Chapter 20
96. London: Oath of a New Freeman in a Mediaeval Town.
97. Riley: Ordinances of the White-Tawyers' Guild.
98. State Report: School of the Guild of Saint Nicholas.
99. England, 1396: A Mediaeval Indenture of Apprentices.h.i.+p.
QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS
1. Contrast the state of civilization in Spain and the rest of Europe about 1100 (85, 86).
2. Considering Aristotle's great intellectual worth (88) and work (87), is it to be wondered that the mediaevals regarded him with such reverence?
3. Do we today accept Abelard's premise (91 a) as to attaining wisdom?
Would his questions (91 b) excite much interest to-day?
4. How do you explain the change in att.i.tude toward him shown by the successive statutes enacted (90 a-d) for the University of Paris?
5. Would the extract from Roger Bacon (89) lead you to think him a man ahead of the times in which he lived? Why?
6. Did scholasticism represent the innocent intellectual activity, from the Church point of view, pictured by Rashdall (92)?
7. What were the main things Justinian hoped to accomplish by the preparation of the great Code, as set forth in the Preface (93)?
8. Characterize the mediaeval town by the eleventh century (94 a). What was the nature of the progress from that time to the thirteenth century (94 b)?
9. What were the chief privileges contained in the town charter of Walling-ford (95), and what position does it indicate was held by the guild-merchant therein?
10. What does the oath of a freeman (96) indicate as to social conditions?
11. State the chief regulations imposed on its members by the White- Tawyers' Guild (97). Compare these regulations with those of a modern labor union, such as the plumbers. With a fraternal order, such as the Masons.
12. What is indicated as to the educational advantages provided by the Guild of Saint Nicholas, in the city of Worcester, by the extract (98) taken from the Report of the King's Commissioner?
13. Does a comparison of Readings 99, 201, and 242 indicate a static condition of apprentices.h.i.+p education for centuries?
SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES
* Adams, G. B. _Civilization during the Middle Ages_.
Ameer, Ali. _A Short History of the Saracens_.
* Ashley, W. J. _Introduction to English Economic History_.
Cutts, Edw. L. _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_.
* Gautier, Leon. _Chivalry_.
* Giry, A., and Reville, A. _Emanc.i.p.ation of the Mediaeval Towns_.
Hibbert, F. A. _Influence and Development of English Guilds_.
* Hume, M. A. S. _The Spanish People_.
* Lavisse, Ernest. _Mediaeval Commerce and Industry_.
* MacCabe, Jos. _Peter Abelard_.
* Munro, D. C., and Sellery, G. E. _Mediaeval Civilization_.
Poole, R. L. _Ill.u.s.trations of Mediaeval Thought_.
* Rashdall, H. _Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_, vol. I.
Routledge, R. _Popular History of Science_.
Sandys, J. E. _History of Cla.s.sical Scholars.h.i.+p_, vol. i.
Scott, J. F. _Historical Essays on Apprentices.h.i.+p and Vocational Education_. (England.) * Sedgwick, W. J., and Tyler, H. W. _A Short History of Science_.
Taylor, H. C. _The Mediaeval Mind_.
Thorndike, Lynn. _History of Mediaeval Europe_.
Townsend, W. J. _The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages_.
CHAPTER IX
THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES
EVOLUTION OF THE _STUDIUM GENERALE_. In the preceding chapter we described briefly the new movement toward a.s.sociation which characterized the eleventh and the twelfth centuries--the munic.i.p.al movement, the merchant guilds, the trade guilds, etc. These were doing for civil life what monasticism had earlier done for the religious life. They were collections of like-minded men, who united themselves into a.s.sociations or guilds for mutual benefit, protection, advancement, and self-government within the limits of their city, business, trade, or occupation. This tendency toward a.s.sociation, in the days when state government was weak or in its infancy, was one of the marked features of the transition time from the early period of the Middle Ages, when the Church was virtually the State, to the later period of the Middle Ages, when the authority of the Church in secular matters was beginning to weaken, modern nations were beginning to form, and an interest in worldly affairs was beginning to replace the previous inordinate interest in the world to come.
We also noted in the preceding chapters that certain cathedral and monastery schools, but especially the cathedral schools, [1] stimulated by the new interest in Dialectic, were developing into much more than local teaching inst.i.tutions designed to afford a supply of priests of some little education for the parishes of the bishopric. Once York and later Canterbury, in England, had had teachers who attracted students from other bishoprics. Paris had for long been a famous center for the study of the Liberal Arts and of Theology. Saint Gall had become noted for its music.
Theologians coming from Paris (1167-68) had given a new impetus to study among the monks at Oxford. A series of political events in northern Italy had given emphasis to the study of law in many cities, and the Moslems in Spain had stimulated the schools there and in southern France to a study of medicine and Aristotelian science. Rome was for long a noted center for study. Gradually these places came to be known as _studia publica_, or _studia generalia_, meaning by this a generally recognized place of study, where lectures were open to any one, to students of all countries and of all conditions. [2] Traveling students came to these places from afar to hear some noted teacher read and comment on the famous textbooks of the time.
