Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/439

 THE MEDIEVAL REVIVAL OF LEARNING 389 written about 1267 at the request of Pope Clement IV, argued that philosophy and science could be of great iservice to the Church, and classed "experimental science" jwith the ancient languages, mathematics, optics, and ethics All this teaching, studying, and enthusiasm for learning resulted in the organization of universities in those places i where there were from year to year enough Ri se of teachers and students to form a permanent in- umverslties stitution of higher learning. At a later date universities were founded by princes, such as that established at Naples by Frederick II, or by the municipal authorities in the Ital- ian communes; and then professors were called from other I places and students were gradually attracted. But the old- jest universities, such as those of Paris, Bologna, and Ox- jford, grew up spontaneously and almost imperceptibly out j of the wanderings of students and the instruction given by i individual teachers in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The informal character of this early teaching was slow to ! degrees nor examinations and attended or absented them- j selves from classes as they pleased. It was even longer j before the universities came to possess costly permanent ■ buildings. But gradually the teachers united into faculties, j university statutes came into existence, and the students (organized themselves by "nations" or in other unions. At ! Paris there were four nations, the English, Normans, ' Picards, and "French." The chief faculties were those of i arts, whose instruction led to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, of Medicine, of Civil Law, of i Canon Law, and of Theology. As the names Bologna, Paris, 1 and Oxford suggest, universities first developed in Italy, France, and England. They also soon were flourishing in Spain, but Germany, whose universities have been so num- i erous and celebrated in recent times, lagged behind in medieval education. The first university in the part of the Holy Roman Empire lying north of the Alps was founded in 1348 at Prague in Bohemia, where most of the population
 * as the five subjects of most importance after theology.
 * disappear, and for a long time many students took neither