UNIVERSITY OF PARIS.

The commencement of this famous university is not recorded. Tradition has assigned its origin to Charlemagne, and it is consequently referred to the beginning of the ninth century; but this opinion rests on no distinct evidence, and has been rejected by all recent writers who have examined the subject. Among the schools which the great emperor of the west established, it is doubtful whether we can reckon that of Paris; and though there are some traces of public instruction being given in that city about the end of the ninth century, it is not certain that we can assume it to be more ancient. For two hundred years more, it can only be said that some persons appear to have come to Paris for the purposes of study; but the history of the school is very obscure, and, according to Hallam, "it would be hard to prove an unbroken continuity, or at least a dependence and connection of its professors." From the beginning of the twelfth century, Paris became the resort of learned men, who attached themselves in some degree to the existing schools, and infused new life into them by delivering public lectures on scholastic theology. One of these was William of Champeaux, who opened a school of logic in 1109, which is remarkable as the era from which alone the university can deduce the regular succession of its teachers. This celebrated dialectician, whose fame attracted crowds of pupils, was eclipsed by his disciple, afterwards his rival and adversary, Peter Abelard, to whose brilliant and hardy genius the university appears to be indebted for its rapid advancement as a seminary of school-divinity. One of Abelard's pupils was Peter Lombard, afterwards archbishop of Paris, whose Liber Sententiarum, a digest of propositions extracted from the fathers, obtained the highest authority among the scholastic disputants. These and some other less distinguished preceptors first gave permanency to the future university.

The learning communicated in this ancient school, as in others of the same age, was comprised in two courses, called the Trivium and Quadrivium, terms employed from a very early age to denote the seven liberal arts or sciences; of which the objects are enumerated in the following line:

"lingua, tropus, ratio, numerus, tonus, angulus, astre."

The first course comprehended grammar, logic, and rhetoric; the second, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. It may easily be imagined, that in the tenth and eleventh centuries the extent of learning comprehended under these seven heads was not very great; but small as

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1 This division of the sciences is ascribed to St Augustin, and was certainly established early in the sixth century. (Hallam's Middle Ages, iii. 521.) The enumeration answered to the seven cardinal virtues, seven deadly sins, seven sacraments, &c., and was comprehended in these memorial lines,

GRAMM. loquitur; DIA. vera docet; RHET. verba colatet; MUS. canit; AR. numerat; GEO. ponderat; AST. colit astra.

But most of these sciences were scarcely taught at all. The arithmetic, for instance, of Cassiodorus or Capella is nothing, but a few definitions mingled with superstitious absurdities about the virtues of certain numbers and figures. The university, as a corporate body, had as yet no existence; and the teachers, on whom its reputation rested, delivered their lectures in Paris and its neighbourhood, or wherever the prospect of success invited them. It consisted of a congeries of schools, partly in connection with the churches and monasteries, and partly formed by the celebrity of literary adventurers. The number of these schools in the middle of the twelfth century was great; encouragement produced masters, and able masters increased the number of scholars. The continually increasing number of teachers and students rendered it expedient to establish in the university some form of government to maintain the regularity and discipline necessary to its permanent success; and it accordingly appears to have been incorporated into a society towards the end of the twelfth century. Matthew Paris informs us that John de la Celle, elected abbot of St Albans in 1195, had studied at Paris, and had been elected into the company or body of established teachers.

The antiquity of the different component parts of the university is involved in great uncertainty. The faculty of arts appears to have existed at a very early period, and had assumed a regular form of self-government before the year 1169. In this year Henry II. of England offered to refer the adjustment of his dispute with Becket to the peers of France, the Gallican Church, or the provinces (nations) of the school of Paris. The head or rector of the university is named in an ordinance of Philip Augustus in 1200; the procurators of the nations (procuratores nationum) in 1218; the faculty of theology existed as a separate body in 1267; the faculties of the canon law and medicine in 1281; the rights of the chancellor of Notre Dame were exercised in 1169. The oldest public documents extant which have reference to the Parisian school are two decrets of Pope Alexander III., the first in 1180, directed against the practice, which had been introduced by the chancellor, of exacting fees for licenses to teach; and the second, of nearly the same date, relieving Peter Comestor, who was then chancellor, from this prohibition. The practice of receiving fees seems to have been revived; for when Innocent III., in 1215, by his legate Robert de Courçon, regulated the institutions of the university, he found it necessary to renew the ordinance that nothing should be given to the chancellor for granting licenses. This ordinance, according to Savigny, is remarkable as being the first in which the term university (universitas) is applied to the school of Paris; thereby implying the recognition and sanction of the university by the papal see, a sanction which was especially valuable, and even indispensable to its continued existence, when theology had become its leading study and its distinguishing characteristic. Pope Nicholas IV., towards the end of the thirteenth century, conferred upon the university the additional privilege that the doctors who were there approved should everywhere have the power of teaching, lecturing, and directing schools (docendi, legendi, regendi), and should enjoy the privileges and rank of doctors throughout Christendom. Philip Augustus, by his ordinance of 1200, granted to the university exemption from the ordinary tribunals, even from those of the church; prohibited the citizens, under the severest penalties, from molesting the students; and in the few cases in which the magistrates of the city were allowed to interfere, they were obliged to deliver over the culprit to his academical superiors. The person of the rector of the schools was declared to be sacred; and the provost of the city, immediately after his installation, was required to wait on the masters and scholars in full assembly, and in their presence solemnly to swear that he would carefully observe and fulfil the designs of the ordinance. This ceremony continued to be observed till 1592. The example of Philip was followed by the kings of France during the two succeeding centuries, and by them the privileges and immunities of the university were still further increased. By various regal enactments, the masters and scholars were exempted from all taxes imposed to defray the expenses of war, the king's court, family, representatives, or officers; from all customs, taxes, or personal burdens; were declared not liable to arrest, or to seizure or sequestration of goods; and were specially exempted from being summoned out of Paris in any legal process. The popes were not less active in its support. By a letter of Innocent IV., it was provided that no one should promulgate a sentence of excommunication, suspension, or interdict, against the university, or any of its members, without the special license of the apostolic see; and that, if promulgated, it should be null and void.