From the first both teachers and students had been considered as members of the clergy, and hence had enjoyed the privileges and immunities extended to that cla.s.s, but, now that the students were becoming so numerous and were traveling so far, some additional grant of protection was felt to be desirable. Accordingly the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, [3] in 1158, issued a general proclamation of privileges and protection (R. 101). In this he ordered that teachers and students traveling "to the places in which the studies are carried on" should be protected from unjust arrest, should be permitted to "dwell in security," and in case of suit should be tried "before their professors or the bishop of the city."
This doc.u.ment marks the beginning of a long series of rights and privileges granted to the
THE UNIVERSITY EVOLUTION. The development of a university out of a cathedral or some other form of school represented, in the Middle Ages, a long local evolution. Universities were not founded then as they are to- day. A teacher of some reputation drew around him a constantly increasing body of students. Other teachers of ability, finding a student body already there, also "set up their chairs" and began to teach. Other teachers and more students came. In this way a _studium_ was created.
About these teachers in time collected other university servants-- "bedells, librarians, lower officials, preparers of parchment, scribes, illuminators of parchment, and others who serve it," as Count Rupert enumerated them in the Charter of Foundation granted, in 1386, to Heidelberg (R. 103). At Salerno, as we have already seen (p. 199), medical instruction arose around the work of Constantine of Carthage and the medicinal springs found in the vicinity. Students journeyed there from many lands, and licenses to practice the medical art were granted there as early as 1137. At Bologna, we have also seen (p. 195), the work of Irnerius and Gratian early made this a great center for the study of civil and canon law, and their pupils spread the taste for these new subjects throughout Europe. Paris for two centuries had been a center for the study of the Arts and of Theology, and a succession of famous teachers--William of Champeaux, Abelard, Peter the Lombard--had taught there. So important was the theological teaching there that Paris has been termed "the Sinai of instruction" of the Middle Ages.
By the beginning of the thirteenth century both students and teachers had become so numerous, at a number of places in western Europe, that they began to adopt the favorite mediaeval practice and organized themselves into a.s.sociations, or guilds, for further protection from extortion and oppression and for greater freedom from regulation by the Church. They now sought and obtained additional privileges for themselves, and, in particular, the great mediaeval doc.u.ment--a charter of rights and privileges. [4] As both teachers and students were for long regarded as _clerici_ the charters were usually sought from the Pope, but in some cases they were obtained from the king. [5] These a.s.sociations of scholars, or teachers, or both, "born of the need of companions.h.i.+p which men who cultivate their intelligence feel," sought to perform the same functions for those who studied and taught that the merchant and craft guilds were performing for their members. The ruling idea was a.s.sociation for protection, and to secure freedom for discussion and study; the obtaining of corporate rights and responsibilities; and the organization of a system of apprentices.h.i.+p, based on study and developing through journeyman into masters.h.i.+p, [6] as attested by an examination and the license to teach. In the rise of these teacher and student guilds [7] we have the beginnings of the universities of western Europe, and their organization into chartered teaching groups (R. 100) was simply another phase of that great movement toward the a.s.sociation of like-minded men for worldly purposes which began to sweep over the rising cities in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. [8]
The term _universitas_, or _university_, which came in time to be applied to these a.s.sociations of masters and apprentices in study, was a general Roman legal term, practically equivalent to our modern word _corporation_.
At first it was applied to any a.s.sociation, and when used with reference to teachers and scholars was so stated. Thus, in addressing the masters and students at Paris, Pope Innocent, in 1205, writes: "_Universis magistris et scholaribus Parisiensibus_", that is, "to the corporation of masters and scholars at Paris." Later the term _university_ became restricted to the meaning which we give it to-day.
The university mothers. Though this movement for a.s.sociation and the development of advanced study had manifested itself in a number of places by the close of the twelfth century, two places in particular led all the others and became types which were followed in charters and in new creations. These were Bologna and Paris. [9] After one or the other of these two nearly all the universities of western Europe were modeled.
Bologna or Paris, or one of their immediate children, served as a pattern.
