Three Missions of the Medieval University Centered on Social Reproduction and Transformation

Abstract

This article analyses three missions of the university in medieval Europe in which social reproduction and repression go hand in hand with social transformation and contestation. The first universities had to confront a diverse range of threats, fears and restrictions. In a context of insecurity and frequent physical, economic, legal and religious abuses, scholastic guilds mobilized and pressured the authorities (the pope, the Holy Roman Emperor and the monarchs) to obtain securities, relative autonomy and privileges (or rights). The condition sine qua non for the existence and development of universities was that they fulfil the mission of providing these benefits to any who sought to dedicate themselves to study. The guilds succeeded in obtaining these concessions from the authorities who, in return, attempted to control the universities and pressure them to take part in the fight against heresy and dissidence. This was realized through the missions of universities to identify and condemn heresies and exclude movements that challenged the established order. These institutional missions were contested by certain movements of students and teachers such as the Wycliffite and the Goliard movements, which anticipated the Protestant Reformation and Renaissance human-ism respectively.