Chapter II: The Ministry of the God-Man (2)

Mosheim himself tells us how Origen determined when a passage should be interpreted literally and when allegorically: “Whenever the words, if understood literally, will afford a valuable meaning, one that is worthy of God, useful to men, and accordant with truth and correct reason, _then the literal meaning is to be retained_; but whenever the words, if understood literally, will express what is absurd, _or false, or contrary to correct reason, or useless, or unworthy of God_, then the literal sense is to be discarded, and the moral and mystical alone to be regarded. This rule he applies to every part both of the Old Testament and the New.” This reasoning is sufficiently strong for any of our modern _higher critics_. If it led directly to the removal of the Word of God from the common people of the Middle Ages, because teachers adjudged no minds but their own capable of determining whether a certain passage should be interpreted literally or allegorically, to what will the same treatment of the Scriptures now lead? And if the disciples of Origen lacking the caution of the great teacher, were led into the gross licentiousness of the heathen, how much of the wickedness of modern society should be attributed to the spirit of higher criticism, echoed from the pulpit, and breathed from the schoolroom?

[Sidenote: Minds prepared for the papacy]

Mosheim continues: “He [Origen] assigns two reasons why fables and literal absurdities are admitted into the Sacred Volume. The first is, that if the literal meaning were always rational and good, the reader would be apt to rest in it, and not look after the moral and mystical sense. The second is, that fabulous and incongruous representations often afford moral and mystical instructions which could not so well be conveyed by sober facts and representations.”

Perhaps this is enough to show that scholasticism, or a philosophical interpretation of the Scriptures had its origin in the Christian schools. By this it is plain why these youth became papists, instead of followers of the meek and lowly Galilean. There was no other theory which could, so effectually as this, have stamped out faith. No other teaching than this same higher criticism could have more truly developed that power which “speaketh great words against the Most High, and thinketh to change times and laws.” It formed the beast in the third century; it is forming the image to the beast in the present century. Students under such instruction had received ample preparation for a belief in the right of the church to interpret Scripture, and a belief in the infallibility of the pope.

[Sidenote: Scholasticism and higher criticism]

We have seen the origin of two of the streams which, uniting, helped swell the torrent of the papacy. There are still other tributaries to this mighty river. Each rises somewhere in heathendom, flows with a devious course, but finally, as if in accordance with some great natural law, unites with those other currents in forming the mystery of iniquity. Each stream is an educational principle, opposed in itself to Christianity; but instead of being lost in the depths of the main channel, it seems to develop greater power of doing evil, and brings its adherents into more complete degradation after the mingling than before.

[Sidenote: Mysticism]

The third principle which presents itself for analysis is known as _mysticism_. Both the teachings of Clement and the scholasticism of Origen exalted reason above faith. Mysticism was advocated by Origen and later by Augustine. It is defined as “that faculty of reason, from which proceeds the health and vigor of the mind, ... an emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine.”[80] There is a spark of divinity in every man. It is the object of Christian education to develop the image of Christ in the human being; but with the mystics, it was maintained that “silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts of mortification as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the means by which the hidden and internal word was excited to produce its latent virtues and to instruct men in the knowledge of divine things.”

[Sidenote: Education continues to decline]

It is not so much with the doctrine as with the results which were wrought by the teachings of such doctrine, that we are concerned. From an adherence to this method of reasoning arose the whole monkish system; for, says Mosheim, “This method of reasoning produced strange effects, and drove many into caves and deserts, where they macerated their bodies with hunger and thirst, and submitted to all the miseries of the severest discipline that a gloomy imagination could prescribe.” Egypt soon swarmed with these fanatics, and the whole history of the Dark Ages circles around them. They broke the bonds of family affection, overturned governments, and seated popes. Draper, speaking of the monks, says: “It is said that there were at one time in that country [Egypt] of these religious recluses not fewer than seventy-six thousand males and twenty-seven thousand females. With countless other uncouth forms, under the hot sun of that climate they seemed to be spawned from the mud of the Nile.” “From Egypt and Syria monachism spread like an epidemic.” “It was significantly observed that the road to ecclesiastical elevation lay through the monastery porch, and often _ambition contentedly wore for a season the cowl, that it might seize more surely the miter_.”[81]

[Sidenote: Monks control schools]

We shall need to study the monastic system as the repositories of learning in the Dark Ages, and therefore give but a passing glance at the origin of the order in the doctrine of mysticism. Its evils can not be portrayed without a blush, and it was against this system, taking as it did into its clutches the education of the masses, that the Reformation thrust its weight. We have seen truth _struggling_ against error. It was in the _schools_ of _the early Christians_ that wisdom _by faith_ was taught. It was _into these same schools_ that pagan philosophy crept. It was the teacher who espoused this philosophy, and again a teacher who opposed it. Students imbibed the ideas of the leading educators, and became church teachers. The strongest minds, turning from the Word, and that alone, became expounders of philosophy and the sciences.

[Sidenote: Schools of the Dark Ages]

Gradually error prevailed, until in the schools, almost entirely in monastic hands, truth was so covered that D’Aubigné’s description of the work of the schoolmen of the Dark Ages is striking. He says: “These industrious artisans of thought had unraveled every theological idea, and of all their threads had woven a web, under which it would have been difficult for more skillful persons than their contemporaries to recognize the truth in its pristine purity.”

