THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION
by
ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY
Part 16 out of 18
entirely in academic subjects, with some talks on school-keeping and class
organization and management added, and at times a little philosophy as to
educational work, such as habit-formation, morality, thinking, and the
training of the will. Educational journalism did not begin in either
Europe or America until near the close of the first quarter of the
nineteenth century, and it was 1850 before it attained any significance,
and 1840 to 1850 before any important pedagogical literature arose. [23]
[Illustration: FIG. 238. KARL GEORG VON RAUMER (1783-1865)]
NEW INFLUENCE. In 1843 there appeared, in Germany, the first two volumes
of a very celebrated and influential History of Education, by a professor
of mineralogy in the University of Erlangen, by the name of Karl Gcorg von
Raumer. As a young man in Paris (1808-09), studying the great mineral
collections found there, he read and was deeply stirred by Fichte's
"Address to the German Nation" (p. 567). As a result he went to Yverdon,
in 1809, and spent some months in studying the work in Pestalozzi's
Institute. This interest in education he never lost, and thereafter, as
professor of mineralogy at Halle and Erlangen, he also gave lectures on
pedagogy (_Uber Paedagogik_). The outgrowth of these lectures was his four-
volume _History of Pedagogy from the Revival of Classical Studies to our
own Time_. [24] The work was done with characteristic German thoroughness,
and for long served as a standard organization and text on the history of
the development of educational theory and practice since the days of the
Revival of Learning. The work of von Raumer stimulated many to a study of
the writings of the earlier educational reformers, and numerous books and
papers on educational history and theory soon began to appear. Most
important, for American students, was Henry Barnard's monumental _American
Journal of Education_, begun in 1855, and continued for thirty-one years.
This is a great treasure-house of pedagogical literature for American
educators.
After 1850 the organization of a technique of instruction for the
elementary-school subjects took place rapidly, in the normal schools of
all lands, as it had earlier in the German teachers' seminaries. By 1868
the study of the new Herbartian psychology and educational theory was well
under way in Germany, and by 1890 in the United States. By 1875 the
kindergarten, with its new theory of child life, was also beginning to
make itself felt in both Europe and America. Between 1850 and 1875 Weber,
Lotze, Fechner, and Wundt laid the foundations for a new psychology (R.
357), and in 1878 Wundt opened the first laboratory for the experimental
study of psychology at the University of Leipzig. In 1890 William James
published his two-volume work on _Principles of Psychology_, a book so
original and lucid in treatment that it at once gave a new teaching
organization to modern psychology. After about 1880, the extension of
education upward and outward in the United States, and the rapid
development of state school systems which had by that time begun, began to
make new demands for better scientific and legal and administrative
organization, and this gave rise to a new type of educational literature.
After von Raumer's work, probably the greatest single stimulative
influence of the mid-nineteenth century was that exerted by the marked
successes of the Prussian armies in a series of short but very decisive
wars. Against Denmark (1864) and Austria (1866), but in particular in the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Prussian armies proved irresistible.
These military operations attracted new attention to education, and "the
Prussian schoolmaster has triumphed" became a common world saying. This,
coupled with the remarkable national development of United Germany which
almost immediately set in, caused progressive nations to turn to the study
of education with increased interest. The English and Scottish
universities now began to establish lectureships in the theory and history
of education, [25] and the first university chairs in education in the
United States were founded.
THE UNIVERSITY STUDY OF EDUCATION. In no country in the world have the
universities, within the past three decades, given the attention to the
study of Education--a term that in English-speaking lands has replaced the
earlier and more limited "Pedagogy"--that has been given in the United
States. [26] After the United States the newer universities of England
probably come next. Up to 1890 less than a dozen chairs of education had
been established in all the colleges of the United States, and their work
was still largely limited to historical and philosophical studies of
education, and to a type of classroom methodology and school management,
since almost entirely passed over to the normal schools. By 1920 there
were some four hundred colleges in the United States giving serious
courses on educational history and procedure and administration, many of
them maintaining large and important professional Schools of Education for
the more scientific study of the subject, and for the training of leaders
for the service of the nation's schools.
In the great advances which have taken place in the organization of
education, during these three decades, no institution in the world has
exerted a more important influence than has "Teachers College," Columbia
University, in the City of New York, which was organized in 1887 as "The
New York College for the Training of Teachers," but since 1890 has been
affiliated with Columbia University, under its present name. This
institution has been a model copied by many others over the world; has
trained a large percentage of the leaders in education in the United
States; and has been particularly influential with students from England,
the English self-governing dominions, China, and South America.
To-day, in all the state universities and in many non-state institutions
in the United States, we find well-organized Teachers' Colleges engaged in
a work which two decades ago was being attempted by but a few institutions
anywhere, In the municipal universities of England, in Canada, in Japan
and China, and in other democratic lands, we find the beginnings of a
similar development of the scientific study of education. In these Schools
or Colleges for the scientific study of education the best thinking on the
problems of the reorganization and administration of education, and the
most new and creative work, has been and is being done. [27]
THE PROBLEMS OF THE PRESENT. Pestalozzi dreamed that he might be able to
psychologize instruction and reduce all to an orderly procedure, which,
once learned, would make one a master teacher. What he was not able to
accomplish he died thinking others after him would do. The problem of
education has had, with time, no such simple and easy solution. Instead,
with the development of state school systems, the extension of education
in many new directions to meet new needs, and the application to the study
of education of the same scientific methods which have produced such
results in other fields of human knowledge, we have come to-day to have
hundreds of problems, many of which are complex and difficult and which
influence deeply the welfare of society and the State. That these
problems, even with time, will receive any such simple solution as that of
which Pestalozzi dreamed, may well be doubted. In the days of church
control, memoriter instruction, and a school for religious ends, education
was a simple matter; to-day it partakes of the difficulty and complexity
which characterize most of the problems of modern world States. In
consequence of this important change in the character of education a great
number of important problems in educational organization, practice, and
procedure now face us for solution.
Space can here be taken to mention only the more prominent of these
present-day educational problems. On the administrative side is a whole
group of problems relating to forms of organization: the proper
educational relationships between the State and its subordinate units; the
development of a state educational policy: the types of instruction the
State must provide, and compel attendance upon; questions of taxation and
support, compulsory attendance, and child labor; the training and
oversight of teachers for the service of the State; problems of child
health and welfare; the provision of adequate and professional
supervision; the provision of continuation schools, and of industrial and
vocational training; the supervision of school buildings for health and
sanitary control; and the relation of the State to private and parochial
education. The problem of how to produce as effective and as thorough
education for leadership with a one-class school system as with a two-
class; the opening-up of opportunity for youth of brains in any social
class to rise and be trained for service; the selection and proper
training of those of superior intelligence; the elimination of barriers to
the advancement of children of large intellectual endowment; and what best
to do with those of small intellectual capacity, form another important
group of present-day educational problems. Vocational training and
technical education, and the relation and the proper solution of these
questions to national happiness and prosperity and human welfare, form
still another important group. The many questions which hinge upon
instruction; the elimination of useless subject-matter; the best
organization of instruction; proper aims and ends; moral and civic
training; the most economical organization of school work; the saving of
time; and what are desirable educational reorganizations, all these form a
group of instructional problems of large significance for the future of
public education. Still more in detail, but of large importance, are the
questions relating to the scientific measurement of the results of
instruction; the erection of attainable goals in teaching; and the
introduction of scientific accuracy into educational work. Still another
important group of problems relates to the readjustment of inherited
school organization and practices, the better to meet the changed and
changing conditions of national life--social, industrial, political,
religious, economic, scientific--brought about by the industrial and
social and scientific and political revolutions which have taken place.
These represent some of the more important new problems in education which
have come to challenge us since the school was taken over from the Church
and transformed into the great constructive tool of the State. Their
solution will call for careful investigation, experimentation, and much
clear thinking, and before they are solved other new problems will arise.
So probably it will ever be under a democratic form of government; only in
autocratic or strongly monarchical forms of government, where the study of
problems of educational organization and adjustment are not looked upon
with favor, can a school system to-day remain for long fixed in type or
uniform in character. Education to-day has become intricate and difficult,
requiring careful professional training on the part of those who would
exercise intelligent control, and so intimately connected with national
strength and national welfare that it may be truthfully said to have
become, in many respects, the most important constructive undertaking of a
modern State.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Show that education must be extended and increased in efficiency in
proportion as the suffrage is extended, and additional political functions
given to the electorate. Illustrate.
2. Trace the changes in the character of the instruction given in the
schools, paralleling such changes.
3. Explain the difference in use of the schools for nationality ends in
Germany and France.
4. Of what is the recent development of evening, adult, and extension
education an index?
5. Show why university education is more important in national life to-day
than ever before in history.
6. Compare the rate of development of universities during the nineteenth
century, and all time before the nineteenth. Of what is the difference in
rate an index?
7. Explain why Americans have been less successful in introducing science
instruction into their schools than have the Germans. Agriculture than the
French.
8. Explain the breakdown of the old apprenticeship education.
9. Explain the American recent rapid acceptance of the agricultural high
school, whereas the agricultural colleges for a long time faced opposition
and lack of interest and support.
10. Explain the continued emphasis of high-school studies leading to the
professions rather than the vocations, though so small a percentage of
people are needed for professional work.
11. In Germany this was largely regulated by the Government; show how it
would be much easier there than in the United States.
12. Show why European nations would naturally take up vocational training
ahead of the United States, Canada, Australia, or South America.
13. Explain the reasons for the new conceptions as to the value of child
life which have come within the past hundred years, in all advanced
nations. Why not in the less advanced nations?
14. Show the relation between the breakdown of the apprentice system, the
Industrial Revolution, and the rise of compulsory school attendance.
15. Show that compulsory school attendance is a natural corollary to
general taxation for education.
16. How do you account for the relatively recent interest in the education
of defectives and delinquents? Of what is this interest an expression?
17. Does the obligation assumed to educate involve any greater exercise of
state authority or recognition of duty than the advancement of the health
of the people and the sanitary welfare of the State?
18. What additional unsolved problems would you add to the list given on
the preceding page?
SELECTED READINGS
In the accompanying _Book of Readings_ the following selections
illustrative of the contents of this chapter are reproduced:
367. McKechnie, W. S.: The Environmental Influence of the State.
368. Emperor William II.: German Secondary Schools and National Ends.
369. Van Hise, Chas. R.: The University and the State.
370. Friend: What the Folk High Schools have done for Denmark.
371. U.S. Commission: The German System of Vocational Education.
372. U.S. Commission: Vocational Education and National Prosperity.
373. de Montmorency: English Conditions before the First Factory-Labor
Act.
374. Giddings, F. R.: The New Problem of Child Labor.
375. Hoag, E. B., and Terman, L. M.: Health Work in the Schools.
QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS
1. Explain why it is now so important that the State properly environ
(367) its youth.
