Medieval school and training in it. Church schools

WHAT AND HOW WE TAUGHT IN THE MEDIEVAL SCHOOL.

Comparative table of education in schools of Byzantium and Western Europe

The school's motto: "The teacher does not spare his students for mistakes; “Human nature is sinful, and corporal punishment contributes to the purification and salvation of the soul.”

School motto“Read a lot and you will learn a lot. If you don't understand, don't despair. Having read the book more than once, you will gain knowledge, you will understand it from God. And what you don’t know, ask those who know and don’t be proud... It is extremely important to study and understand the nature of things and act accordingly.”

By the 7th century, schools of the ancient type had completely disappeared in medieval Europe. School work in the young barbarian states of the 5th - 7th centuries. It turned out to be in a deplorable state. Illiteracy and ignorance reigned everywhere. Many kings and the top of society - nobles and officials - were illiterate. Meanwhile, the need for literate subjects and clergy was constantly increasing. The Catholic Church tried to correct the existing situation.

A high culture of home education is a characteristic feature of Byzantine life. Of course, children were especially cared for in families with high social status, but even in families of artisans, children learned to read and write if their parents were literate.

The bulk of the population did not receive even a minimum education in schools. Children were raised by their parents in the family and in everyday work.

In Byzantium there were no social restrictions on receiving education, and schools could be attended by everyone who wanted and had the opportunity to study.

They wrote on a wax tablet and then on parchment.

In medieval Europe, three main types of church schools developed:parochial schools, monastic schools, episcopal (cathedral)

The main purpose of all types of schools was to train clergy.

At the initial stage, monastery schools taught for 3 years:

Memorized prayers and religious chants

Learned the Latin alphabet

Read prayers and texts in Latin

Mastered writing

Education in advanced church schools was taught according to the program of the seven liberal arts for 12-13 years.

One of the first to propose the formula for such a program for medieval Europe was Severinus Boethius (480-524). "Seven Liberal Arts" He unitedarithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music (sciences based on mathematical laws) in the curriculum 1st cycle “quadrium” (fourth path). This cycle, together with the “trivium” (third way) - grammar, rhetoric, dialectics - subsequently formed the basis of all medieval education+ THEOLOGY - church teaching about God and divine affairs.

Teaching methods were based on rote learning and the development of rote memory. The most common teaching method was catechetical (question-and-answer), with the help of which the teacher introduced abstract knowledge that was subject to mandatory memorization, without explaining the subject or phenomenon. For example, “What is the moon? – Eye of the night, dispenser of dew, prophet of storms, ... What is autumn? – Annual granary”, etc.

Astronomy was an applied science associated with the calculations of numerous church holidays.

Music taught using notes designated using the letters of the alphabet for church hymns.

Arithmetic program

Geometry- a science that studies the patterns of flat objects in space.

Rhetoric - This is the art of thinking, speaking competently and beautifully.

Dialectics

Grammar

Worship -

Astronomy was an applied science associated with the calculations of numerous church holidays.

Music was taught using notes designated using the letters of the alphabet for church chants.

Arithmetic program meant mastering four arithmetic operations. Learning arithmetic operations was too difficult, calculations took up entire pages. Therefore, there was the honorary title “Doctor of Abacus” (i.e. “Doctor of Multiplication and Division”). All academic subjects were given a religious and mystical character.

Geometry is a science, studying the patterns of flat objects in space.

Wrote on paper with a quill pen

At the first stage of education - in literacy schools - children received an elementary education. The course of study, as a rule, lasted 2–3 years, and children began to study at the age of 5–7 years. From 7-10 years old.

Elementary schools were the first and last stage of organized education for most children.

However, in the methodology of teaching literacy, the practice of the previous era was preserved: students were taught using the letter-subjunctive method with the obligatory pronunciation of what was written out loud, “in unison.” First, schoolchildren memorized letters, then syllables in all their diversity, and only after that began to read whole words and sentences. The dominant method was to learn texts by heart.

Reliance on learning from memory was justified at that time for the reason that the language of school and books differed from spoken Greek. In school education, traditional educational texts of ancient schools were used (Homer, fables, etc.), supplemented by the Psalter and the lives of Christian saints.

There were practically no changes in teaching counting: first counting on fingers, then pebbles were used, then a counting board - an abacus.

Primary education lacked physical training for children, and music was replaced by church singing.

Didaskal - school teacher.

Grammar School. 10-16 years (5-6 years)

The school day of a Byzantine schoolchild began with the reading of prayers . One of them has been preserved: “Lord Jesus Christ, open the ears and eyes of my heart, so that I may understand your word and learn to do your will.”

