universities and schools 709kills any hunter who tries to go near it. However, if a
virgin approaches it, the animal meekly walks to her lap,
the girl nourishes it, and then hunters can capture it. The
girl must be chaste if this kind of hunt is to work. The
unicorn has symbolic values and moral interpretations
that were important in medieval imagery and iconography.
It symbolized Christ’s Incarnation and self-chosen Passion
as well as the value of the chastity of the Blessed Virgin
MARY. Its horn was also used as a symbol for the purifying
cross on which Christ died. The horn of a unicorn also
acquired therapeutic and erotic value and was a much
sought after prize with supposed examples on display in
cathedral and palace treasuries. The horn could magically
protect against PLAGUE, LEPROSY, and poisonings.
Further reading:Gottfried Büttner, The Lady and the
Unicorn: The Development of the Human Soul as Pictured in
the Cluny Tapestries, trans. Roland Everett (Stroud:
Hawthorn Press, 1995); Adolph S. Cavallo, The Unicorn
Tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art(New York:
H. N. Abrams, 1998); Michael Green, Unicornis: On the
History and Truth of the Unicorn(Philadelphia: Running
Press, 1988); Paul A. Johnsgard, Dragons and Unicorns: A
Natural History(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992).
universals Universals can be defined as “signs com-
mon to several things.” The term can also mean “natures
signified by a common word.” For the Middle Ages this
ambiguity challenged the status and function of the uni-
versal at the intersection of metaphysical and semantic
questions: whether the universal was really common to
several things or was merely said of several things. In the
former view, philosophers or theologians studied the
form or the common nature or the universal in things. In
the latter, they made the universal a name, a concept, or a
sign. So the question became, especially in the 12th cen-
tury, whether general names, genera, and species were
merely words or really things. The reality of common
natures was accepted more in the 13th century. In the late
14th and the early 15th centuries, new ideas of realism
were promoted by JOHNWYCLIFFE, WILLIAM OFOCKHAM,
and JOHNBURIDAN. In general, in their eyes, the universal
could not exist in things because everything that existed
was singular. So the universal was a sign, a concept, or a
word and the universal existed singularly, as a quality or
an act created by the mind. It was only universal because
it signified a plurality. This discussion dominated specu-
lative thought throughout the 15th century.
See alsoABÉLARD,PETER;ALBERTUSMAGNUS;DUNS
SCOTUS, JOHN; GILBERT OFPOITIERS; IBNSINA, ABUALI
AL-HUSAYN.
Further reading: Marilyn McCord Adams, William
Ockham,2 vols. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre
Dame Press, 1987); John Marenbon, Later Medieval Phi-
losophy (1150–1350): An Introduction(London: Routledge
& K. Paul, 1987); James A. Summers, St. Thomas and the
Universal (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of
American Press, 1955); Martin M. Tweedale, Scotus vs.
Ockham: A Medieval Dispute over Universals, 2 vols.
(Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 1999).universities and schools Before 1500 education in
schools and universities was a religious domain in both
Christianity and ISLAM. Medieval schools in CHRISTEN-
DOMcontinued much of the legacy of classical education
and were based on the study of the SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS;
professional training was acquired through apprentice-
ships.EDUCATION IN BYZANTIUM
In BYZANTIUMurban schools in the classical format con-
tinued, offering more advanced study in history, THEOL-
OGY, and LAWat imperial academies in CONSTANTINOPLE.
The teachers were state employees. This system, primar-
ily designed to educate bureaucrats and clerics, was
destroyed when Western Europeans took over Con-
stantinople in the Fourth Crusade. Some remnants of it
survived in Nicaea and then were revived again in Con-
stantinople in the later Middle Ages, when Orthodox the-
ological ideas in particular were retained.ISLAMIC EDUCATION
Islamic education from the beginning was based on stud-
ies of the commentaries on the QURANand of philology
or the linguistic rules of Arabic. By the eighth century
Greek and Persian philosophical and scientific ideas were
incorporated into the Muslim schools. This educational
system reached its peak of influence and prestige at the
beginning of the ninth century with the founding of the
Academy of BAGHDADby the CALIPH AL-MAMUN. This cur-
riculum now included theology, jurisprudence, Aris-
totelian PHILOSOPHY, and the sciences, including
mathematics, physics, astronomy, and ASTROLOGY. Other
centers followed this model at AL-QAYRAWAN,CAIRO, and
CÓRDOBA. In the second half of the 12th century, the
regime of NUR AL-DINclosed the traditional philosophical
and scientific schools and created the system of the
MADRASAwhose goal was to produce proponents of SUNNI
Islam and train competent and loyal government officials.
This system as based primarily on an authoritative and
normative study by rote of Muslim law and religion. The
MONGOLinvasions of the 13th century completed the
destruction of the older system, but the madrasa system
was maintained.EDUCATION IN WESTERN EUROPE
In Western Europe in the early Middle Ages, the classical
educational system based on urban schools had collapsed
by the seventh century. The church, however, maintained
a monopoly on education by supporting monastic schools
according to the system proposed by CASSIODORUSat the