Elementary and Grammar Education in Late Medieval France

KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITIES Lynch Education in Late Medieval France Elementary and Grammar Sarah B. Lynch Elementary and Grammar Education in Late Medieval France Lyon, 1285-1530 Elementary and Grammar Education in Late Medieval France Knowledge Communities This series focuses on innovative scholarship in the areas of intellectual history and the history of ideas, particularly as they relate to the communication of knowledge within and among diverse scholarly, literary, religious, and social communities across Western Europe. Interdisciplinary in nature, the series especially encourages new methodological outlooks that draw on the disciplines of philosophy, theology, musicology, anthropology, paleography, and codicology. Knowledge Communities addresses the myriad ways in which knowledge was expressed and inculcated, not only focusing upon scholarly texts from the period but also emphasizing the importance of emotions, ritual, performance, images, and gestures as modalities that communicate and acculturate ideas. The series publishes cutting-edge work that explores the nexus between ideas, communities and individuals in medieval and early modern Europe. Series Editor Clare Monagle, Macquarie University Editorial Board Mette Bruun, University of Copenhagen Babette Hellemans, University of Groningen Severin Kitanov, Salem State University Alex Novikoff, Fordham University Willemien Otten, University of Chicago Divinity School Elementary and Grammar Education in Late Medieval France Lyon, 1285-1530 Sarah B. Lynch Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Aristotle Teaching in Aristotle’s Politiques, Poitiers, 1480-90. Paris, BnF, ms fr 22500, f. 248 r. Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 90 8964 986 7 e-isbn 978 90 4852 902 5 (pdf) doi 10.5117/9789089649867 nur 684 © Sarah B. Lynch / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2017 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Table of Contents List of Abbreviations 7 Introduction 9 1 The Administration and Organization of Schools in Lyon 31 The Church 32 The Town 38 The Lord 39 Colleges and Universities 41 2 Teachers in Lyon 67 3 Pupils in Lyon 107 Conclusion 153 Appendix I 159 Appendix II 163 Bibliography 167 Index 185 List of Figures and Tables Figure 1 Map of Lyon Including Principal Churches and School Sites 47 Figure 2 The Relationship between Authorities and Schools in Late Medieval Lyon (pre-1530) 51 Figure 3 The Hierarchy of School Personnel at Saint-Jean 81 Figure 4 The Manecanterie of the Cathedral of Saint-Jean, Lyon 144 Table 1 Works Commonly Included in the Auctores Octo 117 List of Abbreviations A.D.R. Archives départementales du Rhône A.M.L. Archives municipales de Lyon C.U.P. Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis O.L.E. Obituarium lugdunensis ecclesiae Introduction The history of formal education and instruction in elementary and grammar schools in the Middle Ages is a difficult story to trace. While the existence of schools and teachers at this level is not disputed, it is frequently ignored. The detailed records left behind by the medieval university usually attracts scholars into a study of higher institutions of learning rather than the more obscure schools that provided such establishments with students or taught the rudiments of academic knowledge on a stand-alone basis. The focus is on the institutional and organizational history of the university and, when the daily practice of teaching and learning is discussed, students’ preparatory studies can sometimes be overlooked. This book is concerned with elementary and grammar schooling in one French city, Lyon, where it will examine and reconstruct the educational community there in the period from 1285 to 1530. It will consider two important aspects of learning and schooling in the later Middle Ages: how schools were organized and administered in a given geographical area – in this case, the city of Lyon – and how people such as teachers, parents, and pupils interacted with a nascent ‘school system’ and its constituent parts. The concept of a school system is problematic in a medieval context. It suggests a rigidly constructed framework in which all pedagogical activities took place under the administration of an accepted authority. This was not the situation in Lyon in the later Middle Ages; but neither was the concept entirely alien. While there was no absolute authority that made centralized decisions with regard to education, certain institutions sought to establish themselves as pedagogical prime movers in Lyon. Both the cathedral chapter of Saint-Jean and the municipal council wished to serve as that centralizing authority: directly appointing schoolteachers and giving licences to teach others. The cathedral and the council intersected in manifold ways during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but they came into conflict over the question of the control of elementary and grammar schools in the city. This issue of jurisdiction had its origins in the complex history of Lyon itself as it developed into a resurgent mercantile centre from a semi-independent arch- bishopric in the ‘inter-zone’ between Capetian France and the Holy Roman Empire. The administration and organization of the schools of Lyon, as well as an examination of pedagogical authorities in other parts of France, will be discussed in Chapter One. Questions of authority were also played out within schools in late medieval Lyon. Certain schools in the city developed clearly defined hierarchies of teachers, and even of non-teaching personnel. 10 ELEMENTARY AND GRAMMAR EDUCATION IN LATE MEDIEVAL FRANCE Teaching could be broken into subject-specific positions, and larger schools had roles that did not include classroom instruction but rather consisted of management activities such as financial supervision and procurement, staff supervision and coordination, and disciplinary duties. These hierarchies allowed for the creation of internal career tracks for pupils who wished to become teachers and teachers who wished to become supervisors. These methods of administration will be discussed in Chapters One and Two. Much of this book is also concerned with considering the many ways with which people came into contact with elementary and grammar education in late medieval Lyon and how involvement with schools affected their lives and their positions within the community. Though constrained by the impersonal nature of the archival sources, there is much that can be learned, especially regarding the socio-economic backgrounds and standing of many schoolteachers and officials active in Lyon. This will include an analysis of the education that future schoolteachers may have received, some details of which can be extrapolated from archival documents. The careers of pupils will be examined also, though not to the same extent as their teachers. Pupils are rarely discussed as individuals, and information about what they did after their education is sparse.1 It is only usually possible to construct the backgrounds of pupils based on the socio- economic background of their families, who were interested in having their children instructed, and willing to pay for the privilege and to forgo potential income brought in by their offspring. However, there is some detail in the sources on how the children were viewed by the authorities that controlled their school and how they were treated. For example, apart from competing for control over schools and teachers in Lyon, the cathedral chapter of Saint-Jean and the municipal council often assumed the part of a concerned ‘parent’. The municipal council was, after all, a body full of prominent laymen who wished to provide an education to their sons that was not necessarily available in the church schools of the city, and who were willing to use their power as councillors in order to make it so. The cathedral chapter was particularly active in acting in loco parentis in regard to the young boys who attended its choir school, leaving behind a vivid record of its actions in the minutes of its meetings. The subject of teachers, 1 The chapter proceedings of Saint-Jean do list the names of individual boys who were added to the choir and, by extension, to the choir school. However, they rarely name the boys who then left the cathedral in order to attend external schools when their voices broke. This inconsistency is all the more unusual given that the departing boys were regularly paid a relatively large sum of money. See Chapter Three, p. 145, and my article: Lynch, ‘Pupils and Sources in Late Medieval Lyon’. I NTRODUCTION 11 parents, and pupils in late medieval Lyon will be principally discussed in Chapters Two and Three. * * * A brief note must be made at this point on the usage of the terms ‘elementary and grammar education’ and ‘elementary and grammar schools’ in this book. In simple terms, elementary education in the Middle Ages consisted

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