2. What were the actuating motives behind the German Emperor's speech
(368)? Was he right in his position as to the relation of the schools and
national needs and welfare?
3. Explain Van Hise's conception (369) that the university is "The Soul of
the State."
4. Does Denmark form any exception as to what might be done (370) in any
country, such as Russia? Mexico?
5. Show that the results justified the German emphasis (371) on vocational
training. How do you explain this German far-sightedness?
6. What will be the result when many nations (372) become highly skilled?
7. Show the growth of humanitarian influences by contrasting conditions in
England in 1802 (373), and conditions to-day.
8. Would the English 1802 conditions be found in any Christian land today?
Why?
9. Show that the child-labor problem (374) is a product of the Industrial
Revolution.
10. Viewed in the light of history, what would we say of the present
opposition to health work (375) in the schools?
SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES
* Allen, E. A. "Education of Defectives"; in Butler, N. M., _Education
in the United States_, pp. 771-820.
Barnard, Henry. _National Education in Europe_.
* _Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education, Report_, vol.
I. (Document 1004, H. R., 63d Congress, 2d session, Washington, 1914.)
Cook, W. A. "A Brief Survey of the Development of Compulsory Education
in the United States"; in _Elementary School Teacher_, vol. 12,
PP. 33l-35 (March, 1912.)
* Dean, A. D. _The Worker and the State_.
Eliot, C. W. _Education for Efficiency_.
Farrington, F. E. _Commercial Education in Germany_.
Foght, H. W. _Rural Denmark and its Schools_.
Friend, L. L. _The Folk High Schools of Denmark_. (Bulletin No. 3,
1914, United States Bureau of Education.)
* Hoag, E. B., and Terman, L. M. _Health Work in the Schools_.
Kandel, I. L, "The Junior High School in European Systems"; in
_Educational Review_, vol. 58, pp. 305-29. (Nov. 1919.)
* Munroe, J. P. _New Demands in Education_.
* Payne, G. H. _The Child in Human Progress_.
Smith, A. T., and Jesien, W. S. _Higher Technical Education in Foreign
Countries_. (Bulletin No. n, 1917, United States Bureau of
Education.)
Snedden, D. S. _Vocational Education_.
* Terman, L. M. _The Intelligence of School Children_.
Waddle, C. W. _Introduction to Child Psychology_, chap. I.
Ware, Fabian. _Educational Foundations of Trade and Industry_.
CONCLUSION; THE FUTURE
We have now reached the end of the story of the rise and progress of man's
conscious effort to improve himself and advance the welfare of his group
by means of education. To one who has followed the narrative thus far it
must be evident how fully this conscious effort has paralleled the history
of the rise and progress of western civilization itself. Beginning first
among the Greeks--the first people in history to be "smitten with the
passion for truth." the first possessing sufficient courage to put faith
in reason, and the first to attempt to reconcile the claims, of the State
and the individual and to work out a plan of "ordered liberty"--a new
spirit was born and in time passed on to the western world. As Butcher
well says (R. 11), "the Greek genius is the European genius in its first
and brightest bloom, and from a vivifying contact with the Greek spirit
Europe derived that new and mighty impulse which we call Progress."
Hellenizing first the Eastern Mediterranean, and then taking captive her
rude conqueror, the Hellenization of the Roman and early Christian world
was the result.
Then followed the reaction under early Christian rule, and the fearful
deluge of barbarism which for centuries well-nigh extinguished both the
ancient learning and the new spirit. Finally, after the long mediaeval
night, came "time's burst of dawn," first and for a long time confined to
Italy, but later extending to all northern lands, and in the century of
revival and rediscovery and reconstruction the Greek passion for truth and
the Greek courage to trust reason were reawakened, and once more made the
heritage of the western world. Once again the Greek spirit, the spirit of
freedom and progress and trust in the power of truth, became the impulse
that was to guide and dominate the future. To follow reason without fear
of consequences, to substitute scientific for empirical knowledge, to
equip men for intelligent participation in civic life, to discover a
rational basis for conduct, to unfold and expand every inborn faculty and
energy, and to fill man with a restless striving after an ideal--these
essentially Greek characteristics in time came to be accepted by an
increasing number of modern men, as they had been by the thoughtful men of
the ancient Greek world, as the law and goal of human endeavor. From this
point on the intellectual progress of the western world was certain,
though at times the rate seems painfully slow.
The great events which stand before, modern history--milestones, as it
were, along the road to the intellectual progress of mankind in the
recovery of the Greek spirit--were the revival of the ancient learning,
the Protestant appeal to reason, the recovery and vast extension of the
old scientific knowledge, the assertion of the rights of the individual as
opposed to the rights of the State, and the growth of a new
humanitarianism, induced by the teachings of Christianity, which has
softened old laws and awakened a new conception of the value of child and
human life. Out of these great historic movements have come modern
scholarship, the inestimable boon of religious liberty, the firm
establishment of the idea of the reign of law in an orderly universe, the
conception of government as in the interests of the governed, the
substitution of democracy and political equality for the rule of a class
or an autocratic power, and the assertion of the right to an education at
public expense as a birthright of every child. The common school, the
education of all, equality of rights and opportunity, full and equal
suffrage, the responsibility of all for the advancement of the common
welfare, and liberty under law have been the natural consequences and the
outcome of these great struggles to set free and quicken the human spirit.
The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which marked the close of a century of
effort to crush human reason and religious liberty with violence and
oppression, marked a turning-point in the history of the world. Though
religious intolerance and bigotry might still persist in places for
centuries to come, this Peace acknowledged the futility of persecution to
stamp out human inquiry, and marked the downfall of intellectual
medievalism. The work of the political philosophers of the eighteenth
century, the establishment of a new political ideal by the leaders of the
American Revolution, and the drastic sweeping-away of ancient abuses in
Church and State in the Revolution in France, applied a new spirit to
government, ushered in the rule of the common man, and began the
establishment of democracy as the ruling form of government for mankind.
The recent World War in Europe was in a sense a sequel to what had gone
before. One result of its outcome, despite certain reactionary but
temporary old-type governments that the near future may see set up in
places, has been the elimination of the mediaeval theory of the "divine
right of kings" from the continent of Europe, and the establishment of the
democratic type of government as the ruling type of the future. Some of
the nations for a time will be in a sense experimental, as shown on the
above map, and even well-governed Germany must learn new forms and ways,
but in time government of and by and for the people is practically certain
to become established everywhere on the continent of Europe.
[Illustration: FIG. 239. THE ESTABLISHED AND EXPERIMENTAL NATIONS OF
EUROPE
The established nations are in white; the experimental nations shaded.
After a time Germany should become white also.]
Still more, the outcome of the World War would seem to indicate that
democratic forms of government are destined in time to extend to peoples
everywhere who have the capacity for using them. The great problem of the
coming century, then, and perhaps even of succeeding centuries, will be to
make democracy a safe form of government for the world. This can be done
only by a far more general extension of educational opportunities and
advantages than the world has as yet witnessed. In the hands of an
uneducated proletariat democracy is a dangerous instrument. In Russia,
Mexico, and in certain of the Central American Republics we see what a
democracy results in in the hands of an uneducated people. There, too
often, the revolver instead of the ballot box is used to settle public
issues, and instead of orderly government under law we have a reign of
injustice and anarchy. Only by the slow but sure means of general
education of the masses in character and in the fundamental bases of
liberty under law can governments that are safe and intelligent be
created. In a far larger sense than anything we have as yet witnessed,
education must become the constructive tool for national progress.
The great needs of the modern world call for the general diffusion among
the masses of mankind of the intellectual and spiritual and political
gains of the centuries, which are as yet, despite the great recent
progress made in extending general education, the possession of but a
relatively small number of the world's population. Among the more
important of these are the religious spirit, coupled with full religious
liberty and tolerance; a clear recognition of the rights of minorities, so
long as they do not impair the advancement of the general welfare; the
general diffusion of a knowledge of the more common truths and
applications of science, particularly as these relate to personal hygiene,
sanitation, agriculture, and modern industrial processes; the general
education of all, not only in the tools of knowledge, but in those
fundamental principles of self-government which lie at the basis of
democratic life; training in character, self-control, and in the ability
to assume and carry responsibility; the instilling into a constantly
widening circle of mankind the importance of fidelity to duty, truth,
honor, and virtue; the emphasis of the many duties and responsibilities
which encompass all in the complex modern world, rather than the
eighteenth-century individualistic conception of political and personal
rights; the clear distinction between liberty and license; and the
conception of liberty guided by law. In addition each man and woman should
be educated for personal efficiency in some vocation or form of service in
which each can best realize his personal possibilities, and at the same
time render the largest service to that society of which he forms a part.
The great needs of the modern world also call for that form of education
and training which will not merely impart literacy and prepare for
economic competence and national citizenship, but which will give to
national groups a new conception of national character and international
morality and create new standards of value for human effort. National
character and international morality are always the outgrowth of the
personality of a people, and this in turn calls for the inculcation of
humane ideals, the proper discipline of the instincts, the training of a
will to do right, good physical vigor, and, to a large degree, the
development of individual efficiency and economic competence. Moral and
religious instruction, as it has been given, will not suffice, because it
does not reach the heart of the problem. No nation has shown more
completely the utter futility of religious instruction to produce morality
than has Germany, where the instruction of all in the principles of
religion has been required for centuries.
The problem of the twentieth century, then, and probably of other
centuries to come, is how the constructive forces in modern society, of
which the schools of nations should stand first, can best direct their
efforts to influence and direct the deeper sources of the life of a
people, so that the national characteristics it is desired to display to
the world will be developed because the schools have instilled into every
child these national ideals. Many forces must cooeperate in such a task,
but unless the schools of nations become clearly conscious of national
needs and of international purposes, become inspired by an ideal of
service for the welfare of mankind, substitute among national groups
competition in the things of the spirit--art, architecture, music, sports,
education, letters, sanitation, housing, public works, and such
applications of science as minister to health and happiness--for
competition in the creation of material wealth, the piling-up of
armaments, the extension of national boundaries, and the present
overemphasis of a narrow nationalism, and direct the energies of coming
generations to the carrying-out of this new and larger human service,
nations must inevitably fail to reach the world position they might
otherwise have occupied, destructive international competition and warfare
will continue, and the advancement of world civilization and international
well-being will be greatly retarded thereby.
In this work of advancing world civilization, the nations which have long
been in the forefront of progress must expect to assume important roles.
It is their peculiar mission--for long clearly recognized by Great Britain
and France in their political relations with inferior and backward
peoples; by the United States in its excellent work in Cuba, Porto Rico,
and the Philippines; and clearly formulated in the system of "mandatories"
under the League of Nations--to help backward peoples to advance, and to
assist them in lifting themselves to a higher plane of world civilization.
