UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENT LIFE
The modern university is essentially a product of the Middle Ages. The
Greeks and Romans had provisions for higher education, but nothing
that can properly be termed universities, with faculties, courses of
study, examinations, and degrees. The word "universitas" in the
earlier mediaeval period was applied indiscriminately to any group or
body of people, as a guild of artisans or an organization of the
clergy, and only very gradually did it come to be restricted to an
association of teachers and students--the so-called _universitas
societas magistrorum discipulorumque_. The origins of mediaeval
universities are, in most cases, rather obscure. In the earlier Middle
Ages the interests of learning were generally in the keeping of the
monks and the work of education was carried on chiefly in monastic
schools, where the subjects of study were commonly the seven liberal
arts inherited from Roman days.[494] By the twelfth century there was
a relative decline of these monastic schools, accompanied by a marked
development of cathedral schools in which not only the seven liberal
arts but also new subjects like law and theology were taught. The
twelfth century renaissance brought a notable revival of Roman law,
medicine, astronomy, and philosophy; by 1200 the whole of Aristotle's
writings had become known; and the general awakening produced
immediate results in the larger numbers of students who flocked to
places like Paris and Bologna where exceptional teachers were to be
found.
Out of these conditions grew the earliest of the universities. No
definite dates for the beginnings of Paris, Bologna, Oxford, etc., can
be assigned, but the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are to be
considered their great formative period. Bologna was specifically the
creation of the revived study of the Roman law and of the fame of the
great law teacher Irnerius. The university sprang from a series of
organizations effected first by the students and later by the
masters, or teachers, and modeled after the guilds of workmen. It
became the pattern for most of the later Italian and Spanish
universities. Paris arose in a different way. It grew directly out of
the great cathedral school of Notre Dame and, unlike Bologna, was an
organization at the outset of masters rather than of students. It was
presided over by the chancellor, who had had charge of education in
the cathedral and who retained the exclusive privilege of granting
licenses to teach (the _licentia docendi_), or, in other words,
degrees.[495] Rising to prominence in the twelfth century, especially
by virtue of the teaching of Abelard (1079-1142), Paris became in time
the greatest university of the Middle Ages, exerting profound
influence not only on learning, but also on the Church and even at
times on political affairs. The universities of the rest of France, as
well as the German universities and Oxford and Cambridge in England,
were copied pretty closely after Paris.
60. Privileges Granted to Students and Masters
Throughout the Middle Ages numerous special favors were showered upon
the universities and their students by the Church. Patronage and
protection from the secular authorities were less to be depended on,
though the courts of kings were not infrequently the rendezvous of
scholars, and the greater seats of learning after the eleventh century
generally owed their prosperity, if not their origin, to the
liberality of monarchs such as Frederick Barbarossa or Philip
Augustus. The recognition of the universities by the temporal powers
came as a rule earlier than that by the Church. The edict of the
Emperor Frederick I., which comprises selection (a) below, was issued
in 1158 and is not to be considered as limited in its application to
the students of any particular university, though many writers have
associated it solely with the University of Bologna. That the statute
was decreed at the solicitation of the Bologna doctors of law admits
of little doubt, but, as Rashdall observes, it was "a general
privilege conferred on the student class throughout the Lombard
kingdom."[496] By some writers it is said to have been the earliest
formal grant of privileges for university students, but this cannot be
true as Salerno (notable chiefly for medical studies) received such
grants from Robert Guiscard and his son Roger before the close of the
eleventh century.
Until the year 1200 the students of Paris enjoyed no privileges such
as those conferred upon the Italian institutions by Frederick. In that
year a tavern brawl occurred between some German students and Parisian
townspeople, in which five of the students lost their lives. The
provost of the city, instead of attempting to repress the disorder,
took sides against the students and encouraged the populace. Such
laxity stirred the king, Philip Augustus, to action. Fearing that the
students would decamp _en masse_, he hastened to comply with their
appeal for redress. The provost and his lieutenants were arrested and
a decree was issued [given, in part, in selection (b)] exempting the
scholars from the operation of the municipal law in criminal cases.
Pope Innocent III. at once confirmed the privileges and on his part
relaxed somewhat the vigilance of the Church. Such liberal measures,
however, did not insure permanent peace. In less than three decades
another conflict with the provost occurred which was so serious as to
result in a total suspension of the university's activities for more
than two years.