It is not the province of this chapter to deal with theological controversies in themselves. It is only as these controversies took possession of and molded the courses of study in the schools; only as they found their strongest supporters in the persons of teachers, and were carried to the world by students, that our attention is drawn to another line of argument, which, as it were, clenched the work of the papacy, and gave it its power over the minds of men.

[Sidenote: Pelagianism taught]

Quoting again from D’Aubigné: “The _Pelagian_ doctrine, expelled by Augustine from the church when it had presented itself boldly, insinuated itself as demi-Pelagianism, and under the mask of the Augustine forms of expression. This error spread with astonishing rapidity throughout Christendom. The danger of the doctrine was particularly manifested in this,—that by placing goodness without, and not within, the heart, it set a great value on external actions, legal observances, and penitential works.... Whilst Pelagianism corrupted the Christian doctrine, it _strengthened the hierarchy_.... When it laid down a doctrine that man could attain a state of perfect sanctification, it affirmed also that the merits of saints and martyrs might be applied to the church.... Pelagianism multiplied rites and ceremonies.

“But it was especially by the _system of penance_, which flowed immediately from Pelagianism, that Christianity was perverted. At first, _penance_ had consisted in certain public expressions of repentance.... By degrees it was extended to every sin, even to the most secret.... Instead of looking to Christ for pardon, through faith alone, it was sought for principally in the church through penitential works.... _Flagellations_ were superadded to these practices.... They accordingly invented that system of barter celebrated under the title of _Indulgences_.... A bull of Clement VII declared it an article of faith.... The philosophers of Alexandria had spoken of a fire in which men were to be purified. _Many ancient_ doctors had adopted this notion; and Rome declared this philosophical opinion a tenet of the church. _The pope by a bull annexed purgatory to his domain._”[82] “The Catholic Church was not the papacy,” says D’Aubigné. “The latter was the oppressor, the former the oppressed.” Draper tersely defines the papacy as “THE TYRANNY OF THEOLOGY OVER THOUGHT.”

[Sidenote: Summary]

Men departed from the simplicity of a gospel by faith. Reason and scientific research took the place of faith in the Word. Education turned men’s minds from God to self, and reason was exalted. The papacy was thus formed. If we look for a visible union of the church and the state before recognizing it as the papacy, we shall find ourselves entrapped; _for it is the working out of a system of education based on human philosophy that forms the papacy_; and the body which adopts this system of education naturally turns to the state for support.

[Sidenote: Papacy overthrown by Christian education]

It is because of the truth of this statement that the papacy wields its influence through its schools; this is why it has always feared a revival of learning more than the combined forces of all the armies of the world. A death-blow to the papacy can be struck only by introducing a system of education founded upon the teachings of Christ, placing God’s Word as guide, and inspiring faith as the one avenue to wisdom.

XI

EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES

The development of the papacy led directly to the Dark Ages, for “the noontide of the papacy was the world’s moral midnight.” The papacy was the logical working out of an educational scheme; hence the moral darkness which spread over the world during the prophetic period of twelve hundred and sixty years was due to wrong methods of education. People do not sink into degradation and sin when properly educated. Truth elevates, and, when embodied in man, brings him nearer to his Maker. Faith is the ladder by which he climbs, and when that element has been lacking in an educational system, the masses have sunk lower and lower.

[Sidenote: Papacy’s tyranny of theology over thought]

Mind is a wonderful thing, the most profound study of the universe. It was designed to be free, to grasp the mighty laws of its own Creator, and a means was supplied by which that very thing could be done: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ... but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.”

In order to maintain the supremacy thus gained, it was necessary for the education of the young to lie wholly within the control of the papal hierarchy; and it is with their educational institutions and educational methods that we have now to deal. It is hoped that the study of the Dark Ages will so accentuate the importance of Protestants’ maintaining their own schools, that the tendency now so strong in the other direction may receive a check. The education begun in the schools of the early Christians has been followed into the monastic institutions of the Middle Ages. The life and power of Christianity departed, and form alone remained. It has been said that “paganism in the garb of Christianity walked into the church,” and it can truthfully be added that _it gained admittance through the schools_.

[Sidenote: Papal primary schools]

In order to trace carefully the education offered by the papacy,—and that comprised all that was then offered,—the first quotations are concerning primary instruction. Laurie says: “Instruction began about the age of seven. The _alphabet_, written on tables or leaves, was learned by heart by the children, _then syllables and words_. The first reading-book was the Latin psalter, and this was read again and again _until it could be said by heart_; and numerous priests, and even monks, were content all their lives with the mere sound of Latin words, which they could both read and recite, but did not understand.”[83]

[Sidenote: Prominence of memory work]

Note carefully that work for these children was almost wholly _memory_ work. They were to _learn by heart_ and to _repeat without understanding_. This was the first step in that great system which binds the minds of the masses to the will of one sovereign mind.