The University of Paris, thus recognised by the pope, Students, and encouraged by the fostering care of the kings of France, soon became the most distinguished seminary of learning in Europe, and students resorted to it with an eagerness for instruction which may well excite surprise when we reflect how little of what is now deemed useful could be there obtained. A more systematic course of study was introduced; theology and the arts ceased to be the only subjects taught; medicine began to assume the form of a science; and the canon law, under the special patronage of the church, took its place as a new branch of jurisprudence. The study of the civil law was introduced in the twelfth century, soon after its revival at Bologna, but was prohibited by Pope Honorius III. in 1220—a prohibition which Innocent IV. endeavoured to extend to the whole of France, England, Scotland, and Hungary. Some attempts were made to revive it under the authority of the Parliament of Paris in 1368; but the prohibition was renewed, and the university was not finally relieved from it till the year 1679. The number of students in the twelfth century nearly equalled that of the citizens, and included individuals from every part of Christendom. At the death of Charles VII., in 1453, it amounted to 25,000; and, when Joseph Scaliger was a student, it had reached 30,000.

Having thus traced the University of Paris from its origin to its full establishment, we shall now give a short analysis of its constitution in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The most ancient part of the university was the faculty of arts or philosophy, which is believed to have

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1 This barbarous verse was written in commendation of the learning of Alanus de Insulis, who was one of the most famous scholars of his time, and who, according to Du Boulay, taught theology in Paris in the latter part of the twelfth century. (Courtingius, Suppl. xlvii.)

2 Geschichts, iii. 318. It is addressed to Scholastica Parisiensium. The same name is given to it by Rigord, in his history of that period, and is assumed by that learned body in a public deed, a.d. 1221. (Rigord, Hist., p. 205.) "Nos universitas magistrorum et scholae nostrae."

3 This ordinance was published in consequence of a quarrel between the students and the citizens headed by their provost, in which some foreign students of eminence were killed. The masters presented their complaint to the king, demanded justice against the provost and his accomplices, and even threatened, with their scholars, to leave the city. The provost was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and provision was made for the future protection and safety of the students. (Bailul, Hist. Un. Par. iii., pp. 2 and 3.)

4 M'Crie's Life of Melville, i., pp. 419, 420. To the cause of this prohibition it is unnecessary to advert. The popes were too quicksighted, and too much alive to their own interests, not to perceive that the authority delegated to the civil magistrate by the civil law militated against their own absolute ecclesiastical claims.

5 The term Faculty, in all the older universities, denoted the body of teachers or graduates who, besides the privilege of lecturing on UNIVERSITIES.

Paris had a special connection with the church of St Geneviève, and probably originated in the school attached to that church. In all the ancient continental universities the members were divided into nations; these varying in number according to the will of the respective founders. In Paris the faculty of arts, which, for this purpose, included all members who were not doctors, was divided into four nations:—1. The French nation, including the French, Italian, Spaniards, Greeks, &c.; 2. The nation of Picardy, which included the students from the north-east of France, and also the Netherlands; 3. The nation of Normandy, comprehending those from the west; 4. The English nation (after 1430, called the German nation), which, besides the students from the provinces subject to the English, as Poitou, Guienne, &c., included the English, Scottish, Irish, Poles, Germans, &c. In these nations were enrolled the professors and students from the respective districts, without any distinction arising from the departments of learning to which they were devoted. This division, as we have already seen, existed in 1169; and there is a concordat of the four nations respecting the election of a rector in the year 1206, which proves that, at that time, their privileges were recognised and acted upon. Each nation formed an independent body, had its own patron, church, place of meeting, academical buildings, great and small seal, &c., and managed exclusively its own affairs. At the head of each was a procurator, elected from their own number, whose duty it was to defend the rights and privileges of the nation, to convene and preside in its meetings, swear in new office-bearers and new members, and to see that all the acts and statutes were duly observed. The four procurators, with the rector, originally constituted the ordinary council of the university, in which its general government and legislation were vested. Their power extended even to the infliction of corporal punishment, some examples of which are mentioned as early as 1200, and in the fifteenth century they were not infrequent. They had a common seal, and as a corporate body were represented by the rector. Each nation was divided into provinces, and each province into dioceses. The names of the members of each province were enrolled in a register; and at their head was a dean, chosen by themselves. The deans formed the ordinary council of the procurator, and their assent was necessary in every undertaking of importance.

