A small room with a low vaulted ceiling. Rare rays of sunlight make their way through the narrow windows. Boys of different ages sit at a long table. Good clothes betray the children of wealthy parents - there are clearly no poor people here. At the head of the table is a priest. In front of him is a large handwritten book, nearby lies a bunch of rods. The priest mutters prayers in Latin. Children mechanically repeat incomprehensible words after him. There is a lesson in a medieval church school ...
The early Middle Ages are sometimes referred to as the "Dark Ages". The transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages was accompanied in Western Europe by a deep decline in culture.
Not only the barbarian invasions that finished off the Western Roman Empire 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 ancient culture (see article "Papacy"). He forbade the reading of books by ancient authors and the study of mathematics, accusing the latter of having links with magic. The most important area of culture, education, was going through particularly difficult times. Gregory I once proclaimed: "Ignorance is the 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 cross instead of a signature. Until the end of his life, he could not learn to write the founder of the Frankish state, the famous Charlemagne (see Art. "Charles I the Great"). 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 boards and sheets of parchment under his pillow and learned to draw letters in his spare time. In addition, the sovereign patronized scientists. His court in Aachen became the center of education. In a specially created school, the famous scientist and writer, a native of Britain, Alcuin taught the basics of science to the sons of Charles himself and the children of his entourage. A few educated people came to Aachen from all over illiterate Europe. Following the example of antiquity, the society of scientists who gathered at the court of Charlemagne began to be called the Academy. In the last years of his life, Alcuin became the abbot of the richest monastery of St. Martin in the city of Tours, where he also founded a school, whose students later became famous teachers of the monastery and church schools in France.
The cultural upsurge that occurred during the reign of Charlemagne and his successors (the Carolingians) was called the "Carolingian Renaissance". But he was short-lived. Soon cultural life again concentrated in the monasteries.
Monastic and church schools were the very first educational institutions of the Middle Ages. And although the Christian Church retained only selective remnants of ancient education it needed (first of all, Latin), it was in them that the cultural tradition continued, linking different eras.
The lower church schools prepared mainly parish priests. Paid education was conducted in Latin. The school was attended by children of feudal lords, wealthy citizens, wealthy peasants. The study began with the cramming of prayers and psalms (religious chants). Then the students were introduced to the Latin alphabet and taught to read the same prayers from the book. Often this book was the only one in the school (manuscript books were very expensive, and the invention of printing was still far away). When reading, boys (girls were not taken to school) memorized the most common words and expressions, without delving into their meaning. No wonder that not everyone who learned to read Latin texts, far from colloquial speech, could understand what they read. But all this wisdom was hammered into the minds of the disciples with the help of a rod.
It took about three years to learn to write. The students first practiced on a waxed board, and then learned to write with a goose quill on parchment (specially treated leather). In addition to reading and writing, they learned to represent numbers with their fingers, memorized the multiplication table, trained in church singing and, of course, got acquainted with the basics of Catholic doctrine. Despite this, many pupils of the school were forever imbued with aversion to cramming, to Latin alien to them, and left the school walls semi-literate, able to somehow read the texts of liturgical books. 1
The Catholic Church firmly held all education in its hands. In medieval monasteries, books were copied for the needs of worship, scribes were trained, libraries and schools were created.
First of all, monastic schools took shape. In some monasteries there were internal and external schools: in the first, boys studied, whom their parents gave to monasticism, and they lived in monasteries; in external schools - the children of the inhabitants of this church parish (laymen).
In the centers of church administration, gradually from episcopal dormitories, where children were sent for education, cathedral, or cathedral, schools (schools at the bishop's chair) developed. These schools in a number of places were divided into internal schools, where students lived, and external schools for the children of the laity (in the external monastic and cathedral schools, as a rule, the children of the nobility studied, less often - eminent citizens).
And finally, in a number of parish churches, more or less systematic teaching was carried out in the so-called parish schools. Only boys attended schools. Parish schools were located in some church building or in the apartment of the clergyman who took over the education of the children. They taught them to read prayers in Latin and church singing, less often they taught writing. Often, students did not understand the meaning of what was read in a foreign language.
Monastic and cathedral schools, as a rule, had special rooms intended for teaching; There were no set time limits for training. The teachers were clerics who received the skills of educational work.
In the parish school, teaching continued for several years: along with children, young men and even adults who decided to comprehend “book wisdom” studied. In the initial stage of training, the teacher read material in a Latin language that the students did not understand, and they repeated it aloud; where the students mastered the letter, they wrote down the lesson on a waxed board, and then, having learned by heart, erased. Each student was called to the blackboard and had to repeat what they had learned without hesitation.
They taught to read Latin by the letter-subjunctive method, which was based on rote memorization, and therefore the learning process was extremely difficult. Religious books served as reading material, the content of which was inaccessible to students. Before the advent of printing, books were handwritten and written in different handwriting, which made it extremely difficult to master the technique of reading. The writing technique was also very difficult.