Sources--(a) Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges_
(Pertz ed.), Vol. II., p. 114. Adapted from translation by
Dana C. Munro in _Univ. of Pa. Translations and Reprints_,
Vol. II., No. 3, pp. 2-4.
(b) Text in _Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_
["Cartulary of the University of Paris"], No. 1., p. 59.
Adapted from translation in _Univ. of Pa. Translations and
Reprints_, _ibid._, pp. 4-7.
[Sidenote: Security of travel and residence for scholars]
(a)
After a careful consideration of this subject by the bishops,
abbots, dukes, counts, judges, and other nobles of our sacred
palace, we, from our piety, have granted this privilege to all
scholars who travel for the sake of study, and especially to the
professors of divine and sacred laws,[497] namely, that they may go
in safety to the places in which the studies are carried on, both
they themselves and their messengers, and may dwell there in
security. For we think it fitting that, during good behavior, those
should enjoy our praise and protection, by whose learning the world
is enlightened to the obedience of God and of us, his ministers,
and the life of the subject is molded; and by a special
consideration we defend them from all injuries.
[Sidenote: Regulation concerning the collection of debts]
For who does not pity those who exile themselves through love for
learning, who wear themselves out in poverty in place of riches,
who expose their lives to all perils and often suffer bodily injury
from the vilest men? This must be endured with vexation. Therefore,
we declare by this general and perpetual law, that in the future no
one shall be so rash as to venture to inflict any injury on
scholars, or to occasion any loss to them on account of a debt owed
by an inhabitant of their province--a thing which we have learned
is sometimes done by an evil custom.[498] And let it be known to
the violators of this constitution, and also to those who shall at
the time be the rulers of the places, that a fourfold restitution
of property shall be exacted from all and that, the mark of infamy
being affixed to them by the law itself, they shall lose their
office forever.
[Sidenote: Judicial privileges of scholars]
Moreover, if any one shall presume to bring a suit against them on
account of any business, the choice in this matter shall be given
to the scholars, who may summon the accusers to appear before their
professors or the bishop of the city, to whom we have given
jurisdiction in this matter.[499] But if, indeed, the accuser shall
attempt to drag the scholar before another judge, even if his
cause is a very just one, he shall lose his suit for such an
attempt.
(b)
Concerning the safety of the students at Paris in the future, by
the advice of our subjects we have ordained as follows:
[Sidenote: Protection for scholars against crimes of violence]
We will cause all the citizens of Paris to swear that if any one
sees an injury done to any student by any layman,[500] he will
testify truthfully to this, nor will any one withdraw in order not
to see [the act]. And if it shall happen that any one strikes a
student, except in self-defense, especially if he strikes the
student with a weapon, a club, or a stone, all laymen who see [the
act] shall in good faith seize the malefactor, or malefactors, and
deliver them to our judge; nor shall they run away in order not to
see the act, or seize the malefactor, or testify to the truth.
Also, whether the malefactor is seized in open crime or not, we
will make a legal and full examination through clerks, or laymen,
or certain lawful persons; and our count and our judges shall do
the same. And if by a full examination we, or our judges, are able
to learn that he who is accused, is guilty of the crime, then we,
or our judges, shall immediately inflict a penalty, according to
the quality and nature of the crime; notwithstanding the fact that
the criminal may deny the deed and say that he is ready to defend
himself in single combat, or to purge himself by the ordeal by
water.[501]
[Sidenote: Scholars to be tried and punished under ecclesiastical
authority]
Also, neither our provost nor our judges shall lay hands on a
student for any offense whatever; nor shall they place him in our
prison, unless such a crime has been committed by the student, that
he ought to be arrested. And in that case, our judge shall arrest
him on the spot, without striking him at all, unless he resists,
and shall hand him over to the ecclesiastical judge,[502] who ought
to guard him in order to satisfy us and the one suffering the
injury. And if a serious crime has been committed, our judge shall
go or shall send to see what is done with the student. If, indeed,
the student does not resist arrest and yet suffers any injury, we
will exact satisfaction for it, according to the aforesaid
examination and the aforesaid oath. Also our judges shall not lay
hands on the chattels of the students of Paris for any crime
whatever. But if it shall seem that these ought to be sequestrated,
they shall be sequestrated and guarded after sequestration by the
ecclesiastical judge, in order that whatever is judged legal by the
Church may be done with the chattels.[503] But if students are
arrested by our count at such an hour that the ecclesiastical judge
cannot be found and be present at once, our provost shall cause the
culprits to be guarded in some student's house without any
ill-treatment, as is said above, until they are delivered to the
ecclesiastical judge.
