  EVOLUTION OF THE STUDIUM GENERALE. In the preceding chapter we described briefly the new movement toward association which characterized the eleventh and the twelfth centuries—the municipal movement, the merchant guilds, the trade guilds, etc. These were doing for civil life what monasticism had earlier done for the religious life. They were collections of like-minded men, who united themselves into associations or guilds for mutual benefit, protection, advancement, and self-government within the limits of their city, business, trade, or occupation. This tendency toward association, in the days when state government was weak or in its infancy, was one of the marked features of the transition time from the early period of the Middle Ages, when the Church was virtually the State, to the later period of the Middle Ages, when the authority of the Church in secular matters was beginning to weaken, modern nations were beginning to form, and an interest in worldly affairs was beginning to replace the previous inordinate interest in the world to come. We also noted in the preceding chapters that certain cathedral and monastery schools, but especially the cathedral schools, [1] stimulated by the new interest in Dialectic, were developing into much more than local teaching institutions designed to afford a supply of priests of some little education for the parishes of the bishopric. Once York and later Canterbury, in England, had had teachers who attracted students from other bishoprics. Paris had for long been a famous center for the study of the Liberal Arts and of Theology. Saint Gall had become noted for its music. Theologians coming from Paris (1167-68) had given a new impetus to study among the monks at Oxford. A series of political events in northern Italy had given emphasis to the study of law in many cities, and the Moslems in Spain had stimulated the schools there and in southern France to a study of medicine and Aristotelian science. Rome was for long a noted center for study. Gradually these places came to be known as studia publica, or studia generalia, meaning by this a generally recognized place of study, where lectures were open to any one, to students of all countries and of all conditions. [2] Traveling students came to these places from afar to hear some noted teacher read and comment on the famous textbooks of the time. From the first both teachers and students had been considered as members of the clergy, and hence had enjoyed the privileges and immunities extended to that class, but, now that the students were becoming so numerous and were traveling so far, some additional grant of protection was felt to be desirable. Accordingly the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, [3] in 1158, issued a general proclamation of privileges and protection (R. 101). In this he ordered that teachers and students traveling "to the places in which the studies are carried on" should be protected from unjust arrest, should be permitted to "dwell in security," and in case of suit should be tried "before their professors or the bishop of the city." This document marks the beginning of a long series of rights and privileges granted to the teachers and students of the universities now in process of evolution in western Europe. THE UNIVERSITY EVOLUTION. The development of a university out of a cathedral or some other form of school represented, in the Middle Ages, a long local evolution. Universities were not founded then as they are to- day. A teacher of some reputation drew around him a constantly increasing body of students. Other teachers of ability, finding a student body already there, also "set up their chairs" and began to teach. Other teachers and more students came. In this way a studium was created. About these teachers in time collected other university servants— "bedells, librarians, lower officials, preparers of parchment, scribes, illuminators of parchment, and others who serve it," as Count Rupert enumerated them in the Charter of Foundation granted, in 1386, to Heidelberg (R. 103). At Salerno, as we have already seen (p. 199), medical instruction arose around the work of Constantine of Carthage and the medicinal springs found in the vicinity. Students journeyed there from many lands, and licenses to practice the medical art were granted there as early as 1137. At Bologna, we have also seen (p. 195), the work of Irnerius and Gratian early made this a great center for the study of civil and canon law, and their pupils spread the taste for these new subjects throughout Europe. Paris for two centuries had been a center for the study of the Arts and of Theology, and a succession of famous teachers—William of Champeaux, Abelard, Peter the Lombard—had taught there. So important was the theological teaching there that Paris has been termed "the Sinai of instruction" of the Middle Ages. By the beginning of the thirteenth century both students and teachers had become so numerous, at a number of places in western Europe, that they began to adopt the favorite mediaeval practice and organized themselves into associations, or guilds, for further protection from extortion and oppression and for greater freedom from regulation by the Church. They now sought and obtained additional privileges for themselves, and, in particular, the great mediaeval document—a charter of rights and privileges. [4] As both teachers and students were for long regarded as clerici the charters were usually sought from the Pope, but in some cases they were obtained from the king. [5] These associations of scholars, or teachers, or both, "born of the need of companionship which men who cultivate their intelligence feel," sought to perform the same functions for those