Medieval universities in Western Europe. Medieval universities

In the 12th century. As a result of the increased need for scientific knowledge and the people who possess it - scientists - the process of education began on the basis of cathedral schools in the largest cities of Western Europe of higher schools - universities. Initially, the concept of “university” (from the Latin universitas - totality) meant a corporation of teachers, professors and students, “scholars”, the purpose of which is to study and increase united Christian knowledge.

The first universities appeared in Bologna (1158), Paris (1215), Cambridge (1209), Oxford (1206), Lisbon (1290). It was in these educational institutions that the basic principles of academic autonomy were formulated and democratic rules for managing higher education and its internal life were developed. Thus, universities had a number of privileges granted to them by the Pope: issuing teaching permits, awarding academic degrees (previously this was the exclusive right of the church), exempting students from military service, and the educational institution itself from taxes, etc. Every year, the university elected rector and deans.

Typically, the structure of the university included four faculties: artistic, legal, medical and theological. In medieval higher schools, a hierarchy was established: the theological faculty was considered the eldest, then the law, medicine and artistic faculties. On this basis, the artistic faculty, where the “seven liberal arts” were studied, is called junior or preparatory in some historical and pedagogical studies, however, the university rules did not require this. At the theological faculty they studied mainly the Holy Scriptures and the “Sentences” of Peter of Lombardy (beginning of the 12th century - 1160), the training lasted about 12 years, students, continuing their studies, could teach themselves and hold church positions, at the end of their studies they were awarded the title of master theology, and then a licentiate (a teacher admitted to lecturing, but who has not yet defended his doctoral dissertation).

At the Faculty of Law, Roman and Catholic law were considered; after four years of study, students received a bachelor's degree, and after another three years, a licentiate. Studying at the Faculty of Medicine included studying the works of Hippocrates, Avicenna, Galen and other famous doctors. After four years of study, students were awarded a bachelor's degree, and for two years they were required to practice medicine under the supervision of a master's degree. Then, after five years of study, they were allowed to take exams for the title of licentiate.

Based on the school trivium course, students of the artistic faculty studied the quadrium, especially geometry and astronomy; in addition, the course included scholasticism, the works of Aristotle, and philosophy. After two years, students received a bachelor's degree; master's preparation lasted from three to ten years. The main goal of education in all faculties was to achieve academic degrees.

Classes at universities lasted throughout the whole day (from 5 am to 8 pm). The main form of education was lectures given by the professor. Due to the insufficient number of books and manuscripts, this process was labor-intensive: the professor repeated the same phrase several times so that the students could remember it. The low productivity of training is partly explained by its duration. Once a week a debate was held, aimed at developing independent thinking; students were required to attend the debate.

The student’s responsibilities included attending lectures: mandatory during the day and repeated in the evening. An important feature of universities of that era was debate. The teacher assigned a topic. His assistant, a bachelor, led the discussion, that is, answered questions and commented on the speeches. If necessary, the master came to the aid of the bachelor. Once or twice a year, debates were held “about anything” (without a strictly defined topic). In this case, pressing scientific and ideological problems were often discussed. The participants in the debate behaved very freely, interrupting the speaker with whistles and shouts.

As a rule, a wonderful career awaited a university graduate. Yesterday's students became scribes, notaries, judges, lawyers, and prosecutors.

UDC 1(091)+94(4)"Ш12" Bulletin of St. Petersburg State University. Ser. 17. 2013. Issue. 2

O. E. Dushin

MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITIES: AT THE ORIGINS OF EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Theology, law and the liberal arts - these are the three pillars on whose backs the social order and the entire European civilization rested in the 12th and 13th centuries, that is, at a time when Europe was experiencing the period of its fastest growth in population and prosperity until the 19th century, a period general enthusiasm.

R. W. Southern, "Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe"

The dynamic transformations of the modern education system, associated with the Bologna process, not only determine the need to identify new forms and strategies for organizing higher education, but also raise an urgent need to rethink the dominant cultural traditions and their historical verification. Turning to the genesis of European educational structures, one should agree with the statement that “the formation of an institutional framework around the cause of education was a unique event unique to Europe. This kind of pattern did not exist in the Asian world, nor did it exist either in Byzantium or in the Arab world, where institutions of higher education were dependent on the local ruler or emperor.” At the same time, universities, along with such events in the cultural space of the medieval world as the dissemination of the texts of Aristotle and his Orthodox Byzantine, Islamic and Jewish commentators and the formation of mendicant orders, served as a kind of foundation for the development of synthetic teachings of the 13th century - the “golden age” of European scholasticism.

As is known, the most important feature of the structure of corporations of schoolchildren and masters and the organization of university life was their high degree of democracy1. “The essence of the new type of institution - the university - was relative openness to people of different countries and social classes,” notes D. C. Hyde. The university was a free guild of teachers

Dushin Oleg Ernestovich - Doctor of Philosophy. Sciences, Professor, St. Petersburg State University; e-mail: [email protected]

1 The figure and personality of Jean Gerson (1363-1429) is indicative in this regard. Coming from pain

from a peasant family, he became not only a doctor of theology, but after an inspired speech before

Charles VI in 1391 - and the king’s personal preacher, and in 1395 the chancellor of the University of Paris

theta. It is known that he hatched plans for a fairly radical reform of the system of theology.

logical education at the Sorbonne, focusing on the priority of mystical practice. However, later, due to his moral uncompromisingness, the thinker, condemning the murder of his brother Charles

VI - Duke of Orleans Louis, came into conflict with the party of the Duke of Burgundy John the Fearless and, as a result, was forced to leave Paris.

