It would appear, then, if we are to accept the accounts of Fournier, Crévier, Compayré, and other French authorities

(1) That, in the statutory conditions of admission, there was such recognition of the value of preparatory studies in the arts as made it necessary to spend at least a year's time more in the medical studies if unlicensed in the arts than otherwise, and that the full period necessary to the degree was nine years, of which term three years (each having eight months of study and attendance upon lectures) were requisite to an examination for the bachelor's degree and the remaining six for the doctorate.

(2) That the lectures were of both grades, ordinary and cursory; and to a large degree they consisted of literal interpretations of old writings, deemed next to sacred, with very little account of recent and present experience, and still less in the way of demonstration in the departments of chemistry, botany, and anatomy, or in practice, whether medical, distinctly speaking, or surgical. Even the Montpellier statutes of 1340 prohibited the use of any book of natural science other than De Animalibus.

(3) That the "old writings" referred to were, of course, first of all those of Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Averroes, and Constantine. But, according to Rashdall, the books prescribed at Paris were the Liber Tegni of Galen, the Greek; the works of Theophilus, the Byzantine; of the Jewish physician, Isaac; those of Nicholas, the distinguished physician of Salerno; and those of Ægidius, the no less distinguished physician of Paris, especially his Theoretica and his Practica.

(4) That the spirit of the faculty of medicine finally became scholastic, and even political, to a degree that seriously interfered with the work and practical usefulness of what should have been a thoroughgoing scientific school. Thurot says: "It attached much more importance to disputations than to lessons." And to this Compayré adds:

The ordinary disputations took place every Monday and Thursday from All Saints' Day until Lent-that is, during three or four months. In addition to these there was one disputation more formal than the others, called quodlibetaire, because it might relate indifferently to any subject, and each master was obliged to take part, in turn, under penalty of deposition. The supreme end to be attained was, not the acquirement of positive knowledge, but skill in dialectic. The idea that man is made to reason, to be a perpetual dialectician, even in medicine, dominated the human mind, and people seemed to think that syllogisms were good for everything, even disease.

The same author, while generously shielding the medical schools of those times on the ground that science had found little development, that hygiene was a division of medicine hardly dreamed of, and while also half excusing the medical practitioners because the general system of study then “rendered them more apt at distinguishing the premises and consequences of a train of reasoning than in diagnosing disease, more skillful in managing an argument than in handling the scalpel and the bistoury," nevertheless admits to his pages with apparent relish the extravagant raillery of Petrarch, in his letter to Boccaccio, wherein he says of the doctors of his day:

They never appear in public without being superbly dressed, mounted on magnificent horses, and wearing golden spurs. * * * Next thing you know they will arrogate the honors of a triumph; and, in fact, they deserve it; for there is not one among them who has not killed at least 5,000 men, and that is the number required to entitle one to these honors.

The great hindrances to the progress of medicine as a science in those times were, first, the nonacceptance of the truth that for the most part, to say the least, the universe and man are subject to law, natural and divine, and, secondly, a consequent full committal to the doctrine of divine interference, no less ready and perpetual than arbitrary, and without warrant in reason or justice.

V.-HELPS TOWARD DEVELOPMENT.

Among the many helps toward university development at Paris, it seems proper to mention, first, such as were most direct and may be accounted as privileges those accorded by the church, state, and municipality.

I.—PART OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

I name the church first because it fairly entitled itself to that place of honor from every point of view-as originator, promoter, guide, and defender. At Bologna the central idea was jurisprudence, and it was the state, accordingly, that became the first and chief helper of her university in making itself foremost of all in that great department of human interests. But at Paris, for the many reasons already mentioned, the leading part in the university mission was assumed by the church, as being distinctively formed and maintained in the interest of those spiritual concerns which, while the most important of all, are by their very nature and the nature of man ever and everywhere most in danger of neglect.

And well did the church perform her part; availing herself, first of all, of the interest in the higher learning awakened among the people of all Europe by that most zealous and most brilliant, if not, indeed, most learned of her many gifted sons, Peter Abelard; utilizing the ancient and most important of her arts schools then existing, the cathedral school of Paris, under that other able and learned educator, William of Champeaux; and beginning right there, at the best suited and most attractive of European centers, an institution which should become at once her own source of encouragement, guidance, and defense in all matters of religious faith, and the world's supreme authority in the whole field of science, arts, and letters.

Whether one finds himself in accord with the doctrine of the Catholic Church or not, he is compelled by the facts of history to acknowledge that, but for its professed interest, watchful care, and generous sacrifices of many kinds, coupled with the immense influence it wielded among kings and princes, as well as in the world at large, the University of Paris could not then and might never have gained for itself so important a place in the world.