Chancellor. In all the old universities, the chancellor was the fountain of honour, the officer by whose authority degrees were conferred; and this dignity brought along with it considerable power. The office appears to have arisen out of that of the chancellors appointed by the bishops in their respective dioceses, to preside in their courts, and maintain discipline within the limits of the episcopal jurisdiction. After the full establishment of monasteries, the abbots claimed the same power, and created chancellors with similar authority. It belonged to the bishop and his chancellor to grant licenses to teach within his own diocese; and the same power was claimed and exercised by the abbot and his chancellor within the territory of the abbey. When the university was placed in an episcopal city, the bishop of the diocese was very often the chancellor; and if not the bishop, some other ecclesiastical dignitary appointed by him. The University of Paris being situate partly within the diocese of Paris, and partly within the abbey lands of St Geneviève, the power of granting license to students and masters was claimed and exercised by both. These chancellors were appointed, the one by his bishop, and the other by his abbot; the right of the latter extended to granting degrees in the arts only; that of the former to degrees in theology, law, and medicine. The chancellor of the church of St Geneviève was always the chancellor of the faculty of arts, though the bishop of Paris was the chancellor of the other three faculties, and was considered as the chancellor of the university at large. They chose their own deputies or vice-chancellors, appointed annual examiners of candidates for degrees, but had no power to interfere in the internal government of the university.

The rector, who has been already mentioned as the head of the university, and who continued to be so in everything except the conferring of degrees, appears to have been originally chosen by the four nations voting collectively; but the number of students belonging to the French nation gave it so decided a superiority, that the other three became dissatisfied, and at last seceding, elected a rector for themselves. To put an end to this difference, which threatened the prosperity of the university, and to restore unity and peace, delegates were appointed, by whose mediation it was agreed, and confirmed by the seals of the four nations, A.D. 1249, that the election should in future be vested in the four procurators, with certain provisions if they were not unanimous. After the year 1280, the rector was chosen by electors specially appointed for the purpose. He was eligible from the faculty of arts only, and continued in office for three months, when he might be re-elected, or another chosen in his room. He presided in the general meetings of the university, took charge of the registers and public money, and administered generally the government of the university. Within the city he took precedence, not only of all the officers and members of the university, but also of bishops, papal nuncios, and legates.

Such was the constitution of the University of Paris till the middle of the thirteenth century. About this time the Dominican and Franciscan friars, supported by the pope and the bishop of Paris, succeeded in establishing the faculty of theology, which, after a strenuous opposition on the part of the heads of the university, was recognised in the year 1259. Faculties of medicine and the canon law very soon modelled themselves upon that of theology. The three faculties are separately mentioned in a deliberation which took place in the year 1277, and four years after, were confirmed in all the rights and privileges of the university. At the head of each faculty was a dean, chosen in the same manner as Deans, the procurators of the nations, who presided in its meetings, and represented the body. From this period, therefore, the school of Paris, which had hitherto consisted of four bodies, was composed of seven, namely, of four nations and three faculties, represented respectively in the general council by four procurators and three deans. To the three new faculties belonged doctors only. The bachelors and scholars of theology, law, and medicine, were still included in the foundations of the faculty of arts. The general government of the university was vested in the council of seven, with the rector as president. The general assembly or convocation, comprehending all the masters, scholars, and officers (omnes magistri, tum regentes, quam non-regentes), was convened on great and

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1 They issued the decree which shut up the schools till redress was obtained from the king for the insults and injuries sustained by their body from the provost and citizens of Paris. According to Du Boulay, they formed the only governing body till 1260. (Hist. Univ. Par. iii. 563.)

2 The power thus vested in the heads of ecclesiastical establishments to which schools were attached was sometimes used, through personal motives, for the exclusion of fit and able teachers, as well as for the purpose of extorting a high price for license to teach. In the pontificate of Alexander III., A.D. 1179, a Lateran council enacted, "that every competent person ought to be admitted to teach;" and in the following year the pope himself issued a decree, containing the following clause:—"Ut quicumque viri etiam et literati voluerint regere studia literarum, sine molestia et exactione qualibet scholas regere permittantur." (Corringius, Dissert. iv., sect. 24.) Interesting occasions only; and general meetings of all the regents were sometimes held for literary business, for framing statutes respecting discipline, privileges, and order. The meetings of faculties took cognizance each of its own members, in matters chiefly of a literary nature.

The subordinate officers were, the syndic; the general procurator or agent of the university, who appears to have been an occasional rather than a permanent officer; and the griffier or recorder, who was the clerk and assessor. Each nation and faculty had its own clerk and assessor. There were also two classes of messengers, who were employed in transacting business of various kinds for the students.

The university, as a corporation, was always very poor, and never possessed any public building; but was obliged to hold its meetings in the houses of the religious orders who were willing to grant the requisite accommodation. The teachers originally delivered their lectures in such rooms as they could hire for hire or otherwise obtain the use of. Afterwards, however, halls or schools for the use of their teachers were provided by the several faculties. Those of the faculty of arts and philosophy, which appear to have been very numerous, were in the Rue de la Sorbonne (rue St-Samson), and were apportioned among the nations of the faculty.

The great concourse of students to the early universities, rendered it difficult for them to obtain lodgings, and gave rise to exorbitant demands on the part of the townsmen in whose houses they were forced to reside. To remedy this inconvenience, various expedients were adopted, but with inadequate effect. Frederick II., when he founded the University of Naples, in 1224, fixed a maximum price for lodgings, and enacted that they should be according to a joint valuation of two citizens and two scholars. A similar regulation was adopted at Bologna, and established about 1237, by Gregory IX., for the University of Paris. The taxes were two maravedis of the university, and two burgesses elected with the consent of the masters. It was also provided that, when lodgings had once been hired, the student should not be disturbed in the possession of them, so long as he paid his rent, and conducted himself properly. Notwithstanding these regulations, the hardships to which the poorer students were exposed induced charitable individuals to provide houses, in which a certain number of indigent scholars might be accommodated with free lodgings during the progress of their studies. The example was first set by the religious orders, who established in several of the university towns hostels (hospices) for those of their members who resorted thither, either as teachers or learners. Free board was soon added to free lodging, and in many cases small exhibitions or stipends to defray the necessary expenses of the scholars. For the sake of discipline, these foundations were placed under the superintendence of one or more graduates, who assisted and instructed their pupils, but only in subservience to the public lectures and exercises of the university. Such establishments were called tens, hostels, halls, or colleges; the last term being generally restricted to foundations which provided for the support of several graduates. These institutions, at first established on a small scale, led to the foundation of the colleges, which afterwards formed one of the most important and essential branches of the university.

