Readings in the History of Education | Page 6

place of delicate food to live on herbs of the fields and coarse bread,
and in place of soft couches to make up [beds of] straw and grass, and

in place of tables to pile up sods.[3]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Adapted from Joseph McCabe, Abelard, pp. 7, 8.]
[Footnote 2: R.L. Poole, Illustrations from the History of Medieval
Thought, p. 109.]
[Footnote 3: Petri Abaelardi Opera, edd. Cousin et Jourdain, I, p. 25.]

III
THE RISE OF MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITIES
The influences contributing to the rise of universities were numerous,
and in many cases obscure. The most important were: 1. Inspiring and
original teachers, who gathered about them great numbers of students.
2. A new method of teaching. 3. A new group of studies. 4. Privileges
granted to scholars and masters by civil and ecclesiastical authorities. 5.
The direct initiative of those authorities in establishing universities by
decree. The readings which follow are chosen to illustrate these
influences.
1. TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY
(a) _A Pre-University Teacher: Abelard_
Among the teachers of the early part of the twelfth century, two were of
especial significance in the later intellectual development of the
period,--Irnerius (_ca._ 1070-1130) at Bologna, and Abelard
(1079-1142) at Paris. They were the forerunners of the universities
which began to take form at the end of the twelfth century in those
cities. Irnerius marks a new epoch in the study of the body of Roman
Law; following the traditions of teaching which he established, the
University of Bologna became the most prominent school of law in
Europe. In a similar way Abelard marks at Paris the introduction of a

new method of teaching and investigation, an attitude of intellectual
independence on theological questions, and a permanently influential
position in scholastic philosophy; following his initiative the University
of Paris became the leading school of Philosophy and Theology. These
two institutions,--Bologna and Paris,--were in turn the models for all
other mediaeval universities, not only in organization, but also so far as
the study of Law, Theology, and Philosophy was concerned. Hence,
indirectly, the influence of Abelard and Irnerius was widely diffused
and long continued.
The documents relating to Irnerius are scanty. For a discussion of his
influence on the teaching of Roman Law, see Rashdall, I, ch. iv, and
especially pages 121-127. Concerning Abelard the records are
abundant.
Abelard, the eldest son of a noble family of Pallet (Palais), Brittany,
was in his day the most renowned teacher in France. Instead of
becoming the head of his family and adopting the career of a soldier, he
abandoned his birthright and the profession of arms for the life of the
scholar and the battlefields of debate. His early life as a student
wandering from school to school is thus described by himself:
The more fully and easily I advanced in the study of letters the more
ardently I clung to them, and I became so enamored of them that,
abandoning to my brothers the pomp of glory, together with my
inheritance and the rights of the eldest son, I resigned from the
Councils of War that I might be educated in the camp of Minerva. And
since among all the weapons of philosophy I preferred the arms of logic,
I exchanged accoutrements and preferred the conflicts of debate to the
trophies of war. Thenceforward I walked through the various provinces
engaging in debates wherever I had heard that the study of this art
[logic] flourished, and thus became a rival of the Peripatetics.
At length [about 1100 A.D.] I reached Paris, where for some time this
art had been prospering, and went to William of Champeaux, my
instructor, distinguished at the time in this particular by his work and
reputation as a teacher. Staying with him for a while, I was at first
acceptable, but shortly after was very annoying to him, namely, when I

tried to refute some of his opinions, and often ventured to argue against
him and, not seldom, seemed to surpass him in debate.[4]
_In scholis militare_--to wage war in the schools--was the phrase aptly
used to describe this mode of debate. William of Champeaux was then
the head of the cathedral school of Notre Dame and the leading teacher
of logic in France. "Within a few months Abelard made his authority
totter, and set his reputation on the wane. In six or seven years he drove
him in shame and humiliation from his chair, after a contest which
filled Christendom with its echoes." By overcoming William in debate
he established his own reputation as a teacher. At various times
between 1108 and 1139 he taught in Paris, whither crowds of students
came to hear him. His fame was at its height about 1117, shortly after
his appointment to the chair which William himself had held. Few
teachers