OUTLINES FROM THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 749 



became necessary to provide instruction for those scholars who were 

 not devoting themselves to the monkish life. In keeping with this 

 demand, the cloister schools were established : there were also so- 

 called nunneries of this order, the first at Bischofsheim, in France, 

 being widely celebrated. These cloister schools for girls did the work 

 of elementary schools, and concerned themselves especially with house- 

 hold duties. The supreme importance of this Benedictine order ceased 

 in the twelfth century. Then the Dominicans and Franciscans took 

 up the work, and, though they did not accomplish so much as the other 

 orders, their results were marked in providing better school-books. 

 They taught mostly the Lord's Prayer, church melodies, and Latin. 



A word as to the origin of the cathedral schools. While the Bene- 

 dictine order was becoming powerful, the parochial schools suffered 

 greatly from the ignorance and incapacity of the parish priests. This 

 disturbed Chrodegang (Bishop of Metz, 742) so greatly that he took 

 the priests who were connected with his own cathedral and bound 

 them together in a cloister-like seclusion for the instruction of the 

 youth according to the Benedictine rules. Their life was ordered by 

 strictest regulations, their duties were accurately written down for 

 them, and their chief instruction consisted of the Holy Scriptures and 

 song. The life in these cathedral schools was a modified monkish 

 life the good work they did for education is justly said to be this, 

 that they made it freer, bringing it out of the cloisters and more into 

 general view. 



What did the young people study in the middle-age schools ? 

 First and most essential was religion ; after that, the following : 

 grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic ; music, arithmetic, geometry, and 

 astronomy. The first three of these were called the trivium (as sug- 

 gested, probably, because in Rome it was customary to give element- 

 ary instruction in some public place where three or more roads came 

 together). The four other studies were called the quadrivium. In 

 North Africa the trivium and quadrivium came together for the first 

 time and formed what was known as the seven liberal arts ; seven, 

 being a sacred number, gave great value to this circle of study. Any 

 one making the least pretension to education must pass through the 

 trivium ; the quadrivium was for those who had finished the first 

 course and desired further training. 



We inquire as to the meaning of these seven studies of the middle 

 ages : 



Grammar. This consisted of instruction in the Latin language. 

 First, the scholar learned to pronounce, then he mastered the quantity 

 of the syllables, the forms of the declensions and conjugations ; then 

 he took up some productions of the easier Latin writers ; and, finally, 

 went on to the more difficult prose authors and poets. After this, he 

 learned accent, the number of feet in the verse, analogy, etymology, 

 and foreign words. Then the Latin author was explained critically ; 



