83 Oxford and Cambridge respectivaled to rekindle The scattered links which between the times of Bede and Grosseteste are few and imperfe was snapped asunder by the Lam here be of small profit minute for a tradition which can scare Learning, to use the expre was buried in the grave of 15 invader, carrying his ravages no the Humber, devastated the sword. The noble libraries w Hadrian and Benedict had fom In the year 870 the town of Ca The monasteries of the Benc learning, appear to have be not at all improbable,' says of the tenth century there society left in England restored the schools and fo the auspices of St. Dunstan, C at its sources by the recent branch on the continent, wa reign of Eadgar, when the less than forty convents of once again the Danes swept While we cannot dould th considerable number of sch studied at Oxford in the de and twelfth centuries, yet the that no species of pruniary ja was from any source, that we f of, appointed for them, and tr royal charter or letter has ever prabend hitherto, thongh And Wood speaks of their loss, of an lier reign than that of Henry seems to raise a very strong s that the University did not all before the Conquest, and soon as it became important to deserve and require royal tion, it immediately oldainel a love for letters. Pallen have been e Peter Lombard. ints of difference; and the elaborately gard to Patristic l method of interby Anthony Wood period at Oxford'. nd, informs us that and left no stone might flourish in the l labours continuing his doctrine, profiting space the University ises, which were the There appears to be no led should be rejected. of various authorities, and it is sufficiently mt he should teach at gol reason for believing antry, schools existed at lictines as their founever by teachers from d considerable attention beyond dispute that the were borrowed from the says 'from mere grammar be King Alfred must be classed the other historical fictions which the earlier pages of Body work are filled; an infatua which in so generally trustwor unless, indeed, we regard as we have done, as ad only for a ponderous and the CAP. L schools to a studium generale, or, as we call it, an university, cannot be traced; the probability however, almost amounting to a certainty, is that it was effected by a nearly wholesale adoption of the regulations of the university of Paris". Farst cution The earliest authentic legal instrument,' to use the ty of language of Cooper, containing any recognition of Cambridge as a university, is a writ of the second year of Henry III, addressed to the sheriff of the town, commanding all clerks. who had been excommunicated for their adhesion to Louis the son of the King of France, and who had not been absolved, to depart the realm before the middle of Lent; those who failed to yield obedience to this mandate to be arrested. If,' observes Cooper, (as seems very probable) the word clerk is used in this writ as denoting a scholar, this appears to be the earliest authentic legal instrument referring to the existence of a University in this place. Our university history would accordingly seem to date from the commencement of our true national history, from the time when the Norman element having become fused with the Saxon element, and the invader driven from our shores, the genius of the people found comparatively free scope, and the national character began to assume its distinctive form. Galling evidence of the Conquest still exhibited itself, it is true, in the Poitevin who ruled in the royal councils, and the Italian who monopolized the richest benefices; but the isolation from the Continent which followed on the expulsion of Prince Louis could not fail to develope in an insular race a more bold and independent spirit. The first half of the thirteenth century in England has been not inaptly designated the age of Robert Grosseteste.' The cold commendation with which Hallam dismisses the memory of that eminent reformer must appear altogether inadequate to those familiar with more recent investigations of the period. The encourager of Greek learning, the interpreter of Aristotle, the patron of the mendicant orders, the chastiser of monastic corruption, the fearless champion of the national Robert & 1175 (3) d1263 1 Munimenta Academica, p. xliv. Annals, 1 37. when their utility and necessity had become more fully CHAP recognized. We have quoted the observations of Savigny on the re spontaneous character of the growth of the university; it remains to trace out the chief outlines of its formal developement, and here conjecture must to some extent supply the place of well-ascertained data. It would appear to be a matter beyond doubt, that the faculty of arts, or of phi ophy as it was usually then designated, was the first instituted at Paris. It is not however to this faculty that the university owes its eminence,-if indeed we are willing to admit that the university can be held to have existed at that period when the tririum and quadrivium of antiquity embraced its whole culture. Its celebrity dates from the time of Peter Lombard rather than from that of William of Champeaux', and the audiences who gathered round the expounders of the Sentences must be regarded as the true Commencement of the new era. These audiences, it must be noted, were not composed of the religious orders; and the teachers for the most part, in singular contrast to the intentions of the compiler of their celebrated text book, represented the speculative tendencies of