The schools of Charlemagne, and the various univer- sities founded in sequence of the Crusades, apijear to have contemplated primarily, though not exclusively, the instruction of ecclesiastics. Tlie University of Prague and that of Strasburg are celebrated for tlicir aid to religion and the diffusion of piety in the Church. Nor must Paris be omitted. All these institutions ex- erted their influence for the purifying of Christian doc- trine, not 'only at home, but abroad. We need but men- tion the names of Jolin Huss and Jerome of Prague; and here lot us not forget John WicklilVc. who lalwred so faithfully at Oxford, and instilled Jjigli^li students with those princij^les that gave life to the lieformation. D'Aubigne says: "The first rays of the sun from on high gilded with their fires at once the (iothic colleges at Oxford and the antique schools at Cambridge." Dur- ing the Eeformatory period, the Continental universities became the main agencies for the spread (if Ihe new doc- trines. Wittenberg, then but recently founded, became the nursery, the citadel, of the Protestants, The lect- ure-rooms of the Reformers were their jirincipal pulpits; and, as has been declared by Melancthon in his Ltj'e of Luther, the great cause owes its success to the universi- ties. The University of Heidelberg heard with joy the lectures of the exile Peuchliii. Wittenberg was the starting-point of the great Peformer himself, and from all Europe students flocked thither to sit at the feet of the immortal Melancthon, All the leaders of the new cause, in short, were university men— n-.ost of them jiro- fessors, who difhi-sed their opinions through attentive listeners. Calvin, first at Stra.xburg. and later, aided by Beza, at Geneva, exerted an influence chiefly through the famous schools with which he was connected. Eleury says, in his Life of Calrin : '"He was indebted to the academy (at (ieneva\ which soon became greatly fre- quented, for the rajiid difVusion of his doctrines in Ger- many, Holland, anil France." In passing, we may re- mind our readers also of those university l.-iliorers, the ardent servants for the Christian cause, Erasmus of
MINISTERIAL EDUCATIOX 299 MINISTERIAL EDUCATION
Paris, Oicolampadius of Strasburg, Peter MartjT and jNIartiii Biicer of Oxford and Cambridge, and Arminius of Leyden.
From those days to the present all complete univer- sities had had faculties of theology of greater or less extent. Their character and influence we shall con- sider in an article on Theolofjical Education (q. v.). ^Ve contine ourselves for the present to a review of the edu- cational advantages offered by the various religious or- ganizations independent of the state ; and as even such are in Europe subject to more or less state aid, we shall consider here only those of religious bodies in the United States of America, but mainly in so far as they have in view the instruction of ministers.
In the colonial days of this country's history the ministers were, with few exceptions, men who had been trained for the work in Europe, and in a majority of cases were skilled laborers in the vineyard before they left the old country. It has been estimated that there was in the New England colonies, twenty years after the landing of the Pilgrims, a graduate of college for every 24:0 inhabitants. A few of these graduates were employed in the civil administration of the colonies, but most of them were in the ministry. As the pop- ulation increased, it became necessary to supply the ministi'y from the rising generation. For this purpose, and this mainly, the university at Cambridge was founded in 1636, and as its motto was chosen " Christo et ecclesife" {To Christ and the. Church). Amid much sacrifice and denial this school was started, and for years, yea, decades, as new churches were planted, or as the early ministers passed away by death, the ministerial office wj» supplied, in great measure, from among the graduates of the infant college. JNIore than half of its graduates, during the first century of its existence, en- tered into tJie labors of the ministry. Cotton INIather, in his MaonoUa, furnishes a list of the New England churches in 1()96, from which it appears that of the 129 pulpits supplied by 116 pastors, 107 of the preachers were graduates of Harvard College. In the charters of several of tlie old&st colleges it is declared that virtue and reliyiuti are the principal objects for the foimding of these higher institutions of learning. " The Virginians have souls to be saved" was the plea presented by the pioneers in 1693, when the college was asked for Vir- ginia; "and though the chancellor cursed their souls, saying, 'Let them raise tobacco,' William and Mary granted both a charter and money to the college which still bears their name." In a few generations all the leading churches, as they grew and found a need for training-schools to su]iply the ministry-, founded col- leges, laitil at present full four hundred chartered Christian colleges have grown into life as the outward material expression of the Christian zeal within Ameri- can bosoms. What is pecidiarly strange about Amer- ican colleges is that all of them have felt more or less constrained to consecrate their work to religion. " Sec- ular and state colleges, so called, many of them, surpass those under denominational control in their vigorous appeals to the religious feelings of the people.'' Placing some eminent worker of the Christian Church in the presidency, they install the Word of God in the daily college prayers. They require all the students to at- tend church each Sabbath. They have daily prayer- meetings among the students. These students gener- ally attend Sabbath-schools. The Greek Testament is read in the college lessons. The evidences of Christian- ity are taught in the classes. Free tuition and other inducements are offered to attract candidates for the ministry to these institutions. Eevival measures are introduced. All the means of grace known to the evan- gelical cliurches are used as regularly, as frequently, as earnestly in the colleges as they are in any of the con- gregations. Of late years, the Church, working unitedly under the auspices of the " Evangelical Alliance," has appointed a daj' of prayer to be observed once annually — now on the last Thursday in January — and many have