In doing this a very practical type of education must naturally play the
leading part, and time, probably much time, will be required to achieve
any large results. Disregarding the large need for such service among the
leading world nations, the map reproduced on the opposite page reveals how
much of such work still remains to be done in the world as a whole. "The
White Man's Burden" truly is large, and the larger world tasks of the
twentieth century for the more advanced nations will be to help other
peoples, in distant and more backward lands, slowly to educate themselves
in the difficult art of self-government, gradually establish stable and
democratic governments of their own, and in time to take their places
among the enlightened and responsible peoples of the earth.
[Illustration: FIG. 240. THE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE
Transition peoples are shaded; dependant and backward peoples black. The
"mandatories" of the "League of Nations" will be in the black areas, and
will have to be carried by the nations which have made the most progress
in civilization and shown in the highest sense of responsibility for the
welfare of peoples that have come under their care. The black areas reveal
"The White Man's Burden" of the future.]
At the bottom of all this work and service lie the new human-liberty
conceptions first worked out and formulated for the world by little
Greece, In time the ideas to which they gave expression have become the
heritage of what we know as our western civilization, and the warp and
woof of the intellectual and political life of the modern world. As a
result of the Industrial Revolution, and of the new political and
commercial and social forces of our time, this western civilization, using
education as its great constructive tool, is now spreading to every
continent on the globe. The task of succeeding centuries will be to carry
forward and extend what has been so well begun; to level up the peoples of
the earth, as far as inherent differences in capacity will permit; and to
extend, through educative influences, the principles and practices of a
Christian civilization to all. In establishing intelligent and interested
government, and in moulding and shaping the destinies of peoples, general
education has become the great constructive tool of modern civilization. A
hundred and fifty years ago education was of but little importance, being
primarily an instrument of the Church and used for church ends. To-day
general education is an instrument of government, and is rightfully
regarded as a prime essential to good government and national progress.
With the spread of the democratic type the importance of the school is
enhanced, its control by the State becomes essential, its continued
expansion to include new types of schools and new forms of educational
opportunities and service a necessity, the study of its organization and
administration and problems becomes a necessary function of government,
while the training it can give is dignified and made the birthright of
every boy and girl.
FOOTNOTES
PREFACE
[1] _Syllabus of Lectures on the History of Education, with
Bibliographies_, 1st ed., 302 pp., illustrated, New York, 1902; 2d ed.,
with classified bibliographies, 358 pp., illustrated. New York, 1905.
PART I
CHAPTER I
[1] The average size of an Illinois county is 550 square miles, or an area
22 x 25 miles square. The State of West Virginia contains 24,022 square
miles, and Rhode Island 1067 square miles. Rhode Island would be
approximately 30 x 36 miles square, which would make Attica approximately
20 x 36 miles square in area.
[2] The nearest analogy we have to the Greek City-States exists in the
local town governments of the New England States, particularly
Massachusetts, and the local county-unit governmental organizations of a
number of the Southern States, though in each of these cases we have a
state and a federal government above to unify and direct and control these
small local governments, which did not exist, except temporarily, in
Greece.
If an area the size of West Virginia were divided into some twenty
independent counties, which could arrange treaties, make alliances, and
declare war, and which sometimes united into leagues for defense or
offense, but which were never able to unite to form a single State, we
should have a condition analogous to that of mainland Greece. [3] A sea-
faring people, the Greeks became to the ancient Mediterranean world what
the English have been to the modern world. Southern Italy became so
thickly set with small Greek cities that it was known as _Magna Graecia_.
On the island of Sicily the city of Syracuse was founded (734 B.C.), and
became a center of power and a home of noted Greeks. The city of
Marseilles, in southern France, dates from an Ionic settlement about 600
B.C. The presence of another seafaring people, the Phoenicians, along the
northern coast of Africa and southern and eastern Spain, probably checked
the further spread of Greek colonies to the westward. The city of Cyrene,
in northern Africa, dates from about 630 B.C. Greek colonists also went
north and east, through the Dardanelles and on into the Black Sea. (See
map, Figure 2.) Salonica and Constantinople date back to Greek
colonization. Many of the colonies reflected great honor and credit on the
motherland, and served to spread Greek manners, language, and religion
over a wide area.
[4] It is the great mixed races that have counted for most in history. The
strength of England is in part due to its wonderful mixture of peoples--
Britons, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Northmen, to mention only the more
important earlier peoples which have been welded together to form the
English people.
[5] Athens, however, permitted the children of foreigners to attend its
schools, particularly in the later period of Athenian education.
[6] "When I compare the customs of the Greeks with these (the Romans), I
can find no reason to extol either those of the Spartans, or the Thebans,
or even of the Athenians, who value themselves the most for their wisdom;
all who, jealous of their nobility and communicating to none or to very
few the privileges of their cities ... were so far from receiving any
advantage from this haughtiness that they became the greatest sufferers by
it." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his _Roman Antiquities_ book II,
chap. XVII.)
[7] In Sparta the number of citizens was still less. At the time of the
formulation of the Spartan constitution by Lycurgus (about 850 B.C.) there
were but 9000 Spartan families in the midst of 250,000 subject people.
This disproportion increased rather than diminished in later centuries.
[8] The Austrian-Magyar combination, which held together and dominated the
many tribes of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, is an analogous modern
situation, though on a much larger scale.
[9] Two Greek poems illustrate the Spartan mother, who was said to
admonish her sons to come back with their shields, or upon them. The first
is:
"Eight sons Daementa at Sparta's call
Sent forth to fight: one tomb received them all.
No tears she shed, but shouted, 'Victory!
Sparta, I bore them but to die for thee.'"
The second:
"A Spartan, his companion slain,
Alone from battle fled:
His mother, kindling with disdain
That she had borne him, struck him dead;
For courage and not birth alone.
In Sparta testifies a son."
"Go, tell at Sparta, thou that passest by,
That here, obedient to her laws, we lie."
(Epitaph on the three hundred who fell at Thermopylae.)
[10] An Athenian saying, of a man who was missing, was: "Either he is dead
or has become a schoolmaster." To call a man a schoolmaster was to abuse
him, according to Epicurus. Demosthenes, in his attack on Aeschines,
ridicules him for the fact that his father was a schoolmaster in the
lowest type of reading and writing school. "As a boy," he says, "you were
reared in abject poverty, waiting with your father on the school, grinding
the ink, sponging the benches, sweeping the room, and doing the duty of a
menial rather than of a freeman's son." Lucian represents kings as being
forced to maintain themselves in hell by teaching reading and writing.
[11] Women were not supposed to possess any of the privileges of
citizenship, belonging rather to the alien class. They lived secluded
lives, were not supposed to take any part in public affairs, and, if their
husbands brought company to the house, they were expected to retire from
view. In their attitude toward women the Greeks were an oriental rather
than a modern or western people.
[12] "We learn first the names of the elements of speech, which are called
_grammata_; then their shape and functions; then the syllables and their
affections; lastly, the parts of speech, and the particular mutations
connected with each, as inflection, number, contraction, accents, position
in the sentence; then we begin to read and write, at first in syllables
and slowly, but when we have attained the necessary certainty, easily and
quickly." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, _De Compos. Verb_, cap 25.)
[13] Fragments of a tile found in Attica have stamped upon them the
syllables _ar, bar, gar; er, ber, ger_; etc. A bottle-shaped vase has also
been found which, in addition to the alphabet, contains pronouncing
exercises as follows:
bi-ba-bu-be zi-za-zu-ze pi-pa-pu-pe
gi-ga-gu-ge mi-ma-mu-me etc.
[14] "Learning to read must have been a difficult business in Hellas, for
books were written only in capitals at this time. There were no spaces
between the words, and no stops were inserted. Thus the reader had to
exercise his ingenuity before he could arrive at the meaning of a
sentence." (Freeman, K. J., _Schools of Hellas_, p. 87.)
[15] The Greeks had no numbers, but only words for numbers, and used the
letters of the Greek alphabet with accents over them to indicate the words
they knew as numbers. Counting and bookkeeping would of course be very
difficult with such a system.
[16] "These poems, especially Homer, Hesiod, and Theognis, served at the
same time for drill in language and for recitation, whereby on the one
hand the memory was developed and the imagination strengthened, and on the
other the heroic forms of antiquity and healthy primitive utterances
regarding morality, and full of homely common sense, were deeply engraved
on the young mind. Homer was regarded not merely as a poet, but as an
inspired moral teacher, and great portions of his poems were learned by
heart. The Iliad and the Odyssey were in truth the Bible of the Greeks."
(Laurie, S. S., _Pre-Christian Education_, p. 258.)
[17] Davidson, Thos., _Aristotle_, pp. 73-75.
[18] Plutarch later expressed well the Greek conception of musical
education in these words: "Whoever be he that shall give his mind to the
study of music in his youth, if he meet with a musical education proper
for the forming and regulating his inclinations, he will be sure to
applaud and embrace that which is noble and generous, and to rebuke and
blame the contrary, as well in other things as in what belongs to music.
And by that means he will become clear from all reproachful actions, for
now having reaped the noblest fruit of music, he may be of great use, not
only to himself, but to the commonwealth; while music teaches him to
abstain from everything that is indecent, both in word and deed, and to
observe decorum, temperance, and regularity." (Monroe, Paul, _History of
Education_, p. 92.)
[19] A flat circle of polished bronze, or other metal, eight or nine
inches in diameter.
[20] "There were no home influences in Hellas. The men-folk lived out of
doors. The young Athenian from his sixth year onward spent his whole day
away from home, in the company of his contemporaries, at school or
palaestra, or in the streets. When he came home there was no home life.
His mother was a nonentity, living in the woman's apartments; he probably
saw little of her. His real home was the palaestra, his companions his
contemporaries and his _paidagogos_. He learned to disassociate himself
from his family and associate himself with his fellow citizens. No doubt
he lost much by this system, but the solidarity of the State gained."
(Freeman, K. J., _Schools of Hellas_, p. 282.)
[21] "No doubt the Athenian public was by no means so learned as we
moderns are; they were ignorant of many sciences, of much history,--in
short of a thousand results of civilization which have since accrued. But
in civilization itself, in mental power, in quickness of comprehension, in
correctness of taste, in accuracy of judgment, no modern nation, however
well instructed, has been able to equal by labored acquirements the inborn
genius of the Greeks." (Mahaffy, J. P., _Old Greek Education_.)
[22] The great institutions of the Greek City-State were in themselves
highly educative. The chief of these were:
1. The Assembly, where the laws were proposed, debated, and made.
2. The Juries, on which citizens sat and where the laws were applied.
3. The Theater, where the great masterpieces of Greek literature were
performed.
4. The Olympian and other Games, which were great religious ceremonies
of a literary as well as an athletic and artistic character, and to
which Greeks from all over Hellas came.
5. The city life itself, among an inquisitive, imaginative, and
disputatious people.
