SUBJECTS OF STUDY, LECTURES AND EXAMINATIONS
The student of a medieval University was, as we have seen, expected to
converse in Latin, and all instruction was given in that language. It
was therefore essential that, before entering on the University
curriculum, he should have a competent knowledge of Latin. College
founders attempted to secure this in various ways, sometimes by an
examination (_e.g._ at the College of Cornouaille, at Paris no one was
admitted a bursar until he was examined and found to be able to read)
and sometimes by making provision for young boys to be taught by a
master of grammar. The Founder of New College met the difficulty by
the foundation of Winchester College, at which all Wykehamists (except
the earliest members of New College) were to be thoroughly grounded in
Latin. It was more difficult for a University to insist upon such a
test, but in 1328, the University of Paris had ordered that before a
youth was admitted to the privileges of "scholarity" or studentship,
he must appear before the Rector and make his own application in
continuous Latin, without any French words. Formulae for this (p. 134)
purpose would, doubtless, soon be invented and handed down by
tradition, and the precaution cannot have been of much practical
value. There were plenty of grammar schools in the Middle Ages, and a
clever boy was likely to find a patron and a place of education in the
neighbourhood of his home. The grammar schools in University towns had
therefore originally no special importance, but many of the
undergraduates who came up at thirteen or fourteen required some
training such as William of Waynflete provided for his younger demies
in connexion with the Grammar School which he attached to Magdalen, or
such as Walter de Merton considered desirable when he ordained that
there should be a Master of Grammar in his College to teach the poor
boys, and that their seniors were to go to him in any difficulty
without any false shame ("absque rubore"). Many universities extended
certain privileges to boys studying grammar, by placing their names on
matriculation rolls, though such matriculation was not part of the
curriculum for a degree. Masters in Grammar were frequently, but not
necessarily, University graduates; at Paris there were grammar
mistresses as well as grammar masters. The connexion between the
grammar schools and the University was exceptionally close at Oxford
and Cambridge, where degrees in grammar came to be given. The (p. 135)
University of Oxford early legislated for "inceptors" who were taking
degrees in grammar, and ordered the grammar masters who were graduates
to enrol, _pro forma_, the names of pupils of non-graduates, and to
compel non-graduate masters to obey the regulations of the University.
A meeting of the grammar masters twice a term for discussions about
their subject and the method of teaching it was also ordered by the
University, which ultimately succeeded in wresting the right of
licensing grammar masters from the Archdeacon or other official to
whom it naturally belonged. A fourteenth-century code of statutes for
the Oxford grammar schools orders the appointment of two Masters of
Arts to superintend them, and gives some minute instructions about the
teaching. Grammar masters are to set verses and compositions, to be
brought next day for correction; and they are to be specially careful
to see that the younger boys can recognise the different parts of
speech and parse them accurately. In choosing books to read with their
pupils, they are to avoid the books of Ovid "de Arte Amandi" and
similar works. Boys are to be taught to construe in French as well as
in English, lest they be ignorant of the French tongue. The study of
French was not confined to the grammar boys: the University recognised
the wisdom of learning a language necessary for composing (p. 136)
charters, holding lay-courts, and pleading in the English fashion, and
lectures in French were permitted at any hour that did not interfere
with the regular teaching of Arts subjects. Such lectures were under
the control of the superintendents of the grammar masters.
The degrees which Oxford and Cambridge conferred in Grammar did not
involve residence or entitle the recipients to a vote in Convocation;
but the conferment was accompanied by ceremonies which were almost
parodies of the solemn proceedings of graduation or inception in a
recognised Faculty, a birch taking the place of a book as a symbol of
the power and authority entrusted to the graduand. A sixteenth-century
Esquire Bedel of Cambridge left, for the benefit of his successors,
details of the form for the "enteryng of a Master in Gramer." The
"Father" of the Faculty of Grammar (at Cambridge the mysterious
individual known as the "Master of Glomery") brought his "sons" to St
Mary's Church for eight o'clock mass. "When mass is done, fyrst shall
begynne the acte in Gramer. The Father shall have hys sete made before
the Stage for Physyke (one of the platforms erected in the church for
doctors of the different faculties, etc.) and shall sytte alofte under
the stage for Physyke. The Proctour shall say, Incipiatis. When the
Father hath argyude as shall plese the Proctour, the Bedeyll in (p. 137)
Arte shall bring the Master of Gramer to the Vyce-chancelar, delyveryng
hym a Palmer wyth a Rodde, whych the Vyce-chancelar shall gyve to the
seyde Master in Gramer, and so create hym Master. Then shall the
Bedell purvay for every master in Gramer a shrewde Boy, whom the
master in Gramer shall bete openlye in the Scolys, and the master in
Gramer shall give the Boy a Grote for Hys Labour, and another Grote to
hym that provydeth the Rode and the Palmer &c. de singulis. And thus
endythe the Acte in that Facultye." We know of the existence of
similar ceremonies at Oxford. "Had the ambition to take these degrees
in Grammar been widely diffused," says Dr Rashdall, "the demand for
whipping boys might have pressed rather hardly upon the youth of
Oxford; but very few of them are mentioned in the University
Register."
