Thought and Learning

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the structured, formal patterns of teaching and learning, which impinged less closely on the lives of the many than of the few. The schools and their supporting institutions owed much to lay patrons, at least before the 'Gregorian reform'. In both monastic and non-monastic schools the curriculum of study had a common foundation. Central to monastic studies were the Bible and supporting aids including the liberal arts and biblical glosses, and these were approached in a context of regular prayer, meditation and liturgical practice. The growth in numbers of students in urban schools during the eleventh and twelfth centuries reflects the rise of career expectations. However, explaining the changing fortunes of particular schools is difficult, as is the task of explaining why or to what extent some schools gained a particularly high reputation in certain subjects.