Church & education in Middle Ages

[Sabo]

I was asked to recommend books on the roll of Catholic Church in Europe during Middle Ages in Europe. The person asking is in his last year in high school and he's a rather well informed kid. He wants to highlight the positive impact that Catholic Church might have had on the knowledge in administration, diplomacy, state affairs and so on until ca 1500.

Does anyone have any ideas on suitable literature? I've checked Catholic Encyclopedia, article School, and there are a lot of references on lit on the subject but not really the kind he needs.

[Logos]

In my opinion the Catholic Encyclopedia would be a great source as far as online ones goes. Wikipedia can be a good starting point of reference for other sources. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Middle_Ages_literature there is mention of a number of possible religious scholars from this period which will bring up some specific texts, those being theological in nature which was the predominant genre of the time, there is a good list of specific authors and works at the bottom of the page.

Some authors/books that come to mind:
Francis of Assisi; the anonymous novel Beowulf; Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae at http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/a#a7489; Pierre Abelard, http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/a#a5441; Margery Kempe; Boetheuis; Dante Alighieri; etc.

[Thorwench]

Aquinas "De Ente et Essentia", William of Ockham (huge impact on science generally, Ockham's razor is still famous), Anselm of Canterbury. You may also find something useful on persecution of witches when looking at the Vatican sites. Although it was a German monk who wrote the "Hexenhammer" the Catholic Church has done much to try to prevent burnings of witches etc. since they regarded it as superstition, i.e. not an expression of faith to hunt them down. In Runciman's "History of the Crusades" is some useful information on bishops, like the bishop of Mainz if I remember correctly, who tried to protect the Jewish population against progroms, i.e. certainly a religio-political issue at the time.

[Sabo]

Thanks for your help. Wiki-article on the Church was helpful; Heilbron, Crombie, Grant, and Ted Davis put him on the right track.

Thanks!