CHAPTER II
[1] The culmination came in what is known as the Age of Pericles, who was
the master mind at Athens from 459 to 431 B.C. During the fifth century
B.C. such names as Themistocles and Pericles in government, Phidias and
Myron in art, Herodotus and Thucydides in historical narrative, Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides in tragic drama, and Aristophanes in comedy,
graced Athens.
[2] With the Greeks, morality and the future life never had any
connection.
[3] The early Greek philosophers tried to explain the physical world about
them by trying to discover what they called the "first principle," from
which all else had been derived. Thales (c. 624-548 B.C.), the father of
Greek science, had concluded that water was the original source of all
matter; Anaximenes (c. 588-524 B.C.), that air was the first principle;
Heraclites (c. 525-475 B.C.), fire; and Pythagoras (c. 580-500 B.C.),
number.
[4] "There was now demanded ability to discuss all sorts of social,
political, economic, and scientific or metaphysical questions; to argue in
public in the marketplace or in the law courts; to declaim in a formal
manner on almost any topic; to amuse or even instruct the populace upon
topics of interest or questions of the day; to take part in the many
diplomatic embassies and political missions of the times--the ability, in
fact, to shine in a democratic society much like our own and to control
the votes and command the approval of an intelligent populace where the
function of printing-press, telegraph, railroad, and all modern means of
communication were performed through public speech and private discourse,
and where the legal, ecclesiastical, and other professional classes of
teachers did not exist." (Monroe, Paul, _History of Education_, pp. 109-
10.)
[5] The importance of a political career in the new Athens will be better
understood if we remember that the influence on public opinion to-day
exerted by the pulpit, bar, public platform, press, and scholar was then
concentrated in the public speaker, and that the careers now open to
promising youths in science, industry, commerce, politics, and government
were then concentrated in the political career. It must also be remembered
that the Greeks had always been a nation of speakers, both the content and
the form of the address being important.
[6] Each of these philosophers proposed an ideal educational system
designed to remedy the evils of the State. Xenophon (c.410-362 B.C.), in
his _Cyropaedia_, purporting to describe the education of Cyrus of Persia,
proposed a Spartan modification of the old Athenian system. Plato (429-348
B.C.), in his _Republic_, proposed an aristocratic socialism as a means of
securing individual virtue and state justice. He first presents the super-
civic man, an ideal destined for great usefulness among the Christians
later on. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), in his _Ethics_, and in his
_Politics_, outlined an ideal state and a system of education for it.
[7] "It is beyond all conception what that man espied, saw, beheld,
remarked, observed." (Goethe.)
"One of the richest and most comprehensive geniuses that has ever
appeared--a man beside whom no age has an equal to place." (Hegel.)
"Aristotle, Nature's private secretary, dipping his pen in intellect."
(Eusebius.)
[8] "As Alexander passed conquering through Asia, he restored to the East,
as garnered grain, that Greek civilization whose seeds had long ago been
received from the East. Each conqueror in turn, the Macedonian and the
Roman bowed before conquered Greece and learnt lessons at her feet."
(Butcher, S. H., _Some Aspects of the Greek Genius_, p. 43.)
[9] Webster, D. H., _Ancient History_, p. 302.
[10] Previous to this, paper had been made from the papyrus plant, but
Egypt, having forbidden its export, necessity again became the mother of
invention.
[11] With this exception, never before the Italian Renaissance was there
such interest in collecting books. Almost every book written in antiquity
was gathered here, and the library at Alexandria became the British Museum
or the Bibliotheque Nationale of the ancient world. Every book entering
Egypt was required to be brought to this library.
[12] He founded the science of geography. Before his time Greek students
had concluded that the world was round, instead of flat, as stated in the
Homeric poems. By careful measurements he determined its size, within a
few thousand miles of its actual circumference, and predicted that one
might sail from Spain to the Indies along the same parallel of latitude.
[13] From the tradition that seventy scholars labored on it.
[14] Henry Sumner Maine.
CHAPTER III
[1] This struggle of the common people (_plebeians_) for an equal place
with the ruling class (_patricians_) before the law, in religious matters,
and in politics, covered two and a half centuries, the old restrictions
being broken down but gradually. The most important steps in the process
were:
509 B.C. Magistrates forbidden to scourge or execute a Roman citizen
without giving him a chance to appeal to the people in their
popular assembly. This "right of appeal" was regarded as the Magna
Charta of Roman liberty.
494 B.C. Plebeian soldiers granted officers of their own
(_Tribunes_) to protect them against patrician cruelty and
injustice.
451-449 B.C. Laws must be written--Code commission appointed. Result,
the _Laws of the Twelve Tables_ (R. 12); these mark the
beginning of the great Roman legal system.
445 B.C. Intermarriage between the two orders legalized.
367 B.C. Right to hold office granted, and one of the Consuls elected
each year to be a plebeian.
250 B.C. By this date the distinctions between the two orders had
disappeared; patricians and plebeians intermarried and formed one
compact body of citizens in the Roman State.
[2] "The scholar who compares carefully the Greek constitutions with the
Roman will undoubtedly consider the former to be finer and more finished
specimens of political work. The imperfect and incomplete character which
the Roman constitution presents, at almost any point of its history, the
number of institutions it exhibits which appear to be temporary expedients
merely, are necessary results of its method of growth to meet demands as
they rose from time to time; they are evidence, indeed, of its highly
practical character." (Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle
Ages_, 2d ed., p. 20.)
[3] The same opportunity came to Athens after the Persian Wars and to
Sparta after the Peloponnesian War, but neither possessed the creative
power along political and governmental lines, or the tolerance for the
ideas and feelings of subject peoples, to accomplish anything permanent.
Rome succeeded where previous States had failed because of her larger
insight, tolerance, patience, and constructive to create a great world
empire.
[4] Caesar extended Roman citizenship to certain communities in Gaul and
in Sicily, and began the further extension of the process of assimilation
by taking the conquered provincial into citizenship in the Empire. This
was carried on and extended by succeeding Emperors until finally, in 212
A.D., Roman citizenship was extended to all free-born inhabitants in all
the provinces.
[5] For example, Balbus, a Spaniard, was Consul in Rome forty years before
the Christian era, and another Spaniard, Nerva, had become Emperor before
the close of the first century A.D. Many commanders in the army and
governors in the provinces were provincials by birth.
[6] Roman citizenship was much more than a mere name. A Roman citizen
could not be maltreated or punished without a legal trial before a Roman
court. If accused in a capital case he could always protect himself from
what he considered an unjust decision by an "appeal to Caesar"; that is,
to the Emperor at Rome. The protection of law was always extended to his
property and himself, wherever in the Roman Empire he might live or
travel.
[7] Both literature and inscriptions testify abundantly to the
affectionate regard in which Roman rule was held. The rule may have been
far from perfect, judged from a modern point of view, but it was so much
better and so much more orderly than anything that had gone before that it
was accepted in all quarters.
[8] Every house was protected from the evil spirits of the outside world
by Janus, and had its sacred fire presided over by Vesta. Every house had
its protecting Lares. The cupboard where the food was stored was blest by
and under the charge of the Penates. The daily worship of these household
deities took place at the family meal, the father offering a little food
and a little wine at the sacred hearth. Every house father, too, had his
guardian Genius, whose festival was celebrated on the master's birthday.
In a similar fashion the State had its temples, its sacred fire and votive
offerings, and various divinities ruled the elements and sent or withheld
success.
Almost every activity in life was presided over by some deity, whom it was
necessary to propitiate before engaging in it. Davidson says, with
reference to the practical nature of their religion, that "While the
Athenians rejoiced before their gods, the Romans kept a debtor and
creditor account with theirs, and were very anxious that the balance
should be on the right side."
[9] "Among our ancestors," says Pliny, "one learned not only through the
ears, but through the eyes. The young, in observing the elders, learned
what they would soon have to do themselves, and what they would one day
teach to their successor."
[10] Such careful physical training as was given in a Greek _palaestra_
and _gymnasium_ would have been regarded by the Romans as most effeminate.
Unlike the Greeks, who strove for a harmonious bodily development, the
Romans exercised for usefulness in war. Cicero exclaims, with reference to
Greek gymnasial training: "What an absurd system of training youth is
exhibited in their _gymnasia_! What a frivolous preparation for the labors
and hazards of war!"
[11] Macaulay, in his _Horatius_, describes the results of the education
of this early period as follows:
"Then none were for the party,
But all were for the State;
And the rich man loved the poor,
And the poor man loved the great.
Then lands were fairly portioned
And spoils were fairly sold;
For the Romans were like brothers
In the brave days of old."
[12] "The Romans," says the historian Wilhelm Ihne, "were distinguished
from all other nations, not only by the extreme earnestness and precision
with which they conceived their law and worked out the consequences of its
fundamental principles, but by the good sense which made them submit to
the law, once established, as an absolute necessity of political health
and strength. It was this severity in thinking and acting which, more than
any other cause, made Rome great and powerful."
[13] The lot of a captive in war, everywhere throughout the ancient world,
was to be taken and sold as a slave by his captors. Many educated Greeks
were thus taken in the capture of Greek cities in southern Italy and sold
as slaves in Rome. These were let out by their masters as teachers of the
new learning. Even the thrifty Cato, who vigorously opposed the new
learning on principle, was not averse to permitting his educated Greek
slaves to conduct schools and thus add to his private fortune.
[14] These men had little choice otherwise. Grain from Spain and Africa
became so cheap that a farmer could not raise enough on his small farm to
pay his taxes and support his family, so he was obliged to sell his land
to men who turned it into large cattle and sheep ranches. He would not
emigrate to the provinces, as Englishmen have done to Canada and
Australia, but instead went to the cities, where he led a hand-to-mouth
existence in a type of tenement house. It was from such sources that the
Roman mob, demanding free grain and entertainment in return for its votes,
was made up.
[15] Arithmetic was not easy for the Romans, partly because they had no
figure or other sign for zero, partly because they used a decimal system
for counting and a duodecimal for their money, and partly because the
Roman system of notation (I, V, X, L, C, D, M) did not adapt itself to
quick calculation. Try, for example, these simple sums:
Add: CCLVII Subtract: LXVIII
CIX XXXIV
------ ------
Multiply: CXXV Divide: XII |CXXXII
XII ------
----
[16] Finger reckoning (whence _digits_) with the Romans attained a
prominence probably never reached with any other people. Bills and
accounts were reckoned up on the fingers, in the presence of the patron.
Eighteen positions of the fingers of the left hand stood for the nine
units and the nine tens, and eighteen positions of the fingers of the
right hand stood for the nine hundreds and the nine thousands. For larger
sums, such as ten thousand and more, various parts of the body were
touched. Any one who betrayed, according to Quintilian, "by an uncertain
or awkward movement of his fingers, a want of confidence in his
calculations," was thought to be but imperfectly trained in arithmetic.