Paris was the university in which collegiate establishments were first founded. Du Boulay argues that colleges may be dated as far back as the university itself; and Crevier enumerates fifteen which were founded during the thirteenth century, besides one or two of a still earlier date. Savigny considers the famous college of the Sorbonne, which was founded by Robert de Sorbonne, confessor of St Louis, in 1250, as the most ancient in Paris. Crevier probably included in his enumeration the hospita established by the religious orders, which cannot properly be considered as colleges. During the fourteenth century many new colleges were founded, the most celebrated of which were those of Navarre and Du Plessis. The former, which is said sometimes to have contained 700 pupils, was founded by Joanna, queen of Philip the Fair, in 1304; and the latter by Geoffroi du Plessis, apostolic secretary to Philip V., in 1322. The Collegium Triangulare, or Royal Trilingual College, was founded by Francis I. in 1559.

The following account of the Parisian colleges is given by Mr Melden:—“The great colleges of Paris stood on a footing very different from the colleges of the English universities. They soon became appropriated to particular faculties, or to particular departaments of a faculty. Sometimes, but rarely, they included more than one faculty. Thus the theological faculty was collected at an early period in the college of the Sorbonne; and all its lectures and public disputations took place there, with the exception of two courses delivered in the college of Navarre. Regent masters were nominated by the faculties as lecturers in the colleges. These lecturers remained subject to their several faculties, and were liable to be controlled or removed by them. Consequently, attendance on their courses was considered as equivalent to attendance on the public courses delivered in the schools of the university. The colleges speedily began to admit within their walls scholars who were not supported by their foundations; and the college lectures were ultimately thrown open to the members of other colleges, and to those scholars of the university who belonged to no college at all. This took place in the course of the fifteenth century. The lectures in the public schools were thus almost entirely superseded, at least in the faculties of theology and arts; and the colleges became the instruments of the public instruction of the university. During the latter half of the fifteenth century, the great colleges of the faculty of arts, or, as they were called, the colleges ‘de plein exercice,’ amounted to eighteen; although by the middle of the seventeenth century they had fallen to ten. There were about eighty other colleges of which more than half still survived in the eighteenth century, which provided their scholars with lodging and board, and sometimes with small stipends, but taught them only the elements of philology, sending them for all higher learning to the lecturers of the great colleges. The college of Navarre alone appears to have confined its instruction to its own scholars. In this age of the university it became usual for all the scholars to belong to some college. Those students of the university who were not attached to any college, were known by the name of Martines. As they were less amenable to discipline than the students of the colleges, the legislation of the university was directed against them; and at length it was made imperative on all scholars of the faculty of arts to be members of some college. The rule was not enforced on students of the higher faculties.”

The origin of academical degrees, like many other points connected with the early history of universities, is involved in obscurity. According to Du Boulay, degrees were conferred, after a strict regular examination, from the very foundation of the university; while others assert that they were first introduced by Inerius into the University of Bologna about the year 1150, and thence transferred to the Parisian school. That such distinctions existed at a very early period is unquestionable, but there is not sufficient evidence to justify us in believing that they were coeval with the earliest universities. The oldest degrees were those in arts. The term bachelor, used as the designation of the lowest degree in each faculty, which is said to have been peculiar to the feudal or military law of France, seems to warrant the inference that the whole system of academical honours has been borrowed from the university of Paris. The terms master and doctor, were originally synonymous, and were designations given in their common meaning to persons engaged in teaching, and not titles conferred by authority after a prescribed course of study or a formal examination. In process of time the name master was restricted to teachers of the liberal arts, and the title of doctor was assumed by the teachers of theology, law, and medicine. The term professor, though less frequent in early times, had originally the same signification, and denoted a person who professed to teach a particular subject. In the English universities the Latin designation of a doctor of divinity still is “sancte theologiae professor.” Professor is now, in academical language, applied to a salaried graduate, either actually employed in teaching, or at least whose duty it is to teach. When the masters of particular schools adopted regulations, which were afterwards confirmed by public authority, to prevent unqualified persons from assuming their office, the terms master, doctor, professor, became titles indicating a certain rank, and conveying certain powers in the scholastic body. They were still, however,

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1 Previously to the erection of this college, there was no provision in the university for instructing young men in the learned languages. It was originally intended, as its name imports, for teaching Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; although it was some time before a teacher of Latin was appointed, owing to the opposition made by the members of the university, which led Erasmus, in one of his letters, to call them bilingual pedants. (McCrie’s Life of Melville, i., pp. 19, 20.)

