A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

In 1000 there were still only a tiny number of towns, perhaps a hundred in all in
western Europe; by 1300 there were some 5,000. In his study of the rise of the
northern Italian cities between 1000 and 1300, Philip Jones has shown how they
gained self-confidence and a strong sense of their own identity, often drawing on
their ancient Roman foundations. They evolved sophisticated systems of
government, under which different social classes and economic groups
collaborated in maintaining stability, even allowing a place for il popolo, the
citizenry as a whole. Popular education was revived, and some 70 per cent of
Florentine children (girls as well as boys) may have received a primary
education in the fourteenth century from private schools. The first universities
emerged because the major cities, Bologna, Padua, Siena, Modena, needed welltrained
professionals, in law, rhetoric and medicine. The university itself, along
with the town hall, market and public square, became a symbol of independence
and status. 22
With the revival of learning across a range of subjects - the medieval
curriculum included a compulsory foundation in grammar, logic, rhetoric, music,
mathematics and astronomy, from which students would progress to law,
medicine, or theology - there was inevitably a renewed interest in rational
thought. The political and economic needs of the period encouraged openmindedness,
planning and calculation. Faced with a disparate set of surviving
texts, some ancient and some modern, students themselves were forced to be
critical of contradictions. Thus debate and the mastery of logic became an
important feature of education. The Church acquiesced in these developments. It
needed administrators as much as the cities did, particularly in the papal curia,
which had to communicate in sophisticated Latin with bishops and rulers
throughout Europe. Yet there was also the potential for conflict. For the first time
in 800 years, since Theodosius’ decree of 381, the Church was exposed to the
possibility of a clash between faith and reason. The logic taught in the medieval
schools was formal and structured, but if it was applied to the teachings of the
Church, it might well expose the philosophical weakness of their foundations.