# Scholastics the medieval schoolmen (writers that dealt with the methods of scholasticism). Scholasticism is the system of theological and philosophical teaching predominant in the Middle Ages, based chiefly upon the authority of the church fathers and of Aristotle and his commentators. Hampered by the church's insistence that their results be reconcilable with Christian doctrine, the schoolmen were often reduced to hairsplitting quibbles over methodology and terminology.