[Sidenote: The oath required of the provost and people of Paris]
In order, moreover, that these [decrees] may be kept more carefully
and may be established forever by a fixed law, we have decided that
our present provost and the people of Paris shall affirm by an
oath, in the presence of the scholars, that they will carry out in
good faith all the above-mentioned [regulations]. And always in the
future, whosoever receives from us the office of provost in Paris,
among the inaugural acts of his office, namely, on the first or
second Sunday, in one of the churches of Paris--after he has been
summoned for the purpose--shall affirm by an oath, publicly in the
presence of the scholars, that he will keep in good faith all the
above-mentioned [regulations].[504] And that these decrees may be
valid forever, we have ordered this document to be confirmed by the
authority of our seal and by the characters of the royal name
signed below.
61. The Foundation of the University of Heidelberg (1386)
Until the middle of the fourteenth century Germany possessed no
university. In the earlier mediaeval period, when palace and monastic
schools were multiplying in France, Italy, and England, German culture
was too backward to permit of a similar movement beyond the Rhine; and
later, when in other countries universities were springing into
prosperity, political dissensions long continued to thwart such
enterprises among the Germans. Germany was not untouched by the
intellectual movements of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but
her young men were obliged to seek their learning at Oxford or Paris
or Bologna. The first German university was that of Prague, in
Bohemia, founded by Emperor Charles IV., a contemporary of Petrarch,
and chartered in 1348. Once begun, the work of establishing such
institutions went on rapidly, until ere long every principality of
note had its own university. Vienna was founded in 1365, Erfurt was
given papal sanction in 1379, Heidelberg was established in 1386, and
Cologne followed in 1388. The document given below is the charter of
privileges issued for Heidelberg in October, 1386, by the founder,
Rupert I., Count Palatine of the Rhine. Marsilius Inghen became the
first rector of the university. He and two other masters began
lecturing October 19, 1386--one on logic, another on the epistle to
Titus, the third on the philosophy of Aristotle. Within four years
over a thousand students had been in attendance at the university.
Source--Text in Edward Winkelmann, _Urkundenbuch der
Universitaet Heidelberg_ ["Cartulary of the University of
Heidelberg"], Heidelberg, 1886, Vol. I., pp. 5-6. Translated
in Ernest F. Henderson, _Select Historical Documents of the
Middle Ages_ (London, 1896), pp. 262-266.
[Sidenote: The university to be organized on the model of
Paris]
=1.= We, Rupert the elder, by the grace of God count palatine of
the Rhine, elector of the Holy Empire,[505] and duke of
Bavaria,--lest we seem to abuse the privilege conceded to us by
the apostolic see of founding a place of study at Heidelberg
similar to that at Paris, and lest, for this reason, being
subjected to the divine judgment, we should deserve to be deprived
of the privilege granted--do decree, with provident counsel (which
decree is to be observed unto all time), that the University of
Heidelberg shall be ruled, disposed, and regulated according to the
modes and manners accustomed to be observed in the University of
Paris.[506] Also that, as a handmaid of Paris--a worthy one let us
hope--the latter's steps shall be imitated in every way possible;
so that, namely, there shall be four faculties in it: the first, of
sacred theology and divinity; the second, of canon and civil law,
which, by reason of their similarity, we think best to comprise
under one faculty; the third, of medicine; the fourth, of liberal
arts--of the three-fold philosophy, namely, primal, natural, and
moral, three mutually subservient daughters.[507] We wish this
institution to be divided and marked out into four nations, as it
is at Paris;[508] and that all these faculties shall make one
university, and that to it the individual students, in whatever of
the said faculties they are, shall unitedly belong like lawful sons
to one mother.
