&lt;b&gt;The medieval university and the ethos of knowledge: Franciscan friars, patristic tradition, and scholastic ‘instruments’

Ana Paula Tavares Magalhães

doi:10.4025/actascieduc.v37i3.24397

Abstract

The encounter between the Christian ethos of knowledge – synthetized by Saint Augustine and largely adopted by medieval Fathers – and Aristotle’s “scientific” method – based on logics and on the sensitive knowledge of Scholasticism –, is among the main accomplishments of the Latin Western world, and took place, mainly, within the University. Epistemological discussions joined institutional debates – intensified by disputes between secular groups, and mendicants, with highlight to the work of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (c.1217-1274), minister general of the Franciscan Order and a master at the University of Paris. In his formulations on the knowledge and the statute of the Franciscan institution, Bonaventure placed himself inside the university debate, settling the bases to the Franciscan thought and to the work of his Order – both in the Church and in the University.

Highlights

Between the patristic tradition of search for and appreciation of knowledge – largely represented in the Augustinian epistemological doctrine – and the subsidizes of new elements that enable new questions and new answers – from the rediscovery of Aristotle, in a broad manner, by the Latin Western world, a fundamental aspect of convergence stands out, which can be understood as a synthesis of the thought and of the practice of Christian fathers in the Middle Ages: the University
Identical contradiction would mark the relationship of medieval fathers with the University
The medieval University was institutionalizing itself, acquiring privileges and becoming the preferred field for the dissemination of teachings by the masters of faith; but this very same institutionalization was primarily based on freedom, which would result in norms relatively distant from those of the regnum and of the sacerdotium

Summary

Introduction

Between the patristic tradition of search for and appreciation of knowledge – largely represented in the Augustinian epistemological doctrine – and the subsidizes of new elements that enable new questions and new answers – from the rediscovery of Aristotle, in a broad manner, by the Latin Western world –, a fundamental aspect of convergence stands out, which can be understood as a synthesis of the thought and of the practice of Christian fathers in the Middle Ages: the University.Acta Scientiarum.

Results

Conclusion