Five reforms in the transition of the university from the late Middle Ages to the early modern era, 1502--1825: A historical study

Purpose, scope, and method of study. The purpose of the study was to derive a descriptive examination of historical reforms of the university. Specifically, in terms of the transition of the university from the University of Wittenberg in the late Middle Ages to the founding of the University of Virginia in the early modern era. The scope of the study included the reform of the University of Wittenberg, and the Anglican reforms of Oxford and Cambridge universities. The study also included an investigation into the colonial origins of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and the post-American Revolution founding of the University of Virginia. The method of study consisted of a comprehensive review of literature and historical documents, evaluation of materials, and data synthesis, which resulted in a determination of the causes and outcomes of five reforms of the university in the transition of the European, medieval university from the late Middle Ages to the founding of the American university of the early Modern Era.; Findings and conclusions. As a result of the reform of scholasticism and scholastic tradition of the late Middle Ages, the 16th century university was separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the German principalities and Protestant Reformation nations of central and western Europe. With the spread of the Protestant Reformation new learning became the primary resource and an instrument of university reform. The Anglican Reformation of England was a continuation of the reform of scholasticism and the university by both the Church and the State in conjunction with the Protestant Reformation. The College of William and Mary in Virginia was a colonial outreach of the Anglican Church with its curriculum and university practices patterned after Oxford and Cambridge universities. Beginning with the reform of the University of Wittenberg, and culminating with the post-American Revolution founding of the University of Virginia, the medieval university of the late Middle Ages was reformed to serve the educational purposes of the newly emergent Protestant nation-state of the early Modern Era. The reforms of the University of Wittenberg, 1502-1560, Oxford and Cambridge universities, 1529-1559, the College of William and Mary, 1693-1780, and the founding of the University of Virginia, 1820-1825, were reflections of the changes in the religious, political, social and economic ideologies of each period in the transition of the university from late Middle Ages to the early Modern Era.