ducation.
             The approach towards education in the Middle Ages was more authoritarian than in the Renaissance. According to the Rules of the Dominican Order, every student was to "have a special brother monk" as a mentor (Raymond of Penafort Extracts: 3). They were not to "write essays or hear lectures without his permission"(Raymond of Penafort Extracts: 3). Rules and practice set by the popes, councils, and bishops were to be obeyed strictly in the monasteries as learning was considered glorifying to God and of high value (Nicholas 1998: 320, Powicke 1935: 88). This illustrates the importance of learning for "those who are studying are not kept from study by other duties" (Raymond of Penafort Extracts: 5). It is also considered luxurious and privileged for "those who are studying may have their own rooms" (Raymond of Penafort Extracts: 6).
             The contrasting approach towards Renaissance education was liberal learning and its practicality. Renaissance education "was regulated not by laws, statues, or rules, but according to their free will and pleasure"(Rabelais Extracts: 1). In regards to Medieval scholasticism, Rabelias' criticism of medieval philosophy had shown the disagreement of Renaissance ideas for its "overriding concern with obscure, confused, and irrelevant questions" and its "narrow-minded clergy who deprived people of life's joy"(Rabelais Extracts). Likewise, Petrarch also felt that medieval scholastic learning was too narrowly intellectual and focused mainly on the sophistical analysis of concepts and study of abstruse scientific questions (Nauert, 1995:24). Therefore, it is evident that the Renaissance education is more liberal than monasticism, and tentatively more practical than those of medieval scholastic learning.
             According to Medieval writers, to be wise, men must harmoniously follow the nature of things and their law of being, which u...