Epic World History

Medieval Europe Educational System

One of the most important intellectual developments in western Europe during the High Middle Ages was the growth of urban schools and universities in which fee paying students were able to acquire a basic education in the liberal arts. The system of education known as Scholasticism resulted from the rigorous application of the liberal arts and their principles to the study of God and the traditional teachings of the church.

These educational transitions were characteristic of the period that Charles Homer Haskins and subsequent scholars have dubbed “the renaissance of the 12th century,” a time of intense cultural flourishing spanning from around 1050 to 1215 and made possible by the rapid growth of cities and the emergence of a cash economy.

Since the time of Charlemagne two types of schools had existed in western Europe: monastic and cathedral. Monastic schools trained oblates (that is, children given to the monastery and the monastic life by their parents) in the scriptural, theological, and spiritual traditions of the church.

Monastic education emphasized acceptance and assimilation of what was known about God rather than investigation of the unknown. Cathedral schools, which were under the control of the local bishop, trained young men for careers in ecclesiastical or secular administration by providing a basic education in reading, writing, rhetoric, and documentation. Here again the curriculum was oriented toward the practical rather than the speculative.

In the first half of the 12th century a new type of school began to appear in burgeoning cities like Paris. These urban schools, which were open to all fee-paying students, served a clientele that did not necessarily have aspirations to serve the church or government in the traditional ways. The interpretation of sacred Scripture and the study of God remained, however, at the center of the curriculum of these new schools.

Teachers at the urban schools certified to give authoritative interpretations of revelation were officially designated masters. Masters such as Anselm of Laon, Bernard of Chartres, and Hugh of St. Victor sought to use the liberal arts as tools in the interpretation of revelation and to teach their pupils to do the same.

Thus the urban-school student would first read in the seven liberal arts before moving on to a higher discipline such as theology or law. In the 13th century the medieval university would come to be defined by a school of theology, a school of law, and a school of medicine beyond the liberal arts curriculum.

The seven liberal arts were divided into the trivium, the three arts proper, and the quadrivium, the four sciences. The trivium consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic or logic. The quadrivium consisted of arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music.

About a millennium and a half before the birth of the medieval university, Aristotle maintained not only that all the arts and sciences are subservient to “first philosophy” (that is, the science of the end or the good), but also that they constitute the parts of philosophy as preparation for that highest wisdom that determines the end of all things and orders them accordingly. Thus subsequent pagan thinkers such as Cicero and Seneca insisted on the necessity of a liberal arts education for the formation and perfection of humankind.

Ancient Christian thinkers such as Augustine of Hippo and Jerome, also having been trained in the liberal arts, similarly insisted on the use of the arts in the interpretation of Scripture. The tiered curriculum of the medieval urban schools and universities owes much to Augustine’s understanding of the liberal arts as certain ordered steps intended to lead the student from corporeal to incorporeal things.

Hugh of St. Victor (c. 1098–1141), an early Scholastic theologian and master at the urban school of St. Victor in Paris, was known as the “Second Augustine,” even during his lifetime, because he used Augustine’s basic idea to develop a holistic well-ordered philosophy according to which the student is led from the timebound words of humans to the eternal Word of God.

According to Hugh, it is the ordered study of the liberal arts that ultimately leads the reader to the eternal Word or wisdom, the second person of the Trinity, who reorders and perfects the human student after the fall into the disorder of sin. In the urban schools the liberal arts were constitutive of philosophy, which Hugh and other medieval masters understood primarily as the love of that wisdom in whose image human beings are created and in whose image they are restored.

Liberal arts study intends to restore within fallen students the divine image, in Hugh’s view. The four major branches of philosophy into which the Victorine Master divides the arts arose as antidotes to humankind’s sickness because of the fall of Adam. First the theoretical arts (theology, physics, and mathematics, the last of which includes the quadrivium) seek to heal ignorance and restore humans to the knowledge of truth.

Second the practical arts (ethics or individual morals, economics or domestic morals, and political science or public morals) seek to heal concupiscence and restore humans to the love of virtue. Third the mechanical arts (weaving, armament construction, commerce, agriculture, hunting, medicine, and theatrics) seek to alleviate bodily weakness (an antidote to mortality).

