Did the Church have a virtual monopoly on medieval education?
1st Answer:A virtual monopoly on learning was held by monks in monasteries.2nd Answer:In the first half of the Early Middle Ages, most schools in Western Europe were operated either by cathedrals or monasteries. There were exceptions, and we know of state run schools. Beverley Grammar School, in Yorkshire, was opened as a state run school in the year 700, as we know because remains open today. Both Charlemagne, who died in 814, and Alfred the Great, who died in 899, promoted secular education. Also, a number of people were educated privately by tutors. Nevertheless, monastery and cathedral schools tended to be the most important sources of education in Western Europe for a long time.Western European Universities started to open in 1088 with the University of Bologna. These were divided into three groups, those that were run by the church, those that were run by the state, and those that were run independently of both. The University of Paris was Church run, Oxford and Cambridge were operated with state support, and the University of Bologna was run by students and teachers.Shortly after the beginning of the 13th century, new types of schools called abacus schools began to operate in Western Europe, especially in Italy. These schools came into existence because of the introduction of Arabic numerals, which made mathematics much easier, but created a demand for education. The schools were privately run, and were aimed at teaching people who were in trade. They taught arithmetic, but they also taught geometry, and they taught reading and writing in the vernacular language. Some number of these schools taught both boys and girls, because women of the time were expected to be able to tend the family business in the absence of their husbands.In the Byzantine Empire, there was a system of primary education, which was opened in 425 AD, and continued to operate until 1453. The schools in the system were secular, coeducational, and operated at the village level. They was intended to make sure soldiers were literate, but seem to have been open to everyone. The University of Constantinople, which was also started 425, as a school for higher education, evolved into a university. Similar Byzantine Universities were in Antioch and Alexandria. They do not usually appear on lists of medieval universities, possibly because they did not have precisely the same form as Western universities, or possibly because they did not have the same sort of charters.Please see the links below for more.