who studied and taught that the merchant and craft guilds were performing for their members. The ruling idea was association for protection, and to secure freedom for discussion and study; the obtaining of corporate rights and responsibilities; and the organization of a system of apprenticeship, based on study and developing through journeyman into mastership, [6] as attested by an examination and the license to teach. In the rise of these teacher and student guilds [7] we have the beginnings of the universities of western Europe, and their organization into chartered teaching groups (R. 100) was simply another phase of that great movement toward the association of like-minded men for worldly purposes which began to sweep over the rising cities in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. [8] The term universitas, or university, which came in time to be applied to these associations of masters and apprentices in study, was a general Roman legal term, practically equivalent to our modern word corporation. At first it was applied to any association, and when used with reference to teachers and scholars was so stated. Thus, in addressing the masters and students at Paris, Pope Innocent, in 1205, writes: "Universis magistris et scholaribus Parisiensibus", that is, "to the corporation of masters and scholars at Paris." Later the term university became restricted to the meaning which we give it to-day. The university mothers. Though this movement for association and the development of advanced study had manifested itself in a number of places by the close of the twelfth century, two places in particular led all the others and became types which were followed in charters and in new creations. These were Bologna and Paris. [9] After one or the other of these two nearly all the universities of western Europe were modeled. Bologna or Paris, or one of their immediate children, served as a pattern. Thus Bologna was the university mother for almost all the Italian universities; for Montpellier and Grenoble in southern France; for some of the Spanish universities; and for Glasgow, Upsala, Cracow, and for the Law Faculty at Oxford. Paris was the university mother for Oxford, and through her Cambridge; for most of the northern French universities; for the university of Toulouse, which in turn became the mother for other southern French and northern Spanish universities; for Lisbon and Coimbra in Portugal; for the early German universities at Prague, Vienna, Cologne, and Heidelberg; and through Cologne for Copenhagen. Through one of the colleges at Cambridge—Emmanuel—she became, indirectly, the mother of a new Cambridge in America—Harvard—founded in 1636. Figure 61 shows the location of the chief universities founded before 1600. Viewed from the standpoint of instruction, Paris was followed almost entirely in Theology, and Bologna in Law, while the three centers which most influenced the development of instruction in medicine were Salerno, Montpellier, and Salamanca. [Illustration: FIG. 61. SHOWING LOCATION OF THE CHIEF UNIVERSITIES FOUNDED While the earlier universities gradually arose as the result of a long local evolution, it in time became common for others to be founded by a migration of professors from an older university to some cathedral city having a developing studium. In the days when a university consisted chiefly of master and students, when lectures could be held in any kind of a building or collection of buildings, and when there were no libraries, laboratories, campus, or other university property to tie down an institution, it was easy to migrate. Thus, in 1209, the school at Cambridge was created a university by a secession of masters from Oxford, much as bees swarm from a hive. Sienna, Padua, Reggio, Vicenza, Arezzo resulted from "swarmings" from Bologna; and Vercelli from Vicenza. In 1228, after a student riot at Paris which provoked reprisals from the city, many of the masters and students went to the studium towns of Angers, Orleans, and Rheims, and universities were established at the first two. Migrations from Prague helped establish many of the German universities. In this way the university organization was spread over Europe. In 1200 there were but six studia generalia which can be considered as having evolved into universities—Salerno, Bologna, and Reggio, in Italy; Paris and Montpellier, in France; and Oxford, in England. By 1300 eight more had evolved in Italy, three more in France, Cambridge in England, and five in Spain and Portugal. By 1400 twenty-two additional universities had developed, five of which were in German lands, and by 1500 thirty-five more had been founded, making a total of eighty. By 1600 the total had been raised to one hundred and eight (R. 100, for list by countries, dates, and method of founding). Some of these (approximately thirty) afterwards died, while in the following centuries additional ones were created. [10] PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES GRANTED. The grant of privileges to physicians and teachers made by the Emperor Constantine, in 333 A.D. (R. 26), and the privileges and immunities granted to the clergy (clerici) by the early Christian Roman Emperors (R. 38), doubtless formed a basis for the many grants of special privileges made to the professors and students in the early universities. The document promulgated by Frederick Barbarossa, in 1158 (R. 101), began the granting of privileges to the studia generalia, and this was followed by numerous other grants. The grant to students of freedom from trial by the city authorities, and the obligation of every citizen of Paris to seize any one seen striking a student, granted by Philip Augustus, in 1200 (R. 102), is another