The teacher did not spare his students for mistakes; cruel corporal punishment was very common. They were approved by the church, which taught that "human nature is sinful" and corporal punishment contributes to the salvation of the soul, expelling the "devilish beginning."
Initially, only children of the Catholic clergy were admitted to the lower schools. And from the 11th century, after the clergy were forbidden to marry, children of townspeople and some peasants began to be admitted to these schools. Those who did not intend to become a clergyman or a monk began to study in schools.
The bulk of the people did not receive an education in schools; children were brought up by their parents in everyday work. A system of craft apprenticeships developed in the families and workshops of artisans. Labor training and labor itself were carried out simultaneously: mastering labor skills, the students showed great dexterity and dexterity.
The course of study in the monasteries and in the cathedral schools gradually began to expand, it included grammar, rhetoric and dialectics (the beginnings of religious philosophy), and in some they also taught arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Thus, in part of the monastic and cathedral schools, advanced education was given. Its content was the “seven liberal arts” (septem artes liberales), which consisted of the three-way (trivium) - the first three indicated subjects - and the four-way (quadrivium) - the next four subjects. In addition, theology was taught, which was considered the "crown of sciences."
Particularly great importance was attached to grammar, which was reduced to learning the grammatical forms of the Latin language, to the analysis of various spiritual books and to the memorization of individual grammatical forms and phrases of religious and mystical significance. Rhetoric was originally reduced to the study of collections of church laws and to the preparation of business papers of a church nature, and then its task was to prepare church sermons. Dialectics prepared students for disputes on religious topics, taught them to defend religious dogmas. In arithmetic classes, students got acquainted with three actions, less often with four (since division was very complicated) and mastered the mystical meaning of numbers. Knowledge of astronomy helped in calculations for establishing the date of Easter and predictions from the stars; music education was associated with church worship. All academic subjects were given a religious and mystical character.
The newly organized church schools became the recipients of the ancient tradition, the most conspicuous manifestation of which (albeit distorted) was Latin, which became the language of educated medieval Europe. We find traces of antiquity in the programs ("trivium" and "quadrivium"), the methods of the medieval school.
During the V - XV centuries. church schools were at first the only, and then the predominant educational institutions in Europe.
School business in the 5th - 7th centuries. turned out to be in a deplorable state. Illiteracy and ignorance reigned everywhere in the barbarian states. Life barely flickered in the few church schools. Speaking of this decline, one of the educated witnesses of that era wrote: "Young people do not learn. Teachers have no students. Science has weakened and is dying."
The top of society was illiterate. So, the founders of the Merovingian dynasty could not even write in Latin. Under the first Carolingians (VIII century), the nobility was illiterate. One of the founders of the dynasty, Charlemagne (742 - 814), remained ignorant until the age of 30.
Meanwhile, the need for competent officials and clergy increased.
The Catholic Church sought to rectify the situation. Spiritual councils in Orange and Valens (529), the sixth Ecumenical Council (681) accepted appeals about the need to create schools. But these appeals were fruitless.
The secular authorities tried to initiate the development of education. Charlemagne, the creator of a vast empire, played a significant role in this. He invited teachers and learned monks from England, Ireland, Italy (Alcuin, Theodulf, Paul the Deacon, and others) to the court. The monks made up the so-called. "Carolingian minuscule" is an easy-to-read Latin script. Albin Alcuin (735 - 804) prepared for Charles "Letter on the study of sciences" and the treatise "General Exhortation", which substantiated the need for universal education and training of teachers.
Karl himself became a schoolboy at the age of 30. Two years later, he mastered Latin and the beginning of astronomy, became versed in rhetoric and literature. Karl breathed new life into the palace school created under the Merovingians. She was given the big name "academy". The Academy led a nomadic life, moving from place to place along with the court. But the capital of the empire, Aachen, remained the main residence. The students were the children of Charles, close associates of the emperor, the highest officials of the church. As an exception, people from lower classes could study. At the Academy they received an elementary education, and also studied classical Latin, theology, Roman authors (Virgil, Horace, Cicero, Seneca). The Academy cultivated a high level of education by the standards of that time. Here is how the monk Theodulf characterized such education in a poetic allegory: “At the roots of the tree of knowledge sits the mother of knowledge grammar. The branches of the tree are rhetoric and dialectics. diadem with the image of the sky and music rattling on the lyre.
Charles was one of the first major political figures of medieval Europe who realized the role of the school as an instrument of statehood. He strongly encouraged the establishment of church schools. In special capitularies (787 and 789), parishes and bishoprics were ordered to open schools for all classes, where they would teach "the creed and prayers." It was, in fact, one of the first attempts to organize compulsory and free elementary education in Europe.
But Karl's actions did not give any result. Soon after his death, the palace school ceased to exist. Among the secular feudal lords, a negative attitude towards book culture and education again prevailed. Church schools remained islands of knowledge in a sea of ignorance. Nevertheless, a start was made. It is no coincidence that today in France, as a school holiday, "Saint Charles Day" is celebrated in memory of the educational activities of one of the first kings of the Franks.
