76 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



them or adding anything fresh to them. Not until the latter half of the 

 eleventh century did the first independent mediasval theologian appear, in 

 person of Anselm of Canterbury. But not long afterwards a more liberal 

 line of thought began to find expression, which, based on the trifling remains 

 of classical literature still to be found at that time in the libraries of monas- 

 teries and churches, sought to establish rational principles of thought. Dur- 

 ing the twelfth century these ideas, expounded by the Frenchman Abelard 

 and his pupils, won widespread acceptance, in spite of strenuous opposition 

 on the part of the Church, and received further stimulus from the influence 

 of Arabian science, brought over partly by scholars who had studied in Spain 

 and partly through the crusaders' contact with the East itself. In this way 

 the countries of the West gained their knowledge of the great men of classical 

 antiquity — - Plato and Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen, as well as of their 

 Arabian commentators and successors. 



The universities 

 With a view to the study of these sources of knowledge there was founded 

 in the twelfth century a form of educational establishment which was to 

 become of fundamental importance for the scientific development of the 

 future — namely, the university. Antiquity had nothing equivalent to this 

 kind of associations of teachers and pupils, for they rested on an ecclesias- 

 tical foundation. Charlemagne had already founded and attached to the met- 

 ropolitan churches cathedral schools, in which some young priest gave 

 instruction in theology, music, and other branches of learning necessary for 

 men of the Church. As the number of pupils at these schools gradually in- 

 creased, it became necessary to employ in them a larger and larger staff of 

 teachers, magistri, who, in order to protect themselves against the dangers 

 and insecurity that prevailed everywhere in those days, formed themselves 

 into corporations. An association of this kind, universitas magistrormn, under 

 its governor (j-ector) and with its large number of pupils grouped according 

 to nations, represented at that epoch a considerable power, which, in the 

 course of violent struggles with the civic and ecclesiastical authorities, en- 

 deavoured to acquire a wide measure of self-government and as a rule actually 

 succeeded in doing so. When the number of both pupils and educational 

 subjects increased still further, recourse was had to specialization in several 

 faculties, a method of distribution which in its main features still survives. 

 Instruction was given by means of pulpit lectures — a method based on the 

 Church sermon and similarly adopted with a view to instructing large num- 

 bers of pupils at one and the same time. Further, the appearance of the 

 university system involved a democratization of science, of which classical 

 antiquity had no counterpart. Whereas the finest masters of antiquity could 

 probably count their pupils only in tens or hundreds, the great universities 

 of the Middle Ages, such as those of Paris, Oxford, Leipzig, etc., had thou- 