2 The inferior degree of Bachelor is said to have been first instituted by Gregory IX., whose pontificate continued from 1227 to 1241. They probably derived their name from basilica (little slaves), either because they were admitted by receiving a little wand, or because they adopted the titles of the novices of the soldiery, who exercised with sticks in order to learn to fight with arms. The word bachelor is commonly derived from bar chevalier, the humblest species of knight, in opposition to the knight bannaret, but for this expression no authority has been produced. Bachelor is a very old word, and is used in early French poetry for a young man, as bachelotte is for a girl. UNIVERSITIES.

Paris.

Regents.

Professors.

Course of study.

Degrees in divinity and law.

Dress.

The antiquity of this famous school is at least equal to History, that of Paris; and were it necessary to construe the word university in the strict sense of a legal incorporation, it might lay claim to still higher antiquity, inasmuch as its teachers obtained some important privileges before any such concession was made to those at Paris. It is alleged, and apparently on documentary evidence, that the Emperor Theodosius established a school at Bologna in 438, which, after it had fallen into decay, was restored by Charlemagne. It is probable that the school continued in existence from the period last mentioned; but there is no evidence that it was entitled to the name university, as that word was understood in the thirteenth century. According to Hal-lam, there are few vestiges of studies pursued in that city in the eleventh century; and there was also, in the same century, a school of the liberal arts at Ravenna, and a college of judges and advocates, who, besides administering and practising law, taught its principles in a public school. Masters and scholars are mentioned in documents of that age; and a certain individual, who was probably the head, is called legis doctor. A lawyer, named Pepo, who is designated by this appellation, delivered lectures on law about 1075, but without attracting much notice.

We may safely assume that, like the other early universities, the progress of Bologna was gradual, and that its origin cannot be traced to any definite period of arbitrary establishment. The fame of successful teachers attracted pupils to their schools; and these, settling in the city, gradually claimed for themselves rights and privileges, which the citizens found it to be their interest to recognise, and which, in process of time, obtained the sanction of the emperor.

The university started suddenly into celebrity in the Roman early part of the twelfth century, when Irnerius began to teach the Roman law. (See Civil Law.) This great

1 The technical term signifying to teach in the public schools, was regere; and the master of arts, or doctor of any faculty, upon his creation, necessarily became a regent, that is, a teacher in the schools. In Paris, the masters who were desirous of exercising this privilege, petitioned their faculty pro regentia et scholi; and schools, as they fell vacant, were granted to them by their nations according to seniority.

2 Middendorf (lib. iv., p. 3) confesses himself unable to fix the year, but says that it took place during the reign of Theodosius, which began a.d. 425 and continued twenty-seven years. The date here given is that of Savigny, who appears however to doubt the genuineness of the documents. (Savigny, iii. 147.) Bologna civilian is to be regarded, not only as the founder of the University of Bologna, but as the author of a grand revolution in the jurisprudence of Europe. While engaged in teaching the liberal arts at Ravenna, he accepted an invitation from the civic authorities of Bologna, and opened a school in that city. He was employed as a lecturer in arts when copies of some of the books of the code of Justinian, which were beginning to excite attention and to be circulated through Italy, reached Bologna. Irenius applied himself diligently to the study of them, and, after making himself master of their contents, undertook to expound them in the public schools. According to Conringius, he engaged in this course of lectures with the sanction of the republic of Bologna, and was rewarded for his labours at the public expense. His zeal and energy collected large crowds of pupils and gave an effectual impulse to the study of Roman law throughout Italy, while they raised the reputation of the lecturer to a pre-eminent height. The precise time at which Irenius commenced his lectures has not been ascertained, nor are the events of the latter part of his life known. His name is mentioned in the records of public business and judicial proceedings between the years 1118 and 1118, when he appears to have relinquished his scholastic labours, and to have entered the service of the imperial court. By some he is supposed to have returned to his academical labours after the death of his patron Henry V. Signorius, in his History of Bologna, fixes the time of his death in the year 1150.

The study of law being thus revived, made surprising progress, and its fame spread rapidly from Italy over other parts of Europe. Students flocked from all parts to Bologna, and some eminent masters of that school repeated its lessons in distant countries. Throughout this and several succeeding centuries, the schools of Bologna continued to be pre-eminent for legal learning. About the year 1220 they contained 10,000 students, and in the middle of the fourteenth century the number had increased to 13,000.

Canon law. "Not very long after the revival of the civil law, another subject of study, of much less intrinsic worth, was brought into public notice at Bologna. In the early ages of the church, the public letters of bishops were known by the name of decretals (epistolae decretales)," the influence of which, at first feeble, kept pace with the increase of the papal power, till the decrets of the apostolic see came to be regarded as of equal authority with the canons of councils. In 1151, Gratian, a monk of St Felix in Bologna, published a collection of these epistles, which was known simply by the title of Decretum; a compilation which was immediately received with great favour, and was made the subject of public lectures in Bologna in the pontificate of Eugenius III., who died in the year 1153; and many scholars were attracted to the study of it. (See Canon Law.) Such was the origin of pontifical or canon law, a branch of jurisprudence which was long regarded by the church with peculiar favour. Of the school of arts and philosophy, in which the university originated, nothing is known during the twelfth century. Though obscured by the splendour of the rising school of law, it appears nevertheless to have maintained a certain degree of celebrity. The emperor, Frederick II., deemed it worthy of his patronage, and about the year 1220 transmitted to it certain works of Aristotle and other philosophers, which he had caused to be translated into Latin, partly from the original Greek, and partly from Arabic versions—a gift which gave a new impulse to the study of philosophy. The origin of the medical school is probably to be ascribed to the same emperor. Though the precise date of its establishment cannot be fixed, yet the intimate connection which, under Frederick, existed between Lombardy and the kingdom of Naples, renders it not improbable that he instituted at Bologna a school similar to that which had proved so eminently successful at Salerno. Conringius states (Diss., Bologn., iii.), that in the thirteenth century, Bologna possessed several celebrated professors of medicine, who were in possession of some few books of Hippocrates and Galen, and of a good many translations of the Arabic physicians; and that their prelections attracted a large concourse of auditors.

