The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-04
A MEDIAEVAL UNIVER sITY.
Queer limitations Students Had to Go
Through with.

The Rev Hastings Rashdall in the Mag.
net.
The medieval student was often consd-
erably younger than the modern under
graduate, sometimes, indeed, a mere boy
of u or IA; but even when that was the
case it is quite a mistake TO compare his
position to that of the modern schoolboy.
The medieval student was to a remark
able extent his own master. Arriving at
the university town in a carriers cart,
he would often be met on the way by
toutins masters, or scholars employed 10
tout on their behalf, who solicited his
presence at their lectures with all the
accommodating obsequiousness of a mod
ern tradesman He was free to choose the
lectures which he might attend and the
han in which he would reside; and when
he had chosen it he found himsef-in the
early Middle Ages-a member of a self
governing community which elected its
own principal, 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 government which enforced
that regulation was originally a highly
democratic one. But 1t is d Commonplace
TO say that democracy is often tyranni-
cal Before the freshmen, or bejannus
Qrom bes-j jaime, yellow-bll, unfiedged
BIRD, could call himself a student there
was an Initiation to be gone through. He
was made to pay his footing by enter
tanning his new comradeS-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 nationalities.
In Germany he had to go through the
ceremony of Deposition namely, have
the horns of the supposed ferocious wild
boars removed with a saw. have his nose
ground at a milestone, and generally be
drubbed and licked into shape. In France
the ceremony was a "Purgatio;" the
freshman was supposed to be not a beast
to be tanned, but a criminal to be solemnly
tried for the offense of "beiannia;" this
was done by the inhictlon of certain
number of blows with a saucepan or book
(ibro super anum). Elsewhere we hear of
ducking or washing, or riding through
the streets on a donkey. At Oxford there
was "tucking;" the victim had to sing
| or make a speech in the hall under pain
of being tucked j. e., having his lower
lip cut over with a thumbnail carefully
grown for the purpose. Al first this in-
tiation was put down under all sorts of
penalties by university and ecclesiastical
| authorities; then las is usual with bad
customs) winked at, and finally enforced.
/
| 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 universties-the
corporation, or guild-or rather (since the
students of different faculties had separate
| organizations. while the law students were
| divided into Ultramontani and Citramon-
| tanD the Universitates. The masters were
not even members of these guilds; they
| formed a college of their own which regl1-
| 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 Of
| ten) elected the professors or DOCTORS The
| latter were compelled TO take an oath Of
| obedience to the student rectors and to
| the student statutes, and the discipline
| thus enforced was by no means a nominal
! one.
| The professor who required leave of OBJ
| sence for single lecture was REQUIRED to
| get leave from his own students as we'll
| as from the rector He was heavily fuef
| IL he was minute late in beginning his
| lecture or if he continued ii after the bell
| began which was the signal for its con-
| ciusion. To enforce this latter regula-
| ton the students were required, on pain
of being guilty of perjury, to run out
and leave the professor to address his re-
marks TO empty benches. There were
! similar fines for being behind time in CON
| Guiding the portion Of the task for which
| q fixed period had been assigned, for ship
| ping a difficulty under a preteXt of deal
| ing with it later. ON, and for. non-compn-
| ance with many other minute regula tons
| In some universities a committee of stu
dents known as the denunciatores docto.
rum was appointed to watch the conduct
| of the professors and to keep the rectors
| informed of their delinquencies. Moreover,
| the professor was kept to the mark by be-
| ing subject to annual or biennial re-elec-
| ton. How did all this work? As far as
| we car gather, extremely well
| The professors OF the Southern universe
ties, everywhere elected either by the
| students themselves or by the city authori-
| ties, who were wont TO take counsel with
| the representatives. of the students were
| the only professors who did not habtual-
| iy cut their work by devolving Il upon
| heir bachelors. No doubt there were
plenty of idle or sham students in the uni
versities. but the majority wanted to
| learn We have an instance Of an action
| being brought against O professor for re-
| fusing to lecture. But then it must be re-
| membered that in those days atheticism
| was unknown The election of rector
| by the students in the Scotch universi-
| ties, which, strange to say was to some
| extent an imitation of Bolonga, is the
| last relic i'm ell Europe OF the old mediae-
val student democraces.
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