medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In England clerical education was sort of catch-as-catch-can, including in descending sophistication:
* a few years at a university/studium generale, usually under the provisions of Boniface VIII’s 1298 constitution “Cum ex eo” allowing temporary absence from a benefice for purposes of study; only a small number of parish clergy undertook this
* basic instruction in Latin and chant at grammar and song schools (as laid out, for example, in Bp. John Grandisson’s 1356 constitution describing the grammar school curriculum for training future priests)
* scholarship provisions for promising parish boys to pursue formal study (as in the “holy water benefice” for the parish “aquabajulus,” who had ambitions, mentioned in several episcopal constitutions of 13th C
* Periodic assemblies of the local clergy presided over (usually) by the rural dean or archdeacon. Several thirteenth-century diocesan statues append booklets of pastoral care that parish priests were supposed to know and be able to recite “in synodum”
* On-the-job training, as Bp. Robt. Grossteste suggested, advising priests with pastoral dilemmas to consult other, better educated priests in the neighborhood. Anecdotes occasionally describe these pastoral conversations.
* I think we cannot doubt that neighborhood pastors privately tutored boys who showed some talent for clerical office, like Grosseteste himself, the son of peasants. (Were these sometimes their sons? Never say never,though a priest's son would be deemed illegitimate after the 12th C and therefore need a dispensation for bastardy.)
Finally, it’s worth remembering that “education” for the English clergy was a relative thing. English canon law commentaries suggested that priests needed only be “sufficienter literatus,” which the 14th-century canonist John Acton construed to mean that “they know a little more than lay people, especially about the sacrament of the altar, which they must celebrate daily.”
In England, all candidates for ordination had to pass an episcopal examination in basic literacy; those insufficiently educated were turned away for further study.
Best,
John
--
John Shinners
Professor, Schlesinger Chair in Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Phone: 574-284-4494 or 574-284-4534
Fax: 284-4855
www.saintmarys.edu/~hust
"Learn everything. Later you will see that nothing is superfluous." -- Hugh of St. Victor (d. 1141)
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