Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/882

Rh hopeless. At almost every university—Leipsic, Greifswald, and Prague (after 1209) being the principal exceptions the so-called Realists and Nominalists represented two great parties occupied with an internecine struggle. At Paris, owing to the overwhelming strength of the theologians, the Nominalists were indeed under a kind of ban; but at Heidelberg they had altogether expelled their antagonists. It was much the same at Vienna and at Erfurt,—the latter, from the ready reception which it gave to new speculation, being styled by its enemies "novorum omnium portus." At Basel, under the leadership of the eminent Johannes a Lapide, the Realists with difficulty maintained their ground. Freiburg, Tübingen, and Ingolstadt, in the hope of diminishing controversy, arrived at a kind of compromise, each party having its own professor, and representing a distinct "nation." At Mainz the authorities adopted a manual of logic which was essentially an embodiment of Nominalistic principles.

In Italy, almost without exception, it was decided that these controversies were endless, and that their effects were pernicious. It was resolved, accordingly, to expel logic, and allow its place to be filled by rhetoric. It was by virtue of this decision, which was of a tacit rather than a formal character, that the expounders of the new learning in the 15th century, men like Emmanuel Chrysoloras, Guarino, Leonardo Bruni, Bessarion, Argyropulos, and Valla, carried into effect that important revolution in academic studies which constitutes a new era in university learning, and largely helped to pave the way for the Reformation. This discouragement of the controversial spirit, continued as it was in relation to theological questions after the Reformation, obtained for the Italian universities a fortunate immunity from dissensions like those which, as we shall shortly see, distracted the centres of learning in Germany. The professorial body also attained to an almost unrivalled reputation. It was exceptionally select, only those who were in receipt of salaries being permitted, as a rule, to lecture; it was also famed for its ability, the institution of concurrent chairs proving an excellent stimulus. These chairs were of two kinds—"ordinary" and "extraordinary,"—the former being the more liberally endowed and fewer in number. For each subject of importance there were thus always two and sometimes three rival chairs, and a powerful and continuous emulation was thus maintained among the teachers. "From the integrity of their patrons, and the lofty standard by which they were judged," says Sir W. Hamilton, "the call to a Paduan or Pisan chair was deemed the highest of all literary honours. The status of professor was in Italy elevated to a dignity which in other countries it has never reached; and not a few of the most illustrious teachers in the Italian seminaries were of the proudest nobility of the land. While the universities of other countries had fallen from Christian and cosmopolite to sectarian and local schools, it is the peculiar glory of the Italian that, under the enlightened liberality of their patrons, they still continued to assert their European universality. Creed and country were in them no bar, the latter not even a reason of preference. Foreigners of every nation are to be found among their professors; and the most learned man in Scotland (Dempster) sought in a Pisan chair that theatre for his abilities which he could not find at home."

The Reformation represents the great boundary line in the history of the mediæval universities, and also, for a long time after, the main influence in the history of those new foundations which subsequently arose in Protestant countries. Even in Catholic countries its secondary effects were scarcely less perceptible, as they found expression in connexion with the Counter-Reformation. In Germany the Thirty Years War was attended by consequences which were felt long after the 17th century. In France the Revolution of 1789 resulted in the actual uprooting of the university system.

The influences of the New Learning, and the special character which it assumed as it made its way in Germany in connexion with the labours of scholars like Erasmus, John Reuchlin, Ulrich von Hutten, and Melanchthon, augured well for the future. It was free from the frivolities, the pedantry, the immoralities, and the scepticism which characterized so large a proportion of the corresponding culture in Italy. It gave promise of resulting at once in a critical and enlightened study of the masterpieces of classical antiquity, and in a reverent and yet rational interpretation of the Scriptures and the fathers. The fierce bigotry and the ceaseless controversies evoked by the promulgation of Lutheran or Calvinistic doctrine dispelled, however, this hopeful prospect, and converted what might otherwise have become the tranquil abodes of the Muses into gloomy fortresses of sectarianism. Of the manner in which it affected the highest culture, the observation of Henke in his Life of Calixtus (i. 8), that for a century after the Reformation the history of Lutheran theology becomes almost identified with that of the German universities, may serve as an illustration.

The first Protestant university was that of Marburg, founded by Philip the Magnanimous, landgrave of Hesse, 30th May 1527. Expressly designed as a bulwark of Lutheranism, it was mainly built up out of the confiscation of the property of the religious orders in the Hessian capital. The house of the Dominicans, who had fled on the first rumour of spoliation, was converted into lecture-rooms for the faculty of jurisprudence. The church and convent of the order known as the "Kugelherrn" was appropriated to the theological faculty. The friary of the Barefooted Friars was shared between the faculties of medicine and philosophy. The university, which was the object of the margrave's peculiar care, rapidly rose to celebrity; it was resorted to by students from remote countries, even from Greece, and its professors were of distinguished ability. How much, however, of this popularity depended on its theological associations is to be seen in the fact that after the year 1605, when, by the decree of Count Maurice, its formulary of faith was changed from Lutheran to Calvinistic, its numbers greatly declined. This dictation of the temporal power now becomes one of the most notable features in academic history in Protestant Germany. The universities, having repudiated the papal authority, while that of the episcopal order was at an end, now began to pay especial court to the temporal ruler, and sought in every way to conciliate his goodwill, representing with peculiar distinctness the theory,—cujus regio, ejus religio. This tendency was further strengthened by the fact that their colleges, bursaries, and other similar foundations were no longer derived from or supported by ecclesiastical institutions, but were mainly dependent on the civil power.

The Lutheran university of Königsberg was founded 17th August 1544 by Albert III., margrave of Brandenburg, and the first duke of Prussia, and his wife Dorothea, a Danish princess. In this instance, the religious character of the foundation not having been determined at the commencement, the papal and the imperial sanction were both applied for, although not accorded. King Sigismund of Poland, however, which kingdom exercised at that time a protectorate over the Prussian duchy, ultimately gave the necessary charter (29th September 1561), at the same time ordaining that all students who graduated as masters in the faculty of philosophy should rank as nobles of the