© O. E. Dushin, 2013

and students who were involved in the dual process of education and learning2. In this sense, the university appears to be a natural result of the development of the educational system in medieval Europe - from the original urban cathedral and monastery schools to the institutes of higher education, the so-called Studium Generale, and from them to the Universitas itself. Teachers and students fought desperately for their rights, and pretty soon the university guilds achieved appropriate state and public recognition. The corporate ethics of medieval university professors and students was more secularized than that of teachers of monastic schools, since it was focused on the interests of people involved primarily in the educational process. Schoolchildren form a specific social cohort, located between the two main power structures of that time - the Church and the monarchy3. In this context, it should be emphasized that medieval European intellectuals developed a special moral disposition: they developed an appropriate code of moral requirements and rules of conduct for the new elite - populus politiores. It is noteworthy that the university corporation in Bologna was created almost in parallel with the formation and development of craft workshops of shoemakers, money changers, etc., while the structure of the university hierarchy (student - bachelor - master) was partly reminiscent of the gradation of craft workshops (apprentice - master - shop manager) . Thus, the emergence of universities reflects certain essential social processes that unfolded in Western European culture in the 12th-13th centuries, which were determined by the development of cities and the corresponding new challenges and requirements of the era.

The creation of universities begins simultaneously in three main European centers - Bologna, Paris and Oxford. And each city had its own political or economic basis for opening a university. Paris has been famous for its academic traditions since the time of Peter Abelard4. In addition, the University

2 A remarkable definition of the medieval concept of “university” is offered by one of the modern scholars: “University (Latin universitas) in the corresponding medieval sense is a legal term meaning a guild, corporation or group of people involved in a common activity of a certain kind, having a collective status, i.e. .legally recognized to be self-governing and to exercise control over its own members." The idea of ​​equality of members of a scientific corporation in the search for truth was clearly stated in the rules for conducting discussions adopted in 1344 in the collegium founded by the confessor of the French king Louis XI, Robert de Sorbonne in 1257. This collegium subsequently acquired such high authority and influence that in XIX century the entire university began to be called the Sorbonne. These statutes dictate that “there should be complete equality between the members of the college, since in this house all are comrades and fellow students.”

3 The outstanding French medievalist, representative of the legendary Annales school, Jacques Le Goff, notes in this regard that “the knowledge embodied by universities very soon took on the form of power and order. It was learning elevated to the same level as Priesthood and Authority. Universities also sought to define themselves as an intellectual aristocracy, with their own special morality and their own value system. This desire was especially widespread among supporters of the teachings of Aristotle and Averroists, who tried to establish and theoretically legitimize the class of philosophers (university sages), whose main virtue should be the greatness of the soul (cf. the circle of Siger of Brabant at the University of Paris in the 13th century).”

4 The famous researcher Hastings Rushdahl, in his classic work on the history of European universities, notes that “from the time of Abelard, Paris became, undoubtedly, the same center of European thought and culture as Athens in the time of Pericles or Florence in the era of Lorenzo

was actively supported by the French crown - however, this later turned into severe persecution for scientists, brought down on the nominalists5. In addition, the University of Paris was under the special tutelage of the Roman Curia, and in controversial situations, teachers had the right to appeal to the authority of the Holy See6. Bologna, in turn, seemed less suitable for a university

Medici". Indeed, not only the spiritual atmosphere, but also the well-organized provision of food and wine for students and their mentors, as well as the general situation in the city, were so favorable for students that Paris (Parisius) was compared to paradise (Paradisus). The advantage of the capital was that the royal court was located here, and learned men harbored vague hopes that they would be noticed and attracted to responsible public service. In addition, the king and royal power were considered as a source of all kinds of privileges, which was fully justified in 1200, when the charter of Philip II Augustus was published, proclaiming the legal autonomy of the university. It should be noted that Paris would never have become the educational center of Europe without a thoughtful policy of support from the French crown, which saw the university as an attribute of broad European fame and special international recognition. The growth of the political authority of the French monarchs was associated, in particular, with the establishment of the Sorbonne as the main center of the European educational system, especially in the field of theology; translatio imperii was also perceived as translatio studii. Paris seemed to be a city that seemed to have inherited the traditions of ancient capitals, but there were even more scholars and scientists in it: “neither Athens nor Rome have ever had as many scientists as Paris now,” the royal chronicler wrote in 1210 William of Brittany (quoted in:). It should be noted that in Bologna until 1353 there was no faculty of theology at all, and in philosophical terms this university did not play a noticeable role. The symbol of the Bologna alma mater was Gratian's famous Decretals, or Concordia canonum discordantium, written around 1140 and which became a classic textbook on canon law. The main textbook on theology was the “Sentences” of Peter of Lombardy. Thus, the main competitor to Paris in the matter of university education and scholastic learning was the University of Oxford. It is symbolic that at the Sorbonne members of the Dominican Order acquired a significant role, while at Oxford the Franciscans traditionally prevailed.

5 In 1473, Louis XI issued a decree according to which all teachers at the Sorbonne were ordered to swear an oath to profess realism. The decree was formally canceled only in 1841.

