Medieval Universities: The Rise of Learning in the High Middle Ages

The medieval university was one of the most important institutional innovations of the High Middle Ages. From the late eleventh century onward, universities emerged in the major cities of Europe — Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Salamanca, Padua, Naples, and many others — and they developed a sophisticated system of higher education that became the model for the modern university. The medieval university trained the lawyers, theologians, physicians, and administrators who served the Church and the state, and it developed a curriculum and a method of inquiry that shaped the development of European thought for centuries.

This cluster explores the medieval universities of the High Middle Ages. The articles in the related long-tail pages provide deeper examinations of specific universities and topics.

Jacques Verger, “Les Universités au Moyen Âge” (1973), is the standard French treatment; Hastings Rashdall, “The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages” (1895; new ed. by F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden, Oxford, 1936), is the standard older English treatment. The page below uses both, and the founding charters and the early records of the studia generalia (Bologna, Paris, Oxford, the papal bulls of licentia ubique docendi) as primary material. The English and German universities of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are treated separately.

The Origins of the University

The university as an institution emerged gradually in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, in response to the growing demand for higher education in the fields of law, theology, and medicine. The cathedral schools and the monastic schools of the early Middle Ages had provided the basic education in grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, but they could not satisfy the demand for the more advanced training needed by the lawyers and theologians of the period. The rediscovery of the Roman law of the Corpus Juris Civilis in the late eleventh century, the growth of the canon law of the Church, and the encounter with the philosophy of Aristotle all stimulated the demand for higher education, and the university emerged as the institution that could provide it.

The University of Bologna, founded around 1088, is generally considered the oldest university in Europe. The university emerged from the study of the Roman law in the city of Bologna, and it was the first institution to organize the study of law in a systematic way. The university was organized as a corporation of students, who hired the masters to teach them and who made the rules of the institution. The University of Bologna became the model for the student-run universities of southern Europe, including the universities of Padua, Naples, and Salamanca.

The University of Paris emerged in the late twelfth century from the cathedral school of Notre-Dame de Paris, and it became the center of theological and philosophical study in medieval Europe. The university was organized as a corporation of masters, who controlled the rules of the institution and who awarded the degrees that qualified the students to teach. The University of Paris became the model for the master-run universities of northern Europe, including the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Toulouse.

The Curriculum

The curriculum of the medieval university was organized around the seven liberal arts, the higher faculties, and the professional faculties. The seven liberal arts were divided into the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music). The trivium was the foundation of the curriculum, and it was the subject of the initial years of study in the arts faculty. The quadrivium was the subject of the later years of study in the arts faculty, and it was the basis for the more advanced study of the higher faculties.

The higher faculties of the university were the faculties of theology, law, and medicine. The faculty of theology was the most prestigious of the higher faculties, and it was the culmination of the medieval educational system. The study of theology was based on the Bible, the Sentences of Peter Lombard, and the works of the Church Fathers, and it required a long period of study — typically seven to ten years — before the student could qualify for the doctorate. The faculty of law was the second most prestigious of the higher faculties, and it was the most practically useful for the students who would serve as lawyers and judges. The faculty of medicine was the third of the higher faculties, and it was the least prestigious of the three, but it was also the most practically useful for the students who would serve as physicians.

The professional faculties of the university varied from institution to institution, but they typically included the faculties of arts (which was the largest of the faculties and the one that most students entered first), the faculties of theology, law, and medicine, and occasionally the faculties of arts in the more specialized sense of the practical arts (such as architecture or music).

The Method of Teaching

The method of teaching in the medieval university was based on the lecture and the disputation. The lecture (from the Latin legere, to read) was the principal form of teaching, and it involved the master reading and commenting on a standard text. The student listened to the lecture, took notes, and memorized the content for the examination. The lecture was typically read from a manuscript that the master had prepared, and the commentary was often highly technical and scholarly.

The disputation was the second principal form of teaching, and it was the method by which the scholastic method was developed. The disputation was a formal debate in which a thesis was proposed by a student and then attacked by an opponent and defended by the respondent, with the master presiding and ruling on the arguments. The disputation was the model for the great scholastic summae, which attempted to resolve the major questions of theology and philosophy in a systematic way.

The examination was the third principal form of teaching, and it was the method by which the student qualified for the degree. The examination was typically oral, and it involved the student defending a thesis or answering questions posed by the master. The examination for the bachelor’s degree was relatively brief, and it qualified the student to teach the trivium and the quadrivium. The examination for the master’s degree was more rigorous, and it qualified the student to teach in the arts faculty. The examination for the doctorate was the most rigorous of all, and it qualified the student to teach in the higher faculties.

The Organization of the University

The medieval system was organized as a corporation of teachers and students, with its own rules, its own officials, and its own jurisdiction. The university was granted a charter by the pope or the king, and the charter conferred on the university the right to award degrees that were valid throughout Christendom (the ius ubique docendi). The charter also conferred on the university the right to govern itself, to discipline its members, and to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the local bishop or the town government.

The rector (in the student-run universities of Italy) or the chancellor (in the master-run universities of France and England) was the chief officer of the university, and he presided over the university assembly, represented the university in its dealings with external authorities, and enforced the rules of the institution. The deans of the various faculties represented the faculties in the university government, and they enforced the rules of the faculties and supervised the examinations.

The university was divided into nations (in the student-run universities of Italy) or faculties (in the master-run universities of France and England). The nations of the Italian universities were groups of students from particular regions of Europe, and they competed for power in the university government. The faculties of the northern universities were groups of teachers in the various disciplines, and they competed for power in the university government. The arts faculty was typically the largest and most powerful of the faculties, and the theology faculty was typically the most prestigious.

Student Life

The students of the medieval university came from all over Europe, and they brought with them a wide variety of languages, customs, and traditions. The students of the University of Paris in the thirteenth century, for example, included students from France, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries, and the university was famous for its multicultural character. The students typically spoke Latin as a common language, but they also spoke their native languages in informal settings, and the university was a major site of linguistic and cultural exchange.

The students of the medieval university were typically young men in their late teens or early twenties, and they spent several years at the university before completing their degrees. The students lived in hostels or lodgings in the town, and they typically shared accommodations with other students from the same region or faculty. The students ate in taverns or commons in the town, and they participated in the social and intellectual life of the university and the town.

The students of the medieval university engaged in a variety of activities beyond their formal studies. The students participated in the religious life of the university, attending Mass and the Divine Office in the university chapel, and they also participated in the intellectual and social life of the university, engaging in debates, poetry competitions, and other events. The students also frequently came into conflict with the townspeople of the university town, and the town-and-gown riots of the High Middle Ages were a recurring feature of university life.

The colleges that emerged in the late medieval period provided more structured accommodations for students. The colleges were endowed foundations that provided residence, tutorial instruction, and sometimes meals for students, and they were often associated with a particular faculty or religious order. The colleges of Oxford and Cambridge — University College, Balliol, Merton, Peterhouse, and others — were founded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and they remained the basic units of student life in these universities for centuries.

Sources

Principal sources used in this article:

Jacques Verger, Les Universités au Moyen Âge (PUF, 1973).

Further reading:

Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, new ed. by F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden (Oxford, 1936).

For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).