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Title: Life in the Medieval University
Author: Rait, Robert S.
Language: English
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The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature
LIFE IN THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4
C. F. CLAY, Manager
[Illustration: Arms]
New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
Toronto: J. M. DENT & SONS, Ltd.
Tokyo: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: The Student's Progress (From Gregor Reisch's _Margarita
philosophica_, Edition of 1504, Strassburg)]
LIFE IN THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY
BY
ROBERT S. RAIT, M.A.
FELLOW AND TUTOR OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1918
_First Edition, 1912_
_Reprinted 1918_
_With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design
on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest
known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521._
NOTE ON THE FRONTISPIECE
In this picture the schoolboy is seen arriving with his satchel and
being presented with a hornbook by Nicostrata, the Latin muse
Carmentis, who changed the Greek alphabet into the Latin. She admits
him by the key of _congruitas_ to the House of Wisdom ("Wisdom hath
builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars," _Proverbs_
ix. 1). In the lowest story he begins his course in Donatus under a
Bachelor of Arts armed with the birch; in the next he is promoted to
Priscian. Then follow the other subjects of the _Trivium_ and the
_Quadrivium_ each subject being represented by its chief
exponent--logic by Aristotle, arithmetic by Boethius, geometry by
Euclid, etc. Ptolemy, the philosopher, who represents astronomy, is
confused with the kings of the same name. Pliny and Seneca represent
the more advanced study of physical and of moral science respectively,
and the edifice is crowned by Theology, the long and arduous course
for which followed that of the Arts. Its representative in a medieval
treatise is naturally Peter Lombard.
NOTE
I wish to express my obligations to many recent writers on University
history, and to the editors of University Statutes and other records,
from which my illustrations of medieval student life have been
derived. I owe special gratitude to Dr Hastings Rashdall, Fellow of
New College and Canon of Hereford, my indebtedness to whose great
work, _The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_, is apparent
throughout the following pages. Dr Rashdall has been good enough to
read my proof-sheets, and to make valuable criticisms and suggestions,
and the Master of Emmanuel has rendered me a similar service.
R. S. R.
_23rd January 1912._
CONTENTS
Chapter I--INTRODUCTORY
Chaucer and the Medieval Student -- The Great Period of
University-Founding -- The words "Universitas," "Collegium,"
"Studium Generale" -- Bologna -- Growth of Studia Generalia
-- Paris, Oxford, Cambridge -- Definition of "Universitas"..... 1
Chapter II--LIFE IN THE STUDENT-UNIVERSITIES
Student-Guilds at Bologna -- "Nations" -- The College of
Doctors -- Relations with the City -- Position of an English
Law Student at Bologna, and his relations to his Nation and
his Universitas -- The Office of Rector -- Powers of the
University over Citizens -- The Degradation of the Bologna
Masters -- Examinations -- The Doctorate -- Regulations --
Padua -- Limitations of the Rector's Powers at Florence --
Spanish Universities -- Married Dons.......................... 13
Chapter III--THE UNIVERSITIES OF MASTERS
Early History of the University of Paris -- Faculties --
"Nations" -- Struggle with the Chancellor -- Position of the
Rector -- Oxford --"Nations" -- The Proctors -- University
Jurisdiction -- Germany -- Scotland........................... 41
Chapter IV--COLLEGE DISCIPLINE
Origin of the College System -- Merton -- Imitations of the Merton
Rule -- New College -- Increase in Number of Regulations
--Latin-Speaking -- Conversation in Hall -- Meals -- College Rooms --
Amusements -- Penalties -- Introduction of Corporal Punishment --The
Tonsure -- Attendance at Chapel -- Vacations -- Hospitality -- The
Career of an English Student -- Meaning of "Poor and Indigent
Scholars" -- The College System at Paris -- Sconcing -- Other French
Universities -- A Visitation of a Medieval College............ 49
Chapter V--UNIVERSITY DISCIPLINE
Growth of Disciplinary Regulations at Paris and Oxford --Records of
the Chancellor's Court -- Discipline in Unendowed Halls -- Academic
Dress restricted to Graduates -- Louvain -- Leipsic -- Leniency of
Punishments -- The Scottish Universities -- Table Manners at Aberdeen
-- Life at Heidelberg......................................... 94
Chapter VI--THE "JOCUND ADVENT"
Admission of the Bajan at Paris -- The Universities of
Southern France -- The Abbas Bejanorum -- The "Jocund
Advent" in Germany -- the "Depositio" -- Oxford -- Scotland.. 109
Chapter VII--TOWN AND GOWN
Vienna -- St Scholastica's Day at Oxford -- Assaults by
Members of the University -- Records of the "Acta Rectorum"
at Leipsic -- Parisian Scholars and the Monks of St Germain.. 124
Chapter VIII--SUBJECTS OF STUDY, LECTURES, EXAMINATIONS
Instruction given in Latin -- Preparation for the University
--Grammar Masters -- French taught at Oxford -- The "Act" in
Grammar --The Seven Liberal Arts and the Three Philosophies
-- Text-books -- Ordinary and Cursory Lectures -- Methods of
Lecturing -- Repetitions and Disputations -- University and
College Teaching -- Examinations at Paris, Louvain, and
Oxford -- The Determining Feast -- Walter Paston at Oxford... 133
APPENDIX..................................................... 157
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................. 159
INDEX........................................................ 163
LIFE IN THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY (p. 001)
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
"A Clerk ther was of Oxenford also,
That unto logik hadde longe y-go
As lene was his hors as is a rake,
And he was not right fat, I undertake;
But loked holwe, and therto soberly,
Ful thredbar was his overest courtepy,
For he had geten him yet no benefyce,
Ne was so worldly for to have offyce.
For him was lever have at his beddes heed
Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed,
Of Aristotle and his philosophye,
Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye.
But al be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre;
But al that he might of his freendes hente,
On bokes and on lerninge he it spente,
And bisily gan for the soules preye
Of hem that yaf him wherwith to scoleye,
Of studie took he most cure and most hede,
Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche.
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."
An account of life in the medieval University might well take the (p. 002)
form of a commentary upon the classical description of a medieval
English student. His dress, the character of his studies and the
nature of his materials, the hardships and the natural ambitions of
his scholar's life, his obligations to founders and benefactors,
suggest learned expositions which might
in judicious hands
Extend from here to Mesopotamy,
and will serve for a modest attempt to picture the environment of one
of the Canterbury pilgrims.
Chaucer's famous lines do more than afford opportunities of
explanation and comment; they give us an indication of the place
assigned to universities and their students by English public opinion
in the later Middle Ages. The monk of the "Prologue" is simply a
country gentleman. No accusation of immorality is brought against him,
but he is a jovial huntsman who likes the sound of the bridle jingling
in the wind better than the call of the church bells, a lover of dogs
and horses, of rich clothes and great feasts. The portrait of the
friar is still less sympathetic; he is a frequenter of taverns, a
devourer of widows' houses, a man of gross, perhaps of evil, life. The
monk abandons his cloister and its rules, the friar despises the poor
and the leper. The poet is making no socialistic attack upon the (p. 003)
foundations of society, and no heretical onslaught upon the Church; he
draws a portrait of two types of the English regular clergy. His
description of two types of the English secular clergy forms an
illuminating contrast. The noble verses, in which he tells of the
virtues of the parish priest, certainly imply that the seculars also
had their temptations and that they did not always resist them; but
the fact remains that Chaucer chose as the representative of the
parochial clergy one who
"wayted after no pompe and reverence,
Ne maked him a spyced conscience,
But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taughte, but first he folwed it himselve."
The history of pious and charitable foundations is a vindication of
the truth of the portraiture of the "Prologue." The foundation of a
new monastery and the endowment of the friars had alike ceased to
attract the benevolent donor, who was turning his attention to the
universities, where secular clergy were numerous. The clerks of Oxford
and Cambridge had succeeded to the place held by the monks, and, after
them, by the friars, in the affection and the respect of the nation.
Outside the kingdom of England the fourteenth century was also a great
period in the growth of universities and colleges, to which, all (p. 004)
over Europe, privileges and endowments were granted by popes, emperors,
kings, princes, bishops and municipalities. To attempt to indicate the
various causes and conditions which, in different countries, led to
the growth, in numbers and in wealth, of institutions for the pursuit
of learning would be to wander from our special topic; but we may take
the period from the middle of the fourteenth to the middle of the
fifteenth century as that in which the medieval University made its
greatest appeal to the imagination of the peoples of Europe. Its
institutional forms had become definite, its terminology fixed, and
the materials for a study of the life of the fourteenth century
student are abundant. The conditions of student life varied, of
course, with country and climate, and with the differences in the
constitutions of individual universities and in their relations to
Church and State. No single picture of the medieval student can be
drawn, but it will be convenient to choose the second half of the
fourteenth century, or the first half of the fifteenth, as the central
point of our investigation.
We have already used technical terms, "University," "College,"
"Student," which require elucidation, and others will arise in the
course of our inquiry. What is a University? At the present day a
University is, in England, a corporation whose power of granting (p. 005)
certain degrees is recognised by the State; but nothing of this is
implied in the word "University." Its literal meaning is simply an
association. Recent writers on University history have pointed out
that _Universitas vestra_, in a letter addressed to a body of persons,
means merely "the whole of you" and that the term was by no means
restricted to learned bodies. It was frequently applied to municipal
corporations; Dr Rashdall, in his learned work, tells us that it is
used by medieval writers in addressing "all faithful Christian
people," and he quotes an instance in which Pisan captives at Genoa in
the end of the thirteenth century formed themselves into a
"Universitas carceratorum." The word "College" affords us no further
enlightenment. It, too, means literally a community or association,
and, unlike the sister term University, it has never become restricted
to a scholastic association. The Senators of the "College of Justice"
are the judges of the Supreme Court in Scotland.
We must call in a third term to help us. In what we should describe as
the early days of European universities, there came into use a phrase
sometimes written as _Studium Universale_ or _Studium Commune_, but
more usually _Studium Generale_. It was used in much the same sense in
which we speak of a University to-day, and a short sketch of its (p. 006)
history is necessary for the solution of our problem.
The twelfth century produced in Europe a renewal of interest and a
revival of learning, brought about partly by the influence of great
thinkers like St Anselm and Abelard, and partly by the discovery of
lost works of Aristotle. The impulse thus given to study resulted in
an increase in the numbers of students, and students were naturally
attracted to schools where masters and teachers possessed, or had left
behind them, great names. At Bologna there was a great teacher of the
Civil Law in the first quarter of the twelfth century, and a great
writer on Canon Law lived there in the middle of the same century. To
Bologna, therefore, there flocked students of law, though not of law
alone. In the schools of Paris there were great masters of philosophy
and theology to whom students crowded from all parts of Europe. Many
of the foreign students at Paris were Englishmen, and when, at the
time of Becket's quarrel with Henry II., the disputes between the
sovereigns of England and France led to the recall of English students
from the domain of their King's enemy, there grew up at Oxford a great
school or Studium, which acquired something of the fame of Paris and
Bologna. A struggle between the clerks who studied at Oxford and the
people of the town broke out at the time of John's defiance of the (p. 007)
Papacy, when the King outlawed the clergy of England, and this
struggle led to the rise of a school at Cambridge. In Italy the
institutions of the Studium at Bologna were copied at Modena, at
Reggio, at Vicenza, at Arezzo, at Padua, and elsewhere, and in 1244 or
1245 Pope Innocent IV. founded a Studium of a different constitution,
in dependence upon the Papal Court. In Spain great schools grew up at
Palencia, Salamanca, and Valladolid; in France at Montpellier,
Orleans, Angers, and Toulouse, and at Lyons and Reims. The impulse
given by Bologna and Paris was thus leading to the foundation of new
Studia or the development of old ones, for there were schools of
repute at many of the places we have mentioned before the period with
which we are now dealing (_c._ 1170-1250). It was inevitable that
there should be a rivalry among these numerous schools, a rivalry
which was accentuated as small and insignificant Studia came to claim
for themselves equality of status with their older and greater
contemporaries. Thus, in the latter half of the thirteenth century,
there arose a necessity for a definition and a restriction of the term
Studium Generale. The desirability of a definition was enhanced by the
practice of granting to ecclesiastics dispensations from residence in
their benefices for purposes of study; to prevent abuses it was
essential that such permission should be limited to a number of (p. 008)
recognised Studia Generalia.
The difficulty of enforcing such a definition throughout almost the
whole of Europe might seem likely to be great, but in point of fact it
was inconsiderable. In the first half of the thirteenth century, the
term Studium Generale was assuming recognised significance; a school
which aspired to the name must not be restricted to natives of a
particular town or country, it must have a number of masters, and it
must teach not only the Seven Liberal Arts (of which we shall have to
speak later), but also one or more of the higher studies of Theology,
Law and Medicine (_cf._ Rashdall, vol. i. p. 9). But the title might
still be adopted at will by ambitious schools, and the intervention of
the great potentates of Europe was required to provide a mechanism for
the differentiation of General from Particular Studia. Already, in the
twelfth century, an Emperor and a Pope had given special privileges to
students at Bologna and other Lombard towns, and a King of France had
conferred privileges upon the scholars of Paris. In 1224 the Studium
Generale of Naples was founded by the Emperor Frederick II., and in
1231 he gave a great privilege to the School of Medicine at Salerno, a
Studium which was much more ancient than Bologna, but which existed
solely for the study of Medicine and exerted no influence upon the (p. 009)
growth of the European universities. Pope Gregory IX. founded the
Studium at Toulouse some fifteen years before Innocent IV. established
the Studium of the Roman Court. In 1254 Alfonso the Wise of Castile
founded the Studium Generale of Salamanca. Thus it became usual for a
school which claimed the status of a Studium Generale to possess the
authority of Pope or Emperor or King.
A distinction gradually arose between a Studium Generale under the
authority of a Pope or an Emperor and one which was founded by a King
or a City Republic, and which was known as a _Studium Generale
respectu regni_. The distinction was founded upon the power of the
Emperor or the Pope to grant the _jus ubique docendi_. This privilege,
which could be conferred by no lesser potentate, gave a master in one
Studium Generale the right of teaching in any other; it was more
valuable in theory than in practice, but it was held in such esteem
that in 1292 Bologna and Paris accepted the privilege from Pope
Nicholas IV. Some of the Studia which we have mentioned as existing in
the first half of the thirteenth century--Modena in Italy, and Lyons
and Reims in France--never obtained this privilege, and as their
organisation and their importance did not justify their inclusion
among Studia Generalia, they never took rank among the universities
of Europe. The status of Bologna and of Paris was, of course, (p. 010)
universally recognised before and apart from the Bulls of Nicholas
IV.; Padua did not accept a Papal grant until 1346 and then merely as
a confirmation, not a creation, of its privileges as a Studium
Generale; Oxford never received, though it twice asked for, a
declaratory or confirmatory Bull, and based its claim upon immemorial
custom and its own great position. Cambridge, which in the thirteenth
century was a much less important seat of learning than Oxford, was
formally recognised as a Studium Generale by Pope John XXII. in 1318;
but its claim to the title had long been admitted, at all events
within the realm of England. After 1318 Cambridge could grant the
_licentia ubique docendi_, which Oxford did not formally confer,
although Oxford men, as the graduates of a Studium Generale, certainly
possessed the privilege.
Long before the definition of a Studium Generale as a school
possessing, by the gift of Pope or Emperor, the _jus ubique docendi_,
was generally accepted throughout Europe, we find the occurrence of
the more familiar term, "Universitas," which we are now in a position
to understand.
A Universitas was an association in the world of learning which
corresponded to a Guild in the world of commerce, a union among men
living in a Studium and possessing some common interests to protect
and advance. Originally, a Universitas could exist in a less (p. 011)
important school than a Studium Generale, but with exceptional
instances of this kind we are not concerned. By the time which we have
chosen for the central point of our survey, the importance of these
guilds or Universitates had so greatly increased that the word
"Universitas" was coming to be equivalent to "Studium Generale." In
the fifteenth century, Dr Rashdall tells us, the two terms were
synonymous. The Universitas Studii, the guild of the School, became,
technically and officially, the Studium Generale itself, and Studia
Generalia were distinguished by the kind of Universitates or guilds
which they possessed. It is usual to speak of Bologna and Paris as the
two great archetypal universities, and this description does not
depend upon mere priority of date or upon the impetus given to thought
and interest in Europe by their teachers or their methods. Bologna and
Paris were two Studia Generalia with two different and irreconcilable
types of Universitas. The Universitates of the Studium of Bologna were
guilds of students; the Universitas of the Studium of Paris was a
guild of masters. The great seats of learning in Medieval Europe were
either universities of students or universities of masters, imitations
of Bologna or of Paris, or modifications of one or the other or of
both. It would be impossible to draw up a list and divide medieval (p. 012)
universities into compartments. Nothing is more difficult to classify
than the constitutions of living societies; a constitution which one
man might regard as a modification of the constitution of Bologna
would be in the opinion of another more correctly described as a
modification of the constitution of Paris, and a development in the
constitution of a University might be held to have altered its
fundamental position and to transfer it from one class to another.
Where students legislated for themselves, their rules were neither
numerous nor detailed. Our information about life in the
student-universities is, therefore, comparatively small, and it is
with the universities of masters that we shall be chiefly concerned.
It is, however, essential to understand the powers acquired by the
student-guilds at Bologna, the institutions of which were reproduced
by most of the Italian universities, by those of Spain and Portugal,
and, much less accurately, by the smaller universities of France.
CHAPTER II (p. 013)
LIFE IN THE STUDENT-UNIVERSITIES
The Universitates or guilds which were formed in the Studium Generale
of Bologna were associations of foreign students. The lack of
political unity in the Italian peninsula was one of the circumstances
that led to the peculiar and characteristic constitution evolved by
the Italian universities. A famous Studium in an Italian city state
must of necessity attract a large proportion of foreign students.
These foreign students had neither civil nor political rights; they
were men "out of their own law," for whom the government under which
they lived made small and uncertain provision. Their strength lay in
their numbers, and in the effect which their presence produced upon
the prosperity and the reputation of the town. They early recognised
the necessity of union if full use was to be made of the offensive and
defensive weapons they possessed. The men who came to study law at
Bologna were not schoolboys; some of them were beneficed ecclesiastics,
others were lawyers, and most of them were possessed of adequate means
of living. The provisions of Roman Law favoured the creation of such
protective guilds; the privileges and immunities of the clergy (p. 014)
afforded an analogy for the claim of foreign students to possess laws
of their own; and the threat of the secession of a large community was
likely to render a city state amenable to argument. The growth of
guilds or communities held together by common interests and
safeguarded by solemn oaths is one of the features of European history
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the students of Bologna
took no unusual or extra-ordinary step when they formed their
Universitates.
The distinction of students into "Nations," which is still preserved
in some of the Scottish universities, is derived from this
guild-forming movement at Bologna at the end of the twelfth and the
beginning of the thirteenth century. No citizen of Bologna was
permitted to be a member of a guild, the protection of which he did
not require. The tendency at first was towards the formation of a
number of Universitates, membership of which was decided by
considerations of nationality. But the conditions which had led to the
formation of these Universitates were also likely to produce some
measure of unification, and the law-students at Bologna soon ceased to
have more than two great guilds, distinguished on geographical
principles as the Universitas Citramontanorum and the Universitas
Ultramontanorum. Each was sub-divided into nations; the cis-Alpine (p. 015)
University consisting of Lombards, Tuscans, and Romans, and the
trans-Alpine University of a varying number, including a Spanish, a
Gascon, a Provençal, a Norman, and an English nation. The three
cis-Alpine nations were, of course, much more populous at Bologna than
the dozen or more trans-Alpine nations, and they were therefore
sub-divided into sections known as Consiliariae. The students of Arts
and Medicine, who at first possessed no organisation of their own and
were under the control of the great law-guilds, succeeded in the
fourteenth century in establishing a new Universitas within the
Studium. The influence of Medicine predominated, for the Arts course
was, at Bologna, regarded as merely a preparation for the study of Law
and, especially, of Medicine; but this third Universitas gave a
definite status and definite rights to the students of Arts. In the
same century the two jurist universities came to act together so
constantly that they were, for practical purposes, united, so that, by
the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Studium Generale of
Bologna contained virtually two universities, one of Law, and the
other of Arts and Medicine, governed by freely-elected rectors. The
peculiar relations of Theology to the Studium and to the universities
is a topic which belongs to constitutional history, and not to our (p. 016)
special subject.
The universities of Bologna had to maintain a struggle with two other
organisations, the guilds of masters and the authorities of this city
state. They kept the first in subjection; they ultimately succumbed to
the second. A guild of masters, doctors, or professors had existed in
the Studium before the rise of the Universitates, and it survived with
limited, but clearly defined, powers. The words "Doctor," "Professor,"
and "Magister" or "Dominus" were at first used indifferently, and a
Master of Arts of a Scottish or a German University is still described
on his diploma as a Doctor of Philosophy. The term "Master" was little
used at Bologna, but it is convenient to employ "master" and "student"
as the general terms for teacher and taught. The masters were the
teachers of the Studium, and they protected their own interests by
forming a guild the members of which, and they alone, had the right to
teach. Graduation was originally admission into the guild of masters,
and the chief privilege attached to it was the right to teach. This
privilege ultimately became merely a theoretical right at Bologna,
where the teachers tended to become a close corporation of professors,
like the Senatus of a Scottish University.
The Guild or College of Masters who taught law in the Studium of (p. 017)
Bologna naturally resented the rise of the universities of students.
The doctors, they said, should elect the rectors, as they do at Paris.
The scholars follow no trade, they are merely the pupils of those who
do practise a profession, and they have no right to choose rulers for
themselves any more than the apprentices of the skinners. The masters
were citizens of Bologna, and it might be expected that the State
would assist them in their struggle with a body of foreign
apprentices; but the threat of migration turned the scales in favour
of the students. There were no buildings and no endowments to render a
migration difficult, and migration did from time to time take place.
The masters themselves were dependent upon fees for their livelihood;
they were, at Bologna, frequently laymen with no benefice to fall back
upon, and with wives and children to maintain. As time went on and the
teaching masters became a limited number of professors, they were
given salaries, at first by the student-universities themselves and
afterwards by the city, which feared to offend the student-universities.
They thus passed, to a large extent, under the control of the
universities; how far, we shall see as our story progresses. The city
authorities tried ineffectually to curb the universities and to
prevent migrations, but the students, with the support of the Papacy,
succeeded in maintaining the strength of their organisations, and (p. 018)
when, in the middle of the fourteenth century, secessions from Bologna
came to an end, the students had obtained the recognition and most of
the privileges they desired. In course of time the authority of the
State increased at Bologna and elsewhere, bodies of Reformatores
Studii came to be appointed by republics or tyrants in Italian
university cities, and these boards gradually absorbed the government
of the universities. The foundation of residential colleges, and the
erection of buildings by the universities themselves, deprived the
students of the possibility of reviving the long disused weapon of a
migration, and when the power of the Papacy became supreme in Bologna,
the freedom of its student-universities came to an end. This, however,
belongs to a later age. We must now attempt to obtain some picture of
the life of a medieval student at Bologna during the greatness of the
Universitates.
