John, however, became conscious of an intellectual appetite which the formal routine of logic did not satisfy; consequently, he determined to enter upon the study of grammar, and for this purpose he left Paris for Chartres, to study under the Grammarian, William of Conches. The cathedral school at Chartres had long been famous as a centre of learning. One of the most famous masters of the school was Bernard Sylvester, described by John of Salisbury as “in modern times the most abounding spring of letters in France.”[702] Poole gives an account of this school under Bernard:—
“The pupil went through all the routine of metaplasm, schematism, and figures of speech; but this was only the groundwork. As soon as possible he was introduced to the classical texts themselves and in order to create a living interest in the study, Bernard used not merely to treat these grammatically, but also to comment freely upon them.... Nor did he confine himself to the form of what was being read; he was still more anxious to impress upon his pupils its meaning. It was a principle with him that the wider and more copious the master’s knowledge, the more fully will he perceive the elegancy of his authors and the more clearly will he teach them.”[703]
Among the teaching methods adopted by Bernard, and by his successors in the school, Richard the Bishop, and William of Conches, were those of requiring exercises daily in prose and verse composition. By way of preparation for these exercises, the pupils were shown the qualities in the classical writers which were deemed worthy of adoption. The pupils passed round their exercises to one another for comment and criticism, and in this way emulation was stimulated. In addition to composition, the pupils had a good deal to commit to memory; they were every day required to keep a record of the lessons they had received. John of Salisbury writes of Richard the Bishop that he was a man “who was master of every kind of learning and who had more heart even than speech, more learning than eloquence, more truth than vanity, more virtue than ostentation; the things I had learnt from others, I reviewed from him, besides certain things which I now learnt for the first time relating to the Quadrivium.... I also again studied Rhetoric, which previously I had scarcely understood when it was first treated of superficially by Master Theodoric.”[704] John also studied rhetoric from Peter Helias, “a grammarian of high repute.”
Apparently John was obliged to maintain himself during this period, as he had no parents or relatives who could support him. Consequently, we find that he taught the “children of noble persons.” He did not consider the time he spent in teaching the young as wasted, because it forced him to revise that which he had previously learnt himself. Whilst engaged in the task of teaching, John became acquainted with Adam du Petit Pont, an Englishman who subsequently became Bishop of St. Asaph. John describes Adam as a man “of much learning who had given special study to Aristotle.” John is careful to point out that he was never a pupil of Adam, yet Adam seems to have been well disposed to John, and to have assisted him in various ways.
In order to apply himself to the study of theology, John returned to Paris. His course was interrupted by his poverty; during the necessary interval he again acted as tutor. At the end of three years, he was once again in Paris, where his studies were continued, first under Robert Pullus and afterwards under Simon of Poissy—“a trusty lecturer but dull in disputations.”
In the conclusion of the record of his school studies, John gives an account of a visit he paid to the school of logic at Paris attended by him whilst a youth. He states that his purpose in doing so was to endeavour to estimate the relative progress made by the schools of logic, and by himself. He writes:—
“I found them as before and where they were before; nor did they appear to have reached the goal in unravelling the old questions, nor had they added one jot of a proposition. The aims that once inspired them, inspired them still; they only had progressed in one point, they had unlearned moderation, they knew not modesty. And thus experience taught me a manifest conclusion that, whereas dialectic furthers other studies, so if it remain by itself it lies bloodless and barren, nor does it quicken the soul to yield fruit of philosophy, except the same conceive from elsewhere.”[705]
We also obtain a certain amount of educational biography from the writings of Alexander Neckham, who was at one time the master of the school at Dunstable.[706] Neckham tells us that, when he was a boy, he attended the school at St. Albans; then he passed over to Paris, where he studied theology, medicine, canon and civil law.[707]
A third account needs to be referred to before we can consider what conclusions we can draw with regard to the curriculum of the twelfth century.
William Fitzstephen, (d. 1190), was employed by Thomas à Beckett. He witnessed the murder of his master and wrote his biography. This work contains an interesting account of London in the twelfth century and, incidentally, describes an important occasion in schoolboy life. He states:—