UNIVERSITIES
189
UNIVERSITIES
imivprsity is sometimes given (o the celebrated schools
of Athens and Alexandria, it is generally held that the
universities first arose in the Middle Ages. For those
that were chartered during the thirteenth century,
dates and documents can be accurately given; but
the beginnings of the earliest are obscure, hence the
legends connected with their origin: Oxford was
supposed to have been foimded by King Alfred, Paris
by Charlemagne, and Bologna by Theodosius II
(a. d. 433). These myths, though they survived well
on into modern times, are now generally rejected, and
the historian's only concern with them is to discover
their sources and trace their development. It is
known, however, that during the eleventh and twelfth
centuries a revival of studies took place, in medicine
at Salerno, in law at Bologna, and in theology at.
Paris. The medical school at Salerno was the oldest
and the most famous of its kind in the Middle Ages;
but it exerted no influence on the development of the
universities. At Paris, the study of dialectics received
a fresh impetus from teachers like Roseellin and Abe-
lard, and eventually it displaced the study of the
Classics which, especially at Chartres, had constituted
an energetic though short-lived humanistic move-
ment. The dialectical method, moreover, was
applied to theological questions and, mainly through
the work of Peter Lombard, w-as developed into
Scholasticism (q. v.). This meant not only that all
sorts of questions were taken up for discussion and
examined with the utmost subtlety, but also that a
new basis was ])rovided for the exposition of doctrine
and that theology itself was cast into the systematic
form which it presents in the works of St. Thomas,
and above all, in the great "Summa". At Bologna,
the new movement was practical rather than specula-
tive, it affected the teaching, not of philosophy and
theology, but of civil and canon law. Previous to the
twelfth century, Bologna had been famous as a school
of arts, while in regard to legal science it was far
surpassed by other cities, e. g. Rome, Pavia, and Ra-
venna. That it became within a comparatively .short
time the chief centre of the teaching of law, not in
Italy alone b>it in all Europe, was due mainly to
Irnerius (q. v.) and to Gratian (q. v.). The former
introduced the systematic study of the whole Corpus
jurin cirilis, and difTerenliated the course in law from
that in the Liberal Arts; the latter, in his "Decre-
tum", applied the scholastic method to canon law,
and secured for this science a distinct place apart
from theology. In consequence, Bologna, long before
it became a imiversity, attracted large numbers of
students from all parts of the Empire, and its teachers,
as they became more nimierous, also attained un-
rivalled prestige.
The school growing thus vigorously from within was further strengthened by the privileges which the emperor granted. In the "Authentic" Habila issued in 11.58, Frederick I took under his protection the scholars who re-sorted to the schools of Italy for the purpose of study, and decreed that they should travel without hindrance or molestation, and that, in case complaint were lodged again.st them, they should have the option of defenfling themselves either before their profe.s.sors or before (he bi.shop. This grant naturally turned to the profit of Bologna; but it also served as the basis of many privileges subsequently accorded to this and to other schools. That Paris also enjoyed similar protection and immunities from an early date is highly probable, though the first, grant of which there is record was made by Philip Augustus in 1200. To these two factors of internal growth and external advantage, a third had to be added before either Paris or Bologna could become a university: it was necessarj' to secure a corporate organization. Both cii ies by the middle of the twelfth century po,s.^es.sed the requisite elements in the way of schools, scholars, and teachers. At Paris three
schools were especially prominent: Saint Victor's,
attached to the church of the canons regular; Sainte-
Genevieve-du-Mont, conducted first by seculars and
later by canons regular; and Notre-Danie, the school
of the Cathedral on the "Island". According to one
account these three schools united to form the univer-
sity; Denifle, however (Die Univer.sitaten, CS.") sqq.),
maintains that it originated in Notre-Dame only,
and that this school therefore was the cradle of the
University of Paris. This does not implj- that the
cathedral school as an institution was elevated to the
rank of a university by roj'al or pontifical charter.
The initiative was taken by the professors who, with
the licence of the chancellor of Notre-Dame and
subject to his authority, taught either at the cathedral
or in private dwellings on the "Island". When
these professors, in the last quarter of the twelfth
century, united in one teaching body, the University
of Paris was founded (For the older view, see Paris,
Universtty of).
This consorlium magislrorum included the pro- fessors of theolog>', law, medicine, and arts (philoso- phy). As the teachers of the .same subject had special interests, they naturally formed smaller groups within the entire body. The name "faculty" originally designated a discipline or branch of knowledge, and was employed in this sense by Honoring III in his letter (18 Feb., 1219) to the scholars of Paris; later, it came to mean the gxoup of profes.sors engaged in teaching the same subject. The closer organization into faculties was occasioned in the first instance by questions which arose in 1213, regarding the con- ferring of degrees. Then came the drafting of stat- utes for each faculty whereby its own internal affairs were regulated and lines of demarcation drawn be- tween its sphere of action and those of the ot her facul- ties. This organization must have been completed within the first half, or jjerhaps first quarter, of the thirteenth century, since Gregory IX in the Bull "Parens scientiarum" (1231) recognizes the existence of separate faculties. The scholars, on their part, just as naturally fell into different groups. They belonged to various nationalities, and those from the same country must have realized the advantage, or even the necessity, of banding together in a city like Paris to which they came as strangers. This was the origin of the "Nations", which probably were organ- ized early in the thirteenth century, though the first documentary evidence of their existence dates from 1249. The four Nations at Paris were those of the French, the Picards, the Xorinans, and the English. They were distinctively student a.'isociations, formed for purposes of administration and discipline, whereas the faculties were organized to deal with matters relating to the several sciences and the work of teach- ing. The Nations, therefore, did not constitute the university, nor were they identical with the faculties. The masters in arts were included in the Nations and at the same time belonged to the faculty of arts, because the course in arts was simply a preparation for higher studies in one of the sviperior faculties, and hence arts formed an "inferior" faculty, whose mas- ters w'ere still chissed as scholars. The professors of the superior faculties did not belong to the Nations.
Each Nation elected from among its members a master of arts as procurator (proctor), and the four procurators elected the rector, i. e. the head of the Nations, not, at first, the head of the university. As, however, the faculty of arts was closely bound up with the Nations, the rector gradually became the chief officer of that faculty, and was recognized as such in 1274. His authority extended later to the faculties of law and medicine (1279) and finally (1341) to the faculty of theology; thenceforward the rector is the head of the entire university. On the other hand, the office of rector did not confer very large powers. From the beginning the chief authority