In Byzantium, it was believed that every educated “Roman,” as the Byzantines called themselves, should own"Hellenic science" opening the way to the highest philosophy - theology. More attention was paid to grammar, rhetoric, dialectics and poetics.

Rhetoric - this is the art of thinking, speaking competently and beautifully.

Dialectics - the art of arguing and reasoning

Poetics - a science that studies the laws of literature, the construction of poetic works and the works themselves.

Grammar - a science that studies the change of words and their combination in a sentence.

Few studied the “mathematical quaternary” - arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy - in Byzantium. The purpose of training was ultimately to form a general culture and eloquence in young people, and develop thinking. Competition between schoolchildren and each other in the interpretation of texts and rhetoric was considered an important means of learning.

The teaching methodology in advanced schools was traditional: the teacher read, gave interpretation, asked students questions, answered students’ questions, and organized discussions. School education was aimed at teaching children active mastery of speech, developing their ability to retell, quote texts from memory, give descriptions, and improvise. Students composed speeches, commented on texts, gave descriptions of monuments of art, improvised on an arbitrary topic, etc.

Mastering the art of interpretation required students to have a fairly broad knowledge in the field of ancient and biblical history, geography, mythology, etc. As a result, those who graduated from the school should have had a fairly good knowledge of the content of Homer’s Iliad, the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Hesiod, Pindar, Theocritus, as well as the Bible, the works of the “church fathers” - Augustine, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, John of Damascus and etc.

The didaskal, with the help of a senior student, checked the students' knowledge at the end of the school week. Failure in studies and violation of discipline according to the Hellenistic tradition were punished with rods.

After comparing the main characteristics of education, children are offered the task: create their own schedule, choosing the school that is closer to their spirit.

Lesson schedule in __________________________________________

ABACOUNTING BOARD

DIDACTICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Historical and pedagogical characteristics of the early Middle Ages

The existence of a pedagogical tradition in the Middle Ages, as well as in other historical periods, the formation of pedagogical ideas, the implementation of the educational process are associated with the structural and functional structure of society, the type of social inheritance of subjects of the educational process. Pedagogy of the Middle Ages has characteristic features, since, firstly, the pedagogical traditions of this era are not closed in time, have their own historical past, well-established in their influence on modern Western European pedagogy. Secondly, a person of the Middle Ages identified himself not with an ethnicity, but with a local one (village, city, family), as well as on a religious basis, i.e. belonging to church ministers or laity. Both in educational material and in the organization of special educational institutions, there is a synthesis of reality with the new needs of society. The ideal of medieval education is the rejection of the fully developed personality of the era of Antiquity, the formation of a Christian person. The new ideal of education defined the main European pedagogical tradition early Middle Ages (V-X centuries) - a Christian tradition that determined the educational system of the era.

Types of educational institutions of the early Middle Ages

The beginning of Christian schools was laid by monasteries and is associated with the school catechumens, where training and education were reduced to the study of Christian dogmas, introduction to faith, preparation for the righteous search for a “Christian birth” before baptism on Easter.

The main types of church schools were: parish, monastery, cathedral, or episcopal (cathedral). As such, there was no strict gradation according to the level of education of schools, but there were still some differences between them.

Parish school- this is an elementary (small) school, which was located at the church and gave basic knowledge to 3-10 students in the field of religion, church chants, reading in Latin, and where sometimes numeracy and writing were taught. The only and main teachers were: deacon or sexton, scholastic or didaskal, magniskola, who were supposed to teach all sciences. If the number of students increased, then the circator especially supervised the discipline.

Monastic schools developed in close connection with Episcopalian schools that trained successors for the diocesan clergy. The students gathered in circles around the bishop, receiving deep religious knowledge. So, the rules of teaching St. Benedict of Nursia (480-533) included requirements to read for three hours a day, and during fasting to read a whole book. The Benedictine school of the early Middle Ages is part of a whole complex of institutions with missionary tasks, where the problems of teaching secular sciences were also solved. The school was divided into schola claustri, or interior,- for monastic youth and schola canonica, or exterior,- for secular youth. The meaning of the ancient motto of the monks of the Benedictine Order was that the strength of the order, its salvation and glory lie in its schools. The people who led education during this period belonged to this order. The educational activities of Albin Alcuin (735 - 804) went far beyond the boundaries of this era, since his monastic school in Tours was a “hotbed of teaching” until the 12th century. The Abbey in Monte Cassino, where the center of the Benedictine Order was located, is also famous for the fact that the outstanding theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) subsequently studied here. By the 16th century in the countries of Western Europe there were about 37,000 monasteries belonging to the Benedictine order and orders descended from it (every fifth of them had a monastic school). In these schools, the teachers were, as a rule, monks or priests, who conducted classes with children at set hours. The main subjects were the same as in parish schools, but subsequently this circle expanded significantly, including rhetoric, religious philosophy, grammar and, in some schools, the disciplines of the quadrivium. In monastery schools, great attention was paid to copying books, due to which a library appeared in the monastery. The sages of that time said that a monastery without a library is like a fortress without security.

