eaux, and of Bernard Sylvester. For in those days the school
followed the teacher, not the teacher the school. Wherever a
master lived, there he taught; and thither, in proportion to his
renown, students assembled from whatever quarter.... The tie was
a personal one, and was generally severed by the master's death.
A succession of great teachers in one place was a rare exception;
nor is such an exception afforded by the history of any of the
three schools to which we have referred.[2]

In these days, when education requires a more and more elaborate
equipment of buildings, libraries, laboratories, and museums, it is no
longer possible for teachers, however distinguished, to attract throngs
of students to places absolutely unprovided with the resources for
teaching, or to provide these resources anywhere on the spur of the
moment In the twelfth century, on the contrary, the only necessary
equipment consisted in the master, his small library which could be
carried by one man; wax tablets, or pens, ink, and vellum or parchment
for the students; and any kind of a shelter which would serve as a
protection from the weather. Not even benches or chairs were necessary,
for students commonly sat upon the straw-strewn floors of the lecture
rooms. Thus the school might easily follow the teacher in his
migrations, and easily sink into obscurity or disappear upon his death
or cessation from teaching. The autobiography of Abelard (see page 14),
recounts an experience unusual in itself, but perfectly illustrative of
the point. After relating various misfortunes and persecutions he
continues:

So I betook myself to a certain wilderness previously known to
me, and there on land given to me by certain ones, with the
consent of the Bishop of the region, I constructed out of reeds
and straw a sort of oratory in the name of the Holy Trinity
where, in company with one of our clergy, I might truly chant to
the Lord: "Lo I have wandered far off, and have remained in the
wilderness."

As soon as Scholars learned this they began to gather from every
side, leaving cities and castles to dwell in the wilderness, and
in place of their spacious homes to build small tabernacles for
themselves, and in place of delicate food to live on herbs of the
fields and coarse bread, and in place of soft couches to make up
[beds of] straw and grass, and in place o