Thus Bologna was the university mother for almost all the Italian universities; for Montpellier and Gren.o.ble in southern France; for some of the Spanish universities; and for Glasgow, Upsala, Cracow, and for the Law Faculty at Oxford. Paris was the university mother for Oxford, and through her Cambridge; for most of the northern French universities; for the university of Toulouse, which in turn became the mother for other southern French and northern Spanish universities; for Lisbon and Coimbra in Portugal; for the early German universities at Prague, Vienna, Cologne, and Heidelberg; and through Cologne for Copenhagen. Through one of the colleges at Cambridge--Emmanuel--she became, indirectly, the mother of a new Cambridge in America--Harvard--founded in 1636. Figure 61 shows the location of the chief universities founded before 1600. Viewed from the standpoint of instruction, Paris was followed almost entirely in Theology, and Bologna in Law, while the three centers which most influenced the development of instruction in medicine were Salerno, Montpellier, and Salamanca.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 61. SHOWING LOCATION OF THE CHIEF UNIVERSITIES FOUNDED BEFORE 1600]
While the earlier universities gradually arose as the result of a long local evolution, it in time became common for others to be founded by a migration of professors from an older university to some cathedral city having a developing _studium_. In the days when a university consisted chiefly of master and students, when lectures could be held in any kind of a building or collection of buildings, and when there were no libraries, laboratories, campus, or other university property to tie down an inst.i.tution, it was easy to migrate. Thus, in 1209, the school at Cambridge was created a university by a secession of masters from Oxford, much as bees swarm from a hive. Sienna, Padua, Reggio, Vicenza, Arezzo resulted from "swarmings" from Bologna; and Vercelli from Vicenza. In 1228, after a student riot at Paris which provoked reprisals from the city, many of the masters and students went to the studium towns of Angers, Orleans, and Rheims, and universities were established at the first two. Migrations from Prague helped establish many of the German universities. In this way the university organization was spread over Europe. In 1200 there were but six _studia generalia_ which can be considered as having evolved into universities--Salerno, Bologna, and Reggio, in Italy; Paris and Montpellier, in France; and Oxford, in England. By 1300 eight more had evolved in Italy, three more in France, Cambridge in England, and five in Spain and Portugal. By 1400 twenty-two additional universities had developed, five of which were in German lands, and by 1500 thirty-five more had been founded, making a total of eighty.
By 1600 the total had been raised to one hundred and eight (R. 100, for list by countries, dates, and method of founding). Some of these (approximately thirty) afterwards died, while in the following centuries additional ones were created. [10]
PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES GRANTED. The grant of privileges to physicians and teachers made by the Emperor Constantine, in 333 A.D. (R. 26), and the privileges and immunities granted to the clergy (_clerici_) by the early Christian Roman Emperors (R. 38), doubtless formed a basis for the many grants of special privileges made to the professors and students in the early universities. The doc.u.ment promulgated by Frederick Barbarossa, in 1158 (R. 101), began the granting of privileges to the _studia generalia_, and this was followed by numerous other grants. The grant to students of freedom from trial by the city authorities, and the obligation of every citizen of Paris to seize any one seen striking a student, granted by Philip Augustus, in 1200 (R. 102), is another example, widely followed, of the bestowal of large privileges. Count Rupert I, in founding the University of Heidelberg, in 1386, granted many privileges, exempted the students from "any duty, levy, imposts, tolls, excises, or other exactions whatever" while coming to, studying at, or returning home from the university (R. 103). The exemption from taxation (R. 104) became a matter of form, and was afterwards followed in the chartering of American colleges (R. 187). Exemption from military service also was granted.
So valuable an a.s.set was a university to a city, and so easy was it for a university to move almost overnight, that cities often, and at times even nations, encouraged not only the founding of universities, but also the migration of both faculties and students. An interesting case of a city bidding for the presence of a university is that of Vercelli (R. 105), which made a binding agreement, as a part of the city charter, whereby the city agreed with a body of masters and students "swarming" from Padua to loan the students money at lower than the regular rates, to see that there was plenty of food in the markets at no increase in prices, and to protect the students from injustice. An instance of bidding by a State is the case of Cambridge, which obtained quite an addition by the coming of striking Paris masters and students in 1229, in response to the pledge of King Henry III (R. 109), who "humbly sympathized with them for their sufferings at Paris," and promised them that if they would come "to our kingdom of England and remain there to study" he would a.s.sign to them "cities, boroughs, towns, whatsoever you may wish to select, and in every fitting way will cause you to rejoice in a state of liberty and tranquillity."
One of the most important privileges which the universities early obtained, and a rather singular one at that, was the right of _cessatio_, which meant the right to stop lectures and go on a strike as a means of enforcing a redress of grievances against either town or church authority (R. 107). This right was for long jealously guarded by the university, and frequently used to defend itself from the smallest encroachments on its freedom to teach, study, and discipline the members of its guild as it saw fit, and often the right not to discipline them at all. Often the _cessatio_ was invoked on very trivial grounds, as in the case of the Oxford _cessatio_ of 1209 (R. 108), the Paris _cessatio_ of 1229 (R. 109), and the numerous other _cessationes_ which for two centuries [11]
repeatedly disturbed the continuity of instruction at Paris.
DEGREES IN THE GUILD. The most important of the university rights, however, was the right to examine and license its own teachers (R. 110), and to grant the license to teach (Rs. 111, 112). Founded as the universities were after the guild model, they were primarily places for the taking of apprentices in the Arts, developing them into journeymen and masters, and certifying to their proficiency in the teaching craft. [12]
Their purpose at first was to prepare teachers, and the giving of instruction to students for cultural ends, or a professional training for practical use aside from teaching the subject, was a later development.