corporation, and the complete name for the educational group was Universitas Magistrorum et Scholarium ("the body of masters and scholars"). Only with the lapse of time did the word come to be limited, without qualification, to this particular kind of corporation as the university par excellence.

Hence the "university" originally signified a company of persons that had assembled for study, and, like any other gild, it had organized for the sake of protection, since the students were in a town where they were regarded very largely as strangers. Thus the word did not refer to a place or school at all, but to the company of teachers and scholars. And of these two parties in the group, the students were the more important. In the early universities of Italy and the South at least, they were, in general, men of mature years, and had entire charge of the government of the university. They selected the masters and determined the salaries and fees, the length of the term, and the time of beginning. They might also fine the masters, if they lectured too rapidly or diverged too much from the passage under consideration in their lectures. Usually in the universities also it was a student that was chosen "rector," or head of the institution.

The students of a medieval university were often grouped in "nations," according to the part of the world from which they came. As the organization of these nations generally preceded the formation of the university, charters were sometimes conferred upon them individually before the university as a whole received official recognition. The nations, however, soon began to combine into the university for the sake of obtaining greater privileges and power. By the early part of the thirteenth century, the students at Bologna had merged their organizations into two bodies,—the universitas citramontanorum (“Cisalpine corporation"), composed of seventeen nations, and the universitas ultramontanorum ("Transalpine corporation"), which embraced eighteen; but not for some three centuries were the two united. The University of Paris at first included the four nations of the French, Picards, Normans, and English. The seals of the French and English nations at Paris are still

preserved in early documents. After the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge had begun to flourish, the English "nation" was called away from Paris, and its place was taken by the "nation" of Germans, until a century or so later, when their own land had established universities in the West, as well as in the East.

At the universities every year each nation chose its chief, who was called consiliarius ("councilor"), procurator, or proctor. It was his duty to represent the "nation," guard its rights, and control the conduct of its members. Together with the deans of the four faculties of arts, law, medicine, and theology, these chiefs of the student bodies elected the rector, and delegated such powers to him as they chose. Upon an old painting still in the possession of the University of Prague, are represented the rector and proctors of the "nations" at an early period in the history of the institution.

Salerno

The earliest medieval universities date from the twelfth century. Bologna is ordinarily accounted the first of these institutions to be founded, as in 1158 Frederick Barbarossa granted it a charter that assured these students and masters the most sweeping protection and set of privileges. had even before this become the seat of a medical university, but it was never regularly chartered until it was merged in the University of Naples by Frederick II in 1231. The University of Paris came next to Bologna in order of foundation. It was first formally recognized by the king, Louis VII, in 1180, and eighteen years later it had its privileges substantially increased by Pope Celestine III, but it was only in 1200 that it received complete recognition by the act of Philip Augustus. In England, Oxford seems to have begun toward the end of the twelfth century, and Cambridge at the beginning of the thirteenth, although the exact date of their first recognition by charter cannot be ascertained. Numerous other universities were founded in Italy, France, and Spain, during the thirteenth century, but it was not until the fourteenth century that any universities were chartered in Germany. Up to that time the German students went to Paris, and the first universities to be

founded in the German states were naturally located at points furthest distant from that center. The University of Prague was founded in 1348, and Vienna nearly a score of years afterward. Much later Erfurt, Heidelberg, and Cologne on the west side of the country were organized. By the time the Renaissance was well started, at least seventy-nine universities had come into existence in the various countries of Europe, and about fifty have remained until the present day.

