times, Hungary occupies the lowest place—a state of affairs of which, however, the proximity of the Turk must be looked upon as a main cause.”
The university of Heidelberg (the oldest of those of the German realm) received its charter (October 23, 1385) from Heidelberg. Urban VI. as a “studium generale” in all the recognized faculties save that of the civil law—the form and substance of the document being almost identical with those of the charter granted to Vienna. It was granted at the request of the elector palatine, Rupert I., who conferred on the teachers and students, at the same time, the same civil privileges as those which belonged to the university of Paris. In this case the functionary invested with the power of bestowing degrees was non-resident, the licences being conferred by the provost of the cathedral at Worms. But the real founder, as he was also the organizer and teacher, of the university was Marsilius of Inghen, to whose ability and energy Heidelberg was indebted for no little of its early reputation and success. The omission of the civil law from the studies licensed in the original charter would seem to show that the pontiff's compliance with the elector's request was merely formal, and Heidelberg, like Cologne, included the civil law among its faculties almost from its first creation. No medieval university achieved a more rapid and permanent success. Regarded with favour alike by the civil and ecclesiastical potentates, its early annals were singularly free from crises like those which characterize the history of many of the medieval universities. The number of those admitted to degrees from the commencement of the first session (19th October 1386 to 16th December 1387) amounted to 579.[1]
Owing to the labours of the Dominicans, Cologne had gained a reputation as a seat of learning long before the founding of Cologne. its university; and it was through the advocacy of some leading members of the Mendicant orders that, at the desire of the city council, its charter as a “studium generale” (21st May 1388) was obtained from Urban VI. It was organized on the model of the university of Paris, as a school of theology and canon law, and “any other recognized faculty”-the civil law being incorporated as a faculty soon after the promulgation of the charter. In common with the other early universities of Germany—Prague, Vienna and Heidelberg—Cologne owed nothing to imperial patronage, while it would appear to have been, from the first, the object of special favour with Rome. This circumstance serves to account for its distinctly ultramontane sympathies in medieval times and even far into the 16th century. In a report transmitted to Gregory XIII. in 1577, the university expressly derives both its first origin and its privileges from the Holy See, and professes to owe no allegiance save to the Roman pontiff. Erfurt. Erfurt, no less noted as a centre of Franciscan than was Cologne of Dominican influence, received its charter (16th September 1379) from the anti-pope Clement VII. as a “studium generale” in all the faculties. Ten years later (4th May 1389) it was founded afresh by Urban VI., without any recognition of the act of his pretended predecessor. In the 15th century the number of its students was larger than that at any other German university—a fact attributable partly to the reputation it had acquired as a school of jurisprudence, and partly to the ardour with which the nominalist and realist controversies of the time were debated in its midst; its readiness in according a hearing to novel theories causing it to be known as novorum omnium portus.
The collegiate system is to be noted as a feature common to all these early German universities; and, in nearly all, the professors were partly remunerated by the appropriation of certain prebends, appertaining to some neighbouring church, to their maintenance.
During the first half of the 15th century the relations of the Roman pontiffs to the universities continued much the same, although the independent attitude assumed by the deputies of those bodies at the great councils of Constance and Basel, and especially by those from Paris, could not fail to give rise Relations of the popes to the universities. to apprehensions. The papal bulls for each new foundation begin to indicate a certain jealousy with respect to the appropriation of prebends by the founders. Where such appropriations are recognized, and more particularly in France, a formal sanction of the transfer generally finds a place in the bull authorizing the foundation; but sometimes the founder or founders are themselves enjoined to provide the endowments requisite for the establishment and support of the university. In this manner the control of the pontiff over each newly created seat of learning assumed a more real character, from the fact that his assent was accompanied by conditions which rendered it no longer a mere formality. The imperial intervention, on the other hand, was rarely invoked in Germany—Greifswald, Freiburg and Tübingen being the only instances in which the emperor's confirmation of the foundation was solicited.[2] The inadequacy of the traditional studies to meet the growing wants of civilization, and the consequent lack of sympathy on the part of each civic population in which a new studium was founded, now become frequently apparent. Of such Würzburg. conditions the fortunes of the studium at Würzburg in Bavaria—founded in 1402 by a bishop, with a charter bestowed by Boniface IX.—illustrate the dangers. The students belonged chiefly to the faculties of law and theology, and the frequency of their conflicts with the citizens made it necessary before ten years had elapsed to close the university, which was not reopened until 1582. Under the patronage of the prince Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, however, it soon became largely frequented by Catholic students. At the present time, under the patronage of the house of Wittelsbach, it is widely famed as a school of medicine.
In Turin the university founded in 1412 by the counts of Savoy had to be refounded in 1431. The efforts of Parma in the 14th century to raise itself by papal aid to the dignity of a university proved altogether abortive, and it was not until 1422 that, under the protection of the dukes of Milan, its object Catania. was attained. In Sicily, Catania, the earliest of its high schools, was created a university by Alphonso of Aragon in 1445. Five years later Barcelona Barcelona. received from Pope Nicholas V. the same privileges as Toulouse had obtained from Gregory IX. Among the Spanish universities, however, none has had a more chequered history, although now taking rank with foremost.
In Hungary, Mathias Corvinus obtained from Paul II. in 1465 permission to found a general studium where he thought best within his realms—a latitude of choice conceded probably in consequence of the dangers which menaced the kingdom alike from Bohemia and from the Turks; while the Budapest. fact that the university at Ofen (Hungarian Buda) was not actually founded until some ten years later, may have been owing to the resolute stand made by the youthful monarch against the claims to nominate bishops put forward not only by Pope Paul but by his successor Sixtus IV. (1471-84). After a series of eventful experiences, the university of Budapest remains, at the present time, almost exclusively Magyar. It has a school of law at Pressburg, which is all that remains of the university there founded by Mathias Corvinus in 1465.
In northern Germany and in the Netherlands. on the other hand, the growing wealth and prosperity of the different states Foundation of Louvain. especially favoured the formation of new centres of learning. In the flourishing duchy of Brabant the university of Louvain (1426) was to a great extent controlled by the municipality; and their patronage, although ultimately attended with detrimental results, long enabled Louvain to outbid all the other universities of Europe in the munificence with which she rewarded her professors. In the course of the next century the “Belgian Athens,” as she is styled by Lipsius, ranked second only to Paris in numbers and reputation. In its numerous separate foundations and general