At Paris, as elsewhere during the middle ages, the schools were nearly all under the management of ecclesiastics, and those undertaking the work of teaching came at once under the paternal care of the Holy See, sharing by common consent the many privileges and helps already enjoyed by the religious orders and by the most favored officers and members of the great church at large. And this meant a good deal, for, according to Gibbon, whose records are generally beyond challenge, "the whole body of the Catholic clergy was exempted from all service, private or public, all municipal offices, and all personal taxes and contributions which pressed their fellow-citizens with intolerable weight, and the duties of their holy profession were accepted as a full discharge of their obligations to the Republic." And all these immunities heretofore exclusively enjoyed by ecclesiastics were now not only extended to the university as an organization and to its officers and teachers, but even to all students and other persons over whom the institution exercised a maternal care. It was Pope Celestine III who, almost before the cathedral school had been thought of very generally as a nucleus for a university, decreed that "for clerics residing in Paris all suits relative to money matters should be tried before ecclesiastical, and not before secular, judges," even as Gregory IX, in confirming the foundation of the University of Toulouse in 1233, decreed that neither masters nor scholars, clerics nor domestics, should be judged by a lay man; and as the legate of the Holy See gave to Montpellier statutes, in 1220,

for the forming of a court by the Bishop of Maguełonne, composed of himself and of masters chosen from among those who were deemed "the most discreet and honorable," that should mete out justice to both masters and students and to those who shall bring civil suits against them, while reserving to the bishop himself exclusive cognizance of all matters criminal.

It was the church before whose dignitaries all suits relating to benefices held by a member of the University of Paris were tried. It was a bull of Gregory IX, issued in 1231, which included the following: "If an injustice is committed toward anyone of you [masters at Paris], if a serious injury, like a murder or wound, is inflicted, unless justice is rendered you within fifteen days you are permitted to suspend your lectures until you have obtained complete satisfaction," a decree so far utilized that when, after a serious conflict between students and citizens, on account of a cruel act of the Queen Regent Blanche, who had caused two students to be put to death, and refused reparation, the university first suspended operations altogether, and then dissolved itself by the dispersion of the professors to other parts of the world, until the Pope appealed for their return, and the King made humble apologies and the best reparation in his power; and it was Alexander IV who, when this right of suspension, known as the right of cessatio, brought such trouble that he issued a bull of his own, modifying it, was nevertheless constrained to withdraw or suspend the modification when the university authorities insisted upon a continuance of the right, declaring it to be "the buckler of the university." And the university so maintained it through the centuries that in 1407, when the provost of Paris had caused two students to be unjustly hung, the university not only caused a suspension of lectures and sermons during the whole period of Lent, but by a threat of removing the university bodily to some other country compelled the provost "to go in person and take down the two students from the gibbet, kissing them on the mouth, and conducting their obsequies with great pomp." Still another illustration, among many in history, of the power of the university because of the continuance of this papal decree of cessatio is given by Compayré to the effect that in 1453, when, after a collision between students and citizens and a number of the former were put in prison and the life of the rector of the university was threatened, the cessatio was declared, and the "Parliament was obliged to ordain that eight archers, or ushers, should make the amende honorable to the university, wearing nothing but their shirts and carrying lighted torches," while "the man who had threatened the rector had his hand cut off."

It should also be mentioned that, besides numerous instances of intervention in favor of the university in general, and of individuals connected with it, including officers, professors, students, and even employees, down to the bell ringer, as well as approved supply merchants, there were yet other broad, sweeping papal decrees on occasion, both temporary and without time limitation, that were esteemed beyond price because of the assurances they gave of justice to those whose devotion to the cause of education made them willing to accept great trusts at a personal sacrifice-such, to offer a single example, as the decree that no act of excommunication could affect the head of a university without a special edict from the papal throne.

II. FAVOR OF THE CIVIL POWERS.

But there was also a universal sympathy with the Parisian and all universities among the civil powers. Kings vied with ecclesiastical potentates and lesser dignitaries in their efforts to promote their welfare-doubtless in some degree because of the material advantage and prestige that would come to their respective kingdoms, yet ofttimes unmistakably on account of a love of learning

and the intellectual advantage that would result to their people. Compayré gives a strong expression to the general fact in saying: "There was on the part of kings, as well as on that of Popes, a sort of conspiracy in favor of the universities."

It was Philip Augustus who, in 1200, after a quarrel between citizens and students, in which the provost of Paris had headed the armed populace by whom a student was slain, heartily espoused the cause of the students, and made such marked reparation as he could by ordering imprisonment for life for the provost, unless he should prefer the ordeal by water, with the accompanying condition that "if he succumbed he should be hanged;" and who further decreed that university students should be tried by ecclesiastical tribunals only-which then meant the Episcopal Court of Paris. No student was to be arrested by an ordinary judge, except in case of extreme necessity, in which event he was to be immediately passed over to the ecclesiastical authorities; and as for their chief, the capitale scholarium, the civil courts were to lay hands on him for no crime whatsoever. It was the Kings of France who, in successive letters patent to the University of Paris, copied the right of the Bologna University-there known as non trabi extra—a right by virtue of which members of the university, whether masters or students, and whether defendants or plaintiffs, could have their cases tried at the seat of the university, thus saving them from interruptions to their work, and from the cost of travel and of study at other points, perhaps distant.

