A History of Franciscan Education (c. 1210-1517) by Bert RoestReview by: Paul F. GrendlerThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Winter, 2001), pp. 1125-1126Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3649003 .

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Book Reviews 1125 Book Reviews 1125

Anglo-Saxons may have had very different notions of justice than the Vikings that came to settle in East Anglia, but King Alfred was able to find enough common ground that he could extend wergild values from his own kingdom into the Vikings' land, thereby estab-

lishing a procedure for handling feuds that spilled over the border. The suggestion that Alfred may have been treating the Vikings as a more homogenous entity than they actu-

ally were is particularly noteworthy; the existence of chaos on the other side of the border

may enhance security by limiting the size of an invading army, but it is virtually impos- sible to negotiate with so many independent groups. A firm peace rests to a large extent on the existence of authorities capable of controlling the actions of their subjects-in other words, peace and freedom are only partly compatible.

One of the key themes of this book is how conflicting parties actively create com- mon values in order to provide a basis for a negotiated peace. This is perhaps most obvi- ous in John Edward Damon's article on the attempt of Ethelred the Unready and his advisors to deal with Viking invaders. It proved impossible to impose a settlement by force, but the solution of buying them off with Danegeld was considered unreliable be- cause the heathens would not keep the faith. The only long-term answer, in their view, was to convert the Vikings to Christianity. Another way of creating common values was to link opposing parties in the same family, a method explored by Sheila ffolliott in her

essay on marriage alliances in Renaissance France. Georgians from K'art'li attempted to establish their common ancestry with the neighboring Armenians in a similar fashion.

Diane Wolfthal has done a service in drawing attention to the study of peacemaking as a field in medieval and Renaissance history. She should also be credited with recogniz- ing in her introduction that peace is not an absolute good, but one that must be balanced

against justice. Although the essays are diffuse and mostly beyond the professional inter- ests of readers of this journal, the last four-on Protestant "subversions" of Henry VIII's last campaigns, peace in Ronsard's poetry, French marriage alliances, and Christian-Jew- ish relations in Prague-are all set in the sixteenth century and are all among the better ones in the book. Derek Croxton ......................... Dearborn Heights, Michigan

A History of Franciscan Education (c. 1210-1517). Bert Roest. Education and Soci-

ety in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 11. Leiden: Brill, 2000. x + 405 pp. $109.00. ISBN 9004117393.

Although St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) believed that learning threatened evan-

gelical simplicitas, the order that he founded began to establish houses of study for their members in the 1220s. By 1316 the Franciscans had erected an educational pyramid as

large as that of the Dominicans, and it did not change greatly in the next two centuries. This book describes the schools (studia) of the Franciscan Order.

The very long first chapter explains the hierarchy of Franciscan schools. Although the author believes that the Franciscans did not copy the Dominican example, the Fran- ciscan hierarchy of schools was very similar to that of the Dominicans. By 1279 all well- established convents had some form of instruction, if only an occasional lecturer, and

many had schools, especially for young novices. Local convent lectures reached almost all friars and probably had the greatest impact on the order as a whole. The Franciscans es- tablished schools beyond the individual convent mostly in order to train convent lectors. Custodial schools (never clearly defined, but apparently schools embracing several con- vents in a locality) taught Latin, logic, and sometimes philosophy. Provincial schools

Anglo-Saxons may have had very different notions of justice than the Vikings that came to settle in East Anglia, but King Alfred was able to find enough common ground that he could extend wergild values from his own kingdom into the Vikings' land, thereby estab-

lishing a procedure for handling feuds that spilled over the border. The suggestion that Alfred may have been treating the Vikings as a more homogenous entity than they actu-

ally were is particularly noteworthy; the existence of chaos on the other side of the border

may enhance security by limiting the size of an invading army, but it is virtually impos- sible to negotiate with so many independent groups. A firm peace rests to a large extent on the existence of authorities capable of controlling the actions of their subjects-in other words, peace and freedom are only partly compatible.

One of the key themes of this book is how conflicting parties actively create com- mon values in order to provide a basis for a negotiated peace. This is perhaps most obvi- ous in John Edward Damon's article on the attempt of Ethelred the Unready and his advisors to deal with Viking invaders. It proved impossible to impose a settlement by force, but the solution of buying them off with Danegeld was considered unreliable be- cause the heathens would not keep the faith. The only long-term answer, in their view, was to convert the Vikings to Christianity. Another way of creating common values was to link opposing parties in the same family, a method explored by Sheila ffolliott in her

essay on marriage alliances in Renaissance France. Georgians from K'art'li attempted to establish their common ancestry with the neighboring Armenians in a similar fashion.