example, widely followed, of the bestowal of large privileges. Count Rupert I, in founding the University of Heidelberg, in 1386, granted many privileges, exempted the students from "any duty, levy, imposts, tolls, excises, or other exactions whatever" while coming to, studying at, or returning home from the university (R. 103). The exemption from taxation (R. 104) became a matter of form, and was afterwards followed in the chartering of American colleges (R. 187). Exemption from military service also was granted. So valuable an asset was a university to a city, and so easy was it for a university to move almost overnight, that cities often, and at times even nations, encouraged not only the founding of universities, but also the migration of both faculties and students. An interesting case of a city bidding for the presence of a university is that of Vercelli (R. 105), which made a binding agreement, as a part of the city charter, whereby the city agreed with a body of masters and students "swarming" from Padua to loan the students money at lower than the regular rates, to see that there was plenty of food in the markets at no increase in prices, and to protect the students from injustice. An instance of bidding by a State is the case of Cambridge, which obtained quite an addition by the coming of striking Paris masters and students in 1229, in response to the pledge of King Henry III (R. 109), who "humbly sympathized with them for their sufferings at Paris," and promised them that if they would come "to our kingdom of England and remain there to study" he would assign to them "cities, boroughs, towns, whatsoever you may wish to select, and in every fitting way will cause you to rejoice in a state of liberty and tranquillity." One of the most important privileges which the universities early obtained, and a rather singular one at that, was the right of cessatio, which meant the right to stop lectures and go on a strike as a means of enforcing a redress of grievances against either town or church authority (R. 107). This right was for long jealously guarded by the university, and frequently used to defend itself from the smallest encroachments on its freedom to teach, study, and discipline the members of its guild as it saw fit, and often the right not to discipline them at all. Often the cessatio was invoked on very trivial grounds, as in the case of the Oxford cessatio of 1209 (R. 108), the Paris cessatio of 1229 (R. 109), and the numerous other cessationes which for two centuries [11] repeatedly disturbed the continuity of instruction at Paris. DEGREES IN THE GUILD. The most important of the university rights, however, was the right to examine and license its own teachers (R. 110), and to grant the license to teach (Rs. 111, 112). Founded as the universities were after the guild model, they were primarily places for the taking of apprentices in the Arts, developing them into journeymen and masters, and certifying to their proficiency in the teaching craft. [12] Their purpose at first was to prepare teachers, and the giving of instruction to students for cultural ends, or a professional training for practical use aside from teaching the subject, was a later development. Accordingly it came about in time that, after a number of years of study in the Arts under some master, a student was permitted to present himself for a test as to his ability to define words, determine the meaning of phrases, and read the ordinary Latin texts in Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic (the Trivium), to the satisfaction of other masters than his own. In England this test came to be known by the term determine. Its passage was equivalent to advancing from apprenticeship to the ranks of a journeyman, and the successful candidate might now be permitted to assist the master, or even give some elementary instruction himself while continuing his studies. He now became an assistant or companion, and by the fourteenth century was known as a baccalaureus, a term used in the Church, in chivalry, and in the guilds, and which meant a beginner. There was at first, though, no thought of establishing an examination and a new degree for the completion of this first step in studies. The bachelor's degree was a later development, sought at first by those not intending to teach, and eventually erected into a separate degree. When the student had finally heard a sufficient number of courses, as required by the statutes of his guild, he might present himself for examination for the teaching license. This was a public trial, and took the form of a public disputation on some stated thesis, in the presence of the masters, and against all comers. It was the student's "masterpiece," analogous to the masterpiece of any other guild, and he submitted it to a jury of the masters of his craft. [13] Upon his masterpiece being adjudged satisfactory, he also became a master in his craft, was now able to define and dispute, was formally admitted to the highest rank in the teaching guild, might have a seal, and was variously known as master, doctor, or professor, all of which were once synonymous terms. [14] If he wished to prepare himself for teaching one of the professional subjects he studied still further, usually for a number of years, in one of the professional faculties, and in time he was declared to be a Doctor of Law, or Medicine, or of Theology. [Illustration: FIG 62. SEAL OF A DOCTOR, UNIVERSITY OF PARIS] THE TEACHING FACULTIES. The students for a long time grouped themselves for better protection (and aggression) according to the nation from which they came, [15] and each "nation" elected a councilor to look after the interests of its members. Between the different nations