We will choose an Englishman who arrives at Bologna early in the
fifteenth century to study law. He finds himself at once a member of
the English nation of the Trans-montane University; he pays his fee,
takes the oath of obedience to the Rector, and his name is placed upon
the "matricula" or roll of members of the University. He does not look
about for a lodging-house, like a modern student in a Scottish
University, but joins with some companions (_socii_) probably of (p. 019)
his own nation, to take a house. If our new-comer had been a Spaniard,
he might have been fortunate enough to find a place in the great
Spanish College which had been founded in the latter half of the
fourteenth century; as it is, he and his friends settle down almost as
citizens of Bologna. The success of the universities in their attempt
to form a citizenship outside the state had long ago resulted in the
creation also of a semi-citizenship within the state. The laws of the
city of Bologna allowed the students to be regarded as citizens so
long as they were members of a University. Our young Englishman has,
of course, no share in the government of the town, but he possesses
all rights necessary for the protection of his person and property; he
can make a legal will and bring an action against a citizen. The
existence of these privileges, unusual and remarkable in a medieval
state, may excite his curiosity about the method by which they were
acquired, and he will probably be told strange and terrible tales of
the bad old times when a foreign student was as helpless as any other
foreigner in a strange town, and might be tortured by unfair and
tyrannous judges. If he is historically minded, he will learn about
the rise of the smaller guilds which are now amalgamated in his
Universitas; how, like other guilds, they were benefit societies
caring for the sick and the poor, burying the dead, and providing (p. 020)
for common religious services and common feasts. He will be told (in
language unfamiliar at Oxford) how the proctors or representatives of
the guild were sent to cheer up the sick and, if necessary, to relieve
their necessities, and to reconcile members who had quarrelled. The
corporate payment for feasts included the cost of replacing broken
windows, which (at all events among the German students at Bologna)
seem to have been associated with occasions of rejoicing. The guild
would pay for the release of one of its members who was in prison, but
it would also insist upon the payment of the debts, even of those who
had "gone down." It was essential that the credit of the guild with
the citizens of Bologna should be maintained.
Many of these purposes were still served by the "nation" to which our
Bologna freshman belonged: but the really important organisation was
that of his Universitas. One of his first duties might happen to be
connected with the election of a new Rector. The title of the office
was common in Italy and was the equivalent of the Podesta, or chief
magistrate, of an Italian town. The choice of a new Rector would
probably be limited, for the honour was costly, and the share of the
fines which the Rector received could not nearly meet his expenses. As
his jurisdiction included clerks, it was necessary, by the Canon (p. 021)
Law, that he should have the tonsure, and be, at all events
technically, a clerk. He could not belong to any religious order, his
obligations to which might conflict with his duty to the Universitas,
and the expense of the office made it desirable that he should be a
beneficed clergyman who was dispensed from residence in his benefice;
he could enter upon his duties at the age of twenty-four, and he was
not necessarily a priest or even a deacon. Our freshman played a small
part in the election. As a member of the English nation, he would help
to choose a Consiliarius, who had a vote in the election, and who
became one of the Rector's permanent Council. The dignity of the
Rector's position would be impressed upon our novice by his senior
contemporaries, who could boast that, if a Cardinal came to Bologna,
he must yield precedence to the Rector, and the lesson would be
emphasised by a great feast on the occasion of the solemn installation
and possibly by a tournament and a dance, certainly by some more
magnificent banquet than that given by a Rector of the University of
Arts and Medicine. After our student's day there grew up a strange
ceremony of tearing the robe of the new Rector and selling back the
pieces to him, and statutes had to be passed prohibiting the
acceptance of money for the fragments, although if any student
succeeded in capturing the robe without injuring it, he might (p. 022)
claim its redemption. The state and hospitality which the office
entailed led to its being made compulsory to accept the offer of it,
but this arrangement failed to maintain the ancient prestige of the
Rectorship which, after the decline of the Universitates themselves,
had outlived its usefulness.
Magnificent as was the position of the Rector of a Universitas, our
young Englishman would soon discover that his Rector was only a
constitutional sovereign. He had to observe the statutes and to
consult his Council upon important questions. He had no power to
dispense with the penalties imposed by the regulations, and for any
mismanagement of the pecuniary affairs of the Universitas he was
personally liable, when at the end of his period of office he had to
meet a Committee and to render an account of his stewardship. He could
sentence offending students to money fines, but he must have the
consent of his Council before expelling them or declaring them subject
to the ecclesiastical and social penalties of the perjured man. He
claimed to try cases brought by students against townsmen, and about
the time of our scholar's arrival, the town had admitted that he might
try students accused of criminal offences forbidden by the University
statutes, and had agreed to carry out his sentences. Too free a use of
the secular arm would naturally lead to unpopularity and trouble; (p. 023)
the spectacle of a student being handed over to the gaolers of the
Podesta or of the Bishop can never have been pleasant in the eyes of a
Universitas. Changes in the statutes of the University could not be
made by the Rector; every twenty years eight "Statutarii" were
appointed to revise the code, and alterations made at other times
required the consent of the Congregation, which consisted of all
students except citizens of Bologna and a few poor scholars who did
not subscribe to the funds of the Universitas. By the time of which we
are speaking, the two jurist-universities at Bologna met together in
one Congregation, and if a Congregation happens to be held during our
Englishman's residence at Bologna, he will find himself bound under
serious penalties to attend its session, where he will mix on equal,
terms with members of the Cismontane University, listening to, or
taking part in, the debates (conducted in Latin) and throwing his
black or white bean into the ballot box when a vote is necessary.
Although the city of Bologna never admitted the jurisdiction of a
Universitas over citizens of the town, there were some classes of
citizens whose trade or profession made them virtually its subjects.
Landlords, stationers, and masters or doctors were in a peculiar
relation to the universities, which did not fail to use their
advantage to the uttermost. If our English student and his socii (p. 024)
had any dispute about the rent of their house, there was a compulsory
system of arbitration; if he found an error in a MS. which he had
hired or purchased from a Bologna bookseller he was bound to report it
to a University Board whose duty it was to inspect MSS. offered for
sale or hire, and the bookseller would be ordered to pay a fine; he
was protected from extortionate prices by a system which allowed the
bookseller a fixed profit on a second-hand book. MSS. were freely
reproduced by the booksellers' clerks, and were neither scarce nor
unduly expensive, although elaborately illuminated MSS. were naturally
very valuable. The landlords and the booksellers were kept in proper
submission by threats of _interdictio_ or _privatio_. A citizen who
offended the University was debarred from all intercourse with
students, who were strictly forbidden to hire his house or his books;
if a townsman brought a "calumnious accusation" against a student, and
disobeyed a rectorial command to desist, he and his children, to the
third generation, and all their goods, were to lie under an interdict,
"_sine spe restitutionis_."
_Interdictio_, or discommuning, was also the great weapon which might
be employed against the masters of the Studium. The degradation of the
masters was a gradual process, and it was never complete. The
privileges given by Frederick Barbarossa to Lombard scholars in (p. 025)
the middle of the twelfth century included a right of jurisdiction
over their pupils, and a Papal Bull of the end of the century speaks
of masters and scholars meeting together in congregations. The
organisation of the Universitas ultimately confined membership of
congregation to students, and the powers of the Rector rendered the
magisterial jurisdiction merely nominal. The loss of their privileges
is attributed by Canon Rashdall to the attitude they adopted in the
early struggles between the municipality and the student-guilds. The
doctors, who were citizens of Bologna, allied themselves, he says,
"with the City against the students in the selfish effort to exclude
from the substantial privileges of the Doctorate all but their own
fellow-citizens.... It was through identifying themselves with the
City rather than with the scholars that the Doctors of Bologna sank
into their strange and undignified servitude to their own pupils."
They made a further mistake in quarrelling with the town--the earliest
migrations were migrations of professors--and when, in the middle of
the thirteenth century, a permanent _modus vivendi_ was arrived at
between the city and the universities, the rights of the doctors
received no consideration. Other citizens of Bologna were forbidden to
take an oath of obedience to the rectors, but the masters, who, in
theory, possessed rights of jurisdiction over their pupils, were, (p. 026)
in fact, compelled by the universities to take this oath. Even
those of them who received salaries from the town were not exempted. A
doctor who refused to take a vow of obedience to the representative of
his pupils had no means of collecting his lecture-fees, which remained
of some importance even after the introduction of salaries, and he was
liable to further punishment at the will of the Rector. The ultimate
penalty was _deprivatio_, and when this sentence was pronounced, not
only were the lectures of the offending doctor boycotted, but all
social intercourse with him was forbidden; students must avoid his
company in private as well as decline his ministrations in the
Studium. His restoration could only be accomplished by a vote of the
whole University solemnly assembled in Congregation.
The oath of obedience was not merely a constitutional weapon kept in
reserve for occasional serious disputes; it affected the daily life of
the Studium, and the masters were subject to numerous petty
indignities, which could not fail to impress our English student if he
was familiar with University life in his own country. He would see,
with surprise, a doctor's lecture interrupted by the arrival of a
University Bedel, as the debates of the House of Commons are interrupted
by the arrival of Black Rod, and his instructor would maintain a reverent
silence while the Rector's officer delivered some message from the (p. 027)
University, or informed the professor of some new regulation. If the
learned doctor "cut" a lecture, our student would find himself
compelled to inform the authorities of the University, and he would
hear of fines inflicted upon the doctors for absence, for lateness,
for attracting too small an audience, for omitting portions of a
subject or avoiding the elucidation of its difficulties, and for
inattention while the "precepta" or "mandata" of the Rector were being
read in the schools. He and his fellow-students might graciously grant
their master a holiday, but the permission had to be confirmed by the
Rector; if a lecture was prolonged a minute after the appointed time,
the doctor found himself addressing empty benches. The humiliation of
the master's position was increased by the fact that his pupils were
always acting as spies upon him, and they were themselves liable to
penalties for conniving at any infringement of the regulations on his
part. At Bologna, even the privilege of teaching was, to a slight
extent, shared by the doctors with their pupils. Lectures were divided
into two classes, ordinary and extra-ordinary; the ordinary lectures
were the duty of the doctors, but senior students (bachelors) were
authorised by the Rector to share with the doctors the duty of giving
extra-ordinary lectures. There were six chairs, endowed by the (p. 028)
city, which were held by students, and the occupant of one of these
was entitled to deliver ordinary lectures. Dr Rashdall finds the
explanation of this anomaly in an incident in the fourteenth century
history of Bologna, when the Tyrant of the City forbade the professors
to teach. The student-chairs were rather endowments for the Rectorship
or for poor scholars than serious rivals to the ordinary professorships,
and the extra-ordinary lectures delivered by students or bachelors may
be regarded as a kind of apprenticeship for future doctors.
There remained one department of the work of the Studium in which our
Bologna student would find his masters supreme. The sacred right of
examining still belonged to the teachers, even though the essential
purpose of the examination was changed. The doctors of Bologna had
succeeded in preserving the right to teach as a privilege of Bolognese
citizens and even of restricting it, to some extent, to certain families,
and the foreign student could not hope to become a professor of his
own studium. But the prestige of the University rendered Bolognese
students ambitious of the doctorate, and the doctorate had come to
mean more than a mere licence to teach. This licence, which had
originally been conferred by the doctors themselves, required, after
the issue of a Papal Bull in 1219, the consent of the Archdeacon (p. 029)
of Bologna, and the Papal grant of the _jus ubique docendi_ in 1292
increased at once the importance of the mastership and of the
authority of the Archdeacon, who came to be described as the
Chancellor and Head of the Studium. "Graduation," in Dr Rashdall's
words, "ceased to imply the mere admission into a private Society of
teachers, and bestowed a definite legal status in the eyes of Church
and State alike.... The Universities passed from merely local into
ecumenical organisations; the Doctorate became an order of
intellectual nobility with as distinct and definite a place in the
hierarchical system of medieval Christendom as the Priesthood or the
Knighthood." The Archdeacon of Bologna, even when he was regarded as
the Chancellor, did not wrest from the college of doctors the right to
decide who should be deemed worthy of a title which Cardinals were
pleased to possess. The licence which he required before admitting a
student to the doctorate continued to be conferred by the Bologna
doctors after due examination.
We will assume that our English student has now completed his course
of study. He has duly attended the prescribed lectures--not less than
three a week. He has gone in the early mornings, when the bell at St
Peter's Church was ringing for mass, to spend some two hours listening
to the "ordinary" lecture delivered by a doctor in his own house (p. 030)
or in a hired room; his successors a generation or two later would
find buildings erected by the University for the purpose. The rest of
his morning and an hour or two in the afternoon have also, if he is an
industrious student, been devoted to lectures, and he has not been
neglectful of private study. He has enjoyed the numerous holidays
afforded by the Feasts of the Church, and several vacations in the
course of the year, including ten days at Christmas, a fortnight at
Easter, and about six weeks in the autumn. After five years of study,
if he is a civilian, and four if he is a canonist, the Rector has
raised him to the dignity of a Bachelor by permitting him to give
"extra-ordinary" lectures--and after two more years spent in this
capacity he is ready to proceed to the doctorate. The Rector, having
been satisfied by the English representative in his Council that the
"doctorand" has performed the whole duty of the Bolognese student,
gives him permission to enter for the first or Private Examination,
and he again takes the oath of obedience to that dignitary. The doctor
under whom he has studied vouches for his competence, and presents him
first to the Archdeacon and some days afterwards to the College of
Doctors, before whom he takes a solemn oath never to seek admittance
into the Bolognese College of Doctors, or to teach, or attempt to
perform any of the functions of a doctor, at Bologna. They then (p. 031)
give him a passage for exposition and send him home. He is followed to
his house by his own doctor who hears his exposition in private, and
brings him back to the august presence of the College of Doctors and
the Archdeacon. Here he treats his thesis and is examined upon it by
two or more doctors, who are ordered by the University statutes not to
treat any victim of this rigorous and tremendous examination otherwise
than if he were their own son, and are threatened with grave penalties,
including suspension for a year. The College then votes upon his case,
each doctor saying openly and clearly, and without any qualification,
"Approbo" or "Reprobo," and if the decision is favourable he is now a
Licentiate and has to face only the expensive but not otherwise
formidable ordeal of the second or Public Examination. As a newly
appointed Scottish judge is, to this day, admitted to his office by
trying cases, so the Bologna doctor was admitted to his new dignity by
an exercise in lecturing. The idea is common to many medieval
institutions, and it survived at Bologna, even though the licentiate
had, at his private examination, renounced the right of teaching. Our
Englishman and his socii go together to the Cathedral, where he states
a thesis and defends it against the attacks of other licentiates. His
own doctor, known in Bologna (and elsewhere) as the Promoter, (p. 032)
presents him to the Chancellor, who confers upon him the _jus ubique
docendi_. He is then seated in a master's chair, and the Promotor
gives him an open book and a gold ring and (in the terminology of a
modern Scottish University) "caps" him with the biretta. He is
dismissed with a benediction and the kiss of peace, and is conducted
through the town, in triumphal procession, by his friends, to whom he
gives a feast.
The feast adds very considerably to the expenses of the doctorate, for
which fees are, of course, exacted by the authorities of the
University, the College of Doctors, and the Archdeacon. A considerable
proportion of the disciplinary regulations, made by the
student-universities, aimed at restricting the expenditure on feasting
at the inception of a new doctor and on other occasions. When our
young English Doctorand received the permission of his Rector to
proceed to his degree, he was made to promise not to exceed the proper
expenditure on fees and feasts, and he was expressly forbidden to
organise a tournament. The spending of money on extravagant costume
was also prohibited by the statutes of the University, which forbade a
student to purchase, either directly or through an agent, any costume
other than the ordinary black garment, or any outer covering other
than the black cappa or gabard. Other disciplinary restrictions at (p. 033)
Bologna dealt with quarrelling and gambling. The debates of
Congregation were not to be liable to interruption by one student
stabbing his opponent in Italian fashion, and no one was allowed to
carry arms to a meeting of Congregation; if a student had reason to
apprehend personal violence from another, the Rector could give him a
dispensation from the necessity of attendance. Gaming and borrowing
from unauthorised money-lenders were strictly forbidden; to enter a
gaming-house, or to keep one, or to watch a game of dice was strictly
forbidden. The University of Arts and Medicine granted a dispensation
for three days at Christmas, and a Rector might use his own discretion
in the matter. The penalties were fines, and for contumacy or grave
offences, suspension or expulsion.
There are indications that the conduct of the doctors in these
respects was not above suspicion; they were expressly prohibited from
keeping gaming-houses; and the appointment of four merchants of the
town, who alone were empowered to lend money to students, was a
protection not only against ordinary usurers, but also against doctors
who lent money to students in order to attract them to their lectures.
That the ignominious position of the Bologna doctors had an evil
effect upon their morals, is evident not only from this, but also from
the existence of bribery, in connection with examinations for the (p. 034)
doctorate, although corruption of this kind was not confined to the
student-universities.
The regulations of the greatest of the residential colleges of
Bologna, the College of Spain, naturally interfere much more with
individual liberty than do the statutes of the student-universities,
even though the government of the College was a democracy, based upon
the democratic constitution of the University. We shall have an
opportunity of referring to the discipline of the Spanish College when
we deal with the College system in the northern universities, and
meanwhile we pass to some illustrations of life in student-universities
elsewhere than at Bologna.
At Padua we find a "Schools-peace" like the special peace of the
highway or the market in medieval England; special penalties were
prescribed for attacks on scholars in the Schools, or going to or
returning from the Schools at the accustomed hours. The presence of
the Rector also made a slight attack count as an "atrocious injury."
The University threatened to interdict, for ten years, the ten houses
nearest to the place where a scholar was killed; if he was wounded the
period was four or six years. At Florence, where the Faculty of
Medicine was very important, there is an interesting provision for the
study of anatomy. An agreement was made with the town, by which (p. 035)
the students of Medicine were to have two corpses every year, one male
and one female. The bodies were to be those of malefactors, who
gained, to some extent, by the arrangement, for the woman's penalty
was to be changed from burning, and the man's from decapitation, to
hanging. A pathetic clause provides that the criminals are not to be
natives of Florence, but of captive race, with few friends or
relations. If the number of medical students increased, they were to
have two male bodies. At Florence, as almost everywhere, we find
regulations against gambling, but an exception was made for the
Kalends of May and the days immediately before and after, and no
penalty could be inflicted for gambling in the house of the Rector.
The records, of Florence afford an illustration of the checks upon the
rectorial power, to which we have referred in speaking of the typical
Student-University at Bologna. In 1433, a series of complaints were
brought against a certain Hieronimus who had just completed his year
of office as Rector, and a Syndicate, consisting of a Doctor of
Decrees (who was also a scholar in civil law), a scholar in Canon Law,
and a scholar in Medicine, was appointed to inquire into the conduct
of the late Rector and of his two Camerarii. The accusations were
both general and personal, and the Syndics, after deciding that (p. 036)
Hieronimus must restore eight silver _grossi_ of University money
which he had appropriated, proceeded to hear the charges brought by
individuals. A lecturer in the University complained that the Rector
had unjustly and maliciously given a sentence against him and in
favour of a Greek residing at Florence, and that he had unjustly
declared him perjured; fifty gold florins were awarded as damages for
this and some other injuries. A doctor of Arts and Medicine obtained a
judgment for two florins for expenses incurred when the Rector was in
his house. A student complained that he had been denounced as
"infamis" in all the Schools for not paying his matriculation-fee, and
that his name had been entered in the book called the "Speculum." The
Syndics ordered the record of his punishment to be erased. The most
interesting case is that of student of Civil Law, called Andreas
Romuli de Lancisca. He averred that he had sold Hieronimus six
measures of grain, to be paid for at the customary price. After four
months' delay, the Rector paid seven pounds, and when asked to
complete the payment, gave Andreas a book of medicine, "for which I
got five florins." Some days later he demanded the return of the book,
to which Andreas replied: "Date mihi residuum et libenter restituam
librum." To this request the Rector, "in superbiam elevatus," answered,
"Tu reddes librum et non solvam tibi." The quarrel continued, and (p. 037)
one morning, when Andreas was in the Schools at a lecture, Hieronimus
sent the servant of the Podesta, who seized him "ignominiose et
vituperose" in the Schools and conducted him to the town prison like a
common thief. For all these injuries Andreas craved redress and a sum
of forty florins. The damages, he thought, should be high, not merely
for his personal wrongs, but also for the insult to the scholar's
dress which he wore, and, indeed, to the whole University. He was
allowed twenty pounds in addition to the sum due for the grain. The
Syndicate of 1433 must have been an extreme case; matters were
complicated by the fact that the Rector's brother was "Executor
Ordinamentorum Justitiæ Civitatis Florentiæ," and he was therefore
suspected of playing into the hands of the city. But the knowledge
that such an investigation was possible must have restrained the
arbitrary tendencies of a Rector.
A reference to the imitation of the Bolognese constitution in Spain
must close this portion of our survey. At Lerida, in the earliest code
of statutes (about 1300), we find the doctors and master sworn to obey
the Rector, who can fine them, though he must not expel them without
the consent of the whole University. Any improper criticisms of the Rector
("verba injuriosa vel contumeliosa") by anyone, of whatsoever (p. 038)
dignity, are to be punished by suspension until satisfaction is made,
and so great is the glory of the office ("Rectoris officium tanta
[excellentia] præfulget") that an ex-Rector is not bound to take the
oath to his successor. The regulations affecting undergraduates are
more detailed than at Bologna, and indicate a stricter discipline.
After eight days' attendance at a doctor's lecture, a student must not
forsake it to go to another doctor; no scholar is to go to the School
on horseback unless for some urgent cause; scholars are not to give
anything to actors or jesters or other "truffatores" (troubadours),
nor to invite them to meals, except on the feasts of Christmas,
Easter, and Pentecost, or at the election of a Rector, or when doctors
or masters are created. Even on these occasions only food may be
given, although an ordinance of the second Rector allows doctors and
masters to give them money. No students, except boys under fourteen,
are to be allowed to play at ball in the city on St Nicholas' day or
St Katherine's day, and none are to indulge in unbecoming amusements,
or to walk about dressed up as Jews or Saracens--a rule which is also
found in the statutes of the University of Perpignan. If scholars are
found bearing arms by day in the students' quarter of the town, they
are to forfeit their arms, and if they are found at night with either
arms or musical instruments in the students' quarter, they are to (p. 039)
forfeit arms or instruments. If they are found outside their own
quarters, by night or by day, with arms or musical instruments, the
town officials will deal with laymen, and the Bishop or the Rector
with clerks. Laymen might be either students or doctors in Spain as in
Italy; at Salamanca, a lecturer's marriage was included among the
necessary causes which excused a temporary absence from his duties. In
the universities of Southern France, the marriage of resident doctors
and students was also contemplated, and the statutes of the University
of Aix contain a table of charges payable as "charivari" by a rector,
a doctor, a licentiate, a bachelor, a student, and a bedel. In each
case the amount payable for marrying a widow was double the ordinary
fee. If the bridegroom declined to pay, the "dominus promotor,"
accompanied by "dominis studentibus," was, by permission of the
Rector, to go to his house armed with frying-pans, bassoons, and
horns, and to make a great tumult, without, however, doing any injury
to his neighbours. Continued recusancy was to be punished by placing
filth outside the culprit's door on feast-days. In the University of
Dôle, there was a married Rector in 1485, but this was by a special
dispensation. There are traces of the existence of married
undergraduates at Oxford in the fifteenth century, and, in the (p. 040)
same century, marriage was permitted in the Faculty of Medicine at
Paris, but the insistence upon celibacy in the northern universities
is one of the characteristic differences between them and the
universities of Southern Europe.
