over the right door of the west portal at
Chartres Cathedral In the later
Roman Empire, as
Roman municipal education declined, bishops began to establish schools associated with their cathedrals to provide the church with an educated clergy. The earliest evidence of a school established in this manner is in
Visigothic Spain at the
Second Council of Toledo in 527. These early schools, with a focus on an apprenticeship in religious learning under a scholarly bishop, have been identified in other parts of Spain and about twenty towns in
Gaul (France) during the sixth and seventh centuries. During and after the mission of
St Augustine to England, cathedral schools were established as the new dioceses were themselves created (
Canterbury 597,
Rochester 604,
York 627 for example). This group of schools forms the
oldest schools continuously operating. A significant function of cathedral schools was to provide
boy trebles for the choirs, evolving into
choir schools, some of which still function as such.
Charlemagne, king of the Franks and later Emperor, recognizing the importance of education to the clergy and, to a lesser extent, to the nobility, set out to restore this declining tradition by issuing several decrees requiring that education be provided at monasteries and cathedrals. In 789, Charlemagne's
Admonitio Generalis required that schools be established in every monastery and bishopric, in which "children can learn to read; that psalms, notation, chant, computation, and grammar be taught." Subsequent documents, such as the letter
De litteris colendis, required that bishops select as teachers men who had "the will and the ability to learn and a desire to instruct others" and a decree of the
Council of Frankfurt (794) recommended that bishops undertake the instruction of their clergy. Subsequently, cathedral schools arose in major cities such as Chartres, Orleans, Paris, Laon, Reims or Rouen in France and Utrecht, Liege, Cologne, Metz, Speyer, Würzburg, Bamberg, Magdeburg, Hildesheim or Freising in Germany. Following in the earlier tradition, these cathedral schools primarily taught future clergy and provided literate administrators for the increasingly elaborate courts of the
Renaissance of the 12th century. Speyer was renowned for supplying the Holy Roman Empire with diplomats. The court of
Henry I of England, himself an early example of a literate king, was closely tied to the
cathedral school of Laon.
Characteristics and development Cathedral schools were mostly oriented around the academic welfare of the nobility's children. Because it was intended to train them for careers in the church, girls were excluded from the schools. Later on, many lay students who were not necessarily interested in seeking a career in the church wanted to enroll. The demand arose for schools to teach government, state, and other Church affairs. The schools, (some notable ones dating back to the eighth and ninth centuries) accepted fewer than 100 students. Pupils had to demonstrate substantial intelligence and be able to handle a demanding academic course load. Considering that books were also expensive, students were in the practice of memorizing their teachers' lectures. Cathedral schools at this time were primarily run by a group of ministers and divided into two parts: Schola minor, which was intended for younger students, would later become
elementary schools. Then there was the schola major, which taught older students. These would later become
secondary schools. The subjects taught at cathedral schools ranged from literature to mathematics. These topics were called the
seven liberal arts:
grammar,
astronomy,
rhetoric (or speech),
logic,
arithmetic,
geometry and
music. In grammar classes, students were trained to read, write and speak
Latin which was the universal language in Europe at the time. Astronomy was necessary for calculating dates and times. Rhetoric was a major component of a vocal education. Logic consisted of the criteria for sound or fallacious arguments, particularly in a theological context, and arithmetic served as the basis for quantitative reasoning. Students read stories and poems in Latin by authors such as Cicero and Virgil. Much as in the present day, cathedral schools were split into elementary and higher schools with different curricula. The elementary school curriculum was composed of reading, writing and psalmody, while the high school curriculum was
trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic), the rest of the liberal arts, as well as
scripture study and
pastoral theology. == Cathedral schools today ==