Learning Before the Universities
For several centuries after the end of Roman rule in the West, learning was preserved mainly in monasteries and in cathedral schools. Monks copied texts, kept libraries and taught novices. In the late eighth and ninth centuries, rulers such as Charlemagne encouraged education and the copying of books, an effort sometimes called the Carolingian revival. These efforts were modest in scale but important, because many ancient Latin works survive today thanks to medieval copyists.
Elsewhere, learning was thriving. In the Byzantine Empire, scholars continued to study Greek literature and philosophy. In the Islamic world, scholars working in Arabic expanded on Greek, Persian and Indian knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy. Medieval European intellectual history is partly a story of how Europe gradually connected to these other traditions.
Translation: Bringing Texts Across
From the twelfth century, scholars in Spain, Sicily and parts of Italy translated works from Arabic and Greek into Latin. Toledo, taken by Christian forces in the eleventh century, became a well-known center, where teams of translators, sometimes including Jewish and Muslim scholars, worked on scientific and philosophical texts. Gerard of Cremona is traditionally credited with translating a large number of works there, though attributions are not always certain.
What was translated mattered. Many writings of Aristotle became widely available in Latin, along with commentaries and independent Arabic works. The Baghdad-based House of Wisdom and the wider translation movement in the Islamic world had earlier turned Greek texts into Arabic, so European scholars were often receiving ideas that had already passed through several languages. Medical works by Ibn Sina, known in Latin as Avicenna, became standard textbooks, and the Arabic numerals and algebraic methods that reached Europe gradually affected mathematics and commerce.
The Rise of Universities
Universities developed in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries out of groups of masters and students who organized themselves into corporations, much like craft guilds. Bologna became known for law, Paris for theology and philosophy, and Oxford and Cambridge later grew into important centers in England. Their exact origins are often blurred, since they evolved gradually rather than being founded at one moment.
A typical student began with the liberal arts, which included grammar, logic and rhetoric as well as arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Some then went on to study theology, law or medicine. Teaching relied on reading authoritative texts aloud, commenting on them and holding formal debates. Degrees certified that a person was qualified to teach. Student life was far from calm, and conflicts between townspeople and students sometimes turned violent.
Scholasticism: Reason in Order
The method most closely associated with medieval universities is called scholasticism. Its scholars sought to organize knowledge and to reconcile faith with reason, using careful definitions, objections and replies. A common format set out a question, listed arguments on both sides, and then gave a reasoned answer.
Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar of the thirteenth century, is the best-known figure. His Summa Theologiae combined Christian doctrine with Aristotle’s philosophy in a vast, systematic work. Not everyone agreed with him, and thinkers like Duns Scotus and William of Ockham took different positions on knowledge, language and the nature of universals. Later readers sometimes dismissed scholasticism as hair-splitting, but its attention to logic and clear argument shaped European thought for centuries.
Beyond Theology
Medieval scholars also studied the natural world, though in a framework different from modern science. Thinkers examined motion, optics, astronomy and mathematics, often through commentaries on ancient authorities, and some made real advances in specific areas. Medical faculties taught from Greek and Arabic sources, which meant that medical learning had a firm textual basis even where practice was limited by what was known at the time.
Jewish scholars also contributed. Maimonides, a physician and philosopher working in the Islamic world, wrote works on Jewish law and philosophy that were widely read and influenced Christian thinkers as well. Thinkers of different faiths read and responded to each other more than a simple religious map would suggest.
Limits and Lasting Effects
Access to higher learning was limited. Most students were men, and the majority of people never attended a university. The Church controlled much of education, and teachers could face censure if their views were thought to conflict with doctrine. Medieval scholars also relied heavily on authorities, which could slow the testing of new ideas.
Even so, the institutions and habits developed in this period, including formal degrees, structured debate, lecture courses and scholarly commentary, became a foundation for the later Renaissance and for modern universities. Few other medieval achievements have lasted as visibly.