The Envy of Angels: Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals in Medieval Europe, 950-1200 (The Middle Ages Series)

An engaging narrative history of the origins of formal education in the West. Winner of the Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History, awarded by the American Philosophical Society. An engaging narrative history of the origins of formal education in the West. Winner of the Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History, awarded by the American Philosophical Society. In The Envy Of Angels, C. Stephen Jaeger Studies The German And French Cathedral Schools, The Major Centers Of Secular Learning In Europe Until The Rise Of The Universities In The Twelfth Century. Jaeger Argues That Cathedral Schools Revived The Learning Of Classical Antiquity, Shaped The Codes Of Civility And Courtesy, And Ultimately Transformed The Social And Intellectual Life Of Europe. He Further Proposes That The Schools Were Closely Associated With Medieval Humanism And The Renaissance Of The Twelfth Century, With The Rise Of Gothic Style In Architecture And Sculpture, And With The Formation Of A Courtly Society, Courtly Literature, And Courtly Love. The Story Of The Rise And Fall Of The Cathedral Schools From 950 To 1200 Is Also The Story Of The Transition In Europe From A Charismatic World Based On Orality, Memory, And Personal Authority To An Intellectual Culture Based On Literacy, Texts, And Written Records. Jaeger Is Particularly Concerned With This Notion Of Charismatic Culture; He Argues That The Aim Of Charismatic Teaching Was To Shape The Student's Character Through The Mystical Force Of The Master's Personality. The Curriculum Was Not Primarily Defined By The Set Texts Of Study; The Teacher Himself Was The Curriculum, His Presence Radiating A Transforming Force To His Students. The Essential Feature Of Charismatic Culture Is That It Makes The Body And The Physical Presence Into The Medium Which Transmits Cultural Values. The Controlled Body With All Its Attributes - Grace, Posture, Charm, Sensuality, Beauty - Is The Work Of Art Of The Eleventh Century. If This Ideal Did Not Register In Sculpture, Art, Or Fiction, It Is Because The Eleventh Century Had Or Sought The Thing Itself. The Human Presence Was The Raw Material Ready To Be Shaped And Formed Like The Clay On The Potter's Wheel Or The Sculptor's Marble Block, And The End Product Was A Disciplined Human Being.. The Envy Of Angels Will Be Of Interest To Students And Scholars Of Medieval History, Religion, Literature, And Art.--book Jacket. Pt. 1. The Old Learning -- Part 2. The Deline Of The Old Learning -- Part 3. The Twelfth Century : Seeking New Homes. C. Stephen Jaeger. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [479]-505) And Index. Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Part One. The Old Learning 1. Two Models of Carolingian Education 2. Court and School in Ottoman Times 3. The New Education Institutionalized: Schools of Manners 4. Cultus Vinutum 5. Ethics Colonizing the Liberal Arts 6. Conclusion to Part I: Outbidding the Gods Part Two. The Decline of the Old Learning 7. Two Crises 8. Old Learning Against New Part Three. The Twelfth Century: Seeking New Homes Introduction to Part 3 9. Humanism and Ethics at the School of St. Victor 10.. Bernard or Clairvaux 11. Twelfth-Century Humanism 12. Court Society Conclusion Appendix A. Moral Discipline and Gothic Sculpture: The Wise and Foolish Virgins of the Strassburpf Cathedral Appendix B. The Letter ofGoswin of Mainz to His Student Watcher (ca. 1065) Notes Bibliography Index Before the rise of universities, cathedral schools educated students in a course of studies aimed at perfecting their physical presence, their manners, and their eloquence. The formula of cathedral schools was "letters and manners" (litterae et mores), which asserts a pedagogic program as broad as the modern "letters and science." The main instrument of what C. Stephen Jaeger calls "charismatic pedagogy" was the master's personality, his physical presence radiating a transforming force to his students. In The Envy of Angels, Jaeger explores this intriguing chapter in the history of ideas and higher learning and opens a new view of intellectual and social life in eleventh- and early twelfth-century Europe.