[17] There was much complaint that parents were slow with their fees, and
at times forgot them entirely if the boy did not turn out well. Finally,
in the reign of Diocletian (284-305 A.D.), in an effort to relieve the
distress of schoolmasters, prices were legally fixed at approximately the
equivalent of $1.20 per month per pupil for teaching reading and $1.80 for
arithmetic, measured in money values of a decade ago. These were regarded
as "hard times prices."
[18] "Reading aloud, with careful attention to pronunciation, accent,
quantity, and expression, formed an important part of the training in
literature of a Latin youth. Correct reading of Latin was a much more
difficult art, as practiced, than is the reading of English, as all of us
well know who learned properly to intone our
"Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit."
The lack of use of small letters and spacing between the words (R. 21), as
well as poor punctuation, also added to the difficulty.
[19] A nonsensical minuteness was followed here, and many trivialities
were emphasized. Juvenal tells us, in his Seventh Satire, written about
130 A.D., that "a teacher was expected to read all histories and know all
authors as well as his finger ends. That, if questioned, he should be able
to tell the name of Anchises' nurse, and the name and native land of the
stepmother of Anchemotus--tell how many years Acestes lived--how many
flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians." This reminds us
of some of the dissected study of English and Latin until recently given
in our colleges and high schools.
[20] Quintilian well states the aim of this higher education when he says
that "the man who can duly sustain his character as a citizen, who is
qualified for the management of public and private affairs, and who can
govern communities by his counsels, settle them by means of laws, and
improve them by judicial enactments, can certainly be nothing else but an
orator."
[21] In his _Lives of Eminent Grammarians and Rhetoricians_, chap. I.
Suetonius lived from 75 to 160 A.D., and was an advocate at Rome and
private secretary to the Emperor Hadrian.
[22] There was a general dread of Greek higher learning on the part of the
older Romans, and this found expression in many ways. Among these was an
edict of the Senate, in 161 B.C., directing the Praetor to see that "no
philosophers or rhetoricians be suffered at Rome" (R. 20), a decree which
could not be enforced, and the edict of the Censors, in 92 B.C. (R. 20),
expressing their disapproval of the Latin schools of rhetoric.
[23] These seven studies became the famous studies of the church schools
of the Middle Ages, with Grammar as the greatest and most important study
(see chap. VII; R. 74). The curriculum of the Middle Ages was a direct
inheritance from Rome.
[24] See Quintilian, _Institutes of Oratory_, book I, chap. X, 22, 37, and
46. This chapter is devoted largely to a description of the use of these
studies.
[25] Sample questions which were debated to bring out the fine
distinctions in Roman Law and Ethics were:
(a) Was a slave about whose neck a master had hung the leather or
golden token (worn by free youths only), in order to smuggle him
past the boundary, freed when he reached Roman soil wearing this
insignia of freedom?
(b) If a stranger buys a prospective draught of fishes and the
fisherman draws up a casket of jewels, does the stranger own the
jewels?
[26] In the later centuries of the Empire, people went to hear a man who
could orate or declaim, as people now do to hear a great political orator,
a revivalist preacher, or a popular actor or singer. A form of amusement
for distinguished travelers passing through a city was to have some one
orate before them. "This power of using words for mere pleasurable
effect," says Professor Dill, in his _Roman Society in the Last Century of
the Western Empire_, "on the most trivial or the most extravagantly absurd
themes, was for many ages, in both West and East, esteemed the highest
proof of talent and cultivation."
[27] Each Greek rhetorician in Rome was given one hundred _sestertia_
(about $4000) yearly from the Imperial Treasury, Quintilian probably being
one of the first to receive a state salary.
[28] "He [Claudius] was also attentive to provide a liberal education for
the sons of their chieftains;... and his attempts were attended with such
success that they, who lately disdained to make use of the Roman language,
were now ambitious of becoming eloquent. Hence the Roman habit began to be
held in honor, and the toga was frequently worn." Tacitus's Account of
Britain, _Agricola_, chap. 21.
[29] England offers us the nearest modern analogy. This was one of the
last of the great European nations to establish popular education, but for
centuries previous thereto the great private, tuition, grammar schools of
England--Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, and others--together with the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, prepared a succession of leaders for
the State--men who have steered England's destinies at home and abroad and
made her a great world power.
[30] This grew up, as all law grows, by enacted laws and decisions of the
courts, and in time came to be an enormous body of law. Lacking the
printed law books and indices of to-day, to obtain a knowledge of Roman
law became a formidable task. Finally the practical Roman mind codified
it, and reduced it to system and order. The Theodosian Code, of 438 A.D.,
and the Justinian Code, of 528 and 534 A.D., were the final results. These
codes were compact, capable of duplication with relative ease, and later
became the standard textbooks throughout the Middle Ages. The great
importance of these codifications may be appreciated when we know that
almost all the original laws and decisions from which they were compiled
have been lost.
[31] The Romanic countries--France, Spain, Italy--have drawn their law
most completely from the Justinian Code. Due to Spanish and French
occupation of parts of America, Roman legal ideas also entered here, the
Louisiana Code of 1824 being Roman in law and technical expressions and
spirit, though English in language. Spanish and Portuguese settlement of
the South American continent has carried Roman law there.
[32] The Roman alphabet is the alphabet of all North and South America,
Australia, Africa, and all of Europe except Russia, Greece, Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and a few minor Slavic and Teutonic peoples. Even in
Germany and Austria, Roman letters were rapidly superseding the more
difficult German letters in the printing of papers and books for the
better-educated classes before the Great War. In India, Siam, China, and
Japan, Roman letters are also being increasingly used.
CHAPTER IV
[1] The Farmer's Calendar, given in the accompanying _Book of Readings_
(R. 14), illustrates very well the gods and sacrifices for one phase of
Roman life. Petronius, in his Satires, says, "Our country is so full of
divinities that it is much easier to find a god than a man."
[2] "The chief objects of pagan religion were to foretell the future, to
explain the universe, to avert calamity, and to obtain the assistance of
the gods. They contained no instruments of moral teaching analogous to our
institution of preaching, or to the moral preparation for the reception of
the sacrament, or to confession, or to the reading of the Bible, or to
religious education, or to united prayer for spiritual benefits. To make
men virtuous was no more the function of the priest than of the
physician." (Lecky, W. E. H., _History of European Morals_, chap, iv.)
[3] Seneca (4-65 A.D.), the tutor of the Emperor Nero, and the Greek
freedman Epictetus (d. 100 A.D.) both expounded Stoicism at Rome during
the first Christian century, and the _Thoughts_ of the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius (161-180 A.D.) represents one of the finest expositions of the
application of this philosophy to the problems of human life.
[4] See Proverbs, xxxi, for a good statement of the ancient Hebrew ideal
of womanhood.
[5] This collective term is applied to the first five books of the Old
Testament, and includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. These five books form a wonderful collection of the
historical and legal material relating to the wanderings and experiences
and practices of the people.
[6] Chapter 1 of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew gives, in detail
(1-16), the genealogy of Jesus, concluding with the following verse:
"17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen
generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are
fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto
Christ are fourteen generations."
[7] To many of these churches he wrote a series of epistles. These
constitute a little more than one fourth of the New Testament. See
accompanying _Book of Readings_ (or Romans, I, 1-17) for the introductory
part of Paul's Epistle to the Romans.
[8] "Its missionaries were Jews, a turbulent race, not to be assimilated,
and as much despised and hated by pagan Rome as by the mediaeval
Christians. Wherever it attracted any notice, therefore, it seems to have
been regarded as some rebel faction of the Jews, gone mad upon some
obscure point of the national superstition--an outcast sect of an outcast
race." (Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, p. 39.)
[9] "Starting from an insignificant province, from a despised race,
proclaimed by a mere handful of ignorant workmen, demanding self-control
and renunciation before unheard of, certain to arouse in time powerful
enemies in the highly cultivated and critical society which it attacked,
the odds against it were tremendous." (Ibid., p. 41.)
[10] "It is not easy to imagine how, in the face of an Asia Minor, a
Greece, an Italy the Roman split up into a hundred small republics; of a
Gaul, a Spain, an Africa, an Egypt, in possession of their old national
institutions, the apostles could have succeeded, or even how their project
could have been started. The unity of the Empire was a condition precedent
of all religious proselytism on a grand scale if it was to place itself
above the nationalities." (Renan, E., _Hibbert Lectures, 1880; Influence
of Rome on the Christian Church_.)
[11] In Acts xxv, 1-12, it is recorded that the Apostle Paul, accused by
the Jews and virtually on trial for his life before the provincial
governor Festus, fell back on his Roman citizenship and successfully
"appealed to Caesar." (See footnote 3, page 57.)
[12] "The miracle of miracles, greater than dried-up seas and cloven
rocks, greater than the dead rising again to life, was when the Augustus
on his throne, Pontiff of the gods of Rome, himself a god to the subjects
of Rome, bent himself to become the worshiper of a crucified provincial
of his Empire." (Freeman, E. A., _Periods of European History_, p. 67.)
[13] In 319 and 326 the clergy were exempted from all public burdens, and
only the poor were to be admitted to the clergy. In 343 the clergy were
exempted "from public burdens and from every disquietude of civil office."
In 377 all clergy were exempted from personal taxes. (See R. 38.)
[14] From the Roman world the idea has spread, through the Greek Catholic
Church, to Greece, parts of the Balkans, and Russia; through the Roman
Catholic Church to all western Europe and the two Americas; and through
the Protestant churches which sprang from the Roman Catholic by secession,
and the Mohammedan faith, to include almost all the world. Only among
uncivilized tribes and in Asia do we find any great number of
fundamentally different religious conceptions.
[15] Paul to the Romans (x, 9) stated the fundamentals of belief as
follows: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved."
[16] M. Boissier. _La Fin du Paganisme_, vol. 1, p. 200.
[17] _Justin Martyr_ (105?-167), a former Greek teacher and philosopher,
continued to follow his profession, wear his Greek philosopher's garb, and
held that the teachings of Christianity were already contained in Greek
philosophy, and that Plato and Socrates were Christians before the coming
of the Christian faith.
_Clement_ (c. 160-c. 215), the successor of Pantaeus as head of the
catechetical school at Alexandria, held to the harmony of the Gospels with
philosophy, and that "Plato was Moses Atticized."
_Origen_ (c. 185-c. 254), a pupil and successor of Clement, and the most
learned of all the early Christian Fathers, labored to harmonize the
Christian faith with Greek learning and philosophy, and did much to
formulate the dogmas of the early Church.
_Saint Basil_ (331-379) tried to allay the rising prejudice against pagan
learning, and to show the helpfulness to the Christian life of the Greek
literature and philosophy.