The basis of the medieval curriculum in Arts is to be found in the
Seven Liberal Arts of the Dark Ages, divided into the _Trivium_
(Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic) and the _Quadrivium_ (Music,
Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy). The _Quadrivium_ was of
comparatively little importance; Geometry and Music received small
attention; and Arithmetic, and Astronomy were at first chiefly useful
for finding the date of Easter; but the introduction of mathematical
learning from Arabian sources in the thirteenth century greatly (p. 138)
increased the scope of Geometry and Arithmetic, and added the study of
Algebra.
The Grammar taught in the universities assumed a knowledge of such a
text-book as that of Alexander de Villa Dei, and consisted of an
analysis of the systems of popular grammarians, based on the section
_De barbarismo_ in the _Ars Grammatica_ of Ælius Donatus, a
fourth-century grammarian, whose work became universally used
throughout Europe. Latin poets were read in the grammar schools, and
served for grammatical and philological expositions in the
universities, and the study of Rhetoric depended largely on the
treatises of Cicero. The "Dialectic" of the _Trivium_ was the real
interest of the medieval student among the ancient seven subjects, but
the curriculum in Arts came to include also the three Philosophies,
Physical, Moral, and Metaphysical. The arms of the University of
Oxford consist of a book with seven clasps surrounded by three crowns,
the clasps representing the seven Liberal Arts and the crowns the
three Philosophies. The universities were schools of philosophy,
mental and physical, and the attention of students in Arts was chiefly
directed to the logic, metaphysics, physics, and ethics of Aristotle.
Up to the twelfth century, Aristotle was known only through the
translations into Latin of the sections of the _Organon_, (p. 139)
entitled _De Interpretatione_ and _Categoriae_, and through the
logical works of Boethius. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the
range of medieval studies was greatly enlarged by the introduction of
other works of Aristotle from translations partly from the Arabic and
partly direct from the Greek. The conservatism of the University of
Paris at first forbade the study of the new Aristotle, but it soon
became universal in the medieval universities. In addition to the
works of Aristotle, as they were known in the Middle Ages, medieval
students read such books as Porphyry's _Isagoge_, or Introduction to
Aristotle; the criticism of Aristotle's _Categories_, by Gilbert de la
Porrée, known as the _Sex Principia_; the _Summulae Logicales_, a
semi-grammatical, semi-logical treatise by Petrus Hispanus (Pope John
XXI.); the _Parva Logicalia_ of Marsilius of Inghen; the _Labyrinthus_
and _Grecismus_ of Eberhard; the Scriptural commentaries of Nicolaus
de Lyra; the _Tractatus de Sphaera_, an astronomical work by a
thirteenth-century Scotsman, John Holywood (Joannes de Sacro Bosco);
and they also studied Priscian, Donatus, Boethius, Euclid, and
Ptolemy. In 1431 the _Nova Rhetorica_ of Cicero, the _Metamorphoses_
of Ovid, and the works of Virgil were prescribed at Oxford as
alternatives to the fourth book of the _Topica_ of Boethius. By the
end of the century Humanism had found a place in the universities, (p. 140)
and sixteenth-century colleges at Oxford and Cambridge provided for
the study of the literatures of Greece and Rome. In Scotland the
medieval teaching of Aristotle reigned supreme in all its three
universities until the appointment of Andrew Melville as Principal at
Glasgow in 1574, and in 1580 he had some difficulty in persuading the
masters at St Andrews to "peruse Aristotle in his ain language."
