2024 - Education in the Middle Ages

Developments in education:* The aims of Education in the Middle Ages. * Significance of the introduction of the Printing Press. * Universities: the foundation of Oxford and Cambridge.

Education in the Middle Ages

UNIT II: Medieval England

Education in the Middle Ages

Bibliography

In our previous lessons, we examined the economic, social, political, artistic, and religious developments that took place in England in the Early and Late Middle Ages and how they were interrelated and connected to one another. Now, in this lesson, we invite you to explore the developments in education in the Middle Ages.

(Stenton, 1991, p. 263)

In the twelfth century, the Roman Empire and its successor, the Carolingian Empire, dominated men's conception of the past, and learned men looked back to the Latin culture of antiquity as the origin and source of their own studies. No vernacular language had yet become the language of the schools which could compete with Latin. Scholars were at home with one another from whatever land they came, for Latin was the common language of learning.

this timeline

Examine (focus on the period 1348-1385) and the sources below. Based on the information examined, answer these questions.

1. Which was the language of learning in the Early Middle Ages? Why?
2. Which were the languages of learning in the Late Middle Ages? Why?

Edward III King of England from 1327 to 1377

An 11th-century copy of Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae, a handbook of Latin grammar (British Library, Harley MS 2763, f. 76r)

LANGUAGE OF EDUCATION

(adapted from Myers, 1963, p. 78)

In the late middle ages many educational institutions were still being started under direct ecclesiastical inspiration and for ecclesiastical ends. [However] the growing complexity and sophistication of society, with the rise of a lay culture, made for the need for an increasing variety of technical skills outside the orbit of the Church.

Study the source below. Based on the information in the source, answer these questions.

1. Which were the aims of education in the Early Middle Ages?
2. To what extent did the aims of education change in the Late Middle Ages? What factors account for such change?

AIMS OF EDUCATION

(Myers, 1963, p. 77)

The elementary education provided by the nunneries, or the song schools attached to cathedral, collegiate or parish churches, grammar schools, private chapels or chantries, consisted of singing, reading, and the simple instructions of the faith. Such elementary schools furnished all the academic education which humble folks could count themselves lucky to get, and for the more fortunate formed a basis for the work of the grammar school.

A manuscript primer of c. 1400 showing the alphabet as it was usually presented to children in ABC schools in the Late Middle Ages.

here.

Examine the sources below. Based on the information from these sources, answer the questions

A woodcut of an elementary song school (Image credit: Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd)

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

here

Apprenticeship-based learning

Eton College Hall and King Henry VI Statue, 1440(Image credit: © Ampla Education)

Winchester College Chapel, 1382(Image credit: winchestercollege.org)

here.

Examine the sources and below. Based on your analyses, answer the questions

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

Read

New College, Oxfordfounded in 1379

Lincoln's InnInn of Court founded in c. 1310

King's College Chapel, Cambridge University

Radcliffe Science Library, Oxford University

here.

Examine the sources below and read the articles provided. Based on what you read and on the information in these sources, answer the questions

Read

UNIVERSITIES

Read

Read

SOURCE ANALYSIS

(Simon, 1966, p. 56)

[In the field of education,] there were no spectacular developments in fifteenth-century England (…), but there was a slow maturing of change in institutions and attitudes which laid the foundation for a durable advance in the next century.

(Myers, 1963, p. 79)

Lawyers and guildsmen still maintained very close relations with the Church, and did not dream of challenging her authority in education; but their very existence lessened the Church’s influence over instruction.

here .

In the Early Middle Ages, the Church was a very powerful institution which for centuries was virtually the sole provider of education. But, in the Late Middle Ages, what happened to the monopoly over education that the Church used to hold? Examine the sources below. Based on what you have read and on the information in these sources, answer the questions

EDUCATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Remember that this has been a completely virtual class. If you have any questions, you can ask us in our next in-person session. And you are always invited to join us in our tutoring sessions.

quiz .

Finally, based on your knowledge and the information from all the sources read and examined in this virtual class about the developments in education in the Middle Ages, we invite you to revise the content explored by taking this

• Eton College. (2022, November 3). Our History. https://www.etoncollege.com/about-us/our-history/#:~:text=Eton%20College%20was%20founded%20in,at%20Eton%20free%20of%20charge.
• McArthur, T. (1998). Concise Oxford companion to the English language. In Oxford University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780192800619.001.0001
• Myers, A.R. (1963). England in the Late Middle Ages. Pelican Books.
• Nagwa. (2023, June 23). A Brief History of Grammar Schools in the UK [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8mSr0F4Kd4
• Simon, J. (1966). Education and Society in Tudor England Cambridge. Cambridge University Press
• Skoda, H. (2017, June 27). Medieval English Universities. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195396584/obo-9780195396584-0238.xml
• Stenton, D. M. (1991). English Society in the Early Middle Ages. Pelican Books.
• Trevelyan, G.M. (1959). A Shortened History of England. Penguin Books.
• Trevelyan, G.M. (1946). English Social History. Longmans.
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024, April 27). Winchester College. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Winchester-College
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica.(2024, April 25). University of Oxford. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/University-of-Oxford
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2022, August 26). What did Johannes Gutenberg do to change the world? Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/question/What-did-Johannes-Gutenberg-do-to-change-the-world
• University of Cambridge. (2013). The Medieval University. https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-the-university/history/the-medieval-university

The end of the Middle Ages was a great period for the foundation of schools, besides William of Wykeham’s Winchester and Henry VI’s Eton. Guilds and private persons were constantly endowing chantries with priests to say masses for souls, and schools were often attached to them. Other schools were being founded on an independent basis, sometimes with lay headmasters. All this was over and above the Collegiate, Cathedral and parish church schools of earlier foundation. (Trevelyan, 1959, p.197)

Grammar schools were usually under the control of Monasteries or Cathedrals, Hospitals, Gilds, or Chantries. Clever boys of humble origin rose through such schools to be clerks and priests, for the Church was still the career of ambition most easily open to the poor. But no attempt was made to teach reading and writing to the mass of the people until the Eighteenth Century brought the Charity Schools. In 1382 William of Wykeham founded at Winchester a grammar school on a scale of unexampled magnificence, which became the model for later foundations of equal splendour, like Eton. (Trevelyan, 1946, p. 53)

In grammar schools, the main subjects were Latin grammar and composition. The teaching of these was permeated with dialectic, partly because books were costly and scarce, and learning had to be largely by oral instruction, rote and disputation; and partly because the work of the grammar school was designed to lead to University studies, where the methods were largely dialectical and theology was the highest aim and crown. (Myers, 1963, pp. 77-78)