“Writing followed.” “The elements of arithmetic were also taught, but merely with a view to the calculation of church days and festivals.”[84]

[Sidenote: Early use of Latin]

“Latin was begun very early (apparently immediately after the psaltery was known), with the _learning by heart_ of declensions and conjugations and lists of vocables. The rule was to use Latin in the school in conversing.... In the eleventh century, if not earlier, Latin conversation-books ... were not only read, but, like everything else, _learned by heart_.”[85] Their method of studying Latin emphasizes the thought of the formal abstract way of teaching, which tended to conservatism and mental subjection. “Memory is the faculty that subordinates the present under the past, and its extensive training develops a habit of mind that holds by what is prescribed, and recoils from the new and untried. In short, the educational curriculum that lays great stress on memorizing, produces a class of conservative people.”[86] The papal schools employed methods which, in themselves, in the course of a few generations would develop dependent rather than independent thinking; therefore methods are as important as the subject taught.

[Sidenote: Result of universal language]

Again it is well to remember that there was a deep design in making the Latin tongue universal. It was one of the ways by which the papacy kept its control of all nations and tongues. Draper explains it thus:—

“The unity of the church, and, therefore, _its power_, required the use of Latin as a sacred language. Through this Rome had stood in an attitude strictly European, and was enabled to maintain a general international relation. It gave her far more power than her asserted celestial authority.... Their officials could pass without difficulty into every nation, and communicate without embarrassment with each other, from Ireland to Bohemia, from Italy to Scotland.”[87]

[Sidenote: Fables and traditions of men]

The character of the youth was formed, says Painter, from memorizing “the _fables of Æsop_ and collections of maxims and proverbs. After this, Virgil was usually the text-book, and was handled in the same style.”

[Sidenote: Studies of Monastic schools]

Of the monastic schools Mosheim says: “In most of the schools, the so-called seven liberal arts were taught. The pupil commenced with grammar, then proceeded to rhetoric, and afterward to logic or dialectics. Having thus mastered the Trivium, as it was called, those who aspired to greater attainments proceeded with slow steps through the _Quadrivium_ [a course including arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy] to the honor of perfectly learned men.”[88]

Says Painter: “Seven years were devoted to the completion of the course in liberal arts [the Trivium and the Quadrivium].... Dialectic or logic was based somewhat remotely on the writings of Aristotle. At a later period, logic was rigidly applied to the development of theology, and gave rise to a class of scholars called the schoolmen.... Arithmetic was imperfectly taught, importance being attached to the supposed secret properties of numbers. Geometry was taught in an abridged form, while astronomy did not differ materially from astrology. The study of music consisted chiefly in learning to chant the hymns of the church.”[89]

[Sidenote: Greater emphasis on logic]

Mosheim thus continues his description of the work of the schools in the eleventh century: “This course of study, adopted in all the schools of the West, was not a little changed after the middle of this century. For logic, ... having been improved by the reflection and skill of certain close thinkers, and being taught more fully and acutely, acquired such an ascendency in the minds of the majority, that they neglected grammar, rhetoric, and the other sciences, both the elegant and the abstruse, and devoted their whole lives to dialectics, or to logical and metaphysical discussions. For whoever was well acquainted with dialectics, or what we call logic and metaphysics, was supposed to possess learning enough, and to lose nothing by being ignorant of all other branches of learning.... In this age, the philosophy of the Latins was confined wholly to what they called dialectics; and the other branches of philosophy were unknown even by name. Moreover their dialectics was miserably dry and barren.”[90]

[Sidenote: Patristical Geography]

This is sufficient, perhaps, on the use of language and logic, and we turn to geography and some of the sciences. Even the children to-day will smile at the teachings of some of the Church Fathers on the subject of geography. Says Draper: “In the Patristic Geography the earth is a flat surface bordered by the waters of the sea, on the yielding support of which rests the crystalline dome of the sky. These doctrines were for the most part supported by passages from the Holy Scriptures, perversely wrested from their proper meaning. Thus Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose Patristic Geography had been an authority for nearly eight hundred years, triumphantly disposed of the sphericity of the earth by demanding of its advocates, how, in the day of judgment, men on the other side of a globe could see the Lord descending through the air!”[91]

[Sidenote: The beneficial work of explorers]

It was in opposition to such theories, and a hundred absurdities concerning the ocean, the boiling waters of the equator, the serpents in the West, etc., that Columbus, De Gama, and other explorers had to contend; and one of the most wonderful effects of the work of these navigators was the thrust given papal education. A wound was then received which was incurable.

If, in the mind of the reader, the question arises, Why should the papal schools teach such things? simply consider that the whole system of papal theology was intended to make the people feel that the world was the center of the universe, and that the pope was the center of the world. Christ and his position in creation were usurped by the head of the church. THIS WAS THE PAPACY.

[Sidenote: Modern schools cling to papal methods]

This could be brought about _only by education_, and could be maintained only as generation after generation was _taught_ from infancy to old age to place faith in man, not God. Not only the subjects taught, but the manner of teaching them, served well the purpose of the papacy. Only within the last few years, comparatively speaking, have our own schools seen the necessity of breaking away from some of those relics of the educational system of the Dark Ages.

[Sidenote: Detection of wrong methods]

Memory work, pure and simple, has given way in a great measure to research and experiment, even in the primary grades. The alphabet is no longer driven into the childish mind by the ferule, nor kept there by mere force of repetition. The advanced methods in dealing with the mind are a step in the right direction. The pity is that educators, while groping for light, while casting off some of the moth-eaten garments of past ages, have failed to see the cause of the evil, and deal so largely with results instead of removing the cause. The evil began by renouncing the Scriptures and faith in Holy Writ as a part of education. The spirit and power will accompany reform only when these are replaced in their proper setting.