[Sidenote: The obligations of the masters]
Likewise [we desire] that this university shall be governed by one
rector,[509] and that the various masters and teachers, before they
are admitted to the common pursuits of our institution, shall
swear to observe the statutes, laws, privileges, liberties, and
franchises of the same, and not reveal its secrets, to whatever
grade they may rise. Also that they will uphold the honor of the
rector and the rectorship of our university, and will obey the
rector in all things lawful and honest, whatever be the grade to
which they may afterwards happen to be promoted. Moreover, that the
various masters and bachelors shall read their lectures and
exercise their scholastic functions and go about in caps and gowns
of a uniform and similar nature, according as has been observed at
Paris up to this time in the different faculties.
[Sidenote: Internal government of the university further provided
for]
And we will that if any faculty, nation, or person shall oppose the
aforesaid regulations, or stubbornly refuse to obey them, or any
one of them--which God forbid--from that time forward that same
faculty, nation, or person, if it do not desist upon being warned,
shall be deprived of all connection with our aforesaid institution,
and shall not have the benefit of our defense or protection.
Moreover, we will and ordain that as the university as a whole may
do for those assembled here and subject to it, so each faculty,
nation, or province of it may enact lawful statutes, such as are
suitable to its needs, provided that through them, or any one of
them, no prejudice is done to the above regulations and to our
institution, and that no kind of impediment arise from them. And we
will that when the separate bodies shall have passed the statutes
for their own observance, they may make them perpetually binding on
those subject to them and on their successors. And as in the
University of Paris the various servants of the institution have
the benefit of the various privileges which its masters and
scholars enjoy, so in starting our institution in Heidelberg, we
grant, with even greater liberality, through these presents, that
all the servants, i.e., its pedells,[510] librarians, lower
officials, preparers of parchment, scribes, illuminators and
others who serve it, may each and all, without fraud, enjoy in it
the same privileges, franchises, immunities and liberties with
which its masters or scholars are now or shall hereafter be
endowed.
[Sidenote: The jurisdiction of the bishop of Worms]
[Sidenote: Conditions of imprisonment]
=2.= Lest in the new community of the city of Heidelberg, their
misdeeds being unpunished, there be an incentive to the scholars of
doing wrong, we ordain, with provident counsel, by these presents,
that the bishop of Worms, as judge ordinary of the clerks of our
institution, shall have and possess, now and hereafter while our
institution shall last, prisons, and an office in our town of
Heidelberg for the detention of criminal clerks. These things we
have seen fit to grant to him and his successors, adding these
conditions: that he shall permit no clerk to be arrested unless for
a misdemeanor; that he shall restore any one detained for such
fault, or for any light offense, to his master, or to the rector if
the latter asks for him, a promise having been given that the
culprit will appear in court and that the rector or master will
answer for him if the injured parties should go to law about the
matter. Furthermore, that, on being requested, he will restore a
clerk arrested for a crime on slight evidence, upon receiving a
sufficient pledge--sponsors if the prisoner can obtain them,
otherwise an oath if he cannot obtain sponsors--to the effect that
he will answer in court the charges against him; and in all these
things there shall be no pecuniary exactions, except that the clerk
shall give satisfaction, reasonably and according to the rule of
the aforementioned town, for the expenses which he incurred while
in prison. And we desire that he will detain honestly and without
serious injury a criminal clerk thus arrested for a crime where the
suspicion is grave and strong, until the truth can be found out
concerning the deed of which he is suspected. And he shall not for
any cause, moreover, take away any clerk from our aforesaid town,
or permit him to be taken away, unless the proper observances have
been followed, and he has been condemned by judicial sentence to
perpetual imprisonment for a crime.
[Sidenote: Limitations upon power to arrest students]
We command our advocate and bailiff and their servants in our
aforesaid town, under pain of losing their offices and our favor,
not to lay a detaining hand on any master or scholar of our said
institution, nor to arrest him or allow him to be arrested, unless
the deed be such that that master or scholar ought rightly to be
detained. He shall be restored to his rector or master, if he is
held for a slight cause, provided he will swear and promise to
appear in court concerning the matter; and we decree that a slight
fault is one for which a layman, if he had committed it, ought to
have been condemned to a light pecuniary fine. Likewise, if the
master or scholar detained be found gravely or strongly suspected
of the crime, we command that he be handed over by our officials to
the bishop or to his representative in our said town, to be kept in
custody.
