Lecturers

In the twelfth century the decision to become a Benedictine or a Cistercian normally meant turning one's back on an academic life. Although that did not mean giving up scholarship, it largely determined the kind of work which would be appropriate; there was a concentration upon lectio divina, quiet, reflective reading of Scripture, rather than logical analysis of its contents. Some attempts were made to marry the two at the house of canons of St Victor at Paris, but the school's primary purpose was still to train the spiritual not the academic man. Early in the thirteenth century two new religious orders came into being, whose conception owed something to the canons' example of living under a rule but at the same time working in the world. Their members needed an education which would fit them to preach in the challenging circumstances of the day: against popular heretics and to articulate town-dwellers. They had to be trained thoroughly in academic theology so that there would be no danger of their leading the faithful astray through ignorance.

From the beginning the Franciscans and Dominicans involved themselves in the work of the new universities, matching the secular masters with such success that they were soon taking the foremost posts in academic life. The two orders were founded for distinct purposes, but by the end of the thirteenth century their scholars had been brought largely into line in their academic endeavours by rivalry. Some differences remained in their respective broad positions on, for example, the use to which the new Aristotelian learning should be put.