The Thirteenth, Greatest of CenturiesWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Civilization, Medieval -- 13th century; Universities and colleges -- History
It is sometimes thought that the word university applied to these
institutions after the aggregation of other faculties, was due to the
fact that there was a universality of studies, that all branches of
knowledge might be followed in them. The word university, however, was
not originally applied to the school itself, which, if it had all the
faculties of the modern university, was, in the Thirteenth Century,
called a _studium generale_. The Latin word universitas had quite a
different {21} usage at that time. Whenever letters were formally
addressed to the combined faculties of a _studium generale_ by
reigning sovereigns, or by the Pope, or by other high ecclesiastical
authorities, they always began with the designation, Universitas
Vestra, implying that the greeting was to all of the faculty,
universally and without exception. Gradually, because of this word
constantly occurring at the beginning of letters to the faculty, the
term universitas came to be applied to the institution. [Footnote 1]
[Footnote 1: Certain other terms that occur in these letters of
greeting to university officials have a more than passing interest.
The rector of the university, for instance, was always formally
addressed as Amplitudo Vestra, that is, Your Ampleness. Considering
the fact that not a few of the rectors of the old time universities,
all of whom were necessarily ecclesiastics, must have had the
ampleness of girth so characteristic of their order under certain
circumstances, there is an appropriateness about this formal
designation which perhaps appeals more to the risibilities of the
modern mind than to those of medieval time.]
While the universities, as is typically exemplified by the histories
of Bologna and Paris, and even to a noteworthy degree of Oxford, grew
up around the cathedrals, they cannot be considered in any sense the
deliberate creation, much less the formal invention, of any particular
set of men. The idea of a university was not born into the world in
full panoply as Minerva from the brain of Jove. No one set about
consciously organizing for the establishment of complete institutions
of learning. Like everything destined to mean much in the world the
universities were a natural growth from the favoring soil in which
living seeds were planted. They sprang from the wonderful inquiring
spirit of the time and the marvelous desire for knowledge and for the
higher intellectual life that came over the people of Europe during
the Thirteenth Century. The school at Paris became famous, and
attracted pupils during the Twelfth Century, because of the new-born
interest in scholastic philosophy. After the pupils had gathered in
large numbers their enthusiasm led to the establishment of further
courses of study. The same thing was true at Bologna, where the study
of Law first attracted a crowd of earnest students, and then the
demand for broader education led to the establishment of other
faculties.
{22}
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