From Episcopal schools to the Middle Ages develop cathedral And cathedral school, in which there also existed internal communal schools for the younger generation - the clergy - and open ones (for the laity), and the first were educational in nature, and the second - educational. Schools of this type were considered advanced because they were located in large church centers, where the full scope of medieval sciences was taught - the “seven liberal sciences” (lat. septem artes liberales). In order to strengthen church power and spiritual education, in 1215 the Council decided to establish the position of teacher of grammar and theology at all cathedrals. Episcopalians were ordered to pay special attention to the education of youth, and bishops were ordered to exercise control over all diocesan parish schools.

The order of the Council read: “Since schools serve to prepare all those who will subsequently be responsible for the leadership of secular and spiritual affairs in the state and church, we command that in all cities and villages of our diocese parish schools should be restored again where they are fell into decay, and where they still survived, they developed more and more. To this end, parish priests, masters and respected members of society should see to it that the teachers, who are usually appointed kisters in the villages, are provided with the necessary maintenance. And the school should be established in a suitable house near the parish church, so that, on the one hand, it would be easier for the pastor and noble parishioners to observe the teacher, and on the other hand, it would be more convenient to accustom the students to religious exercises... who settled in the parish under fear of a fine of 12 marks were obliged to send their children to school, so that the paganism still smoldering in many hearts would be completely extinguished,” and the pastor was to be presented with a monthly report on “how the students were progressing in Christian morals, writing and reading, and growing day by day in the fear of God, so that over time they avoid evil and become more and more established in goodness.” In theological schools in the Middle Ages, the laity were represented as both students and teachers, so this period does not distinguish schools according to the direction of their educational activities. Lay teachers mainly introduced students to the seven liberal arts, Roman law, and medicine.

Christian educational institutions are characterized by the following features:

1) having a religious and moral ultimate goal, they were not only an educational type of institution, but also an educational one;

2) Christian education was combined with teaching writing, reading, and singing;

3) due to their connection with the monasteries, the schools were not class, private, national and were of a public (mass) nature.

In 313, when Christianity acquired the status of an official religion, Christian communities faced the need to create church schools in order to spread the doctrine. In Europe of the early Christian period there were almost no secular schools remaining from late Antiquity. The church became the only center that contributed to the dissemination of knowledge, and sacred teaching became the responsibility of the ministers of the church.

Naturally, the content of Christian education differed from secular and professional education; knowledge had a pronounced religious orientation. Having become dominant, the church had to answer many questions in the field of education, including whether or not to accept the pedagogical heritage of Antiquity.

During the early Middle Ages, pedagogy reconsidered the ancient heritage in education and introduced its own values ​​- a guideline for spiritual education, education by faith. Until the 6th century. Christians received a grammatical and rhetorical education, the medieval pedagogical tradition inherited the language of ancient Rome from the previous era, and from the moment the Bible was translated into Latin, when church services began to be conducted in Latin, this language became pan-European and compulsory for teaching. Of course, humanity could not discard the scientific achievements of the previous era, so the main dispute arose about the means and ways for a Christian to comprehend secular knowledge.

During the Middle Ages knowledge of human experience carried out by giving it a divine manifestation, was based on the idea of ​​thinkers of this era that all existing reality in the world is distributed according to the degree of closeness to God. But there were others signs of demarcation mastery of knowledge: according to the degree of divinity of knowledge; by the quality of the cognitive process (the need to include not only mental operations, but also physical activity, including in the form of fasting, obedience, etc.); according to the level of preparedness of the student and teacher for learning; on a corporate - social basis; by gender and age, etc.

A characteristic feature of the content of education in the early Middle Ages was its emotional and symbolic character. With the help of the material being studied, the teacher had to create a positive emotional mood in the learning process, so that the divine sphere of the student’s soul would be in tune with the divine meanings of what is being learned. Indicative in this case is the study of the Greek letter Y (upsilon), since this letter was a symbol of all human life. From birth to the conscious choice of the further path, a person moves from below in a straight line, and then follows the chosen path, where the left straight line is the wide and comfortable road of sin, and the right one, on the contrary, is the thorny path, the road of the righteous. In other words, the process of cognition was carried out in the entire complex of religious semantic meanings, symbols and allegories aimed at divine limits. An early medieval mentor told his student: “Where possible, combine faith with reason.” From here purpose of education in the era of the early Middle Ages - the discipline of free will and reason and bringing a person with its help to faith, to comprehending and honoring God and serving him.

