HIST 107 Introduction to Medieval History Lecture 16 Abelard and the New Learning Main Questions 1 What were the changes that are evident in teaching and learning in western Europe in the period c 1080 c 1200 and why are they significant 2 What can we learn from an examination of the career of Peter Abelard c 1079c 1142 Preliminary Remarks Recall from previous lectures the decline of Roman civic life entailed a decline of the Roman educational system though as we will see much of its curriculum survives The principal centres of learning and teaching in early medieval Europe are monasteries Monastic schools are mostly geared to in house education training monks and nuns for their monastic vocation there is relatively little overspill into educational provision for other people Monastic training favours tradition in the literal sense of handing on and discourages active querying of the authority and meaning of texts However we also recall from previous lectures that monasticism is not the entirety of the Church The backbone of the Church s structures is the bishop Bishops churches cathedrals provide the only meaningful alternative to monastic education though the coverage is uneven A third place to get an education seems to have been the courts of important rulers these places were sometimes more learned scholarly environments than is often realised think for example about Charlemagne attracting scholars to Aachen or Alfred the Great himself writing books But we have tantalizingly little information about these courts at least before the twelfth century The main pattern that this lecture is based on is the gradual growth in importance of the cathedral school model in the twelfth century Indeed it is from schools of this sort that what become the first universities will eventually emerge Key Points Three key questions to address A What was the new learning and how did it emerge B What were the implications of the new learning for the wider world C Who was Peter Abelard and why is he historically significant 1 A What was the new learning and how did it emerge Basic background same economic growth that sustained the new monasticism see previous lecture and accounts for growth of government and towns see future lectures Further stimulus Gregorian reform Part of reform agenda clergy need to be educated to perform their designated roles Cathedrals and other larger churches should be tighter communities of clerics i e no individual property no families and ties to the world see earlier lecture on emergence of monk like canons regular therefore greater corporate collegiality in theory in such larger churches this encourages greater attention to educational formation and standards Also the new learning just happens in the sense that its origins are modest but it then snowballs It benefits from external stimuli e g new translations of ancient Greek philosophy but most of its resources are materials already well known to western intellectuals including the Bible itself and the ancient Roman educational curriculum So what is the new learning Very hard to pin down to a brief definition In essence revival of intellectual activity in various inter connected fields theology philosophy law medicine But not confined to these subject areas e g History not a formal academic subject in the sense of taught as a discipline but 12th century sees huge boom in sophisticated history writing including by some of the products of the new schools e g Otto of Freising William of Tyre These subjects only exist because they build on foundations of curriculum inherited revived from Roman world two elements trivium grammar rhetoric dialectic logic grammar basic tooling in Latin rhetoric how to speak and write expressively dialectic how to construct persuasive arguments and quadrivium music theory not practice arithmetic geometry astronomy Seven subjects the liberal arts origin of the modern usage of the term All important base trivium new learning in fact represents significant shift ancient Roman practice heavily prioritized rhetoric 2 Roman elites needed training in speaking in law courts but new learning emphasizes dialectic i e logical argument therefore single most dominant characteristic application of logic to the study of texts even study of the Bible and Church Fathers What is the institutional setting Basis as stated is cathedral schools esp in northern France e g Chartres Laon Reims operation of cathedral schools before late 11th century very obscure Masters teach trivium and some quadrivium to small classes but new element from late 11th century wandering scholars i e star intellectuals moving from place to place attracting students competing for prestige and student fees Paris emerges as the main magnet for the star scholars clusters of schools emerge around cathedral of Notre Dame e g St Victor community of canons regular famous for study of theology other clusters on Left Bank of the river Seine still centre of modern University of Paris Paris s specialisms emerge as theology and philosophy to which students progress after initial grounding in the trivium and maybe quadrivium But northern France not the only epicentre of the new learning Also of major importance Bologna north central Italy as centre of legal study Breakthrough new interest in texts created by emperor Justinian s codification of Roman Law back in 6th century see previous lecture Key figure Master Irnerius from c 1080 Bologna grows fast as centre of the study of law major stimulus support of German emperors who have control of parts of Italy Roman Law lends support to imperial claims to authority against the popes esp central maxim What pleases the prince emperor has the force of law Other centres of specialism gradually emerge e g for medicine Salerno s Italy and later Montpellier s France But Paris the most active and productive base and the one that has left the most evidence Therefore next question is B What were the implications of the new learning for the wider world On one level the new learning can appear very academic and remote good example big debate in 12th century over universals 3 universal any general verbal category e g dog table Q what is the status of such a category Is dog just a generalization from the sum total of lots of individual real dogs Nominalism Or is there a separate prior reality of dogness that dogs happen to share Realism See Rosenwein Reading pp 313 14 for Peter Abelard s contribution to debate Debate