teachers and their pupils.[18][19]

Illustration from a 16th-century manuscript showing a meeting of doctors at the University of Paris

In many cases universities petitioned secular power for privileges and this became a model. The

Frederick I in Authentica Habita (1158) gave the first privileges to students in Bologna. Another step was Pope Alexander III in 1179 "forbidding masters of the church schools to take fees for granting the license to teach (licentia docendi), and obliging them to give license to properly qualified teachers".[20] Rashdall considered that the integrity of a university was only preserved in such an internally regulated corporation, which protected the scholars from external intervention. This independently evolving organization was absent in the universities of southern Italy and Spain, which served the bureaucratic needs of monarchs—and were, according to Rashdall, their artificial creations.[21]

The University of Paris was formally recognized when Pope Gregory IX issued the bull Parens scientiarum (1231).[20] This was a revolutionary step: studium generale (university) and universitas (corporation of students or teachers) existed even before, but after the issuing of the bull, they attained autonomy. "[T]he papal bull of 1233, which stipulated that anyone admitted as a teacher in Toulouse had the right to teach everywhere without further examinations (ius ubique docendi), in time, transformed this privilege into the single most important defining characteristic of the university and made it the symbol of its institutional autonomy .... By the year 1292, even the two oldest universities, Bologna and Paris, felt the need to seek similar bulls from Pope Nicholas IV".[20]

This Mob Quad group of buildings in Merton College, Oxford was constructed in three phases and concluded in c. 1378

By the 13th century, almost half of the highest offices in the Church were occupied by degree masters (

cardinals), and over one-third of the second-highest offices were occupied by masters. In addition, some of the greatest theologians of the High Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas and Robert Grosseteste
, were products of the medieval university.

The development of the medieval university coincided with the widespread reintroduction of Aristotle from Byzantine and Arab scholars. In fact, the European university put Aristotelian and other natural science texts at the center of its curriculum,[22] with the result that the "medieval university laid far greater emphasis on science than does its modern counterpart and descendent".[23]

Although it has been assumed that the universities went into decline during the

Kepler, and Newton were all extraordinary products of the apparently Procrustean and allegedly Scholastic universities of Europe... Sociological and historical accounts of the role of the university as an institutional locus for science and as an incubator of scientific thought and arguments have been vastly understated".[24]

Characteristics

Diagrams, in a volume of treatises on natural science, philosophy, and mathematics. This 1300 manuscript is typical of the sort of book owned by medieval university students.

Initially medieval universities did not have physical facilities such as the campus of a modern university. Classes were taught wherever space was available, such as churches and homes. A university was not a physical space but a collection of individuals banded together as a universitas. Soon, however, universities began to rent, buy or construct buildings specifically for the purposes of teaching.[25]

Universities were generally structured along three types, depending on who paid the teachers. The first type was in

Catholic
institutions in England. These structural differences created other characteristics. At the Bologna university the students ran everything—a fact that often put teachers under great pressure and disadvantage. In Paris, teachers ran the school; thus Paris became the premiere spot for teachers from all over Europe. Also, in Paris the main subject matter was theology, so control of the qualifications awarded was in the hands of an external authority – the chancellor of the diocese. In Bologna, where students chose more secular studies, the main subject was law.

It was also characteristic of teachers and scholars to move around. Universities often competed to secure the best and most popular teachers, leading to the marketisation of teaching. Universities published their list of scholars to entice students to study at their institution. Students of Peter Abelard followed him to Melun, Corbeil, and Paris,[26] showing that popular teachers brought students with them.

Students

Students attended the medieval university at different ages—from 14 if they were attending Oxford or Paris to study the arts, to their 30s if they were studying law in Bologna. During this period of study, students often lived far from home and unsupervised, and as such developed a reputation, both among contemporary commentators and modern historians, for drunken debauchery. Students are frequently criticized in the Middle Ages for neglecting their studies for drinking, gambling and sleeping with prostitutes.[27] In Bologna, some of their laws permitted students to be citizens of the city if they were enrolled at a university.[28][page needed]

Course of study

A Bologna university class,1350s

University studies took six years for a

metaphysics and moral philosophy.[32]

Universitas Istropolitana, a former university building in present-day Bratislava, Slovakia

Much of medieval thought in philosophy and theology can be found in

Tractatus de sphaera.[35]

Once a Master of Arts degree had been conferred, the student could leave the university or pursue further studies in one of the higher faculties, law, medicine, or theology, the last one being the most prestigious. Originally, only few universities had a faculty of theology, because the popes wanted to control the theological studies. Until the mid-14th century, theology could be studied only at universities in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge and Rome. First the establishment of the University of Prague (1347) ended their monopoly and afterwards also other universities got the right to establish theological faculties.[36]

A popular textbook for theological study was called the Sentences (Quattuor libri sententiarum) of Peter Lombard; theology students as well as masters were required to lecture or to write extensive commentaries on this text as part of their curriculum.[37][38] Studies in the higher faculties could take up to twelve years for a master's degree or doctorate (initially the two were synonymous), though again a bachelor's and a licentiate's degree could be awarded along the way.[39][page needed]

Courses were offered according to books, not by subject or theme. For example, a course might be on a book by Aristotle, or a book from the Bible. Courses were not elective: the course offerings were set, and everyone had to take the same courses. There were, however, occasional choices as to which teacher to use.[40]

Students often entered the university at fourteen to fifteen years of age, though many were older.[41] Classes usually started at 5:00 or 6:00 a.m.

