Factors that led to Medieval Universities
Many reasons have been given to explain the rise of universities in Europe during the high middle ages. A few of these reasons will be dealt with here.
i. The crusades
It is important to point out at this stage that the crusades in question had nothing to do with the preaching of the gospel. These were wars waged by Christian, Western Europe against Muslims. Starting in the Arabian Desert in the seventh century Islam spread rapidly after the death of the Holy Prophet Mohamed. In fact only two centuries after his death Islam had spread from Arabia to northern India, modern Afghanistan, north Africa, southern Italy and France and the central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. Europe saw Islam as a most dangerous threat to the very existence of Christianity. This feeling was reinforced by the myths about the Prophet and distortions of Islamic practices. The commonly held view in medieval Europe was that Islam was spread by the sword; either conversion or death. Added to all these, was the systematic distortion of the life of the prophet and blasphemy against his own person.
For a long time Europe, convulsed by internecine warfare, unruly nobles contesting for supremacy with the kings, princes or emperors, was too weak to fight back. When peace and stability and the spirit of nationalism started returning from the tenth century, Europe was ready to take on Islam. On its part the Muslim empire was no longer one solid unit. It had disintegrated into many sultanates, several of them at each others' throats. Christian Europe could use rival sultanates to achieve its own end. Christian nobles to volunteer to fight the enemy of God, the Anti-Christ as the Holy Prophet were referred to.
There were several crusades, about thirteen of them from the eleventh century to the fifteenth century when Muslim Spain was conquered by the Christians.
The first crusade was proclaimed by Pope Urban II who in 1095 called upon Christians to fight to liberate the Holy city of Jerusalem from what Christians regarded as the "infidels" meaning the Muslims. The first crusade took place between 1097 and 1099. It was a success. The crusaders easily liberated the city and some of them who did not want to return to Europe established their own kingdoms in the conquered Muslim areas in the region. These Christian invaders remained masters of their kingdoms for a century until the Muslim ruler Salah ud Din cleared them out of the Middle East.
What is the relationship between the crusades and the rise of universities in medieval Europe? It has been argued that by making contact with Muslim civilization, European nobles realized they were the real barbarians. Their experience was similar to that of rural fork transplanted to a metropolitan and made to enjoy all the amenities available. The nobles realized that the high level of civilization attained by the Muslims was associated with their widespread education. They admired the many and well-endowed educational institutions spread across the Muslim world. Scholars were highly respected, they noted. Every village had a school and there were institutions of higher learning in almost every major urban centre.
Some of the nobles and their chaplains who made it back to Europe decided to support education in order to transform their kingdoms into civilized ones. The chaplains were greatly inspired by the experience and were most anxious to be pioneers in this project of transforming illiterate and barbarous Europe into the civilized Christian lands.
ii. The Catholic Church
The church encouraged learning by founding schools and other institutions of learning. Popes gave charters to universities and protected them from any interference by the local bishops or lay authorities. In addition, the church gave stipends to needy students as well as pretends to those in holy orders who were undertaking university studies. Self-interest prompted the church to do this. It needed catechists, teachers and theologians to expound and defend the faith against heresy canon lawyers, administrators, doctors as well as scholars in other areas of learning. The urge for the church to encourage higher education is explained by the low level of education of its priests and even bishops at the time. Most of the priests in the rural areas shared the culture of illiteracy with the souls they cared for, and some of the bishops too were illiterate. In order to struggle against its enemies, especially Islam, it needed educated soldiers.
iii. Growth of towns and cities
By the tenth century revival of urban life was becoming evident in most parts of Western Europe. Cathedral schools were flourishing in these centres. Cities and towns were ideal places for universities. They provided buildings that could be rented as lecture halls, offices and hostels in those early stages when the medieval university did not own any movable property. More importantly, food was readily available, as were booksellers who also doubled as librarians who lend books out at a fee. The entertainments and leisure pursuits like drinking that the students longed for were readily available. Cities also offered one great advantage; as the centres of both church and civil administration, they provided the students with an opportunity to meet the few educated people in an ocean of illiteracy and superstition. Students could consult this educated elite, observe it at work whether in the civil or ecclesiastic courts, in government or church offices, in the emerging parliaments or in diplomatic councils. Such a world was an attractive image of what the students hoped to immerse themselves in on completion of their studies. Indeed the university has throughout its history been a city institution always uncomfortable in what Marx called the 'idiocy of rural life'.
iv. Growth of wealth
By the tenth century the economy of Europe had started expanding. An agricultural revolution meant that there was more food production from the already cultivated land. Growth of trade commerce and craft industries resulted in a new middle class of craftsmen and merchants. Trade was boosted by the growing contact between western European traders and their Muslim counterparts. Goods from the East, that is India and China, found their way to Europe through Muslim traders. Western European traders in turn sold their goods to Muslim traders.