_Gregory of Nazianzus_ (c. 330-c. 390) was filled with indignation and
protested loudly at the closing of the pagan schools to Christians by the
edict of the Emperor Julian, in 362.
[18] _Tertullian_ (c. 150-230) had been well educated in Greek literature
and philosophy, and had attained distinction as a lawyer.
_Saint Jerome_ (c. 340-420) was saturated with pagan learning, but later
advised against it.
_Saint Augustine_ (354-430), the master mind among the Latin Fathers, was
for years a teacher of oratory and rhetoric in Roman schools, and had
written part of an encyclopaedia on the liberal arts before his
conversion. Many others who became prominent in the Western Church had in
their earlier life been teachers in the Roman higher schools.
[19] Dreaming that he had died and gone to Heaven, he was asked, "Who art
thou?" On replying, "A Christian," he heard the awful judgment, "It is
false: thou art no Christian; thou art a Ciceronian; where the treasure
is, there the heart is also."
[20] The knowledge of Greek remained alive longer in Ireland than anywhere
else in the western world, being known there as late as the seventh
century. Greek was also preserved in parts of Spain for two centuries
after it had died out in Italy.
[21] In the West there was no other great city than Rome. At the period of
its maximum greatness, in the first century B.C., it was a city of
approximately 450,000 people.
[22] After many struggles and conflicts between the Bishops of
Constantinople, Alexandria, and Rome, the Bishop of Rome was finally
recognized by the second great Church Council, held at Constantinople in
381, as the head of the entire Church (Canon 3), corresponding to the
Emperor on the political side of the dying Empire. The separation of the
eastern and western churches was rapid after this time. (See Map, p. 103.)
[23] The word _pagan_ as applied to unbeliever illustrates this progress
of the Church, being derived from the Latin _paganus_, meaning countryman,
villager, rustic.
[24] See the accompanying _Book of Readings_ for a drawing and detailed
explanation of the monastery of Saint Gall, in Switzerland (R. 69). This
was one of the most important monasteries of the Middle Ages.
PART II
CHAPTER V
[1] The period from the reign of Augustus Caesar through that of Marcus
Aurelius (31 B.C.-192 A.D.) was known as "the good Roman peace." No other
large section of the western world has ever known such unbroken peace and
prosperity for so long a time. Piracy ceased upon the seas, and trade and
commerce flourished. The cities and the great middle class in the
population were prosperous. Travel was safe and common, and men traveled
both for business and pleasure. The Christian State within a State had not
yet taken form. Literature and learning flourished. The law became milder.
The rights of the accused became better recognized. A certain broad
humanity pervaded the administration of both law and government. There was
much private charity. Hospitals were established. Women were given greater
freedom, larger intellectual advantages, and a better position in the home
than they were to know again until the nineteenth century. It was the
Golden Age of the Empire. Toward the close of the period the Christian
Father, Tertullian, wrote: "Every day the world becomes more beautiful,
more wealthy, more splendid. No corner remains inaccessible.... Recent
deserts bloom.... Forests give way to tilled acres.... Everywhere are
houses, people, cities. Everywhere there is life."
[2] Slavery in Rome came to be much more demoralizing than ever was the
case in the United States. Instead of an ignorant people of an inferior
race, the Roman slave was often the superior of his master--the
unfortunate captive in an unsuccessful war against an oppressor. The
holding of such educated and intelligent people in slavery was far more
degrading to a ruling people than would have been the case had their
slaves been ignorant and of inferior racial stock.
[3] The Roman State had come to be essentially a collection of cities.
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Corinth, Carthage, Ephesus, and Lyons were
great cities, judged even by present-day standards, throbbing with varied
industries and a strong intellectual life. In addition there were hundreds
of other cities scattered all over the Empire, each with its own municipal
life, while on the frontier were stockaded villages serving as centers of
trade with the barbarian tribes beyond.
[4] Chief among the new ideals that sapped the old Roman strength must be
mentioned the new Christian religion, with its doctrine of other-
worldliness and its system of government not responsible to the Empire.
Another influence was the rise of a super-civic philosophy, derived
chiefly from the writings of Plato (see footnote 1, page 42), which held
that certain men could be above the State and yet by their wisdom in part
direct it. The two influences combined to undermine the resisting strength
of the State.
[5] Not only was the future of western European civilization settled
there, but that of North and South America as well. Had Saracenic
civilization come to dominate Europe, the Koran might have been taught to-
day in the theological schools of Boston, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Buenos Aires, and Valparaiso, and the Christian religion been
the possession only of the Greek and Russian churches, while our
literature and philosophy and civilization would have been tinctured,
through and through, with oriental ideas and Mohammedan conceptions.
[6] It is hard for us to imagine what happened, for the Indians we know
to-day represent a much higher grade of civilization than did the German
invaders. If we could imagine the United States overrun by the Indians of
a hundred and fifty years ago, as the German tribes overran the Roman
Empire, and becoming the rulers of a people superior to them in numbers
and intellect, we should have something analogous to the Roman situation.
[7] As allies, citizens, soldiers, colonists, and slaves the Germans had
long been filtering into the Roman world, and the Roman world was in part
Germanized before the barriers were broken. These German-Romans helped to
assimilate the Germans who came later, much as Italian-Americans in the
United States help to receive and assimilate new Italians when they come.
[8] "The historical importance of the mere fact that it was an organic
unity which Rome established, and not simply a collection of fragments
artificially held together by military force, that the civilized world was
made, as it were, one nation, cannot be overstated.... It was a union, not
in externals merely, but in every department of thought and action; and it
was so thorough, and the Gaul became so completely a Roman, that when the
Roman government disappeared he had no idea of being anything else than a
Roman.... It was because of this that, despite the fall of Rome, Roman
institutions were perpetual." (Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the
Middle Ages_, 2d ed., p. 30.)
[9] A Germanic king, when he feared no Roman general or emperor, could
usually be made to stand in awe when a Christian priest or bishop appealed
to Heaven and the saints, and threatened him with eternal hell-fire if he
did not do his bidding.
[10] The Church, it must be remembered, maintained its separate system of
government and kept up the old forms of the Roman law. It had also its
courts and its exemptions for the clergy, and these it forced the
barbarians to respect. During half a dozen centuries it was the chief
force that made life tolerable for myriads of men and women, and almost
the only force upholding any semblance of humane ideals.
[11] Clotilda, wife of the heathen Clovis, was a Burgundian princess and a
devout Christian, who had long tried to persuade her husband to accept her
faith. In 496, during a battle with the Alemanni, near the present city of
Strassburg, Clovis vowed that if the God of Clotilda would give him
victory, he would do as she desired. The Alemanni were crushed, and he and
three thousand of his chiefs were at once baptized.
[12] Draper, John W., _Intellectual Development of Europe_, vol. II, pp.
145-46.
[13] The extent of the Benedictine order alone may be seen from the
Benedictine statement that "Pope John XXII, who died in 1334, after an
exact inquiry, found that, since the first rise of the order, there had
been of it 24 popes, near 200 cardinals, 7000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops,
15,000 abbots of renown, above 4000 saints, and upwards of 37,000
monasteries. There had been likewise, of this order, 20 emperors, 10
empresses, 47 kings and above 50 queens, 20 sons of emperors and 48 sons
of kings, about 100 princesses and daughters of kings and emperors,
besides dukes, marquises, earls, countesses, etc., innumerable." From this
it may be inferred how fully the Church was the State during the long
period of the Middle Ages.
[14] Draper, John W., _Intellectual Development of Europe_, vol. I, p.
437.
CHAPTER VI
[1] From the sixth to the twelfth centuries.
[2] The story which has come down to us of the German warrior who, on
being shown into an anteroom, saw some ducks swimming in the floor and
dashed his battle-axe at them to see if they were real, thus ruining the
beautiful mosaic, is typical of the time.
[3] During the period of Rome's greatness the publishing business became
an important one. Manuscripts were copied in numbers by trained writers,
and books were officially published. Both public and private libraries
became common, men of wealth often having large libraries. These were
found in the provincial towns as well as in the large Italian cities, and
in country villas as well as in town houses.
By the beginning of the eighth century books had become so scarce that
monasteries guarded their treasures with great care (R. 65), and books
were borrowed from long distances that copies might be made.
[4] Charlemagne (King of Frankland, 768-814), for example, found it
necessary to order that priests and monks must show themselves capable of
changing the wording of the masses for the living and the dead, as
circumstances required, from singular to plural, or from masculine to
feminine.
[5] Longfellow's poem _Monte Cassino_ is interesting reading here. Of
Benedict he says:
"He founded here his Convent and his Rule
Of prayer and work, and counted work as prayer;
The pen became a clarion, and his school
Flamed like a beacon in the midnight air."
[6] Sometimes as early as eleven to twelve years of age. The novitiate
course was two years, but as the vows could not be taken before eighteen,
the course of instruction often covered six to eight years.
[7] To teach a novice to copy accurately a manuscript book was quite a
different thing from the teaching of writing to-day, It was more nearly
comparable to present-day instruction in lettering in a college
engineering course, as it called for a degree of workmanship and accuracy
not required in ordinary writing.
[8] The Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible made by Saint Jerome, at
the close of the fourth century. The Old Testament he translated mostly
from the Hebrew and Chaldaic, and the New Testament he revised from the
older Latin versions. This is the only version of the Scriptures which the
Roman Catholic Church admits as authentic.
[9] Letters from one monastery to another, and from one country to
another, begging the loan of some ancient book, have been preserved in
numbers. Lupus, Abbot of Ferrieres in France, for example, wrote to Rome
in 855, and addressing himself to the Pope in person, requested a complete
copy of Cicero's _De Oratore_, which he desired.
[10] The Missal is a book containing the service of the mass for the
entire year. The Psalter the book of Psalms.
[11] From _manu scriptum_, meaning written by hand.
[12] So expensive of time and effort was the production of books by this
method that many of the manuscripts now extant were written crosswise on
sheets from which the previous writing had been largely erased by chemical
or mechanical means. How many valuable ancient manuscripts were lost in
this manner no one knows. Fortunately the practice was not common until
after the thirteenth century, when the rise of the universities and the
spread of learning made new demands for skins for writing purposes.
[13] That the printing was not always carefully done is shown by the
constant need, throughout the Middle Ages, of correct copies for
comparison. The following injunction of the Abbot Alcuin to the monks at
Tours, given at the beginning of the ninth century, is illustrative of the
need for care in copying:
"Here let the scribes sit who copy out the words of the Divine Law,
and likewise the hallowed sayings of Holy Fathers. Let them beware of
interspersing their own frivolities in the words they copy, nor let a
trifler's hand make mistakes through haste. Let them earnestly seek
out for themselves correctly written books to transcribe, that the
flying pen may speed along the right path. Let them distinguish the
proper sense by colons and commas, and set the points, each one in its
due place, and let not him who reads the words to them either read
falsely or pause suddenly. It is a noble work to write out holy books,
nor shall the scribe fail of his due reward. Writing books is better
than planting vines, for he who plants a vine serves his belly, but he
who writes a book serves his soul."