[Sidenote: Students exempted from various imposts]
=3.= By the tenor of these presents we grant to each and all the
masters and scholars that, when they come to the said institution,
while they remain there, and also when they return from it to their
homes, they may freely carry with them, both coming and going,
throughout all the lands subject to us, all things which they need
while pursuing their studies, and all the goods necessary for their
support, without any duty, levy, imposts, tolls, excises, or other
exactions whatever. And we wish them and each one of them, to be
free from the aforesaid imposts when purchasing corn, wines, meat,
fish, clothes and all things necessary for their living and for
their rank. And we decree that the scholars from their stock in
hand of provisions, if there remain over one or two wagonloads of
wine without their having practised deception, may, after the
feast of Easter of that year, sell it at wholesale without paying
impost. We grant to them, moreover, that each day the scholars, of
themselves or through their servants, may be allowed to buy in the
town of Heidelberg, at the accustomed hour, freely and without
impediment or hurtful delay, any eatables or other necessaries of
life.
[Sidenote: How rates for lodging should be fixed]
4. Lest the masters and scholars of our institution of Heidelberg
may be oppressed by the citizens, moved by avarice, through
extortionate prices of lodgings, we have seen fit to decree that
henceforth each year, after Christmas, one expert from the
university on the part of the scholars, and one prudent, pious, and
circumspect citizen on the part of the citizens, shall be
authorized to determine the price of the students' lodgings.
Moreover, we will and decree that the various masters and scholars
shall, through our bailiff, our judge and the officials subject to
us, be defended and maintained in the quiet possession of the
lodgings given to them free or of those for which they pay rent.
Moreover, by the tenor of these presents, we grant to the rector
and the university, or to those designated by them, entire
jurisdiction concerning the payment of rents for the lodgings
occupied by the students, concerning the making and buying of
books, and the borrowing of money for other purposes by the
scholars of our institution; also concerning the payment of
assessments, together with everything that arises from, depends
upon, and is connected with these.
In addition, we command our officials that, when the rector
requires our and their aid and assistance for carrying out his
sentences against scholars who try to rebel, they shall assist our
clients and servants in this matter; first, however, obtaining
lawful permission to proceed against clerks from the lord bishop of
Worms, or from one deputed by him for this purpose.
62. Mediaeval Students' Songs
"When we try to picture to ourselves," says Mr. Symonds in one of his
felicitous passages, "the intellectual and moral state of Europe in
the Middle Ages, some fixed and almost stereotyped ideas immediately
suggest themselves. We think of the nations immersed in a gross mental
lethargy; passively witnessing the gradual extinction of arts and
sciences which Greece and Rome had splendidly inaugurated; allowing
libraries and monuments of antique civilization to crumble into dust;
while they trembled under a dull and brooding terror of coming
judgment, shrank from natural enjoyment as from deadly sin, or yielded
themselves with brutal eagerness to the satisfaction of vulgar
appetites. Preoccupation with the other world in this long period
weakens man's hold upon the things that make his life desirable....
Prolonged habits of extra-mundane contemplation, combined with the
decay of real knowledge, volatilize the thoughts and aspirations of
the best and wisest into dreamy unrealities, giving a false air of
mysticism to love, shrouding art in allegory, reducing the
interpretation of texts to an exercise of idle ingenuity, and the
study of nature to an insane system of grotesque and pious quibbling.
