The investiture controversy ended during the 12th century and this was then followed by a period of cultural development and thus "renaissance". Most of the learning comes through the universities.
Henry the 5th and Calixtus the Pope finally struck an agreement between the Emperor and Pope, (the concordant). The Gregorian Reforms regarding investiture should be upheld, no emperor or king should have the power to appoint someone to an ecclesiastical office.
The concordant of burns must be considered in such an analysis of whether Gregory was successful or not. We cannot simply make a judgement about Gregory the Seventh on the basis of his own lifetime after all he died alone, in exile, a prisoner, and his succesors remained at loggerheads with Henry until the treats in 1222(?) we must consider the totality of his reforms. The loophole. It certainly affected the grass roots of Christianity.
What we have to appreciate is that Western European politics changed considerably when the investiture controversy happened. The empire started to lose power and the reformers were able to drive a wedge between the emperor's bishops.
As part of this controversy we see a new found independence which is important for understanding the change in the monastic scene. In the beginning of the 12th century monasteries everywhere were practising traditional rights.
This whole process of inculcating a greater personal investment in one's religion was also assisted by some charismatic preachers who attracted some of the lay people back.
The authority of the Church only grew because of the success of the crusades of the 12th century. The initial impetus of these soldiers serving Christendom was successful. By 1222 the Church had regained an upper hand in relation with lay rulers and had regained it's independence. And it is through this understanding that we can hope to understand the "high middle ages" or "12th century and beyond" so we can begin to study the high middle ages and the renaissance of the 12th century with an appreciation of the political background and context.
After all if you have a lot more people participating in religious life, more people in monasteries, more people studying then Churches need to be bigger. More texts. etc.
To understand what the renaissance of the 12 century was we must look at the intellectual changes in monasteries and the emergence of universities.
If there was any lesson tot be learnt from monasteries from the investiture controversy it's that Christian teachings and monastic life need to be clearly expressed and understood. You need books to do with secular law, on canon law, books about the liturgy and devotion, statues of each order, you need manuals that explain Christian doctrine to lay people, and of course you need lots of bibles to distribute. These are the type of books that were in demand in monasteries at the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th century. So you begin to have lots of monasteries becoming more and more interested in these texts, borrowing, buying or copying them. So think about what this means, you have a growing demand for classical books, (such as the justinian code - this text amongst many other texts became highly important) so these texts were not unknown, they were indeed highly read in monasteries. In particular we know that under charglemagne the Frankish monks understood the importance of classical learning. And it's important to note this as it suggests the continuity of classical learning. Perhaps the increase in the learning of classical works was just an expansion and continuation of a culture of learning.
In any case what we still have to appreciate is that after the investiture controversy there was a demand for these texts, showing the demand for knowledge. Particularly books regarding legal proceedings, the statutes of new orders, of canon law, were in high demand. So through the possession of these books (or a specialisation of books) monasteries became research centers. Scholars flocked to these places of knowledge and thus students came as well and they became schools.
The abby of saint denis was particularly prevalent in the 12 century (run by abbot Suger). The problem with monasteries and their teachers is that they are usually located in rural areas (obvious exceptions to that) so there was a problem of accessibility and convenience. And so cathedrals started taking students in and these cathedrals themselves became schools. And they started to attract lay men who wanted to learn latin, medicine, civil and ecclesiastical law. These laws were especially important in defending their land from the dukes.
What allowed these schools to flourish? How did these school gain and maintain reputations?
First of all; you have a network of monasteries and cathedrals across Western Europe, many more then ever before, this means that word of mouth travels quickly and travels well.
Second of all, the fame of a monastery travels well and thus attracts more students, with more knowledge. Books become a valuable commodity. The flipside of this greater availability of books and the market of books meant that teaching that might be considered heretical could spread quickly as well.
The fourth reason links back to the new found life and particularity of the Church after the Gregorian reforms. Why would anybody want to study Canon law?
The education of clergy was the purpose behind ecclesiastical and monastic school in the first place. For Charlemagne, theology was the queen of the sciences.
You can imagine that monasteries and cathedrals would soon find it hard to cope with the growing student demands. Student numbers grew rapidly during the 12th century. In effect than students and scholars outgrew the schools moved as a whole, and gained a new social class, universitas. The word suggests something universal, a collegiate of parts making one.
Tridium and quadrivium - classical model of the liberal arts. These were the intellectual skills which liberate man from barbaric existence. Varro - wrote a lengthy dissertation on the benefits of a liberal arts study.
Dialectic - arriving at a truth through logical arguments which may even seem contradictory at time.
Philosophy was seen as the ultimate outcome of the trivium and quadrivium and after that one would seek to further study in either medicine, law or theology. Theology was seen as the most prestigious pursuit.
Capella's story of phiology and mercury to explain liberal arts.
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