In the middle ages 45

the opening of the twelfth century, the cathedral

schools of Tournai (Odon of Tournai), of Rheims

(Alberic of Rheims and Gauthier of Mortagne),

of Laon (Anselm of Laon), had shed their last

splendor. For they were eclipsed by the cathedral

schools of Chartres, founded by Fulbert, at which

there developed during the first half of the twelfth

century a humanist movement, which devoted it-

self to achieving a Latin style of rare elegance, a

perfect knowledge of the classics, and an acquain-

tance with the complete Orgmion of Aristotle.

Bernard of Chartres, in 1117, became the first of a

line of famous masters; and Thierry of Chartres,

about 1141, wrote his celebrated treatise on the

liberal arts, the Heptateuchon^ — written just as

the south portal of the cathedral was receiving its

ornamentation, with its detail of sculptured figures

which represent the trivium and quadrivium.

But even before this Paris had been in position

to assert the superiority of her schools. The fame

of Abaelard at the schools of the cathedral and of

St. Genevieve drew a host of students and masters

to Paris; the monastery of St. Victor, where Wil-

liam of Champeaux founded a chair of theology,

became a centre of mystical studies; and the uni-

versity was all but born.

The localism of these schools did not, however,

prevent a certain uniformity in method of teach-

ing and in curriculum and in scholarly practise ; and

this uniformity helped to pave the way for the cos-

46 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

mopolitan character of the teaching of philosophy

in the universities. The locaHsm and the centrahz-

ing tendency commingled, — very much as the au-

tonomy of the feudal barons and the unifying

policy of the kings did in the political realm.

Studying and teaching were monopolized by one

social class, the clergy. The international hier-

archy of the Church, and the universal use of Latin

as the scientific language established a natural

union among the masters of the West ; the frequent

migration of students and scholars, from school to

school, facilitated the spread of every innovation

in method, program, and vocabulary.

II

The twelfth century remained faithful to the

traditional program of the seven liberal arts, but

the frame was enlarged in every direction. This

brings us to a second group of ideas connected with

the spirit of the civilization, and which I call the

demarcation of boundaries between the sciences. In

the early centuries of the Middle Ages, the pro-

gram of studies included grammar-rhetoric-dia-

lectic (logic), wliich comprised the trivium, and

arithmetic-geometry-astronomy-music, which com-

prised the quadrivium; in this program one readily

recognizes the beginnings of our modern secondary

education.

Grammai- included not only the study of the

ancient and mediaeval grammarians (Donatus,