Seven kinds of arts in medieval missionary schools and seven kinds of arts in ancient Greece

These seven arts are grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. "Seven Arts" is a relic of ancient Roman schools, but the "Seven Arts" courses in the Middle Ages are all covered with a strong religious coat.

The so-called Seven Arts in ancient Greece include trivium and quadrivium. The former refers to grammar, rhetoric and logic, while the latter includes arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. The two are combined together, referred to as "seven liberal arts". This is a compulsory course in medieval missionary schools.

In the 5th century A.D., with the demise of the Western Roman Empire, the splendid classical culture of Greece and Rome declined rapidly, the cities in Roman times almost completely declined, and various cultural and educational institutions in ancient times almost disappeared. Roman Christian Church became the undertaker and disseminator of ancient culture. Due to the efforts of the church, some monastic schools, archdiocesan schools and parish schools have appeared one after another. Among them, the educational activities organized by Benedictine monastery founded by Italian monk Benedict have the greatest influence. There are two kinds of students in monastery schools. One is a child who is about to become a monk, called Oblati, which means voluntary devotee. The other one is not going to become a monk after graduation, called Externi, which means an outsider. The former is also called internal learning, and the latter is also called external learning. In addition to monastery schools, there are archdiocesan schools and parish schools. The archbishop's school is located in the bishop's seat. The nature and level of the school is equivalent to that of a monastery school. The school is well equipped and the subject content is relatively complete. The parish school is located in the village where the clergy are located. The school is small in scale and poorly equipped. It only teaches the basic knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic and Christianity. Although it is organized by the church, it is also open to ordinary secular people. The first thing the church needs is to educate the priests and monks on the basic knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic and doctrine, which requires the use of some achievements of classical culture, thus gradually forming a learning course called "Seven Arts" (literary education).