Page 251 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

University Classroom. This illustration shows a university classroom in fourteenth- century Germany. As was customary in medieval classrooms, the master is reading from a text. The students vary considerably in age and in the amount of attention they are giving the lecturer.
communication for students, regardless of their coun- try of origin. Basically, medieval university instruction was done by the lecture method. The word lecture is derived from the Latin verb meaning “to read.” Before the development of the printing press in the fifteenth century, books were expensive, and few students could afford them, so masters read from a text (such as a col- lection of laws if the subject was law) and then added their commentaries. No exams were given after a series of lectures, but when a student applied for a degree, he (women did not attend universities in the Middle Ages) was given a comprehensive oral examination by a com- mittee of teachers. These exams were taken after a four- or six-year period of study. The first degree a stu- dent could earn was the artium baccalaureus (ar-TEE-um bak-uh-LAR-ee-uss), or bachelor of arts; later he might receive an artium magister (ar-TEE-um muh-GISS-ter), or master of arts. All degrees were technically licenses to teach, although most students receiving them did not become teachers.
After completing the liberal arts curriculum, a stu- dent could go on to study law, medicine, or theology, which could take a decade or more. Theology was the most highly regarded subject of the medieval curricu- lum. A student who passed his final oral examinations was granted a doctoral degree, which officially allowed him to teach his subject. Students who received degrees from medieval universities could also pursue other
careers besides teaching that proved to be much more lucrative. A law degree was deemed essential for those who wished to serve as advisers to kings and princes. The growing administrative bureaucracies of popes and kings also demanded a supply of clerks with a univer- sity education who could keep records and draw up of- ficial documents. Medieval universities provided the teachers, administrators, lawyers, and doctors for me- dieval society.
Medieval universities shared in the violent atmos- phere of the age. Records from courts of law reveal numerous instances of disturbances in European univer- sities. One German professor was finally dismissed for stabbing one too many of his colleagues during faculty meetings. Not uncommonly, town-and-gown struggles (“gown” refers to the academic robe worn by teachers and students) escalated into bloody riots between townspeople and students.
A Revival of Classical Antiquity
Another aspect of the intellectual revival of the High Middle Ages was a resurgence of interest in the prod- ucts of classical antiquity—the works of the Greeks and Romans. In the twelfth century, western Europe was introduced to a large number of Greek scientific and philosophical works, including those of Galen and Hippocrates on medicine, Ptolemy on astronomy, and
The Intellectual and Artistic World of the High Middle Ages 213
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