Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/151

Rh the gathering places of indolent and ignorant monks whose sole aim it was to make themselves as comfortable as they could with the least possible trouble and to monopolize the direction of affairs. Though a few exceptions might be cited, still the learned profession, taken as a whole, kept sinking deeper and deeper from the position it had occupied in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as we gradually approach the period of the Reformation. The schools became perfectly demoralized, and but few efficient teachers could be found. (1446-1526) therefore deserves special mention. He was rector of the Aarhus academy and distinguished himself in many ways. Many of the prominent men of the reformation period were indebted to him for their education.

The former earnest desire for higher culture also diminished more and more. The ardor, which had impelled so many Danes to visit the celebrated foreign university, was damped. There were but few who had any ambition to acquire fame by their learning, and these few endeavored to obtain their knowledge with as little effort and sacrifice as possible. They contented themselves with visiting the German universities, and men of real learning were exceedingly rare exceptions. The establishment of a university in Copenhagen on the 1st of June, 1479, did not produce any marked change in this respect. The want of a Danish university had long been felt, and Erik of Pomerania had already in 1419 secured the pope's consent to found one, but had been compelled to abandon the project. The university of Cologne was taken as a model for the Copenhagen university, and from the former came the first faculty of teachers and the first class of students.

Meanwhile this institution did not at first accomplish what was expected from it. The chief reason was that the age no longer favored the catholic principles on which the