the Reformation learning had died out among the clergy, the schools were neglected, superstition and ignorance characterized the masses.[1] Is not the ignorance rather on the part of the so-called historians who make such sweeping indictments?
The greatest and most glorious achievement of the medieval Church in the intellectual sphere are the universities. These institutions have been bequeathed to us by the Middle Ages, and they are of greater and more imperishable value even than its cathedrals.[2] The universities were, to a great extent, ecclesiastical institutions,[3] they were, at least, endowed with privileges from the Holy See. They were meant to be the highest schools not only of secular, but also of religious learning, and stood under the jurisdiction of the Church, as well as under her special protection.[4] It was through the privileges of the Church that the universities were raised from merely local into ecumenical organizations. The doctorate became an order of intellectual nobility, with as distinct and definite a place in the hierarchical system of medieval Christendom, as the priesthood and the knighthood. In fact the Sacerdotium, Imperium, and Studium are
- ↑ History of Education, pp. 135-136.
- ↑ Rashdall, Universities of the Middle Ages, vol. I, p. 5.
- ↑ Of the forty-four universities founded by charters before 1400, there are thirty-one which possess papal charters. Denifle, O. P., Die Entstehung der Universitäten des Mittelalters bis 1400, p. 780.
- ↑ On this subject see: Denifle, l. c.; Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 2 vols. – Dublin Review, July 1898: The Church and the Universities, by J. B. Milburn. – Newman, Rise and Progress of Universities, in Historical Sketches, vol. III. – For further literature see Guggenberger, S. J., A General History of the Christian Era, vol. II, pp. 126-129.