6 The relationship between the scientific corporation of the University of Paris and the papacy also had its downside. Events developed especially dramatically during the 13th century, when, within the framework of medieval scholasticism, a kind of “Aristotelian revolution” took place, which caused many doubts and questions among priests, which in turn led to the adoption of protective measures. Thus, in 1210, at a meeting of the Paris Local Council chaired by Archbishop Sens Peter of Corbeil, a ban was imposed on lecturing on the natural philosophical works of the Stagirite. In addition, the teaching of David of Dinant, a former university teacher, who, however, at that time was already in Rome and did not fall under the jurisdiction of these decisions, was condemned. In 1215, the papal legate Cardinal Robert de Courson confirmed the ban on the study of Aristotle's texts on natural philosophy and metaphysics, while lecturing on ethics and logic was permitted. In 1231, Pope Gregory IX addressed the Parisian masters with a special letter, where, on the one hand, he confirmed the previous prohibitions, but, on the other hand, he called for rethinking the legacy of the ancient sage and reconciling his ideas with the postulates of Christian doctrine. For this purpose, a special commission was created, which existed for no more than a year, without achieving success - nevertheless, the corresponding fundamentally important task was set. In 1263, Pope Urban IV confirmed the previous restrictions. The severity of protective measures, as often happens, was softened by their less zealous observance, and yet the condemnation of 219 so-called “Averroist theses”, adopted in 1277 at the Paris Council under the leadership of Bishop Etienne Tampier, became a decisive event in the history of relations between the university and the Church. It significantly influenced the subsequent development of theology and scholastic science, since it was not only directed against teachers of the Faculty of Arts, keen on the philosophical ideas of Aristotle and Averroes, but also affected some of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, one of the leaders of the Dominicans. A different situation developed in Oxford: both Robert Grosseteste and Roger Ba-

place in comparison with Milan, Padua or Salerno due to its economic backwardness. However, the main trump card turned out to be the location: the city was located between strong trading centers and agricultural areas, which was fundamentally important for providing food for a large population by medieval standards. It is worth recalling that large cities in Europe in the Middle Ages were considered centers with a population of 20-40 thousand people, so feeding a group of several thousand young people was really difficult.

It is fundamentally important that emerging universities carry a new spirit. Traditionally, monastery schools were focused on training clergy, future priests and monks. They preserved certain elements of the ancient cultural heritage and corresponding educational practices, taught the basics of grammar, rhetoric, exegesis, and presented a certain general set of encyclopedic knowledge. From the time of Abelard, the era of the development of free education began, as teachers (“philosophers”, as they called themselves) began to take money for training, causing genuine anger from colleagues from monastery schools, who believed that true knowledge is given by God and cannot be sold7 . Moreover, already at the beginning of the 12th century. The teachers of the Cathedral School of Paris were considered the most knowledgeable and authoritative. And by the middle of the century there was a need to institutionalize and unite disparate schools. Thus, based on the combination of the cathedral school and the schools of the monastery of St. Victor on Mount St. Genevieve, the University of Paris arose. This begins the era of professionalization of the higher education system, which reflects well-defined trends in the development of the Western European world in the Middle Ages.

In the 13th century in England and France, there was a gradual strengthening of public recognition and the hierarchical status of royal power, which is expressed, in particular, in the establishment of the institution of local representatives and in the expansion of the practice of written law, in the widespread dissemination of various orders, regulations, decrees, etc. d. Now the guarantees and rights of nobility are also secured on the basis of written documents, which creates a widespread need for lawyers and notaries who could correctly and competently interpret the law and draw up the necessary papers. “By 1300 England had become a nation dependent on legal professionals,” notes one modern scholar. Thus, universities become a kind of sine qua non of European culture. At the beginning of the 13th century. Universities are appearing in many cities of Western Europe - in Padua, Naples, Montpellier, Toulouse, Salamanca, Cambridge, etc. In addition, with the support of the mendicant orders, new Studium Generale8 are being actively created.

Kon, although they were keen on questions of natural philosophy and mathematics and studied the works of Aristotle and other ancient thinkers, strictly distinguished between the paths of scientific knowledge and theology, which would become the fundamental principle of the entire subsequent Oxford academic tradition.

7 Arguing their position, they, in particular, appealed to the texts of Holy Scripture: “Buy the truth, and do not sell wisdom and teaching and understanding” (Prov. 23:23).

8 A feature of Studium Generale was the attraction of students from abroad, while Studium Particulare covered only the local level, attracting students from a certain territory, the immediate surroundings.

It should be noted that the first medieval universities differed markedly in their system of organization and structure. In Paris, the university was governed by masters, and the rector was elected from representatives of the Faculty of Arts, the largest in terms of the number of students and teachers. The faculty system of the University of Paris developed at the beginning of the 13th century and served as a model for other universities in Europe. The primary faculty was the Faculty of Arts, then one could specialize in medicine, law or theology. At the same time, the Faculty of Arts included four associations by nationality: Gallic, English, Picardy and Norman. The University of Bologna was run by scholars who hired professors. Thus, the university included two associations - foreign students and teachers, so university life was determined by the interaction of these unions. “The first university of scholars,” writes D. K. Hyde, “was composed of foreign students. Bolognese students were prohibited from adjoining the university, as this would subject them to the jurisdiction of the rector, and not the city. The doctors, on the other hand, banded together partly to protect themselves from an oath that forced them to reside only in Bologna. But they also united to regulate the examination procedure and the issuance of scientific degrees. From these various student and faculty concerns, essentially two organizations, the University of Bologna began to develop."

The emigration of teachers was not welcomed by the townspeople, but it was a widespread practice of university life in the Middle Ages. Quite often, in defense of their rights, if there were no other arguments, university students moved to other cities. This is how new universities appeared: in 1209, teachers from Oxford moved to Cambridge, in 1204, doctors from Bologna moved to Vincenza, then in 1215 to Arezzo, in 1222 to Padua, and from Padua in 1228 to Vercelli. The people of Bologna eventually passed a law that prescribed the death penalty for anyone who plotted to move the studium, and for all masters over fifty who wanted to leave the city to teach elsewhere. However, after the mass emigration of university students to Siena in 1321, the commune of Bologna found a more positive way of attracting professors and students. In 1322, the townspeople, in order to accommodate masters and students, built at their own expense a special chapel for scientists - in fact, this was the first university building proper.