In early medieval Europe, two main types of church educational institutions developed: episcopal (cathedral) schools and monastic schools.
Church schools already existed by the 5th century. They were available primarily to the upper classes. The schools trained the clergy (inner school) and trained the laity (outer school). Educational institutions of elementary education were called small schools, advanced education - large schools. Only boys and young men studied (in small schools - 7-10-year-olds, in large schools - more adults).
In small schools, one teacher (scholastic, didaskol, magniscola) taught all subjects. As the number of students increased, he was joined by a cantor who taught church singing. In large schools, in addition to teachers, circulators supervised the order.
Episcopal (cathedral) schools until the 9th century. were the leading type of church educational institutions. The most famous were schools in Saint-Denis, Saint-Germain, Tours, Fontenelle (France), Utrecht (now the Netherlands), Luttich (modern Belgium), Halle, Reichen, Fulda (Germany) and a number of others.
During the ninth century schools attached to bishoprics and cathedral churches are in decline. Among the reasons for this can be called the devastating raids of the Normans, the competition of monastic schools. However, in the X century. the growth of the network of episcopal and cathedral schools resumed. For example, in France, similar institutions reappeared in Soissons, Verdun, Reims, Chartres, Paris (schools of Notre Dame and Saint Genevieve). Lefranc (1005-1089) can be mentioned among the founders of these schools.
Among the creators of the first monastic schools of the Middle Ages, Cassiodorus stood out. In the monastery, of which he was the abbot, there was a school with a library.
The monastic schools of England and Ireland differed markedly. The latter was known among contemporaries as the "island of scientists". Irish and English monks (among the most famous - Alcuin) created a fairly extensive educational literature on grammar, versification, astronomy, arithmetic, history and literature, participated in the school reforms of continental Europe (Alcuin, for example, as already mentioned, was the closest adviser to Charlemagne)
The first monastic schools in early feudal Europe were founded by the order of anchorites. The order was created by the monk Benedict of Nursia (480 - 533) in 529. This event looked like a response to the call of the cathedrals of the heads of the Catholic Church to open schools. The Benedictines took Cassiodorus as their model. In the monasteries of anchorites, at first, future members of the order were trained. In this case, parents gave 7-year-old boys ("dedicated children") to the care of learned monks. Then the training of the laity was organized, i.e. outside school. The European school is indebted to the Benedictines for the fact that for many centuries Latin became the only language of learning and teaching.
For six centuries, the Benedictine monastic schools remained the most influential institutions of this type. At the end of the 8th century, for example, in Western Europe there were up to 15 thousand monasteries of St. Benedict, each of which operated a school. At that time, the Benedictine schools in Rogensburg, Türlingen, Hesse (Germany) gained particular fame.
By the XIII century. the influence of the Benedictines on the spiritual life is falling. Medieval society rightly accused many members of the order of debauchery and excesses.
The leadership in the organization of monastic schools was captured by the order of the Capuchins - the Franciscans (created in 1212) and the Dominicans (created in 1216). The Capuchins taught mainly children of the upper classes. At the head of the educational institutions of the order were prominent theologians - Roger Bacon (c. 1214-1292), Thomas Aquinas (1225/26--1274).
Church schools were an important tool for religious education. They studied the Bible, theological literature. So, in schools of an advanced type, guided by the principles of Christian asceticism and piety, they preferred to study / Seneca, and not Cicero, Cato, and not Aesop or Virgil, etc. "There are enough sacred poets for you. There is no reason to pollute the minds with the excesses of Virgil's poems" , - said Alcuin to his students of the cathedral school in Tours
For the same reasons, physical education was almost completely neglected. Christian teachers were guided by the dogma: "The body is the enemy of the soul."
However, one cannot say that the school has completely forgotten that it is dealing with children. Sometimes "days of fun" were arranged, when games, wrestling, etc. were allowed. Although there were no formal vacations, children could take a break from school during numerous church holidays.
Severe punishments reigned in schools: starvation, punishment cell, beatings. Until the 11th century students were beaten on the cheeks, lips, nose, ears, back, and later - on the naked body. In the XIV - XV centuries. the rod, stick and whip was replaced by a scourge. In the XV century. this scourge became twice as long as in the previous time. Punishment was seen as a natural and charitable act. So, Charlemagne in one of his capitularies demanded to deprive negligent students of food. It was proposed to drive science with fists. It is characteristic, for example, that the name of the grammar textbook, popular in those days, "Taking care of the back," seemed to warn negligent people about inevitable physical punishment. The calls of some church leaders (in particular, Anselm of Canterbury (1033 - 1109) to somehow moderate the bacchanalia of punishments were not heard by the teachers.
