School of Chartres

The School of Chartres was one of the most important intellectual centres north of the Alps for around 200 years from about the year 1000. Rudolf Steiner characterised the School of Chartres thus:

The Gothic Cathedral of Chartres in its present form.

„There was in the eleventh, but especially in the twelfth century, reaching over into the thirteenth century, an actually wonderful school, in which there were teachers who knew perfectly well how in the preceding centuries the pupils had been led to experience the spiritual. It was the school of Chartres, where above all a ray of the still living wisdom of Peter of Compostella, who worked in Spain, who cultivated a living mysterious Christianity in Spain, which still spoke of Christ's helper, nature, which still spoke of the fact that only when this nature has introduced man to the elements, to the world of the planets, to the world of the stars, only then will man become mature enough to get to know the seven helpers, as living goddesses: Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music. The pupils got to know them as divine-spiritual figures, alive. In this school of Chartres, for example, Bernhardus Sylvestris taught, who, as if in powerful descriptions, brought into being before his pupils that which was ancient wisdom. John of Chartres, who was also called John of Salisbury, developed views in which he came to terms with Aristotelianism. And with an inspiring force, what was taught in the school of Chartres was transplanted to the Cluniacensian Order. And there was one in particular, in the twelfth century, who actually surpassed all others: Alain of Lille or Alanus ab Insulis.“ (Lit.:GA 237, p. 94ff)

Pre-Christian Mysteries in Chartres

Chartres is distinguished by the intersection of important etheric currents of power, as is true to some degree for every place of worship, but here to a very special degree. In fact, even for the Druids, the later Chartres, situated in the middle of what was then Gaul, was a central place of worship, where the "virgo paritura" - the virgin who gives birth - was worshipped. In a grotto at the top of the hill of Chartres there is said to have been a statue of the Virgin with the child on her lap. Rudolf Steiner said of the Irish-Celtic places of worship that the Mystery of Golgotha was experienced there in spiritual vision. Here in Chartres, in particular, the birth of Christ was experienced and so the ground was already prepared for the reception of Christianity. In a certain sense, the people here were already Christians before Christianity came to them externally - and when it came externally, it was able to connect seamlessly with the tradition cultivated here. Thus the Druidic mystery schools passed directly into the Roman Christian schools, prepared by Julius Caesar's Gallic campaign, which brought the Roman element here.

The Christian churches in Chartres

Charles the Bald consecrated a church in Chartres in 876 and donated as a holy relic the tunic said to have been worn by the Virgin Mary when the Archangel Gabriel announced Jesus' birth. Chartres became the centre of Marian devotion in Europe and attracted large crowds of pilgrims here.

Around 1000, the great Fulbert worked in Chartres. When the Carolingian church was destroyed by fire in 1020, he began building a new Romanesque church in the same year. In 1134, another fire destroyed the narthex and a tower. In the night of 10-11 June 1194, the Romanesque church was almost completely destroyed by a city fire. Construction of the present Gothic cathedral began shortly after 1194 and was completed with the official consecration on 24 October 1260.

Beginning of the "golden age" under Fulbert of Chartres

The golden age of the cathedral school of Chartres began with the "academy" established by Fulbert of Chartres (* around 950; † 1028) in the Platonic sense. His pupils regarded him as the "venerable Socrates".

Fulbert also distinguished himself above all by his deeply fervent devotion to the Blessed Virgin. He explained her name as "maris stella", star of the sea: just as the polar star guides sailors safely through the stormy sea, so the spiritual star of Mary guides man on his path of development. In his famous Marian sermon, he also tells the legend of Theophilus, who has devoted himself to the devil and can only be saved by turning to the Virgin Mary in fervent repentance - the "eternal feminine" draws us in. The Faust motif is experienced here in a similar way to Goethe. So it is about the transformation of the astral body into the again virginal pure spirit self. Only in the virginally pure soul can the spiritual light be born.

Literature

• Frank Teichmann: Der Mensch und sein Tempel, Bd. 4: Chartres - Schule und Kathedrale, Urachhaus Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3878386889
• Rudolf Steiner: Esoterische Betrachtungen karmischer Zusammenhänge III, GA 237 (1991) English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Esoterische Betrachtungen karmischer Zusammenhänge VI, GA 240 (1986), English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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