Finally the logical arts (the trivium), which arose last of all, seek to provide a form of polished discourse on which the other branches of knowledge rely. The logical arts are therefore to be studied first, after which the student is to learn, in order, the practical, the theoretical, and the mechanical arts.

The second major phase of Hugh’s pedagogical program is the study of sacred Scripture, for which the pupil is to use the recently acquired tools of grammar, dialectic, and the other arts. The 12th-century application of grammar and dialectic to the study of God was central to theology’s becoming a science or academic discipline.

The most important theological and ecclesiastical works of the 12th century resulted from the rigorous application of the principles of dialectic to the enormous and disparate body of statements of the fathers and councils of the church on innumerable questions of faith and doctrine: for example, Peter Abelard’s Yes and No, the Ordinary Gloss, Peter Lombard’s Four Books of Sentences, and Gratian’s Concordance of Discordant Canons (Decretum).

Whereas various “questions” about God and God talk first developed out of the biblical witness and closely followed its narrative structure (as in Hugh of St. Victor’s On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith), in the following centuries theological reflection would take the standard form of the “questions” themselves systematically arranged in summae (as in the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas).

Majapahit Kingdom

After the decline of the Srivijayas, who were based in Palembang, Sumatra, the Singahsari dynasty tried to assert their authority in the Malay Archipelago. Unfortunately for them the powerful Mongol warrior Kubilai Khan interfered with their efforts by trying to subjugate them.

He initially sent peaceful missions to make the Singahsari ruler pay tribute to him. When the last Singahsari ruler, Kertanagara, refused, Kubilai Khan sent a military force to Java to subdue him forcefully. By the time the Mongols reached Java, the Singahsari ruler Kertanagara had been assassinated by the forces of his brother-in-law, Jayakatwang of Kediri, who coveted the throne.

In 1292 Nararya Sanggrama Wijaya, later known as Kertarajasa Jayawardhana, the son-in-law of Kertanegara, went on to establish his own line of dynasty, known as the Majapahit dynasty. He managed to do so through an early alliance with the Mongols, who had come to attack him. After defeating his uncle, Kertarajasa managed to expel the Mongols in 1293.

The Hindu-Javanese Majapahit dynasty reigned from about 1293 to 1500 from eastern Java. The name Majapahit is derived from a bitter fruit. Their empire included Borneo, Sumatra, Bali, and the southern part of the Malay Peninsula. It stretched from Irian Jaya in the east to Langkasuka in Malaya in the west.

Either a king or a queen was able to rule. The royal family consisted of the king’s parents, sisters, their husbands, aunts, and uncles, and their respective spouses shared in the administration of the kingdom. They formed the Royal Advisory council, and the Royal Privy councils were consulted by the king before he made any decision.

temple in Majapahit

The Majapahit kingdom achieved great prosperity especially in the 14th century. A key figure in the Majapahit era is Gadjah Mada, who acted as regent and prime minister from 1331 to 1364. Queen Tribuana Tunggadewi, regent for her son Hayam Wuruk, appointed him prime minister.

Gadjah Mada was a skilful politician and was responsible for the glorious period of Majapahit rule. His famous oath, known as Sumpah Palapa, was recorded in the Pararaton or the Book of Kings. He swore to conquer the rest of the Malay Archipelago before indulging in the pleasures of life.

In fact, he named specific locations in his oath, such as Bali, Tumasik (present-day Singapore), Pahang, and Palembang. He succeeded in spreading Majapahit rule in the Malay Archipelago, beyond present-day Indonesia. His conquests even extended to the Muslim city-state of Palembang Sumatra, effectively ending Srivijaya rule. True to his word, he headed a military expedition that conquered Bali in 1343.

In 1350 Queen Tribuana Tunggadewi stepped down and Gadjah Mada served her son, Hayam Wuruk, who ruled until 1389. The young king, who was only 16 years old, gave free rein to his prime minister. Thus Gadjah Mada was free to conquer as many places in the archipelago as he wanted. During this time he succeeded in gaining the islands of the Indonesian Archipelago under Majapahit rule.

During the early 15th century Majapahit rule declined with the rise of the Malacca Sultanate, who were becoming increasingly powerful. Toward the end of their rule, many members of Majapahit aristocracy moved to Bali, where they lived in isolation till the island was colonized.

