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 life in these times. Residence on the part of the students appears to have been sometimes dispensed with. The bishop of Siena was nominated chancellor of the university, just as, says the bull, he had been appointed to that office by the imperial authority. The graduates were to be admitted to the same privileges as those of Bologna or Paris; and a faculty of theology was added to the curriculum of studies. The university

of Ferrara owes its foundation to the house of Este—Alberto, marquess of Este, having obtained from Boniface IX. in 1391 a charter couched in terms precisely similar to those of the charter for Pisa. In the first half of the 15th century the university was adorned by the presence of several distinguished humanists, but its fortunes were singularly chequered, and it would appear for a certain period to have been altogether extinct. It was, however, restored, and became in the latter part of the century one of the most celebrated of the universities of Italy. In the year 1474 its circle of studies comprised all the existing faculties, and it numbered no less than fifty-one professors or lecturers. In later times Ferrara has been noted chiefly as a school of medicine.

Of the universities modelled on that of Paris, Oxford would appear to have been the earliest, and the manner of its development

was probably similar. Certain schools, opened within the precincts of the dissolved nunnery of St Frideswyde and of Oseney abbey, are supposed to have been the nucleus round which the university grew up. In the year 1133 one Robert Pullen, a theologian of considerable eminence (but whether an Englishman or a Breton is uncertain), arrived from Paris and delivered lectures on the Bible. It has been maintained, on the authority of Gervase of Canterbury, that Vacarius, a native of Lombardy, who, in the latter half of the 12th century, incurred the displeasure of King Stephen by lecturing in England on the civil law, delivered lectures at Oxford. H. S. Denifle, however (Die Entstehung der Universitäten, p. 241), maintains that the naming of Oxford is a gratuitous assumption on the part of Gervase, and that we have, at best, only presumptive evidence of a studium generale there in the 12th century. Of this, Mr Rashdall inclines to find the beginning in a migration of English students from Paris about 1167 or 1168. In the first-mentioned year we are told by John of Salisbury that “France, the mildest and most civil of nations,” has “expelled her foreign scholars” (Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, ed. Robertson, vi. pp. 235-36). At about the same time we hear of an edict of Henry II., during the quarrel with Becket, recalling all clerks holding benefices in England (as they loved their benefices), and forbidding all clerks in England to cross the Channel (ibid. i. pp. 53-54). The archbishop himself remarks that “The king wills that all scholars shall be compelled to return to their country or be deprived of their benefices” (ibid. vii. p. 146). Paris was at this time the great place of higher education for English students. No English school was a recognized studium generale. Immediately after 1168 allusions to Oxford as a studium and a studium generale begin to multiply. The natural inference is that the breaking off of relations between England and Paris in 1167 or 1168 led to the growth of a studium generale in Oxford, formed no doubt in the first instance of seceders from Paris. In the 13th century mention first occurs of university “chests,” especially the Frideswyde chest, which were benefactions designed as funds for the assistance of poor students. Halls, or places of licensed residence for students, also began to be established. In the year 1257, when the bishop of Lincoln, as diocesan, had trenched too closely on the liberties of the community, the deputies from Oxford, when preferring their appeal to the king at St Albans, could venture to speak of the university as “schola secunda ecclesiae,” or second only to Paris. Its numbers about this time were probably some three thousand; but it was essentially a fluctuating body, and whenever plague or tumult led to a temporary dispersion a serious diminution in its numerical strength generally ensued for some time after. Against such vicissitudes the foundation of colleges proved the most effectual remedy. Of these the three

earliest were University College, founded in 1249 by William of Durham; Balliol College, founded about 1263 by John Balliol, the father of the king of Scotland of the same-name; and Merton College, founded in 1264. The last-named is especially notable as associated with a new conception of university education, namely, that of collegiate discipline for the secular clergy, instead of for any one of the religious orders, for whose sole benefit all similar foundations had hitherto been designed. The statutes given to the society by Walter de Merton are not less noteworthy, as characterized not only by breadth of conception, but also by a careful and discriminating attention to detail, which led to their adoption as the model for later colleges, not only at Oxford but at Cambridge. Of the service rendered by these foundations to the university at large we have significant proof in the fact that, although representing only a small numerical minority in the academic community at large, their members soon obtained a considerable preponderance in the administration of affairs.

The university of Cambridge, although it rose into existence somewhat later than Oxford, may reasonably be held to have

had its origin in the same century. There was probably a certain amount of educational work carried on by the canons of the church of St Giles, which gradually developed into the instruction belonging to a regular studium. In the year 1112 the canons crossed the river and took up their residence in the new priory in Barnwell, and their work of instruction acquired additional importance. In 1209 a body of students migrated thither from Oxford. Then, as early as the year 1224, the Franciscans established themselves in the town, and, somewhat less than half a century later, were followed by the Dominicans. At both the English universities, as at Paris, the Mendicants and other religious orders were admitted to degrees, a privilege which, until the year 1337, was extended to them at no other university. Their interest in and influence at these three centres was consequently proportionably great. In the years 1231 and 1233 certain royal and papal letters afford satisfactory proof that by that time the university of Cambridge was already an organized body with a chancellor at its head—a dignitary appointed by the bishop of Ely for the express purpose of granting degrees and governing the studium. In 1229 and 1231 the numbers were largely augmented by migrations from Paris and from Oxford. Cambridge, however, in its turn suffered from emigration; while in the year 1261, and again in 1381, the records of the university were wantonly burnt by the townsmen. Throughout the 13th century, indeed, the university was still only a very slightly and imperfectly organized community. Its endowments were of the most slender kind; it had no systematic code for the government of its members; the supervision of the students was very imperfectly provided for. Although both Oxford and Cambridge were modelled on Paris, their higher faculties never developed the same distinct organization; and while the two proctors at Cambridge originally represented “north” and “south,” the “nations” are scarcely to be discerned. An important step in the direction of discipline was, however, made in the year 1276, when an ordinance was passed requiring that every one who claimed to be recognized as a scholar should have a fixed master within fifteen days after his entry into the university. The traditional constitution of the English universities was in its origin an imitation of the Parisian chancellor, modified by the absence of the cathedral chancellor. As Oxford was not in the 12th century a bishop's see, the bishop (in 1214, if not earlier) appointed a chancellor for the express purpose of granting degrees and governing the studium. But he was from the first elected by the masters, and early obtained recognition as the head of the university as well as the representative of the bishop. The procuratores (originally also rectores) remained representatives of the faculty of arts and (there being at Oxford no deans) of the whole university. But the feature which most served to give permanence and cohesion to the entire community was, as at Oxford, the institution of colleges. The earliest of these was Peterhouse, first founded as a separate