The Customs of Old EnglandSnell, F. J. (Frederick John)
History
The Customs of Old England
Snell, F. J. (Frederick John)
England -- Social life and customs -- 1066-1485
We have expounded with some particularity the conditions of University
life; we have now to deal with University life in its more intimate
relations. And first we must say something of the title, the Latinity of
which is not above suspicion, though its convenience and expressiveness
are beyond question. The term _studium generale_ was applied, in
mediaeval times, to an academy in which instruction was imparted on all
subjects, and which was thus differentiated from grammar schools and
schools of divinity, in the former of which the curriculum was
restricted to Latin, and in the latter to theology. The phrase connoted
also a place of common resort, as distinct from mere local foundations,
the advantages of which were confined to the immediate neighbourhood.
According to Mr. Froude, no fewer than thirty thousand students
"gathered out of Europe to Paris to listen to Abelard"; and the
traditions of Oxford and Cambridge were equally hospitable.
THE "NATIONS"
Before discussing the system of degrees, it is desirable to speak of the
"men"--the candidates for graduation; and, in this connexion, stress
must be laid on the cosmopolitan character of our older universities,
which welcomed with open arms students of various races and of all ranks
of society. The Oxford statutes contain a provision for the
proclamations being made in Latin, that language being, as it is stated,
intelligible to the different nations represented by the scholars. In
addition to the native youth, Welshmen, Irishmen, and Scots were
accustomed to repair to the banks of the Isis and the Cam, and the two
former of these classes--at any rate at their first coming--might have
been totally ignorant of English.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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