[Sidenote: New books]

While educators of the world are realizing the need of a change in methods, it is time for them to see also the need of a change in subject matter and text-books. _Protestants_ in particular _should arouse_ to the times. If the study of paganism, instead of Christianity or truth, produced the Dark Ages, and if wrong methods held the minds of men and prolonged that darkness, forbidding the shining of the light, it is time for both _methods and material_ to be reconstructed in the schools of to-day.

[Sidenote: Science in the papal schools]

We can with profit notice the attitude of the papal schools toward some of the sciences, taking for example that most practical of modern branches, the science of medicine. What was the work of the physician during the Dark Ages? Draper says: “Physicians were viewed by the church with dislike, and regarded as atheists by the people, who held firmly to the lessons they had been taught, that cures must be wrought by relics of martyrs and bones of saints, by prayers and intercessions.”[92]

[Sidenote: True healing forsaken]

It is well to remember that Christ was the Great Physician, healing not only soul maladies, but physical infirmities as well; and to the apostles was given the commission to heal the sick and restore sight to the blind. Gradually, however, as the power of the gospel in its purity was lost by the substitution of error for truth, the leaders of the church introduced miracle cures, and preached the efficacy of the bones of saints, etc., in the cure of disease. This became popular, and increased throughout the Dark Ages.

[Sidenote: Medical study discouraged]

Draper describes the fanaticism of the monastic schools, and finally assigns a reason for the exclusion from them of the study of physiology and anatomy and the science of medicine. “The body,” he says, “was under some spiritual charge,—the first joint of the right thumb being in the care of God the Father, the second under that of the blessed Virgin, and so on of other parts. For each disease there was a saint. A man with sore eyes must invoke St. Clara, but if it were an inflammation elsewhere, he must turn to St. Anthony.... For the propitiation of these celestial beings it was necessary that fees should be paid, and thus the practice of imposture—medicine became a great source of profit. In all this there was no other intention than that of extracting money.”[93]

[Sidenote: Doctors in secret]

While such was the teachings of the papacy, the Jews and Mohammedans were achieving wonderful success, and making discoveries of lasting benefit to mankind in Spain and Asia Minor. “Bishops, princes, kings, and popes had each in private his Hebrew doctor; though all understood that he was a contraband luxury, in many countries pointedly and absolutely prohibited by the law. In the eleventh century nearly all the physicians in Europe were Jews.” One reason for this was: “The church would tolerate no interference with her spiritual methods of treating disease, which formed one of her most productive sources of gain; and the study of medicine had been formally introduced into the rabbinical schools.”[94]

[Sidenote: Jewish physicians prohibited]

The bitter hatred of the papacy toward independence of mind is well illustrated in the treatment that the Jewish physicians received from the popes. Draper says: “The school at Salerno was still sending forth its doctors. In Rome, Jewish physicians were numerous, the popes themselves employing them.... At this period Spain and France were full of learned Jews; and perhaps partly by their exerting too much influence upon the higher classes with whom they came in contact (for the physician of a Christian prince was very often the rival of his confessor), and partly because the practice of medicine, as they pursued it, interfered with the gains of the church, the clergy took alarm, and caused to be re-enacted or enforced the ancient laws. The Council of Beziers (A.D. 1246) and the Council of Alby (A.D. 1254) prohibited all Christians from resorting to the services of an Israelitish physician.”[95]

[Sidenote: Hatred of physicians]

To show that this was a matter which concerned the _schools_, and in proof of the statement that papal schools still adhere to formalism, miracle cure, and relic worship, we need only to notice that “the faculty of Paris [University], awakening at last to the danger of the case, caused, A.D. 1301, a decree to be published prohibiting either man or woman of the religion of Moses from practicing medicine upon any person of the Catholic religion. A similar course was pursued in Spain. At this time the Jews were confessedly at the head of French medicine. It was the appointment of one of their persuasion, Profatius, _as regent_ of the faculty of Montpellier, A.D. 1300, which drew upon them the wrath of the faculty of Paris.”

[Sidenote: Jews banished]

“The animosity of the French ecclesiastics against the Jewish physicians at last led to the banishment of all the Jews from France, A.D. 1306.”[96] The papal universities were unwilling to teach medicine, and finding that the Jewish schools of science were greatly weakening papal authority in France, this race was banished bodily.

[Sidenote: Position of physiology]

Comparing this history with the present work of the medical fraternity, and especially with that class of medical students whose life work is to spread the gospel while relieving the body, one better understands that physiology should be the basis of every educational effort, and the place that it and kindred sciences should occupy in the courses of instruction pursued by our children, youth, and maturer minds; and also the cause of that spiritual darkness which is even now hanging over the world, and for centuries held Europe in its clutches; but it shall be pierced by Christian education.

[Sidenote: Papal method of meeting opposition]

The papacy, in case of opposition which threatened her authority, had two methods of procedure. The first was an attempt to annihilate both the trouble and the troublers. Thus she simply banished all Jews from France that her own universities might not be overshadowed by the light of truth. Her second method of procedure was a counter-reformation; that is, if a reform in education arose outside the church which threatened to undermine her doctrines, it might be met by a partial reform within her borders, the reform going only so far as was absolutely necessary to satisfy the cravings of minds that dared think for themselves.

