In the Theological Faculty the Sentences of Peter Lombard (p. 189) and the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas (p. 191) were the textbooks used. The Bible was at first also used somewhat, but later came to be largely overshadowed by the other books and by philosophical discussions and debates on all kinds of hair-splitting questions, kept carefully within the limits prescribed by the Church. The requirements at Oxford (R. 116 a) give the course of instruction in one of the best of the theological faculties of the time. The teachers were scholastics, and scholastic methods and ideals everywhere prevailed. Roger Bacon's (1214-1294) criticism of this type of theological study (R. 118), which he calls "horse loads, not at all [in consonance] with the most holy text of God," and "philosophical, both in substance and method," gives an idea of the kind of instruction which came to prevail in the theological faculties under the dominance of the scholastic philosophers.
Years of study were required in each of these three professional faculties, as is shown by the statement of requirements as given for Montpellier, Paris (R. 117), and Oxford (R. 116 a).
[Illustration: FIG. 65. LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN, IN HOLLAND (After an engraving by J. C. Woudanus, dated 1610) This shows well the chained books, and a common type of bookcase in use in monasteries, churches, and higher schools. Counting 35 books to the case, this shows a library of 35 volumes on mathematics; 70 volumes each on literature, philosophy, and medicine; 140 volumes of historical books; 175 volumes on civil and canon law; and 160 volumes on theology, or a total of 770 volumes—a good-sized library for the time.]
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. A very important reason why so long a period of study was required in each of the professional faculties, as well as in the Faculty of Arts, is to be found in the lack of textbooks and the methods of instruction followed. While the standard textbooks were becoming much more common, due to much copying and the long-continued use of the same texts, they were still expensive and not owned by many. [22]
[Illustration: PLATE 4. A LECTURE ON THEOLOGY BY ALBERTUS MAGNUS An illuminated picture in a manuscript of 1310, now in the royal collection of copper engravings, at Berlin. The master in his chair is here shown "reading" to his students.]
To provide a loan collection of theological books for poor students we find, in 1271, a gift by will to the University of Paris (R. 119) of a private library, containing twenty-seven books. Even if the students possessed books, the master "read" [23] and commented from his "gloss" at great length on the texts being studied. Besides the mere text each teacher had a "gloss" or commentary for it—that is, a mass of explanatory notes, summaries, cross-references, opinions by others, and objections to the statements of the text. The "gloss" was a book in itself, often larger than the text, and these standard glosses, [24] or commentaries, were used in the university instruction for centuries. In Theology and Canon Law they were particularly extensive.
All instruction, too, was in Latin. The professor read from the Latin text and gloss, repeating as necessary, and to this the student listened. Sometimes he read so slowly that the text could be copied, but in 1355 this method was prohibited at Paris (R. 121), and students who tried to force the masters to follow it "by shouting or whistling or raising a din, or by throwing stones," were to be suspended for a year. The first step in the instruction was a minute and subtle analysis of the text itself, in which each line was dissected, analyzed, and paraphrased, and the comments on the text by various authors were set forth. Next all passages capable of two interpretations were thrown into the form of a question; pro and contra, after the manner of Abelard. The arguments on each side were advanced, and the lecturer's conclusion set forth and defended. The text was thus worked over day after day in minute detail. Having as yet but little to teach, the masters made the most of what they had. A good example of the mediaeval plan of university instruction is found in the announcement of Odofredus, a distinguished teacher of Law at Bologna, about the middle of the thirteenth century, which Rashdall thinks is equally applicable to methods in other subjects. Odofredus says:
First, I shall give you summaries of each title before I proceed to the text; secondly, I shall give you as clear and explicit a statement as I can of the purport of each Law (included in the title); thirdly, I shall read the text with a view to correcting it; fourthly, I shall briefly repeat the contents of the Law; fifthly, I shall solve apparent contradictions, adding any general principles of Law (to be extracted from the passage), and any distinctions and subtle and useful problems arising out of the Law with their solutions, as far as the Divine Providence shall enable me. And if any Law shall seem deserving, by reason of its celebrity or difficulty, of a Repetition, I shall reserve it for an evening Repetition.
It will be seen that both students and professors were bound to the text, as were the teachers of the Seven Liberal Arts in the cathedral schools before them. There was no appeal to the imagination, still less to observation, experiment, or experience. Each generation taught what it had learned, except that from time to time some thinker made a new organization, or some new body of knowledge was unearthed and added.
Another method much used was the debate, or disputation, and participation in a number of these was required for degrees (R. 116). These disputations were logical contests, not unlike a modern debate, in which the students took sides, cited authorities, and summarized arguments, all in Latin. Sometimes a student gave an exhibition in which he debated both sides of a question, and summarized the argument, after the manner of the professors. As a corrective to the memorization of lectures and texts, these disputations served a useful purpose in awakening intellectual vigor and logical keenness. They were very popular until into the sixteenth century, when new subject-matter and new ways of thinking offered new opportunities for the exercise of the intellect.