The monastic library
was throughout the Middle Ages the armoury of the
religious against evil, and the few slight changes of character
which it underwent at one time and another do not alter
the fact that on the whole it was a fit and proper collection
for its purpose.[1]
[1] On the use of classics in the Middle Ages see Sandys, i. 630
(Plautus and Terence), 631 (Lucretius), 633 (Catullus and
Virgil), 635 (Horace), 638 (Ovid), 641 (Lucan), 642 (Statius),
643 (Martial), 644 (Juvenal), 645 (Persius), 648 (Cicero), 653
(Seneca), 654 (Pliny), 655 (Quintilian), etc.
Section II
After the twelfth century broadening influences were at
work. The education given in the cathedral and monastic
schools was found to be too restricted; the monasteries,
moreover, now began to refuse assistance to secular students.[1]
To some extent the catechetic method of the theologians
was forced to give place to the dialectic method, equally
dogmatic, but more exciting and stimulating. Hence
was compiled such a book as Peter Lombard's Sentences
(1145-50), a cyclopaedia of disputation, wherein theological
questions were collected under heads, together with Scriptural
passages and statements of the Fathers bearing on these
questions.
Pages:
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334