[Sidenote: Papacy can compromise]

It was not always possible to completely crush a reformation, or the reformers; and as was quite often the case in the schools, studies which could not be entirely banished, were taught, but in such a way as best to conserve the needs of the church. That medicine, as well as law, was taught in the higher papal schools, can not be denied. Says Mosheim: “The seven liberal arts [The Trivium and the Quadrivium] were gradually included under the term _philosophy_; to which were added _theology_, _jurisprudence_, and _medicine_. And thus these four _faculties_, as they are called, were in the next century formed in the universities.”[97]

[Sidenote: Medical study corrupted]

But in the study of medicine, as in philosophy or law, memory work devoid of understanding—the form without the spirit—was the characteristic. As the saints and martyrs in theology had taken the place of the Greek gods and goddesses, so in the study of other branches a multitude of pagan terms, clothed with what was then known as the “Christian spirit,” was made to satisfy the longing for real mental culture. The simplicity of the gospel was laid aside. What God had revealed was made to appear too complex for the human mind, and the secret things which are known only to God were pried into. In theology, dialectics, or logic, became the study of endless queries, difficult syllogisms, meaningless quibbles. Men delighted in propounding such questions as, “How many angels can stand on the point of a needle?” and others prided themselves on the acuteness of their reasoning powers in arguing such questions. Likewise in medicine, the study of the simple needs of the body and the rational treatment of disease was obscured by hundreds of _Latin terms_, and these were memorized to the neglect of the simple philosophy of the science. It is with this multitude of names, hoary with age, and savoring strongly of their pagan origin, that the student of medicine is still compelled to grapple.

[Sidenote: The Arabs as educators]

The history of the rise of European universities throws light on the attitude of the papacy toward education. While Europe was overspread by spiritual and intellectual darkness, God used another people to disseminate truth. When faith in God was lost, and in its place was substituted that blind faith in man and obedience to the church which is known in European history as the age of faith, learning was propagated by the Arabs. That power which had failed to conquer the world by the sword, now gained by intellectual culture what the arms of Mohammed and his immediate successors failed to achieve. Spain, while in the hands of the Moors, contributed more to European civilization than at any other time in her history; and it was as an _educator_ and through the _influence of her schools_ that the papacy received its blow from the south which made her more readily succumb to the revolt of Germany under Luther. By the Arabs “flourishing schools were established in all the principal cities, notably at Bagdad and Damascus in the East, and at Cordova, Salamanca, and Toledo in the West. Here grammar, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry, and medicine were pursued with great ardor and success. The Arabians originated chemistry, discovering alcohol, and nitric and sulphuric acids. They gave algebra and trigonometry their modern form; applied the pendulum to the reckoning of time; ascertained the size of the earth by measuring a degree, and made catalogues of the stars.”[98] And all this was done when Europe as a whole was lying in darkness, when the chemist was considered a wizard, when astronomy was merely astrology, and whatever learning existed was formal and spiritless.

[Sidenote: Arabs and papal schools]

But the discoveries of the Arab teachers could not long remain with them alone, and it is with the spread of their ideas through the schools by means of the students that we are concerned. “For a time they [the Arabs] were the intellectual leaders of Europe. Their schools in Spain were largely attended by Christian youth from other European countries, who carried back with them to their homes the Arabian science, and through it stimulated intellectual activity in Christian [papal] nations.”[99]

[Sidenote: Arabs and universities]

The specialization of studies such as theology, medicine, or philosophy, together with the impulse derived from the Mohammedans in Africa and the Arabs in Spain, led to the establishment of the universities, which were, as before stated, composed of four faculties, or colleges. “They arose independently of both church and state.” The University of Paris “became the most distinguished seat of learning in Europe. At one time it was attended by more than twenty thousand students.”

[Sidenote: Papacy seized universities]

The growth of the universities was very rapid, and they threatened speedily to revolutionize the society of Europe and overthrow the papal hierarchy. “The influence and power of the universities were speedily recognized,” says Painter; “and though originally free associations, they were soon brought into relation with the church and the state, by which they were officially authorized and endowed.” If learning could not be suppressed, then it must be controlled by the church; and the “church sought to attach them [the universities] to itself, in order to join to the power of faith the power of knowledge. The first privileges that the universities received proceeded from the popes.” “While Rome was not the mother, she was yet the nurse of universities.” Scientific investigation had by this time received such an impulse from youth who had been students in the Arab schools that the church could not hope to crush it. The only hope of the papacy was to so surround the truth with fables and mysteries, and to so conduct the schools, that again the spirit of progress would be lost in its labyrinthine wanderings through empty forms. _Monopoly in education_ works havoc in the same way that a monopoly in commerce leads to oppression. And so it was.