Teachers at the University of Paris, when defending their rights, also resorted to threats of emigration to other cities. The first known case is the events of 1200, when German students were killed as a result of a brawl. They quarreled with the innkeeper and beat him. In response, the police chief sent his men to the German community, and several students were killed. University teachers refused to work and threatened to move. As a result, the French king Philip II Augustus was forced to make concessions and grant numerous rights and privileges to scholars and masters, in particular: teachers were not subject to the usual city court, they should have been transferred to church authorities or to the discretion of the community of professors. The police chief was punished. Citizens were ordered to report all crimes against scientists and help identify and apprehend the criminals. As we see, the royal authorities sided with the university students. Subsequently, teachers of the University of Paris left the city in 1218-1219, but the largest emigration of professors and students took place

in 1229, when the Parisian masters went en masse to various French cities - Angers, Orleans, Toulouse. The reason was a conflict with the townspeople: during the carnival holidays in the suburbs of Paris, schoolchildren quarreled with an innkeeper over the cost of wine. The magistrate joined the investigation into the incident. In general, the situation was ambiguous, but teachers and students acted as a single corporation, defending the inviolability of their legal rights in the face of city authorities. The return of scientists to Paris required two years of approvals and negotiations. It is noteworthy that Pope Gregory IX personally played an important role in restoring the full functioning of the University. He issued a special encyclical, Pareus scientiarum, dated April 13, 1231, which called for the start of negotiations between representatives of all interested parties - the king, the bishop and the university corporation. In addition, special appeals from the pope were sent out calling for the restoration of the status quo in relations between the townspeople and the community of scientists on the basis of the relevant regulations of 1200. Thus, only in 1231 did the pope force the king to guarantee professors and students the safety of living in Paris, after which they began to return .

The formation of universities and the entire system of higher education in medieval Europe in the 12th-13th centuries. was a necessary element of the cultural evolution of that time and was determined by many complex social reasons and challenges of the era: contradictions between secular and spiritual authorities, centralization of statehood, the growth of cities and the needs of communal life, and the development of the Church. In general, it should be recognized that from its very origins, Universitas as a corporation of scientists, a union of like-minded people committed to the search for truth, acquired a special social status. Scientists demonstrated not only their passion for abstract “studies”, but also the real social strength of their guild. They shaped society, created its intellectual and legal basis. In this sense, today the university remains a symbol of moral generosity, scientific uncompromisingness and dedication to its work.

Literature

1. Southern R. W. Scholastic humanism and the unification of Europe. T. I: Fundamentals / trans. M. V. Semikolennykh // URL: http://turba-philosophorum.narod.ru/transl/Southern/Scholastic_Humanism_1/Contents.html (access date: 12/03/2012).

2. Hyde J. K. Universities and Cities in Medieval Italy // The University and the City. From Medieval Origins to the Present / ed. by T. Beuder. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. pp. 13-21.

3. Shishkov A. M. Medieval intellectual culture. M.: Publisher Savin S. A., 2003. 592 p.

4. Ferruolo S. C. Parisius-Paradisus: The City, its Schools, and the Origins of the University of Paris // The University and the City. From Medieval Origins to the Present / ed. by T. Beuder. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. pp. 22-43.

5. Anthology of pedagogical thought of the Christian Middle Ages: in 2 volumes. T. 2: The world was refracted in the book. Education in the medieval world through the eyes of learned mentors and their contemporaries. M.: JSC "Aspect Press", 1994.

6. Le Goff J. Another Middle Ages. Time, labor and culture of the West. Ekaterinburg: Ural University Publishing House, 2000. 328 p.

7. Rashdall H. The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages: 3 vols. Vol. I. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

8. Kurantov A.P., Styazhkin N.I. William Occam. M.: Mysl, 1978. 192 p.

9. Marrone S. P. The rise of the universities // The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy: 2 vols / ed. by R. Pasnau. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Vol. I.P. 50-62.