there were constant quarrels, insults were passed back and forth, and much bad blood engendered. [16] On the side of the masters the organization was by teaching subjects, and into what came to be known as faculties. [17] Thus there came to be four faculties in a fully organized mediaeval university, representing the four great divisions of knowledge which had been evolved—Arts, Law, Medicine, and Theology. Each faculty elected a dean, and the deans and councilors elected a rector, who was the head or president of the university. The chancellor, the successor of the cathedral school scholasticus, was usually appointed by the Pope and represented the Church, and a long struggle ensued between the rector and the chancellor to see who should be the chief authority in the university. The rector was ultimately victorious, and the position of chancellor became largely an honorary position of no real importance. [Illustration: FIG. 63. NEW COLLEGE, AT OXFORD One of the oldest of the Oxford colleges, having been founded in 1379. The picture shows the chapel, cloisters (consecrated in 1400), and a tall tower, once forming a part of the Oxford city walls. Note the similarity of this early college to a monastery, as in Plate 1.] The Arts Faculty was the successor of the old cathedral-school instruction in the Seven Liberal Arts, and was found in practically all the universities. The Law Faculty embraced civil and canon law, as worked out at Bologna. The Medical Faculty taught the knowledge of the medical art, as worked out at Salerno and Montpellier. The Theological Faculty, the most important of the four, prepared learned men for the service of the Church, and was for some two centuries controlled by the scholastics. The Arts Faculty was preparatory to the other three. As Latin was the language of the classroom, and all the texts were Latin texts, a reading and speaking knowledge of Latin was necessary before coming to the university to study. This was obtained from a study of the first of the Seven Arts— Grammar—in some monastery, cathedral, or other type of school. Thus a knowledge of Latin formed practically the sole requirement for admission to the mediaeval university, and continued to be the chief admission requirement in our universities up to the nineteenth century (R. 186 a). In Europe it is still of great importance as a preparatory subject, but in South American countries it is not required at all. Very few of the universities, in the beginning, had all four of these faculties. The very nature of the evolution of the earlier ones precluded this. Thus Bologna had developed into a studium generale from its prominence in law, and was virtually constituted a university in 1158, but it did not add Medicine until 1316, or Theology until 1360. Paris began sometime before 1200 as an arts school, Theology with some instruction in Canon Law was added by 1208, a Law Faculty in 1271, and a Medical Faculty in 1274. Montpellier began as a medical school sometime in the twelfth century. Law followed a little later, a teacher from Bologna "setting up his chair" there. Arts was organized by 1242. A sort of theological school began in 1263, but it was not chartered as a faculty until 1421. So it was with many of the early universities. These four traditional faculties were well established by the fourteenth century, and continued as the typical form of university organization until modern times. With the great university development and the great multiplication of subjects of study which characterized the nineteenth century, many new faculties and schools and colleges have had to be created, particularly in the United States, in response to new modern demands. [18] NATURE OF THE INSTRUCTION. The teaching material in each faculty was much as we have already indicated. After the recovery of the works of Aristotle he came to dominate the instruction in the Faculty of Arts. [19] The Statutes of Paris, in 1254, giving the books to be read for the A.B. and the A.M. degrees (R. 113), show how fully Aristotle had been adopted there as the basis for instruction in Logic, Ethics, and Natural Philosophy by that time. The books required for these two degrees at Leipzig, in 1410 (R. 114), show a much better-balanced course of instruction, though the time requirements given for each subject show how largely Aristotle predominated there also. Oxford (R. 115) kept up better the traditions of the earlier Seven Liberal Arts in its requirements, and classified the new works of Aristotle in three additional "philosophies"—natural, moral, and metaphysical. From four to seven years were required to complete the arts course, though the tendency was to reduce the length of the arts course as secondary schools below the university were evolved. [20] In the Law Faculty, after Theology the largest and most important of all the faculties in the mediaeval university, the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian (p. 195) and the Decretum of Gratian (p. 196) were the textbooks read, with perhaps a little more practical work in discussion than in Arts or Medicine. The Oxford course of study in both Civil and Canon Law (R. 116 b-c) gives a good idea as to what was required for degrees in one of the best of the early law faculties. In the Medical Faculty a variety of books—translations of Hippocrates (p. 197), Galen (p. 198), Avicenna (p. 198), and the works of certain writers at Salerno and Jewish and Moslem writers in Spain—were read and lectured on. The list of medical books used at Montpellier, [21] in 1340, which at that time was the foremost place for medical instruction in western Europe, shows the book-nature and the extent of the instruction given at the leading school of