Thus, the content of education had a dual focus: providing certain information and developing the student’s spiritual intentions. When studying secular sciences, they selected those useful things that were created by God for the life of people or were invented in a pious way by people themselves and that do not harm the main thing - education in the spirit of virtue and fear of God. In the Middle Ages, the problem of choosing book or extra-book education, the relationship between the role and significance of words (reading, grammar, writing, etc.) with operational knowledge (craft, science, arts, etc.), as well as ways to comprehend the incomprehensible before the end of God. Thanks to verbal and book learning, the educational program of the theologian Aurelius Augustine (Blessed) (354 - 430), including the study of languages, rhetoric, dialectics, mathematics, there was an active development of church culture, awareness of the need to assimilate church dogma by every Christian, i.e. Western European pedagogical tradition has defined a range of sciences, without which a person will not be able to develop and strengthen Faith. First, a person had to master the basic skills of learning (reading, writing and arithmetic), and then move on to comprehend the "seven liberal arts", the trivium of verbal sciences and the quadrivium of mathematical sciences, as well as theology, divinity and philosophy.

Training, as already noted, in Western European countries was conducted in Latin; there were no time frames for training. The only criterion for a student’s transition to another level of education was the degree to which he had mastered the material being studied.

The education process began with memorization Psalter, since it was believed that knowledge and repetition of the psalms take a person away from “unnecessary” vain thoughts, which was a necessary condition for the internal mood of children to comprehend the doctrine and awareness of the Bible.

The actual study of the “seven liberal arts” began with mastering Latin grammar, which was considered the student’s guide to the world of science. The purpose of studying this art is to correctly read and understand the Holy Scriptures, to correctly express one’s own thoughts.

Rhetoric and dialectics, on the one hand, they taught the child to compose and deliver sermons, and on the other hand, they developed the ability to think logically, argue convincingly and reasonedly, which also made it possible to avoid misconceptions in religious doctrine.

Mastery of the highest level of education was given special importance due to the fact that this block of disciplines affirmed man’s dynamic perception of the “Divine Cosmos,” based on the world of numbers. During training arithmetic four mathematical operations were mastered, and the interpretation of numbers was inextricably linked with the symbols of faith. Thus, one corresponded with the symbol of the one God, two - with the symbol of the duality of Jesus Christ (Divine and human), the number three was the Holy Trinity, etc. Geometry complemented the 7th course of arithmetic with its content, since it was considered as a science about the structure of the surrounding world with the help of numbers. A philosophical basis was also sought in music, believing that it leads to harmony between the heavenly and earthly spheres. Astronomy was considered as a science that also served the church, since it was engaged in the calculation and calculation of church holidays and fasts.

In cathedral schools, the crown of learning was considered to be comprehension philosophy, which completed the course of the “seven liberal arts” and led to comprehension of theology, mastery of the wisdom of symbolic analogies, and comprehension of the picture of the world.

Considering pedagogical process in the early Middle Ages, it is necessary to highlight its main trends and characteristic features:

1. The main method of training is apprenticeship. The pedagogical tradition of mentoring in religious education manifested itself in the form of the apprenticeship of a monk, a clergyman, to God; with secular education (knightly, craft), the child was an apprentice to a master. The main form of work with the student was individual work to transfer knowledge and instructions.

2. The high role of verbal and book learning. The structure of the content of education and its focus are associated with a person’s comprehension of two worlds: the heavenly and the earthly. This mutual influence is expressed in the fact that, comprehending the real world, mastering the sciences of the earth, a person moves towards the Highest wisdom, where there is the harmony of music, the arithmetic of the heavenly and the grammar of the Bible. But the whole world was created by the Divine Word, which is embodied in the holy book - the Bible. Training helps to master the Truth of the Word. Logical-grammatical education was one of the tasks of education, hence the verbal (catechetical - question-answer) method of teaching as the main one, i.e. verbal teaching, or teaching the Word.

3.Development of the student's memory, since any kind of distortion of the Holy text, quoted treatises of the Fathers of the Church, canons, and theological works were unacceptable. The universal method of teaching was memorizing samples and reproducing them. Already in early Christian pedagogy it was proposed to use the mechanisms of associative memory, correlating the content of the text with its location, design, place of memorization, etc. Memory served as a library for the student.

4. The basic principle of teaching is authoritarianism. To a greater extent, severity and punishment were used with the aim of educating a Christian person in the “fear of God,” which would ensure, firstly, the development of Reason and Faith, and secondly, the ascent to the comprehension of Truth and Wisdom. The fear of God and love are considered by the Fathers of the Church in interrelation, since the disciplined will through Fear destroys pride, which interferes with the veneration of the Lord: “Teach not with rage, not with cruelty, not with anger, but with joyfully visible fear and loving custom, with sweet teaching and gentle reasoning.”