CHAPTER III (p. 041)
THE UNIVERSITIES OF MASTERS
The Guild or Universitas which grew up in the Studium Generale of
Paris was a Society of masters, not of students. The Studium Generale
was, in origin, connected with the Cathedral Schools, and recognition
as a Master was granted by the Chancellor of the Cathedral, whose duty
it was to confer it upon every competent scholar who asked for it. The
successful applicant was admitted by the existing masters into their
Society, and this admission or inception was the origin of degrees in
the University of Paris. The date of the growth of an organised Guild
is uncertain; Dr Rashdall, after a survey of the evidence, concludes
that "it is a fairly safe inference that the period 1150-1170--probably
the latter years of that period--saw the birth of the University of
Paris." Such organisation as existed in the twelfth century was slight
and customary, depending, as the student-universities of Bologna and
in other medieval guilds, upon no external authority. The successors
of these early masters, writing in the middle of the thirteenth
century, relate how their predecessors, men reverend in character (p. 042)
and famous for learning, decided, as the number of their pupils
increased, that they could do their work better if they became a
united body, and that they therefore formed themselves into a College
or University, on which Church and State conferred many privileges.
The bond of union they describe as a "jus speciale" ("si quodam essent
juris specialis vinculo sociati"), and this conception explains the
appearance of their earliest code of statutes in the first decade of
the thirteenth century. The Guild of masters, at Paris, like the Guild
of students at Bologna, could use with advantage the threat of a
migration, and, after a violent quarrel with the town in the year
1200, they received special privileges from Philip Augustus. Some
years later, Pope Innocent III. permitted the "scholars of Paris" to
elect a procurator or proctor to represent their interests in law-suits
at Rome. Litigation at Rome was connected with disputes with the
Chancellor of the Cathedral. Already the scholars of Paris had
complained to the Pope about the tyranny of the Chancellor, and
Innocent had supported their cause, remarking that when he himself
studied at Paris he had never heard of scholars being treated in this
fashion. It moved and astonished the Pope not a little that the
Chancellor should attempt to exact an oath of obedience and payment
of money from the masters, and, in the end, that official was (p. 043)
compelled to give up his claim to demand fees or oaths of fealty or
obedience for a licence to teach, and to relax any oaths that had
already been taken. The masters, as Dr Rashdall points out, already
possessed the weapon of boycotting, and ordering their students to
boycott, a teacher upon whom the Chancellor conferred a licence
against the wish of their guild, but they could not at first compel
him to grant a licence to anyone whom they desired to admit. After the
Papal intervention of 1212, the Chancellor was bound to licence a
candidate recommended by the masters.
In the account of their own history, from which we have already
quoted, the Parisian masters speak of their venerable "gignasium
litterarum" as divided into four faculties, Theology, Law, Medicine,
and Philosophy, and they compare the four streams of learning to the
four rivers of Paradise. The largest and most important was the
Faculty of Arts, and the masters of that Faculty were the protagonists
in the struggle with the Chancellor, a struggle which continued long
after the intervention of Innocent III. In the course of this long and
successful conflict, the Faculty of Arts developed an internal
organisation, consisting of four nations, distinguished as the French,
the Normans, the Picards, and the English. Each nation elected a
proctor, and the four proctors or other representatives of the (p. 044)
nations elected a Rector, who was the Head of the Faculty of Arts.
The division into nations and the title of Rector may have been copied
from Bologna, but the organisation at Paris was essentially different.
The Parisian nations were governed by masters, not by students, and
whereas, at Bologna, the artists were an insignificant minority, at
Paris, the Rector became, by the end of the thirteenth century, the
most powerful official of the University, and, by the middle of the
fourteenth, was recognised as its Head. The superior Faculties of
Theology, Canon Law, and Medicine, though they possessed independent
constitutions under their own Deans, consisted largely of men who had
taken a Master's or a Bachelor's degree in Arts, and, from the middle
of the thirteenth century, they took an oath to the Rector, which was
held to be binding even after they became doctors. The non-artist
members of these Faculties were not likely to be able to resist an
authority whose existence was generally welcomed as the centre of the
opposition to the Chancellor. Ultimately, the whole University passed
under the sway of the Rector, and the power of the Chancellor was
restricted to granting the _jus ubique docendi_ as the representative
of the Pope. Even this was little more than a formality, for the
Chancellor "ceased," says Dr Rashdall, "to have any real control over
the grant or refusal of Licences, except in so far as he retained (p. 045)
the nomination of the Examiners in Arts."
At Oxford, the University was also a Guild of masters, but Oxford was
not a cathedral city, and there was no conflict with the Bishop or the
Chancellor. In the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the
thirteenth century, the masters of the Studium probably elected a
Rector or Head in imitation of the Parisian Chancellor. After the
quarrel with the citizens, which led to the migration to Cambridge,
and when King John had submitted to the Pope, the masters were able to
obtain an ordinance from the Papal legate determining the punishment
of the offenders, and providing against the recurrence of such
incidents. The legate ordered that if the citizens should seize the
person of a clerk, his surrender might be demanded by "the Bishop of
Lincoln, or the Archdeacon of the place or his Official, or the
Chancellor, or whomsoever the Bishop of Lincoln shall depute to this
office." The clause lays stress upon the authority of the Bishop of
Lincoln, which must in no way be diminished by any action of the
townsmen. The ecclesiastical authority of the Bishop was welcomed by
the University as a protection against the town, and the Chancellor
was too far away from Lincoln to press the privileges of the Diocese
or the Cathedral against the clerks who were under his special (p. 046)
care. The Oxford Chancellor was a master of the Studium, and, though
he was the representative of the Bishop, he was also the Head of the
masters guild, and from very early times was elected by the masters.
Thus he came to identify himself with the University, and his office
increased in importance as privileges were conferred upon the
University by kings and popes. No Rectorship grew up as a rival to the
Chancellorship, though some of the functions of the Parisian Rector
were performed at Oxford by the Proctors. There were only two "Nations"
at Oxford, for the Oxford masters were, as a rule, Englishmen; men
from north of the Trent formed the Northern Nation, and the rest of
England the Southern Nation. Scotsmen were classed as Northerners, and
Welshmen and Irishmen as Southerners. The division into Nations was
short-lived, and the two Rectors or Proctors, though still
distinguished as Northern and Southern, soon became representatives
elected by the whole Faculty of Arts. As at Paris, the Faculty of Arts
was the moving spirit in the University, and Theology, Law, and
Medicine never developed at Oxford any independent organisation. The
proctors, as Dr Rashdall has shown, thus became the Executive of the
University as a whole, and not merely of the Faculty of Arts.
An essential difference between Bologna and its two great northern (p. 047)
sisters lies in the fact that, at Paris and at Oxford, masters and
scholars alike were all clerks, possessing the tonsure and wearing the
clerical garb, though not necessarily even in minor orders. They could
thus claim the privileges of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and at
Oxford this jurisdiction was exercised by the Chancellor, who also,
along with the proctors, was responsible for academic discipline and
could settle disputes between members of the University. In this, the
University of Oxford had a position of independence which Paris never
achieved, for though the Parisian Rector's court dealt with cases of
discipline and with internal disputes, criminal jurisdiction remained
the prerogative of the Bishop. In the middle of the fourteenth
century, royal grants of privileges to the University of Oxford
culminated in the subjection of the city, and from the middle of the
fifteenth "the burghers lived in their own town almost as the helots
or subjects of a conquering people." (_Cf._ Rashdall, vol. ii. chap.
12, sec. 3). The constitution of Oxford was closely imitated at
Cambridge, where the Head of the University was also the Chancellor,
and the executive consisted of two rectors or proctors. In the
fifteenth century the University freed itself from the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely.
Germany possessed no universities before the fourteenth century. (p. 048)
Prague was founded in 1347-8, and was followed before 1400 by Vienna,
Erfurt, Heidelberg, and Cologne, and in the first quarter of the next
century by Würzburg, Leipsic, Rostock, and in the Low Countries by
Louvain. The first Scottish University dates from the early years of
the fifteenth century. While the provincial universities of France
tended to follow Bologna rather than Paris as their model, the German
universities approximated to the Parisian type, and although the
founders of the Scottish universities were impressed by some of the
conditions of the student-universities, and provided for them a
theoretical place in their constitutions, yet the three medieval
Scottish universities of Scotland, in their actual working, more
nearly resembled the master type.
CHAPTER IV (p. 049)
COLLEGE DISCIPLINE
We are now in a position to approach the main part of our
subject--life in a medieval University of masters--and we propose to
proceed at once to its most characteristic feature, life in a medieval
College. The system originated in Paris. In the early days of the
University, students at Paris lived freely in private houses, which a
number of "socii" hired for themselves. A record of a dispute which
occurred in 1336 shows that it was usual for one member of such a
community to be responsible for the rent, "tanquam principalis dictae
domus," and the member who was held to be responsible in the
particular case is described as a "magister." At first it was not
necessary that he should be a master, but this soon became usual, and
ultimately (though not till the close of the Middle Ages) it was made
compulsory by the University. Dr Rashdall has drawn attention to the
democratic character of these Hospicia or Halls, the members of which
elected their own principal and made the regulations which he
enforced. This democratic constitution is found at Oxford as well as
at Paris, and was, indeed, common to all the early universities. (p. 050)
When a benevolent donor endowed one of these halls, he invariably gave
it not only money, but regulations, and it was the existence of an
endowment and of statutes imposed by an external authority that
differentiated the College from the Hall. The earliest College
founders did not necessarily erect any buildings for the scholars for
whose welfare they provided; a College is essentially a society, and
not a building. The quadrangular shape which is now associated with
the buildings of a College was probably suggested accidentally by the
development of Walter de Merton's College at Oxford; but, long after
the foundation of Merton College in 1263 or 1264, it was not
considered necessary by a founder to build a home for his scholars,
who secured a suitable lodging-house (or houses) and were prepared to
migrate should such a step become desirable in the interest of the
University.
The statutes of Merton provide us with a picture of an endowed Hall at
the period when such endowments were beginning to change the character
of University life. The conception of a College, as distinguished from
the older Halls, developed very rapidly, and the Founder's provisions
for the organisation of his society were altered three times within ten
years. In 1264, Walter de Merton, sometime Chancellor of England, (p. 051)
drew up a code of statutes for the foundation of a house, to be called
the House of the Scholars of Merton. His motive was the good of Holy
Church and the safety of the souls of his benefactors and relations,
and these objects were to be served by providing for the maintenance
of twenty poor scholars and two or three priests in the schools of
Oxford, or elsewhere, if learning should, in these days of civil war,
flourish elsewhere than at Oxford. The endowment which he provided was
to consist of his manors of Maldon and Farleigh, in Surrey, to which
was added the Merton estate, at the end of what are now the "Backs" in
Cambridge. This was purchased in 1269-70. The lands were given to his
scholars, to be held under certain conditions, in their own name. His
own kindred were to have the first claim upon places in the new
Society, and, after them, natives of the diocese of Winchester; they
were to have allowances of forty shillings each per annum, to live
together in a Hall, and to wear uniform garb in token of unity and
mutual love. As vacancies arose, by death, by admission into a
religious order, by the acceptance of livings in the Church, or by
appointments in other callings, they were to be filled up, and if the
funds of the society permitted, the numbers, both of scholars and of
priests, were to be increased. Scholars who proved to be incorrigibly
idle, or who led evil lives, were to be deprived; but the sick and (p. 052)
infirm were to be treated generously, and any of the Founder's kin who
suffered from an incurable malady, and were incapable of earning an
honest living in the Studium or elsewhere, were to be maintained till
their death. It was assumed that the scholars had already received the
preliminary training in Latin which was necessary for their studies,
but provision was made for the elementary instruction of poor or
orphan boys of the Founder's kin, until they were ready to enter the
University. Once or twice a year all the members of the foundation
were to meet and say mass for their Founder and his benefactors,
living and dead. The management of the property was entrusted to a
Warden, who was to reside not at Oxford or any other Studium where the
Hall might happen to be, but at Maldon or Farleigh. The Warden was a
member of the Society, but had no authority over the scholars, except
that, in cases of disputed elections, he, or the Chancellor or Rector
of the University where the Hall happened to be at the time, was to
act on the advice of six or seven of the senior scholars, and the
senior scholars, rather than the Warden, were looked upon by the
founder as the natural leaders of his Society. Every year, eight or
ten of the seniors were to go to Surrey to stay for eight days to
inquire into the management of their property, and, if at any (p. 053)
other time, evil rumours about the conduct of the Warden reached the
Hall, two or three of them were to go to investigate. The scholars
could, with the consent of the Patron, the Bishop of Winchester, bring
about the deposition of the Warden, and elections to the Wardenship
were entrusted to the twelve seniors. They were to consult the
"brothers" who assisted the Warden at Merton, and were also to obtain
the sanction of the Bishop of Winchester.
These first Merton statutes clearly contemplate an endowed Hall,
differing from other Halls only in the existence of the endowment.
Some regulations are necessary in order that the tenure of the
property of the Society may be secure and that its funds may not be
misapplied, and the brief code of statutes is directed to these ends.
Walter de Merton's earliest rules make the minimum of change in
existing conditions. But the preparation of this code of statutes must
have suggested to the Founder that his generosity gave him the power
of making more elaborate provisions. The Mendicant Orders had already
established at Oxford and at Paris houses for their own members, and
the Monastic Orders in France were following the example of the
Friars. These houses were, of course, governed by minute and detailed
regulations, and it may have seemed desirable to introduce some
stricter discipline into the secular halls. At all events, in (p. 054)
1270, Walter de Merton took the opportunity of an increase in his
endowments to issue a code of statutes more than twice as long as that
of 1264. These new statutes mark a distinct advance in the Founder's
ideal of College life. The Warden becomes a much more important factor
in the conduct of the Hall as well as in the management of the
property; in the election and in the expulsion of scholars he is given
a greater place; his allowances are increased, and his presence at
Oxford seems to be implied. The scholars are to proceed from Arts to
Theology; four or five of them may be permitted to study the Canon
Law, and the Warden may allow some of them to devote some time to the
Civil Law. Two Sub-Wardens are to be appointed, one at Maldon and one
in Oxford; Deans are to watch over the morals of the scholars, and
senior students are to preside over the studies of the freshmen. The
scholars are to be silent at meals and to listen to a reader; there
must be no noise in their chambers, and a senior is to be in authority
in each chamber, and to report breaches of regulations. Conversation
is to be conducted in Latin.
We have here the beginnings of a new system of University life, and we
can trace the tendency towards collegiate discipline still more
clearly in the Founder's statutes of 1274, which are much longer and
more elaborate than in 1270. The scholars or Fellows are now to (p. 055)
obey the Warden, as their Superior; the Deans and the seniors in
chambers are to bear rule under him and, in the first instance, to
report to him; the Sub-Warden is to take his place in his absence and
to assist him at other times; three Bursars are to help him in the
management, of the property. The Patron or Visitor, may inquire into
the conduct of the Warden or into any accusations brought against him,
and has the power of depriving him of his office. The Warden is not an
absolute sovereign; the thirteen seniors are associated with him in
the government of the College, and the Sub-Warden and five seniors are
to inspect his accounts once a year. At the periodical scrutinies,
when the conduct of all the members of the College is to be examined,
accusations can be brought against him and duly investigated. This
custom, and others of Walter de Merton's regulations, were clearly
borrowed from the rules of monastic houses, and a company of secular
clerks seems to have had difficulty in realising that they were bound
by them, for as early as 1284 the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had
become the Visitor of the College, had to issue a series of orders for
the observances of the statutes. The Warden and Fellows of Merton had
permitted the study of medicine: they had interpreted too liberally the
permission to study law; they had increased their own allowances (p. 056)
and the salaries of their brewer and their cook; the Fellows had
resisted the authority of the Warden; they had neglected the
attendances at divine service enjoined by the Founder, and they had
been lax about expulsions. The change which Walter de Merton had made
in a scholar's life was so far-reaching that a secular would probably
not have shared the astonishment of Archbishop Peckham (himself a
friar) at the unwillingness of the Merton scholars to recognise the
loss of their traditional freedom.
The system inaugurated by Walter de Merton was destined to have a
great development. In the document of 1284, Peckham speaks of Merton
as a "College," and its Founder was the founder of the Oxford College
system. Although he repeated in his last statutes his permission to
move his Society from Oxford, he regarded Oxford as its permanent
home. Now that the civil war was over and England at peace, he had, he
says, purchased a place of habitation and a house at Oxford, "where a
University of students is flourishing." Not only had he provided a
dwelling-place, he had also magnificently rebuilt a parish church to
serve as a College-Chapel. The example he set was followed both at
Oxford and at Cambridge, and the rule of Merton became the model on
which College founders based elaborate codes of statutes. English
founders generally followed Walter de Merton in making their (p. 057)
societies self-governing communities, with an external Visitor as the
ultimate court of appeal. There were in many colleges "poor boys" who
were taught grammar, performed menial offices, and were not members,
nor always eligible for election as members, of the Society; but as a
general rule the Fellows or Socii all had a share in the management of
the affairs of the House. Routine business was frequently managed by
the Head, the officers, and a limited number of the Senior Fellows,
but the whole body of Fellows took part in the election of a new Head.
A period of probation, varying from one year to three, was generally
prescribed before an entrant was admitted a "full and perpetual"
Fellow, and during this period of probation he had no right of voting.
This restriction was sometimes dispensed with in the case of
"Founder's kin," who became full Fellows at once, and the late Sir
Edward Wingfield used to boast that in his Freshman term (1850) he had
twice voted in opposition to the Warden of New College in a College
meeting. As in a monastic house, this freedom was combined with a
strict rule of obedience, and though the Head of a medieval College
might be irritated by incidents of this kind, he possessed great
dignity and high authority within his domain. As founders did more for
their students, they expected a larger obedience from them, and (p. 058)
attempted to secure it by minute regulations; and the authority of the
Head of the College increased with the number of rules which he was to
enforce. The foundation of New College at Oxford in 1379 marks the
completion of the collegiate ideal which had advanced so rapidly under
the successive constitutions of Merton College a hundred years before.
William of Wykeham, in providing for the needs of his scholars,
availed himself of the experience of the past and created a new model
for the future. The Fellows of New College were to be efficiently
equipped at Winchester for the studies of the University, and, as we
shall see, they were to receive in College special instruction in
addition to the teaching of the University. Their magnificent home
included, besides their living-rooms, a noble chapel and hall, a
library, a garden, and a beautiful cloister for religious processions
and for the burial of the dead. King Henry VI. built a still more
magnificent house for his Cambridge scholars, and his example was
followed by Henry VIII. The later College-founders, as we have said,
expected obedience in proportion to their munificence, and the simpler
statutes of earlier colleges were frequently revised and assimilated
to those of later foundations. We reserve for a later section what we
have to say about education, and deal here with habits and customs.
The Merton rule that conversation must be in Latin is generally (p. 059)
found in College statutes. At Peterhouse, French might occasionally be
spoken, should just and reasonable cause arise, but English very
rarely. At New College, Latin was to be spoken even in the garden,
though English might be used in addressing a layman. At Queen's
College, Oxford, which was founded by a courtier, French was allowed
as a regular alternative for Latin, and at Jesus College, Oxford,
conversation might be in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. In spite of the
influence of the Renaissance, it seems unlikely that either Greek or
Hebrew was much used as an alternative to Latin, but the Latin-speaking
rule had become less rigid and in sixteenth-century statutes more
generous provision is made for dispensations from it. The Latin rule
was not merely an educational method; it was deliberately intended to
be a check upon conversation. College founders accepted the apostolic
maxim that the tongue worketh great evil, and they were convinced that
a golden rule of silence was a protection against both ribaldry and
quarrels. In the later statutes of Clare, the legislator recognises
that not merely loss of time, but the creation of a disposition to be
interested in trifles can be traced to "frequentes collocutiones," and
he forbids any meetings in bedrooms (even meetings of Masters of Arts)
for the purpose of feasting or of talking. If anyone wishes to (p. 060)
receive a friend at dinner or supper, he must apply to the Master for
leave, and such leave is to be very rarely given. Conversation in Hall
was prohibited by the rule of silence and by the provision of a
reader, which we have already found at Merton. The book read was
almost invariably the Bible. William of Wykeham, who was followed in
this, as in other respects, by later College founders, forbade his
scholars to remain in Hall after dinner or supper, on the ground that
they were likely to talk scandal and quarrel; but on great Feast days,
when a fire was allowed in the Hall, they might sit round and indulge
in canticles and in listening to poems and chronicles and "mundi hujus
mirabilia." The words, of the statute (which reappear in those of
later colleges) seem to imply that even on winter evenings a fire
burned in the Hall only on Feast days, and the medieval student must
have suffered severely from cold. There were, as a rule, no fireplaces
in private rooms until the sixteenth century, when we find references
to them, _e.g._ in the statutes of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; and
the wooden shutters which took the place of windows shut out the
scanty light of a winter day. When a Disputation (_cf._ p. 146) was
held in Hall at night, a fire was lit, but we are not told how, when
there was no Disputation or Colleges meeting, the medieval student
spent the time between supper and the "nightcap" which accompanied (p. 061)
Compline. Dinner was at ten in the morning and supper at six in the
evening. Dr Caius, in the middle of the sixteenth century, ordered his
students to be in bed by eight o'clock in the evening, and "early to
bed" must have been the custom on winter nights in a medieval College.
"Early to rise" was the stern law, even in the dark mornings, for the
student's day began at six o'clock, and he must often have listened to
lectures which commenced in the dark, although dawn overtook the
lecturer before he finished his long exposition. In early times there
was no provision for breakfast, and, though the existence of such a
meal is distinctly contemplated in the statutes of Queen's College,
Oxford, there is no hint of it in those of New College. Probably some
informal meal was usual everywhere, and was either paid for privately
or winked at by the authorities. The absence of any general provision
for breakfast led to its being taken in private rooms and not in Hall,
and this is the humble origin of the College breakfast party.
The number of occupants of a single room varied in different colleges.
