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.