5. The main means of teaching and raising a child is the family world. The foundations of a child’s development were laid in the family, which was a visual aid for labor education, the formation of religious views, and for initial socialization.

6. The interaction between teacher and student in the learning process was based on the understanding that the main teacher is God. At the same time, both the student and the teacher were aware of this fact, so the Divine principle was considered the main source of education.

7. Didactic instruction in comprehending the Divine Mysteries. This applied to any science studied. The universality of knowledge lay in the fact that it was necessary to comprehend the contradiction that arises between the Divine unity of the world and the diversity of the surrounding reality. This was the phenomenon of the need to acquire encyclopedic knowledge.

8.Inclusion of visibility into the educational process. Reading was taught using the difficult letter-subjunctive method. We learned to read from an abecedary - a manual reminiscent of an ABC book. Students at this level of education were also called abecedarii. Speech sounds, deposited in children's memory, were depicted, which helped students connect sounds and letters. The main tools for teaching grammar were treatises by thinkers of early Christianity and Antiquity, as well as the textbook of Donatus Alcuin, from which the teacher read texts, and the students, writing them on tablets, memorized and retold them. It is known that students started dictionaries that contained translations from Latin, and also used visual material in the form of an image of a person with verbs written on parts of his body.

Scholasticism (from the Greek “schole” - quiet activity, study) - medieval scholarship. It is closely connected with the emerging from the VIII-IX centuries. education system in the West. At the same time, this is also a new stage in the development of the spiritual culture of Europe, which replaced patristics. It was based on patristic literature, representing at the same time a completely original and specific cultural formation. The term "scholasticism" implies not so much a doctrinal block of ideas as the philosophy and theology taught in medieval schools, especially since the period of their reorganization by Charlemagne.

The following periodization of scholasticism is accepted. The first stage is from the 6th to the 9th centuries. - preliminary. The second stage is from the 9th to the 12th centuries. - a period of intensive formation. Third stage - XIII century. - “the golden age of scholasticism.” The fourth stage - XIV-XV centuries. - fading of scholasticism.

Each stage can be associated with the personalities of thinkers who most clearly express its features. The first period is clearly represented by I.S. Eriugena (d. c. 877); the second - Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109) and Pierre Abelard (d. 1142); third - Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and Bonaventure (1221-1274); fourth - W. Occam (c. 1285-1349).

Scholastic learning in practice was a series of steps, climbing which the student could reach the highest. The “seven liberal arts” were studied in monastic and church schools. The latter were divided into “trivium” (from the number “three”) and “quadrivium” (from the number “four”). The student had to first master the trivium, i.e. grammar (Latin), dialectics, rhetoric. The Quadrivium, as a higher level, included arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Until the 13th century (when the formation of universities began), schools were: monastic (at abbeys), episcopal (at cathedrals), and courtly (“palacium”). During the period of barbarian invasions, schools at monasteries and abbeys were something like shelters and repositories of monuments of classical culture, places for making lists; Episcopal schools were places of primarily elementary education. However, the court school brought the greatest revival to cultural life. The director of one of these schools was Alcuin of York (730-804), the king's adviser on cultural and educational issues. A three-stage training was organized: 1) reading, writing, elementary concepts of common Latin, a general understanding of the Bible and liturgical texts; 2) the study of the seven liberal arts (first the trio of grammar, rhetoric and dialectics, then the quartet of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music); 3) in-depth study of the Holy Scriptures. Alcuin boldly formulated the spirit of his innovations: “Thus a new Athens will grow on the land of the Franks, even more brilliant than in antiquity, for our Athens is fertilized by the teaching of Christ, and therefore will surpass the Academy in wisdom.” Whether he was able to fully implement his program or not, his merit in writing and preparing textbooks on each of the seven liberal arts is beyond any doubt.

Since the 13th century, the school has already acted as a university. Universitas is a typical product of the Middle Ages. If the model of schools were ancient analogues, which medieval schools imitated and updated in some way, then the university did not have its own prototype. This kind of corporate formations and free associations of students and mentors with their privileges, established programs, diplomas, titles were unknown in antiquity either in the West or in the East.

The first universities arose in the 12th century. in Paris and Bologna. In the XIII-XV centuries. Europe is covered with a whole network of universities. The need for them was determined primarily by the needs and tasks of the church.