Special provision was made in later College statutes for the Head of
the College; at New College he was given (for the first time) a separate
establishment and an allowance of plate and kitchen utensils; he (p. 062)
was to dine in Hall only on some twenty great Feasts of the Church,
and to sit at a separate table on these occasions. Henry VI. followed
this precedent at King's, and elsewhere we find that the Head of a
College is to have "principalem mansionem" with garden and stabling
for the horses, without which it was not becoming that he should
travel on College business. It was generally the duty of the Head to
apportion the rooms among other members of the College, and to see
that the juniors were under proper supervision. At Peterhouse, and in
many other colleges, there were to be two in each chamber. When
William of Wykeham built on a large scale, he ordered that there
should be four occupants in the ground-floor rooms and three in the
first-floor rooms. At King's, the numbers were three in ground-floor
rooms and two in first-floor rooms. At Magdalen, the numbers were the
same as at New College, but two of the beds in the upper rooms and one
in the lower were to be "lectuli rotales, _Trookyll beddys_ vulgariter
appellati." Separate beds were usually provided, though sometimes boys
under fourteen or fifteen years of age were denied this luxury. The
bedrooms were also studies; at Oxford there was no general sitting-room,
except in monastic colleges, though Cambridge College statutes speak
of a "parlura," corresponding to the modern parlour or combination
room. Each of the occupants of a room in New College was the (p. 063)
proprietor of a small window, at which he worked, probably at some
"study" or desk like the old Winchester "toys." The rooms had four
windows and four "studiorum loca," and the general type of a College
chamber, after the foundation of New College, was a room with one
large window, and two, three, or four small windows for "studies."
A large proportion of the care of statute-makers was devoted to the
prohibition of amusements. The statutes of Peterhouse forbade dogs or
falcons, "for if one can have them in the House, all will want them,
and so there will arise a constant howling" to disturb the studious.
Dice and chess, being forbidden games to clerks, were also prohibited,
and the scholars of Peterhouse were forbidden to frequent taverns, to
engage in trade, to mix with actors, or to attend theatrical
performances. These enactments are repeated in later College statutes,
with such additions as the legislator's knowledge of human nature
dictated and with occasional explanations of some interest in
themselves. The keeping of dogs is often described as "taking the
children's bread and giving it to dogs," and the Founder of Queen's
College, Oxford, ordered that no animals were to be kept under the
Fellows' rooms, since purity of air is essential for study. William
of Wykeham expressly forbade chess, which he classed with games (p. 064)
leading to the loss of money or estate, but King Henry VI., who made
large use of the statutes of New College, omitted the mention of chess
from his King's College statutes, while he added to Wykeham's
denunciation of ferrets and hawks, an _index expurgatorius_ of animals
which included monkeys, bears, wolves, and stage, and he expressly
forbade nets for hunting or fishing. The principle on which modern
Deans of colleges have sometimes decided that "gramophones are dogs"
and therefore to be excluded from College, can be traced in numerous
regulations against musical instruments, which disturb the peace
essential to learning. That the medieval student felt the temptations
of "ragging" in much the same way as his modern successors, appears
from many threats directed against those who throw stones and other
missiles to the danger of the buildings. Wykeham thought it necessary
to forbid the throwing of stones in Chapel, to the danger of the
windows and reredos, and for the safety of the reredos he prohibited
dancing or jumping in the Hall, which is contiguous to the Chapel.
Games in the Hall were also forbidden for the comfort of the chaplains
who lived in the rooms underneath. King Henry VI. forbade dancing or
jumping, or other dangerous and improper games in the Chapel,
cloister, stalls, and Hall of King's College.
Other disciplinary regulations common to all colleges deal with (p. 065)
carrying arms, unpunctuality, talking during the reading in Hall or
disturbing the Chapel services, bringing strangers into College,
sleeping out of College, absence without leave, negligence and
idleness, scurrilous or offensive language, spilling water in upper
rooms to the detriment of the inhabitants of the lower rooms, and
failure to attend the regular "scrutinies" or the stated general
meetings for College business. At these scrutinies, any serious
charges against members of the Society were considered, and it is in
keeping with some of the judicial ideas of the time that some statutes
forbid the accused person to have a copy of the indictment against
him. For contumacy, for grave moral offences, for crimes of violence,
and for heresy, the penalty was expulsion. Less serious offences were
punished by subtraction of "commons," _i.e._ deprivation of allowances
for a day or a week (or longer), or by pecuniary fines. When College
founders provided clothes as well as board and lodging for their
scholars, the forfeiture of a robe took its place among the penalties
with which offenders were threatened. The "poor boys" who sang in
Chapel and waited on the Fellows were whipped like boys elsewhere, who
were being taught grammar, but the birch was unknown as a punishment
for undergraduates till late in the middle ages. The introduction (p. 066)
of corporal punishment into college life in England may be traced by a
comparison of William of Wykeham's statutes with those of Henry VI.
The King's College statute "De correctionibus faciendis circa delicta
leviora" is largely a transcript of a New College statute, with the
same title, and both contemplate subtraction of commons as the regular
penalty. But the King's College statute contains an additional clause,
to the effect that scholars and younger Fellows may be punished with
stripes. In the statutes of Magdalen, dated some seventeen years
later, William of Waynflete returned to the New College form of the
statute, but he provided that his demys (_i.e._ scholars who received
half the commons of a Fellow) should be subject to the penalty of
whipping in the Grammar School. The statutes of Christ's College
prescribe a fine of a farthing for unpunctuality on the part of the
scholars, studying in the Faculty of Arts, and heavier fines for
absence, and it is added that if the offender be not an adult, a
whipping is to be substituted for the pecuniary penalty. At Brasenose,
where the Fellows were all of the standing of at least a Bachelor of
Arts, the undergraduate scholars were subjected to an unusually strict
discipline, and offenders were to be punished either by fines or by
the rod, the Principal deciding the appropriate punishment in each
case. For unpunctuality, for negligence and idleness, for playing, (p. 067)
laughing, talking, making a noise or speaking English in, a
lecture-room, for insulting fellow-students, or for disobedience to
his pastors and masters, the Brasenose undergraduate was to be
promptly flogged. Among the crimes for which the birch is ordered we
find "making odious comparisons," a phrase which throws some light on
the conversational subjects of sixteenth-century undergraduates. The
kind of comparison is indicated in the statute; remarks about the
country, the family, the manners, the studies, and the ability, or the
person, of a fellow-student must be avoided. Similarly, at Jesus
College, Cambridge, it is forbidden to compare country to country,
race to race, or science to science, and William of Wykeham and other
founders had to make similar injunctions. The medieval student was
distinctly quarrelsome, and such records as the famous Merton
"scrutiny" of 1339, and investigations by College Visitors, show that
the seniors set the undergraduates a bad example. The statutes of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, provide for two new penalties. An
offending undergraduate might be sentenced to feed by himself, at a
small table in the middle of the Hall, and in aggravated cases to the
monastic penalty of bread and water. An alternative penalty was
detention in the library at the most inconvenient time ("per horam (p. 068)
vel horas cum minime vellet"), and the performance of an imposition to
be shown up in due course. The rough and ready penalty of the birch
is, however, frequently mentioned in the statutes of Corpus and of
other sixteenth-century Colleges. Cardinal Wolsey thought it proper
that an undergraduate should be whipped until he had completed his
twentieth year. At Trinity, Cambridge (where offenders were sociably
flogged before the assembled College on Friday evenings) the age was
eighteen. Dr Caius restricted the rod to scholars who were not adult.
"We call those adults," he says, "who have completed their eighteenth
year. For before that age, both in ancient times and in our own memory,
youth was not accustomed to wear _brâccas_, being content with
_tibialia_ reaching to the knees." The stern disciplinarian might find
an excuse for prolonging the whipping age in the Founder's wish that,
"years alone should not make an adult, but along with years, gravity
of deportment and good character." As late as the foundation of
Pembroke College at Oxford (1624) whipping is the penalty contemplated
for undergraduates under eighteen. But when we come to the statutes
which were drawn up in 1698 with a view to the foundation of Worcester
College, not only is there no mention of the birch, but even pecuniary
penalties are deprecated for minor offences, for which impositions (p. 069)
and gating are suggested.
Minor penalties were enforced by the Head of a college, the Vice-Head,
the Deans, and, in sixteenth-century colleges, by the tutors. By later
college statutes, these officers received for their personal use a
portion of the fines they inflicted, and appeals were sometimes
permitted from an officer to the Head, and even to the Chancellor or
Vice-Chancellor of the University. The oath taken by scholars
frequently bound them to reveal to the authorities, any breach of the
statutes, and there are indications that members of the College were
encouraged to report each other's misdeeds. Thus the Master of
Christ's is to fine anyone whom he hears speaking one complete
sentence in English, or anyone whom he may know to have been guilty of
this offence, except in sleeping-rooms or at times when permission had
been given.
Oxford and Cambridge Colleges were, as we have seen, endowed homes for
the education of secular clerks. All of them, on entrance, had to have
the tonsure, and provision was often made for the cutting of their
hair and beard. At Christ's College, there was a regular College
barber "qui ... caput et barbam radet ac tondebit hebdomadis singulis."
They wore ordinary clerical dress, and undue expenditure on clothes
and ornaments was strictly prohibited, _e.g._ the Fellows of (p. 070)
Peterhouse were forbidden to wear rings on their fingers "ad inanem
gloriam et jactantiam." The early founders did not insist upon Holy
Orders for the Heads or Fellows of their colleges, though many of them
would naturally proceed to the priesthood, but in later college
statutes all the Fellows were ultimately to proceed, at stated times,
to Holy Orders and to the priesthood, though dispensations for delay
might be granted, and students of Medicine were sometimes excused from
the priesthood. When they became priests they were, like other
priests, to celebrate mass regularly in the Chapel, but were not to
receive payment for celebrations outside the College. As mere tonsured
undergraduates, they were not, at first, subject to regulations for
daily attendance at divine service; but later founders were stricter
in this, as in other matters. Bishop Bateman, who, in the middle of
the fourteenth century, legislated for the infant Gonville College,
ordered that every Fellow should hear one mass daily and say certain
prayers, and in his own foundation of Trinity Hall, he repeated the
injunction. The prescribed prayers included petitions for the Founder,
or for the repose of his soul; every Fellow of Trinity Hall was to
say, immediately upon rising in the morning and before going to bed at
night, the prayer "Rege quaesumus Domine," during the Bishop's lifetime,
and after his death, "Deus qui inter Apostolicos Sacerdotes," and (p. 071)
to say the psalm "De profundis clamavi" and a "Kurie eleeson" for the
repose of the soul of the Founder's father and mother, his predecessors
in the see of Norwich, and after his death for his own soul. The ten
priests, who served the Chapel at New College, said masses for the
Founder and his benefactors, but every Fellow was to attend mass every
day and to say prayers in his own room, morning and evening, including
"Rege, quaesumus, Domine, Willielmum Pontificem Fundatorem nostrum"
or, after his death, "Deus qui inter Apostolicos sacredotes famulum
tuum Fundatorem nostrum pontificali dignitate"; and every day, both
after High Mass in Chapel, and after dinner and supper in Hall, the
psalm "De profundis" was said. Penalties were prescribed for
negligence, and as time went on, a whipping was inflicted for absence
from Chapel, _e.g._ at Christ's College, and at Balliol, for which new
statutes were drawn up in 1507.
Residence in College was continuous throughout the year, even during
the University vacation, which lasted from early in July to the
beginning of October. Leave of absence might be granted at any time in
the year, on reasonable grounds, but was to be given generally in
vacations. General rules were laid down for behaviour in keeping with
the clerical profession during absence, and students on leave were (p. 072)
forbidden to frequent taverns or otherwise transgress the rules which
were binding upon them in the University. Occasionally we find some
relaxation in these strict regulations, as when the Founder of Corpus
Christi at Oxford allows "moderate hunting or hawking" when one of his
scholars is on holiday away from Oxford. The same indulgent Founder,
after the usual prohibition of games in College, allows a game of ball
in the garden for the sake of healthy exercise. ("Non prohibemus tamen
lusum pilae ad murum, tabulata, aut tegulas, in horto, causa solum
modo exercendi corporis et sanitatis.") Associations with home life
were maintained by vacation visits, but the influx of "people" to the
University was, of course, unknown. The ancient statutes of Peterhouse
permit a woman (even if she be not a relation) to talk with a Fellow
in the Hall, preferably in the presence of another Fellow, or at
least, a servant; but the legislator had grave fears of the results of
such "confabulationes," and the precedent he set was not followed. A
Fellow or scholar is frequently permitted by College statutes to
entertain his father, brother, nephew, or a friend, obtaining first
the consent of the Head of the College, and paying privately for the
entertainment, but no such guest might sleep in College, and the
permission is carefully restricted to the male sex. Women were, as (p. 073)
a rule, not allowed within a College gate; if it was impossible to
find a man to wash clothes, a laundress might be employed, but she
must be old and of unprepossessing appearance. A scholar or Fellow of
a college had not, however, committed himself irrevocably to a
celibate life, for marriage is included among the "causas rationabiles
et honestas" which vacated a fellowship. It was possible, though
probably infrequent, for a Fellow who had not proceeded to Holy Orders
to leave the College "uxore ducta," giving up his emolument, his
clerical dress, and the tonsure. Even if a Fellow enjoyed the
Founder's provision for the long period of his course in Arts and
Theology, and proceeded in due time to Holy Orders, it was not
contemplated that he should remain a Fellow till his death.
"... he had geten him yet no benefyce,
Ne was so worldly for to have offyce,"
says Chaucer, indicating the natural end of a scholar's career. He
might betake himself to some "obsequium," and rise high in the service
of the king, or of some great baron or bishop, and become, like one of
Wykeham's first New College scholars, Henry Chichele, an archbishop
and a College founder himself. Should no such great career open up for
him, he can, at the least, succeed to one of the livings which the
founders of English colleges purchased for this purpose. His "obsequium"
would naturally lead to his ceasing to reside, and so vacate his (p. 074)
fellowship, and his acceptance of a benefice over a certain value
brought about the same result. Some such event was expected to happen
to every Fellow; unless he happened to be elected to the Headship, it
was not intended that he should grow old in the College, and at
Queen's College, Oxford, the arbitrary or unreasonable refusal of a
benefice vacated a Fellowship. The object of the College Founder was,
that there should never be wanting a succession of men qualified to
serve God in Church and State, and to Chaucer's unworldly clerk, if he
was a member of a College, there would come, in due course, the
country living and goodbye to the University. But statutes were not
always strictly observed and the idle life-Fellow, who survived to be
the scandal of early Victorian days, was not unknown in the end of the
Middle Ages.
One of the causes of vacating a fellowship throws some light upon the
class of men who became members of Oxford and Cambridge Colleges. The
opening sentences of founders' statutes usually contain some such
phrase as "collegium pauperum et indigentium scholarium"; but later
sections of the statutes contemplate the possibility of their succeeding
to property--"patrimonium, haereditatem, feudumve saeculare, vel
pensionem annuam"--and if such property exceeded the annual value of
a hundred shillings, a Fellowship was _ipso facto_ vacated. The (p. 075)
"pauperes et indigentes" expressions must not be construed too
literally; the Founder was establishing a claim to the merits of him
that considereth the poor, and the language he used was part of the
ordinary formulas of the time, and ought not to be interpreted more
strictly than the ordinary phrases of legal and Diplomatic documents
or than the conventional terms of courtesy, which begin and conclude a
modern letter. That an English College Founder wished to give help
where help was required, is undeniable, but help was required by
others than the poorest. The advancement of the study of theology was
near the heart of every medieval founder, and the study of theology
demanded the surrender of the best years of a man's life, and the
extension of the period of education long after he might be expected
to be earning his own living. A curriculum in the University which
covered at least sixteen years, and might be followed by nothing more
remunerative than the cure of Chaucer's poor priest, required some
substantial inducement if it was to attract the best men. Canon Law,
Civil Law and Medicine, if they offered more opportunity of attaining
a competency, required also a very long period of apprenticeship in
the University. There were many youths in the Middle Ages (as there
are to-day) neither "pauperes" nor "indigentes" in the strict (p. 076)
sense of the word, but too poor to be able to afford sixteen years of
study in the University. The length of the medieval curriculum
produced some of the necessities which colleges were established to
meet.
That the founders were not thinking of the poorest classes of the
community, is evident from many provisions of their statutes. They
frequently provided only board and lodging, and left their
beneficiaries to find elsewhere the other necessities of life; they
appointed penalties (such as the subtraction of commons for a month)
which would have meant starvation to the penniless; they contemplated
entertainments and journeys, and in the case of a New College Doctor,
even the maintenance of a private servant, at the personal expense of
their scholars and Fellows; they prohibited the expenditure of money
on extravagant dress and amusements. William of Wykeham made
allowances for the expense of proceeding to degrees in the University
when one of his Fellows had no private means and no friends to assist
him ("propter paupertatem, inopiam, et penuriam, carentiamque
amicorum"); but the sum to be thus administered was strictly limited
and the recipient had to prove his poverty, and to swear to the truth
of his statement. The very frequent insistence upon provisions for a
Founder's kin, suggests that the society, to which he wished a (p. 077)
large number of his relations to belong, was of higher social standing
than an almshouse; and the liberal allowances for the food of the
Fellows, as contrasted with the sums allotted to servants and
choristers, show that life in College was intended to be easy and
comfortable. The fact that menial work was to be done by servants and
that Fellows were to be waited on at table by the "poor boys" is a
further indication of the dignity of the Society. At New College, it
was the special duty of one servant to carry to the schools, the books
of the Fellows and scholars. The possession of considerable means by a
medieval Fellow, is illustrated by two wills, printed in "Munimenta
Academica." Henry Scayfe, Fellow of Queen's College, left in 1449,
seven pounds to his father, smaller sums to a large number of friends,
including sixpence to every scholar of the College, and also disposed
by will of sheep, cattle and horses. In 1457, John Seggefyld, Fellow
of Lincoln College, bequeathed to his brother tenements in Kingston by
Hull, which had been left him by his father, twelve pence to each of
his colleagues, and thirteen shillings and four pence to his executor.
Whether the possessions of these men ought to have led to the
resignation of their Fellowships, is a question which may have
interested their colleagues at the time; to us the facts are
important, as illustrating the private means of members of a (p. 078)
society of "poor and indigent" scholars, and as indicating the class
from which such scholars were drawn.
College regulations in other countries add considerably to our
knowledge of medieval student-life. In Paris, where the system had its
humble beginning in the hire of a room for eighteen poor scholars, by
a benevolent Englishman returning from a pilgrimage to Palestine in
1180, the college ideal progressed slowly and never reached its
highest development. Even when most of the students of Paris came to
live in colleges, the college was not the real unit of university
life, nor was a Parisian college a self-governing community like
Merton or Peterhouse. The division of the University of Paris into
Nations affected its social life, and the Faculties were separated at
Paris in a manner unknown in England. A college at Paris was organised
in accordance with Faculty divisions, an arrangement so little in
harmony with the ideas of English founders, that William of Wykeham
provided that Canonists and Civilists, should be mixed in chambers
with students of other Faculties "ad nutriendam et conservandam
majorem dilectionem, amicitiam et charitatem inter eosdem." As
colleges at Paris were frequently confined to natives of a particular
district, they tended to become sub-divisions of the Nations. The (p. 079)
disadvantages of restricting membership of a college to a diocese or
locality, were seen and avoided by the founder of the College of
Sorbonne, in the middle of the thirteenth century, and the founder of
the sixteenth century College of Mans protested against the custom, by
instructing his executors to open his foundation to men, from every
nation and province, insisting that association with companions of
different languages and customs, would make the scholars "civiliores,
eloquentiores, et doctiores," and that the friendships thus formed
would enable them to render better service to the State. The tenure of
his _bursa_ or emolument, by a member of a Paris college, was so
precarious that he could not count upon proceeding to a higher Faculty
in his own college, and the existence of an outside body of governors
and of Patrons or Visitors, who had the power of filling up vacancies
further checked the growth of corporate feeling and college
patriotism. The large powers entrusted to an external authority made
the position of the Head of a college at Paris, much less important
than at Oxford or Cambridge.
The differences between English and Parisian colleges may best be
realised by a reference to the statutes of some early Paris founders.
About 1268, Guillaume de Saone, Treasurer of Rouen, founded at Paris,
the "Treasurer's College" for natives of his own diocese. It was (p. 080)
founded for poor clerks, twelve of whom were to be scholars in
Theology, and twelve in Arts. They were to be selected by the
archdeacons of the Cathedral of Rouen, who then resided at Grand-Caux
and Petit-Caux, from natives of these places, or, failing them, from
the Diocese of Rouen. The scholars were to have rooms and a weekly
allowance, not for the whole year, but for forty-five weeks from the
feast of St Dionysius; no provision was made for the seven weeks of
the vacation, except for two theologians, who were to take charge of
the house at Paris. The revenues were collected and distributed by the
Prior of the Hospital of St Mary Magdalen at Rouen, and the Archbishop
of Rouen was Rector and Patron. The students in Arts never formed part
of the foundation, for the Treasurer almost immediately restricted his
community to Theologians, and their tenure of the endowment was
strictly limited to two years after obtaining their licence. "For we
do not wish to grant them anything more, because our intention is only
to induce them to proceed to the degree of master in theology." They
were furnished with books, which they were forbidden to lend, and they
were placed under the immediate superintendence of the senior Bursar
or Foundationer, whose duty it was to call them together once a week,
and inquire into their conduct and their progress in their (p. 081)
studies. Some general rules were laid down by the Founder, and
offenders against them were to be expelled at these meetings. They
were permitted to receive a peaceful commoner, who paid for his
chamber and was a student of Theology. The interest of the Treasurer
of Rouen in Theology is characteristic, and the great College of the
Sorbonne, founded about the same time, was also restricted to
theologians. The College of Navarre, founded in 1304, provided for
twenty students of grammar, twenty in logic and philosophy (Arts) and
twenty in Theology, each Faculty forming a sub-college, with a
separate hall. A doctor in grammar was to superintend both the studies
and the morals of the grammarians and to receive double their weekly
allowance of four shillings, and similarly, a master of Arts was to
supervise the Artists and receive double their weekly allowance of six
shillings. The "Dean and University of the masters of the scholars of
the theological Faculty at Paris" were to choose a secular clerk to be
Rector of the College, and to govern it in conjunction with the body
that appointed him. The masters of the Faculty of Theology, or their
representatives, were to visit the College annually, to inquire into
the financial and domestic arrangements, and into the behaviour of the
Rector, masters, and scholars, and to punish as they deemed necessary.
Membership of the College was restricted to the kingdom of France. (p. 082)
Similarly, the College du Plessis, founded in 1322, by Geoffrey du
Plessis, Notary Apostolic, and Secretary of Philip the Long, was
restricted to Frenchmen, with preference to certain northern dioceses.
Its forty scholars were in separate societies, with a Grand Master who
had to be a master or, at least, a bachelor in Theology. The affairs
of the College, as far as concerned the election, discipline and the
deprivation of its members, were to be administered by two bishops and
an abbot, in conjunction with the Master and with the Chancellor of
the Cathedral of Paris, or, in the absence of the great dignitaries,
by the Master and the Chancellor. But the financial administration was
entrusted to a provisor or procurator, who undertook the collection
and distribution of the revenues.