Lectures were either "ordinary" or "cursory," a distinction which, as
Dr Rashdall has shown, corresponded to the "ordinary" and
"extra-ordinary" lectures at Bologna. The ordinary lectures were the
statutable exercises appointed by the Faculty, and delivered by its
properly accredited teachers in the hours of the morning, which were
sacred to the prelections of the masters. Cursory lectures were
delivered in the afternoon, frequently by bachelors; but as College
teaching became more important than the lectures given in the Schools,
the distinction gradually disappeared. Ordinary lectures were
delivered "solemniter" and involved a slow and methodical analysis of
the book. The statutes of Vienna prescribe that no master shall read
more than one chapter of the text "ante quaestionem vel etiam
quaestione expedita." Various references in College and University
statutes show that the cursory lecture was not regarded as the (p. 141)
full equivalent of an ordinary lecture. At Oxford, attendance on a
lecture on the books or any book of the Metaphysics, or on the
Physics, or the Ethics, was not to count for a degree, except in the
case of a book largely dealing with the opinions of the ancients. The
third and fourth books of the Metaphysics were excepted from the rule,
"they being usually read cursorily, that the ordinary reading of the
other books might proceed more rapidly." The cursory lecture was
clearly beloved of the pupil, for Oxford grammar masters are reproved
for lecturing "cursorie" instead of "ordinarie" for the sake of gain;
and at Vienna, the tariff for cursory lectures is double that for
ordinary lectures. At Paris the books of Aristotle de Dialectica were
to be read "ordinarie et non ad cursum," and students of medicine had
to read certain books "semel ordinarie, bis cursorie." The statutes of
Heidelberg contrast "cursorie" with "extense." In the Faculty of Canon
Law there was an additional distinction, the ordinary lecture being
generally restricted to the Decretum; at Oxford, the book of Decretals
is to be read at the morning hours at which the doctors of law are
wont to deliver ordinary lectures, and at Vienna the doctors are
forbidden to read anything but the Decretals in the morning at
ordinary lectures. The instructions given to the Vienna doctors of (p. 142)
law illustrate the thoroughness of the medieval lecture in all
faculties. They are first to state the case carefully, then to read
the text, then to restate the case, then to remark on "notabilia," and
then to discuss questions arising out of the subject, and finally, to
deal with the Glosses. So, at Oxford, the Masters in Arts are to read
the books on logic and the philosophies "rite," with the necessary and
adequate exposition of the text, and with questions and arguments
pertinent to the subject-matter.
A problem, still unsolved, about the methods of lecturing disturbed
the minds of the Parisian masters. Were they to dictate lectures or to
speak so fast that their pupils could not commit their words to
writing? From the standpoint of teachers who delivered frequent
lectures, all of the same type, and on a few set books, it was
probably desirable that there should not be opportunities of
possessing such copies of a professor's lectures as used to circulate,
not many years ago, in Scottish and in German universities. In 1229
the Faculty of Arts at Paris made a statute on the methods of
lecturing. It explains that there are two ways of reading books in the
liberal arts. The masters of philosophy may deliver their expositions
from their chairs so rapidly that, although the minds of their
audience may grasp their meaning, their hands cannot write it (p. 143)
down. This, they say, was the custom in other faculties. The other way
is to speak so slowly that their hearers can take down what they say.
On mature reflection, the Faculty has decided that the former is the
better way, and henceforth in any lecture, ordinary or cursory, or in
any disputation or other manner of teaching, the master is to speak as
in delivering a speech, and as if no one were writing in his presence.
A lecturer who breaks the new rule is to be suspended for a year, and
if the students showed their dislike to it, by shouting, hissing,
groaning, or throwing stones, they were to be sent down for a year.
More than two hundred years later, in 1452, the statute was rescinded
by Cardinal Estoutville, but it was probably never operative.
Estoutville permitted either method of lecturing, and contented
himself with forbidding lecturers to use questions and lectures which
were not of their own composition, or to deliver their lectures
(however good) to be read by one of their scholars as a deputy. He
instructs the masters to lecture regularly according to the statutes
and to explain the text of Aristotle, "de puncto in punctum," and,
holding that fear and reverence are the life-blood of scholastic
discipline, he repeats an injunction which we find in 1336, that the
students in Arts are to sit not on benches or raised seats, but on (p. 144)
the floor, "ut occasio superbiae a juvenibus secludatur." The name of
the street in which lectures were given, Vicus Stramineus, is said to
have been derived from the straw on which the students sat. The
question whether lectures should be committed to writing or not,
troubled the masters of other universities besides Paris, and the
statutes of the College de Verdale at Toulouse accept, in 1337, the
view taken at Paris a hundred years earlier. Since study is a vehement
application of the mind, and requires the whole man, the scholars are
forbidden to fatigue themselves with too many lectures--not more than
two or three a day--and in lecture they are not to take down the
lecturer's words, nor, trusting in writings of this kind, to blunt
their "proprium intellectum." In the Schools, they must not use
"incausta" or pencils except for correcting a book, etc. And what they
have been able to retain in their memory they must meditate on without
delay.
