Readings in the History of Education | Page 5

the monk Gratian about the year 1142. His
compilation of the Canon Law is usually referred to as the Decretum
Gratiani.
In the Faculty of Theology:
1. The "Sentences" of Peter Lombard. 2. The Bible.
In the Faculty of Medicine:
1. The works of Hippocrates. 2. The works of Galen. 3. Medical
treatises of various Arabic and Jewish writers of the seventh century
A.D. and later.
These studies will be described more fully in connection with the

selections on pages 37-83.
Not all of the works mentioned under these divisions were included in
the regular programme of any university; the actual studies required for
the various degrees consisted rather in selections from these works. The
selections chosen varied somewhat in different universities; moreover,
the course in any given university changed from time to time.
Consequently the degrees of A.B. and A.M., as well as degrees in Law,
Medicine, and Theology, probably never represented exactly the same
set of studies in any considerable number of universities, nor did they
even represent exactly the same work for many years in any single
university. This corresponds exactly with the situation in modern
universities, although at present the variations in studies for the same
degree are greater and the changes in any given university are usually
more rapid than they were in the universities of the Middle Ages.
It is necessary to remember that all the text-books were in Latin. Those
written originally in other tongues were translated into Latin. All
university exercises were conducted in that language, and frequently
the regulations required students to use Latin in conversation outside
the lecture halls. Latin was, in short, the universal academic tongue.
Obviously, the use of the same language everywhere facilitated the
migration of students and teachers from one university to another.
7. Although the first universities were not established as organized
institutions until the latter part of the twelfth century, the intellectual
movement which gave rise to them was well under way a century
earlier. It showed itself first in the rise of great teachers, some of whom
were also notable scholars. There has never been a clearer
demonstration of the central importance in education of the
distinguished teacher:
At the beginning of the twelfth century three schools are distinguished
in the contemporary literature above the multitude which had sprung
into new life in France and were connected with so many of her
cathedrals and religious houses. These three were at Laon, Paris, and
Chartres. It would be more accurate to say, they were the schools of
Anselm and Ralph, of William of Champeaux, and of Bernard

Sylvester. For in those days the school followed the teacher, not the
teacher the school. Wherever a master lived, there he taught; and thither,
in proportion to his renown, students assembled from whatever
quarter.... The tie was a personal one, and was generally severed by the
master's death. A succession of great teachers in one place was a rare
exception; nor is such an exception afforded by the history of any of the
three schools to which we have referred.[2]
In these days, when education requires a more and more elaborate
equipment of buildings, libraries, laboratories, and museums, it is no
longer possible for teachers, however distinguished, to attract throngs
of students to places absolutely unprovided with the resources for
teaching, or to provide these resources anywhere on the spur of the
moment In the twelfth century, on the contrary, the only necessary
equipment consisted in the master, his small library which could be
carried by one man; wax tablets, or pens, ink, and vellum or parchment
for the students; and any kind of a shelter which would serve as a
protection from the weather. Not even benches or chairs were necessary,
for students commonly sat upon the straw-strewn floors of the lecture
rooms. Thus the school might easily follow the teacher in his
migrations, and easily sink into obscurity or disappear upon his death
or cessation from teaching. The autobiography of Abelard (see page 14),
recounts an experience unusual in itself, but perfectly illustrative of the
point. After relating various misfortunes and persecutions he continues:
So I betook myself to a certain wilderness previously known to me, and
there on land given to me by certain ones, with the consent of the
Bishop of the region, I constructed out of reeds and straw a sort of
oratory in the name of the Holy Trinity where, in company with one of
our clergy, I might truly chant to the Lord: "Lo I have wandered far off,
and have remained in the wilderness."
As soon as Scholars learned this they began to gather from every side,
leaving cities and castles to dwell in the wilderness, and in place of
their spacious homes to build small tabernacles for themselves, and in