medicine of the time. It was, moreover, customary at Montpellier for the senior students to spend a summer in visiting the sick and doing practical work. We have here the merest beginnings of clinical instruction and hospital service, and at this stage medical instruction remained until quite modern times. The medical courses at Paris (R. 117) and Oxford (R. 116 d) were less satisfactory, only book instruction being required. [Illustration: FIG. 64. A LECTURE ON CIVIL LAW BY GUILLAUME BENEDICTI Both Law and Medicine were so dominated by the scholastic ideal and methods that neither accomplished what might have been possible in a freer atmosphere. In the Theological Faculty the Sentences of Peter Lombard (p. 189) and the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas (p. 191) were the textbooks used. The Bible was at first also used somewhat, but later came to be largely overshadowed by the other books and by philosophical discussions and debates on all kinds of hair-splitting questions, kept carefully within the limits prescribed by the Church. The requirements at Oxford (R. 116 a) give the course of instruction in one of the best of the theological faculties of the time. The teachers were scholastics, and scholastic methods and ideals everywhere prevailed. Roger Bacon's (1214-1294) criticism of this type of theological study (R. 118), which he calls "horse loads, not at all [in consonance] with the most holy text of God," and "philosophical, both in substance and method," gives an idea of the kind of instruction which came to prevail in the theological faculties under the dominance of the scholastic philosophers. Years of study were required in each of these three professional faculties, as is shown by the statement of requirements as given for Montpellier, Paris (R. 117), and Oxford (R. 116 a). [Illustration: FIG. 65. LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN, IN HOLLAND (After an engraving by J. C. Woudanus, dated 1610) This shows well the chained books, and a common type of bookcase in use in monasteries, churches, and higher schools. Counting 35 books to the case, this shows a library of 35 volumes on mathematics; 70 volumes each on literature, philosophy, and medicine; 140 volumes of historical books; 175 volumes on civil and canon law; and 160 volumes on theology, or a total of 770 volumes—a good-sized library for the time.] METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. A very important reason why so long a period of study was required in each of the professional faculties, as well as in the Faculty of Arts, is to be found in the lack of textbooks and the methods of instruction followed. While the standard textbooks were becoming much more common, due to much copying and the long-continued use of the same texts, they were still expensive and not owned by many. [22] [Illustration: PLATE 4. A LECTURE ON THEOLOGY BY ALBERTUS MAGNUS An illuminated picture in a manuscript of 1310, now in the royal collection of copper engravings, at Berlin. The master in his chair is here shown "reading" to his students.] To provide a loan collection of theological books for poor students we find, in 1271, a gift by will to the University of Paris (R. 119) of a private library, containing twenty-seven books. Even if the students possessed books, the master "read" [23] and commented from his "gloss" at great length on the texts being studied. Besides the mere text each teacher had a "gloss" or commentary for it—that is, a mass of explanatory notes, summaries, cross-references, opinions by others, and objections to the statements of the text. The "gloss" was a book in itself, often larger than the text, and these standard glosses, [24] or commentaries, were used in the university instruction for centuries. In Theology and Canon Law they were particularly extensive. All instruction, too, was in Latin. The professor read from the Latin text and gloss, repeating as necessary, and to this the student listened. Sometimes he read so slowly that the text could be copied, but in 1355 this method was prohibited at Paris (R. 121), and students who tried to force the masters to follow it "by shouting or whistling or raising a din, or by throwing stones," were to be suspended for a year. The first step in the instruction was a minute and subtle analysis of the text itself, in which each line was dissected, analyzed, and paraphrased, and the comments on the text by various authors were set forth. Next all passages capable of two interpretations were thrown into the form of a question; pro and contra, after the manner of Abelard. The arguments on each side were advanced, and the lecturer's conclusion set forth and defended. The text was thus worked over day after day in minute detail. Having as yet but little to teach, the masters made the most of what they had. A good example of the mediaeval plan of university instruction is found in the announcement of Odofredus, a distinguished teacher of Law at Bologna, about the middle of the thirteenth century, which Rashdall thinks is equally applicable to methods in other subjects. Odofredus says: First, I shall give you summaries of each title before I proceed to the text; secondly, I shall give you as clear and explicit a statement as I can of the purport of each Law (included in the title); thirdly, I shall read the text with a view to correcting it; fourthly, I shall briefly repeat the contents of the Law; fifthly, I shall solve apparent contradictions, adding any general principles of Law (to be extracted from the passage), and any distinctions and subtle and useful problems arising out of the Law with their solutions, as far as the Divine Providence shall enable me. And if any Law shall seem deserving, by