The conception of man's fall and of the incurable badness of this
world bears poisonous fruit of cynicism and asceticism, that two-fold
bitter almond hidden in the harsh monastic shell. Nature is regarded
with suspicion and aversion; the flesh, with shame and loathing,
broken by spasmodic outbursts of lawless self-indulgence."[511]
All of these ideas are properly to be associated with the Middle Ages,
but it must be borne in mind that they represent only one side of the
picture. They are drawn very largely from the study of monastic
literature and produce a somewhat distorted impression. Though many
conditions prevailing in mediaeval times operated strongly to paralyze
the intellects and consciences of men, the fundamental manifestations
and expressions of human instinct and vitality were far from crushed
out. The life of many people was full and varied and positive--not so
different, after all, from that of men and women to-day. That this was
true is demonstrated by a wealth of literature reflecting the jovial
and exuberant aspects of mediaeval life, which has come down to us
chiefly in two great groups--the poetry of the troubadours and the
songs of the wandering students. "That so bold, so fresh, so natural,
so pagan a view of life," continues Mr. Symonds in the passage quoted,
"as the Latin songs of the Wandering Students exhibit, should have
found clear and artistic utterance in the epoch of the Crusades, is
indeed enough to bid us pause and reconsider the justice of our
stereotyped ideas about that period. This literature makes it manifest
that the ineradicable appetites and natural instincts of men and women
were no less vigorous in fact, though less articulate and
self-assertive, than they had been in the age of Greece and Rome, and
than they afterwards displayed themselves in what is known as the
Renaissance. The songs of the Wandering Students were composed for the
most part in the twelfth century. Uttering the unrestrained emotions
of men attached by a slender tie to the dominant clerical class and
diffused over all countries, they bring us face to face with a body of
opinion which finds in studied chronicle or labored dissertation of
the period no echo. On the one side, they express that delight in life
and physical enjoyment which was a main characteristic of the
Renaissance; on the other, they proclaim that revolt against the
corruption of Papal Rome which was the motive force of the
Reformation. Who were these Wandering Students? As their name implies,
they were men, and for the most part young men, traveling from
university to university in search of knowledge. Far from their homes,
without responsibilities, light of purse and light of heart, careless
and pleasure-seeking, they ran a free, disreputable course,
frequenting taverns at least as much as lecture-rooms, more capable of
pronouncing judgment upon wine or woman than upon a problem of
divinity or logic. These pilgrims to the shrines of knowledge formed a
class apart. According to tendencies prevalent in the Middle Ages,
they became a sort of guild, and with pride proclaimed themselves an
Order."[512]
Our knowledge of the mediaeval students' songs is derived from two
principal sources: (1) a richly illuminated thirteenth-century
manuscript now preserved at Munich and edited in 1847 under the title
_Carmina Burana_; and (2) another thirteenth-century manuscript
published (with other materials) in 1841 under the title _Latin Poems
commonly attributed to Walter Mapes_. Many songs occur in both
collections. The half-dozen given in translation below very well
illustrate the subjects, tone, and style of these interesting bits of
literature.
Source--Texts in Edelestand du Meril, _Poesies Populaires
Latines du Moyen Age_ ["Popular Latin Poetry of the Middle
Ages"], Paris, 1847, _passim_. Translated in John Addington
Symonds, _Wine, Women, and Song: Mediaeval Latin Students'
Songs_ (London, 1884), pp. 12-136, _passim_.
The first is a tenth century piece, marked by an element of tenderness
in sentiment which is essentially modern. It is the invitation of a
young man to his mistress, bidding her to a little supper at his home.
"Come therefore now, my gentle fere,
Whom as my heart I hold full dear;
Enter my little room, which is
Adorned with quaintest rarities:
There are the seats with cushions spread,
The roof with curtains overhead:
The house with flowers of sweetest scent
And scattered herbs is redolent:
A table there is deftly dight
With meats and drinks of rare delight;
There too the wine flows, sparkling, free;
And all, my love, to pleasure thee.
There sound enchanting symphonies;
The clear high notes of flutes arise;
A singing girl and artful boy
Are chanting for thee strains of joy;
He touches with his quill the wire,
She tunes her note unto the lyre:
The servants carry to and fro
Dishes and cups of ruddy glow;
But these delights, I will confess,
Than pleasant converse charm me less;
Nor is the feast so sweet to me
As dear familiarity.
Then come now, sister of my heart,
That dearer than all others art,
Unto mine eyes thou shining sun,
Soul of my soul, thou only one!
I dwelt alone in the wild woods,
And loved all secret solitudes;
Oft would I fly from tumults far,
And shunned where crowds of people are.
O dearest, do not longer stay!
Seek we to live and love to-day!
I cannot live without thee, sweet!
Time bids us now our love complete."
The next is a begging petition, addressed by a student on the road to
some resident of the place where he was temporarily staying. The
supplication for alms, in the name of learning, is cast in the form of
a sing-song doggerel.