The details of college statutes at Paris, bear a general resemblance
to the regulations of Oxford and Cambridge founders, and discipline
became more stringent as time went on. Attendance at Chapel (the only
meeting-place of students in different Faculties in the same College)
came to be strictly required. Punctuality at meals was frequently
insisted upon, under pain of receiving nothing but bread. Silence was
enjoined at meal times and the Bible was read. Latin was, from the
first, the only lawful medium of conversation. All the members of (p. 083)
a college, had to be within the gates when the curfew bell rang.
Bearing arms or wearing unusual clothes was forbidden, and singing,
shouting and games were denounced as interfering with the studies of
others, although the Parisian legislators were more sympathetic with
regard to games, than their English contemporaries. Even the Founder
of the Cistercian College of St Bernard, contemplated that permission
might be obtained for games, though not before dinner or after the
bell rang for vespers. A sixteenth-century code of statutes for the
College of Tours, while recording the complaints of the neighbours
about the noise made by the scholars playing ball ("de insolentiis,
exclamationibus et ludis palmariis dictorum scolarium, qui ludunt ...
pilis durissimis") permitted the game under less noisy conditions
("pilis seu scophis mollibus et manu, ac cum silentio et absque
clamoribus tumultuosis"). The use of dice was, as a rule, absolutely
prohibited, but the statutes of the College of Cornouaille permitted
it under certain conditions. It might be played to amuse a sick fellow
on feast days, or without the plea of sickness, on the vigils of
Christmas, and of three Holy Days. But the stakes must be small and
paid in kind, not in money ("pro aliquo comestibili vel potabili").
Penalties for minor offences were much the same as in England--forfeiture
of commons for varying periods, pecuniary fines, and in the (p. 084)
sixteenth century, whipping. In the College of Le Mans, bursars who
were not graduates were to be whipped for a first offence in a school,
and for a second offence in the Hall ("prout mos est in universitate
Parisiensi"). The obligation of reporting each other's faults, of
which there are indications in English statutes, was almost universal
at Paris, where all were bound to reveal offences "sub secreto" to the
authorities. The penalty of "sconcing," still inflicted at Oxford, for
offences against undergraduate etiquette, finds a place in the
Parisian statutes among serious punishments. We find it in the
Statutes of Cornouaille for minor offences; if a man carries wine out
of the College illicitly, he is to pay for double the quantity to be
drunk by the members who were present at the time; if anyone walks
through the confines or chambers in pattens ("cum calepodiis, id est
cum patinis") he is to be mulcted in a pint of wine. If a stranger is
introduced without leave ("ad mensam communitatis ad comedendum vel
videndum secretum mensae"), the penalty is a quart of good wine for
the fellows present in Hall. For unseemly noise, especially at meals,
and at time of prayers, the ordinary penalty is a quart of ordinary
wine ("vini mediocris"). For speaking in the vernacular, there is a
fine of "the price of a pint of wine," but, as the usual direction
about drinking it, is omitted, this was probably not a sconce; at (p. 085)
the Cistercian College, the penalty for this offence was a sconce. So
far, the offences for which a sconce is prescribed, might in most
cases, be paralleled in more recent times in an English college, but
the statutes of Cornouaille also make sconcing the penalty for striking
a servant, unless the injury was severe, in which case, more serious
punishments were imposed. The whole sentence is an illustration of the
lack of control over outbursts of bad temper, which is characteristic
of medieval life. All the scholars are to be careful not to strike the
servants in anger or with ill-will, or to injure them; he who inflicts
a slight injury is to be fined a quart of wine; if the injury be more
severe, the master is to deprive him of his burse for one day or more,
at his own discretion and that of a majority of the scholars: if there
is a large effusion of blood or a serious injury, the provisor (the
Bishop of Paris or his Vicar General) is to be informed, and to
deprive the offender of his burse, or even punish him otherwise. At
the Sorbonne, an assault on a servant was to be followed by the
drinking of a quart of specially good wine by the Fellows, at the
culprit's expense; for talking too loud in Hall, the sconce was two
quarts (presumably of ordinary wine). Dr Rashdall quotes from the MS.
Register of the Sorbonne, actual instances of the infliction of
sconces: "A Doctor of Divinity is sconced a quart of wine for (p. 086)
picking a pear off a tree in the College garden, or again, for
forgetting to shut the Chapel door, or for taking his meals in the
kitchen. Clerks are sconced a pint for 'very inordinately' knocking
'at the door during dinner ...' for 'confabulating' in the court late
at night, and refusing to go to their chambers when ordered.... The
head cook is sconced for 'badly preparing the meat for supper,' or for
not putting salt in the soup." Among the examples given by Dr Rashdall
from this source are a sconce of two shillings for drunkenness and a
sconce in wine inflicted upon the head cook for being found "cum una
meretrice." An offence so serious in a bursar, is by many college
statutes to be followed by expulsion, and Dr Rashdall quotes an
instance of this penalty: but Parisian College Founders, were less
severe in dealing with moral offences than English Founders. At the
monastic College of Marmoutier, it was only on the second offence that
bringing into College ("mulierem suspectam et inhonestam") led to
expulsion, and at the College of Cornouaille, the penalty for a first
offence was loss of commons or bursa for fifteen days, and for a
second offence a month's deprivation; but even at Cornouaille actual
incontinence was to be punished by expulsion.
A late code of statutes of the fourteenth-century College of (p. 087)
Dainville, give us a picture of a student's day. The hour of rising
was five o'clock, except on Sundays and Feast days when an hour's
grace was allowed. Chapel service began at 5.30, prayers, meditation,
and a New Testament lesson being followed by the mass of the College
at six. All students resident in the College had to be present. The
reception of commoners, an early instance of which we noted in the
College of the Treasurer, had developed to such an extent, that all
Colleges had, in addition to their bursars or foundations, a large
number of "foranei scholares," who paid their own expenses but were
subject to College discipline, and received a large part of their
education in College. After mass, the day's work began; attendance at
the Schools and the performance of exercises for their master in
College. Dinner was about twelve o'clock, when either a bursar or an
external student read, "first Holy Scripture, then a book appointed by
the master, then a passage from a martyrology." After dinner, an hour
was allowed for recreation--walking within the precincts of the
College, or conversation--and then everyone went to his own chamber.
Supper was at seven, with reading as at dinner, and the interval until
8.30 was again free for "deambulatio vel collocutio." At 8.30 the
gates of the College were closed, and evening Chapel began. Rules
against remaining in Hall after supper occur in Parisian as well (p. 088)
as in English statutes, and we find prohibitions against carrying off
wood to private rooms. The general arrangement of Parisian college
chambers, probably resembled those of Oxford, or Cambridge, and we
find references to "studies." The statutes of the monastic college of
Clugny order that "because the mind is rendered prudent by sitting
down and keeping quiet, the said students at the proper and wonted
hours for study shall be, and sit, alone in their cells and at their
studies." Parisian statutes are stricter than English statutes in
insisting upon frequent inspections of students' chambers, and a
sixteenth-century code for a Parisian college orders the officials to
see their pupils every night before bed time, and to make sure, before
they themselves retire for the night, that the students are asleep and
not wandering about the quadrangles.
Strict supervision is found in colleges in other French universities,
even in those which belong to the student type. It was, of course,
especially strict in monastic colleges, which carried their own
customs to the University; in the College of Notre Dame de Pitié, at
Avignon, the master of the novices lived in a room adjoining their
dormitory, and had a window, through which he might watch their
proceedings. Supervision was sometimes connected with precautions
against fire, _e.g._ at the College of Saint Ruf, at Montpellier, (p. 089)
an officer was appointed every week to go round all chambers and rooms
at night, and to warn anyone who had a candle or a fire in a dangerous
position, near his bed or his study. He was to carry a pail of water
with him to be ready for emergencies. A somewhat similar precaution
was taken in the Collegium Maius at Leipsic, where water was kept in
pails beside the dormitories, and leather pails, some centuries old,
are still to be seen at Oxford. As a rule, the dormitories seem to
have contained a separate bed for each occupant, but in the College of
St Nicholas de Pelegry at Cahors, students in arts (who entered about
the age of fourteen) were to sleep two in a bed. Insistence on the use
of Latin is almost universal; the scholars of the College de Foix at
Toulouse are warned that only ploughmen, swineherds and other rustics,
use their mother tongues. Silence and the reading of the Bible at
meals was usual, and students are sometimes told to make their needs
known, if possible, by signs. Fines for lateness at meals are common,
and there are injunctions against rushing into Hall with violence and
greed: no one is to go near the kitchen to seize any food, and those
who enter Hall first, are to wait till the rest arrive, and all are to
sit down in the proper order. Prohibitions against dogs are infrequent
in the French statutes; at the College des Douze Medecins at
Montpellier, one watchdog was allowed to live in College. Women (p. 090)
were often forbidden to enter a college, "quia mulier caput est
peccati, arma dyaboli, expulsio paradysi, et corruptio legis
antiquae." The College of Saint Ruf at Montpellier, in the statutes of
which this formula occurs, did, however, allow women to stand in the
Chapel at mass, provided that they did not enter the choir. The
monastic institution of Our Lady of Pity at Avignon, went so far as to
have a matron for the young boys, an old woman, entitled "Mater
Novitiorum Collegiatorum." At the College of Breuil at Angers, a woman
might visit the College by day if the Principal was satisfied that no
scandal could arise. Penalties for going about the town in masked
bands and singing or dancing, occur in many statutes, but processions
in honour of saints and choruses to celebrate the taking of degrees,
are sometimes permitted. Blasphemy and bad language greatly troubled
the French statute-makers, and there are many provisions against
blaspheming the Blessed Virgin. At the College of Breuil at Angers, a
fine of twopence, was imposed for speaking or singing "verba inhonesta
tam alte," especially in public places of the College; in Germany, the
Collegium Minus at Leipsic provides also against writing "impudentia
dicta" on the walls of the College. The usual penalties for minor
offences are fines and subtraction of commons: references to (p. 091)
flogging are rare, though it is found in both French and German
colleges. More serious crimes were visited with suspension and
expulsion. At the College of Pelegry, at Cahors, to enter the college
by a window or otherwise after the great gate was closed, involved
rustication for two months for the first offence, six months for the
second offence, and expulsion for a third. At the College de Verdale,
at Toulouse, expulsion was the penalty for a list of crimes which
includes theft, entering the college by stealth, breaking into the
cellar, bringing in a meretrix, witch-craft, alchemy, invoking demons
or sacrificing to them, forgery, and contracting "carnale vel
spirituale matrimonium."
We may close our survey of the Medieval College, with a glimpse of a
French college in the fourteenth century. We have the record of a
visitation of the Benedictine foundation of St Benedict, at
Montpellier, partly a monastery and partly a college. The Prior is
strictly questioned about the conduct of the students. He gives a good
character to most of them: but the little flock contained some black
sheep. Peter is somewhat light-headed ("aliquantulum est levis
capitis") but not incorrigible; he has been guilty of employing "verba
injuriosa et provocativa," but the Prior has corrected him, and he has
taken the correction patiently. Bertrand's life is "aliquantulum (p. 092)
dissoluta," and he has made a conspiracy to beat (and, as some think,
to kill) Dominus Savaricus, who had beaten him along with the rest,
when he did not know his lessons. (Bertrand says he is eighteen and
looks like twenty-one, but this is a monastic college and the beating
is monastic discipline.) The Prior further reports that Bertrand is
quarrelsome; he has had to make him change his bed and his chamber,
because the others could not stand him; he is idle and often says
openly, that he would rather be a "claustralis" than a student. Breso
is simple and easily led, and was one of Bertrand's conspirators.
William is "pessimae conversationis" and incorrigible, scandalous in
word and deed, idle and given to wandering about the town. Correction
is vain in his case. After the Prior has reported, the students are
examined _viva voce_ upon the portions of the decretals, which they
are studying, and the results of the examination bear out generally
the Prior's views. Bertrand, Breso and William, are found to know
nothing, and to have wasted their time. The others acquit themselves
well, and the examiners are merciful to a boy who is nervous in _viva
voce_, but of whose studies Dominus Savaricus, who has recovered from
the attack made upon him, gives a good account. Monks, and especially
novices, were human, and the experience of St Benedict's at
Montpellier was probably similar to that of secular colleges in (p. 093)
France and elsewhere. Even in democratic Bologna, it was found
necessary in the Spanish College (from the MS. statutes of which, Dr
Rashdall quotes) to establish a discipline which included a penalty of
five days in the stocks and a meal of bread and water, eaten sitting
on the floor of the Hall, for an assault upon a brother student; if
blood was shed, the penalty was double. The statutes of the Spanish
College were severe for the fourteenth century, and they penalise
absence from lecture, unpunctuality, nocturnal wanderings and so
forth, as strictly as any English founder.
CHAPTER V (p. 094)
UNIVERSITY DISCIPLINE
The growing tradition of strict college discipline ultimately led to
disciplinary statutes in the universities. From very early times,
universities had, of course, made regulations about the curriculum,
and the border-line between a scholar's studies and his manners and
morals, could not be absolutely fixed. At Paris, indeed, it is not
until the fifteenth century that we find any detailed code of
disciplinary statutes; but fourteenth-century regulations about dress
were partly aimed at checking misdeeds of students disguised as
laymen, and in 1391 the English Nation prohibited an undue number of
"potationes et convivia," in celebration of the "jocund advent" of a
freshman or on other occasions. It was not till the middle of the
fifteenth century that the University of Paris, awoke to the
realisation of its own shortcomings in manners and morals; Cardinal
William de Estoutville was commissioned by Nicholas V. to reform it,
and internal reform, the necessity of which had been recognised for
some years, began about the same time with an edict of the Faculty of
Arts ordering a general improvement, and especially forbidding the (p. 095)
celebration of feasts "cum mimis seu instrumentis altis."
Estoutville's ordinances are largely concerned with the curriculum, he
was at least as anxious to reform the masters as the pupils, and his
exhortations are frequently in general or scriptural terms. The points
of undergraduate discipline on which he lays stress are feasting,
dressing improperly or wearing the clothes of laymen, quarrelling, and
games and dances "dissolutas et inhonestas." Four masters or doctors
are to inspect annually the colleges and pedagogies, in which the
students live, and are to see that proper discipline is maintained.
From time to time, similar regulations were made by the Faculty of
Arts, _e.g._ in 1469, it is ordered that no student is to wear the
habit of a fool, except for a farce or a morality (amusements
permitted at this period). Any one carrying arms or wearing fools'
dress is to be beaten in public and in his own hall. These last
regulations are doubtless connected with town and gown riots, for
which the Feast of Fools afforded a tempting opportunity.
The absence of disciplinary regulations in the records of the
University of Paris, is largely to be explained by the fact that
criminal charges against Parisian scholars were tried in the Bishop's
Court, and civil actions in the Court of the Provost of Paris. At
Oxford, where the whole jurisdiction belonged to the Chancellor of (p. 096)
the University, disciplinary statutes are much more numerous. We find,
from the middle of the thirteenth century onwards, a series of edicts
against scholars who break the peace or carry arms, who enter
citizens' houses to commit violence, who practise the art of sword and
buckler, or who are guilty of gross immorality. A statute of 1250
forbids scholars to celebrate their national feast days disguised with
masks or garlands, and one of 1313 restricts the carrying of arms to
students who are entering on, or returning from, long journeys.
Offenders who refuse to go to prison, or who escape from it, are to be
expelled. As early as the middle of the thirteenth century, it was the
duty of the proctors and of the principals of halls, to investigate
into, and to report the misdeeds of scholars who broke the rules of
the University or lived evil lives. A list of fines drawn up in 1432
(a period when in the opinion of the University a pecuniary penalty
was more dreaded than anything else) prescribes fines of twelve pence
for threatening violence, two shillings for wearing arms, four
shillings for a violent shove with the shoulders or a blow with the
fist, six shillings and eight pence for a blow with a stone or stick,
ten shillings for a blow with a sword, a knife, a dagger or any
similar "bellicose weapon," twenty shillings for carrying bows and
arrows with evil intent, thirty shillings for collecting an (p. 097)
assembly to break the peace, hinder the execution of justice, or make
an attack upon anyone, and forty shillings for resisting the execution
of justice or wandering about by night. In every case damages have
also to be paid to any injured person. The device of overaweing a
court (familiar in Scottish history) is prohibited by a regulation
that no one shall appear before the Chancellor with more than two
companions.
The records of the Chancellor's Court furnish us with instances of the
enforcement of these regulations. In 1434, a scholar is found wearing
a dagger and is sentenced to be "inbocardatus,"[1] _i.e._ imprisoned
in the Tower of the North Gate of the city, and another offender, in
1442, suffers a day's imprisonment, pays his fine of two shillings,
and forfeits his arms. In the same year, John Hordene, a scholar of
Peckwater Inn, is fined six shillings and eightpence for breaking the
head of Thomas Walker, manciple of Pauline Hall, and Thomas Walker is
fined the like sum for drawing his sword on Hordene and for gambling.
In 1433, two scholars, guilty of attacking Master Thomas Rygby in
Bagley Wood and stealing twelve shillings and sevenpence from him,
fail to appear, and are expelled from the University, their goods
(estimated to be worth about thirteen shillings) being (p. 098)
confiscated. In 1457, four scholars are caught entering with weapons
into a warren or park to hunt deer and rabbits; they are released on
taking an oath that, while they are students of the University, they
will not trespass again, in closed parks or warrens. In 1452, a
scholar of Haburdaysh Hall is imprisoned for using threatening
language to a tailor, and is fined twelvepence and imprisoned; the
tailor insults the prisoner and is fined six shillings and eightpence.
We have quoted instances of undergraduate offences, but the evil-doers
are by no means invariably young students, _e.g._ in 1457 the Vicar of
St Giles has to take an oath to keep the peace, his club is forfeited,
and he is fined two shillings; and in the same year the Master of St
John's Hospital, who has been convicted of divers enormous offences,
is expelled the University for breaking prison.
[Footnote 1: The prison was called "Bocardo"
because, like the mood known as "Bocardo" in the
syllogism, it was difficult to get out of.]
The increased stringency of disciplinary regulations at Oxford in the
end of the medieval period is best illustrated by the statutes which,
in the fifteenth century, the University enforced upon members of the
unendowed Halls. Students who were not members of a College lived, for
the most part, in one of the numerous Halls which, up to the
Reformation, were so important a feature of the University. A code of
these statutes, printed for the first time by Dr Rashdall, shows that
the liberty of the earlier medieval undergraduate had largely (p. 099)
disappeared, and that the life of a resident in a Hall, in the end of
the fifteenth century, was almost as much governed by statute and
regulation as if he were the partaker of a founder's bounty. He must
hear mass and say matins and vespers every day, under pain of a fine
of a penny, and attend certain services on feast days. His table
manners are no longer regulated by the customs and etiquette of his
fellows, but by the rules of the University. His lapses from good
morals are no longer to be visited with penalties imposed by his own
society; if he gambles or practises with sword and buckler, he is to
pay fourpence; if he sins with his tongue, or shouts or makes melody
when others wish to study or sleep, or brings to table an unsheathed
knife, or speaks English, or goes into the town or the fields
unaccompanied by a fellow-student, he is fined a farthing; if he comes
in after 8 P.M. in winter or 9 P.M. in summer, he contracts a gate
bill of a penny; if he sleeps out, or puts up a friend for the night,
without leave of his Principal, the fine is fourpence; if he sleeps
with another student in the Hall but not in his own bed, he pays a
penny; if he brings a stranger to a meal or a lecture or any other
"actum communem" in the Hall, he is fined twopence; if he is pugnacious
and offensive and makes odious comparisons, he is to pay sixpence;
if he attacks a fellow-member or a servant, the University has (p. 100)
appointed penalties varying with the severity of the assault, and for
a second offence he must be expelled. He has to obey his Principal
much as members of a College obey their Head, and, in lieu of the
pecuniary penalties, the Principal may flog him publicly on Saturday
nights, even though his own master may certify that he has already
corrected him, or declare his willingness to correct him, for his
breaches of the statutes. The private master or tutor was, as Dr
Rashdall suggests, probably a luxury of the rich boy, to whom his
wealth might thus bring its own penalty.
It is startling to the modern mind to find University statutes and
disciplinary regulations forbidding not only extravagant and
unbecoming dress, but sometimes also the wearing of distinctive
academic costume by undergraduates, for distinctive academic costume
was the privilege of a graduate. The scholar wore ordinary clerical
dress, unless the Founder of a College prescribed a special livery.
The master had a _cappa_ or cope, such as a Cambridge Vice-Chancellor
wears on Degree Days, with a border and hood of minever, such as
Oxford proctors still wear, and a _biretta_ or square cap. In 1489,
the insolence of many Oxford scholars had grown to such a pitch that
they were not afraid to wear hoods in the fashion of masters, whereas
bachelors, to their own damnation and the ruin of the University, (p. 101)
were so regardless of their oaths as to wear hoods not lined
throughout with fur. Penalties were prescribed for both kinds of
offenders; but though the Oxford undergraduate never succeeded in
annexing the hood, he gradually acquired the _biretta_, which his
successor of to-day is occasionally fined for not wearing. The modern
gown or toga is explained by Dr Rashdall as derived from the robe or
cassock which a medieval Master of Arts wore under his _cappa_.
The disciplinary regulations of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century Oxford
may be paralleled from other universities. At Louvain there was a kind
of proctorial walk undertaken by the University official known as the
Promotor. On receiving three or four hours' notice from the Rector,
the Promotor, with a staff of servants, perambulated the streets at
night, and he and his "bulldogs" received a fine from anyone whom they
apprehended. Offending students caught _in flagrante delicto_ he
conducted to the University prison, and others he reported to the
Rector. "Notabiles personæ" might be incarcerated in a monastery
incorporated with the University. Arms found upon anyone were
forfeited. The Promotor was also the University gaoler, and was
responsible for the safe custody of prisoners, and he might place in
fetters dangerous prisoners or men accused of serious crimes. (p. 102)
Interviews with captives had to take place in his presence; male
visitors had to give up their knives or other weapons before being
admitted, and female visitors had to leave their cloaks behind them.
Students were forbidden to walk in the streets at night after the bell
of St Michael's Church had been rung at nine o'clock in winter, and
ten o'clock in summer, unless they were accompanied by a doctor or a
"gravis persona" and were bearing a torch or lantern. The list of
offences at Louvain are much the same as elsewhere, but an
eighteenth-century code of statutes specially prohibits bathing and
skating. The laws against borrowing and lending were unusually strict,
and no student under twenty-five years was allowed to sell books
without the consent of his regent, the penalty for a sixteenth-century
student in Arts being a public flogging in his own college.
At Leipsic, the University was generally responsible for the
discipline, sometimes even when the offences had been committed in the
colleges; and a record of the proceedings of the Rector's Court from
1524 to 1588, which was published by Friedrich Zarncke, the learned
historian of Leipsic, gives us a large variety of incidents of
University life in sixteenth-century Germany. Leipsic possessed a
University prison, and we find, in 1524, two students, Philippus (p. 103)
Josman and Erasmus Empedophillus, who had quarrelled, and insulted
each other, sentenced to perform, in the prison, impositions for the
Rector. Six or eight days' imprisonment is a frequent penalty for a
drunken row. A college official brings to the Rector's Court in 1545
one of his pupils, John Ditz, who had lost much money by gambling.