reason of its celebrity or difficulty, of a Repetition, I shall reserve it for an evening Repetition. It will be seen that both students and professors were bound to the text, as were the teachers of the Seven Liberal Arts in the cathedral schools before them. There was no appeal to the imagination, still less to observation, experiment, or experience. Each generation taught what it had learned, except that from time to time some thinker made a new organization, or some new body of knowledge was unearthed and added. Another method much used was the debate, or disputation, and participation in a number of these was required for degrees (R. 116). These disputations were logical contests, not unlike a modern debate, in which the students took sides, cited authorities, and summarized arguments, all in Latin. Sometimes a student gave an exhibition in which he debated both sides of a question, and summarized the argument, after the manner of the professors. As a corrective to the memorization of lectures and texts, these disputations served a useful purpose in awakening intellectual vigor and logical keenness. They were very popular until into the sixteenth century, when new subject-matter and new ways of thinking offered new opportunities for the exercise of the intellect. [Illustration: FIG. 66. A UNIVERSITY DISPUTATION In teaching equipment there was almost nothing at first, and but little for centuries to come. Laboratories, workshops, gymnasia, good buildings and classrooms—all alike were equally unknown. Time schedules of lectures (Rs. 122, 123) came in but slowly, in such matters each professor being a free lance. Nor were there any libraries at first, though in time these developed. For a long time books were both expensive and scarce (Rs. 78, 119, 120). After the invention of printing (first book printed in 1456), university libraries increased rapidly and soon became the chief feature of the university equipment. Figure 65 shows the library of the University of Leyden, in Holland, thirty-five years after its foundation, and about one hundred and fifty years after the beginnings of printing. It shows a rather large increase in the size of book collections [25] after the introduction of printing, and a good library organization. [ILLUSTRATION: FIG 67. A UNIVERSITY LECTURE AND LECTURE ROOM VALUE OF THE TRAINING GIVEN. Measured in terms of modern standards the instruction was undoubtedly poor, unnecessarily drawn out, and the educational value low. We could now teach as much information, and in a better manner, in but a fraction of the time then required. Viewed also by the standards of instruction in the higher schools of Greece and Rome the conditions were almost equally bad. Viewed, though, from the standpoint of what had prevailed in western Europe during the dark period of the early Middle Ages, it represented a marked advance in method and content—except in pure literature, where there was an undoubted decline due to the absorbing interest in Dialectic—and it particularly marked a new spirit, as nearly critical as the times would allow. Despite the heterogeneous and but partially civilized student body, youthful and but poorly prepared for study, the drunkenness and fighting, the lack of books and equipment, the large classes and the poor teaching methods, and the small amount of knowledge which formed the grist for their mills and which they ground exceeding small, these new universities held within themselves, almost in embryo form, the largest promise for the intellectual future of western Europe which had appeared since the days of the old universities of the Hellenic world (R. 124). In these new institutions knowledge was not only preserved and transmitted, but was in time to be tremendously advanced and extended. They were the first organizations to break the monopoly of the Church in learning and teaching; they were the centers to which all new knowledge gravitated; under their shadow thousands of young men found intellectual companionship and in their classrooms intellectual stimulation; and in encouraging "laborious subtlety, heroic industry, and intense application", even though on very limited subject-matter, and in training "men to think and work rather than to enjoy" (R. 124), they were preparing for the time when western Europe should awaken to the riches of Greece and Rome and to a new type of intellectual life of its own. From these beginnings the university organization has persisted and grown and expanded, and to-day stands, the Synagogue and the Catholic Church alone excepted, as the oldest organized institution of human society. The manifest tendency of the universities toward speculation, though for long within limits approved by the Church, was ultimately to awaken inquiry, investigation, rational thinking, and to bring forth the modern spirit. The preservation and transmission of knowledge was by the university organization transferred from the monastery to the school, from monks to doctors, and from the Church to a body of logically trained men, only nominally members of the clerici. Their successors would in time entirely break away from connections with either Church or State, and stand forth as the independent thinkers and scholars in the arts, sciences, professions, and even in Theology. University graduates in Medicine would in time wage a long struggle against bigotry to lay the foundations of modern medicine. Graduates in Law would contend with kings and feudal lords for larger privileges for the as yet lowly common man, and would help to usher in a period of greater political equality. The university schools of Theology were in time to send forth the keenest critics of the practices of the Church. Out of the