Illustration of Westminster Abbey

Illustration of Westminster Abbey

Before beginning the discussion of education in Early Modern Europe, Medieval education should be examined. There was institutionalized education before the development of universities, but it took a very different form. In medieval Europe, the power and onus of education lay entirely in the hands of the church. The vast majority of the people who were literate in the early Middle Ages were members of the clergy, who were trained in basic Latin. Literacy and the breadth of education began to improve towards the end of the era, but it was still entirely under the wing of the Church. Monasteries like Westminster Abbey became centers of cultural and educational life. Noble families would send their children to monasteries for the purpose of obtaining an education (Wiesner-Hanks 35). Westminster Abbey itself has since become much more than a simple monastery, but it was founded c. 960 C.E. by Benedictine monks (“History of Westminster Abbey”). The monastery was expanded several times in the following centuries by English kings. By the 16th century, parishes began to take over as the main arm of education for religious institutions, establishing schools for local children and spreading basic literacy to a wider population (Wiesner-Hanks 130). Many monasteries found themselves converted into universities, offering a more rigorous mode of education for those who wished to pursue it.

Thomas Malton Jr.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Westminster_AbbeyMalton1793.jpg

1739

Benjamin Wightman