544 Outli7ies of European History avoid. For example, if one were born under the influence of Venus he should be on his guard against violent love and should choose for a trade something connected with dress or adornment ; if he were born under Mars he might make armor or horseshoes or become a successful soldier. Many common words are really astrological terms, such as " ill-starred," " disastrous," " jovial," "saturnine," "mercurial" (derived from the names of the planets). Astrology was taught in the universities because it was supposed to be necessary for physicians to choose times when the stars were favorable for particular kinds of medical treatment. Alchemy was chemistry' directed toward the discovery of a method of turning the baser metals, like lead and copper, into gold and silver. The alchemists, even if they did not succeed in their chief aim, learned a great deal incidentally in their laboratories, and finally our modern chemistry emerged from alchemy. Like astrology, alchemy goes back to ancient times, and the people of the thirteenth century got most of their ideas through the Moliammedans, who had in turn got theirs from the Greek books on the subjects. Section 95. Medieval Universities and Studies All European countries now have excellent schools, colleges, and universities. These had their beginning in the later Middle Ages. With the incoming of "the barbarian Germans and the break-up of the Roman Empire, education largely disappeared and for hundreds of years there was nothing in western Europe, outside of Italy and Spain, corresponding to our universities and colleges. Some of the schools which the bishops and abbots had established in accordance with Charlemagne's commands (see. above, p. 379) were, it is true, maintained all through the dark and disorderly times which followed his death. But the little that we know of the instruction offered in them would indicate that it was very elementary.
