the
present time, but little attention is paid to education in any of the
countries under the sway of Islam.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS DURING THE MIDDLE AGES

1. Paganism gave way to Christianity, and the benign influence of the
latter began to be felt in the recognition of the importance of the
individual.

2. The Church undertook the direction of education, which, though
necessarily limited chiefly to the ecclesiastics, had also a great
influence upon the masses at large.

3. The Church Fathers were the leaders in intellectual as well as in
spiritual matters, while monks and priests were the principal teachers.

4. The monasteries were the centers of educational activity, both in
fostering scholarship and in preserving classic literature.

5. Secular courses of study were established, the most important being
the "seven liberal arts."

6. Education was based on authority, and free investigation found but
little encouragement, except among the scholastics.

7. The State assumed no part in the training of the young. Charlemagne's
educational work is an exception to this rule. He asserted the
prerogative of the State to control education, recognized the necessity
of universal education, and the principle of compulsory attendance.

8. The crusades checked the growth of feudalism, aroused the
intellectual as well as the spiritual energies of the people, led to a
broader conception of man's duty to his fellow-man, and prepared the way
for greater religious and political freedom.

9. As an important result of the stimulated educational activity, both
among Christians and Mohammedans, many universities were founded.

10. "The Middle Ages," says Emerson, "gave us decimal numbers,
gunpowder, glass, chemistry, and gothic architecture, and their
paintings are the delight and tuition of our age."[49]

FOOTNOTES:

[49] Emerson, Progress of Culture in "Letters and Social Aims," p. 204.
Boston, 1895.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE RENAISSANCE

=Literature.=--_Williams_, History of Modern Education; _Quick_,
Educational Reformers; _Bryce_, The Holy Roman Empire; _Andrews_,
Institutes of General History; _Fisher_, History of the Reformation;
_Reeve_, Petrarch; _Symonds_, Renaissance in Italy; _Seebohm_, Era of
Protestant Revolution; _Spofford_, Library of Historical Characters;
_Hegel_, Philosophy of History; _Draper_, Intellectual Development of
Europe; _Azarias_, Philosophy of Literature; _Schwickerath