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ABBREVIATIONS, ETC.

Two names connected by a hyphen denote the author and the editor: e. g. Wood-Gutch, Baker-Mayor, denote respectively Wood's Annals of Oxford, edited by Gutch, and Baker's History of the College of St. John the Evangelist, edited by professor Mayor.

A smaller numeral added to that of the volume or page, e.g. Iv', 375, denotes the edition to which reference is made.

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ERRATUM.

p. 282, note 2, for collegium trilingue at Louvain,' read 'university of Louvain.'

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P. 228, 1. 5, for 'adjourning' read adjoining.'

P. 235. 'John Hotham.' I have done Hotham some injustice in omitting to notice that it was he who (see p. 253) appropriated Hinton to Peterhouse.

P. 236, 1. 7, for 1350' read 1348.'

P. 255, 1. 7, for 'seven' read 'eight.'

P. 282, n. 2, foundation of the collegium trilingue at Louvain,' for collegium trilingue at' read 'university of.' Louvain, however, was created a faculty of theology in 1451, and may thus afford an illustration of Thurot's argument, though not at its first foundation.

P. 394. 1. 9, for 'Greek instructions' read 'fresh instructions.' for Pallas de Strozzi' read 'Pallas de' Strozzi.' is but' read 'but is.'

P. 398, last line,

P. 411, 1. 2, for

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P. 445, ll. 11-12, omit the words 'property once in possession.'

P. 464, 1. 29, fororaturarum' read 'oraturorum.'

P. 630, 1. 12 from bottom, for 'geography' (thus printed in Cooper) read

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P. 670, (Index), for Linacre, Wm.' read 'Linacre, Tho.'

INTRODUCTION.

THE thirteenth century embraces within its limits an eminently eventful era in European history. It was an age of turbulence and confusion, of revolution and contention, wherein, amid the strife of elements, it is often difficult to discern the tendencies for good that were undoubtedly at work, and where the observer is apt to lose sight of the real onward progress of the current as he marks the agitations which trouble the surface of the waters. But that a great advance was then achieved it is impossible to deny. The social, the religious, and the intellectual life of Europe were roused by a common impulse from comparative stagnation. The Church, threatened by its own degeneracy, took to itself other and more potent weapons; scholasticism, enriched by the influx of new learning, entered on its most brilliant phase; oriental influences, the reflex action of the Crusades, stirred men to fresh paths of thought; and England, no longer regarded as a subjugated nation, grew rapidly in strength and freedom. To this century the University of Cambridge traces back its first recorded recognition as a legally constituted body, and refers the foundation of its most ancient college, and, in the absence of authentic records concerning her early history, it becomes especially desirable to arrive at a clear conception of the circumstances that belong to so important a commencement. It will accordingly be desirable, in this introductory chapter, to pass under review the leading features of education and learning in those ages which

INTRODUCTION.

INTRO preceded the university era; to trace out, as far as may

DUCTION.

Schools of

Empire.

be

conducive to our main purpose, the habits of thought and traditional belief that necessarily found expression in the first organisation and discipline of the universities themselves; to estimate the character and direction of those innovations which the universities inaugurated; and in order to do this, however imperfectly, we shall find it necessary to go back to that yet earlier time which links the civilization of Paganism with that of Christianity.

The university age commences in the twelfth century; and it is a fact familiar to every student, that nearly all learning had up to that period been the exclusive possession The Imperial of the Church. In the third and fourth centuries indeed the the Roman traditions of Roman culture were still preserved in full vigour in Transalpine Gaul; Autun, Trèves, Lyons, and Bordeaux were distinguished as schools of rhetoric and their teaching was ennobled by many an illustrious name; but with the invasion of the Franks the imperial schools were swept away, and education when it reappeared had formed those associations. which, amid so many important revolutions in thought and the decay of so many ancient institutions, have retained their hold with such remarkable tenacity and power up to our own day. The four centuries that preceded the reign Commence of Philip Augustus have been termed, not inaptly, 'the Benedictine Benedictine era'. In the monasteries of that great order, Era. which rose in the sixth century, was preserved nearly all

ment of the

that survived of ancient thought, and was imparted whatever still deserved the name of education. It is important to remember to how great an extent the monasticism of the West was the result of the troubles and calamities that ushered in the fall of the western empire. The fierce asceticism of the anchorites of the East found no place in the earlier institutions associated with the names of the most illustrious of the Latin Fathers. The members of those humble communities which were found in Rome, Milan, and Carthage, were men seeking refuge from the corruption,

1 Léon Maitre, Les Ecoles Episcopales et Monastiques de l'Occident, p. 174.

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