560 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
leges were at first bursaries, or hostels, where students lived together, gratuitous provision being made for their support.1 The earliest endowment of this kind, which still exists, is the college of the Sorbonne at Paris, founded by Robert of Sorbon, 1257, for sixteen secular students, four from each nation. The term " secular " was used in distinction from con ventual. Another famous college was the college of Navarre on St. Genevieve, founded by the queen of Philip the Fair, Jeanne of Navarre, 1304. Rashdall, I. 478-517, gives a list of more than sixty colleges, or bursaries, founded in Paris before 1500. From being places of residence for needy students, the colleges came to include masters, as at Oxford and Cambridge. At Bologna the college system was never developed to the same extent as at Paris and in England.
With rare exceptions, the teachers in all the faculties were ecclesiastics, or, if laymen, unmarried. John XXII., in 1331, granted a dispensation to a married man to teach medi cine in Paris, but it was an exception. Not till 1452 was the requirement of celibacy modified for the faculty of medi cine in Paris, and till 1479 for Heidelberg; and not till a later date were the legal professors of Paris and Bologna exempted from this restriction. The Reformation at once effected a change in the universities under Protestant influ ence.2
The lectures were given in Latin and students as well as masters were required to use Latin in conversation. Learn ing of any kind was regarded as too sacred a thing to be conveyed in the vulgar dialects of Europe.3 The studies at
1 A bursa at the University of Paris was the sum of money paid each week in board. Auctar., I. pp. xlv, xlix ; Chart., II. 673 sqq., etc.
2 See Rashdall, II. 647 sqq. Compayre", p. 286, commenting upon the marital prohibition, observes that the rod would not have been retained so long in the universities if the teachers had had families.
3 A good illustration of the use of Latin by students is given in the most interesting dialogue of two students on their way to Wittenberg, the MS. of which was discovered by Prof. Haussleiter, 1898, in the library of Jena, and published. Leipzig, 1903, D. Univ. Wittenb. n. d. Schilderung d. Mag. Andreas Meinhardi, 1507.
§ 90. THE UNIVERSITIES. 561
the University of Paris were authoritatively prescribed by the papal legate, Robert de Courc.on, 1215. l Gregory IX., 1231, also took part in stating what the text-books should be. The classics had no place. Certain works of Aristotle were forbidden, as were also, at a later date, the writings of Amauri of Bena, David of Dinant, and other supposed or real heretics. Gregory IX. warned the divinity students against affecting philosophy, and to be satisfied with becom ing "theodocts."2
Attendance and Discipline. — The attendance at the medi aeval universities has been a matter of much dispute. Some of the figures seem to be incredibly large.3 No matriculation books exist for the earliest periods, and not till the end of the fourteenth century do we have actual records of the number of graduations in Paris. Odefridus, a writer of the thirteenth century, gives the number of students at Bologna two generations before, as 10,000. Paris was reported to have had 25,000 students, and Oxford as many as 30,000,* or at one time, to follow Wyclif, 60,000. Speaking of his own times Wyclif, however, gives the more reasonable figure, 3000. In his days of unobscured fame, Abselard lectured to 3000 hearers, and this figure does not seem to be exaggerated when we consider the great attraction of his personality. In any estimate, it must be remembered that the student body included boys and also men well up in years. Rashdall makes 1500 to 3000 the maximum num ber for Oxford.5
There was no such thing as university discipline in the thirteenth century, as we understand discipline. The testi monies are unanimous that the students led a wild life.6 Many of them were mere boys, studying in the department of arts. There were no dormitories, and the means of com-
* Chart., I. 78.
2 satagant fieri theodocti, Chart., 1. 138. Students were obliged to swear they had "heard" the required books. Chart., I., 227 sqq., for the year 1252 ; II. 673, for the year 1347, etc. 3 Denifle, p. 248.
4 Richard Fitz-Ralph, archbishop of Armagh, writing about 1330, sets the number of students in his own day at six thousand.
6 See Rashdall, II. 584 sqq. 6 Chart., I. Nos. 60, 197, 425, etc.
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