The vast majority of church schools were limited to rudimentary education. In the schools of the Benedictines, for three years they were taught the basics of literacy, the singing of psalms, and the observance of religious rituals. A little wider was the program of similar Capuchin schools, which introduced religious teachings and gave general training (writing, counting, singing); sometimes the beginnings of astronomy were added to this.
The main educational books were the Abecedary and the Psalter. Abecedarius was a manual resembling a modern primer. It introduced the students to the foundations of the Christian faith, which they compared with oral instructions in their native language. When studying Abecedarius, students were divided into those who completed their education at the elementary level, and those who continued their studies. The Psalter was first memorized by heart, then (after mastering the alphabet) they were read.
Then they taught writing. They wrote on waxed wooden boards with a pointed metal stick (stylus), i.e. in the same way as in ancient times, only the elite used very expensive parchment (until the 6th century), pens and ink from soot (inks were made from animal horns).
Church schools, where advanced education was given, numbered in units. Several such schools, for example, existed at the end of the 8th century. in England, Ireland and Scotland. A number of church schools have turned into major educational centers. So, at the beginning of the XII century. at the Paris Theological School, according to contemporaries (probably somewhat exaggerated), up to thirty thousand students studied, including 20 future cardinals and 50 future bishops.
Taught in church schools of advanced education under the program of seven liberal arts. The first formulas for such a program for medieval Europe were worked out by philosophers-teachers Marcianus Capella (410-427), Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidore (570-636), Alcuin. Their seven liberal arts textbooks were popular well into the 14th century. The canon of the seven liberal arts usually included the following disciplines: grammar (with elements of literature), dialectics (philosophy), rhetoric (including history), geography (with elements of geometry), astronomy (with elements of physics), music, arithmetic.
The program of the seven liberal arts was divided into two parts: the lowest - the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and the highest - the quadrivium (arithmetic, geography, astronomy, music). The disciplines that were basic for future clergy (grammar and music) were studied especially thoroughly.
Grammar was the main subject of study. The study of Latin began with elementary rules, mastering the simplest phrases (the rules were very complex, for example, punctuation marks appeared only in the 8th century). When teaching grammar, they used the textbooks of Pricipian, Donatus, Diomedes, Alcuin (until the 9th century), Rateria (in the 10th century), Alexander (until the 15th century). Gradually textbooks were simplified and became more accessible. For example, in Alexander's study guide, Latin grammar and the Bible were presented in rhymed form.
After mastering the grammar, they moved on to the study of literature. First, short literary texts (for example, fables) were read. Then they proceeded to the rules of versification, read poetic compositions. The teacher talked about the personality of the poet, briefly reported the content of his works. The choice of literature was extremely conservative. First of all, the writings of the Church Fathers (for example, Prudentius, Seduleia) were studied. The program included works by ancient Roman authors - Seneca, Cato, Orosius and some others.
Classical Greek literature was studied in Latin translation, since the Greek language was excluded from the program, as well as the newest languages.
Dialectics and rhetoric were studied simultaneously. The first taught to think correctly, build arguments and evidence, i.e. often acted as logic; the second - the construction of phrases, the art of eloquence, which was highly valued by the clergy and the aristocracy.
The study of philosophy and dialectics relied primarily on the works of Aristotle. They also memorized the texts of St. Augustine and other church fathers. In the first centuries of the Middle Ages, rhetoric was studied according to Quintilian and Cicero, then according to Alcuin, from the 10th century. - again according to Quintilian.
Geography and geometry gave an idea of the structure of habitable space with the help of numbers. The number was not separated from the spatial form. Each number corresponded to its geometric figure. In the ratio of figures and numbers, they were looking for a deep moral and philosophical meaning. Geometry proper was studied from meager passages from Euclid. Geographical science was developed extremely poorly. There were few geographic scientists, for example, Adam of Bremen (died in 1076). The main geographical information was drawn from Arabic sources. Few knew about the Viking travels to Vinland (present-day North America).
Astronomy was primarily applied in nature and was associated with calculations of a series of numerous church holidays. Schoolchildren had to know by heart "Tsizio-lanus" - a festive church calendar of 24 verses. Studied the Ptolemaic system of the world. Due to the underdevelopment of their own astronomical knowledge, the works of Arab astronomers were used in training. On their basis, the first treatises of European scientists were created (for example, the "astronomical tables" of Alphonse of Castile (XII century).
In musical education, preference was given to sacred and secular music. It was perceived as a reflection of harmony between nature and man, society and God. Instrumental music was taught using notes marked with letters of the alphabet. Linear musical notation appeared in 1030.
The arithmetic program included not only and not so much the mastery of four arithmetic operations, since it was believed that the world was arranged by God with the help of numbers, and therefore miraculous properties were attributed to them.
The universal teaching methods were memorization and reproduction of samples. Perseverance was considered the best way to master Christian school knowledge. "How many letters the schoolchildren write on parchment, how many blows they will inflict on the devil" - this was the motto of the medieval school.
