forty-seven votes cast against me (a circumstance which forbade another
voting after the third), when, at the third trial, I came out the winner,
with only nine votes against me (previously only this same number had been
cast for me), and with forty-eight in my favour.
"Though I know well enough that affairs like these must needs be of small
account, I have set them down in the order in which they came to pass for
no other reason than that I give pleasure to myself who write these words
by so doing: and I do not write for the gratification of others. At the
same time those people who read what I write--if indeed any one should
ever be so minded--may learn hereby that the beginnings and the outcomes
of great events may well be found difficult to trace, because in sooth it
is the way of such things to come to the notice of anybody rather than of
those who would rightly observe them."[37]
Padua cannot claim for its University an antiquity as high as that which
may be conceded to Pavia, but in spite of its more recent origin, there is
no little obscurity surrounding its rise. The one fact which may be put
down as certain is that it sprang originally from the University of
Bologna. Early in the thirteenth century violent discords arose between
the citizens of Bologna and the students, and there is a tradition that
the general school of teaching was transferred to Padua in 1222. What
happened was probably a large migration of students, part of whom remained
behind when peace between town and gown in Bologna was restored. The
orthodox origin of the University is a charter granted by Frederic II. in
1238. Frederic at this time was certainly trying to injure Bologna,
actuated by a desire to help on his own University at Naples, and to crush
Bologna as a member of the Lombard League.[38] Padua, however, was also a
member of this league, so his benevolent action towards it is difficult to
understand. In 1228 the students had quarrelled with the Paduan citizens,
and there was a movement to migrate to Vercelli; but, whether this really
took place or not, the Paduan school did not suffer: its ruin and
extinction was deferred till the despotism of the Ezzelini. In 1260 it
was again revived by a second migration from Bologna, and this movement
was increased on account of the interdict laid by the Pope upon Bologna in
1306 after the expulsion of the Papal Legate by the citizens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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