Finding Middle Ground in Medieval Education

By: Joel Bentley

It is no secret that religion dominated almost every facet of life in the Middle Ages. Anything ranging from how one addressed superiors to how one bathed had some ties to religious customs. One area where a tension between religious and secular domains is clear, though, is in education. While it may be easy to take for granted the meaning of education in the Modern Age, it is crucial that we remember Medieval people had very different notions of education compared to us. This opens up an interesting question: what did education mean for a person in the Middle Ages? This article will demonstrate that education for people of the Middle Ages was a balancing act of religious zeal and worldly understanding.

The methods of teaching used in the Middle Ages provide a great starting point. In both Eastern and Western cultures the master-student relationship defined how schooling was conducted. For primary education, accredited masters took on students - typically sons of rich men - that could afford tuition and tutored them on reading and writing. Literacy was almost always focused on a culture's respective religion. A better insight to this is gained through “Memorandum for Learners and Listeners.” This book is a 14th century text that concentrated on Islamic educational values and practices written by prominent Islamic scholar and judge Ibn Jama’ah, who lived near Cairo and Damascus. Ibn Jama’ah goes on to explain that “ The people worthiest of this excellent quality (salvation) … are the people of learning, who by means of learning have encamped at the summit of glory and splendor and finished first in the race for the legacy of the prophets. This they could do because of their knowledge of the Prophet's noble traits…” (Jamaah Memorandum, 156-157). His praise for education underscores the value Medieval peoples placed on it, illustrating this ‘virtue’ is heavily contingent on piety. 

After a primary education based on learning grammar and literacy through religion, scholarship takes a different form. With the fundamentals of learning down, students who wished to continue would seek out masters and often universities, which doubled as religious and cultural hubs. While there is still heavy emphasis on religion in academic settings, the subjects of study begin to diverge. The trivium - grammar, logic, and rhetoric -  and quadrivium - arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music - become the focus of students pursuing higher education. Departing from an anchor like the Qur’an or Bible students were forced to find masters who not only had expertise in a niche field, but who also knew how to traverse the disciplines with conscientiousness toward religion.

With a jump to more abstract fields, one can see how friction between education and religion manifests. One example can be found in “Statutes for the University of Paris,” written in 1215. This document outlined changes that must be made to universities by order of the Pope. One part of the article specifically says, “They shall not lecture on the books of Aristotle on metaphysics and natural philosophy or on summaries of them” (Thorndike, 28). Since the material from these books could encourage beliefs counter to the Church they got banned. Another example of the friction between secular and religious education can be found in the dialogue between Conrad of Hirsau and his pupil. In their conversation when they talk of poetry and non-religious literature the pupil says “When we have so many works available which… encourage us on the road to various virtues, why should we seek out the writings tainted with vice whose meaning taints minds that should be trained by what they study?” (Oxford, 56). Conrad of Hirsau illustrates a clear negative disposition towards works that deviate from a traditional religious sentiment. Lines in the sand regarding what can and can’t be taught become apparent, the border being God.

University of Sankore, the most prominent Islamic University of the Middle Ages located in Timbuktu, Mali.

So, what did education mean for a medieval person? Through various primary sources we see that Medieval education did not try to balance between religion and nature; instead it predominantly projected education and learning through the lens of religion. From primary education to scholardom we see a strict method of teaching and learning through the Bible or Qur’an. Studying anything slightly deviating from this custom, like poetry or fiction, was ridiculed or done so with great caution. This sentiment is clearly illustrated in Conrad of Hisau’s dialogue where he builds upon his disdain for non-religious texts by using Ovid’s poetry as an example stating, “Why should the young recruit in Christ’s army subject his mind to the writing of Ovid” (Oxford, 56). Finally, it becomes clear that education for a person in the Medieval world was not just a way to become more knowledgeable of the world around them, but to better attune their faith with God. 

SOURCES: 

Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism (Oxford) 

University Record and Life in the Middle Ages (Thorndike)

Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought (Cook).