As a result, the church schools of the early Middle Ages did little good. Children from the lower strata, i.e. For the absolute majority of the population, access to education remained closed. The level of training was extremely low. Suffice it to say that in the universities of the XIII - XV centuries. it was not uncommon for first-years to be taught elementary Latin literacy, since they could not master it at school.
During the XII - XV centuries. school education gradually goes beyond the walls of churches and monasteries. This was expressed primarily in the creation of the so-called. urban schools and universities. The creation of secular educational institutions was closely connected with the growth of cities, the strengthening of the social positions of the townspeople, who needed education close to their vital needs. Such institutions were born in the depths of church education.
The first city schools appeared in the second half of the 12th - early 13th centuries. in London, Paris, Milan, Florence, Lübeck, Hamburg, etc.
This happened in different ways, for example, by transforming parish schools. At the end of the XII century. in Paris, the first secular educational institutions in France were founded - small schools. The teachers here were secular persons under the guidance of the canon of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Small schools at Notre Dame existed for about a hundred years. In 1292 there were 12 such schools, including one for girls, in 1380 - 63, including 22 for women. The children of representatives of the upper classes studied in schools. At the end of school, they knew how to read, write and count, they knew a little Latin grammar. Graduates received the title of cleric, which allowed them to be a teacher or a clergyman.
City schools were also born out of the system of apprenticeships, guild and guild schools, schools of counting for the children of merchants and artisans. Guild schools arose in the XIII - XIV centuries. They were kept at the expense of the workshops and provided general education (reading, writing, counting, elements of geometry and natural science). The training was conducted in the native language. The guild schools that arose at the same time had a similar program.
There are urban schools where teaching is conducted in Latin and native languages, as well as similar educational institutions for girls.
The first urban schools had to overcome the strict supervision of the church. The Catholic Church rightly saw these educational institutions as dangerous competitors to church education. At first, city schools were under the control of the church. The clergy cut programs, teachers argued. Gradually, however, the cities got rid of such guardianship, won the right to determine the program and appoint teachers.
Usually a city school was opened by a teacher hired by the community, who was called the rector. Then on the streets one could see, for example, such an announcement: "Who wants to learn how to read and write quickly, he can learn this here for a small reward." The rector chose his own assistants. First of all, confessors became teachers, later - former university students. Teachers were paid in cash and in kind (payment was irregular and less than in church schools). At the end of the contract, teachers could be fired, and they looked for work elsewhere. As a result, a special social group arose - itinerant teachers.
The program of urban schools, in comparison with the program of church schools, was more applied in nature. In addition to Latin, arithmetic, elements of office work, geography, technology, and natural sciences were studied.
There was a certain differentiation of city schools. Some of them, such as numeracy schools, provided an elementary education and prepared for Latin (city) schools. Latin schools and a number of other educational institutions, in turn, provided an advanced type of education. These include, in particular, those that arose in the XIV - XV centuries. colleges in France. These were secular educational institutions that served as a link between primary and higher education. Until the middle of the XV century. the colleges were a haven for the children of the poor. In the future, they become institutions for training sessions at universities. Schoolchildren lived on alms in the poorest parts of the city. Often went to robbery and murder. Later, the collegiums turned into associations of universities and colleges - educational institutions of general education.
During the Middle Ages, there were three types of schools. The lower schools, formed at churches and monasteries, aimed to prepare elementary literate clerics - clergy. The main attention was paid to the study of the Latin language (in which Catholic worship was conducted), prayers and the very order of worship. In the secondary school, which arose most often at the episcopal departments, the study of the seven "liberal arts" was practiced (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, or logic, arithmetic, geometry, which included geography, astronomy and music). The first three sciences constituted the so-called trivium, the last four - the quadrivium. Later, the study of "liberal arts" began to be carried out in higher education, where these disciplines formed the content of teaching at the junior ("artistic") faculty. The higher school was first called Studia Generalia (literally - general sciences), then this name was replaced by another - universities.
The first universities arose in the 12th century - partly from episcopal schools that had the most prominent professors in the field of theology and philosophy, partly from associations of private teachers - specialists in philosophy, law (Roman law) and medicine. The most ancient university in Europe is the University of Paris, which existed as a “free school” in the first half of the 12th and at the beginning of the 13th century (the founding charter of Philip II August 1200 on the rights of the Sorbonne). However, as early as the 11th century, the Italian higher schools began to play the role of university centers - the Bologna Law School, which specialized in Roman law, and the Salerno Medical School. The most typical University of Paris, whose charter formed the basis of other universities in Europe, consisted of four faculties: artistic, medical, legal and theological (which included the teaching of philosophy in church illumination).
Other oldest universities in Europe were Oxford and Cambridge in England, Salamanca in Spain and Neapolitan in Italy, founded in the 13th century. In the XIV century, universities were founded in the cities of Prague, Krakow, Heidelberg. In the 15th century, their numbers increased rapidly. In 1500 there were already 65 universities throughout Europe.