[Sidenote: Character of students]

“The students led a free and uncontrolled life, seeking and finding protection in their own university authorities even from the civil power.”[100]

[Sidenote: Origin of courses and degrees]

Youth from the age of twelve and upward attended these universities, making it necessary to teach the secondary studies which terminated in a bachelor’s degree. “Boys ... attended the Parisian university merely for instruction in ... grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic; and after three or four years’ study they received the title of Baccalaureus.” “When he reached ... the age of seventeen or eighteen, he then began the study for the mastership.”[101]

It will be remembered that the schools established by the early church were marked for the simplicity of their methods, and their singleness of purpose. Their object was to educate workers for the spread of the gospel. For the accomplishment of this object the course of instruction was arranged, and students were sent forth into the world commissioned of God, as were the disciples after their ordination. There was no call for the granting of degrees. These, it is true, were used in the pagan schools, and indicated that the receiver had been initiated, after years of study, into the hidden mysteries of Greek wisdom. Among the pagans, indeed, the principle of degrees and diplomas dated back to the days of Egyptian and Babylonian supremacy, where it was indicative of fellowship in the grossest forms of licentiousness.

Greece, the country which united the learning of Babylon and the wisdom of Egypt, and offered it to Europe in the form of Platonism, naturally enough made use of diplomas and degrees. And the fact that her wisdom was so complicated in its nature made it necessary to spend long years in mastering her sciences.

Paganism, moreover, has but one model for all men; its aim is ever to crush individuality and mold all characters alike. To accomplish this purpose the schools arranged their studies in courses, demanding that each student should pass over the same ground. This is characteristic of all educational systems aside from that one, the true education, which comes from God. If you look to China, you find it there, as it develops the disciples of Confucius; India educates her Brahmans in the same manner; the priests and wise men of Egypt were taught in schools of a similar type. The Jews had aped the fashion of the pagan world, and it was from this custom that Christ called his disciples. One of the surest signs that the schools established in the days of Christian purity had lost the spirit which characterized the apostolic teaching, is the fact that the schools of the Middle Ages had adopted this pagan custom.

Students were called into the universities when mere boys, and by hundreds and thousands were run through the “grind” which we term “course of instruction,” and were turned out at the end of ten, twenty, and sometimes even forty years with a degree, which, in dignity, corresponded to the years spent in completing the course.

This custom is papal. It is opposed to the very spirit of Christianity; and any institution of learning which deigns to accept the approval of the state, while at the same time passing as a Christian institution, is not only linking itself with the papacy, but with paganism as well. Of His followers Christ says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

“Older students, those especially in the theological faculty, with their fifteen or sixteen years’ course of study, achieved in this respect far greater notoriety. At the age of thirty or forty the student at the university was still a scholar.”[102] The idea of long courses is not, then, a modern one, and American colleges can truthfully point to the university of Paris for the precedent in this respect as in some others. In the granting of degrees another interesting subject is approached. Laurie continues: “Up to the middle of the twelfth century, anyone taught in the infant universities who thought he had the requisite knowledge.... In the second half of the twelfth century, when bishops and abbots, who acted, personally or through their deputies, as chancellors of the rising university schools, wished to assume to themselves exclusively the right of granting the license, ... Pope Alexander III forbade them, on the ground that the teaching faculty was a gift of God.”[103] This, however, must have been the work of a liberal pope, for earlier,—that is, in 1219,—“Pope Honorius III interfered with the granting of degrees; and in order to impose a check on abuses, directed that they should be conferred not by, but by permission of, the archdeacon of the cathedral, and under his presidency.”[104]

The church had gained control of the universities, and through her representative, usually the chancellor, _granted degrees_. Now, in order to keep the authority well in her own hands, no one was allowed to teach who did not hold a license granted by the university after an examination. Thus the educational _trust_ developed, and the iron hand of Rome, though concealed in a silken glove, clinched her victories, and strove to crush all opponents.

[Sidenote: Degrees and the papacy]

Our modern B.S., M.A., LL.D., D.D., etc., were adopted into the universities at this stage of educational history. “Itter informs us,” says Laurie, “that ... a complete university course was represented by _four degrees_—_bachelor_, _master_, _licentiate_, and finally _doctor_, which last was usually taken at the age of thirty or thirty-five.” “The next development of the degree system was the introduction of the _grades of bachelor_ and _master_, or licentiate, into each of the higher faculties—theology, law, and medicine. Thus a man who had finished his preliminary art studies, generally at the age of twenty-one, and wished to specialize in theology, medicine, or law, had to pass through the stages of _bachelor_ of theology, or of medicine, or of law, and then of _master_ or licentiate, before he obtained the title of _doctor_. The _bachelorship_ of medicine or law was reached in three years, of theology in seven. Four years’ further study brought the _doctor’s degree_.”[105] “The conferring of degrees was originated by a pope.”[106] The educational monopoly appeared quite complete; and having gained the form of godliness and the civil power, the old scheme of killing the life and substituting those things which would recognize the papal hierarchy, were again introduced. Leading educators are awakening to the true situation. Christian education alone can deliver.