university cloisters were to come the men—Dante, Petrarch, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton—who were to usher in the modern spirit. The universities as a public force. Almost from the first the universities availed themselves of their privileges and proclaimed a bold independence. The freedom from arrest and trial by the civil authorities for petty offenses, or even for murder, and the right to go on a strike if in any way interfered with, were but beginnings in independence in an age when such independence seemed important. These rights were in time given up, [26] and in their place the much more important rights of liberty to study as truth seemed to lead, freedom in teaching as the master saw the truth, and the right to express themselves as an institution on public questions which seemed to concern them, were slowly but definitely taken on in place of the earlier privileges. Virtually a new type of members of society—a new Estate—was evolved, ranking with Church, State, and nobility, and this new Estate soon began to express itself in no uncertain tones on matters which concerned both Church and State. The universities were democratic in organization and became democratic in spirit, representing a heretofore unknown and unexpressed public opinion in western Europe. They did not wait to be asked; they gave their opinions unsolicited. "The authority of the University of Paris," writes one contemporary, "has risen to such a height that it is necessary to satisfy it, no matter on what conditions." The university "wanted to meddle with the government of the Pope, the King, and everything else," writes another. We find Paris intervening repeatedly in both church and state affairs, [27] and representing French nationality before it had come into being, as the so- called Holy Roman Empire represented the Germans, and the Papacy represented the Italians. In Montpellier, professors of Law were considered as knights, and after twenty years of practice they became counts. In Bologna we find the professors of Law one of the three assemblies of the city. Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, and the Scottish universities were given representation in Parliament. The German universities were from the first prominent in political affairs, and in the reformation struggle of the early sixteenth century they were the battle-grounds. In an age of oppression these university organizations stood for freedom. In an age of force they began the substitution of reason. In the centuries from the end of the Dark Ages to the Reformation they were the homes of free thought. They early assumed national character and proclaimed a bold independence. Questions of State and Church they discussed with a freedom before unknown. They presented their grievances to both kings and popes, from both they obtained new privileges, to both they freely offered their advice, and sometimes both were forced to do their bidding. At times important questions of State, such as the divorce of Philip of France and that of Henry VIII of England, were submitted to them for decision. They were not infrequently called upon to pass upon questions of doctrine or heresy. "Kings and princes," says Rashdall, in an excellent summary as to the value and influence of the mediaeval university instruction (R. 124), "found their statesmen and men of business in the universities, most often, no doubt, among those trained in the practical science of Law." Talleyrand is said to have asserted that "their theologians made the best diplomats." For the first time since the downfall of Rome the administration of human affairs was now placed once more in the hands of educated men. By the interchange of students from all lands and their hospitality, such as it was, to the stranger, the universities tended to break down barriers and to prepare Europe for larger intercourse and for more of a common life. On the masses of the people, of course, they had little or no influence, and could not have for centuries to come. Their greatest work, as has been the case with universities ever since their foundation, was that of drawing to their classrooms the brightest minds of the times, the most capable and the most industrious, and out of this young raw material training the leaders of the future in Church and State. Educationally, one of their most important services was in creating a surplus of teachers in the Arts who had to find a market for their abilities in the rising secondary schools. These developed rapidly after 1200, and to these we owe a somewhat more general diffusion of the little learning and the intellectual training of the time. In preparing future leaders for State and Church in law, theology, and teaching, the universities, though sometimes opposed and their opinions ignored, nevertheless contributed materially to the making and moulding of national history. The first great result of their work in training leaders we see in the Renaissance movement of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, to which we next turn. In this movement for a revival of the ancient learning, and the subsequent movements for a purer and a better religious life, the men trained by the universities were the leaders. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION1. Why would the studia publica tend to attract a different type of scholar than those in the monasteries, and gradually to supersede them in importance? 2. Show how the mediaeval university was a gradual and natural evolution, as distinct from a founded university of to-day. 3. Show that the university charter was a first step toward independence from church and state control. 