Gajah Mada

Maimonides - Philosopher and Rabbi

Maimonides

Maimonides, or Moses ben Maimon, was born into a scholarly Jewish family in Córdoba, when southern Spain or Andalusia was ruled by Islamic dynasties. Along with Averroës he became the most well-known intellectual from Muslim Spain.

His family fled Spain for Fez, Morocco, when a repressive Berber Muslim dynasty came to power in Spain. To escape religious persecution the family claimed to be Muslims but ultimately moved from Morocco to Palestine and Egypt, where they finally settled in Cairo.

Maimonides was a well-known rabbi as well as a doctor and scholar. He served as the physician to the son and vizier of Saladin (Salah ad din, Yusuf) and became head of the large Jewish community in Cairo. Maimonides was a prolific writer on many subjects. He wrote 10 medical works in Arabic giving advice on diet, sexual intercourse, and healthy lifestyles.

Written in neo-Hebrew, one of his greatest works, Mishna Torah (Repetition of the law), detailed all the laws of the Torah and other Jewish texts. His Guide to the Perplexed (1190) was written in Arabic with Hebrew characters but was subsequently translated into Hebrew and Latin. The guide was one of Maimonides’s most controversial works, causing widespread and acrimonious debate over the interrelationships of religion and rationality in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic communities.

Maimonides attempted to reconcile devout religious practices and faith with rational, scientific tenets. He posited that the future coming of a messiah was one of the 13 tenets of Jewish belief and believed in the divine word but argued that rationality should be applied to legal precepts and the conduct of everyday life. He also rejected Ptolemaic astronomy that argued that the Sun and stars revolved around Earth.

He argued that humans should not be forced to choose between religion and reason and, in his prolific writings, discussed issues of immortality, creation of the universe and humankind, and free will. He died in Cairo and was buried in Tiberias, Palestine.

Mahmud of Ghazni

Mahmud of Ghazni, founder of the Ghaznavid Empire, was the son of Sebuk-Tigin, a Turkic slave soldier who rose through military service to lead a small client state of the Abbasid dynasty in Afghanistan. Mahmud assumed control of this state in 997 after defeating a challenge from his brother Ismail.

Although the state he inherited was small, Mahmud moved aggressively to expand his landholdings, launching military expeditions into eastern Iran. Ghaznavid forces conquered Khurasan in 999, which led to the collapse of the Samanid dynasty, and in 1009, the Iranian province of Sijistan also fell.

The Ghaznavids defeated their only rivals to power in the eastern Islamic lands, the Khwarazmians, in 1017. Mahmud pushed as far west as the Iranian province of Rayy—ruled by the Buyid confederation based in Baghdad—and conquered it in 1029.

Despite his substantial conquests in eastern and central Iran, Mahmud’s greatest legacy was the expansion of Muslim power eastward into South Asia. Beginning in 1001 Ghaznavid armies campaigned in India, occasionally returning to Iran to beat back incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes from Central Asia.

Mahmud went as far south in India as the state of Gujarat, though he was only able to establish firm control over the northern region of Punjab. Although he used Hindu Indian auxiliary troops, Mahmud also ordered or allowed the destruction of Hindu temples.

However as a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim, he also ordered the persecution of Shi’i Muslims, both in the Indus Valley and in Rayy, which had been ruled by the Shi’i Buyids. Mahmud’s military successes were balanced out by his patronage of certain Muslim scholars and philosophers, including the famous historian and anthropologist Abu Raihan al-Biruni, who wrote a lengthy and detailed study of the Indian subcontinent.

At its height, during the reign of Mahmud, the Ghaznavid Empire stretched from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Punjab and northern India. After Mahmud’s death in 1030, his son Masud assumed the throne. However the empire’s centralized structure began to disintegrate, as Masud concentrated on further expanding Ghaznavid authority in India while failing to recognize the threat posed by the Seljuk dynasty, which began to move into Ghaznavid lands in Iran.

Masud tried to stop the Seljuk advance but was defeated in 1040 at the Battle of Dandanqan and was overthrown the next year. The Ghaznavids remained in power until 1187, though their landholdings were steadily reduced until they included only the city of Ghazna in Afghanistan and small sections of that region.