  • Introductory
    • The subject of the science of history and its place in the system of historical sciences
    • Functions of historical knowledge
    • Methodology of science and the course of general history
    • Principles of studying historical data
    • Stages of development of historical science
    • Options for periodizing history
  • The primitive era of mankind
    • Variants of periodization of ancient history
      • Paleolithic
      • Mesolithic
      • Neolithic
      • Chalcolithic
    • Decomposition of the primitive communal system
  • History of the states of the ancient East
    • The era of early antiquity (end of the 4th - end of the 2nd millennium BC)
      • Egypt
      • Sumerian-Akkadian period
      • The first civilizations in India and China
    • The era of the heyday of ancient states (end of the 2nd - end of the 1st millennium BC)
      • Mesopotamia
      • Persian Achaemenid Empire
      • India
      • China
    • Late Antiquity
  • History of ancient states
    • Ancient Greece (3rd millennium BC – 30 BC)
      • Archaic period
      • Classical period and Hellenistic era
    • Ancient Rome (8th century BC – 5th century AD)
      • Republic period
      • Empire period
  • Civilization of ancient Rus'
    • Civilization of ancient Rus'
    • The oldest settlements on the territory of our country (from its origin to the 6th century AD)
      • The ancestral home of the Slavs and their ethnogenesis
    • Eastern Slavs on the threshold of state formation (VI – 9th centuries)
      • Settlement of the Eastern Slavs
      • Economic activity
      • Social order
      • Trade, cities
      • Customs, morals and beliefs
    • The formation of European civilization
    • General characteristics of the Western European Middle Ages (V-XVII centuries)
      • Vassalage system
      • Manners, customs
    • Early Middle Ages (V – X centuries)
      • Classes of early feudal society
    • Classical Middle Ages (XI-XV centuries)
      • Peasant revolts
      • Economy. Agriculture
      • Medieval cities
      • Medieval craft
      • Trade and merchants
      • Medieval universities
      • Features of the historical development of leading European countries
    • Late Middle Ages (XVI - early XVII centuries)
      • Trade
      • Agriculture
      • Church Reformation
      • Development of science
  • Rus' in the Middle Ages
    • Kievan Rus (IX – XII centuries)
      • Norman theory
      • Social order
      • Economic life
      • Christianization of Rus'
    • The formation of civilization in the Russian lands (XI – XV centuries)
      • Main princely lands
      • The fight against the Mongol-Tatar conquerors
    • Formation and rise of the Moscow State (XIII – XV centuries)
      • Formation of the Moscow centralized state
  • States of the East in the Middle Ages
    • Features of the development of Eastern countries in the Middle Ages
    • India (VII – XVIII centuries)
      • The era of the Muslim conquest of India. Delhi Sultanate (XIII - early XVI centuries)
      • India in the era of the Mughal Empire (XVI-XVIII centuries)
    • China (III – XVII centuries)
      • Imperial period (late VI-XIII centuries)
      • China during the era of Mongol rule. Yuan Empire (1271-1367)
      • Ming China (1368-1644)
    • Japan (III – XIX centuries)
      • Fujiwara era (645-1192)
      • Japan during the era of the first Minamoto shogunate (1192-1335)
      • Second Ashikaga Shogunate (1335-1573)
      • Unification of the country; Tokugaev shogunate
    • Arab Caliphate (V – XI centuries AD)
    • Europe: transition to a new time
    • Consequences of the Great Geographical Discoveries
      • Colonial system of infant capitalism
      • Development of science
    • Netherlands
    • England
      • Sources of initial capital accumulation
      • Causes of the bourgeois revolution
      • The course of the bourgeois revolution
      • Results of the revolution
    • France
      • Features of socio-economic development
      • Economic policy. Henry IV. Richelieu. Colbertism.
    • Germany
      • Reformation
      • Thirty Years' War
  • Russia in the XVI-XVII centuries.
    • Russia in the 16th century
      • Beginning of the reign of Ivan IV
      • Reforms of the 50s
      • Agrarian revolution. Oprichnina
      • Foreign policy
      • Economy of Russia
    • XVII century in the history of Russia
      • End of the intervention. The fight for Smolensk
      • The Council Code of 1649 and the strengthening of autocracy
      • Foreign policy
      • Domestic political situation
      • Economy of Russia in the 17th century.
  • Europe in the 18th century.
    • Enlightenment is a necessary stage in cultural development
      • English Enlightenment
      • French Enlightenment
      • Enlightened absolutism
    • The French Revolution
      • Stages of the Revolution
      • The most important events of the Jacobins
      • Results of the Revolution and its significance
    • Economic development of European countries in the 18th century.
      • The beginning of the industrial revolution in England
      • Agriculture
      • Shifts in social structure
  • Russia in the 18th century
    • Russia under Peter I
      • Development of manufacturing production
      • Currency reform
      • Social politics
    • Socio-economic development of Russia in the second half of the 18th century
      • Industry
      • Domestic and foreign trade
      • Development of banking systems
      • Strengthening feudal land tenure and the dictatorship of the nobility
    • Enlightened absolutism in Russia
      • Order of the Commission on drawing up a draft of a new Code
      • Russian enlighteners

Medieval universities

Another part of Western European medieval society was also mobile – students and masters. The first universities in Western Europe appeared precisely in the classical Middle Ages. So, at the end of the XII - beginning of the XIII centuries. Universities were opened in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge and other European cities. Universities were then the most important and often the only source of information.

The power of universities and university science was exceptionally strong. In this regard, in the XIV-XV centuries. The University of Paris stood out in particular. It is significant that among his students (and there were more than 30 thousand people in total) there were adults and even old people: everyone came to exchange opinions and get acquainted with new ideas.

University science - scholasticism - was formed in the 11th century. Its most important feature was boundless faith in the power of reason in the process of understanding the world. Over time, however, scholasticism increasingly becomes a dogma. Its provisions are considered infallible and final. In the XIV-XV centuries. scholasticism, which used only logic and denied experiments, became an obvious obstacle to the development of natural scientific thought in Western Europe.

Almost all departments in European universities were then occupied by monks of the Dominican and Franciscan orders, and the usual topics of debates and scientific papers were: “Why did Adam eat an apple and not a pear in paradise? and “How many angels can fit on the head of a needle?”

The entire system of university education had a very strong influence on the formation of Western European civilization. Universities contributed to progress in scientific thought, the growth of social consciousness and the growth of individual freedom. Masters and students, moving from city to city, from university to university, which was a constant practice, carried out cultural exchange between countries.

National achievements immediately became known in other European countries. Thus, the Decameron by the Italian Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was quickly translated into all European languages, it was read and known everywhere. The formation of Western European culture was also facilitated by the beginning of printing in 1453. Johannes Gutenberg (between 1394-1399 or 1406-1468), who lived in Germany, is considered the first printer.

No one founded the first universities. They arose spontaneously at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. Then this ready-made form was borrowed by opening new universities in different European lands, and later in other regions. Moreover, even in modern and contemporary times, the founders of universities sometimes unconsciously, and sometimes quite deliberately, copied traditional European forms.

Over the past hundred years, many books have been written about the “mission of the university,” about the “spirit of the university,” about the “end of the university,” about the “rebirth of the university.” In the debate about the role and place of universities in the modern world, there are more and more authors, but there is less and less agreement between them. But if we accept the medieval origins of universities, then perhaps it is worth first understanding why they arose in the medieval West and what were their functions?