The earliest historical document connected with the privileges university is the charter of privileges granted by the Emperor Frederick I. at Roncaglia, in November 1158. In this authentic or rescript, which is entitled Habita, it is provided, first, that foreign scholars travelling to any seminary of learning should be allowed to pass without molestation; and that no obstruction should be offered to them, nor claim made upon them, under pretence of any public offence, or debt of the province or city to which they belonged; and, secondly, that all scholars, if any lawsuit were brought against them, should have the option of having it determined either by the lord or master under whom they studied, or by the bishop of the diocese.

By these singular privileges, which were afterwards the immunities of other academical institutions, the students were exempted from the ordinary tribunals, while the professors were invested with important powers. It is true that Bologna is not expressly mentioned in the authentic; but that it was intended for the benefit of Bolognese scholars is apparent, because Bologna was by much the most celebrated school in the emperor's dominions, and probably the only one which was at that time frequented by foreign students. Teachers of law are specially mentioned, and Bologna was then the only school of law; and the permission granted to the student to bring his cause before his "lord and master," seems to assume that his judge was a legal character. An additional reason for applying the edict peculiarly to Bologna, is found in the fact stated by Conringius, that the principal professors in the university were at the time in attendance upon the emperor, having been invited by him to assist in deciding certain matters at issue between him and the cities of Lombardy. It can scarcely be doubted, therefore, that the edict was drawn up by them for the special benefit of their own university, though the language was purposely made general. The professors at first interpreted its provisions as conferring upon them criminal as well as civil jurisdiction; but, finding themselves unable to repress the violence of the students, they allowed the former to remain in the hands of the magistrates of the city, and assumed to themselves only the power of determining civil suits. This edict of Frederick I. is the earliest example of exemption or privilege granted to a university, and may be regarded as the source of the exclusive privileges which were afterwards conferred upon collegiate institutions. The increasing power of the university excited the jealousy of the inhabitants of the city, and led to frequent collisions, which, on more than one occasion, threatened the existence of the school; but which generally ended in extending and strengthening its privileges. In the year 1226, the Emperor Frederick II. threatened to remove the school of law, but in the following year recalled his decree.

Bologna was at an early period chiefly a school of law, and in this therefore the university mainly consisted. The scholars were divided into two bodies, or universities, as they were called—the citramontanes or natives of Italy, and the ultramontanes or foreigners; the former including the Italians, and the latter all foreigners. These were subdivided into nations; the citramontanes into seventeen, and the ultramontanes into eighteen. Each nation had its presiding officer, called its counsellor, except the nation of the Germans, which had two, under the name of procurators. At an early period the professors and scholars of arts and medicine endeavoured to form themselves into a separate university; but being opposed by the Bologna. jurists and prohibited by the city, they were compelled to rank themselves with the scholars of law. A few years after, they renewed their efforts, and their right as a distinct university was formally recognised by the city in 1316. After the middle of the fourteenth century, a theological school was established by Innocent VI. It was placed under the bishop of Bologna; as chancellor, and, like the theological faculty at Paris, consisted of doctors only, the scholars being considered as belonging to the *artiste*. Bologna had thus existed for more than two hundred years, as one of the most celebrated schools of learning, before theology formed a regular branch of study. Lectures in this faculty had been occasionally delivered, but the teachers were not authorised or sanctioned by the university.

From the year 1352, when the university of theology was founded, Bologna contained four universities—two of law; one of medicine and the arts, in which were included also the scholars of theology; and one of the doctors of theology. The two schools of law, however, formed together one whole, and are therefore frequently designated as one university.

"There were also formed," says Mr Malden, "in course of time, five colleges of doctors, which (with the exception of the theological college) were established upon quite a different principle. The theological college may have differed only in the number of its members from the university of theology; but there were two colleges of law, one of doctors of the civil law, the other of doctors of the canon law; and two separate colleges of doctors of philosophy and medicine. These colleges seem to have been corporations, in which a limited number of doctors of the several faculties were united, and monopolised the power of promotion and admission to degrees, to the exclusion of other doctors, who, according to the earlier constitution of the university, had an equal right to exercise it. They were confirmed, however, by the statutes of the year 1397. The first origin of the legal colleges runs back to the twelfth century; probably they were then open to all doctors. The legal colleges were each under a prior; how the others were governed, Savigny does not state. By these colleges or faculties the candidates for degrees were examined. They had a building for their common use, in which they met, near the cathedral; because the public examinations were held in the cathedral, and degrees solemnly conferred there. Savigny warns his readers that these colleges of civil and canon law are not to be confounded with the College of Doctors, Advocates, and Judges, which was an institution of the city of Bologna for civic purposes. It may not be superfluous to warn the English reader not to confound these colleges, which were merely corporate faculties, with the English notion of the word college. There were some colleges in our sense of the word, which were restricted to the relief of really indigent scholars; but these foundations never had any weight or influence in any Italian university."

The constitution of the university was based on certain statutes which were promulgated at various times, and confirmed by Innocent IV. in 1258; but of these, and of the privileges conferred by them, our limited space will not permit us to give any account. The statutes were revised and corrected every twenty years, by eight scholars appointed for the purpose, and called *statutorii*. They were again confirmed in 1544 by the pope, who had then become sovereign of the city, and were made binding on the whole community.