[Sidenote: Form had replaced the life]

“The moral tone of the universities was low,” says Painter; “there were brawls, outbreaks, and abominable immoralities. ‘The students,’ say the Vienna statutes, ‘shall not spend more time in drinking, fighting, and guitar playing than at physics, logic, and the regular courses of lectures; and they shall not get up public dances in the streets. Quarrelers, wanton persons, drunkards, those that go about serenading at night, or who spend their leisure in following after lewd women; thieves, those that insult citizens, players at dice—having been properly warned and not reforming, besides the ordinary punishment provided by law for those misdemeanors, shall be deprived of their academical privileges and expelled.’ These prohibitions give us a clear insight into university life of the time, for it was not worse at Vienna than at Paris and elsewhere.”[107]

Could some of those medieval students be resurrected and placed in some of the universities of the nineteenth century, they might feel quite at home, not only as far as courses of study and the granting of degrees is concerned, but in revelings, parties, etc., judging from the reports of the hazing, drinking, and general carousing of the students in our university towns.“[108] The conduct of students is the reflex of the instruction given. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the instruction of the universities, containing as it did the form without the life, should fail to develop stability of character in its students.

“The true Catholic attitude to all investigation was, and is, one admitting of great advances in every department of learning, while checking all true freedom of thought.”[109]

The _North American Review_ for October, 1842, expresses in concise language the relation of students and schools to the general government and consequent state of society. It says: “In the colleges is determined the character of most of the persons who are to fill the professions, teach the schools, write the books, and do most of the business of legislation for the whole body of the people. The general direction of literature and politics, the prevailing habits and modes of thought throughout the country, are in the hands of men whose social position and early advantages have given them an influence, of the magnitude and permanency of which the possessors themselves are hardly conscious.”

Recognizing this fact, the papacy controlled the education of the Middle Ages, and is to-day seeking to do the same thing. Luther and other reformers, also recognizing this fact, sought to overthrow the tyranny of the papacy by establishing new schools where freedom of thought would be fostered through faith in God’s Word.

[Sidenote: Work for Protestants to-day]

Protestants to-day, looking upon the system of education as it now exists, and tracing there the same long courses in the classics and the sciences; the same degrees granted in a manner similar to the Dark Ages, the text-book containing the same theories, the same terms, the same doctrines of philosophy; the same tendency toward monarchism, or the monopoly of education by certain universities, and through them by the same power that has borne sway, should, for the sake of their government, and for the sake of their faith, establish schools of their own. As the papacy, by the subjection of thought, builds up a monarchy in place of democracy; as she in the same way overthrows faith in God, substituting faith in man or the church, so _Protestant schools should educate children_ in the pure principles of that gospel freedom which recognizes the equality of every man in the sight of heaven, and makes it possible for the government to be of, for, and by the people by developing the Christian character through faith in Jesus Christ.

XII

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMATION AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM

While following the history of education through the Dark Ages, we have often been compelled to recognize that an influence was at work slowly but surely undermining the structure which the papacy was, with the greatest perseverance, erecting, and which that power purposed should withstand all the attacks brought against it. The papacy had calculated well; it had, in absorbing the educational system of the times, laid its hand on the very tap-root of society, and, in its education as well as in its doctrines, woven about the human race meshes which only the Prince of heaven could rend with the sword of eternal truth.

[Sidenote: Secret of papal strength]

Never has the world seen such an enduring system as the papacy. Patterned so nearly after the truth of God, and resembling so closely, both in church government and educational principles, the plan delivered to the chosen nation, that only an expert, guided by the Spirit of truth, could judge between the true and the counterfeit, it had, as had the Jews before them, replaced the life by the mere form. Nevertheless, so firmly laid was the foundation, and so substantially built were the walls, that for centuries it baffled all attempts at overthrow.

This structure had as its foundation an _educational system_; the mortar which held the bricks in the wall was _educational methods_, and should the building fall, the foundation itself must be attacked.

As a civil power, the papacy was periodically attacked by ambitious kings and princes; but these shocks scarcely disturbed the serenity of the papal head, so firm was his throne. The sword of the Mohammedans was broken at Tours; and the Crescent, instead of advancing to the full by encircling the Mediterranean, waned as its light receded to the shores of Africa and the west of Asia.

[Sidenote: The revival of learning]

What the Turk could not do by force of arms, he did in another way. In 1453 Constantinople fell into the hands of the calif, yet this did not affect the strength of the papal hierarchy. But as the Turk came into Greece, Greek art and literature fled to Italy. Here is the attack on the papacy which came from the east. Painter says: “The revival of classical learning, which had its central point in the downfall of Constantinople in 1453, exerted a favorable influence. It opened the literary treasures of Greece and Rome, provided a new culture for the mind, awakened dissatisfaction with the scholastic teaching of the church, and tended to emancipate thought from subjection to ecclesiastical authority.”[110] The taking of Constantinople did still more toward hastening the Reformation. Venice had controlled the commerce of the eastern Mediterranean, but Turkish supremacy in those waters transferred that power to her rival, Genoa, on the other side of Italy; and from this latter center began the search for a western passage to the East Indies which led to the accidental discovery of America.

[Sidenote: Greek classics]

Again, “The revival of learning was so intimately related to the Reformation, and to the educational advancement dating from that time, that it calls for consideration in some detail. It had its origin in Italy.... Eager scholars from England, France, and Germany sat at the feet of Italian masters, in order afterward to bear beyond the Alps the precious seed of the new culture.”[111] However, this Greek culture, or new learning, was nothing more nor less than a revival of the study of Greek paganism. Notwithstanding that fact, a life and enthusiasm attended its study which drew students from the papal universities, and induced men to travel hundreds of miles for the sake of sitting at the feet of masters of the Greek classics.

