Education in Medieval Europe

Abstract

This chapter highlights the institutions and content that characterized three crucial phases of education in the Middle Ages: Carolingian education, the twelfth-century Renaissance, and the rise and spread of the university. The various kinds of schools that flourished across medieval Europe reflected its classical and Christian heritages and the productive tensions between those two traditions. While the chapter reflects the predominant focus of medieval schooling on educating male Christians, it also includes discussion of the educational opportunities that were available to females and non-Christians. Although only a minority of people received a formal education in the Middle Ages, many of those attained a significant level of learning.