The influence of later historical movements was felt by the universities and was instrumental in developing them. The Renaissance had a marked effect both in introducing the humanistic learning into existing universities, like Bologna, Padua, Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Erfurt, Leipzig, Heidelberg, and in bringing about the foundation of new institutions in the German states, such as Greifswald, Freiburg, Basel, Ingoldstadt, Trier, Mainz, Tübingen, Wittenberg, and Frankfort-onthe Oder. A new interest in the universities was created by the revival of classical learning. Views of the lecture rooms of the time show that these were so crowded that even the windowsills were occupied by eager students. This enthusiasm was also increased by the movement known as the Reformation, which overlapped that of the Renaissance, and had an even greater influence in increasing the number and changing the character of universities. Many universities soon turned to Protestantism, as in the case of Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Rostock, Greifswald, Tübingen, Wittenberg, and Frankfurt, while new universities, like Marburg, Königsberg, Jena, Helmstädt, Giessen, Rinteln, Dorpat, Duisburg, Kiel, Strassburg, and Altdorf were developed. Many new Catholic universities, such as Dillingen, Würzburg, Paderborn, Salzburg, Osnabrück, and Bamberg also arose even in the German states. But all of the institutions born at this time were decidedly sectarian and provincial, and many of them were very shortlived. German woodcuts of the times show the large attendance of students and reveal the religious interest in the universities during the Reformation period. During the period of sense realism, or the early scientific movement in the seventeenth

century, another large increase in the number of universities and modification of their courses took place. In Germany Halle, Göttingen, and Erlangen became most prominent through the new tendency. Some idea of the beginnings of scientific work in Teutonic universities can be gained from the various wood-cuts of the day. In one we find a rude study of science by the laboratory method in the midst of eating and other domestic activities at the University of Altdorf, while another affords a view of the botanical gardens of the same institution, which early took such a broad interest in science. Again, a view is afforded of the amphitheater of a Dutch university, where dissection and other advanced opportunities for medical work are in evidence. The last step in the development of universities began in 1810 with the establishment of the University of Berlin, where the principle of independent investigation upon the part of the student became the chief method of instruction. Since then the universities in all lands have generally adopted or have been established with this plan of instruction.

However, the fact that the universities were originally an outgrowth of the monastic and ecclesiastical education of the late Middle Ages, has long been reflected in their semi-monastic character. By the term "colleges" was not meant, as now, places for instruction, but rather convicta or dormitories for the common life of the students. At first the students were conducted from these buildings to the lectures outside, but eventually it seemed economical and wise to carry on most of the teaching within the halls. As late as the seventeenth century views of colleges at the English universities, such as Corpus Christi at Oxford and Pembroke at Cambridge, reveal the high walls and other architectural arrangements of the monasteries. This traditional common living of the students is further seen even at the present time in the interior of the dining-hall of Christ Church College, Oxford. The student life of that old English college centers in this room, surrounded by the portraits of the great men of Christ Church in the past. On the other hand, a revival of the high walls and the monastic custom

of closing the door at sun-down may be found in the modern dormitories of Columbia University and the gate connecting Livingston and Hartley Halls, although this is largely camouflage, and it really is possible to enter from the rear at any hour of the night. The French and German universities at first had these monastic "colleges," but they have gradually disappeared in almost all of them, and the students generally live in boarding houses of the town. The University of Tübingen is one of the few institutions of Germany where this feature is preserved. We still possess a view of the inner court of a "college" at this university in the sixteenth century, and the same institution at the present day, now known as the König-Wilhelmstift and intended chiefly for the theological students, can also be seen through the medium of a contemporary photograph.

But, despite the high walls and the plan to have all the students live within monastic bounds, university life in the old days was far from being one of absolute restraint. As an official recognition of their work, the universities were granted a large variety of exemptions, immunities, and other special privileges by various popes, kings, emperors, feudal lords, bishops, and municipalities. The universities were in many instances taken under the immediate protection of the sovereign or pontiff, and were allowed to have special courts of their own, independent of civil jurisdiction, and complete autonomy in all their internal affairs. No matter what grievances one had against a student, the case could not be tried anywhere except in the university court. Philip Augustus, for example, in the charter of 1200, specifically required the "provost" (chief of police) and all judges to hand over the cases of student criminals in Paris to the ecclesiastical court. Philip IV took similar action in 1341. If one brought suit against a student in an ordinary civil court, the case had to be thrown out at once; if the trial were set for the university court, the plaintiff found himself before a judge, who was, by the nature of the case, violently prejudiced in favor of the student, and he probably lost his case, anyway.

Even today the German universities for the most part have their own court, and the university judge is a most important