Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/862

* UNIVERSITY. 738 UNIVERSITY. ods of treatment, and tlie greater freedom of thought were responsible for the building up of the first universities of Northern Europe, and the most influential of all mediseval universities, that of Paris. The students were no longer necessarily des- tined for monastic or clerical life, though most of them were. At least the discipline was much less strict, and the students would not adapt them- selves to the closely regulated life of monastery or cathedral. The students were no longer drawn from a restricted area, but were admitted from any region, and great numbers flocked to schools in foreign lands. Civil and canon law, medicine and theology were now added to the seven lib- eral arts. The determining characteristic of the universi- ties, however, was their specialization; each of the earlier universities was especially strong in some one line. At Salerno, in Southern Italy, in the early part of the eleventh century, the monks had given special instruction in medicine, and the fame of this new seat of learning spread with the First Crusade. During the twelfth centu- ry great attention was paid to the study of Ro- man law, especially in Northern Italy, where the instruction centred in Bologna, and notably so during the life of the great teacher Irnerius. In Paris theologv' was the subject of interest beyond all others, though the majority of students there were students of the liberal arts, not yet qualified for the study of theology. These groups of students and teachers, drawn together from the most distant regions, were con- trolled by no monastic rules, were amenable to no political authorities, and were practically without protection in their rights and privileges if any then existed. Organization was necessary, and the natural tendency was to organize on the basis of nationality. The 'nations' were the first or- ganizations, and they, through their dele- gated officers, made the central organization of the body as a whole. Even before organization, as well as afterwards, such a body of students was termed a studhrm generale. To the organiza- tion the term universUas (corporation) was given, but never by itself alone. The terms most frequently used were univcrsxtas magistrorum, or nniversitas magistrorum ct scholarium. or vni- rersitatis coUcgium. In the course of time the various nations and faculties, each at first a nni- versitas, were united into one, the distinctions be- tween the terms studium generale and universitas were lost si^ht of, and the latter term was used alone to indicate the general body instead of the constituent parts. One great difference existed between the uni- versities of Southern and those of Northern Eu- rope. In the former, modeled as they were after Bologna, the students constituted the corpora- tion ; in the latter, modeled after Paris, the teach- ers controlled, if they did not always completely constitute, the corporation. The great reason for this distinction was that the students of the southern universities, especially those of Bologna, were mature students of law, capable of self- government, both on account of their age and the subject of study; while in the north they were the more youthful students of arts, many enter- ing Paris at the age of twelve or thirteen. The privileges which built up the universities were either local, bestowed to prevent removal elsewhere, or general, constituting them integral parts of Church and State. The State exemi)ted members of the universities from financial and military services, save under exceptional circum- stances; the Church bestowed the privilege of clergj', and above all the right to teach. Vhen the student had demonstrated his abilitj* to 'de- termine' and to 'define' the terms in the pre- scribed trivial (see Trivium) texts he received the bachelor's degree. When he had demonstrated his ability to conduct a 'disputation.' that is, an exposition of the more advanced texts, through a public defense of a thesis, the master's or doctor's degree was conferred. This entitled the recipient to teach within the limits of the university. Toward the end of the thirteenth century Pope Nicholas III. granted to the University of Paris the right of endowing its graduates with the power of teaching everywhere, a privilege later conferred upon most universities. The degrees themselves were similar to and probably borrowed from the corresponding stages in the learning of a craft or in the organization of chivalry. The earlier stage was an apprenticeship, the close of which was marked by the conferring of the bachelor's degree; the following was a journeyman's period, during which the candidate pursued his studies, and at the same time practiced his art by teach- ing the younger students the trivial studies. The master or doctor had the right to teach at least in his own and usually in any university, and dur- ing the earlier period he was under obligations to teach in his own. In the course of time it be- came customary to endow a select number of the graduates as permanent public teachers; these privileged and salaried graduates were designated professors, and instruction by professors more or less supplanted the original plan of teaching by graduates. The privat-doeent of the German uni- versities now represents the modification of the old regent graduates. The term 'faculty' was originally used in the most general sense of science or knowledge ; later to indicate a department of study, as the Faculty of Arts. Then a more special connotation became not unusual, as synonymous with the 'consortura magistrorum' or 'council of masters.' By ordi- nary usage, however, the term was applied to the subordinate corporation of masters, or of masters and students in particular departments of learn- ing. The University of Paris had at first only a Faculty of Arts, which existed in an organized form as early as 1169. In the thirteenth century Faculties of Theology, Medicine, and Canon Law were added. These,' with the Faculty of Civil Law. constituted the organization of the typical media>val university, though not all imiversities had all faculties represented even at the Renais- sance period. The primary units of organization of the universities were the nations, though by the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries these were succeeded in importance by the faculties. In Paris the Faculty of Arts was divided into four nations, known as French. Picard. Norman, and German or English. After the thirteenth cen- tury these four nations, under their respective procurators, and the three faculties subsequently added, under their deans, constituted the seven component parts of the university. The procura- tors and deans elected the rector of the univer- sity, its highest officer, who possessed executive authoritv of a delegated nature. The rector with