Education and the Recruitment of Cathedral Canons in England and Germany 1100-1225

Abstract

"Education and the Recruitment of Cathedral Canons in England and Germany 1100-1225." In deciding whether social mobility was possible for medieval clergy an important point to note is the use of educational qualifications. In the twelfth century in much of western Europe the number of men holding the title magister increased enormously as the title began to be given to men who had completed a course of study at a studium generale, but this trend started only after about 1200 in Germany. A comparison of the way in which the higher clergy (especially cathedral canons) were educated in England and Germany can help to illuminate significant differences in the two societies. The oblate system survived much later in Germany than further west in Europe and German cathedral canons thus were recruited as boys, were educated at the cathedral school, and were automatically accepted fully into the community at adulthood. Cathedral schools were too small to offer the sort of higher education available at Paris, and German canons felt no need to go abroad to study. In England bishops controlled the appointment of canons; they recruited adults, preferring magistri where possible. English clerics thus had a powerful motive to go to Paris to acquire qualifications and improve their chances of promotion.