Savigny mentions as the leading distinction between the universities of Paris and Bologna, from the earliest period, that in the former the masters or teachers constituted the corporation considered as a privileged body, to the exclusion of the scholars; while, in the latter, the students formed the university, and had the power of selecting from their own body the academical officers, whom the professors were bound to obey. At the head of the universities of law was the rector, who took precedence of all the other officers. The rector is first mentioned towards the end of the twelfth century, when only one was elected. For a long period two were chosen, one for each university; and finally one, which appears to have been the case in 1514, and which was established as the rule before 1552. He was chosen annually by the preceding rector; the counsellors of the nations, and a certain number of electors appointed by the university at large, and was taken from the different nations, according to a regular order of succession. The necessary qualifications for a rector were, that he should be twenty-five years of age, a clericus, not a member of any religious order, and should have studied law for at least five years, at his own cost. The powers of the rector were extensive. He possessed supreme authority over all members of the university, except those of the German nation, who were subject to their own procurators alone. His civil jurisdiction was not doubted when both parties belonged to the university, or when a citizen consented to bring before him a suit against a scholar; but when a suit against a scholar was brought before the magistrates of the city, the claim of the rector to hear it generally gave rise to a violent contest between the city and the university. Soon after the institution of the rectorate, an attempt was made by the city to abolish the office, or to render it subservient to the civic power; but the university succeeded in maintaining its privileges, which were ultimately confirmed by the authority of the pope. The criminal jurisdiction of the rector was limited generally to matters of academical discipline. He had the power of punishing both professors and scholars by fine and expulsion; and, in deciding more serious matters, he sometimes acted in conjunction with the magistrates of the city. In 1544, the pope confirmed by a bull his criminal jurisdiction when both parties belonged to the university, and when the offence was not capital. The rector was assisted by a council, consisting of the counsellors of the nations.

In Bologna, as in Paris, there were two chancellors. Honorius Chancelor III., whose pontificate extended from 1216 to 1227, when he resigned, placed the promotions or collation of degrees in the school of law, placed them under the superintendence of the archdeacon of Bologna, whose consent, to prevent abuse, was rendered necessary. Savigny appears to consider this as a personal authority vested in the archdeacon for the time; but it was retained by his successors, who bore the title of chancellor, and exercised authority over all the faculties except the faculty of theology. The bishop of Bologna was constituted chancellor of the university of theologians, when this faculty was established by Innocent VI. in 1362. All honours emanated from the chancellors.

Besides the rector and chancellors, the other officers of the uni. Other verity were—1. The counsellors or representatives of the nations, officers who assisted the rector, and formed his council. Each nation elected one counsellor; the German nation was represented by two proconsulors, who were invested with judicial power over their own nation, independently of the rector. 2. The syndic or common agent of both universities, whose duty it was to defend their rights and privileges. He was elected annually from among the scholars, and was subject to the jurisdiction of the university at large. He received a salary of twelve lire, and latterly a third of all fines. 3. The notary, who was also common to both universities. 4. The treasurer, who was elected annually from the bankers of the city. 5. Two sodelli; one for each university.

The precise time when degrees, properly so called, began to be conferred, cannot be ascertained; but perhaps we shall not much err in asserting that they were nearly coeval with the university itself. The earliest teachers were designated *dominus*, *magister*, *judex*, lord, master, judge; but these were names given to them as public lecturers, and were not titles of honour, carrying with them certain privileges, conferred by authority, and after examination. *Magister* was probably applied indiscriminately to any teacher, while *dominus* and *judex* were designations assigned only to the teachers of the civil law. There appears to be no reason to doubt that the terms soon came to be used synonymously. Savigny states that, in the records of the university, *Iurisprudens* is styled *judex* or became a licentiate, that is, he obtained a license to present himself for public examination.

The convenans or public examination, by which the degree of doctor was acquired, took place in the cathedral, in presence of the Conventus universitatis, when the licentiate read a thesis, and an exposition of a legal question, which was criticised, not by the doctors, but by the scholars. This was followed by an address by the archdeacon, or from a doctor deputed by him, in which the new graduate was solemnly proclaimed. He was then presented with the insignia of his rank, and had his place in the cathedral assigned to him. It is probable that, in the earliest age of the university, this public examination by the scholars was the only one, and that the previous examination originated in an assumption of power by the doctors. The public examination frequently took place very soon after the private one, but sometimes a considerable interval was suffered to elapse, and thus the title of licentiate became a species of degree.

The candidate, before being received for examination, was required to swear, in presence of the rector, that he had studied for the period prescribed; before the private examination, that he had paid merely the requisite fees; and before the public examination, that he would promote the interest of the university and scholars, and if he remained in Bologna, would obey the rector, and comply with the statutes. At one time the commencing doctors took an oath to the magistrates of the city, that they would not lecture out of Bologna; but this oath was abolished in 1312, on the petition of the scholars, who purchased exemption from it with a sum of money. It is a curious point in the history of the university, that the female sex were admitted to its honours and offices. In early times degrees were conferred on learned women, who were even permitted to occupy professorial chairs. Novella d'Andrea read lectures on the canon law in the fourteenth century; Laura Bassi was professor of physics in the eighteenth century; and Clotilda Tambroni, who was professor of Greek, died in 1817.