I, a wandering scholar lad,
Born for toil and sadness,
Oftentimes am driven by
Poverty to madness.
Literature and knowledge I
Fain would still be earning,
Were it not that want of pelf
Makes me cease from learning.
These torn clothes that cover me
Are too thin and rotten;
Oft I have to suffer cold,
By the warmth forgotten.
Scarce I can attend at church,
Sing God's praises duly;
Mass and vespers both I miss,
Though I love them truly.
Oh, thou pride of N----,[513]
By thy worth I pray thee
Give the suppliant help in need,
Heaven will sure repay thee.
Take a mind unto thee now
Like unto St. Martin;[514]
Clothe the pilgrim's nakedness
Wish him well at parting.
So may God translate your soul
Into peace eternal,
And the bliss of saints be yours
In His realm supernal.
The following jovial _Song of the Open Road_ throbs with exhilaration
and even impudence. Two vagabond students are drinking together before
they part. One of them undertakes to expound the laws of the
brotherhood which bind them together. The refrain is intended
apparently to imitate a bugle call.
We in our wandering,
Blithesome and squandering,
Tara, tantara, teino!
Eat to satiety,
Drink to propriety;
Tara, tantara, teino!
Laugh till our sides we split,
Rags on our hides we fit;
Tara, tantara, teino!
Jesting eternally,
Quaffing infernally.
Tara, tantara, teino!
Craft's in the bone of us,
Fear 'tis unknown of us;
Tara, tantara, teino!
When we're in neediness,
Thieve we with greediness:
Tara, tantara, teino!
Brother catholical,
Man apostolical,
Tara, tantara, teino!
Say what you will have done,
What you ask 'twill be done!
Tara, tantara, teino!
Folk, fear the toss of the
Horns of philosophy!
Tara, tantara, teino!
Here comes a quadruple
Spoiler and prodigal![515]
Tara, tantara, teino!
License and vanity
Pamper insanity:
Tara, tantara, teino!
As the Pope bade us do,
Brother to brother's true:
Tara, tantara, teino!
Brother, best friend, adieu!
Now, I must part from you!
Tara, tantara, teino!
When will our meeting be?
Glad shall our greeting be!
Tara, tantara, teino!
Vows valedictory
Now have the victory:
Tara, tantara, teino!
Clasped on each other's breast,
Brother to brother pressed,
Tara, tantara, teino!
Here is a song entitled _The Vow to Cupid_.
Winter, now thy spite is spent,
Frost and ice and branches bent!
Fogs and furious storms are o'er,
Sloth and torpor, sorrow frore,
Pallid wrath, lean discontent.
Comes the graceful band of May!
Cloudless shines the limpid day,
Shine by night the Pleiades;
While a grateful summer breeze
Makes the season soft and gay.
Golden Love! shine forth to view!
Souls of stubborn men subdue!
See me bend! what is thy mind?
Make the girl thou givest kind,
And a leaping ram's thy due![516]
O the jocund face of earth,
Breathing with young grassy birth!
Every tree with foliage clad,
Singing birds in greenwood glad,
Flowering fields for lovers' mirth!
Here is another song of exceedingly delicate sentiment. It is entitled
_The Love-Letter in Spring_.
Now the sun is streaming,
Clear and pure his ray;
April's glad face beaming
On our earth to-day.
Unto love returneth
Every gentle mind;
And the boy-god burneth
Jocund hearts to bind.
All this budding beauty,
Festival array,
Lays on us the duty
To be blithe and gay.
Trodden ways are known, love!
And in this thy youth,
To retain thy own love
Were but faith and truth.
In faith love me solely,
Mark the faith of me,
From thy whole heart wholly,
From the soul of thee.
At this time of bliss, dear,
I am far away;
Those who love like this, dear,
Suffer every day!
Next to love and the springtime, the average student set his
affections principally on the tavern and the wine-bowl. From his
proneness to frequent the tavern's jovial company of topers and
gamesters naturally sprang a liberal supply of drinking songs. Here is
a fragment from one of them.
Some are gaming, some are drinking,
Some are living without thinking;
And of those who make the racket,
Some are stripped of coat and jacket;
Some get clothes of finer feather,
Some are cleaned out altogether;
No one there dreads death's invasion,
But all drink in emulation.
