The History of Education / Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization

by Ellwood Patterson Cubberley

"I do not seek to know in order that I may believe, but I believe in
order that I may know."

"The Christian ought to advance to knowledge through faith, not to
come to faith through knowledge."

"The proper order demands that we believe the deep things of Christian
faith before we presume to reason about them."

[23] Monroe, Paul, Text-Book in the History of Education, p. 258.

CHAPTER VIII

[1] "In the school of Nisibis the Church possessed an institution, which for centuries secured her a system of higher education, and therewith an important social and political position. To the older literature, consisting of translations, there was added, from the middle of the fifth century onward, a large number of philosophical, scientific, and medical treatises belonging to Greek antiquity, and especially the works of Aristotle. Through these Greek wisdom and learning, clothed in Syrian attire, found a home on these borders of Christendom." (Müller, D. K., Kirchengeschichte, vol. I, p. 278.)

[2] "By the year 600 A.D. the triumph of the oriental element in Christendom had well-nigh banished learning and education from the domain of the Church, giving place to a gloomy, unquestioning faith which sank ever deeper and deeper in the mire of superstition. What enlightenment survived had found a home beyond the limits of the Roman Empire,—in Ireland, in the extreme West; in Syria, in the far East." (Davidson, Thomas, History of Education, p. 133.)

[3] This was determined as being 56-1/3 miles, which would make the circumference of the earth 20,280 miles. The correct distance is 69 miles.

[4] The fanaticism of the eastern Arabs now reasserted itself, and higher education In the Mohammedan countries of the East drew permanently to a close. A harsh, rigid orthodoxy, fatal to educational progress, now triumphed. The coming of the Turks only made matters worse, and with their advent education throughout Arabia and Asia Minor became a thing of the past. Some day it will be the task of western Europe to hand back schools and learning to the Mohammedan East. This may be one of the by-products of the great World War.

[5] The Alhambra, built between 1238 and 1354, at Granada, is an exquisite example of their art. (See plate in vol. 1, p. 658, of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., for an illustration of their architecture and art.)