Readings in the History of Education | Page 2

of the lines of
study suggested will have at command a very respectable bit of
knowledge concerning the intellectual life of the middle ages. The
passage requires more explanation by the teacher, or more preliminary
knowledge on the part of the student, than any other selection in the
book.
The sources from which the selections have been made are indicated in
the footnotes to the text My great indebtedness to Mr. Hastings
Rashdall's "Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages" is also there
indicated. Messrs. G.P. Putnam's Sons and Mr. Joseph McCabe
generously gave me permission to quote more extensive passages from
the latter's brilliant biography of Abelard than I finally found it possible
to use. Mr. Charles S. Moore has been my chief assistant in the
preparation of the manuscript; most of the translations not otherwise
credited are due to his careful work, but I am responsible for the
version finally adopted in numerous passages in which the
interpretation depends on a knowledge of detailed historical facts. In
conclusion, I have to thank Professor Charles H. Haskins and Professor
Leo Wiener for information which has spared me many days of
research on obscure details, and Professor Paul H. Hanus for
suggestions which have contributed to the clearness of the text.
A.O.N.

CONTENTS
PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE RENAISSANCE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 4
III. THE RISE OF UNIVERSITIES 13
1. Teachers and Students of the Twelfth Century (a) Abelard 13 (b)
John of Salisbury 25 2. The New Method 35 3. The New Studies 37 (a)
The Works of Aristotle 40 (b) Roman Law 49 (c) Canon Law 55 (d)

Theology 76 (e) Medicine 78 (f) Other University Text-books 78 4.
University Privileges 80 (a) Special Protection by the Sovereign 81 (b)
The Right of Trial in Special Courts 86 (c) Exemption from Taxation
88 (d) The Privilege of Suspending Lectures (Cessatio) 92 (e) The
Right of Teaching Everywhere (Jus ubique docendi) 96 (f) Privileges
Granted by a Municipality 98 (g) The Influence of Mediaeval
Privileges on Modern Universities 101 5. Universities Founded by the
Initiative of Civil or Ecclesiastical Powers 102
IV. UNIVERSITY EXERCISES 107
(a) The Lecture 107 (b) The Disputation 115 (c) The Examination 124
(d) A Day's Work in 1476 132 (e) Time-table of Lectures at Leipzig,
1519 132
V. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREES IN ARTS 135
1. Paris, 1254 136 2. Paris, 1366 138 3. Oxford, 1267 and (?) 1408 138
4. Leipzig, A.B., 1410 139 5. Leipzig, A.M., 1410 139 6. Leipzig, A.B.
and A.M., 1519 134
VI. ACADEMIC LETTERS 141
1. Letters Relating to Paris 141 2. Two Oxford Letters of the Fifteenth
Century 149

READINGS IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION

I
INTRODUCTION
The history of education, like all other branches of history, is based
upon documents. Historical documents are, in general, "the traces
which have been left by the thoughts and actions of men of former
times"; the term commonly refers to the original records or sources

from which our knowledge of historical facts is derived. The
documents most generally used by historians are written or printed. In
the history of education alone these are of the greatest variety; as is
shown in the following pages, among them are university charters,
proceedings, regulations, lectures, text-books, the statutes of student
organizations, personal letters, autobiographies, contemporary accounts
of university life, and laws made by civil or ecclesiastical authorities to
regulate university affairs. Similar varieties of records exist for other
educational institutions and activities. The immense masses of such
written or printed materials produced to-day, even to the copy-book of
the primary school and the student's note-book of college lectures, will,
if they survive, become documents for the future historian of education.
The known sources for the history of education in western Europe since
the twelfth century--to go no further afield--are exceedingly numerous,
and widely spread among various public and private collections; the
labor of a lifetime would hardly suffice to examine them all critically.
Nevertheless many printed and written documents have been collected,
edited, and published in their original languages; and in some instances
the collections are fairly complete, or at least fairly representative of
the documents in existence. Assuming that they are accurate copies of
the original records, many are now easily accessible to students of the
subject, since these reproductions may be owned by all large libraries.
These records, rightly apprehended, have far more than a mere
antiquarian interest. The history of mediaeval universities is profoundly
important, not only for students, but also for administrators, of modern
higher education. For to a surprising degree the daily and hourly
conduct of university affairs of the twentieth century is influenced by
what universities did six centuries ago. On this point the words of Mr.
Hastings Rashdall, a leading authority on mediaeval