Teaching in medieval universities was conducted in Latin. The main method of university teaching was the lectures of professors. A common form of scientific communication was also disputes, or public disputes, arranged periodically on topics of a theological and philosophical nature. The discussions were attended mainly by university professors. But disputes were also arranged for scholars (scholars - students, from the word Schola - school).
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 the subjects of the educational process. The pedagogy of the Middle Ages has characteristic features, because, firstly, the pedagogical traditions of this era are not closed in time, they have their own historical past, well-established in their influences on modern Western European pedagogy. Secondly, a person of the Middle Ages defined himself not with ethnicity, but with a local one (village, city, family), as well as on a confessional basis, i.e. belonging to the ministers of the church or the laity. Both in the 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 a comprehensively 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 medieval (V-X centuries) - the Christian tradition, which also 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 associated with the school catechumens, where training and education were reduced to the study of Christian dogmas, leading to faith, preparation for the righteous search for "Christian birth" before baptism on Easter.
The main types of church schools were: parish, monastic, cathedral, or episcopal (cathedral). As such, there was no strict gradation in terms of the level of education of schools, but still there were some differences between them.
parochial 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 chanting, reading in Latin, and where counting and writing were sometimes taught. The only and main teachers were: the deacon or deacon, the scholastic or didascal, the magniscola, who were supposed to teach all the sciences. If the number of students increased, then the circulator specially observed the discipline.
Monastic schools developed in close connection with episcopal schools that prepared successors for the diocesan clergy. The disciples gathered in circles around the bishop, receiving deep religious knowledge. So, the teaching rules of St. Benedict of Nursia (480-533) contained the requirement 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 old motto of the monks of the Benedictine order was that the fortress of the order, its salvation and glory are in its schools. The people who led education during this period belonged to this order. The educational activity of Albin Alcuin (735 - 804) went far beyond the scope 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) later 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 descending from it (every fifth of them had a monastic school). In these schools the teachers were, as a rule, monks or priests who taught the children at fixed hours. The main subjects were the same as in parish schools, but later this circle expanded significantly, including rhetoric, religious philosophy, grammar, and, in some schools, quadrivium disciplines. In monastic schools, much 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, that a fortress without protection.
From episcopal schools to the Middle Ages develop cathedral and cathedral school, in which there were also internal cenobitic schools for the younger generation - the clergy - and open ones (for the laity), the former having an educational character, and the latter educational. Schools of this type were considered elevated, since they were located in large church centers, where the full range of medieval sciences was taught - the “seven free sciences” (lat. septem artes liberales). In order to strengthen church authority and spiritual education, in 1215 the Council decided: to establish the position of teacher of grammar and theology at all cathedrals. Bishops were instructed to pay special attention to the education of youth, and bishops were to exercise control over all diocesan parish schools.
The order of the Council read: “Since the schools serve to prepare all those who will subsequently be in charge of secular and spiritual affairs in the state and the church, we command that in all cities and villages of our diocese the parish schools should be restored again where they are fell into decay, and where they still survived, developed more and more. To this end, parish priests, magisters, 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 organized 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 students to religious exercises ... who settled in the parish under fear of a fine of 12 stamps were obliged to send their children to school, so that paganism, still smoldering in many hearts, would completely die out, ”and a report was to be submitted to the pastor every month on“ how the students succeed in Christian manners, writing and reading, and grow day by day in the fear of God, so that in the course of time they avoid evil and become more and more established in good. In theological schools in the Middle Ages, the laity were presented as both students and teachers, so this period does not distinguish between 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 the teaching of writing, reading, singing;
3) due to their connection with the monasteries, the schools were not estate, private, national and were of a public (mass) character.
In 313, when Christianity acquired the status of an official religion, the Christian communities were faced with the need to create church schools in order to spread the doctrine. In Europe of the early Christian period, there are almost no secular schools that have survived from late Antiquity. The church became the only center that contributed to the dissemination of knowledge, and the sacred teaching was the duty of the ministers of the church.
Naturally, the content of Christian education differed from secular and professional, knowledge had a pronounced religious orientation. Having become dominant, the church had to answer many questions in the field of education, including accepting or not accepting the pedagogical heritage of Antiquity.
In the period of the early Middle Ages, pedagogy rethinks the ancient heritage in education and introduces its own values - a guide to spiritual education, education by faith. Until the VI 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 becomes common European and mandatory for learning. Of course, humanity could not reject the scientific achievements of the previous era, so the main dispute arose about the means and ways of comprehending secular knowledge by a Christian.
During the Middle Ages knowledge of human experience was carried out by giving it a divine manifestation, was based on the idea of the thinkers of this era that all existing reality in the world is distributed according to the degree of proximity to God. But there were others demarcation signs 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 studied material, the teacher had to create a positive emotional mood of the process of cognition, so that the divine sphere of the student's soul was in tune with the divine meanings of the cognizable. 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 a conscious choice of a further path, a person moves from below in a straight line, and then follows the chosen path, where the left straight line is a wide and comfortable road of sin, and the right one, on the contrary, is a thorny path, the path of the righteous. In other words, the process of cognition was carried out in the whole complex of religious semantic meanings, symbols and allegories directed to the divine limits. An early medieval teacher told his student: "Wherever 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 comprehend and worship God and serve him.
