ABSTRACT
The West inherited the Roman system of education through the Church and monasticism. The lower schools of the Romans gave instruction in reading, grammar, arithmetic and music. The higher schools taught rhetoric, declamation and literature, with some law and philosophy. Boethius and Cassiodorus would have continued the study of Latin literature and philosophy, Gregory tolerated neither subject and insisted that the schools should emphasize the study of the Bible and of theology. Beyond the rudiments of education the monastic schools henceforth taught only theology, music, scripture, the miracle-filled lives of saints and homiletic literature. The struggles of the Church with the cities, with the Empire and with heresies, produced an intense interest in Roman law and in theology and philosophy. Though undoubtedly we have too long minimized medieval interest in science, nevertheless we must think of the great interest of the middle Ages as theology and philosophy.
