also leads us to view their progressive adaptation to new conditions as
necessary and desirable. If such study teaches only these two lessons to
those who may hereafter shape the course of educational affairs it more
than justifies itself. For to eradicate that intolerance of variety in
educational practice so characteristic of the academic man of the past,
and to diminish in future generations his equally characteristic
opposition to changes involving adaptation to new conditions, is to
render one of the greatest possible services to educational progress.




II

THE RENAISSANCE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY


During the twelfth century a great educational revival manifested itself
in western Europe, following upon several centuries of intellectual
decline or relative inactivity. Though its beginnings may be traced into
the eleventh century, and though its culmination belongs to a much later
period, the movement is often called the Renaissance of the Twelfth
Century. In that century it first appears as a widely diffused and
rapidly growing movement, and it then takes on distinctly the
characteristics which mark its later development. The revival appears
first in Italy and France; from these regions it spreads during the next
three centuries into England, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and
Scotland.

Certain facts concerning this educational Renaissance should be clearly