[14] West, A. F., _Alcuin_, pp. 72-73.
[15] The largest monastic library on the Continent was Fulda, which
specialized in the copying of manuscripts. In 1561 it had 774 volumes. In
England the largest collections were at Canterbury, which in the
fourteenth century possessed 698 volumes, and at Peterborough, which had
344 volumes at about the same time. The library of Croyland, also in
England, burned in 1091, at that time contained approximately 700 volumes.
These represented the largest collections in Europe.
[16] The _Hortus Delicarum_ of the Abbess Herrard, of the convent of
Hohenburg, in Alsace, was a famous illustration of artistic workmanship.
This was an attempt to embody, in encyclopaedic form, the knowledge of her
time. The manuscript was embellished with hundreds of beautiful pictures,
and was long preserved as a wonderful exhibition of mediaeval skill. It
was lost to civilization, along with many other treasures, when the
Prussians bombarded Strassburg, in 1870.
[17] He there "enjoyed advantages which could not perhaps have been found
anywhere else in Europe at the time--perfect access to all the existing
sources of learning in the West. Nowhere else could he acquire at once the
Irish, the Roman, the Gallician, and the Canterbury learning; the
accumulated stores of books which Benedict (founder and abbot) had bought
at Rome and at Vienne; or the disciplinary instruction drawn from the
monasteries on the Continent, as well as from Irish missionaries." (Bishop
Stubbs, _Dictionary of Christian Biography_, article on Bede.)
[18] West, A. F., _Alcuin_, pp. 45-47.
[19] _Annals of Xanten_, 846 A.D.
[20] _Ibid._, 851 A.D.
[21] _Annals of Saint Vaast_, 884 A.D.
[22] It is related that ignorant court officials, fearing the king's
displeasure, sought to learn from their children.
[23] Through Alfred's efforts, the compilation of the _Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle_ was begun, that the people of England might be able to read the
history of their country in their own language.
CHAPTER VII
[1] Anderson tells of a monastic student's notebook on conduct which has
been preserved, and which "prescribes that the young man is to kneel when
answering the Abbot, not to take a seat unasked, not to loll against the
wall, nor fidget with things within reach. He is not to scratch himself,
nor cross his legs like a tailor. He is to wash his hands before meals,
keep his knife sharp and clean, not to seize upon vegetables, and not to
use his spoon in the common dish."
[2] This expression came into common use in the fifth century, when the
Christian writers summarized the ancient learning under these seven
headings or studies, following earlier Greek and Roman classifications.
(See p. 70).
[3] The _Doctrinale_, by Alexander de Villa Die. This was in rhyme, and
became immensely popular. It was the favorite text until the fifteenth
century.
[4] Donatus begins as follows:
"How many parts of speech are there?" "Eight."
"What are they?" "Noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle,
conjunction, preposition, and interjection."
"What is a noun?" "A part of speech with case, signifying a
body or thing particularly or commonly."
"How many attributes have nouns?" "Six."
"What are they?" "Quality, comparison, gender, number, figure,
case."
Etc., etc.
[5] The following from Priscian, reproduced by Graves, illustrates the
method of instruction as applied to the first book of the Aeneid of
Vergil.
"What part of speech is _arma_?" "A noun."
"Of what sort?" "Common."
"Of what class?" "Abstract."
"Of what gender?" "Neuter."
"Why neuter?" "Because all nouns whose plurals
end in _a_ are neuter."
"Why is not the singular used?" "Because this noun expresses many
different things."
Etc., etc.
This form of textbook writing was common, not only during the Middle Ages,
but well into modern times. The famous _New England Primer_ was in part in
this form, and many early American textbooks in history and geography were
written after this plan.
[6] Vergil, due to his beautiful poetic form and to his love of nature and
life, was especially guarded against during the early Middle Ages as the
most seductive of the ancient Latin writers. It is not at all
inappropriate that, in Dante's _Inferno_, Vergil should have been the
person to guide Dante through hell and purgatory, but should not have been
allowed to accompany him into paradise.
[7] Textbooks on the art of letter-writing began to appear by the eleventh
century, explaining in detail how to prepare the five divisions of a
letter: (1) the salutation (_salutatio_), (2) the art of introducing the
subject properly and making a good impression (_captatio benevolentiae_),
(3) the body of the letter (_narratio_), (4) how to make the request
(_petitio_), and (5) a fitting conclusion (_conclusio_).
[8] Anderson reproduces a portion of a chapter by Capella on the number
four, which is illustrative of the mediaeval study of the properties of
number:
"What shall I call four? in which is a certain perfection of
solidarity; for it is composed of length and depth, and a full decade
is made up from those four numbers added together in order, that is,
from one, two, three, four. Similarly a hundred is made up of the four
decades, that is, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, which are a hundred; and
again four numbers from a hundred on amount to a thousand, that is,
100, 200, 300, 400. So ten thousand is made up of another series. What
is to be said of the fact that there are four seasons of the year,
four quarters of the heavens, and four principles of the elements?
There are also four ages of man, four vices, and four virtues."
[9] Anderson reproduces a paragraph from Maurus, showing how number was
applied to Holy Writ. It reads:
"A real thinker," says Maurus, "will not pass on indifferently when he
reads that Moses, Elijah, and our Lord fasted forty days. Without
strict observance and investigation the matter cannot be explained.
The number 40 contains the number 10 four times, by which all is
signified which concerns the temporal. For, according to the number 4,
the days and the seasons run their course. The day consists of
morning, midday, evening, and night, the year of spring, summer,
autumn, winter. Further, we have the number 10 to recognize God and
the creature. The three (trinity) indicated the Creator; the seven,
the creature which consists of body and spirit. In the latter is the
three: for we must love God with our whole heart and soul and mind. In
the body, on the other hand, the four elements of which it consists
reveal themselves clearly. So if we are moved through that which is
signified by the number 10 to live in time--for 10 is taken four
times--chaste, withholding ourselves from worldly lusts, that means to
fast forty days. So the Holy Scriptures contain suggestively in many
different numbers all sorts of secrets which must remain hidden to
those who do not understand the meaning of numbers."
[10] Gerbert (953-1003) was one of the most learned monks of his day,
having studied in the Saracen schools of Spain. He afterwards became Pope
Sylvester II (999-1003). Because of his scientific knowledge in an age of
superstition he was accused of transactions with the devil.
[11] For example, the _Stabat Mater_ and the _Dies Irae_, two thirteenth-
century hymns. The former has been called the most pathetic and the latter
the most sublime of all mediaeval poems.
[12] Cassiodorus was an educated later Roman, who had been chief minister
to Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king, and had done much to carry over Latin
learning and civilization into the new regime. He later founded the
monastery of Viviers, in southern Italy, and spent the latter part of his
life there in writing and contemplation. He urged the monks to study, and
those who had no head for learning he advised to read Cato and Columella
on agriculture, and then to devote themselves to it.
[13] "Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars."
(Proverbs, IX, 1.)
[14] Abelson, in his monograph on _The Seven Liberal Arts_, reduces each
of these textbooks to their equivalent in a modern 16mo printed page, with
the following results:
Cassi-
Capella Boethius odorus Isidore Alcuin Maurus
Subject (c. 425) (c. 520) (c. 575) (c. 630) (c. 800) (c. 844)
/Grammar...... 11 -- 25 50 54 55
|Rhetoric..... 14 -- 5-1/2 14 26 --
\Dialectic.... 11 -- 18 14 25 --
/Arithmetic... 11 40 2 2 -- --
|Geometry..... 15 30 2 1 -- --
|Astronomy.... 9 -- 15 3 23 60
\Music........ 11 67 2 12 -- --
--- --- --- --- --- ---
Totals in pages 82 137 69-1/2 96 128 115
[15] The mediaeval serf was the successor of the Roman slave, and was a
step upward in the process of the evolution of the free man. The serf was
tied to the soil and by obligations of personal service to the lord.
Gradually, due to economic causes, the personal service was changed from
general to definite service, and finally to a fixed rental sum. When a
fixed money payment took the place of personal service the free man had
been evolved. This took place rapidly with the rise of cities and industry
toward the latter part of the Middle Ages.
[16] The German private duel and the American fist fight are the modern
survivals of the time when personal insults, easily taken, and private
grievances were settled in the "noble way" by sword and battle-axe and
torch.
[17] In the earlier days of noblemen's education reading and writing were
regarded as effeminate, but in the later times the nobles became
increasingly literate. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many began
to pride themselves on their patronage of learning.
[18] Rhyming in the vernacular language came to be an important part of
the training, and many old love songs and songs expressing the joy of life
date from this period. Chaucer's knight is described as:
"Syngynge he was or floytynge [playing], al the day;
He was as fressh as is the monthe of May.
Short was his gowne, with sleves longe and wyde.
Wel cowde he sitte on hors and faire ryde;
He cowde songes make and wel endite,
Juste and eek daunce, and wel purtreye and write.
So hote he loved, that by nighterdale [night time]
He slept no more than doth the nightingale."
[19] From the life of the Frankish Abbot, John of Gorze, Abbot at Gorze in
the tenth century.
[20] Leach, A. F., _Educational Charters_, p. 143.
[21] _Ibid._, p. 147.
[22] Anselm (1033-1109), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109,
formulated the early mediaeval view when he said:
"I do not seek to know in order that I may believe, but I believe in
order that I may know."
"The Christian ought to advance to knowledge through faith, not to
come to faith through knowledge."
"The proper order demands that we believe the deep things of Christian
faith before we presume to reason about them."
[23] Monroe, Paul, _Text-Book in the History of Education_, p. 258.
CHAPTER VIII
[1] "In the school of Nisibis the Church possessed an institution, which
for centuries secured her a system of higher education, and therewith an
important social and political position. To the older literature,
consisting of translations, there was added, from the middle of the fifth
century onward, a large number of philosophical, scientific, and medical
treatises belonging to Greek antiquity, and especially the works of
Aristotle. Through these Greek wisdom and learning, clothed in Syrian
attire, found a home on these borders of Christendom." (Mueller, D. K.,
_Kirchengeschichte_, vol. I, p. 278.)
[2] "By the year 600 A.D. the triumph of the oriental element in
Christendom had well-nigh banished learning and education from the domain
of the Church, giving place to a gloomy, unquestioning faith which sank
ever deeper and deeper in the mire of superstition. What enlightenment
survived had found a home beyond the limits of the Roman Empire,--in
Ireland, in the extreme West; in Syria, in the far East." (Davidson,
Thomas, _History of Education_, p. 133.)
[3] This was determined as being 56-1/3 miles, which would make the
circumference of the earth 20,280 miles. The correct distance is 69 miles.
