elf, as the spider
worketh its web, then it is endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of
learning, admirable for the fineness of thread and work, but of no
substance or profit."[1]

Scholasticism, as the first phase of the revival of learning, though
overshadowed by tradition and mediaeval dogmatism, showed great
earnestness of purpose in ascertaining the truth by working "the wit
and mind of man"; but it worked not "according to the stuff," and,
having little to feed upon, it produced only speculations of truth and
indications of future possibilities. There were many bright men among
the scholastic {356} philosophers, especially in the thirteenth
century, who left their impress upon the age; yet scholasticism itself
was affected by dogmatism and short-sightedness, and failed to utilize
the means at its hand for the improvement of learning. It exercised a
tyranny over all mental endeavor, for the reason that it was obliged in
all of its efforts to carry through all of its reasoning the heavy
weight of dogmatic theology. Whatever else it attempted, it could not
shake itself free from this incubus of learning, through a great system
of organized knowledge, which hung upon the thoughts and lives of men
and attempted to explain all things in every conceivable way.

But to show that independent thinking was a crime one has only to refer
to the results of the knowledge of Roger Bacon, who advanced his own
methods of observation and criticism. Had the scholastics been able to
accept what he clearly pointed out to them, namely, that reason can
advance only by finding, through observation, new material upon which
to work, science might have been active a full century in advance of
what it was. He laid the foundation of experimental science, and
pointed out the only way in which the revival of learning could be made
permanent, but his voice was unheeded by those around him, and it
remained for the philosophers of succeeding generations to estimate his
real worth.

_Cathedral and Monastic Schools_.--There were two groups of schools
under the management of the church, known as the cathedral and monastic
schools. The first represented the schools that had developed in the
cathedrals for the sons of lay members of the church; the second, those
in the monasteries that were devoted largely to the education of the
ministry. To understand fully the position of these schools it is
necessary to go back a little and refer to the