It was King Charles II, who, having levied taxes upon certain articles by way of raising money for the war, was pleased to exempt the students at the University of Orleans solely because they were students, as did also King Louis XII, and after him Francis I, a like thing for like reason.

It was Philip the Fair who decreed that the goods of members of the universities should not be taken or their revenues attached under any pretext, and who, with other European sovereigns, so established the principle of student protection that it was practically agreed to by everybody, and that, according to Compayré, the University of Padua laid it down in one of its statutes in these unqualified terms: "Students must be considered as citizens in what concerns the advantages, but not in that which concerns the burdens of citizens." From the same author we also learn that, besides being free from the burdens of civil affairs, the university was also exempt from military service, and that this exemption extended not merely to war but to the obligation of serving in the city militia as town guards; that it manifestly desired, through a high estimate of the superior importance of study, to free both students and professors from all duties that could distract them, or in any way interfere with their intellectual labor, and that "the letters patent of the Kings of France constantly reproduce the same formula, ordering that all members of the university shall be exempt from patrolling or sentry duties, except in case of imminent peril."

The fitness of such measures, in the public judgment, was strikingly illustrated by the exceptional action of Louis XI, who in 1467 determined to enlist all able-bodied men in Paris between 16 and 60 years of age, and who, when resisted by the rector of the university for reasons ably set forth, so modified his order that the university was simply required to cause the weekly celebration of a mass for the King.

Surely enough has now been said to show the esteem in which the universities of the middle ages were held by the ruling powers, both civil and ecclesiasticalto show that the University of Paris was a little republic in itself, made strong by the most extraordinary concessions of Pope and King.

III. THE CONNECTED AND COOPERATING COLLEGES.

An important and exceedingly interesting feature of the university after a time was the association with it-incidental at first, but permanent, if not indeed organic, at last-of a considerable number of duly established societies or communities. The first of these were known as "hospicia." But soon other organizations appeared, which came at length to be known as "colleges." These last were suggested to the minds of generous and sympathetic men and women anxious to be helpful in some way to worthy but indigent young men seeking for an honorable place in community, church, or state.

The hospicia were not very different in either constitution or management from the hospicia formed by law students of the University of Bologna. They (of Bologna) were voluntary associations of young students of law, leagued together, in simple quarters for both security and economy, choosing their own chief, and making their own regulations. Those of Paris were associations or clubs of younger persons, more commonly with religious inclinations, and the hope to become a "clerk" or something higher. Having to agree upon the house they would like to occupy, as well as the rent they would be willing to pay, and how (i. e., by what system, rules, and regulations) they would be governed, they would of necessity choose a chief to preside over their deliberations and wisely manage their affairs. Such chief was at first commonly known as "principal." He was not necessarily a university master, but he was bound to be of no less importance than a senior in the arts department, and was, in fact, very often a bachelor of arts; and finally it became the requirement that he should be either an A. B. or an A. M. Almost from the first organization of the university it became universal for students to live in houses of this sort, except with two classes, namely, the wealthy, who lived in their own homes or in elegant apartments elsewhere, and the very poorest, who, being unable to make the payments required of them by the hospicia, got on the best they could in some miserable garret or cheap tenement, in some wretched quarter of the city.

Accepting the statements of Denifle and Rashdall, the college was nothing different from an endowed hospicium. It was less democratic, in that the master who governed as principal was placed at its head by the founder instead of his associates. But in both cases the members of the college had a share in its management.

It seems that the first of such foundations was exceedingly humble, being the consecration of a single room "for poor clerks" in the "Hospital of the Blessed Mary of Paris," situated near the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and finally known as the Hôtel Dieu. Thanks to a pilgrimage to Jerusalem by the large-hearted Josius, of London, and a subsequent visit to this hospital, the room thus consecrated was purchased and fitted up for "eighteen scholar-clerks," the proctors of the house further agreeing to pay them "twelve numinia a month out of the alms collected in the hospital chest." As for the scholars thus favored, "their sole statutory obligation was to take turns in bearing the cross and holy water at the funerals of those who died in the house, and nightly to repeat the seven penitential psalms and other customary prayers."

Foundation after foundation, some of them very liberal indeed, followed each other right along through the years of the thirteenth century and of the succeeding two centuries to the number of over sixty colleges.

The first of the colleges of higher rank than that of a grammar school was named the College of Constantinople, in remembrance of its connection with the Latin conquest of that city of the East in 1204. It was to help in the great