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Western European Middle Ages and Early Modern Times at the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor at the School of Historical Sciences at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Executive Editor of the journal "Middle Ages"

Abstracts

The medieval West gave us universities. The thread connecting the medieval universities of Bologna, Paris, Oxford or Prague with Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics or National Research Nuclear University MEPhI is long and winding, but continuous. The same cannot be said about the Byzantine Pandidacterione Pandidakterion- an educational institution founded in 855 or 856 in Constantinople and existed until the Turks took the city in 1453., about Moroccan Al-Qaraouine Al-Qaraween- the oldest institution of higher education in the city of Fez, was founded in 859. or about the Chinese Academy Hanlin  Hanlin (“Forest of Brushes”)- a court academy founded in China in 738 and existed until 1911. It served as a high school, a censorship committee, a library, and an imperial office, as its members often became advisors to the emperor. The Academy was the highest level of the entire system of Confucian education and the place for conducting job examinations.. The history of such institutions is extremely interesting and undeservedly forgotten, but in these regions themselves it will be the Western university form of obtaining and preserving knowledge that will later be borrowed.

The continuity of tradition creates the effect of recognition: “They were almost the same as we are now!” And indeed, a lot seems familiar: there, like us, there was a rector, a dean, a faculty, lectures, courses, exams, bachelors, masters, doctors, professors. Students entered the university, listened to lectures, practiced defending their opinions, took exams and, if successful, received degrees. Having achieved a bachelor's degree, they could leave the university, or, having achieved a master's degree, they could move on to more advanced levels of study at higher faculties. A person with a university degree was valued quite highly in society, although not nearly as highly as he would like. University positions were elective; the most important issues were decided by councils of faculties or the entire university. Among the masters there were great scientists, but there were also stupid retrogrades. The latter, as a rule, are more numerous - and yet universities often became catalysts for change, generating a rebellious spirit. Students always complained about lack of money, about the fact that they were malnourished and lacking sleep, but they demonstrated a violent temperament, a penchant for fun, tricks and practical jokes. Student folklore, for example, the poetry of vagants, invariably interests our contemporaries, especially if they are familiar with it only from translations of Lev Ginzburg.

But you won’t hear any of this from professional university researchers: the deeper a person dives into the material, the more the picture changes. The vagantas were not poor students at all, but very respectable prelates - that is, high-ranking clergy, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, etc. Although the rector was respected, he was elected for only three months. Medieval universities did not at all set themselves the task of developing science or training specialists needed by society. The motivations of students and masters, their sources of funding and living conditions were completely different from modern ones.

Moreover, if the line of continuity between medieval and modern universities exists (which not all experts are sure of), it is only in the form of a dotted line. “Men are more like their times than their fathers” - this Arabic proverb also applies to the history of universities, which were fully dependent on the world around them and changed with it. At times, universities consciously tried to reject their own past. Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment - each era sought to establish its own, fundamentally new type of education.

And yet, university history has some unity. Universities have developed a special culture capable of self-reproduction. No matter how well they are rooted in their own era and their own country, be it the imperial universities of Russia or the universities of Madagascar, university people have a special cultural code that is manifested in their behavior and in the peculiarities of their thinking. Somehow university traditions are reproduced “by themselves”, an internal logic that is different from the surrounding world is traced, and the constants of university culture appear again and again. One of these constants is the statement about the crisis of the university. This crisis is often discussed in the 21st century, but it was first discussed at the beginning of the 13th century. University culture is still surprisingly constant. And this is her eternal mystery.

Interview with lecturer

— Please tell us why and how you got involved in the history of universities.

- Everything is quite predictable. In my second year I chose a course topic about medieval students. The topic is of eternal interest, but for me this choice was also a compromise. Yes, I was interested in the Middle Ages, and I read their history at our Moscow State Pedagogical Institute MGPI— Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after. Lenin, now Moscow Pedagogical State University. Pavel Uvarov graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State Pedagogical Institute in 1978. good (professor Alexandra Andreevna Kirillova Alexandra Andreevna Kirillova(1904-1984) - medievalist historian, specialist in the history of cities in medieval England. She headed the department of history of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute., right person). In addition, from childhood I was interested in what today is called ethnology. I also became acquainted with the book of Mikhail Bakhtin, with his ideas of carnival culture The most famous and influential book by Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975), a Russian philosopher, philologist, theorist and cultural historian, is “The Work of Francois Rabelais and the Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,” dedicated to the study of laughter culture and carnival.. So I decided to combine several topics: the Middle Ages, everyday life, rituals, folk culture. The students seemed to me like such a tribe, worthy of the attention of Miklouho-Maclay. Personal experience with fellow students strengthened me in this opinion. I stuck to the university topic for a long time; my coursework, diploma work, and candidate's dissertation were devoted to it. Then the flow of life carried me quite far from this plot. But I haven’t lost sight of universities and I hope not to. It's like an ace in the hole. If I need to quickly move on to another topic or delve into the history of another region, I start looking for university people or their “homologues” Homologues- chemical compounds that have different compositions, but similar structure and properties. living in that era, be it absolutist France, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union or the Song Empire Song Empire- a state that existed in China from 960 to 1279; considered a time of economic and cultural prosperity.. And then they themselves will tell me the next steps.

“City life and activities of citizens” (“City in the medieval civilization of Western Europe.” Vol. 2, 1999. Executive editor A. A. Svanidze).

Exhibition for the lecture

For the lecture, employees of the Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library and the Research Department of Rare Books of the Russian State Library prepared a mini-exhibition. It will present an astronomical collection of the first quarter of the 15th century with tables that guided all European scientists until the 16th century; a manual on Latin grammar of the late 15th century; as well as Cicero’s philosophical work “On Duties,” which served as a textbook.

The university community was divided into faculties, nations and colleges. University / Encyclopedia F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron (1890 - 1916), 1890, reprint edition, T.58.-M, 1993, pp. 239-245.; Gestor A. Medieval University: Management and Resources.//ALMA MATER.- 1996.- No. 5.- P.23-28.