This trade created a class of people with money which they could invest in education. Investment in education was good as opportunities requiring the skills acquired in universities multiplied. Lawyers were needed and the new middle class valued the services of doctors. People to manage the growing business were required, as were accountants , teachers too were needed by the new class to educate their sons. Even more significant was the readiness of the new rich to endow educational institutions, for example colleges.
v. Kings and princes
Rulers encouraged the development of universities in several ways. Kings gave universities charters and gave them special privileges not enjoyed by other institutions in their kingdoms. For example, universities were exempted from civil jurisdiction, from taxation and students were exempted from military service in a world where every able-bodied person below middle age was required to serve in the military. Rulers also endowed universities, thus availing the greatly needful physical and financial resources.
Like the church, rulers required educated people in the growing civil service, for example in the judiciary, administration, diplomacy and state councils. They also needed personal advisers, personal physicians and chaplains. Prestige also prompted rulers to support universities. A ruler who had a university in his kingdom was the envy of others who did not. Economic factors also played no small part. Medieval universities were international institutions; they would attract students from across Western Europe, particularly if they were lucky to have famous masters. Foreign students - and taking into account that the vast majority of the students came from the nobility - brought wealth to their kingdoms. The economy of the cities and the surrounding countryside where universities were located prospered.
vi. Peace and stability
Chaos produced by meandering barbarians and unruly nobles were slowly becoming a thing of the past in most of Western Europe by the tenth century. With the return of peace came hope. People could now plan; they could invest without fear of loosing their capital. Education was proving to be a good investment as graduates could always find opportunities. This encouraged the upper classes to provide higher education for their sons to enable them secure influential position in government or the church. Those few from the lower classes who were lucky to get support from the church to pursue university study hoped to break out of the vicious circle of poverty which was the curse of their class.
vii. Improvement in the means of transport By the time universities started developing in the eleventh century, the means of transport had greatly improved. People especially merchants, were able to travel from one part of Western Europe to another. Others who joined this movement were church officials, missionaries, monks and diplomats in the service of either lay or ecclesiastical authorities. Such movement facilitated interchange of ideas. Developments taking place in one part of Western Europe would easily influence other parts. More important still, Europeans were also interacting with Muslims, particularly Italian merchants who traded with the Muslims. This encouraged influential people to accept and replicate developments which had been perceived to have had a positive influence elsewhere.
viii. Nationalism
The high medieval period was characterized by the development of nation states. As universities came to be perceived as useful institutions, rulers did their best to ensure their kingdoms had at least one. Some rulers were forced to set up universities in their own kingdoms by the realization that a lot of their kingdom's wealth was being exported by students who went to study in foreign lands. This would encourage them to make the university in their kingdom as attractive as any other in Western Europe. They would also strive hard to attract as many famous scholars as possible to such universities by generous donations or endowments.
ix. Influence of Muslim scholarship
Muslims had set up institutions of higher learning in their lands. Spain, which had been conquered by Muslims from North Africa in the eighth century, boasted many such institutions, the most famous being Cordova, which had the same fame as Kufa, Baghdad, al Azhar and countless others. Scholars and students from Western Europe visited and studied in Muslim institution and put into practice what they had learned on their return home. They adapted the organizational structure and curriculum to the already existing institutions or helped set up new ones. This way the knowledge developed in Muslim educational establishments reached Western Europe. This is reflected in the development of scholasticism both as a method of teaching and a philosophy.
Muslim classics, particularly in philosophy and science had pride of place in European universities. In addition Greek learning as adapted and developed by Muslim scholars reached Europe through this forces of intellectual interaction.
x. Rise of new religious orders
The twelfth century is characterized by the rise of new religious orders. Among these, the Dominicans and Franciscans played a vital role in the rise of universities. Unlike the other orders, these were dedicated to preaching and teaching. Their strongly held belief was that the Church should move to the world and endeavor to improve it through teaching and preaching. Preachers should be properly educated so that they could expound and defend church doctrine faithfully.
Some of these medieval friars transformed the small institutions they worked in into famous universities because of their learning and dedication to teaching. In fact the large majority of the most famous medieval professors were drawn from these two orders.
marto answered the question on March 19, 2019 at 09:08