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 EDUCATION

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EDUCATION

ticism (q. v.). The Benedictine monasteries especi- ally were homes of study and depositories of the an- cient learning. Not only sjTupathetic writers, like Montalembert, but those also who are more critical, acknowledge the ser\-ice which the monks rendered to education. " In those restless ages of rude culture, of constant warfare, of perpetual lawlessness and the rule of might, monasticism offered the one opportunity for a life of repose, of contemplation, and of that leis- ure and relief from the ordinary %'ulgar but necessary duties of life essential to the student. . . . Thus it hap- pened that the monasteries were the sole schools for teaching; they offered the only professional training; they were the only universities of research ; they alone served as publishing houses for the multiplication of books; they were the only libraries for the preserva- tion of learning ; they produced the only scholars ; they were the sole educational institutions of this period" (Paul Monroe, A Text-Book in the History of Educa- tion, New York, 1907, p. 255). In addition to their prescribed studies, the monks were constantly occu- pied in copying the classic texts. "While the Greek classics owed their safe preservation to the libraries of Constantinople and to the monasteries of the East, it is primarily to the monasteries of the West that we are indebted "for the survival of the Latin classics" (Sandys, A History of Classical Scholarship, 2nd ed. Cambridge, 1906, p. 617). The specific work of edu- cation was carried on in the monaster}' school and was intended primarily for the novices. In some cases, however, a schola exterior, or outer school, was added for lay students and for aspirants to the secular priest- hood. The course of study included, besides the seven liberal arts, the reading of Latm authors and the music of the Church. Finally, through their an- nals and chronicles, the monks provided a rich store of information concerning medieval life, which is invalu- able to the historian of that period. The chief im- portance, however, of the monastic schools is found in the fact that they were conducted by an organized body of teachers who had withdrawn from the world and devoted their lives, under the guidance of religion, to literary pursuits and educational work. The same Christianity that had sanctified the family now gave to the profession of teacher a sacredness and a dignity which made teaching itself a noble vocation.

Two other movements form the climax of the Church's activity during the Middle Ages. The de- velopment of .Scholasticism (q. v.) meant the revival of Greek philosophy, and in particular of Aristotle; but it also meant that philosophy was now to serve the cause of Christian truth. Men of faith and learning like Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, far from dreading or scorning the products of Greek thought, sought to make them the rational basis of belief. A synthesis was thus effected between the highest sp)ecu- lation of the pagan world and the teachings of the- ologj'. Scholasticism, moreover, was a distinct advance in the work of education; it was an intellectual train- ing in method, in systematic thought, in severe logical reasoning, and in accuracy of statement. But taken as a whole, it furnished a great object-lesson, the pur- port of which was that, for the keenest intellect, the findings of reason and the truths of Revelation could be harmonized. Ha\dng ased the subtilties of Greek thought to sharpen the student's mind, the Church theroipon presented to him her dogmas without the least fear of contradiction. She thus united in a con- sistent whole whatever was best in pagan science and culture with the doctrine entrusted to her by Christ. If education be rightly defined as " the transmission of our intellectual and spiritual inheritance" (Butler), this definition is fully exemplified in the work of the Church during the Middle .Vges.

The same .synthetic spirit took concrete form in the universities (q. v.). In founding these the popes and the secular rulers co-operated; in university teaching

all the then known branches of science were repre- sented ; the student body comprised all classes, lajTnen and clerics, seculars and religious; and the diploma conferred was an authorization to teach everywhere. The university was thus, in the educational sphere, the highest expression of that completeness which had all along characterized the teaching of the Church ; and the spirit of inquiry which animated the medieval uni- versity remains, in spite of other modifications, the essential element in the imiversity of modern times. The changes which have since taken place have for the most part resulted in separating those elements which the Church had built into a harmonious unity. As Protestantism by rejecting the principle of authority brought about innumerable divisions in belief, so it led the way to rupture between Church and State in the work of education. The Renaissance in its ex- treme forms ranked pagan culture above everj'thing else; and the Reformation in its fundamental tenet went beyond the indi\adualism which led to the de- cline of Greek education. Once the schools were secularized, they fell readily under influences which transformed ideals, systems, and methods. Philoso- phy detached from theology formulated new theories of life and its values, that moved, at first slowly then more rapidly, away from the positive teachings of Christianity. Science in turn cast off its allegiance to philosophy and finally proclaimed itself the only sort of knowledge worth seeking. The most serious prac- tical result was the separation of moral and religious from purely intellectual education — a result which was due in part to religious differences and political changes, but also in large part to erroneous \-iews con- cerning the nature and need of moral training. Such views again are in general derived from the denial, explicit or implicit, of the supernatural order, and of its meaning for human life in its relations to God; so that, during three centuries past, the main endeavour outside the Catholic Church has been to establish edu- cation on a purely naturalistic basis, whether this be cesthetic cultvu'e or scientific knowledge, individual perfection or social service. In its earlier stages Protestantism, which laid so much stress on faith, could not consistently have sanctioned an education from which religious ideals were eliminated. But according as its principles worked out to their legiti- mate consequences, it became less and less capable of opposing the naturalistic movement. The Catholic Church has thus been obliged to carry on, with little or no help from other Christian bodies, the struggle in behalf of those truths on which Christianity is founded ; and her educational work during the modern period may be described in general terms as the steadfast maintenance of the tmion between the natural and the supernatural.

From a human point of ^new the Church was under many disadvantages. The loss of the universities, the confiscation of monastic and other ecclesiastical property, and the opposition of various governments seemed to make her task hopeless. Yet these difficul- ties only served to call forth new manifestations of her ^^tality. The Council of Trent gave the impulse by decreeing that a more thorough education of the clergy should be secured through the seminaries (q. v.) and by urging upon bishops and priests the duty of build- ing up the parochial schools. Similar measures were adopted by pro\'incial and diocesan sjTiods throughout Europe. Then came the religious orders founded for the express pm-pose of educating Catholic youth. (See especially Institute of the Brothers of the Chris- tian Schools; Society of Jescs; Or.\torians.) .\nd to these finally must be added tlie numerous con- gregations of women who devoteil their lives to the Christian training of girls. However different in or- ganization and method, these institutions had for their common purpose the spread of religious truth along with secular knowledge among all classes. Thus