New-York tribune., 1900-01-28
A MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY.
QUEER INVITATIONS STUDENTS HAD TO
GO THROUGH WITH-RULES FOR
STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS.

! The medi9val student was often considerably
younger than the modern undergraduate, some
| tlnes, indeed, mere boy of twelve fourteen;
Dut even when that the case it is quite j.
| mistake to compare his position to that of the
modern schoolboy. The medieval student
| 10 a remarkable extent his own master Arriv-
| ing at the university town in a carriers cart he
would often be met on the way by touting mas
| ters' or scholars employed to tout on their be-
half who solicited his presence at their lectures
with all the accommodating obsequiousness Of
! a modern tradesuan. He was free TO choose the
| lectures which he might attend and the hall in
! which he would reside; and when he had chosen
| it he found himseIf-in the early Middle Ages
q member of a self-governing community which
elected its own principal, managed its own af-
| fairs, and was subject to no regulations except
/ statutes of their own making As in the
/ medieval world generally there was much mi
mute regulation of private life, though the gov
| ernment which enforced that regulation
| originally highly democratic one. But it IS a
/ commonplace to say that democracy is often ty
rannicaL Before the freshman or bejannus
| (from bes-jaune, yellOW-bill unhedged bird),
could call himself student, there was an
| initiation to be gone through He was made TO
/ pay his footing by entertaining his
| radeS-probably all the inhabitants of his hall
at a feast and further there was a painful
! ceremony of some kind, which varied with the
| taste and ingenuity of different natiOnaItics.
In Germany he had to go through the care-
mOny Of 'Depostion'-namely, have the horns
/ Of the supposed ferOCiOus wild bOars removed
| with a saw, have his nose ground at a whet-
stone and generally be drubbed and licked into
/ shape. In France the ceremony was a "PUr-
/ gatio"; the freshman was supposed to be not n
! beast TO be tanned. but criminal to be sOlcmnly
! tried for the offence of ''belannia'; this was
done by the lnfIctIon or q certain number or
/ blows with a saucepan or book Qibro super
! anum). Elsewhere we hear of a ducking or
I washing, riding through the streets q
/ donkey AT Oxford there was "tucling'; the
/ victim had to sing make a speech in the hall
/ under main of beins ..tucLei - i . having mis-
/ lower lip cut with a thumbnau carefully
| grown for the purpose. At first this Initiation
was put down under all sorts of penalties by uni
| usual with bad custons) Wlnked at, and finally
| enforced 1t did not become extinct till the
| latter part OF the seventeenth century.
In the universities of ItaIy-and TO some extent
! of Southern Europe generaIly-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 stu
| dents. They, and they alone, formed the uni
! Versites-the corporation. gud-Or rather
! (since the students of different faculties had
! seTarate organizations, while the law students
| We're divided into I-ItramOntani and Citramon-
| tarD the Universitates. The masters were not
| even members of these guilds; they formed a col
! Iege of their own which regulated 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 doc
tors The latter were compelled TO take an oath
| of obedience TO the student reCtOrs and to the
student statutes, and the discipline thus en-
forced was by no means a nominal one.
/ The professor who required leave of absence
for single lecture required to get leave
from his own students as well as from the rec
tor. He heavily fined if he minute
late in beginning his lecture or if he continued
it after the bell began which was the signal for
the students were required, pain of being
/ guilty of perjury, TO out and leave the pro-
| fessor 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
! difficulty under preteXt of dealing with it later
on, and for noncompliance with many other
minute regulations. In some universities n
nttee of students known as the denunciatOres
! doctOrum was appointed TO watch the conduct
| of the professors and to keep the TectOUs in
! formed of their delinquencies. Moreover the
! professor was kept TO the mark by being subject
/ to annual or biennial reelection. How did III
! this work? AS far can gather, extremely
/ well.
The professors of the Southern universities
! everywhere elected either by the students them
! selves or by the city authorities VINO were won.
| to take counsel with the representatives of the
students were the only professors who did not
| habituaIly cut their work by devOlvng it upon
| their bachelors. No doubt there plenty of
! idle or sham students in the universities. but
| the majority wanted to learn. We have in
| stance of an action being brought against pro-
| fessor for refusing to lecture. But then it must
| be remembered that in those days athetiCisTn
| was unknown. The election of a rector by the
| students in the Scotch universities. which.
| strange to say, was to some extent imitation
| Of Bologna is the last rehc in all Europe Of the
! old mediRVal student demOcracies.