In addition to the old meaning of a discipline or field of study, from the mid-13th century. facultas comes to mean the structure that organizes the teaching of a particular discipline - the liberal arts, law, medicine or theology. Teachers and students become members of faculties and, as a result, members of studium generate.

Faculties were the main units in Paris and other universities that followed the Parisian model.

In Bologna things were different. The Studium generate Bologna (and its affiliated universities) was a group of universities, each for students of only one discipline; in addition, the studium was divided into two universities (for people from the Apennine Peninsula and from other regions), and the latter into nations (nationes). Teachers and students born in Bologna did not belong to the universitas, because it was believed that students of Bolognese origin did not need the protection of the nation. The professors had their own corporation - collegium doctorum. The Bologna model was not fully reproduced in all universities.

Thus, Spanish universities, founded in the 13th century. the kings of Castile, and especially the universities of Aragon, were guided by Bologna and their own practice. These universities, being under tighter control by the crown, enjoyed less freedom. Some other universities can also be associated with the Bologna model.

The Prague studium is an interesting example of the flexibility of medieval institutions. This first university of the Holy Roman Empire, founded in 1346 by Emperor Charles IV, consisted of four faculties. For political reasons, the Faculty of Law separated from this university in 1372 and founded an independent university of law on the Italian model.

In addition to the organization considered, according to which the university and the faculty could be more or less considered synonymous, there was another model based on a four-faculty division of the university (like Paris): Such a university consisted of one junior faculty - the Faculty of Liberal Arts and three seniors - theology, law and medicine. The teachers, quickly realizing their own interests, compared these four faculties to the “four rivers of paradise.” St. Bonaventure equated the liberal arts with the foundations of a building, law and medicine with its walls, and theology with its roof.

The studios of northwestern and central Europe were oriented towards the Parisian model. German universities, founded in the 14th and 15th centuries, were formed and adopted charters according to the Parisian model. Sometimes the statutes were copied from the statutes of Cologne, a subsidiary university of Paris, founded in 1388.

The ideal university had four faculties, but in the 13th century. Universities with one, two and three faculties were not uncommon.

One of the reasons for such organizational diversity can be seen in the fact that until the end of the 13th century. The popes defended Paris's monopoly on theology and opposed the creation of theological faculties elsewhere. Another reason was that although almost every university had a medical faculty, it was doubtful that it could function, since the number of students studying there did not always reach even 1% of the total number of students. The Faculty of Liberal Arts remained the largest in terms of the number of teachers and students, especially north of the Alps. Although he acted as a preparatory teacher for the three higher ones, most of his students never crossed the threshold of the latter.

In the Middle Ages, law faculties were the most attractive - they were attended by an increasing number of students who were attracted by the brilliant career prospects that opened up for talented young legal graduates.

A significant part of the administrative functions fell on the faculties, which provided conditions for active participation in the organization and management of studium generate. As a corporation, the faculty had its own head, usually a dean (decanus), a treasurer (receptor), university chairs, a seal and statutes. The dean first appears in the 13th century. in Paris and Montpellier; in the 14th century it can already be found in other universities. At first it is only the senior master, still busy with his studies. The dean was the chairman of the council, which included the masters of the faculty; he was responsible for administration and teaching, debates and examinations.

In Oxford, where the first schools appeared in 1208-1209, the Faculty of Arts dominated (as in Paris), but the higher faculties did not have deans. In Italian university faculties the functions of the rector were similar to those of the deans of the studia north of the Alps. Requirements for candidacy of a dean, procedures for his election, and terms of office varied from university to university.

The organization of the early medieval university included another form of corporation, the nation. At first, nations arose spontaneously through the efforts of students or students and teachers; later such a corporation became part of the structure of universities.

Nations played an important role in the life of many universities; heads of nations often elected rectors and served on university boards.

At the undergraduate universities of Bologna and Padua, the universities of law, arts and medicine were divided into two universitates (citramontana and ultra-montana), which in turn were divided into nations into smaller geographical regions. Admission to other Italian universities also followed a regional basis, which determined the need for a complex university organization, in which their attractiveness for individual European countries and regions manifested itself. For example, in Perugia there were only three nations - German, French and Catalan - for the ultramontanes.

The nations in the universities that followed the model of Paris were organized differently. Thus, in Paris itself, only the largest faculty - the Faculty of Arts - had nations in its structure. They appeared soon after the emergence of the university, based on a rather vague geographical classification. Four nations were represented here: French, Picardy, Norman and English (the English included students from Central and Northern Europe). The nations included Masters of Arts from the Faculty of Arts and professors from higher faculties with a similar degree. The Council of the Nation was headed by a procurator, elected for one month by the masters and often re-elected several times. The nation had its own seal, registers, income and expenses.

At first, nations acted as independent corporations. Their power and influence on the life of the university varied from university to university, but everywhere they had almost the same structure and organization.

The proctors (procuratores) or consiliari (in some Italian nations), who led the nations, had administrative and financial powers and to some extent jurisdiction; participated in the work of university bodies as counselors rector. Sometimes nations had their own treasurers (receptores) and always pedelli (bedelli), as in Bologna. In Paris, the nations annually elected one chief paedel (bedellus maior as assistant proctor) and a subbedellus or bedellus to assist him. The rod was a distinctive feature of the pedel. In Paris, proctors of nations were elected, sworn in, and paid for couriers (nuntiiuolantes minores, or ordinarii) who ensured the delivery of news and money to members of nations and their families. In the late Middle Ages, proctors appointed chief couriers, nuntii maiores, who functioned as university financiers, bankers, and money changers.

Over time, another corporation appears in universities, surpassing the nation in importance - the college. In some late medieval universities, college structures determined the structure of the university or department and its administration.