In most cases, universities relied directly on the support of church authorities. The main goal of university science was the study and interpretation of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition (i.e., the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church). The interpretation of sacred texts was the exclusive prerogative of the church and its associated university scholars, in order to prevent the spread of ignorant opinions about the Christian faith. Scientists of at least a master's degree were allowed to interpret. In accordance with the main task, most universities included two faculties - the Faculty of Liberal Arts and the Faculty of Theology (theology). The first was a necessary preparatory step for the second.

The term “university” itself did not initially indicate a center of learning, but rather a corporate association, or, in modern language, it was a kind of “syndicate” protecting the interests of a certain category of persons.

Bologna and Paris are two models of organization that other universities have more or less oriented towards. Bologna – “universitas scolarum” (universitas scholarum), i.e. a student corporation that received special privileges from Frederick I Barbarossa. In Paris, the Universitas Magistrorum et Scolarum, a united corporation of masters and students, prevailed. The Cathedral School of Notre Dame was noted for its particular excellence in the 12th century, attracting students from all over Europe and soon becoming the object of attention of the Roman Curia. Autonomy took place under the direct tutelage of the king, the bishop and his chancellor. A fact worthy of mention is that the desire for freedom of teaching, as opposed to pressure from local authorities, found tangible support in the form of papal protection. The "clerical" character of the university consisted primarily in the acceptance of ecclesiastic authority; The rights of the Pope were enshrined in prohibitions, for example, on the reading of certain texts, which made it impossible to reconcile differences and contradictory positions

University and its mitigating effects. Two effects accompanied the activities of universities. The first is the birth of a certain class of scientists, priests and lay people, to whom the church entrusted the mission of teaching the truths of revelation. The historical significance of this phenomenon lies in the fact that to this day the official doctrine of the church should and can be entrusted only to church hierarchs. Magisters were officially allowed to discuss matters of faith. Saint Thomas, Albertus Magnus and Bonaventure would later be called "Doctors of the Church". Along with the traditional two powers - church and secular - a third appeared - the power of intellectuals, whose influence on social life became more and more noticeable over time.

The second effect is associated with the opening of the University of Paris, where teachers and students of all classes flocked. The university community from the very beginning did not know caste differences; rather, it formed a new caste of heterogeneous social elements. And, if in subsequent eras the university acquires aristocratic features, the medieval university was initially “popularis”, in the sense that the children of peasants and artisans through a system of privileges (in the form of low tuition prices and free housing) became students, taking on the burden of the most severe obligations inevitable on this thorny path. Goliards and clerics formed, as it were, a world within themselves. Their “nobility” was no longer determined by class origin, but depended on their accumulated cultural baggage. A new meaning appeared for the concepts of “nobility” (“nobilitas”) and “refinement” (“gentilitas”) in the sense of aristocracy of mind and behavior, subtlety of the psyche and refinement of taste. Boccaccio will rightly speak about this: “an educated person is not the one who, after a long study in Paris, is ready to sell his knowledge on trifles, as many do, but the one who knows how to find out the reasons for everything at the very origins.”

Thus, if medieval culture bore fruit in institutional forms - “scholae”, “universitas”, “scholastica” - then “scholasticism” should be understood as a certain doctrinal body, which at first is developed inorganically, then more and more systematically in studio centers where we We sometimes find people who are creatively gifted, endowed with a critical mind, logical discipline and keen insight.

The Catholic Church had a huge influence on the development of education in the Middle Ages. At the monasteries there were monastery schools, at churches - parochial schools. First of all, they trained clergy to occupy lower church positions, but over time, those who did not intend to become ministers of the church also began to study in these schools. Teachers - monks or priests - raised the boys in the spirit of the Christian religion of morality, taught them. read and write in a language alien to them, Latin, in which Catholic worship was conducted. The children memorized prayers, learned church singing and counting.

The teaching of Latin literacy in medieval schools was carried out using the letter-subjunctive method, designed exclusively for mechanical memorization, often without even understanding what was being learned. The learning process was extremely difficult and lengthy. For poor performance and the slightest violation of discipline, students were subjected to severe physical punishment.

At the councils, at the bishop's see, there were cathedral. or cathedral schools. which were visited, as a rule, by the children of nobles and eminent citizens. Gradually these schools began to give students increased education. Its content consisted of theology and the so-called “seven liberal arts”: grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music. The cathedral schools mainly trained the higher clergy.

Secular feudal lords received a different upbringing and education, which consisted of mastering the seven “knightly virtues”: the ability to ride a horse, swim, fence, wield a sword, shield and spear, hunt, play chess, compose and sing poetry in honor of their overlord and lady of the heart. It was not necessary to be able to read and write. The future knight acquired the necessary knowledge at the court of the overlord, where from 7 to 14 years old he was a page to the feudal lord’s wife, and then from 14 to 21 years old as his master’s squire, accompanying him on military campaigns and hunting. At the 21st year of his life, the young man was knighted, which was accompanied by a special ceremony.