The insistence on meditation was a useful educational method, but as
teaching became more organised, the student was not left without
guidance in his meditations. The help which he received outside
lectures was given in Repetitions or Resumptions. The procedure at
Repetitions may be illustrated from the statutes of the College of
Dainville at Paris: "We ordain that all bursars in grammar and (p. 145)
philosophy speak the Latin tongue, and that those who hear the same
book ordinarily and cursorily shall attend one and the same master
(namely, one whom the master [of the College] assigns to them), and
after the lecture they shall return home and meet in one place to
repeat the lecture. One after another shall repeat the whole lecture,
so that each of them may know it well, and the less advanced shall be
bound daily to repeat the lectures to the more proficient." A later
code of the same College provides that "All who study humane letters
shall, on every day of the schools read in the morning a composition,
that is a speech in Latin, Greek or the vernacular, to their master,
being prepared to expound the writer or historian who is being read in
daily lecture in their schools. At the end of the week, that is on
Friday or Saturday, they shall show up to their master a résumé of all
the lectures they have learned that week, and every day before they go
to the schools they shall be bound to make repetitions to one of the
philosophers or of the theologians whom the [College] master shall
choose; for this work." At Louvain, the time between 5 A.M. and the
first lecture (about seven) was spent in studying the lesson that the
students might better understand the lecture; after hearing it, they
returned to their own rooms to revise it and commit it to memory.
After dinner, their books were placed on a table, and all the (p. 146)
scholars of one Faculty repeated their lesson and answered questions.
A similar performance took place in the two hours before supper. After
supper, the tutor treated them for half an hour to a "jocum honestum,"
and before sending them to bed gave them a light and pleasant
disputation. The disputation was a preparation for the disputations
which formed part of what we should now term the degree examinations.
A thesis was propounded, attacked, and defended ("impugned and
propugned") with the proper forms of syllogistic reasoning.
The teaching, both in lectures and in disputations, was originally
University teaching, and the younger Masters of Arts, the "necessary
regents," were bound to stay up for some years and lecture in the
Schools. They were paid by their scholars, and the original meaning of
the word "Collections," still in frequent use at Oxford, is
traditionally supposed to be found in the payments made for lectures
at the end of each term. Thus, at Oxford, a student paid threepence a
term (one shilling a year) to his regent for lectures in Logic, and
fourpence a term for lectures in Natural Philosophy. The system was
not a satisfactory one, and alike in Paris, in Oxford, and in
Cambridge, it succumbed to the growth of College teaching. The Head of
a Parisian College, from the first, superintended the studies of (p. 147)
the scholars, and, although this duty was not required of an Oxford or
Cambridge Head, provision was gradually made in the statutes of
English colleges for the instruction of the junior members by their
seniors. The first important step in this direction was taken by
William of Wykeham, who ordered special payment to be made by the
College to Fellows who undertook the tuition of the younger Fellows.
His example was followed in this, as in other matters, by subsequent
founders both at Oxford and at Cambridge, and gradually University
teaching was, in the Faculty of Arts, almost entirely superseded by
College tuition. In other universities, lectures continued to be given
by University officials.
The medieval undergraduates had a tendency to "rag" in lectures, a
tradition which is almost unknown at Oxford and Cambridge, but which
persisted till quite recent times in the Scottish universities.
Prohibitions of noise and disturbance in lecture-rooms abound in all
statutes. At Vienna, students in Arts are exhorted to behave like
young ladies (more virginum) and to refrain from laughter, murmurs,
and hisses, and from tearing down the schedules in which the masters
give notice of their lectures. At Prague, also, the conduct of young
ladies was held up as a model for the student at lecture, and, at
Angers, students who hissed in contempt of a doctor were to be
expelled.
The career of a student was divided into two parts by his (p. 148)
"Determination," a ceremony which is the origin of the Bachelor's
degree. At Paris, where, at all events in the earlier period of its
history, examinations were real, the "Determination" was preceded by
"Responsions," and no candidate was admitted to determine until he had
satisfied a Regent Master in the Schools, in public, "de Questione
respondens." The determination itself was a public disputation, after
which the determiner might wear the bachelor's "cappa" and lecture on
the Organon. He continued his attendance on the lectures in the
Schools up to the time of his "Inception" as a master. The Inception
was preceded by an examination for licence and by a disputation known
as the Quodlibetica, at which the subject was chosen by the candidate.
The bachelor who was successful in obtaining the Chancellor's licence
proceeded to the ceremony of Inception, and received his master's
_biretta_.
The stringency of examinations varied in different universities and at
different times. The proportion of successful candidates seems to have
been everywhere very large, and in some universities rejection must
have been almost unknown. We do find references to disappointed
candidates, _e.g._ at Caen, where medical students who have been
"ploughed" have to take an oath not to bring "malum vel damnum" upon
the examiners. But even at Louvain, where the examination system (p. 149)
was fully developed in the Middle Ages, and where there were class
lists in the fifteenth century (the classes being distinguished as
_Rigorosi_, _Transibiles_, and _Gratiosi_), failure was regarded as an
exceptional event ("si autem, quod absit, aliqui inveniantur
simpliciter gratiosi seu refutabiles, erunt de quarto ordine"). The
regulations for examinations at Louvain prescribe that the examiners
are not to ask disturbing questions ("animo turbandi aut confundendi
promovendos") and forbid unfair treatment of pupils of particular
masters and frivolous or useless questions; although at his
Quodlibeticum, the bachelor might indulge in "jocosas questiones ad
auditorii recreationem." The element of display implied in the last
quotation was never absent from medieval examinations, and at Oxford,
there seems to have been little besides this ceremonial element. A
candidate had to prove that he had complied with the regulations about
attendance at lectures, etc., and to obtain evidence of fitness from a
number of masters. A bachelor had to dispute several times with a
master, and these disputations, which were held at the Augustinian
Convent, came to be known as "doing Austins." The medieval system, as
it lingered at Oxford in the close of the eighteenth century, is thus
described by Vicesimus Knox.