Magna Carta

Rebellious barons required that King John of England approve the Magna Carta (Latin for “the Great Charter”) in 1215. Many consider the document to be the foundation of English constitutional government and individual liberties. By the end of the Middle Ages the charter had become binding legal precedent in the English law courts and a check on royal authority as it was reaffirmed, with modifications, by successive monarchs.

The Magna Carta is viewed as the first public act of an emerging nation-state and a revolutionary declaration of not only the privileges of powerful lords, but also the judicial, political, and commercial rights of Englishmen of every rank.

Moreover it is seen as a subsequent barrier to absolutism in England, through recognition of a collective national will and the concept of the rule of law, and the forerunner to parliamentary supremacy and future democratic achievements, including the Constitution of the United States. Others view it as chiefly an affirmation of existing feudal obligations forced on an administratively able, yet unlucky king by self-interested barons.

The roots of the Magna Carta are traceable to the reign of John’s father, the energetic and imaginative Henry II, the first ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty and “the father of the common law.” As a part of his successful centralization of power following years of civil war and chaos, Henry II forged a national legal system through uniformity of legal rules and roving royal courts at the expense of manorial tribunals applying haphazard local customs and dominated by individual lords.

Ironically this concentration of power by regularization of the law would be the impetus for constraining Henry’s less just son. Although deprived of their judicial power, the baronage came to appreciate predictable legal standards, impartial courts, and objective regulation of feudal obligations, especially after John abused them.

These abuses included unprecedented taxation, exorbitant feudal fines, misuse of royal authority over warships and marriages, illegal confiscation of baronial lands, and arbitrary judicial rulings. Discontent with John’s rule, limited to the lords, the lower aristocracy and many townspeople objected to his oppression, taxation, and disregard of custom.

Therefore barons sought to preserve the law as a way to curb John and prevent the consolidation of a tyrannical order. Thus what was once a method of Henry II to extend royal authority became the means of limiting it. The Magna Carta can be seen as a conservative reaction to Henry’s misrule.

John is not totally to blame for the debacle of 1215, for he came to the throne in 1199 without the popularity of his charismatic brother and predecessor, the crusading Richard I the Lionhearted and was encumbered with an empty treasury, rampant inflation, and the moniker “John Lackland” because of the absence of a bequest of territory from his father.

Hindered by a reputation for untrustworthiness, rumors that he had usurped the throne by murdering his nephew, and his excommunication in 1209 over disputes with the church, John saw his loss of his possessions of Normandy and Anjou, the heart of the Angevin empire, to the French King Philip II Augustus become disastrous.

With these military defeats of 1203–04, a humiliated John turned to strengthening his control of England and raising funds to finance a new French campaign. When this campaign failed miserably and he was forced to pay tribute to the French king, John returned to England discredited, broke, and determined to squeeze all the funds he could from his English domain.

Unlike earlier disputes between English kings and their barons, discontent involved neither rival claimants to the Crown nor jealous factions of the royal family. This proved beneficial to the barons, for instead of fighting for a personage or power, they claimed to be defending the entire realm and its traditions.

At a conference with the king in January 1215 at London, the barons demanded that John reaffirm his coronation oath and institute reforms. But John, who had asked the pope to side with him and was preparing for battle, demanded that the barons make a new oath of allegiance. Instead the barons mobilized for war and renounced their fealty to the king at Northampton on May 5.

Under the leadership of Robert FitzWalter, the rebels were welcomed into London by the populace on June 10 as John fled to his stronghold of Windsor Castle. After much negotiation, and the departure of disgruntled northern lords, John consented to terms on June 15 in the meadow of Runnymede near Windsor and his seal was affixed to the document. On June 19 the barons reaffirmed their loyalty.

The Magna Carta, first known as the “Articles of the Barons,” contained 63 articles restricting royal power, clarifying feudal responsibilities, and guaranteeing certain rights, including those of the church. More particularly it provided redress of grievances concerning land, asserted the authority of the Great Council to block abusive taxation, required that the courts stay fair and open, asserted commercial rights beneficial to middle-class merchants, and required the restraint of royal officials.

