us of his education at Wearmouth-Jarrow, and famous schools existed at York,
Canterbury, and Irish centers.
The Carolingian revival of education under Charle-magne drew heavily on insular
scholars and included the importation of Alcuin from York. In 797, Theodulf of Orléans
introduced parish schools into his diocese and laid down their mandate for teaching.
From this time onward, schools spread throughout the Frankish empire and beyond, and
from the beginning of the 9th century all the more famous monasteries had two distinct
schools—one for its oblates, one for outsiders. The Council of Aix (817) decreed a
separation of monastic and secular pupils at monastic schools. Although their histories
vary at different periods, there were famous schools at most of the important Benedictine
monasteries of the 9th-12th centuries, such as Bec, Fulda, and Reichenau.
Although the history of this period remains misty, at some time during the 11th
century “secular” religious schools, based around cathedrals with nonmonastic
foundations, grew fashionable. In particular, Notre-Dame in Paris, Reims, Laon, and
Chartres had famous masters and pupils. They were perceived as offering a less
traditional and accepting, more argumentative style of learning, with debate as well as
lecturing as a teaching practice. Leclercq has characterized seven major differences
between monastic and secular learning: the intended audience of the teaching, the
subjects dealt with, the pastoral tendency of the writers, an interest in the reform of the
church, the sources employed, the intellectual methods of the writers, and finally their
modes of expression. This is perhaps too generalizing to be wholly convincing; however,
it is true that some subjects, such as commentaries on the Song of Songs, are largely the
province of “monastic” rather than secular authors, as is a preference for the Gospel of
John over the Synoptics as a source of authority. And it is true that until the advent of the
university any school of this period was only as famous as the master heading it at the
time.
In 1108, William of Champeaux, former master of the cathedral school in Paris,
opened a school at the abbey of Saint-Victor. A house of Augustinian canons (clergy who
lived under a rule in a community), Saint-Victor occupied a point midway between
secular clergy and cenobites. It has been suggested that Saint-Victor tried to hold just
such a position in the spectrum of learning, blending monastic exegesis with scholastic as
the latter became more occupied with theological questioning. But the picture is
complicated, and we must not think that books of Sententiae, or theological questions,
were not also produced and read in monasteries. Nor must we forget that the famous
books produced from monastic learning, such as the works of Bernard of Clairvaux,
Anselm, or Rupert of Deutz, were works produced for monastic learning. The day-to-day
teaching in monastic schools was the usual round of basic literacy, followed by the
Trivium and Quadrivium, with textbooks by Priscian, Donatus, Boethius, Aristotle, and
Euclid. Indeed, the learned monks of the 12th century were influential despite the decline
in influence of monastic schools and learning.
Although monastic schools continued into the 13th century and later, they were used
only as sources of primary education: any ambitious pupil went to a secular school or
university.
Lesley J.Smith
[See also: EDUCATION; SAINT-VICTOR, ABBEY AND SCHOOL OF;
SCHOOLS, CATHEDRAL; UNIVERSITIES]
Leach, A.F. The Schools of Medieval England. London: Methuen, 1915.
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