These three were
at Laon, Paris, and Chartres. It would be more accurate to say,
they were the schools of Anselm and Ralph, of William of
Champeaux, and of Bernard Sylvester. For in those days the school
followed the teacher, not the teacher the school. Wherever a
master lived, there he taught; and thither, in proportion to his
renown, students assembled from whatever quarter.... The tie was
a personal one, and was generally severed by the master's death.
A succession of great teachers in one place was a rare exception;
nor is such an exception afforded by the history of any of the
three schools to which we have referred.[2]
In these days, when education requires a more and more elaborate
equipment of buildings, libraries, laboratories, and museums, it is no
longer possible for teachers, however distinguished, to attract throngs
of students to places absolutely unprovided with the resources for
teaching, or to provide these resources anywhere on the spur of the
moment In the twelfth century, on the contrary, the only necessary
equipment consisted in the master, his small library which could be
carried by one man; wax tablets, or pens, ink, and vellum or parchment
for the students; and any kind of a shelter which would serve as a
protection from the weather. Not even benches or chairs were necessary,
for students commonly sat upon the straw-strewn floors of the lecture
rooms.
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