The daughters of feudal lords were educated at home and in convents, where they were raised in a religious spirit and taught reading, writing and handicrafts.

By the XII-XIII centuries. the development of crafts, trade and the growth of cities in Western Europe contributed to the emergence of an urban, predominantly secular, culture. The townspeople, who fought against feudal oppression, also opposed the Catholic Church. In the cities, artisans opened for their children guild schools. and the merchants - guild schools. These schools, established by the city population rather than the church, focused on numeracy, reading and writing in the native language.

Education and school in Western Europe in the early Middle Ages

In 476, the Roman Empire fell under the onslaught of Germanic tribes. This date is the starting point of the European Middle Ages, which ended in the 17th century. In that era, factors were at work that cemented European medieval society and determined the specifics of school and education. The first - and perhaps the main - factor was the Christian tradition. The second factor is the influence of ancient tradition.

And, finally, the mentality of the individual in the medieval era cannot be imagined without the barbaric, pre-Christian tradition. In contrast to individual, intellectual education, it was based on the concept that a person should be integrated into a certain clan. The influence of this tradition was clearly visible, especially in the early Middle Ages. The Christian Church fought against it in every possible way. The difference between a Christian and a barbarian is exactly the same as between two-legged and four-legged, speaking and dumb creatures, wrote one of the Christian authors of the 5th century.

A special role was played by the three-member system of division of labor, which had developed by the beginning of the 11th century. In the 13th century the class structure became even more differentiated. Each class had a certain image in its own eyes and in the rest of society. The virtue of the peasantry was considered to be hard work, the best trait of the aristocracy was valor, the main virtue of the clergy was piety, etc. Thus, society was a conglomerate of socio-cultural types, which the education system was supposed to shape. Representatives of each class saw their purpose in passing on experience to the next generation of the corporation. That is why apprenticeship turned out to be a universal pedagogical idea and practice in medieval Europe.

The European Middle Ages borrowed the school education system from antiquity, but enriched it and adapted it to new conditions.

In the Middle Ages, both church and secular schools were opened. The children of feudal lords, townspeople, clergy, and wealthy peasants studied there. The schools taught seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Until the end of the Middle Ages, teaching was carried out in Latin, and only from the 14th century. folk languages.

At school, both children and adults studied in the same class. Children at school were treated with the utmost severity: they were forbidden to talk loudly, sing, play, and were punished for any offense. The schoolchildren got themselves a piece of bread. They worked part-time, but more often begged for alms. At night they sang religious songs under the windows of the townspeople. More precisely, they didn’t sing, but shouted at the top of their lungs in order to instantly lift the respectable burgher out of bed and force him to hastily pay off the terrible melody by throwing a piece of sausage or cheese through the window.

In the 13th century schools in the largest cities have turned into higher education institutions universities. The first European university arose in the Italian town of Bologna. The university in the Italian city of Salerno became a center of medical knowledge, and in the French city of Paris a center of theology. In 1500, there were already about 70 such centers of knowledge and culture in Europe. In the XIV-XV centuries. in European countries, especially in England, also appeared collegium.

Teaching in medieval universities was carried out like this. The professor read a handwritten volume in Latin, explaining difficult passages in the text. The students were dozing peacefully. There was little use from such teaching, but before the invention in the middle of the 15th century. The printing press could not organize teaching in any other way, since handwritten books were not enough and they were very expensive. Printed books became an accessible source of knowledge and brought about a real revolution in the education system.

The oldest universities in Europe

Until the 12th century. books were kept mainly in small monastery libraries. They were so rare and expensive that they were sometimes chained. Later, universities, royal courts, large feudal lords, and even wealthy citizens acquired them. In the 15th century Public libraries appeared in big cities.

Colleges are closed secondary or higher educational institutions.

A university is a higher education institution that trains specialists in many fields of knowledge and engaged in scientific work.

Medieval schools

With the growth of cities and the development of trade, the need for literate people increased. Merchants, in order to conduct trade and calculate income and expenses, needed to be able to count and write. Captains of merchant ships needed knowledge of astronomy and mathematics to calculate the ship's course.

Church and monastery schools did not produce a sufficient number of literate people, and in the 12th century secular schools appeared in European cities. Their number grew rapidly. They were opened with funds from wealthy citizens, workshops and city authorities. There, future merchants and artisans mastered counting, knowledge of geography and history. Not only boys, but also girls studied here. As before, grammar, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music were taught in schools. Teachers used corporal punishment, using rods to get students to show diligence.