This was the attempted reform of the papacy made by classic literature. Its results can not but interest us. Painter further says: “The revival of letters produced different results in different countries. Everywhere it contributed to the emancipation of the human mind, but in Italy it tended strongly to paganize its adherents.”

Bear in mind that the classics were attempting to reform the papacy. Here was the result in Italy. Italian schools undoubtedly needed reforming, for the words of Luther describing German schools are applicable to all papal institutions. Of these he said: “What have they been taught in the universities and convents, but to become blockheads? A man has studied _twenty_, _forty_ years, and has learned neither Latin nor German.” But as much as reform was needed, Greek classics “in Italy tended strongly to paganize its adherents.” We can not look for the classics, then, to Christianize the Italian papists.

[Sidenote: Greek in German schools]

But while “in Italy the new learning became a minister of infidelity, in Germany [it became a minister] of religion.” Why this difference? The work of Erasmus, Luther, and Melancthon, as they introduced the study of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures into the German schools, will answer why. The Italians studied the Greek classics for the _thought_, and it paganized its adherents; the Germans studied the Greek New Testament, translating it into the mother tongue, and it became one of the greatest helps in the spread of the Reformation of the sixteenth century.

So much for the attempted reform by Greek classics. They played their part, but they could not overthrow the papacy; and why should we expect it when papal education was, in the first place, built upon those same classics and the philosophy of Greek writers?

[Sidenote: Papacy and Arab education]

We now turn to the southern attack upon the papal system. This was also an educational attack. Already we have seen the Arab schools in Spain. Before the eleventh century Christian youth attended these schools, taking across the Pyrenees the science of the Moors. The papacy quailed before this attack, and in order to lessen its force, the sciences of the Arabs were adopted in the papal universities. This, as we have already seen, was done in medicine and mathematics. But again the form was retained without the life. France, because of her jealousy of the Jewish physicians, through the influence of the University of Paris, banished every Jew from her borders. A _scientific attack could not overthrow the papacy_.

[Sidenote: Science and discovery of America]

However, the Moors went quietly on in their scientific discoveries; and when the fall of Constantinople closed the eastern route to the Indian Ocean, and Genoa wanted a western route, Spain was prepared to offer sailors the necessary charts and maps, compasses, and other mariners’ instruments. Her astronomical studies, celestial maps, and measurements of the degrees on the earth’s surface encouraged voyages both to the south and west, in direct contradiction to the theories of the patristic geographies. When Columbus asked aid at the Spanish court to fit vessels for the tour across the Atlantic, it is strange to note that the wife of the king of Spain, who took from the Moors the keys of Granada, and drove the Arab and his learning out of Europe, was the same woman who pledged her jewels to this man,—a man, who, dependent upon Arabic scientific investigation, discovered a world where those same truths might be planted, and mature untrammeled by papal tyranny. I say this was more than a coincidence. The hand of God was in it; and, as D’Aubigné says: “He prepares slowly and from afar that which he designs to accomplish. He has ages in which to work.”

[Sidenote: Science and the Reformation]

While scientific knowledge could not overthrow the papacy, it had its part to play along with the classics. When men were spiritually dead, and the Word of God was hidden, minds were freed from papal thraldom by the work of the scientist and the classical student. Bear in mind, however, that the classics helped only as they offered the Scriptures; and science helped only as it opened men’s minds to the reception of the truths of God’s Word. Mighty forces were at work: the earth itself must be moved, and the fulcrum whereon rested the lever by which it was to be turned in its orbit was the throne of God, and the _Word of the Eternal was the moving power_. Men, weak in themselves but resolute in purpose, were the instruments in the hand of God to accomplish a task which ages had waited for, and principalities and powers in heavenly places had longed to see.

[Sidenote: Reformation and education]

The Reformation was not the work of a year, nor yet of one man, even in Germany. It was the gradual work of a system of education, and that system was the same as had formerly been given to Israel, as had been exemplified and amplified in the life of Christ, and was at the time of the Reformation to be revealed, little by little, as men’s minds, long darkened by oppression, were able to grasp it.

[Sidenote: Forerunners of the Reformation]

Agricola, known as the father of German humanism, was one of the earliest reformers, and his attitude as a teacher and his expressions concerning education prove the fact that the Reformation began in the educational institutions. This man was for a time “a pupil of Thomas à Kempis; he passed several years at the university of Louvain; subsequently he studied at Paris, and afterward in Italy,” so that he was well acquainted with the institutions of the day. He became a teacher at Heidelberg. At the age of forty-one he began the study of Hebrew, in order to read the Hebrew Bible.

[Sidenote: Agricola’s ideas of the school]

He was urged to take charge of a school at Antwerp, but refused, expressing his opinion of the school in this advice sent to the authorities: “It is necessary to exercise the greatest care in choosing a director for your school. Take neither a theologian nor a so-called rhetorician, who thinks he is able to speak of everything without understanding anything of eloquence. Such people make in school the same figure, according to the Greek proverb, that a dog does in a bath. It is necessary to seek a man resembling the phœnix of Achilles; that is, who knows how to teach, to speak, and to act at the same time. IF YOU KNOW SUCH A MAN, GET HIM AT ANY PRICE; for the matter involves the future of your children, whose tender youth receives with the same susceptibility the impress of good and of bad examples.”

[Sidenote: Recognizes errors of papal system]