"The youth whose heart pants for the honour of a Bachelor of (p. 150)
Arts degree must wait patiently till near four years have
revolved.... He is obliged during this period, once to oppose and
once to respond.... This opposing and responding is termed, in
the cant of the place, _doing generals_. Two boys or men, as they
call themselves, agree to _do generals_ together. The first step
in this mighty work is to procure arguments. These are always
handed down, from generation to generation, on long slips of
paper, and consist of foolish syllogisms on foolish subjects, of
the foundation or significance of which the respondent and
opponent seldom know more than an infant in swaddling cloaths.
The next step is to go for a _liceat_ to one of the petty
officers, called the Regent-Master of the Schools, who subscribes
his name to the questions and receives sixpence as his fee. When
the important day arrives, the two doughty disputants go into a
large dusty room, full of dirt and cobwebs.... Here they sit in
mean desks, opposite to each other from one o'clock till three.
Not once in a hundred times does any officer enter; and, if he
does, he hears a syllogism or two, and then makes a bow, and
departs, as he came and remained, in solemn silence. The
disputants then return to the amusement of cutting the desks,
carving their names, or reading Sterne's Sentimental Journey, or
some other edifying novel. When the exercise is duly performed by
both parties, they have a right to the title and insignia of
_Sophs_: but not before they have been formally _created_ (p. 151)
by one of the regent-masters, before whom they kneel, while he
lays a volume of Aristotle's works on their heads, and puts on a
hood, a piece of black crape, hanging from their necks, and down
to their heels.... There remain only one or two trifling forms,
and another disputation almost exactly similar to _doing
generals_, but called _answering under bachelor_ previous to the
awful examination. Every candidate is obliged to be examined in
the whole circle of the sciences by three masters of arts _of his
own choice_.... _Schemes_, as they are called, or little books
containing forty or fifty questions on each science, are handed
down from age to age, from one to another. The candidate employs
three or four days in learning these by heart, and the examiners,
having done the same before him, know what questions to ask, and
so all goes on smoothly. When the candidate has displayed his
universal knowledge of the sciences, he is to display his skill
in philology. One of the masters therefore asks him to construe a
passage in some Greek or Latin classic, which he does with no
interruption, just as he pleases, and as well as he can. The
statutes next require that he should translate familiar English
phrases into Latin. And now is the time when the masters show
their wit and jocularity.... This familiarity, however, only
takes place when the examiners are pot-companions of the
candidate, which indeed is usually the case; for it is reckoned
good management to get acquainted with two or three jolly (p. 152)
young masters of arts, and supply them well with port previously
to the examination. If the vice-chancellor and proctors happen to
enter the school, a very uncommon event, then a little solemnity
is put on.... As neither the officer, nor anyone else, usually
enters the room (for it is reckoned very _ungenteel_), the
examiners and the candidates often converse on the last
drinking-bout, or on horses, or read the newspapers or a novel."
The supply of port was the eighteenth-century relic of the feasts
which used to accompany Determination and Inception, and with which so
many sumptuary regulations of colleges and universities are concerned.
There is a reference to a Determining Feast in the Paston Letters, in
which the ill-fated Walter Paston, writing in the summer of 1479, a
few weeks before his premature death, says to his brother: "And yf ye
wyl know what day I was mead Baschyler, I was maad on Fryday was
sevynyth, and I mad my fest on the Munday after. I was promysyd
venyson ageyn my fest of my Lady Harcort, and of a noder man to, but I
was desevyd of both; but my gestes hewld them plesyd with such mete as
they had, blyssyd be God. Hoo have yeo in Hys keeping. Wretyn at Oxon,
on the Wedenys day next after Seynt Peter."
