Christianity has a different ideal in education. In- stead of giving a one-sided attention to the intellectual, political, and national relations sustained by man, it seeks to cultivate a complete character, that shall be developed in every direction, and that receives its pro- foundest moral determination from the conscious rela- tion sustained by man towards that God who is revealed in the New Testament. It must be admitted, however, that this ideal was only gradually apprehended by the Christian world. The family was naturally the only school, at first. The Greek Church was the first to pro- vide catechetical schools, of which that at Alexandria — from the middle of the 2d century — became the most famous. The object of these schools was simply the preparation of adults for baptism, though philosophical questions that had a bearing upon Christianity also re- ceived consideration. See Alexandrian Schools. The Greek schools of philosophy, however (first of all that at Athens, then also that at Alexandria and the academies of the Neo-Platonists), continued to be the chief centres of learning in early Christianity, until, in A.D. 529, Justinian closed the school at Athens. The Alexandrian school had succumbed to the fanaticism of the monks and the hierarchy a century before ; and the migrations of the nations rendered a renewal impossible. The clergy, who became the sole depositaries of learning in the West, contented themselves with merely guard- ing the treasures that had hitherto been acquired. The scientific impulse which took its rise from Mohamme- danism led to the advance of culture, especially in Spain, where important contributions to learning were made by the Saracens and the .Jews, more particularly in the field of the exact sciences, but also in natural philosophy and the philosophy of religion. (On the school at Cor- dova, after the 'Jth century, translations from Aristotle, etc., comp., among others, Erdmann, Gesch, d. Philoso- phie, i, 307 sq. ; Lewes, Hist, of Philns. vol. i ; Christian Schools and Scholars to the Council of Trent [Lond. 1867, 2 vols. 8vo], vol. i.) The churches in Germany, at the beginning of the IMiddle Ages, had only schools for the training of the clergy, with a practical and rather narrow aim. The most conspicuous seat of learning in the early Middle Ages was that of Bede and his followers, at York, dating from the 8th century ; but it did not go beyond the purely traditional course of studies, whose sources and authorities were found in
Augustine, Cassiodorus, Boethius, and Isidore of Sevilkc From this school came forth Alciiin (q. v.), one of the principal supporters of learning in the Carlovingian age, who deserves, at the same time, the highest credit for the reform of the cathedral and convent school sj'S- tem, which was carried through by Charlemagne. This reform had, of course, no intention of promoting popular education in the modern sense. Charlemagne, incited thereto by Alcuin, sought first of all to train a cultured clergy that should be able to teach every individual the credo, the pater-noster, and similar things, in the vernacular. The diocese of Orleans alone in those times had incipient schools for the people. A century later Kaban Maurus (" primus proeceptor Germaniai"), the founder of the convent-school at Fulda, conceived the idea of educating the people generally, and in England Alfred the Great sought practically to realize the same end. The increased number of universities led, from the r2th century, to a decline of interest in the ca- thedral and convent schools ; and as early as the time of Innocent III (1198-121G) they had become mere rep- resentatives of the illiberal and hierarchical culture of the Church, which the papacy sought, but in vain, to favor at the expense of the more liberal and untram- melled tendencies of the universities. The latter, how- ever, by the opening of the 14th century, experienced the eifects of the general decay, which began with the opposition to the papacy of Avignon, and increased as the idea of the state was developed and the cities and commercial interests rose into importance, until, in the 15th century, it produced the overthrow of scholasti- cism. But a new spirit of inquiry, of independent thought and incipient criticism, that had escaped ec- clesiastical control, was already at work, having ap- peared in connection with the revival of learning that began with Petrarch (1304-1374), and that had, by the 15th century, aroused a general interest in the study of classical antiquity and of the ancient languages. See 1{enaissa>"cp:. The beginnings of popular education in the modern sense are to be credited to the " Brothers of the Common Life,'" who cstalilished schools in Holland and along the Rhine in the 15th centun,-. They dis- carded scholasticism, and devoted their attention to the Scriptures, the study of the fathers (Augustine, St. Ber- nard, etc.), and the languages, not for the purpose of pre- paring for an office in the Church, but in order to instruct the people. The earliest representatives of exclusively humanistic learning were trained in these schools, e. g. Agricola, Al. Hegius, and Spiegelberg. These were soon followed by other humanists, whose circles extended over all Germany (Busch. J. Wessel,Wesel, Conrad Ccltcs, Mu- tian, Kufus, etc.; compare Voigt, Die Wiederherstellung der Wissenschaften [1861]). Reuchlin and Erasmus were influential in promoting the study of languages, the former devoting himself more especially to the He- brew, the latter to the Greek. Schools for such ad- vanced studies were, however, established only in the larger and more favored towns; and the great majority of towns, as well as the entire open country, was with- out facilities for education, excepting those afforded by the discouraging labors of strolling scholars (comp. Kaumer, Gesch. d. Pddatjogik, vol. i. On education generally in the Middle Ages, consult Ruhkopf. Gesch, d. Schul- u. Erziehungsicesens in Deiitschland [Bremen, 1794], vol. i ; Hahn, Das Unterrichtswesen in Frankreich [Breslau, 1848]; and Christian Schools and Scholars, already referred to).