February 21 - Higher Education

February 21 – Higher Education

Until the mid 1100s, monasteries and cathedral schools were the only place that one could gain higher education. But, as it happened, teachers began to show up in these schools that weren’t members of the clergy and as they began questioning the official church dogma, ran into trouble.

One of these men was Peter Abelard and though he ended up in a monastery, couldn’t bring himself to acquiesce in debates of theology. He set up a private teaching studio in Paris and took on paying students. He taught for awhile at Notre Dame Cathedral, but as his private studio grew larger and his fame expanded, the church didn’t want to trust him. At one point, a group of teachers were kicked out of Notre Dame and set up a school in Paris.

During this time, trades were organized and the teachers could do no less, so they set up for themselves the Universitas Societas Magistrorum et Scholarium or Universal Society of Teachers and Students. They had a chancellor who had a loose connection to the Bishop of Paris, granted licenses to teach and in 1200, Philip II gave the university official status. In 1208, a law university in Bologna were given official status but soon went on strike because of the pressure from the church bishops for control. Pope Gregory IX finally promised the school self-government to end the strike.

At the University of Paris, education was separated by nationality, allowing teachers and students with similar backgrounds to work together. There were four of these: French, English/German, Norman, Picardian (low countries). This began the idea of colleges within a university. Paris also developed four fields of study: arts, medicine, law and theology.

Before they had received official status, though Henry I of England prohibited students from studying there and established a “Studium Generale” in Oxford. A chancellor was appointed and became a university in 1215.

The time was ripening for the Renaissance as scholarship exploded. Paris, Oxford and Bologna would become centers of theology, philosophy and science.