in addition to the long hours in the lecture room was spent in listening to endless disputations or participating in them. At Paris the statutes of 1215 introduced the Ethics of Aristotle, Dominance and in 1255 his Physics, Metaphysics and his treatise On the of Aristotle Soul were added. These works of Aristotle, previously interdicted at Paris, had been introduced somewhat earlier in other universities. Elsewhere some other introductory works on logic might be substituted. Up to the middle of the fifteenth century, Aristotle controlled the work of the universities. The study of logic dominated the trivium, and rhetoric was given no attention whatever. The study of geometry and astronomy had made some progress, especially in the Italian universities and in the University of Vienna. The work of the professional faculties consisted, likewise, in the study of a few fundamental texts together with innumerable commentaries upon them. The early university education was wholly an education An education of books, with a very limited selection in each particular of books, field, but still those that were looked upon as furnishing in the written word absolute and ultimate authority. It was directed much more to the mastery of form and the development of the power of formal speech, especially argumentation, than to the acquisition of knowledge, or to the pursuit of truth in the widest sense, or even to familiarizing the student with those literary sources of knowledge which, though lying within his grasp, were outside the pale of orthodox ecclesiastical approval. but did de velop effi ciency in debate THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY UNIVERSITIES. -The Political in political influence of the universities, both direct and indirect, fluence was marked. They furnished the first example of purely democratic organization. Freedom of discussion concerning political as well as ecclesiastical and theological matters here found its first home. While for the most part the sympathies of the universities would naturally be with the privileged classes, whose privileges they themselves had obtained, yet the university L Gave some protection to freedom of thought and of speech A stimulus lectual life often became the mouthpiece of the common people in opposition to king or priestcraft. The right of the university to a voice in the government, to a seat in the parliaments of France, England, Scotland, is a recognition of this political authority and of the fact that the university had become a great "estate." Questions of state and of controversy between state and Church, such as the divorces of Henry VIII of England and of Philip of France, were submitted to the arbitration of the universities. The university often spoke for the nation in opposition to the papacy. In one instance the king of France and the university compelled the pope publicly to recant his views and to apologize, and in another secured the deposition of the head of the Church. Largely through the influence of the University of Paris the great schism in the papacy and the "Babylonian Captivity were ended. In a similar way the university became an authority in the settlement of disputed doctrinal points, and in the determination of questions of heresy. In holding this balance of power, it tempered the extreme views of the papacy and especially of the papal representatives, -the friar bodies, and thus mitigated, if it did not entirely eliminate, the operations of the inquisition in the north of Europe. But it was in regard to the intellectual life, restricted, formal to the intel- and meager though this was, that the greatest influence of the university was exerted. Intellectual interests were now crystallized into a great institution, recognized as almost on a parity with Church, state and nobility. This interest and its resulting institutional organization were so reduced by the fifteenth century as to possess little more than formal life. Yet even then the university provided a retreat for the rare genius who kept alive the spark of real intellectual life and so maintained a home for the new intellectual spirit when it did come. However hostile it may have been during these centuries to innovation, to radicalism and to rationalism, yet in preserving the spirit of speculation the university kept alive the spirit of inquiry. And out of it came such men as Roger Bacon, Dante, Petrarch, Wycliffe, Huss, Copernicus, -the men who brought the modern spirit. § 6. CHIVALRY. EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL DISCIPLINE was an or ganization of an ideal secular society corre sponding to monasticism in the religious life NATURE AND ORIGIN OF CHIVALRY.-Chivalry repre- Chivalry sents the organization within secular society of those recognizing the highest social ideals and attempting to realize them through definitely established forms and customs. Chivalry was to the secular life what monasticism was to the religious life. It did not necessarily include all of the nobility, but only those who, definitely accepted the highest obligations of a social character. Knighthood and the chivalric character were not inherited as nobility was. The institution of chivalry represented the education which secular society received, and the training in knightly ideals and activities formed the only education of the members of the nobility. Like all education during the Middle Ages, this education was a discipline, both for the individual and for the social class; but the intellectual element in it was even slighter than in monasticism. The origin of chivalry is found in the character and customs of the Teutons, in the structure of later Roman society, and in the Christian Church. The Church directed the energies of the Teutons into particular channels and discovered to them in many of the teachings of Christianity a bond of sympathy between the Church and the worthier traits of character of the barbarians. THE IDEALS OF CHIVALRY form a very different conception of personal virtue from that of classical society and involve some radical modifications of the elements of the early Christian ideal. In speaking of the leader of the first Crusade, Cornish thus describes the knightly character, "We observe in them reckless courage, personal pride, and self-respect, courteous observance of the word of honor, if plighted according to certain forms, disregard of all personal advantage except military glory; and, on the other hand, savage ferocity, de Origin found in nature of survivals of Teutons, in Roman so cial structure, and in Christian ideals Strength and weakness of these ideals |