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 UNIVERSITIES

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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