Cambridge (England) -- History; University of Cambridge -- History
In the year 1229 there broke out at Paris a feud of more than ordinary
gravity between the students and the citizens, undignified enough in its
cause of origin, but in the event probably marking a distinct step in
the development of Cambridge University. A drunken body of students did
some act of great violence to the citizens. Complaint was made to the
Bishop of Paris and to the Queen Blanche. The members of the University
who had not been guilty of the outrage were violently attacked and
ill-treated by the police of the city. The University teachers suspended
their classes and demanded satisfaction. The demand was refused, and
masters and scholars dispersed. Large numbers, availing themselves of
the invitation of King Henry III. to settle where they pleased in this
country, migrated to the shores of England; and Cambridge, probably from
its proximity to the eastern coast, and as the centre where Prince
Louis, in alliance with the English baronage, but a few years before had
raised the Royal standard, seems to have attracted a large majority of
the students. A Royal writ, issued in the year 1231, for the better
regulation of the University, probably makes reference to this migration
when it speaks of the large number of students, both within the realm
and "from beyond the seas," who had lately settled in Cambridge, and
gives power to the Bishop of Ely "to signify rebellious clerks who would
not be chastised by the Chancellor and Masters," and if necessary to
invoke the aid of the Sheriff in their due punishment. Another Royal
writ of the same reign expressly provides that no student shall remain
in the University unless under the tuition of some Master of Arts--the
earliest trace perhaps of that disciplinary organisation which the
motley and turbulent crowd representing the student community of that
age demanded.[19]
It will be observed that in these Royal writs the term "university"
occurs. But it must not be supposed that the word is used in its more
modern signification, of a community or corporation devoted to learning
and education formally recognised by legal authority. That is a use
which appears for the first time towards the end of the fourteenth
century. In the age of which we are speaking, and in the writs of Henry
III., _universitas magistrorum et discipulorum_ or _scholarium_ simply
means a "community of teachers and scholars." The common designation in
mediæval times of such a body as we now mean by "university" was
_studium generale_, or sometimes _studium_ alone. It is necessary,
moreover, to remember that universities in the earliest times had not
infrequently a very vigorous life as places of learning, long before
they received Royal or legal recognition; and it is equally necessary
not to forget that colleges for the lodging and maintenance and
education of students are by no means an essential feature of the
mediæval conception of a university.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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