Ditz and one of his friends, Caspar Winckler, who had won six florins
and some books from him, have already been flogged by their
preceptors; they are now sentenced to imprisonment, but as the weather
is very cold, they are to be released after one day's detention, and
sent back to their preceptors to be flogged again. Their companions
are sentenced to return any money, books or garments which they had
won in gambling games. A student of the name of Valentine Muff
complains to the Rector that his pedagogue has beaten and reproved him
undeservedly: after an inquiry he is condemned to the rods "once and
again." For throwing stones at windows a student is fined one florin
in addition to the cost of replacing them. For grave moral offences
fines of three florins are imposed, and the penalty is not
infrequently reduced. A month's imprisonment is the alternative of the
fine of three florins, but if the weather is cold, the culprit, who
has been guilty of gross immorality, is let off with two florins. A
drunken youth who meets some girls in the evening and tries to (p. 104)
compel them to enter his college, is sentenced to five days'
imprisonment, but is released on the intercession of the girls and
many others. An attack on a servant with a knife is punished by
forfeiture of the knife and a fine of half a florin, and a penalty of
a florin (divided among the four victims) is inflicted for entering a
house with arms and wounding the fingers of some of its inhabitants. A
ruffian of noble birth, who had been guilty of gross immorality and of
violence, declines to appear in the Rector's Court, and is duly
sentenced to expulsion. But his father promises to satisfy the
University and the injured party, and seven nobles write asking that
he should be pardoned, and a compromise is made, by which he appears
in court and pays a fine. For the University offence of having as an
attendant a boy who is not enrolled, Valentine Leo is fined three
florins, which were paid. "But since he appeared to be good and
learned, and produced an excellent specimen of his singular erudition,
and wrote learned verses and other compositions to the Rector and his
assessors, by which he begged pardon and modestly purged his offence,
and especially as a doctor, whose sons he taught, and others
interceded for him, he easily procured that the florins, should be
returned to the doctor who had paid them for him."
The leniency of the punishments for grave moral offences, as (p. 105)
contrasted with the strict insistence upon the lesser matters of the
law, cannot fail to impress modern readers, but this is not a
characteristic peculiar to Leipsic. Fines, and in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, whippings were frequently inflicted in all
universities for violent attacks upon the person. Dr Rashdall quotes a
case at Ingolstadt where a student who had killed another in a drunken
bout was let off with the confiscation of his goods, and the penalty
of expulsion was remitted; and the eighteenth-century history of
Corpus Christi College at Oxford supplies more recent instances of
punishments which could scarcely be said to fit the crime.
The statutes of the French universities outside Paris and of the three
medieval Scottish universities (St Andrews, Glasgow, and Aberdeen)
supply many illustrations of the regulations we have noted elsewhere,
but contain little that is unusual. St Andrews, which allowed hawking,
forbade the dangerous game of football. The Faculty of Arts at Glasgow
in 1532 issued an edict which has a curious resemblance to the Eton
custom of "shirking." Reverence and filial fear were so important,
said the masters, that no student was to meet the Rector, the Dean, or
one of the Regents openly in the streets, by day or by night;
immediately he was observed he must slink away and escape as best (p. 106)
he could, and he must not be found again in the streets without
special leave. The penalty was a public flogging. Similarly, even a
lawful game must not be played in the presence of a regent. Flogging
was a recognised penalty in all the Scottish universities; it found
its way into the system at St Andrews and Glasgow, and was introduced
at once at Aberdeen. The early statutes of Aberdeen University (King's
College) unfortunately exist only in the form in which they were
edited in the seventeenth century. They include a rhymed series of
rules for behaviour at table, which, though post-medieval in date,
give us some clue to the table manners of the medieval students:--
Majorem ne praevenia- }
Locum assignatum tenea- }
Mensae assignatae accumba- }
Manibus mundis nudis eda- }
Aperientes caput faciem ne obtega- }
Vultus hilares habea- }
Rite in convictu comeda- }
Sal cultello capia- }
Salinum ne dejicia- }
Manubrium haud aciem porriga- } tis
Tribus cibos digitis prehenda- }
Cultro priusquam dente tera- }
. . . . . }
Ossa in orbem depona- }
Vel pavimentum jacia- }
Modeste omnia facia- }
Ossa si in convivas jacia- }
Nedum si illos vulnera- }
Ne queramini si vapula- }
. . . . . }
Post haustum labia deterga- } (p. 107)
Modicum, sed crebro biba- }
. . . . . }
Os ante haustum evacua- }
Ungues sordidulos fugia- } tis
. . . . . }
Ructantes terga reflecta- }
Ne scalpatis cavea- }
. . . . . }
Edere mementote ut viva- }
Non vivere ut comed- }
The Economist's accounts at Aberdeen have been preserved for part of
the year 1579, and show that the food of a Scottish student, just
after the medieval period, consisted of white bread, oat bread, beef,
mutton, butter, small fish, partans (crabs), eggs, a bill of fare
certainly above the food of the lower classes in Scotland at the time.
The drinks mentioned are best ale, second ale, and beer. His victuals
interested the medieval student; the conversation of two German
students, as pictured in a "students' guide" to Heidelberg (_cf._ p.
116), is largely occupied with food. "The veal is soft and bad: the
calf cannot have seen its mother three times: no one in my country
would eat such stuff: the drink is bitter." The little book shows us
the two students walking in the meadows, and when they reach the
Neckar, one dissuades the other from bathing (a dangerous enterprise
forbidden in the statutes of some universities, including Louvain (p. 108)
and Glasgow). They quarrel about a book, and nearly come to blows; one
complains that the other reported him to the master for sleeping in
lecture. Both speak of the "lupi," the spies who reported students
using the vernacular or visiting the kitchen. The "wolves" were part
of the administrative machinery of a German University; a statute of
Leipsic in 1507 orders that, according to ancient custom, "lupi" or
"signatores" be appointed to note the names of any student who talked
German ("vulgarisantes") that they might be fined in due course, the
money being spent on feasts. One of the two Heidelberg students
complains of having been given a "signum" or bad mark "pro sermone
vulgariter prolato," and the other has been caught in the kitchen.
They discuss their teachers; one of them complains of a lecture
because "nimis alta gravisque materia est." The little book gives, in
some ways, a remarkable picture of German student life, with its
interests and its temptations; but it raises more problems than it
solves, and affords a fresh illustration of the difficulty of
attempting to recreate the life of the past.
CHAPTER VI (p. 109)
THE JOCUND ADVENT
The medieval student began his academic career with an initiation
ceremony which varied in different countries and at different dates,
but which, so far as we know, always involved feasting and generally
implied considerable personal discomfort. The designation, "bejaunus"
or bajan, which signifies yellow-beak ("bec jaune"), seems to have
been given almost everywhere to the freshman, and the custom of
receiving the fledgeling into the academic society was, towards the
close of the Middle Ages, no mere tradition of student etiquette, but
an acknowledged and admitted academic rite. The tradition, which dates
from very early times, and which has so many parallels outside
University history, was so strong that the authorities seem to have
deemed it wisest to accept it and to be content with trying to limit
the expense and the "ragging" which it entailed.
We have no detailed knowledge of the initiation of the Parisian
student, but a statute made by the University in 1342 proves that the
two elements of bullying the new-comer and feasting at his expense
were both involved in it. It relates that quarrels frequently (p. 110)
arise through the custom of seizing the goods of simple scholars on
the occasion of their "bejaunia," and compelling them to expend on
feasting the money on which they intended to live. Insults, blows, and
other dangers are the general results of the system, and the
University orders that no one shall exact money or anything else from
bajans except the "socii" with whom they live, and they may take only
a free-will offering. Bajans are to reveal, under heavy penalties, the
names of any who molest them by word or blow, threatening them or
offering them insults. Offenders are to be handed over to the Provost
of Paris to be punished, but not "ad penam sanguinis."
A fifteenth-century code of statutes of the Cistercian College at
Paris (generally much less stern than one would expect in a house of
that severe Order) refers to the traditions that had grown up in the
College about the initiation of a bajan, and to the "insolentias et
enormitates multas" which accompanied their observance. The whole of
the ceremonies of initiation are therefore forbidden--"omnes
receptiones noviter venientium, quos voluntaria opinione Bejanos
nuncupare solent, cum suis consequentiis, necnon bajulationes,
fibrationes ... tam in capitulo, in dormitorio, in parvis scholis, in
jardinis, quam ubiubi, et tam de die quam de nocte." With these evil
customs is to go the very name of the Abbas Bejanorum, and all (p. 111)
"vasa, munimenta, et instrumenta" used for these ceremonies are to be
given up. New-comers in future are to be entrusted to the care of
discreet seniors, who will instruct them in the honourable customs of
the College, report their shortcomings in church, in walks, and in
games, supervise their expenditure, and prevent their being overcharged
"pro jocundo adventu" or in other ways. So strong was the tradition of
the "jocund advent" that it thus finds a place even in a reformer's
constitution, and we find references to it elsewhere in the statutes
of Parisian colleges. An undated early code, drawn up for the
Treasurer's College, orders the members to fulfil honestly their
jocund advent in accordance with the advice of their fellow students.
At Cornouaille, the new-comer is instructed to pay for his jocund
advent neither too meanly nor with burdensome extravagance, but in
accordance with his rank and his means. At the College of Dainville
the expense of the bajan-hood is limited to a quart of good wine
("ultra unum sextarium vini non mediocris suis sociis pro novo sub
ingressu seu bejanno non solvat"). At the College of Cambray, a bursar
is to pay twenty shillings for utensils, and to provide a pint of good
wine for the fellows then present in hall. Dr Rashdall quotes from the
Register of the Sorbonne an instance in which the Abbot of the Bajans
was fined eight shillings (to be expended in wine) because he had (p. 112)
not fulfilled his duties in regard to the cleansing of the bajans
by an aspersion of water on Innocents' Day. The bajans were not only
washed, but carried in procession upon asses.
The statutes of the universities of Southern France, and especially of
Avignon and Aix, give us some further information, and we possess a
record of the proceedings at Avignon of the Court of the Abbot of the
Bajans, referred to in the passage we have quoted from the regulations
of the Cistercian College at Paris. Similar prohibitions occur in
other College statutes.
At Avignon, the Confraternity of St Sebastian existed largely for the
purgation of bajans and the control of the abuses which had grown up
in connection with the jocund advent. One of its statutes, dated about
1450, orders that no novice, commonly called a bajan, shall be
admitted to the purgation of his sins or take the honourable name of
student until he has paid the sum of six _grossi_ as entrance money to
the Confraternity. There is also an annual subscription of three
_grossi_, and the payment of these sums is to be enforced by the
seizure of books, unless the defaulter can prove that he is unable to
pay his entrance fee or subscription, as the case may be. The Prior
and Councillors of the Fraternity have power to grant a dispensation
on the ground of poverty. After providing his feast, and taking an (p. 113)
oath, the bajan is to be admitted "jocose et benigne," is to lose his
base name, and after a year is to bear the honourable title of
student. Noblemen and beneficed clergy are to pay double. The bajan is
implored to comply with these regulations "corde hilarissimo," and his
"socii" are adjured to remember that they should not seek their own
things but the things of Christ, and should therefore not spend on
feasts anything over six _grossi_ paid by a bajan, but devote it to
the honour of God and St Sebastian. The Court of the Abbot of the
Bajans, at the College of Annecy, in the same University, throws a
little more light on the actual ceremony of purgation. The bajans are
summoned into the Abbot's Court, where each of them receives, _pro
forma_, a blow from a ferule. They all stand in the Court, with
uncovered heads and by themselves ("Mundus ab immundo venit
separandus"); under the penalty of two blows they are required to keep
silence ("quia vox funesta in judiciis audiri non debet.") The bajan
who has patiently and honestly served his time and is about to be
purged, is given, in parody of an Inception in the University, a
passage in the Institutes to expound, and his fellow-bajans, under
pain of two blows, have to dispute with him. If he obtains licence,
the two last-purged bajans bring water "pro lavatione et purgatione."
The other rules of the Abbot's Court deal with the duties to be (p. 114)
performed by the youngest freshman in Chapel (and at table if servants
are lacking), and order bajans to give place to seniors and not to go
near the fire in hall when seniors are present. No one, either senior
or freshman, is to apply the term "Domine" to a bajan, and no freshman
is to call a senior man a bajan. The Court met twice a week, and it
could impose penalties upon senior men as well as bajans, but corporal
punishment is threatened only against the "infectos et fetidissimos
bejannos."
At Aix, a fifteenth-century code of statutes orders every bajan to pay
fees to the University, and to give a feast to the Rector, the
Treasurer, and the Promotor. The Rector is to bring one scholar with
him, and the Promotor two, to help "ad purgandum bejaunum," and the
bajan is to invite a bedel and others. Dispensations on the ground of
poverty could be obtained from the Rector, and two or three freshmen
might make their purgation together, "cum infinitas est vitanda," even
an infinity of feasts is to be avoided. The Promotor gives the first
blow with a frying-pan, and the scholars who help in the purgation are
limited to two or three blows each, since an infinity of blows is also
to be avoided. The Rector may remit a portion of the penalty at the
request of noble or honourable ladies who happen to be present, (p. 115)
for it is useless to invite ladies if no remission is to be obtained.
If the bajan is proud or troublesome, the pleas of the ladies whom he
has invited will not avail; he must have his three blows from each of
his purgators, without any mercy. If a freshman failed to make his
purgation within a month, it was to take place "in studio sub libro
super anum"; the choice between a book and a frying-pan as a weapon of
castigation is characteristic of the solemn fooling of the jocund
advent. The seizure of goods and of books, mentioned in some of the
statutes we have quoted, is frequently forbidden. At Orleans the
statutes prohibit leading the bajan "ut ovis ad occisionem" to a
tavern to be forced to spend his money, and denounce the custom as
provocative of "ebrietates, turpiloquia, lascivias, pernoctationes"
and other evils. They also forbid the practice of compelling him to
celebrate the jocund advent by seizing books, one or more, or by
exacting anything from him. There are numerous other references in
French statutes, some of which denounce the _bejaunia_ as sufficiently
expensive to deter men from coming to the University, but details are
disappointingly few.
The initiation of the bajan attained its highest development in the
German universities, where we find the French conception of the bajan,
as afflicted with mortal sin and requiring purification, combined (p. 116)
with the characteristic German conception of him as a wild animal who
has to be tamed. His reformation was accomplished by the use of
planes, augers, saws, pincers and other instruments suitable for
removing horns, tusks and claws from a dangerous animal, and the
Deposition, or "modus deponendi cornua iis qui in numerum studiosorum
co-optari volunt," became a recognised University ceremony. The
statutes attempt to check it, _e.g._ at Vienna the bajan is not to be
oppressed with undue exactions or otherwise molested or insulted, and
at Leipsic the insults are not to take the form of blows, stones, or
water. At Prague, "those who lay down (deponent) their rustic manners
and ignorance are to be treated more mildly and moderately than in
recent years (1544), and their lips or other parts of their bodies are
not to be defiled with filth or putrid and impure substances which
produce sickness." But the Prague statute contemplates a Deposition
ceremony in which the freshman is assumed to be a goat with horns to
be removed. A black-letter handbook or manual for German students,
consisting of dialogues or conversational Latin (much on the principle
of tourists' conversational dictionaries), opens with a description of
the preparations for a Deposition. The book, which has been reprinted
in Zarncke's _Die Deutschen Universitäten im Mittelalter_, is (p. 117)
(from internal evidence) a picture of life at Heidelberg, but it is
written in general terms.
The new-comer seeks out a master that he may be entered on the roll of
the University and be absolved from his bajan-ship. "Are your parents
rich?" is one of the master's first questions, and he is told that
they are moderately prosperous mechanics who are prepared to do the
best for their son. The master takes him to the Rector to be admitted,
and then asks him, "Where do you intend to have your 'deposition' as a
bajan?" The boy leaves all arrangements in the master's hands,
reminding him of his poverty, and it is agreed to invite three
masters, two bachelors, and some friends of the master to the
ceremony. With a warning that he must not be afraid if strangers come
and insult him, for it is all part of the tradition of a bajan's
advent, the master goes to make arrangements for the feast. Two
youths, Camillus and Bartoldus, then arrive, and pretend to be greatly
disturbed by a foul smell, so strong that it almost drives them from
the room. Camillus prepares to go, but Bartoldus insists upon an
investigation of the cause. Camillus then sees a monster of terrible
aspect, with huge horns and teeth, a nose curved like the beak of an
owl, wild eyes and threatening lips. "Let us flee," he says, "lest it
attack us." Bartoldus then guesses that it is a bajan, a creature (p. 118)
which Camillus has never seen, but of whose ferocity he has heard. The
bold Bartoldus then addresses the bajan. "Domine Joannes," he says,
"whence do you come? Certainly you are a compatriot of mine, give me
your hand." Joannes stretches out his hand, but is met with the
indignant question, "Do you come to attack me with your nails? Why do
you sit down, wild ass? Do you not see that masters are present,
venerable men, in whose presence it becomes you to stand?" Joannes
stands, and is further insulted. His tormentors then affect to be
sorry for him and make touching references to his mother's feelings
("Quid, si mater sciret, quae unice eum amat?"), but relapse into
abuse (O beane, O asine, O foetide hirce, O olens capra, O bufo, O
cifra, O figura nihili, O tu omnino nihil). "What are we to do with
him?" says Camillus, and Bartoldus suggests the possibility of his
reformation and admission into their society. But they must have a
doctor. Camillus is famous and learned in the science of medicine, and
can remove his horns, file down his teeth, cure his blindness, and
shave his long and horrible beard. While he goes for the necessary
instruments, Bartoldus tells the victim to cheer up, for he is about
to be cured from every evil of mind and body, and to be admitted to
the privileges of the University. Camillus returns with ointment, (p. 119)
and they proceed to some horseplay which Joannes resists (Compesce
eius impetus et ut equum intractatum ipsum illum constringe). Tusks
and teeth having been removed, the victim is supposed to be dying, and
is made to confess to Bartoldus a list of crimes. His penance is to
entertain his masters "largissima coena," not forgetting the doctor
who has just healed him, and the confessor who has just heard his
confession, for they also must be entertained "pingui refectione." But
this confessor can only define the penance, he cannot give absolution,
a right which belongs to the masters. Joannes is then taken to his
master for the Deposition proper. Dr Rashdall describes the scene,
from a rare sixteenth-century tract, which contains an illustration of
a Deposition, and a defence of it by Luther, who justified his taking
part in one of these ceremonies by giving it a moral and symbolical
meaning. The bajan lies upon a table, undergoing the planing of his
tusks, "while a saw lies upon the ground, suggestive of the actual
de-horning of the beast. The work itself and later apologies for the
institution mention among the instruments of torture a comb and
scissors for cutting the victim's hair, an _auriscalpium_ for his
ears, a knife for cutting his nails; while the ceremony further
appears to include the adornment of the youth's chin with a beard by
means of burned cork or other pigment, and the administration, (p. 120)
internal or external, of salt and wine."
In the English universities we have no trace of the "jocund advent"
during the medieval period, but it is impossible to doubt that this
kind of horseplay existed at Oxford and Cambridge. The statutes of New
College refer to "that most vile and horrid sport of shaving beards";
it was "wont to be practised on the night preceding the Inception of a
Master of Arts," but the freshmen may have been the victims, as they
were in similar ceremonies at the Feast of Fools in France. Antony à
Wood, writing of his own undergraduate days in the middle of the
seventeenth century, tells that charcoal fires were made in the Hall
at Merton on Holy Days, from All Saints' Eve to Candlemas, and that
"at all these fires every night, which began to be made a little
after five of the clock, the senior undergraduates would bring
into the hall the juniors or freshmen between that time and six
of the clock, there make them sit downe on a forme in the middle
of the hall, joyning to the declaiming desk; which done, every
one in order was to speake some pretty apothegme, or make a jest
or bull, or speake some eloquent nonsense, to make the company
laugh. But if any of the freshmen came off dull, or not cleverly,
some of the forward or pragmatised seniors would "tuck" them,
that is, set the nail of their thumb to their chin, just (p. 121)
under the lower lipp, and by the help of their other fingers
under the chin, they would give him a mark, which sometimes would
produce blood."
On Shrove Tuesday, 1648, Merton freshmen entertained the other
undergraduates to a brass pot "full of cawdel." Wood, who was a
freshman, describes how
"every freshman according to seniority, was to pluck off his
gowne and band and if possible to make himself look like a
scoundrell. This done, they conducted each other to the high
table, and there made to stand on a forme placed thereon; from
whence they were to speak their speech with an audible voice to
the company; which if well done, the person that spoke it was to
have a cup of cawdle and no salted drink; if indifferently, some
cawdle and some salted drink; but if dull, nothing was given to
him but salted drink or salt put in college beere, with tucks to
boot. Afterwards when they were to be admitted into the
fraternity, the senior cook was to administer to them an oath
over an old shoe, part of which runs thus: 'Item tu jurabis quod
penniless bench (a seat at Carfax) non visitabis' &c. The rest is
forgotten, and none there are now remembers it. After which
spoken with gravity, the Freshman kist the shoe, put on his gown
and band and took his place among the seniors."
"This," says Wood, "was the way and custom that had been used in (p. 122)
the college, time out of mind, to initiate the freshmen; but between
that time and the restoration of K. Ch. 2 it was disused, and now such
a thing is absolutely forgotten." His whole description, and
especially the parody of the master's oath not to visit Stamford, goes
to show that he was right in attributing the ceremonies to remote
antiquity, and there are indications that the initiation of freshmen
was practised elsewhere in Oxford. Hearne speaks of similar customs at
Balliol and at Brasenose, and an eighteenth-century editor of Wood
asserts, that "striking traces" of the practice "may be found in many
societies in this place, and in some a very near resemblance of it has
been kept up till within these few years." Our quotation from Wood may
therefore serve to illustrate the treatment of the medieval freshman
at Oxford. We possess no details of the jocund advent at Cambridge,
but in the medieval Scottish universities, where the name of bajan
still survives, there were relics of it within recent times. At St
Andrews, a feast of raisins was the last survival of the bajan's
"standing treat," and attacks made by "Semis" (second year men) upon a
bajan class emerging from a lecture-room were an enlivening feature of
student life at Aberdeen up to the end of the nineteenth century. The
weapons in use were notebooks, and the belabouring of Aberdeen (p. 123)
bajans with these instruments may be historically connected with the
chastisement which we have found in some of the medieval initiation
ceremonies. It would be fanciful to connect the gown-tearing, which
was also a feature of these attacks, with the assaults upon the
Rector's robe at Bologna.