the age, and it was erly because all speculation was then directly concerned with dma, or in professed conformity to it, that they found n the compilation of Peter Lombard sufficient material for their powers. As the audiences increased, the teachers also multiplied; and it is easy to understand that mere pretenders to learning would frequently be starting up whose design it was to impose upon their enthusiastic and youthful hearers, It accordingly became necessary to protect alike the learners of d the qualified profesor. Out of such a necessity, Conrinvery plausibly conjectures, grew the licence to teach. bat such a formal permission could not justly be modle to de på tid upon the vague impressions and peronal progidieos of the electors,—who were, in all probability, the existing on the Chan CHAP. L professoriate body; and the next step-the application of a definite test to the qualifications of the aspirants to the dignity of doctor-followed as a necessary precaution. Hence the system of examinations. The possession of a university degree was originally nothing else than the possession of a diploma to exercise the function of teaching; a right, which, at a later period, was equally recognised as a duty. The bachelors expounded the Sentences and the Scriptures; the doctors and masters taught systematically in the schools or preached to the laity; but all those who gained the degree of licentiate, master, or doctor, were held bound to devote a certain period to again imparting the learning they had Limitations acquired'. The permission to teach, consequent upon success in such examinations as were then instituted, was vested, so far as the university was concerned, in the Chancellor; but the Pope alone had the power to make the degree of doctor valid throughout Christendom. 'It may be worth while to mention,' says Professor Malden, 'that it was this privilege of catholic degrees, if we may use the expression, which in somewhat later times caused the confirmation of the popes to be sought whenever a new university was founded. It was not questioned that any sovereign might erect a university in his own dominions; or if any difficulty were raised, it was only with regard to a theological faculty: but it was the Pope alone who could make degrees valid beyond the limits of the university in which they were conferred "." cellor's authority. The 'Nations.' The division that obtained at Bologna of Citramontani and Ultramontani was represented at Paris by the division. into 'nations.' These were four in number:-(1) the French nation, including in addition to the native element, Spaniards, Italians, and Greeks; (2) the Picard nation, representing 1 Crévier, Hist. de l'Université de Paris, 111 181. M. Le Clerc remarks, 'C'était une bonne institution que le noviciat des bacheliers, s'essayant pendant trois ans au professorat sous la direction des maîtres, quoiqu'il n'eût point fallu peut-être leur imposer quinze années d'épreuves, pour arriver, en théologie, au grade de licencié. Mais cet exercice triennal eût été moins stérile pour eux, si, par cette manie de renfermer tou. jours l'esprit dans la plus étroite prison, ils n'eussent été tenus, pour faire, comme on disait, leur principe,' de commenter uniquement les livres des Sentences.' Etat des Lettres au XIV. Siècle, 1 291. p. 21. Malden, Origin of Universities, the students from the north-east and from the Netherlands; (3) the Norman nation; (4) the English nation', comprising, besides students from the provinces under English rule, those from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany'. at It may at first appear somewhat anomalous that the great centre of theological instruction in Europe, up to the fifteenth century, should have been distinguished rather by its allegiance to the secular than to the spiritual power, by its sympathy with the kings of France rather than with the popes of Rome. It does not however require much acquaintance with these centuries to be aware that the papal policy was systematically directed to the discouragement of theological controversy and speculation. At Paris the traditions Fore of Berengar and Roscellinus were still fresh in the memories REY of men. Even the excellent designs of Peter Lombard ap peared to have strangely failed of their avowed object, and to have fanned the flames they were intended to allay. We need not wonder, therefore, that this troublous mental activity and unceasing controversial spirit were viewed with disfavour and apprehension at Rome. On the other hand, long before the time of William of Occam, the university had evinced its sympathy with royalty and lent its and in repelling the arrogant assertion of the ecclesiastical power. Notwithstanding, observes M. Le Clerc, the ties that planetie bound it to the pontiff's chair, and the numbers of its clergy is who had vowed allegiance to that authority, the university had never been wholly an ecclesiastical body. Though born under the shadow of the cathedral church, it took form and grew up under the protection of the monarch rather than the tutelage of the bishop The French kings, who had at first accorded it but dubious and precarious aid, as soon as they precived the accession to their own strength to be derived 1 Known after the year 1430 as cente experiencia lenbus bene rezi the German bat. a. ↑ A correspot ling division int> fur matuna was institite i at l'ra,e, Venza, Hedeberg and le 1218. “N. @_advertentes venera) dem Univery latem Par.nichdem pro aus de |