Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/879

Rh universities, and especially by those from Paris, could not fail to excite their apprehensions. Their bulls for each new foundation begin again to indicate a certain jealousy with respect to the appropriation of prebends by the founders. Where such appropriations are made, and more particularly in France, a formal sanction of the transfer generally finds a place in the bull authorizing the foundation; while sometimes the founder or founders are them selves 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 Tubingen being the only instances in which the emperor's confirmation of the foundation was solicited. But whatever influence the Roman see may have gained by increasing intervention was more than counteracted by those other tendencies which came into operation in the second half of the century. These were of a twofold character: the first directly modifying the studies themselves, as the results of the discovery of printing and the new spirit awakened by the teaching of the humanists; the second affecting the external conditions, such as the multiplication of schools, and the growing demand for skilled physicians and learned civilians, circumstances which afforded increased employment for the services of men of academic training. In northern Germany and in the Netherlands, the growing wealth and prosperity of the different states 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 organization it possessed no less than twenty-eight colleges it closely resembled the English universities; while its active press afforded facilities to the author and the controversialist of which both Cambridge and Oxford were at that time almost destitute. It embraced all the faculties, and no degrees in Europe stood so high as guarantees of general acquirements. Erasmus records it as a common saying, that "no one could graduate at Louvain without knowledge, manners, and age." Sir William Hamilton speaks of the examination at Louvain for a degree in arts as "the best example upon record of the true mode of such examination, and, until recent times, in fact, the only example in the history of universities worthy of consideration at all." He has translated from Vernulaeus the order and method of this examination. In 1788 the faculties of jurisprudence, medicine, and philosophy were removed to Brussels, and in 1797 the French suspended the university altogether. When Belgium was formed into an independent state in 1831, the university was refounded as a Roman Catholic foundation.

The circumstances of the foundation of the university of Leipsic are especially noteworthy, it having been the result of the migration of almost the entire German element from the university of Prague. This element comprised (1) Bavarians, (2) Saxons, (3) Poles (this last-named division being drawn from a wide area, which included Meissen, Lusatia, Silesia, and Prussia), and, being represented by three votes in the assemblies of the university, while the Bohemians possessed but one, had acquired a preponderance in the direction of affairs which the latter could no longer submit to. Religious differences, again, evoked mainly by the preaching of John Huss, further intensified the existing disagreements; and eventually, in the year 1409, King Wenceslaus, at the prayer of his Bohemian subjects, issued a decree which exactly reversed the previous distribution of votes, three votes being assigned to the Bohemian nation and only one to all the rest. The Germans took deep umbrage, and seceded to Leipsic, where, a bull having been obtained from Alexander V. (9th September 1409), a new "studium generale" was founded by the landgrave of Thuringia and the margraves of Meissen. The members were divided into four nations composed of natives of Meissen, Saxony, Bavaria, and Poland. Two colleges were founded, a greater and a smaller, but designed, not for poor students, but for masters of arts, twelve being admitted on the former and eight on the latter foundation. The first university of northern Germany was that of Rostock, founded by the dukes John and Albert of Mecklenburg, the scheme receiving the sanction of Martin V. in a bull dated 13th February 1419 as that of a "studium generale " in all the faculties excepting theology. The faculty of theology was added in the year 1432. Two colleges were also founded, with the same design and on the same scale as at Leipsic.

No little illustration is afforded by the circumstances attending the foundation of the French universities of the struggle that was going on between the crown and the Roman see. The earliest foundation in the 15th century was that of Poitiers. It was instituted by Charles VII. in 1431, almost immediately after his accession, with the special design of creating a centre of learning less favour able to English interests than Paris had at that time shown herself to be. Eugenius IV. could not refuse his sanction to the scheme, but he endeavoured partially to defeat Charles's design by conferring on the new "studium generale" only the same privileges as those possessed by Toulouse, and thus placing it at a disadvantage in comparison with Paris. Charles rejoined by an extraordinary exercise of his own prerogative, conferring on Poitiers all the privileges collectively possessed by Paris, Toulouse, Montpellier, Angers, and Orleans, and at the same time placing the university under special royal protection. The foundation of the university of Caen, in the diocese of Bayeux, was attended by conditions almost exactly the reverse of those which belonged to the foundation of that at Poitiers. It was founded under English auspices during the short period of the supremacy of the English arms in Normandy in the 15th century. Its charter (May 1437) was given by Eugenius IV., and the bishop of Bayeux was appointed its chancellor. The university of Paris had by this time completely forfeited the favour of Eugenius by its attitude at the council of Basel, and Eugenius inserted in the charter for Caen a clause of an entirely novel character, requiring all those admitted to degrees to take an oath of fidelity to the see of Rome, and to bind themselves to attempt nothing prejudicial to her interests. To this proviso the pragmatic sanction of Bourges was the reply given by Charles in the following year. On 18th May 1442 we find King Henry VI. writing to Eugenius, and dwelling with satisfaction on the rapid progress of the new university, to which, he says, students had flocked from all quarters, and were still daily arriving. On 30th October 1452 its charter was given afresh by Charles in terms which left the original charter unrecognized; both teachers and learners were made subject to the civil authorities of the city, while all privileges conferred in the former charter

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