A few glimpses of the life of this fifteenth-century Oxonian may (p. 153)
conclude our survey. Walter Paston had been sent to Oxford in 1473,
under the charge of a priest called James Gloys. His mother did not
wish him to associate too closely with the son of their neighbour,
Thomas Holler. "I wold," she says, "Walter schuld be copilet with a
better than Holler son is ... howe be it I wold not that he schuld
make never the lesse of hym, by cause he is his contre man and
neghbour." The boy was instructed to "doo welle, lerne well, and be of
good rewle and disposycion," and Gloys was asked to "bydde hym that he
be not to hasty of takyng of orderes that schuld bynd him." To take
Orders under twenty-three years of age might lead, in Margaret
Paston's opinion, to repentance at leisure, and "I will love hym
better to be a good secular man than to be a lewit priest." We next
hear of Walter in May 1478 when he writes to his mother recommending
himself to her "good moderchypp," and asking for money. He has
received £5, 16s. 6d., and his expenses amount to £6, 5s. 5d. "That
comth over the reseytys in my exspenses I have borrowed of Master
Edmund and yt draweth to 8 shillings." He might have applied for a
loan to one of the "chests" which benevolent donors had founded for
such emergencies, depositing some article of value, and receiving a
temporary loan: but he preferred to borrow from his new tutor, (p. 154)
Edmund Alyard. By March 1479, Alyard was able to reassure the anxious
mother about her boy's choice of a career; he was to go to law, taking
his Bachelor's degree in Arts at Midsummer. His brother, Sir John, who
was staying at the George at Paul's Wharf in London, intended to be
present at the ceremony, but his letter miscarried: "Martin Brown had
that same tyme mysch mony in a bage, so that he durst not bryng yt
with hym, and that same letter was in that same bage, and he had
forgete to take owt the letter, and he sent all togeder by London, so
that yt was the next day after that I was maad Bachyler or than the
letter cam, and so the fawt was not in me." This is the last we hear
of Walter Paston. On his way home, on the 18th August 1479, he died at
Norwich, after a short illness. He left a number of "togae" to his
Oxford friends, including Robert Holler, the son of his Norfolk
neighbour, to whom he also bequeathed "unum pulvinar vocatum _le
bolstar_." The rest of his Oxford goods he left to Alyard, but his
sheep and his lands to his own family. The cost of his illness and
funeral amounted to about thirty shillings. No books are mentioned in
the will; possibly they were sold for his inception feast, or he may
never have possessed any. As a junior student, he would not have been
allowed to use the great library which Humphrey of Gloucester had (p. 155)
presented to the University; but there were smaller libraries to which
he might have access, for books were sometimes chained up in St Mary's
Church that scholars might read them.
APPENDIX (p. 157)
My attention has been called (too late for a reference in the text) to
a medieval Latin poem giving a gloomy account of student life in Paris
in the twelfth century. The verses, which have been printed in the
_American Journal of Philology_ (vol. xi. p. 80), insist upon the
hardships of the student's life, and contrast his miserable condition
with the happier lot of the citizens of Paris. For him there is no
rejoicing in the days of his youth, and no hope even of a competence
in the future. His lodgings are wretched and neglected; his dress is
miserable, and his appearance slovenly. His food consists of peas,
beans, and cabbage, and
"libido
Mensæ nulla venit nisi quod sale sparsa rigorem
Esca parum flectit."
His bed is a hard mattress stretched on the floor, and sleep brings
him only a meagre respite from the toils of the day:--
"Sed in illa pace soporis
Pacis eget studii labor insopitus, et ipso
Cura vigil somno, libros operamque ministrat
Excitæ somnus animæ, nec prima sopori
Anxietas cedit, sed quæ vigilaverat ante
Sollicitudo redit, et major summa laboris
Curarum studiis in somnibus obicit Hydram."
In the early hours of the morning he goes to his lectures, and the (p. 158)
whole of his day is given to study. The description of the student at
lecture is interesting:--
"Aure et mente bibit et verba cadentia promo
Promptus utroque levat, oculique et mentis in illo
Fixa vigilque manet acies aurisque maritat
Pronuba dilectam cupida cum meute Minervam."
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY (p. 159)
Savigny: Geschichte der römischen Rechts im Mittelalter. (Heidelberg,
1834.)
Sir William Hamilton: Discussions on Philosophy and Literature,
Education, and University Reform. (London, 1852.)
Denifle: Die Entstehung der Universitäten des Mittelalters bis 1400.
(Berlin, 1885.)
Rashdall: The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. (Oxford,
1895.)
Kaufmann: Geschichte der Deutschen Universitäten. (Stuttgart, 1888.)
Article on Universities in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
Archiv für Lit. u. Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters. Jurist Statutes
of Padua (1331) in vol. vi.; Salamanca documents in vol. v.
Malagola: Statuti della università e dei collegi dello studio
bolognese. (Bologna, 1888.)
Denifle and Chatelain: Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis. (Paris,
1889-1897.)
(Many of the statutes of the Colleges of Paris will be found scattered
through Felibien: Histoire de la Ville de Paris. Paris, 1725.)
Antony Wood: History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford. (Ed.
