Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-17
A MEDIAEvAL UNIVERSITY.
Queer limitations Students Had to Go
Through With.

Queer limitations Students Had to Go
Through With.
The Rev. Hastings Rsshdalls In The Magnet.
The medieval student was often consid-
| erabIy younger than the modern under
graduate, sometimes, indeed, mere boy
of twelve or fourteen; bot even when that
was the case it is quite mistake to COM
pare his position to that of the modern
school bay. The mediaeTal student was to
a remarkable extent his own master Ar
irving at the university town in a carriers
cart he would often be met on the way by
touting masters, or scholars employed to
tout on their behalf, whe solicited his pres
ence at their lectures with all the accommo-
dating obSequiouSness of a modern trades
man. He was free TO choose the lectures
which he might attend, and the hail in
which he would reside: and when he had
chosen it he found himself-n the early
middle ages-a member of a self-govern-
ing community which elected its own prin-
cipal, managed its own affairs and was
subject to no regulations except statutes"
of their own making. AS in the medieval
world generally there was much minute
regulation of private life, though the gov
eminent which enforced that regulation
was originally a highly democratic one.
But 1t is commonplace to say that
democracy Is often tyrannical. Before the
freshman, or bejannus from bes-J jaime,
yellow-bill unfiedged bird), could call him.
self a student there was an initiation to be
gone through He was made to pay his
footing" by entertaining his new comrades
probably all the inhabitants of his hall
at feast, and, further, there was a pain
full ceremony of some kind, which varied
with the taste and ingenuity of different
nationalties.
In Germany he had to go through the
ceremony of Overwhelmingly have the
horns of the supposed ferocious wild boars
removed with a saw, have his nose ground
at milestone and generally be drubbed and
licked into shape. In France the ceremony
was "purgatio." The freshman was sup
posed to be not beast to be tanned, but
criminal to be solemnly tried for the Of
Tense of 'bejannia-" This was done by the
infiiction of certain number Of blows with
a saucepan or book (libro super anum).
Elsewhere We hear of a ducking or wash
ing, or riding through the streets on
donkey. At oxford there was "tucking."
The victim had to sing or make speech in
the hall under pain of being "tucked'-i. e.,
having his lower lip cut over with thumb
nail carefully grown for the purpose. At
first this initiation was put down under
all sorts of penalties by university and
ecclesiastical authorities; then (as is usual
with bad customs) winked at and finally
enforced. 1t did not become extinct till the
latter part of the seventeenth century,
In the universities of Italy-and to some
extent of southern Europe generally-the
student was not only independent; he was
dominant In these universities, of which
Bologna is the type. the university itself
was formed by the students. They and
they alone formed the universities-the cor
poration, or guild-or rather (since the stu
dents Of different faculties had separate or
CARNATIONS, while the law students were
divided into utramontani and citramon-
tanD the universities. The masters were
not even members Of these guilds; they
formed a college of their own, which regu-
lated admission to the degrees, but they
had no authority over the student guilds.
The students elected the, rectors and other
officials, made the statutes and very often)
elected the professors or doctors. The lat
ter We're compelled to take an oath of ODE
dience to the student rectors and to the
student statutes, and the discipline thus
enforced was by no means nominal one.
The professor who required leave of abb
sence for single lecture was required to
get leave from his own students as we'll as
from the rector. He was heavily fined if
he was a minute late in beginning his lee
ture or if he continued it after the bell be-
gan which was the signal for its conclu-
sion. To enforce this latter regulation the
students were required, on pain of being
guilty or perjury, to run out and leave the
professor to address his remarks to empty
benches. There were similar fines for being
behind time in concluding the portion of
the task for which a fixed period had been
assigned, for skipping ga difficulty under
preteXt of dealing with 1t later on and for
Noncompliance with many other minute
regulations. In some Universities a COM
mittee of students known as the denuncia-
conduct of the professors and to keep the
rectors Informed Of their delinquencfes.
Moreover the professor was kept to the
mark by being subject to annual or ben-
NAL reelection. How did all this work?
As far as We can gather, extremely well.
The professors of the southern UNIVERSE
ties, everywhere elected either by the stu
dents themselves or by the city authorities,
who were wont to take counsel with the
representatives Of the Students were the
only professors who did not habitually cut
their work by devolving it upon their bach
elors. No doubt there We're plenty of idle
or sham students in the universities, but
the majority wanted to learn. We have an
instance of an action being brought against
a professor for refusing to lecture. But
then it must be remembered that in those
days athleticism was unknown. The cleo
ton of rector by the students in the
Scotch universities, which, strange to say,
was to some extent an imitation of Bo-
logna. is the last relic in all Europe of the
old medieval student uemocracies