Thus, the content of education had a dual focus: providing certain information and developing the spiritual intentions of the student. In the study of secular sciences, those useful things were selected that were created by God for the life of people or were piously invented by people themselves and that did not harm the main thing - education in the spirit of virtue and the fear of God. In the Middle Ages, the problem arises of choosing book or extra-book learning, the correlation of the role and significance of the word (reading, grammar, writing, etc.) with operational knowledge (craft, science, art, etc.), as well as ways to comprehend the incomprehensible to 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, an awareness of the need to assimilate church dogma by every Christian, i.e. The Western European pedagogical tradition defined the range of sciences, without which a person cannot develop and strengthen the Faith. First, a person had to master the basic skills of learning (reading, writing and counting), and then move on to comprehend the "seven liberal arts", the trivium of the verbal and quadrivium of mathematical sciences, as well as theology, theology and philosophy.
Education, as already noted, in the countries of Western Europe was conducted in Latin, there were no time frames for education. The only criterion for a student's transition to another level of education was the degree to which he mastered the material being studied.
The process of education began with memorization Psalter, because it was believed that the knowledge and repetition of psalms lead a person away from "unnecessary" vain thoughts, which was a necessary condition for the internal mood of children to comprehend the dogma, understanding the Bible.
Actually, the study of the "seven free arts" began with mastering latin grammar, which was considered the guide of the student to the world of sciences. The purpose of studying this art is to correctly read and understand the Holy Scriptures, to correctly express one's own thoughts.
Rhetoric and dialectic, on the one hand, they taught the child to compose and deliver sermons, and on the other hand, they formed the ability to think logically, argue convincingly and reasonedly, which also made it possible to avoid errors in dogma.
Mastering the highest level of education was given special importance due to the fact that this block of disciplines affirmed the dynamic perception of the “Divine Cosmos” based on the world of numbers by a person. When learning arithmetic four mathematical operations were mastered, and the interpretation of numbers was inextricably linked with the symbols of faith. So, the unit corresponded with the symbol of the one God, the two - with the symbol of the duality of Jesus Christ (Divine and human), the number three - this is the Holy Trinity, etc. Geometry supplemented its content with the 7 course of arithmetic, since it was considered as a science about the structure of the world around with the help of numbers. They also sought a philosophical basis in music, believing that it brings the heavenly and earthly spheres into harmony. Astronomy was considered as a science, also in the service of the church, since it was engaged in the calculation and calculation of church holidays, fasts.
In cathedral schools, the crowning achievement of education was the comprehension philosophy, which completed the course of the "seven free arts" and led to the comprehension of theology, mastery of the wisdom of symbolic analogies, comprehension of the picture of the world.
Considering pedagogical process in the era of the early Middle Ages, it is necessary to highlight its main trends and characteristic features:
1. The main way of learning is apprenticeship. The pedagogical tradition of mentorship in religious education manifested itself in the form of apprenticeship of a monk, a clergyman with God; in secular education (knightly, craft), the child was a student of the master. The main form of work with the student was individual work on the transfer of knowledge and instructions.
2. The high role of verbal and book learning. The structure of the content of education, its orientation are connected with the comprehension of two worlds by a person: heavenly and earthly. This mutual influence is expressed in the fact that, comprehending the real world, mastering the sciences of the earth, a person moves to the Highest wisdom, where there is the harmony of music, the arithmetic of heaven 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. Learning helps to master the Truth of the Word. Logical and grammatical education was one of the tasks of education, hence the verbal (catechetical - question-and-answer) teaching method as the main one, i.e. verbal teaching, or learning the Word.
3.Development of the student's memory since any kind of distortion of the Sacred Text, quoted treatises of the Fathers of the Church, canons, theological writings were unacceptable. The universal teaching method was the memorization of samples and their reproduction. Already in early Christian pedagogy, it was proposed to use the mechanisms of associative memory, correlating the content of the text with its location, pattern, place of memorization, etc. Memory served the student as a library.
4. The basic principle of education is authoritarianism. To a greater extent, severity, punishments were used to educate a Christian person in the "fear of God", which will 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 interconnection, since a disciplined will through Fear destroys pride that interferes with the reverence of the Lord: “Teach not rage, not cruelty, not anger, but joyfully visible fear and loving custom, sweet teaching and affectionate reasoning.”
5. The main means of teaching and educating a child is the family world. The foundations for the development of the child were laid in the family, which was a visual aid for labor education, the formation of religious beliefs, and for initial socialization.