It even protected widows from being compelled to marry. It was remarkably visionary in that it recognized the judicial due process rights of all Englishmen, not just the aristocracy. Enforcement was provided through a council of 25 barons with the legal authority to make war on the king if necessary.

In keeping with his reputation John never intended to abide by the document and was only buying time. He soon prepared for renewed resistance and won a pronouncement from the pope declaring the Magna Carta void because he agreed to it under duress.

But there was no turning back. Although it failed as a peace treaty, the Magna Carta swiftly commanded a reverence and majesty of its own and became an indelible part of the English constitution. John died in 1216, while once again fleeing his barons.

Ming Dynasty

Ming dynasty map

The Ming dynasty, which spanned 1368–1644, can be divided into two segments. The first part, between 1368 and c. 1450, was a period of great achievement, growth, stability, and prosperity; the latter part, from c. 1450 to 1644, was characterized by weak and unstable rulers, corruption, and abuse of power that culminated in rebellions and overthrow.

The Ming dynasty has an important place in Chinese history because of its longevity and rule over unified China, and because it was the last Chinese imperial dynasty not founded and ruled by peoples of nomadic origin.

Ming Taizu (T’ai-Tsu)

China was in ruins by the mid-1300s under the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). It suffered from a collapsing economy, wrecked by financial mismanagement, runaway inflation, natural disasters, famine, and plague. Numerous rebel movements rose to topple the Yuan dynasty, among them one led by an impoverished peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang (Chu Yuan-chang).

Zhu focused on consolidating his power in the Yangzi (Yangtze) River valley in southern China, establishing his capital in Nanjing (Nanking), a city rich with historic significance, from which he invaded the north, sending the last Yuan emperor in flight to Mongolia in 1368.

It was the second time in Chinese history that a commoner had ascended the throne (the first was Liu Bang, who founded the Han dynasty in 202 b.c.e.). He chose the dynastic name Ming, which means “brilliant.”

He reigned for 30 years (1368–98), chose for himself the reign title Hongwu (Hung-wu), which means “bounteous warrior,” and is also known by his posthumous title Taizu, which means “Grand Progenitor.” He and his immediate successors worked to restore Chinese prosperity and prestige after the humiliation and exploitation of Mongol rule.

Ming Taizu (T’ai-Tsu)

Emperor Hongwu’s policies put his stamp on the dynasty. He restored the economy by freeing people enslaved by Mongols and resettling them on ravaged lands, especially in northern China. He gave tax breaks to the peasants, repaired irrigation works, rebuilt granaries, and adopted a tax policy that favored the poor.

He gave much authority to localities for maintaining law and order by organizing them into the baojia (paochia) system: 10 families formed a jia under a leader and were responsible for each other, and 10 jia formed a bao in which 100 families were responsible for each other. This system of local organization persisted in China into modern times.

Confucian Education

Confucian Education

Hongwu ordered the founding of schools throughout the empire, based the curriculum on Confucian teachings, and reinstated the examination system to recruit officials. His son the emperor Yongle (Yung-lo) followed up on this by ordering the foremost scholars to compile an official version of the Confucian classics and commentaries to guide students in their studies.

In 1415 The Great Compendium of the Five Classics and the Four Books was published, followed by the publication of The Great Compendium of the Philosophy of Human Nature in 1417.

These works reflected the officially accepted Neo-Confucian philosophy as interpreted by the Song philosopher Zhu Xi (Chu Hsi) and became textbooks in schools in China, Korea, and Japan. Another major contribution to learning was the Yongle Dadian (Yung-lo ta-tien) or Great Literary Repository of the Yongle Reign.

It contained 22,277 volumes, whose index alone ran to 60 volumes. Too large to be printed, it was preserved in manuscript sets in imperial libraries. Such great government-sponsored works reflected and resulted in huge national interest in learning, which made the Ming a great period in human history. Economic prosperity permitted wider and growing literacy, from which the printing industry also benefited.

Defense Against the Mongols

Emperor Hongwu established a highly centralized administrative system that combined features from the previous Tang (T’ang) dynasty, Song dynasty, as well as the Yuan dynasty. But he abolished the position of chief minister, so that the autocratic ruler held all the reins of power.