4. Show the relation between the system of apprenticeship developed for student and teacher in a mediaeval university, and the stages of student and teacher in a university of to-day. 5. Show how the chartered university of the Middle Ages was an "association of like-minded men for worldly purposes." 6. To what university mother does Harvard go back, ultimately? 7. Show how the English and the German universities are extreme evolutions from the mediaeval type, and our American universities a combination of the two extremes. 8. Do university professors to-day have privileges akin to those granted professors in a mediaeval university? 9. What has caused the old Arts Faculty to break up into so many groups, whereas Law, Medicine, and Theology have stayed united? 10. Do universities, when founded to-day, usually start with all four of the mediaeval faculties represented? 11. Which of the professional faculties has changed most in the nature and character of its instruction? Why has this been so? 12. Enumerate a number of different things which have enabled the modern university greatly to shorten the period of instruction? 13. Aside from differences in teachers, why are some university subjects today taught much more compactly and economically than other subjects? 14. After admitting all the defects of the mediaeval university, why did the university nevertheless represent so important a development for the future of western civilization? 15. What does the long continuance, without great changes in character, of the university as an institution indicate as to its usefulness to society? 16. Does the university of to-day play as important a part in the progress of society as it did in the mediaeval times? Why? 17. Is the chief university force to-day exerted directly or indirectly? Illustrate. 18. What is probably the greatest work of any university, in any age? 19. Compare the influence of the mediaeval university, and the Greek universities of the ancient world. 20. Explain the evolution of the English college system as an effort to improve discipline, morals, and thinking. Has it been successful in this? 21. Show how the mediaeval university put books in the place of things, whereas the modern university tries to reverse this. 22. Show how the rise of the universities gave an educated ruling class to Europe, even though the nobility may not have attended them. 23. Show how, in an age of lawlessness, the universities symbolized the supremacy of mind over brute force. 24. Show how the mediaeval universities aided civilization by breaking down, somewhat, barriers of nationality and ignorance among peoples. 25. Show how the university stood, as the crowning effort of its time, in the slow upward struggle to rebuild civilization on the ruins of what had once been. SELECTED READINGSIn the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are reproduced: 100. Rashdall and Minerva: University Foundations before 1600. QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS1. What does a glance at the page giving the university foundations before 1600 (100) show as to the rate and direction of the university movement? 2. How do you account for the very large privileges granted university students in the early grants (101, 102) and charters (103)? Should a university student to-day have any privileges not given to all citizens? Why? 3. Do universities, when founded to-day, secure a charter? If so, from whom, and what terms are included? Do normal schools? What form of a charter, if any, has your university or normal school? 4. Compare the freedom from taxation granted to masters and students at Paris (104) with the grant to professors at Brown University (187b). Was the Brown University grant exceptional, or common in other American foundations? 5. Do any American cities to-day maintain colleges or universities, as did the Italian cities (105)? Normal schools? Are somewhat similar ends served? 6. What does the cessatio, as exercised by the mediaeval university (107, 108), indicate as to standards of conduct on the part of teachers and students? 7. Why is the licensing of university professors to teach not followed in our American universities? What has taken the place of the license? What did the mediaeval license (110, 111, 112) really signify? 8. Compare the license to teach (112) with a modern doctor's diploma. 9. Compare the requirements for the Arts degree (113, 114, 115) with the requirements for the Baccalaureate degree at a modern university. 10. Compare the additional length of time for professional degrees (116, 117). 11. How do you account for the American practice of admitting students to the professional courses without the Arts course? What is the best American practice in this matter to-day, and what tendencies are observable? 12. Characterize the medical course at Paris (117) from a modern point of view. 13. Compare the instruction in medicine at Paris (117) and Toulouse (122). How do you account for the superiority shown by one? Which one? 14. What does the extract from Roger Bacon (118) indicate as to the character of the teaching of Theology? 15. What was the nature and extent of the library of Master Stephen (119)? Compare such a library with that of a scholar of to-day. 16. Show how the Paris statute as to lecturing (121) was an attempt at an improvement of the methods of instruction and individual thinking. 17. What do the two time-tables reproduced (122, 123) reveal as to the nature of a university day, and the instruction given? 18. Show how Rashdall's statement (124) that lawyers have been a civilizing agent is true. SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCESBoase, Charles William. Oxford (Historic Towns Series). |
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