Suchergebnisse

This paper is to present the beginnings and the subsequent development and evolution of church law in the sphere of education from the 4th to the beginning of the 16th century. The roots of the acts of law presented by the Popes, synods and councils were based on the traditions of Roman law, but a variety of reasons from the field of policy, economy and society led to the need to establish a church school system. The aim of the Church was to create an independent school system with its own purposes, different from secular schools.

The aim of the paper is an analysis of a broadly understood legislation of general councils which took place in an important period for the development of the then educational system and culture – at the height of the Middle Ages (12th–13th c.). While analysing the written records of synodal and council acts, several interesting aspects can be considered: the regulations related to the education of clergy (the diocesan ones, as the same issues concerning monastic orders were regulated by the inner legislation of general chapters), the organization of schools and teaching programmes, the records telling about the moralizing influence on the community of the faithful, and finally, the attitude of the Church toward the question of general access to education, including the functioning of universities. The presented study demonstrates a significant role of ecclesiastical school legislation for the development of the educational system in mediaeval Poland. Also, it can be noticed that all changes in this matter were the result of legislative activity of the Church but also responded to the educational needs of the contemporary society. The latter, in turn, stemmed from a general civilizational development of Latin Europe, the part of which were the lands being under the rule of the Piast dynasty.

The official reception of the conciliar legislation in medieval Poland was greatly influenced by the papal legates, ambassadors endowed with papal authority, who brought conciliar canons to the country ruled at the time by the Piasts and made them public at councils convened with the participation of papal legates, closely monitored the observance of Canon Law and its scope expansion, concurred statutes of Polish provincial and diocesan councils, approved or rejected nominations of bishops, etc. They also acted as intermediaries in personal interventions of popes in their involvement in the functioning of the Church in Poland. Their duties also included inspections in dioceses. Visits of papal legates in Poland were relatively frequent and their main goal was to enforce and implement ecclesiastical reforms in the country. In some instances, a strict relationship between a stay of a papal representative in Poland and the process of the creation and spread of schools is clearly observable. The article examines source accounts concerning the visits of papal legates in Poland, as well as analyses the available statues of legate councils in terms of the provisions included in them regarding education of representatives of the clergy and laymen alike.

The purpose of this paper is to present the role of Charlemagne (768−814), King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans (from 800) in the process of recovering the school organisation that was considerably weakened in the period from the 5th to the 7th century as well as the participation of the ruler in the reforms of education, science and the school system, referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance. In his reforms of the legal system, the monetary system, administration and education, Charles consistently implemented the political program announced in the Act of 789. The emperor's actions reveal a clearly utilitarian goal. The command of Latin and the introduction of readable writing enabled the clergy to better understand the words of the Holy Scripture and, in turn, increased the general level of religious education among believers. The numerous scriptoria across the empire contributed to the ongoing work on defining the uniform text of all the books. The rebirth of Latin was driven by the works of the late Roman grammarians, Donatus and Priscian, and many works by ancient authors were also copied in scriptoria.