These In rapidly in population and in wealth; and the greater complexity of their political relations, their increasing manufactures and commerce, demanded a more definite application of the principles embodied in the codes. which had been handed down by Theodosius and Justinian. The distinctly secular character of this new study and its intimate connection with imperial pretensions aroused at first the susceptibilities of the Roman see, and for a time Bologna was regarded by the Church with distrust and even alarm. sentiments, however, were not of long duration. the year 1151 the appearance of the Decretum of Gratian, largely compiled from spurious documents, invested the studies of the canonist with fresh importance, and the study of the new code gave an impulse The study of to the study of the canon law similar to the canon law. that which had recently been communicated to the civil law. It was essential that the Decretum (on which the Popedom was so largely henceforth to depend for the enforcement of its growing pretensions) should be generally known, recognised, and studied. The wants of the secular student and the wants of the ecclesiastical student were thus brought for a time into notable unison, and from the The University days of Irnerius, to the close of the thirteenth century, Bologna was the acknowledged centre of instruction in both the civil and the canon law. In the attainment of this pre-eminence she was materially aided by the State. When Barbarossa marched his forces into Italy, on his memorable expedition of 1155, and reasserted those imperial claims which had so long lain dormant, the jurists of of Bologna. ance. Privileges bestowed on Bologna, professors and students alike, gathered as humble suppliants round the representative of the Empire of the West, and tendered him their allegiFrederic, who could not but discern both in them and their profession an aid of no slight value to his own authority, received them graciously. He inquired into their relations with the citizens of Bologna, and when he found that they were often subjected to unjust extortion, he determined to take them under his own protection. He bestowed on them certain immunities and privileges,— the University rights which were afterwards incorporated by Barbarossa. in the code of the Empire and extended to the other universities of Italy. These privileges may therefore be regarded as the precedent for that State interference in connection with the university which, however necessary at one time for the protection of an academic community and the freedom of its teachers, has often proved very far from an unmixed benefit, the influence which the civil power was thus enabled to exert being not infrequently wielded for the suppression of that very liberty of thought and inquiry from which the earlier universities derived in no small measure their importance and their fame. The study of logic. The circumstances of the commencement of the University of Paris supply us with a yet more notable illustration of the manner in which the universities first arose. Towards the close of the eleventh century the occurrence of two great theological controversies,-that between Lanfranc and Berengar, and that between Anselm and Roscellinus,invested the study of logic, or rather of dialectic, with a new importance in the eyes of the men of those days. It became a widespread conviction that the intelligent apprehension of spiritual truth depended on a correct use of the traditional methods of argumentation. Dialectic was looked upon as the 'science of sciences'; and when, early in the twelfth century, William of Champeaux opened at Paris a school for the more advanced study of this science, viewed in its practical application as an art, his teaching was attended with a marked success. Among his pupils was the famous Abélard, under whose influence the study of logic made a still more remarkable advance; so that, by the middle of the century, we find John of Salisbury, on his return from Paris to Oxford, relating with astonishment, not unmingled with contempt, how all learned Paris had gone well-nigh mad in its pursuit and practice of the new dialectic. Another important event still further fanned the new flame. Almost at the same time that John of Salisbury was putting his observations on record, a former pupil of Abélard, named Peter The Sentences of Peter Lombard. Lombard, who in 1159 had risen to be Bishop of Paris, compiled his memorable volume known as the Sentences. It was designed with the view of placing before the student, in as strictly logical a form as practicable, the opinions (sententiæ) or tenets of the Fathers and other great doctors of the Church upon the principal and most difficult points in the Christian belief. Conceived as a means of allaying and preventing controversy, it in fact greatly stimulated controversy. The logicians adopted the volume. as a recognised storehouse of indisputable major pre mises, on which they hung innumerable deductions carried into endless ingenious refinements. It became the theological text-book of the Middle Ages; and on its pages the most eminent of the Schoolmen, in their commentaries super Sententias, expended no small share of that marvellous toil and elaborate subtlety which still command the admiration of the student of metaphysical literature. The New To these new sources of knowledge and incentives to speculation we must also add the introduction of what is known as the New Aristotle. In thetwelfth century nearly all that was known of Aristotle was certain portions of the Organon as preserved in the Latin version by Boethius, or as interpreted in a Latin version of the Introduction by Porphyry. But before the close of the thirteenth century the whole of his extant writings, in translations either from the Greek or from the Arabic, had become known to Latin Europe. The relevance of the foregoing facts to university history will be more clearly understood when we recall that the study of this new literature, presenting itself in each branch of what then passed for learning, that is to say, in the civil and the canon law, in logic, in theology (with Peter Lombard as a text-book), and in hitherto unknown works of Aristotle, and their countless commentators, was not only the influence which may be said to have called the universities successively into being, but comprised also almost the entire range of the intellectual activity (much greater than is generally supposed) which characterised the universities down to the days of the Renaissance. Relation between these new studies and the universities. Features common to the growth of the early universities. It is obvious that communities thus attracted together would have, in a great measure, to organise themselves, and the whole question of the organisation of the earlier universities, and the manner in which that organisation was further developed, is one of considerable interest and importance. It is also, it must be added, a question involving points of no little difficulty. As, however, nearly all these early universities were modelled either on Bologna or Paris, they present in common. certain general features which admit of no dispute and which may be very briefly indicated. Those two great centres attracted students from nearly all parts of Europe. Of these, the majority were raw and inexperienced youths, who, it is evident, would be apt to fall an easy prey to the extortion of the landlords with whom they lodged, or the traders with whom they dealt, from extortion, in short, such as that from which Barbarossa is recorded to have sought to protect the students of Bologna. Very early, accordingly, we find students who had come from the same country or province combining together for mutual protection. These societies or confederations were generally known as 'nations.' We find, again, the students, either in conjunction with their teachers, as at Bologna, or through their teachers, as in Paris,—gradually obtaining State recognition and special privileges. Then, again, we find the teachers themselves, in turn, combining together into 'faculties,' that is to say, as associates in one and the same branch of learning and instruction. And, finally, we find these several faculties and nations forming themselves into a collective whole, |