6. The interaction of 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 the comprehension of the Divine Mysteries. This applied to any science studied. The universality of knowledge consisted 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 in the educational process of visibility. Teaching reading was carried out by a difficult letter-subjunctive method. They learned to read from the abetsedary - a manual resembling a primer. Students of this stage of education were also called abetsedarii. The sounds of speech, deposited in the children's memory, were depicted, which helped the students to connect the sound and the letter. The main aids in teaching grammar were the treatises of the thinkers of early Christianity, Antiquity, as well as the textbook by Donat Alcuin, from which the teacher read the texts, and the students, writing them on the tablets, memorized and retold. It is known that students started dictionaries, where there was a translation from Latin, and also visual material was used in the form of an image of a person, on whose body parts verbs were inscribed.
Monastic and church schools were the very first educational institutions of the Middle Ages. And although the Christian Church retained only selective remnants of ancient education it needed (first of all, Latin), it was in them that the cultural tradition continued, linking different eras. The lower church schools prepared mainly parish priests. Paid education was conducted in Latin. The school was attended by children of feudal lords, wealthy citizens, wealthy peasants. The study began with the cramming of prayers and psalms (religious chants). Then the students were introduced to the Latin alphabet and taught to read the same prayers from the book. Often this book was the only one in the school (manuscript books were very expensive, and it was still far from the invention of printing). When reading, boys (girls were not taken to school) memorized the most common words and expressions, without delving into their meaning. No wonder that not everyone who learned to read Latin texts, far from colloquial speech, could understand what they read. But all this wisdom was hammered into the minds of the disciples with the help of a rod. It took about three years to learn to write. The students first practiced on a waxed board, and then learned to write with a goose quill on parchment (specially treated leather). In addition to reading and writing, they learned to represent numbers with their fingers, memorized the multiplication table, trained in church singing and, of course, got acquainted with the basics of Catholic doctrine. Despite this, many pupils of the school were forever imbued with aversion to cramming, to Latin alien to them, and left the school walls semi-literate, able to somehow read the texts of liturgical books. Larger schools, which provided a more serious education, usually arose at episcopal sees. In them, according to the preserved Roman tradition, they studied the so-called "seven liberal arts" (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music). The liberal arts system included two levels. The initial one consisted of grammar, rhetoric, dialectics. Higher formed all the remaining free arts. From the 11th century the number of church schools grew. A little later, the rapid development of cities leads to the emergence of secular urban private and municipal (i.e., run by the city council) schools. The influence of the church was not so strong in them. Practical needs came to the fore. In Germany, for example, the first burgher schools, preparing for crafts and trade, arose: in Lübeck in 1262. , in Wismar in 1279, in Hamburg in 1281. From the XIV century. some schools teach in national languages. Growing cities and growing states needed more and more educated people. Judges and officials, doctors and teachers were needed. The nobility was increasingly involved in education.
The time has come for the formation of higher schools - universities (associations of teachers or teachers together with students). They arose either on the basis of former cathedral (episcopal) schools (this is how the University of Paris appeared in the 12th century, which grew out of the school that existed at the Notre Dame Cathedral), or in cities where illustrious teachers lived, always surrounded by capable students. Thus, from the circle of followers of the famous expert on Roman law, Irnerius, the University of Bologna, the center of legal science, developed. Classes were conducted in Latin, so the Germans, French, Spaniards could listen to the Italian professor with no less success than his compatriots. Since the students could not count on the help of the city court in numerous conflicts with local residents, they, together with the teachers, united in a union, which was called the "university" (in Latin - community, corporation). The University of Paris included about 7 thousand teachers and students, and in addition to them, booksellers, copyists of manuscripts, manufacturers of parchment, pens, ink powder, pharmacists, etc. were members of the union. achieved self-government: they had elected leaders and their own court. University teachers created associations in subjects - faculties. They were headed by deans. Teachers and students elected the rector - the head of the university. Medieval high school usually had three faculties: law, philosophy (theology) and medicine. But if the preparation of a future lawyer or physician took 5-6 years, then the future philosopher-theologian - as much as 15. But before entering one of the three main faculties, the student had to complete the preparatory - artistic faculty (the already mentioned "seven free arts). In the classroom, students listened to and recorded lectures (in Latin - "reading") of professors and masters. The teacher's erudition was manifested in his ability to explain what he read, to connect it with the content of other books, to reveal the meaning of terms and the essence of scientific concepts. In addition to lectures, debates were held - disputes on issues raised in advance. In the XIV-XV centuries. so-called colleges appear (hence - colleges). At first, this was the name of the student hostels. Over time, they also began to hold lectures and debates. The collegium founded by Robert de Sorbon, the confessor of the French king, the Sorbonne, gradually grew and gave its name to the entire University of Paris. The latter was the largest higher school of the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the XV century. in Europe, students attended 65 universities, and at the end of the century - already 79. The most famous were Paris, Bologna, Cambridge, Oxford, Prague, Krakow. Many of them exist to this day, deservedly proud of their rich history and carefully preserving ancient traditions.