Further information:
Tenure (academic)

As students had the legal status of clerics,

Canon Law prohibited women from being admitted into universities. Students were afforded the legal protection of the clergy, as well. In this way, no one was allowed to physically harm them; they could only be tried for crimes in an ecclesiastical court, and were thus immune from any corporal punishment. This gave students free rein in urban environments to break secular laws with impunity, which led to many abuses: theft, rape, and murder. Students did not face serious consequences[42]
from the law. Students were also known to engage in drunkenness. Sometimes citizens were forbidden to interact with students because they made accusations against the university.

This led to uneasy tensions with secular authorities—the demarcation between

University of Paris strike of 1229
after a riot left a number of students dead. The university went on strike and they did not return for two years.

Most universities in Europe were recognized by the Holy See as studia generalia, testified by a papal bull. Members of these institutions were encouraged to disseminate their knowledge across Europe, often lecturing at a different studium generale. Indeed, one of the privileges the papal bull confirmed was the right to confer the ius ubique docendi, an entitlement to teach everywhere.[43]

See also

References

  1. ^ de Ridder-Symoens (1992), pp. 47–55
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-87249-376-8
    .
  3. ISBN 0-521-36105-2
    , pp. XIX–XX
  4. ^ Verger, Jacques. "The Universities and Scholasticism," in The New Cambridge Medieval History. Volume V: c. 1198–c. 1300. Cambridge University Press, 2007. p. 257.
  5. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica: History of Education. The development of the universities.
  6. ISBN 3-406-36956-1
  7. ISBN 0-521-36105-2
    .
  8. ^ Verger 1999
  9. ^ Oestreich, Thomas (1913). "Pope St. Gregory VII". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
  10. S2CID 144509355. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2017.
  11. JSTOR 1595223
    . Thus the university, as a form of social organization, was peculiar to medieval Europe. Later, it was exported to all parts of the world, including the Muslim East; and it has remained with us down to the present day. But back in the middle ages, outside of Europe, there was nothing anything quite like it anywhere.
  12. ^ The scholarship on these differences is summarized in Huff, Toby. Rise of Early Modern Science (2nd ed.). pp. 149–159, pp. 179–189.
  13. JSTOR 601679
    .
  14. ISBN 88-02-03568-7
    .
  15. ISBN 978-8880828419
    .
  16. ISSN 0926-6070
    . In his magisterial work on European universities, Hastings Rashdall [considered that] the integrity of a university is preserved only when the institution evolved into an internally regulated corporation of scholars, be they students or masters.
  17. Clarendon Press
    . pp. 17–18. Retrieved 26 February 2012. The University was originally a scholastic Guild, whether of Masters or Students. Such Guilds sprang into existence, like other Guilds, without any express authorisation of King, Pope, Prince, or Prelate. They were spontaneous products of the instinct of association that swept over the towns of Europe in the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
  18. ^ "10 of the Oldest Universities in the World". Top Universities. 16 September 2016. Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  19. ^ Seelinger, Lani. "The 13 Oldest Universities In The World". Culture Trip. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  20. ^ a b c Kemal Gürüz, Quality Assurance in a Globalized Higher Education Environment: An Historical Perspective Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine, Istanbul, 2007, p. 5
  21. ISSN 0926-6070
    .
  22. ^ Toby Huff, Rise of early modern science 2nd ed. p. 180-181
  23. ^ Edward Grant, "Science in the Medieval University", in James M. Kittleson and Pamela J. Transue, ed., Rebirth, Reform and Resilience: Universities in Transition, 1300-1700, Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1984, p. 68
  24. ^ Toby Huff, Rise of Early Modern science, 2nd ed., p. 344.
  25. ^ A. Giesysztor, Part II, Chapter 4, page 136: University Buildings, in A History of the University In Europe, Volume I: Universities in the Middle Ages, W. Ruegg (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  26. ^ James M. Kittleson, Rebirth, reform and resilience: Universities in transition 1300–1700 (Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 1984), p. 164.
  27. ISBN 9780199670833. Archived
    from the original on 15 May 2018 – via Google Books.
  28. ^ Rait, Robert S. (1931) [1912]. Life in the Medieval University.
  29. ^ Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 3 volumes; Powicke, F. M., and Emden, A. B. (eds.), 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1936.[page needed]
  30. ^ Leff, G.; North, J.; "Chapter 10: The Faculty of Arts", in A History of the University in Europe, Volume I: Universities in the Middle Ages; Ruegg, W. (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  31. ^ Rait, Robert S. (1912); Life in the Medieval University, p. 133.
  32. ^ a b c Rait (1912), p. 138.
  33. ^ Gilman, Daniel Coit, et al. (1905). New International Encyclopedia. Lemma "Arts, Liberal".
  34. ^ Rait (1912), pp. 138–139.
  35. ^ a b Rait (1912), p. 139.
  36. ISBN 3-406-36952-9
    .
  37. doi:10.22240/sent36.01.017
    .
  38. ISBN 978-0-7864-5201-9
    .
  39. ^ Pedersen (1997).
  40. ^ Pedersen (1997), Chapter 10: "Curricula and intellectual trends".
  41. ^ Rashdall ([1895] 1987), vol. 3, p. 352.
  42. ^ Rashdall ([1895] 1987), vol. 3, p. 360.
  43. ^ Rashdall [1895] 1987, vol. 1, ch. I, p. 8.

Bibliography

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