Life in the Medieval University | Page 2

Heidelberg......................................... 94
Chapter VI
--THE "JOCUND ADVENT"
Admission of the Bajan at Paris -- The Universities of Southern France -- The Abbas Bejanorum -- The "Jocund Advent" in Germany -- the "Depositio" -- Oxford -- Scotland.. 109
Chapter VII
--TOWN AND GOWN
Vienna -- St Scholastica's Day at Oxford -- Assaults by Members of the University -- Records of the "Acta Rectorum" at Leipsic -- Parisian Scholars and the Monks of St Germain.. 124
Chapter VIII
--SUBJECTS OF STUDY, LECTURES, EXAMINATIONS
Instruction given in Latin -- Preparation for the University --Grammar Masters -- French taught at Oxford -- The "Act" in Grammar --The Seven Liberal Arts and the Three Philosophies -- Text-books -- Ordinary and Cursory Lectures -- Methods of Lecturing -- Repetitions and Disputations -- University and College Teaching -- Examinations at Paris, Louvain, and Oxford -- The Determining Feast -- Walter Paston at Oxford... 133
APPENDIX..................................................... 157
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................. 159
INDEX........................................................ 163

LIFE IN THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY (p.?001)
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
"A Clerk ther was of Oxenford also, That unto logik hadde longe y-go As lene was his hors as is a rake, And he was not right fat, I undertake; But loked holwe, and therto soberly, Ful thredbar was his overest courtepy, For he had geten him yet no benefyce, Ne was so worldly for to have offyce. For him was lever have at his beddes heed Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed, Of Aristotle and his philosophye, Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye. But al be that he was a philosophre, Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre; But al that he might of his freendes hente, On bokes and on lerninge he it spente, And bisily gan for the soules preye Of hem that yaf him wherwith to scoleye, Of studie took he most cure and most hede, Noght o word spak he more than was nede, And that was seyd in forme and reverence And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence. Souninge in moral vertu was his speche. And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."
An account of life in the medieval University might well take the (p.?002) form of a commentary upon the classical description of a medieval English student. His dress, the character of his studies and the nature of his materials, the hardships and the natural ambitions of his scholar's life, his obligations to founders and benefactors, suggest learned expositions which might
in judicious hands Extend from here to Mesopotamy,
and will serve for a modest attempt to picture the environment of one of the Canterbury pilgrims.
Chaucer's famous lines do more than afford opportunities of explanation and comment; they give us an indication of the place assigned to universities and their students by English public opinion in the later Middle Ages. The monk of the "Prologue" is simply a country gentleman. No accusation of immorality is brought against him, but he is a jovial huntsman who likes the sound of the bridle jingling in the wind better than the call of the church bells, a lover of dogs and horses, of rich clothes and great feasts. The portrait of the friar is still less sympathetic; he is a frequenter of taverns, a devourer of widows' houses, a man of gross, perhaps of evil, life. The monk abandons his cloister and its rules, the friar despises the poor and the leper. The poet is making no socialistic attack upon the (p.?003) foundations of society, and no heretical onslaught upon the Church; he draws a portrait of two types of the English regular clergy. His description of two types of the English secular clergy forms an illuminating contrast. The noble verses, in which he tells of the virtues of the parish priest, certainly imply that the seculars also had their temptations and that they did not always resist them; but the fact remains that Chaucer chose as the representative of the parochial clergy one who
"wayted after no pompe and reverence, Ne maked him a spyced conscience, But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve, He taughte, but first he folwed it himselve."
The history of pious and charitable foundations is a vindication of the truth of the portraiture of the "Prologue." The foundation of a new monastery and the endowment of the friars had alike ceased to attract the benevolent donor, who was turning his attention to the universities, where secular clergy were numerous. The clerks of Oxford and Cambridge had succeeded to the place held by the monks, and, after them, by the friars, in the affection and the respect of the nation.
Outside the kingdom of England the fourteenth century was also a great period in the growth of universities and colleges, to which, all (p.?004) over Europe, privileges and endowments were granted by popes, emperors, kings, princes, bishops and municipalities. To attempt to indicate the various causes and conditions which, in different countries, led to the