Gutch. Oxford, 1792-6.)
---- History and Antiquities of the Colleges and Halls in the
University of Oxford. (Ed. Gutch. Oxford, 1786.)
Anstey: Munimenta Academica. (Rolls Series, 1868.)
Statutes of the Colleges of Oxford. (London, 1853.)
Clark: The Colleges of Oxford. (London, 1892.)
(The best account of Oxford will be found in vol. ii., Part ii., of Dr
Rashdall's "Universities of Europe." There are two short histories
(p. 160) of the University by Maxwell Lyte (London, 1886) and Brodrick
(London, 1886.).)
Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge.
(London, 1852.)
Mullinger: The University of Cambridge from the Earliest Times to the
Royal Injunctions of 1535. (Cambridge, 1873.)
In two subsequent volumes Mr Mullinger has continued the narrative to
the latter half of the seventeenth century, and he has also written a
short "History of the University of Cambridge." (Epochs of Church
History. London, 1888.)
Gherardi: Statuti della università e studio Fiorentino. (Florence,
1881.)
Villanueva: Statutes of the University of Lerida in "Viage Literario á
las Iglesias de España." T. xvi. (Madrid, 1851.)
Marcel Fournier: Les Statuts et Privilèges des Universités françaises
depuis leur fondation jusqu'en 1789. (Paris, 1890-92.)
Dittrich und Spirk: Monumenta Historica Universitatis Pragensis.
(Prague, 1830.)
Kink: Geschichte der Kaiserl. Univ. zu Wien. (Vienna, 1854.)
Hautz: Geschichte der Universität Heidelberg. (Mannheim, 1862.)
Vernulæus: Academia Lovaniensis. (Louvain, 1667.)
Molanus: Historiæ Lovaniensium, ed. De Ram. (Brussels, 1861.)
Zarncke: Die Statutenbücher der Univ. Leipzig. (Leipzig, 1861.)
---- Acta Rectorum Univ. Lipsiensis. (Leipzig, 1858.)
Evidence taken and received by the Scottish Universities Commissioners
of 1826. (London, 1837.)
Innes: Fasti Aberdonenses. Spalding Club. (Aberdeen, 1854.)
INDEX (p. 163)
Abelard, 6.
Aberdeen, Univ. of, 105, 106, 107, 122-3.
Ælius Donatus, 138.
Aix, Univ. of, 39, 112, 114.
Alexander de Villa Dei, 138.
Alfonso the Wise, 9.
Alyard, Edmund, 153-4.
Angers, Univ. of, 7, 147.
---- Coll. of Breuil at, 90.
Anselm, St, 6.
Arezzo, Studium at, 7.
Aristotle, 138-143.
Arts, The Seven Liberal, 137-9.
Avignon, Univ. of, 88, 112.
---- College of Annecy at, 113.
---- College of Notre Dame de Pitié at, 88, 90.
---- Confraternity of St Sebastian at, 112.
Bagley Wood, 97.
Bateman, Bishop, 70.
Boethius, 139.
Bologna, Spanish College at, 19, 34, 93.
---- Studium Generale at, 6, 8, 9.
---- Universities of, 11-34, 44, 46-7, 48, 140.
Caen, Univ. of, 148.
Cahors, College of St Nicholas de Pelegry at, 89, 91.
Caius, Dr, 61, 68.
Cambridge, Univ. of, 3, 7, 10, 120, 136-7, 146-7.
---- College discipline at, 49-78.
---- Colleges of--
Caius, 61, 68, 70;
Christ's, 66, 69, 71;
Clare, 59;
Jesus, 67;
King's, 62, 64, 66;
Peterhouse, 58, 62, 63, 69, 72;
Trinity, 68;
Trinity Hall, 70.
Chaucer, Prologue to Canterbury Tales, 1-3, 73, 74, 75.
Chichele, Archbishop, 73.
Cicero, 138, 139.
College, meaning of word, 5.
Cologne, Univ. of, 48.
Dôle, Univ. of, 39.
Eberhard, 139.
Ely, Bishop of, 47.
Erfurt, Univ. of, 48.
Estoutville, Cardinal, 94-5, 143-4.
Euclid, 139.
Farleigh, 51, 52.
Florence, Univ. of, 34-7.
France, Universities of, 12.
Frederick Barbarossa, 24-5.
Frederick II., 8.
Germany, Universities of, 47-8, 142.
Gilbert de la Porrée, 139.
Glasgow, Univ. of, 105, 106, 140.
Gloys, James, 153.
Gregory IX., 9.
Hearne, Thomas, 122.
Heidelberg, Univ. of, 48, 107-8, 117, 141.
Henry II., 6.
Henry VI., 58, 61, 63, 66.
Henry VIII., 58.