The college, or domus scholarium, as it was first called, began as a boarding house for poor students, and subsequently became an autonomous or semi-autonomous academic community of residents living and studying in donated premises. The teachers and students living here could come from a particular region or study the same discipline. In the 12th and 13th centuries. the founders and donors to the colleges especially supported the liberal arts and theology, and in the 14th and 15th centuries. - canon and civil law. Colleges for doctors have always been rare.

At the University of Paris, colleges existed almost from its inception. They started with hospitia - boarding houses for groups of students or researchers, also called socii. Only a few, including the first, the College des dix-huit, founded in 1180 for 18 needy students, and the College of St. Thomas du Louvre, founded in 1186, received contributions; Colleges for theological students also emerged. Around 1257, Robert Sorbon founded the college known as the Sorbonne in order to house a sufficient number of secular theological students. At first it housed sixteen and then thirty research fellows (bursarii) and six young masters of arts working on doctoral dissertations in the field of theology. Louis IX endowed the college with a plot of land near the ancient Roman baths.

Management functions were performed by the college board, which included representatives of the church and university administration, and was led by a principal (provisor), who was determined at annual elections by researchers (with a fixation of his duties), and four proctors. Other colleges, like the College de Navarre (1304), in which 70 students were divided into three classes - grammar, art and theology - remained mainly student-run. In the 14th and 15th centuries. founders' motives change; the desire to help poor young people is replaced by the desire to provide comfortable living conditions for representatives of the monastic elite or people from the noble classes.

Bursales who studied on scholarship lived more austerely and led a fairly modest life in college compared to commensales or students who paid their own way. From the fourteenth century, the premises, services and libraries belonging to the colleges became attractive also for lecturers. Colleges begin to give lectures to both outside students and fellows (bursarii), while the university retains the right to manage them. By the end of the 15th century. There were about 70 colleges in Paris, including monasteries. Some of them were founded for foreigners (Danes, Scots, Lombards and Germans).

In Paris, the management of the college was usually carried out by its own administrators. External authorities controlled the degree to which the places of fellows or bursae were filled, thereby controlling the life of the college. People from the outside world were often involved in the management of the college. In Oxford and Cambridge, the opposite trends were observed: colleges with the university administration were loosely connected; they managed their own property and independently found ways to benefit from university training and academic degrees; elected their own heads and co-opted individuals who governed the life of the college in accordance with their own charters and regulations. In the 12th and early 13th centuries. older students of moderate income could obtain the right to live and use university canteens and dormitories. In the 13th century The first colleges were founded for less wealthy bachelors or masters of arts who wished to continue their studies at senior faculties. Over time, education at Oxford increasingly began to be carried out through colleges.

In central Europe, colleges were intended almost exclusively for masters. In Prague, twelve magistri organized the Collegium Carolinum in 1361. The master's Collegium Ducale functioned in Vienna. There were three professorial colleges in Krakow, providing everything necessary for life. In addition, shelters for poor students, such as Bursa Pauperum (1417), were organized in Krakow. In Erfurt, the first college, the Collegium Maius for masters of arts, was most likely founded at the same time as the official foundation of the university, in 1379.

In Southern Europe, colleges never played an important role, and not only in the Middle Ages. Students at Italian universities have always maintained close ties with the city, living in apartments with the townspeople and sharing their living conditions and political preferences. The oldest colleges in Bologna, as conceived by their founders, were to provide room, board and financial assistance to a small number of needy students without any tuition. The largest was the Spanish College (1367) with 30 students, 8 of whom studied theology, 18 in canon law, and 4 in medicine. The students lived at the college for seven years; theologians and physicians could stay for a longer period after receiving their doctorate. The students came from Spanish dioceses designated by the college's founder, Cardinal Gil Albomoz. Candidates were tested in entrance exams. They accepted students prepared “at least in grammar,” and theologians and physicians in logic. They were provided with room and board, two sets of clothes for a year and an annual stipend. The management of the college was built on truly democratic principles, but internal discipline was strictly maintained. The Collegio di Spagna in Bologna served as a model for the Spanish colleges that appeared in Salamanca in the late 14th century. The reasons for the paucity of colleges in Italy and France south of the Loire are quite understandable. The faculties of law and medicine were attended mainly by wealthy and already adult students. Cheap hostels did not suit them; they preferred a life of comfort in private homes and freedom from disciplinary restrictions. In addition, well-organized student nations provided all kinds of support to students, including financial and legal. Finally, in the southern universities there were no masses of young grammarians and art students, which means there was no need for special accommodation for them.

A large university - Paris - was a state within a state. Nearby there existed and operated, often without clearly demarcated competencies, faculties, nations, testing commissions, schools of three monastic orders, half of which only belonged to the university, colleges, a chapter of the cathedral and both chancellors. In total, the University of Paris included about 7 thousand teachers and students, and in addition to them, booksellers, manuscript copyists, manufacturers of parchment, quills, ink powder, pharmacists, etc. were members of the union. And outside the university there were competing forces that influenced its fate: the pope and his legates, the king, his officials and parliament. Uvarov P.Yu. University of Paris: European universalism, local interests and the idea of ​​representation // City in the medieval civilization of Western Europe. T. 4. /Ans. ed. A.A. Svanidze.- M.: Nauka, P. 52.

Thus, the structure of the university can be called quite complex. In addition to the actual university rules regarding tenure on faculties, the large cells of the structure were nations that regulated the rights and responsibilities of people based on geography, as well as colleges that looked after the student’s personal life. It should be noted that the university environment included many societies that were not bound by strict rules with the university, but were part of university life: writers, practitioners, clergy, dropouts from university studies, and merchants. This will be discussed in subsequent chapters of our work.