Sources: www.rokim.org.ua, www.profile-edu.ru, 900igr.net, iessay.ru, worldofschool.ru

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Medieval schools and universities

The early Middle Ages are sometimes called the "dark ages". The transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages was accompanied in Western Europe by a deep decline in culture. It was not only the barbarian invasions that destroyed the Western Roman Empire that led to the destruction of the cultural values ​​of antiquity. No less destructive than the blows of the Visigoths, Vandals and Lombards was the hostile attitude of the Church for the ancient cultural heritage. Pope Gregory I waged an open war against culture. He banned the reading of books by ancient authors and the study of mathematics, accusing the latter of being associated with magic. The most important area of ​​culture - education - was going through particularly difficult times. Gregory I once declared: "Ignorance-mother of true piety."

Truly ignorance reigned in Western Europe in the 5th-10th centuries. It was almost impossible to find literate people not only among the peasants, but also among the nobility. Many knights put a simple cross instead of a signature. Theodoric of Ostrogoth, unable to write, used a tablet on which his name was carved to sign. Until the end of his life, the founder of the Frankish state, the famous Charlemagne, was never able to learn to write. But the emperor was clearly not indifferent to knowledge. Already in adulthood, he resorted to the services of teachers. Having begun to study the art of writing shortly before his death, Karl carefully kept waxed tablets and sheets of parchment under his pillow, and in his free time he diligently learned to write letters. The sovereign patronized scientists. Charles issued a decree on the creation of schools in monasteries, and then a capitulary on education, which prescribed compulsory education for free children. This was not accomplished due to the lack of a sufficient number of literate people. A special school was organized at the court, where people were trained to govern the state. Charles invited educated people from all over Europe and placed them in high government and church positions. Many of them formed a scientific circle, called the Academy after the name of the philosophical school of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. This academy was something between a gathering of friends and a learned community, where philosophical and theological issues were discussed in free conversation and at a feast, and Latin poetry was written and read.

Members of the academy bore special nicknames, which clearly demonstrated the combination of ancient and Christian ideas in the views of Charles and his circle. Charles himself had the nickname David, in honor of the biblical King David, the prototype of all God-loving monks.

By his order, the cathedral was built in Aachen. He ordered a grammar of the Frankish language to be compiled and German songs to be collected. His court in Aachen became a center of education. In a specially created school, the famous scientist and writer Alcuin (Flaccus Albinus, c. 735-804, Anglo-Saxon scientist, author of theological treatises, textbooks of philosophy, mathematics, etc.; figure in the Carolingian Renaissance, advisor to Charlemagne, abbot of the Tours monastery), who taught the sons of Charles himself and the children of his associates. A few educated people from all over illiterate Europe came to Aachen. Following the example of antiquity, the society of scientists gathered at the court began to be called the Academy. Alcuin became abbot of the rich monastery of St. Martin in the city of Tours, where he also founded a school, many of whose students later became famous teachers in monastic and church schools in France.

The cultural upsurge that occurred during the reign of Charlemagne and his successors was called the “Carolingian Renaissance.” However, it was short-lived. Soon cultural life again concentrated in the monasteries.

Monastic and church schools represented the very first educational institutions of the Middle Ages. And although the Christian Church preserved only selective, necessary remnants of ancient education (primarily Latin), it was in them that the cultural tradition that connected different eras continued.

But time passed. Growing cities and strengthening states required more and more educated people. Judges and officials, doctors and teachers were needed. The nobility became increasingly involved in education. This is how the English medieval writer Chaucer described a 14th century nobleman:

He knew how to compose quite a few songs,

Fight on spears, dance deftly.

The time has come for the formation of higher schools - universities.

Since the 13th century, the school has acted as a university. Universitas is a typical product of the Middle Ages. If the model of schools were ancient analogues, which medieval schools imitated and updated in some ways, then the university did not have its own prototype. This kind of corporate formations and free associations of students and mentors with their privileges, established programs, diplomas, titles - was not seen in antiquity either in the West or in the East.

The term “university” itself did not initially indicate a center of learning, but rather a corporate association, or, in modern language, it was a kind of “syndicate” protecting the interests of a certain category of persons. Paris is the model of organization that other universities have more or less oriented towards. In Paris, the Universitas Magistroum et Scolarum, a united corporation of masters and students, prevailed. The Cathedral School of Notre Dame was noted for its particular excellence in the 12th century, attracting students from all over Europe and soon becoming the object of attention of the Roman Curia. Autonomy took place under the direct tutelage of the king, the bishop and his chancellor. A fact worthy of mention is that the desire for freedom of teaching, as opposed to pressure from local authorities, found tangible support in the form of papal protection.