Holler, Thomas, 153.
---- Robert, 154.
Holywood, John, 139.
Ingolstadt, Univ. of, 105.
Innocent III., 42, 43.
---- IV., 7, 9.
John XXI., 139.
---- XXII., 10.
---- King, 7, 45.
Knox, Vicesimus, 149.
Leipsic, Univ. of, 48.
---- Collegium Maius at, 89.
---- Collegium Minus at, 90.
---- University discipline at, 102-5, 108.
---- "Town and Gown" at, 128-131.
Lerida, Univ. of, 37-8.
Lincoln, See of, 45, 46.
Louvain, Univ. of, 48, 145-6, 149.
---- University, discipline at, 101-2, 116.
Lyons, Studium at, 7, 9.
Lyra, Nicolaus de, 139.
Maldon, 51, 52, 54.
Marsilius, 139.
Melville, Andrew, 140.
Modena, Studium at, 7, 9.
Merton, Walter de, 50-6, 134.
Montpellier, Univ. of, 7.
---- College of Douze Medecins at, 89.
---- College of St Benedict at, 91-3.
---- College of Saint Ruf at, 89, 90.
Naples, Univ. of, 8.
"Nations," 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 43, 44, 46, 78, 79, 131.
Nicholas IV., 9, 10.
Orleans, Univ. of, 7, 115, 128.
Ovid, 139.
Oxford, Univ. of, 6, 10, 39, 45, 47, 49, 120, 133-142, 146,
147, 149-155.
---- College discipline at, 49-78.
---- University discipline at, 95-101.
---- "Town and Gown" at, 124-128.
Oxford, Colleges of--
Balliol, 71, 122;
Brasenose, 66, 67, 122;
Christ Church, 68;
Corpus Christi, 60, 67, 68, 72, 105;
Jesus, 59;
Lincoln, 77;
Magdalen, 62, 66, 134;
Merton, 50-6, 60, 67, 120, 121, 122, 134;
New College, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 71, 76, 77,
120, 133, 147;
Pembroke, 68;
Queen's, 59, 61, 63, 74, 77;
Worcester, 68.
Oxford, Halls of--
Haburdaysh Hall, 98;
Pauline Hall, 97;
Peckwater Inn, 97.
Padua, Univ. of, 7, 10, 34.
Palencia, Studium at, 7.
Paris, Univ. of, 6, 7, 9, 11, 40, 41-5, 49, 128, 133, 134, 139,
141, 142-6, 148, 157-8.
---- College discipline at, 78-88.
---- "Jocund Advent" at, 109-112.
---- Univ. discipline at, 94-5.
Paris, Colleges of--
Cambray, 111;
Clugny, 88;
Cornouaille, 83, 84, 85, 86, 111, 133;
Dainville, 87, 111, 144-6;
Le Mans, 79, 84;
Marmoutier, 86;
Plessis, 82;
St Bernard, 83, 85, 86, 110;
Sorbonne, 81, 85, 86, 111, 112;
Tours, 83;
Treasurer's, 79, 80, 87, 111.
Paston, John, 154.
---- Margaret, 153.
---- Walter, 152-5.
Peckham, Archbishop, 55-6.
Perpignan, Univ. of, 38.
Petrus Hispanus, 139.
Philip Augustus, 42.
Plessis, Geoffrey du, 82.
Porphyry, 139.
Prague, Univ. of, 48, 116, 147.
Priscian, 139.
Ptolemy, 139.
Reggio, Studium at, 7.
Reims, Studium at, 7.
Rostock, Univ. of, 48.
Rouen, 79, 80, 81.
Rudolf IV., 124.
St Andrews, Univ. of, 105, 106, 122.
St Scholastica's Day, 125-6.
Salamanca, Studium at, 7, 9, 39.
Salerno, Univ. of, 9.
Saone, Guillaume de, 79.
Scayfe, Henry, 77.
Scotland, Universities of, 48, 105, 140, 142.
Seggefyld, John, 77.
Studium Generale, meaning of, 5-12.
Toulouse, Univ. of, 7, 9, 128.
---- College de Foix at, 89.
---- College de Verdale at, 91, 144.
Universitas, meaning of, 4, 5, 10, 11.
Valladolid, Studium at, 7.
Vicenza, Studium at, 7.
Vienna, Univ. of, 48, 124, 140, 141, 142, 147.
Virgil, 139.
Waynflete, William of, 66, 134.
Wingfield, Sir E., 57.
Wood, Antony à, 120-2, 125-126.
Wolsey, Cardinal, 68.
Würzburg, Univ. of, 48.
Wykeham, William of, 58, 60, 62, 63, 64, 67, 76, 147.
Zarncke, Friedrich, 102.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
End of Project Gutenberg's Life in the Medieval University, by Robert S. Rait