Education in the Middle Ages was directly linked to the church. Medieval scholars designed their own brand of philosophy, interpreting the teachings of Aristotle to agree with their religious beliefs. Their combination of philosophy and theology is known as scholasticism. These scholars, known as Schoolmen, were careful that their reasoning did not contradict the reasoning of the church. Providing rational proof that God exists proved to be quite difficult, considering the lack of educational resources in the early Middle Ages.
             Education in the Middle Ages had taken a giant step back from the Greek and Roman eras. In the middle ages very few laymen knew how to read or write. In fact even the nobles were uneducated. Priests practically had a monopoly on knowledge. Since the only schools were created to educate priests, the church controlled the curriculum. This made the church the ultimate authority on knowledge of any sort, and had the power to edit classic Greek and Roman writings to fit their needs.
             The purpose of Scholasticism was to provide explanations for the faith demanded by religion. If the church could demonstrate educated reasoning to back up their teachings they would draw more followers. The scholars used many sources of information to make their arguments. The main source was the Bible and writings of the church fathers. Other sources included ancient authors, the most common being Aristotle. On many occasions secular sources did not agree with the church. The church could not teach such contradictions. The churchmen would have several options, the first option being the omission of a contradictory statement, the second option being to change the secular authors words to agree with the church.
             Medieval Christian thinkers were faced with the difficult task of assigning reason to support their faith. They started by asserting that the wisdom of ancient philosophers was from divine inspiration, coming directly fro...