Diane Wolfthal has done a service in drawing attention to the study of peacemaking as a field in medieval and Renaissance history. She should also be credited with recogniz- ing in her introduction that peace is not an absolute good, but one that must be balanced

against justice. Although the essays are diffuse and mostly beyond the professional inter- ests of readers of this journal, the last four-on Protestant "subversions" of Henry VIII's last campaigns, peace in Ronsard's poetry, French marriage alliances, and Christian-Jew- ish relations in Prague-are all set in the sixteenth century and are all among the better ones in the book. Derek Croxton ......................... Dearborn Heights, Michigan

A History of Franciscan Education (c. 1210-1517). Bert Roest. Education and Soci-

ety in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 11. Leiden: Brill, 2000. x + 405 pp. $109.00. ISBN 9004117393.

Although St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) believed that learning threatened evan-

gelical simplicitas, the order that he founded began to establish houses of study for their members in the 1220s. By 1316 the Franciscans had erected an educational pyramid as

large as that of the Dominicans, and it did not change greatly in the next two centuries. This book describes the schools (studia) of the Franciscan Order.

The very long first chapter explains the hierarchy of Franciscan schools. Although the author believes that the Franciscans did not copy the Dominican example, the Fran- ciscan hierarchy of schools was very similar to that of the Dominicans. By 1279 all well- established convents had some form of instruction, if only an occasional lecturer, and

many had schools, especially for young novices. Local convent lectures reached almost all friars and probably had the greatest impact on the order as a whole. The Franciscans es- tablished schools beyond the individual convent mostly in order to train convent lectors. Custodial schools (never clearly defined, but apparently schools embracing several con- vents in a locality) taught Latin, logic, and sometimes philosophy. Provincial schools

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.52 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:51:41 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1126 Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXXII/4 (2001)

(schools open to friars from throughout the province if the local convent decided to send

them) taught theology. At the top of the educational pyramid were studia generalia (general schools), one for

each province of the order, with that at Paris particularly large and important. Only a small

minority of friars, most of them intended to become convent lectors, studied theology at studia generalia. An even smaller number of Franciscans obtained licentiate and doctoral de-

grees of theology conferred by faculties of theology in university towns. Roest estimates that the order produced 3,500 doctors of theology between the early thirteenth century and 1517, not a high number for such a large order. Roest clearly establishes the fact that the Franciscans, including the Observants, spent a good deal of effort and care educating their own members. Of course, the emphasis on learning came at a price; the privileges granted to students and teachers destroyed equality among the friars.

In subsequent chapters the author discusses the curriculum, which was about the same as that for theological studies used in Dominican houses and also in northern Euro-

pean universities. He emphasizes the importance of biblical studies, which is welcome, and cautions against such blanket terms as Thomist, Scotist, and Ockhamist, because the terms obscure real differences between individual thinkers. There is good material based on manuscript evidence on the books found in Franciscan convents. The author merits

praise for bringing together much information from wide reading, especially printed col- lections of Franciscan constitutions and chapter decisions.

However, many problems limit the usefulness of the book. Above all, it lacks clarity, es-

pecially in the first chapter on the organization of Franciscan schools. The author might have provided a basic outline and then listed the exceptions; instead, the reader finds a confused

description with contradictory statements. At times the book seems written for other spe- cialists in medieval Franciscan school history. Hence, the author introduces terms such as "lectorate" without definitions or only provides confusing definitions many pages later. The author never explains clearly the relationship between Franciscan houses of study and facul- ties of theology in university towns. This is, of course, a very complex matter. Still, Simona

Negruzzo's Theologiam discere et docere. Lafacolta teologica di Pavia nel XVI secolo (Bologna and Milan: Cisalpino, 1995), not cited by the author, offers a clear analysis of the relationship be- tween the mendicant orders and the faculty of theology at the University of Pavia before and after 1500 and could have served as a model. The book laudably attempts to cover all of Eu-

rope and does reasonably well for the Franciscans at the universities of Paris, Oxford, and

Cambridge, but less well for southern Europe. For example, the author seems not to realize that some so-called Italian universities were simply degree mills with no teaching (e.g., Fer- rara before 1442 and Parma before 1601).

The book is chronologically imprecise. After the discussion of the origins of Fran- ciscan schools, the account often jumps from century to century for examples. Because the author seems allergic to dates, he often uses "late medieval" and "early modern" with- out telling the reader which centuries are meant. The author avoids at all costs using "Re- naissance" for the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He mentions numerous important and little-known Franciscans without providing life dates and lists some texts without date of composition or publication. The bibliography is extensive but occasionally marred by missing pagination for articles in journals and in collective volumes. Some journal vol- ume numbers are missing. Despite the author's extensive reading, this is a frustrating book to use. Paul F. Grendler ................................ Chapel Hill, N.C.

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