CHAPTER VII (p. 124)
TOWN AND GOWN
The violence which marked medieval life as a whole was not likely to
be absent in towns where numbers of young clerks were members of a
corporation at variance with the authorities of the city. University
records are full of injuries done to masters and students by the
townsfolk, and of privileges and immunities obtained from Pope or King
or Bishop at the expense of the burgesses. When a new University was
founded, it was sometimes taken for granted that these conflicts must
arise, and that the townsmen were certain to be in the wrong. Thus,
when Duke Rudolf IV. founded the University of Vienna in 1365, he
provided beforehand for such contingencies by ordaining that an attack
on a student leading to the loss of a limb or other member of the body
was to be punished by the removal of the same member from the body of
the assailant, and that for a lesser injury the offender's hand was to
be wounded ("debet manus pugione transfigi"). The criminal might
redeem his person by a fine of a hundred silver marks for a serious
injury and of forty marks for slighter damages, the victim to (p. 125)
receive half of the fine. Assailants of students were not to have
benefit of sanctuary. Oxford history abounds in town and gown riots,
the most famous of which is the battle of St Scholastica's Day (10th
February) 1354. The riot originated in a tavern quarrel; some clerks
disapproved of the wine at an inn near Carfax, and (in Antony Wood's
words) "the vintner giving them stubborn and saucy language, they
threw the wine and vessel at his head." His friends urged the
inn-keeper "not to put up with the abuse," and rang the bell of St
Martin's Church. A mob at once assembled, armed with bows and arrows
and other weapons; they attacked every scholar who passed, and even
fired at the Chancellor when he attempted to allay the tumult. The
justly indignant Chancellor retorted by ringing St Mary's bell and a
mob of students assembled, also armed (in spite of many statutes to
the contrary). A battle royal raged till nightfall, at which time the
fray ceased, no one scholar or townsman being killed or mortally
wounded or maimed. If the matter had ended then, little would have
been heard of the story, but next day the townsmen stationed eighty
armed men in St Giles's Church, who sallied out upon "certain scholars
walking after dinner in Beaumont killed one of them, and wounded
others." A second battle followed, in which the citizens, aided by some
countrymen, defeated the scholars, and ravaged their halls, (p. 126)
slaying and wounding. Night interrupted their operations, but on the
following day, "with hideous noises and clamours they came and invaded
the scholars' houses ... and those that resisted them and stood upon
their defence (particularly some chaplains) they killed or else in a
grievous sort wounded.... The crowns of some chaplains, that is, all
the skin so far as the tonsure went, these diabolical imps flayed off
in scorn of their clergy."
The injured University was fully avenged. The King granted it
jurisdiction over the city, and, especially, control of the market,
and the Bishop of Lincoln placed the townsmen under an interdict which
was removed only on condition that the Mayor and Bailiffs, for the
time being, and "threescore of the chiefest Burghers, should
personally appear" every St Scholastica's Day in St. Mary's Church, to
attend a mass for the souls of the slain. The tradition that they were
to wear halters or silken cords has no authority, but they were each
"to offer at the altar one penny, of which oblation forty pence should
be distributed to forty poor scholars of the University." The custom,
with some modifications, survived the Reformation, and it was not till
the nineteenth century that the Mayor of Oxford ceased to have cause
to regret the battle of St Scholastica's Day.
The accounts of St Scholastica's Day and of most other riots which (p. 127)
have come down to us are written from the standpoint of the scholars,
but the records of the city of Oxford give less detailed but not less
credible instances of assaults by members of the University. On the
eve of St John Baptist's Day in 1306, for example, the tailors of
Oxford were celebrating Midsummer "cum Cytharis Viellis et aliis
diversis instrumentis." After midnight, they went out "de shoppis
suis" and danced and sang in the streets. A clerk, irritated by the
noise, attacked them with a drawn sword, wounded one of them, and was
himself mortally wounded in the skirmish. Of twenty-nine coroners'
inquests which have been preserved for the period 1297-1322, thirteen
are murders committed by scholars. Attacks on townsmen were not mere
undergraduate follies, but were countenanced and even led by officials
of the University, _e.g._ on a March night in 1526 one of the proctors
"sate uppon a blocke in the streete afore the shoppe of one Robert
Jermyns, a barber, havinge a pole axe in his hand, a black cloake on
his backe, and a hatt on his head," and organised a riot in which many
townsmen were "striken downe and sore beaten." Citizens' houses were
attacked and "the saide Proctour and his company ... called for fire,"
threatening to burn the houses, and insulting the inmates with
opprobrious names. When such an incident as this was possible, it (p. 128)
was of little use for the University to issue regulations or even to
punish less exalted sinners, and the town must have suffered much from
the outrages of scholars and of the "chamber-dekens" or pretended
scholars of the University, who were responsible for much of the
mischief. At Paris things became so bad that the Parlement had to
issue a series of police regulations to suppress the bands of
scholars, or pretended scholars, who wandered about the streets at
night, disguised and armed. They attacked passers-by, and if they were
wounded in the affray, their medical friends, we are told, dressed
their wounds, so that they eluded discovery in the morning. The
history of every University town provides instances of street
conflicts--the records of Orleans and Toulouse abound in them--but we
must be content with a tale from Leipsic.
The pages of the "Acta Rectorum" at Leipsic are full of illustrations
of the wilder side of student life, from which we extract the story of
one unhappy year. The year 1545 opened very badly, says the "Rector's
Chronicle," with three homicides. On Holy Innocents' Day, a bachelor
was murdered by a skinner in a street riot, and the murderer, though
he was seen by some respectable citizens, was allowed to escape. A
student who killed a man on the night of the Sunday after the (p. 129)
Epiphany was punished by the University in accordance with its
statutes (_i.e._ by imprisonment for life in the bishop's prison). The
third murder was that of a young bachelor who was walking outside the
city, when two sons of rustics in the neighbourhood fell on him and
killed him. Their names were known, but the city authorities refused
to take action, and the populace, believing that they would not be
punished, pursued the members of the University with continued insults
and threats. After an unusually serious attack _cum bombardis_, (in
which, "by the divine clemency," a young mechanic was wounded), the
University, failing to obtain redress, appealed to Prince Maurice of
Saxony, who promised to protect the University. A conference between
the University and the city authorities took place, and edicts against
carrying arms were published, but the skinners immediately indulged in
another outrage. One of them, Hans von Buntzell on Whitsunday,
attacked, with a drawn sword, the son of a doctor of medicine, "a
youth (as all agree) most guiltless," and wounded him in the arm, and
if another student had not unexpectedly appeared, "would without doubt
have killed this excellent boy." The criminal was pursued to the house
of a skinner called Meysen, where he took refuge. The city authorities,
inspired by the Prince's intervention, offered to impose three (p. 130)
alternative sentences, and the University was asked to say whether
Hans von Buntzell should lose one of his hands, or be publicly whipped
and banished for ten years, or should have a certain stigma ("quod
esset manus amittendae signum") burned in his hand and be banished.
The University replied that it was for the city to carry out the
commands of the Prince, and declined to select the penalty. On the
following Monday a scaffold was erected in the market-place, on which
were placed rods and a knife for cutting off the hand, "which
apparatus was thought by the skinners to be much too fierce and cruel,
and a concourse began from all parts, composed not of skinners alone,
but of mechanics of every kind, interceding with the Council for the
criminal." The pleadings of the multitude gained the day, and all the
preparations were removed from the market-place amid the murmurs of
the students. After supper, three senior members of the skinners came
to the Rector, begging for a commutation of the punishment, and offering
to beat Hans themselves in presence of representatives of the
University and the Town Council, with greater ferocity than the public
executioner could do if he were to whip him three times in public. The
Rector replied that he must consult the University, and the proposal
was thrown out in Congregation. On the Saturday after the Feast of (p. 131)
Trinity, the stigma was burned on the criminal's hand, and as a
necessary consequence he was banished.
Town riots do not complete the tale of violence. There were struggles
with Jews, and a Jewish row at Oxford in 1268 resulted in the erection
of a cross, with the following inscription:--
Quis meus auctor erat? Judaei. Quomodo? Sumptu Quis jussit?
Regnans. Quo procurante? Magistri. Cur? Cruce pro fracta ligni.
Quo tempore? Festo Ascensus Domini. Quis est locus? Hic ubi
sisto.
Clerks' enemies were not always beyond their own household. The
history of Paris, the earlier history of Oxford, and the record of
many another University give us instances of mortal combats between
the Nations. The scholars of Paris, in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, had to face the mortal enmity of the monks of the Abbey of
St Germain, the meadow in front of which was claimed by the Faculty of
Arts. The sight of Paris students walking or playing on the
Pré-aux-clercs had much the same effect upon the Abbot and monks as
the famous donkeys had upon the strong-minded aunt of David
Copperfield, but the measures they took for suppressing the nuisance
were less exactly proportioned to the offence. One summer day in 1278,
masters and scholars went for recreation to the meadow, when the (p. 132)
Abbot sent out armed servants and retainers of the monastery to attack
them. They came shouting "Ad mortem clericorum," death to the clerks,
"verbis crudelibus, _ad mortem ad mortem_, inhumaniter pluries
repetitis." A "famous Bachelor of Arts" and other clerks were seriously
wounded and thrown into horrible dungeons; another victim lost an eye.
The retreat into the city was cut off, and fugitives were pursued far
into the country. Blood flowed freely, and the scholars who escaped
returned to their halls with broken heads and limbs and their clothes
torn to fragments. Some of the victims died of their wounds, and the
monks were punished by King and Pope, the Abbot being pensioned off
and the Abbey compelled to endow two chaplains to say masses for
scholars. Forty years later the University had again to appeal to the
Pope to avenge assaults by retainers of the Abbey upon scholars who
were fishing in the moat outside the Abbey walls. The monks, of
course, may have given a different version of the incidents.
CHAPTER VIII (p. 133)
SUBJECTS OF STUDY, LECTURES AND EXAMINATIONS
The student of a medieval University was, as we have seen, expected to
converse in Latin, and all instruction was given in that language. It
was therefore essential that, before entering on the University
curriculum, he should have a competent knowledge of Latin. College
founders attempted to secure this in various ways, sometimes by an
examination (_e.g._ at the College of Cornouaille, at Paris no one was
admitted a bursar until he was examined and found to be able to read)
and sometimes by making provision for young boys to be taught by a
master of grammar. The Founder of New College met the difficulty by
the foundation of Winchester College, at which all Wykehamists (except
the earliest members of New College) were to be thoroughly grounded in
Latin. It was more difficult for a University to insist upon such a
test, but in 1328, the University of Paris had ordered that before a
youth was admitted to the privileges of "scholarity" or studentship,
he must appear before the Rector and make his own application in
continuous Latin, without any French words. Formulae for this (p. 134)
purpose would, doubtless, soon be invented and handed down by
tradition, and the precaution cannot have been of much practical
value. There were plenty of grammar schools in the Middle Ages, and a
clever boy was likely to find a patron and a place of education in the
neighbourhood of his home. The grammar schools in University towns had
therefore originally no special importance, but many of the
undergraduates who came up at thirteen or fourteen required some
training such as William of Waynflete provided for his younger demies
in connexion with the Grammar School which he attached to Magdalen, or
such as Walter de Merton considered desirable when he ordained that
there should be a Master of Grammar in his College to teach the poor
boys, and that their seniors were to go to him in any difficulty
without any false shame ("absque rubore"). Many universities extended
certain privileges to boys studying grammar, by placing their names on
matriculation rolls, though such matriculation was not part of the
curriculum for a degree. Masters in Grammar were frequently, but not
necessarily, University graduates; at Paris there were grammar
mistresses as well as grammar masters. The connexion between the
grammar schools and the University was exceptionally close at Oxford
and Cambridge, where degrees in grammar came to be given. The (p. 135)
University of Oxford early legislated for "inceptors" who were taking
degrees in grammar, and ordered the grammar masters who were graduates
to enrol, _pro forma_, the names of pupils of non-graduates, and to
compel non-graduate masters to obey the regulations of the University.
A meeting of the grammar masters twice a term for discussions about
their subject and the method of teaching it was also ordered by the
University, which ultimately succeeded in wresting the right of
licensing grammar masters from the Archdeacon or other official to
whom it naturally belonged. A fourteenth-century code of statutes for
the Oxford grammar schools orders the appointment of two Masters of
Arts to superintend them, and gives some minute instructions about the
teaching. Grammar masters are to set verses and compositions, to be
brought next day for correction; and they are to be specially careful
to see that the younger boys can recognise the different parts of
speech and parse them accurately. In choosing books to read with their
pupils, they are to avoid the books of Ovid "de Arte Amandi" and
similar works. Boys are to be taught to construe in French as well as
in English, lest they be ignorant of the French tongue. The study of
French was not confined to the grammar boys: the University recognised
the wisdom of learning a language necessary for composing (p. 136)
charters, holding lay-courts, and pleading in the English fashion, and
lectures in French were permitted at any hour that did not interfere
with the regular teaching of Arts subjects. Such lectures were under
the control of the superintendents of the grammar masters.
The degrees which Oxford and Cambridge conferred in Grammar did not
involve residence or entitle the recipients to a vote in Convocation;
but the conferment was accompanied by ceremonies which were almost
parodies of the solemn proceedings of graduation or inception in a
recognised Faculty, a birch taking the place of a book as a symbol of
the power and authority entrusted to the graduand. A sixteenth-century
Esquire Bedel of Cambridge left, for the benefit of his successors,
details of the form for the "enteryng of a Master in Gramer." The
"Father" of the Faculty of Grammar (at Cambridge the mysterious
individual known as the "Master of Glomery") brought his "sons" to St
Mary's Church for eight o'clock mass. "When mass is done, fyrst shall
begynne the acte in Gramer. The Father shall have hys sete made before
the Stage for Physyke (one of the platforms erected in the church for
doctors of the different faculties, etc.) and shall sytte alofte under
the stage for Physyke. The Proctour shall say, Incipiatis. When the
Father hath argyude as shall plese the Proctour, the Bedeyll in (p. 137)
Arte shall bring the Master of Gramer to the Vyce-chancelar, delyveryng
hym a Palmer wyth a Rodde, whych the Vyce-chancelar shall gyve to the
seyde Master in Gramer, and so create hym Master. Then shall the
Bedell purvay for every master in Gramer a shrewde Boy, whom the
master in Gramer shall bete openlye in the Scolys, and the master in
Gramer shall give the Boy a Grote for Hys Labour, and another Grote to
hym that provydeth the Rode and the Palmer &c. de singulis. And thus
endythe the Acte in that Facultye." We know of the existence of
similar ceremonies at Oxford. "Had the ambition to take these degrees
in Grammar been widely diffused," says Dr Rashdall, "the demand for
whipping boys might have pressed rather hardly upon the youth of
Oxford; but very few of them are mentioned in the University
Register."
The basis of the medieval curriculum in Arts is to be found in the
Seven Liberal Arts of the Dark Ages, divided into the _Trivium_
(Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic) and the _Quadrivium_ (Music,
Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy). The _Quadrivium_ was of
comparatively little importance; Geometry and Music received small
attention; and Arithmetic, and Astronomy were at first chiefly useful
for finding the date of Easter; but the introduction of mathematical
learning from Arabian sources in the thirteenth century greatly (p. 138)
increased the scope of Geometry and Arithmetic, and added the study of
Algebra.
The Grammar taught in the universities assumed a knowledge of such a
text-book as that of Alexander de Villa Dei, and consisted of an
analysis of the systems of popular grammarians, based on the section
_De barbarismo_ in the _Ars Grammatica_ of Ælius Donatus, a
fourth-century grammarian, whose work became universally used
throughout Europe. Latin poets were read in the grammar schools, and
served for grammatical and philological expositions in the
universities, and the study of Rhetoric depended largely on the
treatises of Cicero. The "Dialectic" of the _Trivium_ was the real
interest of the medieval student among the ancient seven subjects, but
the curriculum in Arts came to include also the three Philosophies,
Physical, Moral, and Metaphysical. The arms of the University of
Oxford consist of a book with seven clasps surrounded by three crowns,
the clasps representing the seven Liberal Arts and the crowns the
three Philosophies. The universities were schools of philosophy,
mental and physical, and the attention of students in Arts was chiefly
directed to the logic, metaphysics, physics, and ethics of Aristotle.
Up to the twelfth century, Aristotle was known only through the
translations into Latin of the sections of the _Organon_, (p. 139)
entitled _De Interpretatione_ and _Categoriae_, and through the
logical works of Boethius. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the
range of medieval studies was greatly enlarged by the introduction of
other works of Aristotle from translations partly from the Arabic and
partly direct from the Greek. The conservatism of the University of
Paris at first forbade the study of the new Aristotle, but it soon
became universal in the medieval universities. In addition to the
works of Aristotle, as they were known in the Middle Ages, medieval
students read such books as Porphyry's _Isagoge_, or Introduction to
Aristotle; the criticism of Aristotle's _Categories_, by Gilbert de la
Porrée, known as the _Sex Principia_; the _Summulae Logicales_, a
semi-grammatical, semi-logical treatise by Petrus Hispanus (Pope John
XXI.); the _Parva Logicalia_ of Marsilius of Inghen; the _Labyrinthus_
and _Grecismus_ of Eberhard; the Scriptural commentaries of Nicolaus
de Lyra; the _Tractatus de Sphaera_, an astronomical work by a
thirteenth-century Scotsman, John Holywood (Joannes de Sacro Bosco);
and they also studied Priscian, Donatus, Boethius, Euclid, and
Ptolemy. In 1431 the _Nova Rhetorica_ of Cicero, the _Metamorphoses_
of Ovid, and the works of Virgil were prescribed at Oxford as
alternatives to the fourth book of the _Topica_ of Boethius. By the
end of the century Humanism had found a place in the universities, (p. 140)
and sixteenth-century colleges at Oxford and Cambridge provided for
the study of the literatures of Greece and Rome. In Scotland the
medieval teaching of Aristotle reigned supreme in all its three
universities until the appointment of Andrew Melville as Principal at
Glasgow in 1574, and in 1580 he had some difficulty in persuading the
masters at St Andrews to "peruse Aristotle in his ain language."
Lectures were either "ordinary" or "cursory," a distinction which, as
Dr Rashdall has shown, corresponded to the "ordinary" and
"extra-ordinary" lectures at Bologna. The ordinary lectures were the
statutable exercises appointed by the Faculty, and delivered by its
properly accredited teachers in the hours of the morning, which were
sacred to the prelections of the masters. Cursory lectures were
delivered in the afternoon, frequently by bachelors; but as College
teaching became more important than the lectures given in the Schools,
the distinction gradually disappeared. Ordinary lectures were
delivered "solemniter" and involved a slow and methodical analysis of
the book. The statutes of Vienna prescribe that no master shall read
more than one chapter of the text "ante quaestionem vel etiam
quaestione expedita." Various references in College and University
statutes show that the cursory lecture was not regarded as the (p. 141)
full equivalent of an ordinary lecture. At Oxford, attendance on a
lecture on the books or any book of the Metaphysics, or on the
Physics, or the Ethics, was not to count for a degree, except in the
case of a book largely dealing with the opinions of the ancients. The
third and fourth books of the Metaphysics were excepted from the rule,
"they being usually read cursorily, that the ordinary reading of the
other books might proceed more rapidly." The cursory lecture was
clearly beloved of the pupil, for Oxford grammar masters are reproved
for lecturing "cursorie" instead of "ordinarie" for the sake of gain;
and at Vienna, the tariff for cursory lectures is double that for
ordinary lectures. At Paris the books of Aristotle de Dialectica were
to be read "ordinarie et non ad cursum," and students of medicine had
to read certain books "semel ordinarie, bis cursorie." The statutes of
Heidelberg contrast "cursorie" with "extense." In the Faculty of Canon
Law there was an additional distinction, the ordinary lecture being
generally restricted to the Decretum; at Oxford, the book of Decretals
is to be read at the morning hours at which the doctors of law are
wont to deliver ordinary lectures, and at Vienna the doctors are
forbidden to read anything but the Decretals in the morning at
ordinary lectures. The instructions given to the Vienna doctors of (p. 142)
law illustrate the thoroughness of the medieval lecture in all
faculties. They are first to state the case carefully, then to read
the text, then to restate the case, then to remark on "notabilia," and
then to discuss questions arising out of the subject, and finally, to
deal with the Glosses. So, at Oxford, the Masters in Arts are to read
the books on logic and the philosophies "rite," with the necessary and
adequate exposition of the text, and with questions and arguments
pertinent to the subject-matter.
A problem, still unsolved, about the methods of lecturing disturbed
the minds of the Parisian masters. Were they to dictate lectures or to
speak so fast that their pupils could not commit their words to
writing? From the standpoint of teachers who delivered frequent
lectures, all of the same type, and on a few set books, it was
probably desirable that there should not be opportunities of
possessing such copies of a professor's lectures as used to circulate,
not many years ago, in Scottish and in German universities. In 1229
the Faculty of Arts at Paris made a statute on the methods of
lecturing. It explains that there are two ways of reading books in the
liberal arts. The masters of philosophy may deliver their expositions
from their chairs so rapidly that, although the minds of their
audience may grasp their meaning, their hands cannot write it (p. 143)
down. This, they say, was the custom in other faculties. The other way
is to speak so slowly that their hearers can take down what they say.
On mature reflection, the Faculty has decided that the former is the
better way, and henceforth in any lecture, ordinary or cursory, or in
any disputation or other manner of teaching, the master is to speak as
in delivering a speech, and as if no one were writing in his presence.
A lecturer who breaks the new rule is to be suspended for a year, and
if the students showed their dislike to it, by shouting, hissing,
groaning, or throwing stones, they were to be sent down for a year.
More than two hundred years later, in 1452, the statute was rescinded
by Cardinal Estoutville, but it was probably never operative.
Estoutville permitted either method of lecturing, and contented
himself with forbidding lecturers to use questions and lectures which
were not of their own composition, or to deliver their lectures
(however good) to be read by one of their scholars as a deputy. He
instructs the masters to lecture regularly according to the statutes
and to explain the text of Aristotle, "de puncto in punctum," and,
holding that fear and reverence are the life-blood of scholastic
discipline, he repeats an injunction which we find in 1336, that the
students in Arts are to sit not on benches or raised seats, but on (p. 144)
the floor, "ut occasio superbiae a juvenibus secludatur." The name of
the street in which lectures were given, Vicus Stramineus, is said to
have been derived from the straw on which the students sat. The
question whether lectures should be committed to writing or not,
troubled the masters of other universities besides Paris, and the
statutes of the College de Verdale at Toulouse accept, in 1337, the
view taken at Paris a hundred years earlier. Since study is a vehement
application of the mind, and requires the whole man, the scholars are
forbidden to fatigue themselves with too many lectures--not more than
two or three a day--and in lecture they are not to take down the
lecturer's words, nor, trusting in writings of this kind, to blunt
their "proprium intellectum." In the Schools, they must not use
"incausta" or pencils except for correcting a book, etc. And what they
have been able to retain in their memory they must meditate on without
delay.