Finally may be given, in the original Latin, a stanza of a drinking
song which fell to such depths of irreverence as to comprise a parody
of Thomas Aquinas's hymn on the Lord's Supper.
_Bibit hera, bibit herus,
Bibit miles, bibit clerus,
Bibit ille, bibit illa,
Bibit servus cum ancilla,
Bibit velox, bibit piger,
Bibit albus, bibit niger,
Bibit constans, bibit vagus,
Bibit rudis, bibit magus._
FOOTNOTES:
[494] That is, the _trivium_ (Latin grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and
the _quadrivium_ (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music).
[495] The earliest degrees granted at Bologna, Paris, etc., were those
of master of arts and doctor of philosophy. "Master" and "Doctor" were
practically equivalent terms and both signified simply that the
bearer, after suitable examinations, had been recognized as
sufficiently proficient to be admitted to the guild of teachers. The
bachelor's degree grew up more obscurely. It might be taken somewhere
on the road to the master's degree, but was merely an incidental stamp
of proficiency up to a certain stage of advancement. Throughout
mediaeval times the master's, or doctor's, degree, which carried the
right to become a teacher, was the normal goal and few stopped short
of its attainment.
[496] Hastings Rashdall, _The Universities of Europe in the Middle
Ages_ (Oxford, 1895), Vol. I., p. 146.
[497] Evidently, from other passages, including students of law as
well as teachers.
[498] Greedy creditors sometimes compelled students to pay debts owed
by the fellow-countrymen of the latter--a very thinly disguised form
of robbery. This abuse was now to be abolished.
[499] That is, in any legal proceedings against a scholar the
defendant was to choose whether he would be tried before his own
master or before the bishop. In later times this right of choice
passed generally to the plaintiff.
[500] The students of the French universities were regarded as, for
all practical purposes, members of the clergy (_clerici_) and thus to
be distinguished from laymen. They were not clergy in the full sense,
but were subject to a special sort of jurisdiction closely akin to
that applying to the clergy.
[501] The law on this point was exceptionally severe. The privilege of
establishing innocence by combat or the ordeal by water was denied,
though even the provost and his subordinates who had played false in
the riot of 1200 had been given the opportunity of clearing themselves
by such means if they chose and could do so.
[502] A further recognition of the clerical character of the students.
[503] The property, as the persons, of the scholars was protected from
seizure except by the church authorities.
[504] In this capacity the provost of Paris came to be known as the
"Conservator of the Royal Privileges of the University."
[505] For an explanation of the phrase "elector of the Holy Empire"
see p. 409.
[506] Rupert had sent sums of money to Rome to induce Pope Urban VI.
to approve the foundation of the university. The papal bull of 1385,
which was the reward of his effort, specifically enjoined that the
university be modeled closely after that of Paris.
[507] The mediaeval "three philosophies" were introduced by the
rediscovery of some of Aristotle's writings in the twelfth century.
Primal philosophy was what we now know as metaphysics; natural
philosophy meant the sciences of physics, botany, etc.; and moral
philosophy denoted ethics and politics.
[508] At Paris the students were divided into four groups, named from
the nationality which predominated in each of them at the time of its
formation--the French, the Normans, the Picards, and the English.
[509] The rector at Paris was head of the faculty of arts.
[510] Equivalent to bedel. All mediaeval universities had their bedels,
who bore the mace of authority before the rectors on public occasions,
made announcements of lectures, book sales, etc., and exercised many
of the functions of the modern bedel of European universities.
[511] John Addington Symonds, _Wine, Women and Song: Mediaeval Latin
Students' Songs_ (London, 1884), pp. 1-3.
[512] Symonds, _Wine, Women, and Song_, pp. 5-20 _passim_.
[513] This is the only indication of the name of the place where the
suppliant student was supposed to be making his petition.
[514] St. Martin was the founder of the monastery at Tours [see p.
48].
[515] "Honest folk are jeeringly bidden to beware of the _quadrivium_
[see p. 339], which is apt to form a fourfold rogue instead of a
scholar in four branches of knowledge."--Symonds, _Wine, Women, and
Song_, p. 57.
[516] That is, as a sacrifice.