The expense of graduation was considerable. The fees for the private examination amounted to sixty lire; those for the public examination to eighty. Besides the fees, it was usual for the licentiate to give clothes, to many of those who took part in the solemnities. There was a custom which was found so oppressive that Pope Clement V., in 1311, ordained that an oath should be exacted from each candidate that he would not expend more than 500 lire.

All doctors, in right of their degree, had the power of lecturing or teaching publicly; licentiates could not lecture without the permission of the rector. But even simple scholars, after five or six years of diligent study, might obtain from the rector a license to teach, on payment of a fee proportioned to the importance of the branch of law on which they proposed to lecture. The scholar who had lectured on an entire treatise, or who had delivered a formal interpretation of a point of law, was considered to have earned his first degree, and took the name of Bachelor. When degrees became so common that the doctors were not all necessarily obliged to teach, the jurisdiction over the scholars was confined to the doctors, or those who actually lectured. All doctors who had never been taught in the schools retained the right of voting in promotions.

It is a remarkable feature in the constitution of the University of Professors Bologna, that the Professors at an early period had received fixed salaries. In the year 1279 the scholars made an agreement with a lecturer to deliver a course of lectures for a certain specified sum; and in the following year they petitioned the city to pay a sum to the canonist Garzini for a course of lectures on the Decretum, and their petition was granted. In 1289 two professorships, one of the civil law and another of the canon law, were established, with a fixed salary. The choice of the professors rested with the scholars, who elected annually, sometimes re-electing the same person, and sometimes choosing another. The number of endowed chairs continued to increase, so that in 1334 we find nineteen salaried lecturers in law, and twenty-three in arts. The salaries of the professors of the civil law, which were the highest, amounted to 495 lire each. The salaries which had hitherto been granted only for a year, now began to be considered permanent, and the professors to regard themselves as established functionaries. In 1420 there were twenty-

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1 Antony à Wood mentions several instances of the expense and magnificence which attended the early taking of the higher degrees in England in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. About the year 1268, he says, when Alphonsus de Senlis or Siena, an Italian, studied at Oxford, one Mr Bonifacius de Saluces proceeded in the civil law, at whose inception there were such ceremonies and feasting used, that the like for that faculty was scarce before known here. The abbot and convent of Osney gave him the free use of their monastery on that occasion. He adds, that a still greater solemnity was performed some years after, at Gloucester College, by the Benedictines, for one William de Broke, a monk at St Peter's monastery in Gloucester, who took the degree of D.D. in 1298, being the first of his order who had attained that dignity. He was accompanied by the abbot and whole convent of his own monastery, the abbots of Westminster, Reading, Ablington, Evesham, and Malmesbury, numerous other priors and monks, and by a hundred noblemen and esquires on horses richly caparisoned. (Hist. and Antig. of the Univ. of Oxford, i. pp. 65, 66.)

2 The legentes and non-legentes of Bologna correspond to the regents and non-regents of Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge, except that the former terms were applied only to doctors, while the latter were applied equally to doctors and masters. Oxford. one teachers of law, of whom scarcely one is said to have been elected by the university. Besides the salaries given by the state to the doctors, there were six endowed lectureships, to which scholars only were eligible. The lecturers were appointed annually, by seventy-six electors, and were equally divided between the Citramontane and Ultramontane scholars. Doctors, Licentiates, and natives of Bologna were ineligible. This arrangement, according to Savigny, was acted upon in 1338; but in consequence of the tumult attending the election, it afterwards became customary for the universities to select twelve candidates, from whom were chosen by lot four lecturers on the civil law, and two on the decretals. According to Courtingius, there were, in 1664, 126 professors in the school of Bologna, of whom forty-nine belonged to the faculties of law; and the corporation of the city was said to expend annually in their salaries nearly 40,000 crowns. The unsalaried professors received fees from their pupils; and in the flourishing ages of the university many of them acquired great wealth.

During the whole of the thirteenth century, the professors assembled their pupils in their own houses; in the fourteenth century public schools were founded, and were appropriated solely to the use of the doctors. The bachelors were allowed the use of these twice a week in the afternoon, if they were not occupied by a doctor. The courses of lectures were begun on the 19th of October, and continued for a year. The holidays amounted to about ninety, including two weeks at Easter and eleven days at Christmas.

The following are the other universities established in Italy previous to the year 1500:—Salerno, apparently in the tenth century, and probably the most ancient in Europe; Vicenza, A.D. 1204; Naples, 1224; Padua, 1228; Piacenza, 1248; Arezzo, 1255; Perugia, 1290; Macerata, 1290; Cesena, uncertain; Rome, 1303; Pisa, 1338; Siena, 1350; Pavia, 1361; Ferrara, 1391; Palermo, 1394; Cremona, 1413; Florence, 1438; Catania, 1445. Within the Germanic empire, which then included many provinces now incorporated into France, and also the Netherlands:—Prague, 1348; Vienna, 1365; Heidelberg, 1387; Cologne, 1388; Tartu, 1392; Leipzig, 1409; Rostock, 1419; Louvain, 1424; Trier, 1454; Griefswalde, 1456; Freiburg, 1457; Basle, 1459; Ingolstadt, 1472; Tubingen, 1477; Mayence, 1479. In Spain and Portugal:—Salamanca, 1240; Coimbra (originally established in Lisbon), 1290; Valladolid, 1348; Toledo, 1354; Valencia, 1410; Siguenza, 1471; Saragossa, 1474; Avila, 1482; Alcala, 1499. In the Baltic States:—Upsala, 1476; Copenhagen, 1479.