The insistence on meditation was a useful educational method, but as
teaching became more organised, the student was not left without
guidance in his meditations. The help which he received outside
lectures was given in Repetitions or Resumptions. The procedure at
Repetitions may be illustrated from the statutes of the College of
Dainville at Paris: "We ordain that all bursars in grammar and (p. 145)
philosophy speak the Latin tongue, and that those who hear the same
book ordinarily and cursorily shall attend one and the same master
(namely, one whom the master [of the College] assigns to them), and
after the lecture they shall return home and meet in one place to
repeat the lecture. One after another shall repeat the whole lecture,
so that each of them may know it well, and the less advanced shall be
bound daily to repeat the lectures to the more proficient." A later
code of the same College provides that "All who study humane letters
shall, on every day of the schools read in the morning a composition,
that is a speech in Latin, Greek or the vernacular, to their master,
being prepared to expound the writer or historian who is being read in
daily lecture in their schools. At the end of the week, that is on
Friday or Saturday, they shall show up to their master a résumé of all
the lectures they have learned that week, and every day before they go
to the schools they shall be bound to make repetitions to one of the
philosophers or of the theologians whom the [College] master shall
choose; for this work." At Louvain, the time between 5 A.M. and the
first lecture (about seven) was spent in studying the lesson that the
students might better understand the lecture; after hearing it, they
returned to their own rooms to revise it and commit it to memory.
After dinner, their books were placed on a table, and all the (p. 146)
scholars of one Faculty repeated their lesson and answered questions.
A similar performance took place in the two hours before supper. After
supper, the tutor treated them for half an hour to a "jocum honestum,"
and before sending them to bed gave them a light and pleasant
disputation. The disputation was a preparation for the disputations
which formed part of what we should now term the degree examinations.
A thesis was propounded, attacked, and defended ("impugned and
propugned") with the proper forms of syllogistic reasoning.
The teaching, both in lectures and in disputations, was originally
University teaching, and the younger Masters of Arts, the "necessary
regents," were bound to stay up for some years and lecture in the
Schools. They were paid by their scholars, and the original meaning of
the word "Collections," still in frequent use at Oxford, is
traditionally supposed to be found in the payments made for lectures
at the end of each term. Thus, at Oxford, a student paid threepence a
term (one shilling a year) to his regent for lectures in Logic, and
fourpence a term for lectures in Natural Philosophy. The system was
not a satisfactory one, and alike in Paris, in Oxford, and in
Cambridge, it succumbed to the growth of College teaching. The Head of
a Parisian College, from the first, superintended the studies of (p. 147)
the scholars, and, although this duty was not required of an Oxford or
Cambridge Head, provision was gradually made in the statutes of
English colleges for the instruction of the junior members by their
seniors. The first important step in this direction was taken by
William of Wykeham, who ordered special payment to be made by the
College to Fellows who undertook the tuition of the younger Fellows.
His example was followed in this, as in other matters, by subsequent
founders both at Oxford and at Cambridge, and gradually University
teaching was, in the Faculty of Arts, almost entirely superseded by
College tuition. In other universities, lectures continued to be given
by University officials.
The medieval undergraduates had a tendency to "rag" in lectures, a
tradition which is almost unknown at Oxford and Cambridge, but which
persisted till quite recent times in the Scottish universities.
Prohibitions of noise and disturbance in lecture-rooms abound in all
statutes. At Vienna, students in Arts are exhorted to behave like
young ladies (more virginum) and to refrain from laughter, murmurs,
and hisses, and from tearing down the schedules in which the masters
give notice of their lectures. At Prague, also, the conduct of young
ladies was held up as a model for the student at lecture, and, at
Angers, students who hissed in contempt of a doctor were to be
expelled.
The career of a student was divided into two parts by his (p. 148)
"Determination," a ceremony which is the origin of the Bachelor's
degree. At Paris, where, at all events in the earlier period of its
history, examinations were real, the "Determination" was preceded by
"Responsions," and no candidate was admitted to determine until he had
satisfied a Regent Master in the Schools, in public, "de Questione
respondens." The determination itself was a public disputation, after
which the determiner might wear the bachelor's "cappa" and lecture on
the Organon. He continued his attendance on the lectures in the
Schools up to the time of his "Inception" as a master. The Inception
was preceded by an examination for licence and by a disputation known
as the Quodlibetica, at which the subject was chosen by the candidate.
The bachelor who was successful in obtaining the Chancellor's licence
proceeded to the ceremony of Inception, and received his master's
_biretta_.
The stringency of examinations varied in different universities and at
different times. The proportion of successful candidates seems to have
been everywhere very large, and in some universities rejection must
have been almost unknown. We do find references to disappointed
candidates, _e.g._ at Caen, where medical students who have been
"ploughed" have to take an oath not to bring "malum vel damnum" upon
the examiners. But even at Louvain, where the examination system (p. 149)
was fully developed in the Middle Ages, and where there were class
lists in the fifteenth century (the classes being distinguished as
_Rigorosi_, _Transibiles_, and _Gratiosi_), failure was regarded as an
exceptional event ("si autem, quod absit, aliqui inveniantur
simpliciter gratiosi seu refutabiles, erunt de quarto ordine"). The
regulations for examinations at Louvain prescribe that the examiners
are not to ask disturbing questions ("animo turbandi aut confundendi
promovendos") and forbid unfair treatment of pupils of particular
masters and frivolous or useless questions; although at his
Quodlibeticum, the bachelor might indulge in "jocosas questiones ad
auditorii recreationem." The element of display implied in the last
quotation was never absent from medieval examinations, and at Oxford,
there seems to have been little besides this ceremonial element. A
candidate had to prove that he had complied with the regulations about
attendance at lectures, etc., and to obtain evidence of fitness from a
number of masters. A bachelor had to dispute several times with a
master, and these disputations, which were held at the Augustinian
Convent, came to be known as "doing Austins." The medieval system, as
it lingered at Oxford in the close of the eighteenth century, is thus
described by Vicesimus Knox.
"The youth whose heart pants for the honour of a Bachelor of (p. 150)
Arts degree must wait patiently till near four years have
revolved.... He is obliged during this period, once to oppose and
once to respond.... This opposing and responding is termed, in
the cant of the place, _doing generals_. Two boys or men, as they
call themselves, agree to _do generals_ together. The first step
in this mighty work is to procure arguments. These are always
handed down, from generation to generation, on long slips of
paper, and consist of foolish syllogisms on foolish subjects, of
the foundation or significance of which the respondent and
opponent seldom know more than an infant in swaddling cloaths.
The next step is to go for a _liceat_ to one of the petty
officers, called the Regent-Master of the Schools, who subscribes
his name to the questions and receives sixpence as his fee. When
the important day arrives, the two doughty disputants go into a
large dusty room, full of dirt and cobwebs.... Here they sit in
mean desks, opposite to each other from one o'clock till three.
Not once in a hundred times does any officer enter; and, if he
does, he hears a syllogism or two, and then makes a bow, and
departs, as he came and remained, in solemn silence. The
disputants then return to the amusement of cutting the desks,
carving their names, or reading Sterne's Sentimental Journey, or
some other edifying novel. When the exercise is duly performed by
both parties, they have a right to the title and insignia of
_Sophs_: but not before they have been formally _created_ (p. 151)
by one of the regent-masters, before whom they kneel, while he
lays a volume of Aristotle's works on their heads, and puts on a
hood, a piece of black crape, hanging from their necks, and down
to their heels.... There remain only one or two trifling forms,
and another disputation almost exactly similar to _doing
generals_, but called _answering under bachelor_ previous to the
awful examination. Every candidate is obliged to be examined in
the whole circle of the sciences by three masters of arts _of his
own choice_.... _Schemes_, as they are called, or little books
containing forty or fifty questions on each science, are handed
down from age to age, from one to another. The candidate employs
three or four days in learning these by heart, and the examiners,
having done the same before him, know what questions to ask, and
so all goes on smoothly. When the candidate has displayed his
universal knowledge of the sciences, he is to display his skill
in philology. One of the masters therefore asks him to construe a
passage in some Greek or Latin classic, which he does with no
interruption, just as he pleases, and as well as he can. The
statutes next require that he should translate familiar English
phrases into Latin. And now is the time when the masters show
their wit and jocularity.... This familiarity, however, only
takes place when the examiners are pot-companions of the
candidate, which indeed is usually the case; for it is reckoned
good management to get acquainted with two or three jolly (p. 152)
young masters of arts, and supply them well with port previously
to the examination. If the vice-chancellor and proctors happen to
enter the school, a very uncommon event, then a little solemnity
is put on.... As neither the officer, nor anyone else, usually
enters the room (for it is reckoned very _ungenteel_), the
examiners and the candidates often converse on the last
drinking-bout, or on horses, or read the newspapers or a novel."
The supply of port was the eighteenth-century relic of the feasts
which used to accompany Determination and Inception, and with which so
many sumptuary regulations of colleges and universities are concerned.
There is a reference to a Determining Feast in the Paston Letters, in
which the ill-fated Walter Paston, writing in the summer of 1479, a
few weeks before his premature death, says to his brother: "And yf ye
wyl know what day I was mead Baschyler, I was maad on Fryday was
sevynyth, and I mad my fest on the Munday after. I was promysyd
venyson ageyn my fest of my Lady Harcort, and of a noder man to, but I
was desevyd of both; but my gestes hewld them plesyd with such mete as
they had, blyssyd be God. Hoo have yeo in Hys keeping. Wretyn at Oxon,
on the Wedenys day next after Seynt Peter."
A few glimpses of the life of this fifteenth-century Oxonian may (p. 153)
conclude our survey. Walter Paston had been sent to Oxford in 1473,
under the charge of a priest called James Gloys. His mother did not
wish him to associate too closely with the son of their neighbour,
Thomas Holler. "I wold," she says, "Walter schuld be copilet with a
better than Holler son is ... howe be it I wold not that he schuld
make never the lesse of hym, by cause he is his contre man and
neghbour." The boy was instructed to "doo welle, lerne well, and be of
good rewle and disposycion," and Gloys was asked to "bydde hym that he
be not to hasty of takyng of orderes that schuld bynd him." To take
Orders under twenty-three years of age might lead, in Margaret
Paston's opinion, to repentance at leisure, and "I will love hym
better to be a good secular man than to be a lewit priest." We next
hear of Walter in May 1478 when he writes to his mother recommending
himself to her "good moderchypp," and asking for money. He has
received £5, 16s. 6d., and his expenses amount to £6, 5s. 5d. "That
comth over the reseytys in my exspenses I have borrowed of Master
Edmund and yt draweth to 8 shillings." He might have applied for a
loan to one of the "chests" which benevolent donors had founded for
such emergencies, depositing some article of value, and receiving a
temporary loan: but he preferred to borrow from his new tutor, (p. 154)
Edmund Alyard. By March 1479, Alyard was able to reassure the anxious
mother about her boy's choice of a career; he was to go to law, taking
his Bachelor's degree in Arts at Midsummer. His brother, Sir John, who
was staying at the George at Paul's Wharf in London, intended to be
present at the ceremony, but his letter miscarried: "Martin Brown had
that same tyme mysch mony in a bage, so that he durst not bryng yt
with hym, and that same letter was in that same bage, and he had
forgete to take owt the letter, and he sent all togeder by London, so
that yt was the next day after that I was maad Bachyler or than the
letter cam, and so the fawt was not in me." This is the last we hear
of Walter Paston. On his way home, on the 18th August 1479, he died at
Norwich, after a short illness. He left a number of "togae" to his
Oxford friends, including Robert Holler, the son of his Norfolk
neighbour, to whom he also bequeathed "unum pulvinar vocatum _le
bolstar_." The rest of his Oxford goods he left to Alyard, but his
sheep and his lands to his own family. The cost of his illness and
funeral amounted to about thirty shillings. No books are mentioned in
the will; possibly they were sold for his inception feast, or he may
never have possessed any. As a junior student, he would not have been
allowed to use the great library which Humphrey of Gloucester had (p. 155)
presented to the University; but there were smaller libraries to which
he might have access, for books were sometimes chained up in St Mary's
Church that scholars might read them.
APPENDIX (p. 157)
My attention has been called (too late for a reference in the text) to
a medieval Latin poem giving a gloomy account of student life in Paris
in the twelfth century. The verses, which have been printed in the
_American Journal of Philology_ (vol. xi. p. 80), insist upon the
hardships of the student's life, and contrast his miserable condition
with the happier lot of the citizens of Paris. For him there is no
rejoicing in the days of his youth, and no hope even of a competence
in the future. His lodgings are wretched and neglected; his dress is
miserable, and his appearance slovenly. His food consists of peas,
beans, and cabbage, and
"libido
Mensæ nulla venit nisi quod sale sparsa rigorem
Esca parum flectit."
His bed is a hard mattress stretched on the floor, and sleep brings
him only a meagre respite from the toils of the day:--
"Sed in illa pace soporis
Pacis eget studii labor insopitus, et ipso
Cura vigil somno, libros operamque ministrat
Excitæ somnus animæ, nec prima sopori
Anxietas cedit, sed quæ vigilaverat ante
Sollicitudo redit, et major summa laboris
Curarum studiis in somnibus obicit Hydram."
In the early hours of the morning he goes to his lectures, and the (p. 158)
whole of his day is given to study. The description of the student at
lecture is interesting:--
"Aure et mente bibit et verba cadentia promo
Promptus utroque levat, oculique et mentis in illo
Fixa vigilque manet acies aurisque maritat
Pronuba dilectam cupida cum meute Minervam."
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY (p. 159)
Savigny: Geschichte der römischen Rechts im Mittelalter. (Heidelberg,
1834.)
Sir William Hamilton: Discussions on Philosophy and Literature,
Education, and University Reform. (London, 1852.)
Denifle: Die Entstehung der Universitäten des Mittelalters bis 1400.
(Berlin, 1885.)
Rashdall: The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. (Oxford,
1895.)
Kaufmann: Geschichte der Deutschen Universitäten. (Stuttgart, 1888.)
Article on Universities in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
Archiv für Lit. u. Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters. Jurist Statutes
of Padua (1331) in vol. vi.; Salamanca documents in vol. v.
Malagola: Statuti della università e dei collegi dello studio
bolognese. (Bologna, 1888.)
Denifle and Chatelain: Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis. (Paris,
1889-1897.)
(Many of the statutes of the Colleges of Paris will be found scattered
through Felibien: Histoire de la Ville de Paris. Paris, 1725.)
Antony Wood: History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford. (Ed.
Gutch. Oxford, 1792-6.)
---- History and Antiquities of the Colleges and Halls in the
University of Oxford. (Ed. Gutch. Oxford, 1786.)
Anstey: Munimenta Academica. (Rolls Series, 1868.)
Statutes of the Colleges of Oxford. (London, 1853.)
Clark: The Colleges of Oxford. (London, 1892.)
(The best account of Oxford will be found in vol. ii., Part ii., of Dr
Rashdall's "Universities of Europe." There are two short histories
(p. 160) of the University by Maxwell Lyte (London, 1886) and Brodrick
(London, 1886.).)
Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge.
(London, 1852.)
Mullinger: The University of Cambridge from the Earliest Times to the
Royal Injunctions of 1535. (Cambridge, 1873.)
In two subsequent volumes Mr Mullinger has continued the narrative to
the latter half of the seventeenth century, and he has also written a
short "History of the University of Cambridge." (Epochs of Church
History. London, 1888.)
Gherardi: Statuti della università e studio Fiorentino. (Florence,
1881.)
Villanueva: Statutes of the University of Lerida in "Viage Literario á
las Iglesias de España." T. xvi. (Madrid, 1851.)
Marcel Fournier: Les Statuts et Privilèges des Universités françaises
depuis leur fondation jusqu'en 1789. (Paris, 1890-92.)
Dittrich und Spirk: Monumenta Historica Universitatis Pragensis.
(Prague, 1830.)
Kink: Geschichte der Kaiserl. Univ. zu Wien. (Vienna, 1854.)
Hautz: Geschichte der Universität Heidelberg. (Mannheim, 1862.)
Vernulæus: Academia Lovaniensis. (Louvain, 1667.)
Molanus: Historiæ Lovaniensium, ed. De Ram. (Brussels, 1861.)
Zarncke: Die Statutenbücher der Univ. Leipzig. (Leipzig, 1861.)
---- Acta Rectorum Univ. Lipsiensis. (Leipzig, 1858.)
Evidence taken and received by the Scottish Universities Commissioners
of 1826. (London, 1837.)
Innes: Fasti Aberdonenses. Spalding Club. (Aberdeen, 1854.)
INDEX (p. 163)
Abelard, 6.
Aberdeen, Univ. of, 105, 106, 107, 122-3.
Ælius Donatus, 138.
Aix, Univ. of, 39, 112, 114.
Alexander de Villa Dei, 138.
Alfonso the Wise, 9.
Alyard, Edmund, 153-4.
Angers, Univ. of, 7, 147.
---- Coll. of Breuil at, 90.
Anselm, St, 6.
Arezzo, Studium at, 7.
Aristotle, 138-143.
Arts, The Seven Liberal, 137-9.
Avignon, Univ. of, 88, 112.
---- College of Annecy at, 113.
---- College of Notre Dame de Pitié at, 88, 90.
---- Confraternity of St Sebastian at, 112.
Bagley Wood, 97.
Bateman, Bishop, 70.
Boethius, 139.
Bologna, Spanish College at, 19, 34, 93.
---- Studium Generale at, 6, 8, 9.
---- Universities of, 11-34, 44, 46-7, 48, 140.
Caen, Univ. of, 148.
Cahors, College of St Nicholas de Pelegry at, 89, 91.
Caius, Dr, 61, 68.
Cambridge, Univ. of, 3, 7, 10, 120, 136-7, 146-7.
---- College discipline at, 49-78.
---- Colleges of--
Caius, 61, 68, 70;
Christ's, 66, 69, 71;
Clare, 59;
Jesus, 67;
King's, 62, 64, 66;
Peterhouse, 58, 62, 63, 69, 72;
Trinity, 68;
Trinity Hall, 70.
Chaucer, Prologue to Canterbury Tales, 1-3, 73, 74, 75.
Chichele, Archbishop, 73.
Cicero, 138, 139.
College, meaning of word, 5.
Cologne, Univ. of, 48.
Dôle, Univ. of, 39.
Eberhard, 139.
Ely, Bishop of, 47.
Erfurt, Univ. of, 48.
Estoutville, Cardinal, 94-5, 143-4.
Euclid, 139.
Farleigh, 51, 52.
Florence, Univ. of, 34-7.
France, Universities of, 12.
Frederick Barbarossa, 24-5.
Frederick II., 8.
Germany, Universities of, 47-8, 142.
Gilbert de la Porrée, 139.
Glasgow, Univ. of, 105, 106, 140.
Gloys, James, 153.
Gregory IX., 9.
Hearne, Thomas, 122.
Heidelberg, Univ. of, 48, 107-8, 117, 141.
Henry II., 6.
Henry VI., 58, 61, 63, 66.
Henry VIII., 58.
Holler, Thomas, 153.
---- Robert, 154.
Holywood, John, 139.
Ingolstadt, Univ. of, 105.
Innocent III., 42, 43.
---- IV., 7, 9.
John XXI., 139.
---- XXII., 10.
---- King, 7, 45.
Knox, Vicesimus, 149.
Leipsic, Univ. of, 48.
---- Collegium Maius at, 89.
---- Collegium Minus at, 90.
---- University discipline at, 102-5, 108.
---- "Town and Gown" at, 128-131.
Lerida, Univ. of, 37-8.
Lincoln, See of, 45, 46.
Louvain, Univ. of, 48, 145-6, 149.
---- University, discipline at, 101-2, 116.
Lyons, Studium at, 7, 9.
Lyra, Nicolaus de, 139.
Maldon, 51, 52, 54.
Marsilius, 139.
Melville, Andrew, 140.
Modena, Studium at, 7, 9.
Merton, Walter de, 50-6, 134.
Montpellier, Univ. of, 7.
---- College of Douze Medecins at, 89.
---- College of St Benedict at, 91-3.
---- College of Saint Ruf at, 89, 90.
Naples, Univ. of, 8.
"Nations," 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 43, 44, 46, 78, 79, 131.
Nicholas IV., 9, 10.
Orleans, Univ. of, 7, 115, 128.
Ovid, 139.
Oxford, Univ. of, 6, 10, 39, 45, 47, 49, 120, 133-142, 146,
147, 149-155.
---- College discipline at, 49-78.
---- University discipline at, 95-101.
---- "Town and Gown" at, 124-128.
Oxford, Colleges of--
Balliol, 71, 122;
Brasenose, 66, 67, 122;
Christ Church, 68;
Corpus Christi, 60, 67, 68, 72, 105;
Jesus, 59;
Lincoln, 77;
Magdalen, 62, 66, 134;
Merton, 50-6, 60, 67, 120, 121, 122, 134;
New College, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 71, 76, 77,
120, 133, 147;
Pembroke, 68;
Queen's, 59, 61, 63, 74, 77;
Worcester, 68.
Oxford, Halls of--
Haburdaysh Hall, 98;
Pauline Hall, 97;
Peckwater Inn, 97.
Padua, Univ. of, 7, 10, 34.
Palencia, Studium at, 7.
Paris, Univ. of, 6, 7, 9, 11, 40, 41-5, 49, 128, 133, 134, 139,
141, 142-6, 148, 157-8.
---- College discipline at, 78-88.
---- "Jocund Advent" at, 109-112.
---- Univ. discipline at, 94-5.
Paris, Colleges of--
Cambray, 111;
Clugny, 88;
Cornouaille, 83, 84, 85, 86, 111, 133;
Dainville, 87, 111, 144-6;
Le Mans, 79, 84;
Marmoutier, 86;
Plessis, 82;
St Bernard, 83, 85, 86, 110;
Sorbonne, 81, 85, 86, 111, 112;
Tours, 83;
Treasurer's, 79, 80, 87, 111.
Paston, John, 154.
---- Margaret, 153.
---- Walter, 152-5.
Peckham, Archbishop, 55-6.
Perpignan, Univ. of, 38.
Petrus Hispanus, 139.
Philip Augustus, 42.
Plessis, Geoffrey du, 82.
Porphyry, 139.
Prague, Univ. of, 48, 116, 147.
Priscian, 139.
Ptolemy, 139.
Reggio, Studium at, 7.
Reims, Studium at, 7.
Rostock, Univ. of, 48.
Rouen, 79, 80, 81.
Rudolf IV., 124.
St Andrews, Univ. of, 105, 106, 122.
St Scholastica's Day, 125-6.
Salamanca, Studium at, 7, 9, 39.
Salerno, Univ. of, 9.
Saone, Guillaume de, 79.
Scayfe, Henry, 77.
Scotland, Universities of, 48, 105, 140, 142.
Seggefyld, John, 77.
Studium Generale, meaning of, 5-12.
Toulouse, Univ. of, 7, 9, 128.
---- College de Foix at, 89.
---- College de Verdale at, 91, 144.
Universitas, meaning of, 4, 5, 10, 11.
Valladolid, Studium at, 7.
Vicenza, Studium at, 7.
Vienna, Univ. of, 48, 124, 140, 141, 142, 147.
Virgil, 139.
Waynflete, William of, 66, 134.
Wingfield, Sir E., 57.
Wood, Antony à, 120-2, 125-126.
Wolsey, Cardinal, 68.
Würzburg, Univ. of, 48.
Wykeham, William of, 58, 60, 62, 63, 64, 67, 76, 147.
Zarncke, Friedrich, 102.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
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