536 THE MJDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
the convents and cathedrals in. Germany had schools,1 — Corvey on the Weser and Hildesheim being noted ; and, in Italy, the schools of Milan and Parma were well known.
But in that century the centre of education shifted to France. The schools at Bee, Rheims, Orleans, Laon, and Paris had no rivals and their fame attracted students, even monks, priests, and bishops, from England and Germany.2 The fame of Rheims, where Gerbert, afterwards Sylvester II., d. 1003, had won the title of " restorer of studies," gave way to the greater fame of Bee, under Lanfranc and Anselm. Students were drawn from afar and, in the judgment of the glowing panegyrist, Ordericus Vitalis, Athens, in its most flourishing period, would have honored Lanfranc in every branch of learning.3 These two priors were followed by a succession of teachers whom Ordericus calls " careful pilots and skilful charioteers." Seldom has so splendid a compli ment been paid a teacher by a man risen to eminence as was paid by Alexander II. to Lanfranc,4 on Lanf nine's visit to Rome, after he was made archbishop of Canterbury. Rising to welcome him with open arms, the pope remarked to the bystanders that he received Lanfranc as his teacher, at whose feet he had sat, rather than as archbishop. Guibert of Nogent, who died about 1120, is authority for the state ment that teachers were very rare in France in his early years, but, at the time when he was writing, every consider able town in France had a teacher.5 That mothers were anxious to have their sons educated is evident from the example of Guibert's statement concerning his own mother.
As in the earlier period of the Middle Ages, so in this
1 Mirbt, pp. 105 sq.
2 Schmid, pp. 250 sq. ; Mirbt, pp. 106 sq. Hauck, IV. 452-456, gives rea sons for disparaging the schools of Germany.
3 Ord. Vit., IV. 7, 11 ; Bonn's ed., II. 40, 68. He speaks of the seed of learning sown by Lanfranc — liberaUum artium et sac. lectionis sedimen per Lanfr. coepit.
* Vita Lanf., Migne, 150. 49. Maitre, p. 122, calls Bee, la sceur ainee de Vuniv. de Paris, and Schmid, p. 248, die erste Hochschule der Wissenschaft. Church, in his Life of Anselm, pp. 53 sqq., has remarks on mediaeval education.
5 De vita sua, Migne, 156. 844.
§ 88. SCHOOLS. 53T
middle period, the idea of universal education was not thought of. Nor was there anything such as we call belles lettres and general literature.1 All literature had an imme diate bearing on religious subjects.2 Such men as Walter Map and John of Salisbury, who approach nearest our modern idea of men of letters, were clerics. The founders of convents, like Herlouin, founder of Bee, were often men who could neither read nor write. Ordericus says that dur ing the reigns of six dukes, before Lanfranc went to Bee, scarce a single Norman devoted himself to studies. Duke William of Aquitaine, d. 1030, however, was educated from childhood and was said to have spent his nights in reading till sleep overcame him, and to have had a collection of books.3
The most brilliant teachers of this era were Anselm of Laon, William of Champeaux, Bernard of Chartres, William of Conches, and, above all, Abselard. They all belonged to France. In their cases, the school followed the teacher and students went not so much to a locality as to an educator. More and more, however, the interest centred in Paris, which had a number of schools, — the Cathedral school, St. Genevieve, St. Victor, St. Denis.4 Our knowledge of these men is derived chiefly from Abselard and John of Salisbury. John studied in France for twelve years, 1137-1149, and sat under them all. His descriptions of the studies of the age, and the methods and rivalries of teachers, are given in the Metalogicus.
William of Champeaux, d. 1121, the pupil of Anselm of Laon, won fame at the Cathedral school of Paris, but lost his position by clash with the brilliant abilities of Abselard. He retired to St. Victor and spent the last eight years of his life in the administration of the see of Chalons. He was an extreme realist.
1 Guizot, Hist, of Civilization, Bohn's ed., II. 22 sqq. Cardinal Newman in his Hist. Essays, through his admiration of monastic institutions, allowed himself to speak of the state of learning in Europe in the first half of the M. A. in terms which will not bear a moment's investigation. See Laurie, p. 36.
* Hauck, III. 342. » Wattenbach, p. 592. * See Poole, p. 110.