[4] The fanaticism of the eastern Arabs now reasserted itself, and higher
education In the Mohammedan countries of the East drew permanently to a
close. A harsh, rigid orthodoxy, fatal to educational progress, now
triumphed. The coming of the Turks only made matters worse, and with their
advent education throughout Arabia and Asia Minor became a thing of the
past. Some day it will be the task of western Europe to hand back schools
and learning to the Mohammedan East. This may be one of the by-products of
the great World War.
[5] The Alhambra, built between 1238 and 1354, at Granada, is an exquisite
example of their art. (See plate in vol. 1, p. 658, of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, 11th ed., for an illustration of their architecture and art.)
[6] It was an age of superstition and miracles, diabolic influences,
witchcraft and magic, private warfare, trials by ordeal, robber bands,
little dirty towns, no roads, unsanitary conditions, and miserable homes.
Even the nobility had few comforts and conveniences, and personal
cleanliness was not common. Disease was punishment for sin and to be cured
by prayer, while the insane were scourged to cast out the devils within
them.
[7] Frederic II was Emperor of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire, ruling
from 1227 to 1250. Though a German by birth, he had lived long in Sicily,
and spent most of his time in Italy after becoming Emperor. He greatly
admired the Saracens for their learning, and tried to transfer some of
their knowledge to Christian Europe. He lived, however, at a time when the
Papacy was cementing its temporal power and the Pope was becoming the
Emperor of Europe. This encroachment Frederick resisted and tried to
break, but without success. At his death the mediaeval German dream of
world empire perished; Germany was left a collection of feudal States; and
the temporal power of the Pope was henceforth for centuries to come
undisputed.
[8] Christianity had not as yet been introduced among the mixed Slavic and
Germanic tribes along the eastern Baltic. In Prussia and Lithuania, where
missionary efforts had been made from 900 on, success did not come until
more than three centuries later. (See art. "Missions," _Ency. Brit._, 11th
ed., vol. 18.)
[9] The more important questions arising concerned the Trinity, the
Eucharist, and Transubstantiation.
[10] This discussion was over what was known as nominalism vs. realism.
Anselm of Canterbury (1034-1109), basing his argument largely on some
parts of Plato, had declared that ideas constituted our real existence.
Roscellinus of Compiegne (1050-1105), basing his argument on parts of the
_Organon_ of Aristotle, had held that ideas or concepts are only names for
real, concrete things. Anselm, as a realist, contended that the human
senses are deceptive, and that revealed truth alone is reliable.
Roscellinus, as a nominalist, held that truth can be reached only through
investigation and the use of reason. The church accepted the realism of
Anselm as correct, and Roscellinus was compelled to recant. The stifling
effect of such an attitude toward honest doubt can be imagined.
[11] McCabe, Joseph, _Peter Abelard_, p. 7.
[12] By the beginning of the eleventh century this cathedral school had
become the most important in France, a position which it retained for
centuries. It was the great center for theological study, and drew to it a
succession of eminent teachers--William of Champeaux, Abelard, Peter the
Lombard--and, in time, thousands of students.
[13] The term _scholasticism_ comes from _scholasticus_, because it was
chiefly in the cathedral schools that scholasticism arose. It means,
literally, the method of thinking worked out by the teachers in the
cathedral schools.
[14] The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) once said that when he
considered the inertness of the Middle Ages he was led to think that God
had been content to make man a two-legged animal, leaving to Aristotle the
task of making him a thinking being. The worship of Aristotle is easily
explained by the great amount of information his works contained, his
logical method and skillful classification of knowledge, and the way his
ideas as to causes fitted into Christian reasoning.
[15] The Dominicans, or Black Friars, were a new teaching and preaching
monastic order, founded in 1216. It was a revival of monasticism, directed
toward more modern ends. The Dominicans established themselves in
connection with the new universities, and sought to control education and
to defend orthodoxy. Another new order of this same period was that of the
Franciscans, or Gray Friars, founded by Saint Francis in 1212. Their work
was directed still more to preaching, missions, and public service. They
were a less intellectual but a more democratic brotherhood. It was the
Franciscans who followed the armies of Spain to Mexico, and later built
and conducted the missions of the central and southern California coast.
[16] Special translations of Aristotle's _Rhetoric_ and _Politics_, from
the original Greek texts, obtained at Constantinople by the Crusaders,
were made for Thomas Aquinas at his special request, about 1260, by
William of Moerbeke, who knew enough Greek to perform the task. This gave
him better translations from which to lecture and write.
[17] In 529 the Eastern Emperor, Justinian (see p. 76), directed that an
orderly compilation be prepared of the many and confused laws and
decisions which had been made in the Roman Empire, with a view to
producing a standard body of Roman law in place of the unwieldy mass of
contradictory material then existing. The result was the _Corpus Juris
Civilis_, worked out by a staff of eminent lawyers between 529 and 533 (R.
93). This consisted of
I. The _Code_, in twelve books, containing the Statutes of the
Emperors;
II. The _Digest_, in fifty books, containing pertinent extracts
from the opinions of celebrated Roman lawyers;
III. The _Institutes_, in four books, being an elementary
textbook on the law for the use of students;
IV. The _Novellae_, or new Statutes, the final edition of which
was issued in 565, and included the laws from 533 on. This was
preserved and used in the East, but came too late to be of much
service to the Western Empire.
[18] The subdivisions were as follows: I. Contained 106 "distinctions,"
relating to ecclesiastical persons and affairs. II. Contained 36
"distinctions," relating to problems arising in the administration of
canon law. III. Contained 5 "distinctions," relating to the ritual and
sacraments of the Church.
[19] The additions were:
I. The _Decretals_ of Pope Gregory IX, issued in 1234, in five
books.
II. A Supplement to the above by Pope Boniface VIII (_Liber
Sextus_), issued in 1298.
III. The _Constitutions_ of Clementine, issued in 1317.
IV. Several additions of Papal Laws, not included in any of the
above.
[20] He held that the body contained four humors--blood, phlegm, yellow
bile, and black bile. Disease was caused by an undue accumulation of some
one of the four. Hence the office of the physician was to reduce this
accumulation by some means such as blood-letting, purging, blisters,
diaphoretics, etc. In the monastery of Saint Gall (see Diagram, R. 69) a
blood-letting room was a part of the establishment, and this practice was
continued until well into the nineteenth century.
[21] Galen was born at Pergamon, in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. He
studied medicine at Pergamon, Smyrna, and Alexandria, and for a time lived
in Rome. Returning to Pergamon he was appointed physician to the athletes
in the gymnasium there. He later went back to Rome and became physician to
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He is credited with five hundred works on
literature, philosophy, and medicine, one hundred and eighteen of which
have survived. In medicine he wrote on anatomy, physiology, diagnosis,
pathology, therapeutics, materia medica, surgery, hygiene, and dietetics.
He was the first to use the pulse as a means of detecting physical
condition.
[22] Saint Augustine, _The City of God_, book xxii, chap. 24.
[23] Often spoken of as Constantius Africanus. It is recorded that he
studied the arts in Babylon, visited Egypt and India, and returned to his
home in Carthage one of the most learned men of his age. Suspected of
dealings with the Devil he fled to Salernum (c. 1065), taught there for
many years, published many medical works of his own, and finally retired
to the monastery of Monte Cassino, dying there in 1087.
[24] In 1064 a company of seven thousand is said to have started for the
Holy Land.
[25] Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, 2d ed., p. 261.
[26] "From Clermont the enthusiasm spread over France like wildfire.
Stirring preachers, whereof the most notable was Peter the Hermit, set all
France, peasant and noble, to arming. It was the old gospel of Mohammed
recast in Christian guise:--pardon for sin and the spoils of the infidel
if victorious!--a swift road to heaven if slain in the battle! Pressed
with this hope and enthusiasm, armies to be reckoned by the hundreds of
thousands were launched upon the East." (Davis, W. S., _Mediaeval and
Modern Europe_, p. 95).
[27] Of the thousands of petty lords and knights who went to the hot East,
clad in the heavy armor of northern Europe, large numbers left their bones
along the way or in the Syrian sands, and the landholdings at home
reverted to the Crown. This was a crushing blow to the old feudal regime,
advanced the cause of civilization, and helped in the rise of the modern
nations. Especially was this true in France and England, whose knights
went in large numbers to the East. In Germany the knights and nobles, as a
class, refused to have anything to do with the Crusades, and hence they
were not killed off or impoverished, but remained to rule and multiply and
be troublesome. This is one reason for the much earlier rise and greater
strength of French than German nationality, and one reason why Germany has
been so much slower than France and England in developing a democratic
type of civilization.
[28] "As presented to the eye, a typical mediaeval city would be a
remarkable sight. Its extent would be small, both because of the limited
population, and the need of making the circuit of the walls to be defended
as short as possible; but within these walls the huge, many-storied houses
would be wedged closely together. The narrow streets would be dirty and
ill-paved--often beset by pigs in lieu of scavengers; but everywhere there
would be bustling human life with every citizen elbowing close to
everybody else. Out of the foul streets here and there would rise parish
churches of marvelous architecture, and in the center of the town extended
the great square--market-place--where the open-air markets would be held,
and close by it, dwarfing the lesser churches, the tall gray cathedral--
the pride of the community; close by, also, the City Hall, an elegant
secular edifice, where the council met, where the great public feasts
could take place, and above which rose the mighty belfry, whence clanged
the great alarm-bell to call the citizens together in mass meeting, or to
don armor and man the walls." (Davis, W. S., _Mediaeval and Modern
Europe_, p. 146.)
[29] In Italy, in particular, the cities became strong and powerful, and
eventually overthrew the rule of the bishops and defeated the German
Emperor, Frederick I, in a long battle to preserve their independence. In
Flanders such cities as Ypres, Bruges, and Ghent, came to dominate there.
In 1302 their burghers defeated the French army; and in the sixteenth
century they helped to break the autocratic power of Spain in a great
struggle for human and civic freedom. By the thirteenth century Hamburg,
Luebeck, Bremen, Augsburg, and Nuremburg were important commercial cities
in Germany.
[30] They came there because, due to their plundering and murdering
proclivities, Venice forbade her merchants to go to them.
[31] So poor were the mediaeval bridges that the old prayer-books
contained formulas for "commending one's soul to God ere starting to cross
a bridge."
[32] The peasants were of two classes: (1) serfs, who were not free and
who were attached to the soil, but unlike slaves had plots of land of
their own and could not be sold off the land; and (2) villeins, who were
personally free, but still were bound to their lord for much menial
service and for many payments in produce and money.
[33] The Church originally held many serfs and villeins, as did the
nobles. It began the process of setting them free, encouraging others to
do likewise. In time it became common, as it did in our Southern States
before the Civil War, for nobles in dying to set free a certain number of
their serfs and villeins. These went as free men to the rising cities.
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