Recognizing that abuse of power by eunuchs contributed to the decline and fall of earlier dynasties, he forbade eunuchs to interfere in government. He established a million-man professional standing army that was hereditary.

He gave governmen towned land to each garrison, requiring the soldiers to till the land in their spare time so that they would not be a burden on the treasury. This did not work in practice and the treasury had to allocate funds to the army regularly.

The army units were rotated in guarding the capital region, the Great Wall, and at strategic locations throughout the empire and were trained by special tactical officers. The division of authority between garrison commanders and tactical commanders prevented the development of warlordism and precluded revolts by the army during the dynasty.

Reflecting the deep resentment most Chinese felt toward Mongols, he forbade Mongol dress and customs among Chinese and ordered those Mongols remaining in China to adopt Chinese names and to become assimilated.

Emperor Hongwu, his sons, and generals led campaigns that drove remnant Mongols to the Lake Baikal region in present-day Russia. They also regained all Chinese lands including modern Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Sichuan (Szechwan), and Xinjiang (Sinkiang) and accepted the vassalage of Korea, Vietnam, and Central Asian states.

Emperor Yongle (Yung-Lo)

Emperor Yongle (Yung-Lo)

Hongwu left the throne to his young grandson, who was, however, ousted by his uncle the prince of Yan (Yen), fourth son of Hongwu. After a civil war that lasted between 1399 and 1402 and ended with the burning of the palace in Nanjing it was presumed that the young emperor and his family had died.

The victorious prince of Yan became the emperor Yongle (Yung-lo), r. 1402–24. Yongle is also known by his posthumous title Chengzu (Ch’eng-tsu), “successful progenitor,” and is sometimes called the second founder of the Ming dynasty.

He moved the national capital to Beijing (Peking) in 1421, after rebuilding it from the ruined Yuan capital Dadu (Ta-tu); the palaces, temples, and city walls of that city date to his reign. He had repaired the silted up Grand Canal to connect to Beijing to bring supplies from the south to the capital.

A seasoned general, he personally led five campaigns into Mongolia to prevent the resurgence of Mongol power. Another Ming army intervened in Vietnam in 1404, annexing that area to the Ming Empire. However Vietnam regained its autonomy after 20 years and became a Ming vassal state.

Troubled by Japanese pirates he intimidated the shogun of Japan into accepting vassalage for the first time in history. Yongle was also famous for authorizing huge armadas to show the flag, promote trade, and enroll vassal states across Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, to as far as the northeastern coast of Africa.

The eunuch admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho) commanded seven expeditions (the last one set out after Yongle had died). In appointing Zheng He and other eunuchs to high positions Yongle violated his father’s strong injunction.

Although he kept them under firm control, later weak Ming rulers would rely on them for advice, undermining the bureaucracy and resulting in corruption and abuse of power, with disastrous effects.

For example, in 1449 a weakling emperor appointed his favorite eunuch commanding officer, and together they went to war against a Mongol chief, only to suffer defeat and capture, throwing the government into chaos in the process.

China Recovers

Government policies that favored land reclamation and economic activities resulted in growing prosperity, and the gradual repopulation of northern China and migration to the south and southwest, driving aboriginal peoples to remote mountainous regions.

Production of silk was encouraged and became widespread in areas south of the Yangzi River. Women and girls were in charge of growing mulberry trees and tending silkworms and also worked in silk weaving factories, bringing additional income to farm families.

The cultivation of cotton and manufacture of cotton cloths also expanded during the Ming, providing clothes for ordinary people. Crafts also flourished, with metal, lacquer, and paper industries leading the way. True porcelains were first made in China during the Song dynasty, hence the name china.

Its manufacture continued to advance during the Yuan, but it was under the Ming that Chinese porcelain manufacture reached its apogee. Under state encouragement, Jingdezhen (Ching-te-chen), the porcelain manufacturing center, had 3,000 government and privately owned factories.

Four emperors followed Yongle up to 1450. They and most subsequent Ming rulers were mediocre; many were also eccentric. They abandoned the militant foreign policy of the dynastic founders and resorted to defensive tactics, mainly reflected in rebuilding the Great Wall into the formidable monument that survives to the present. Although later Ming lost its earlier dynamism, the institutions and policies set by the dynastic founders worked to continue its survival until 1644.