into disuse and indeed were superfluous, while the disputations retained their life. In the same manner was the Bachelor's degree afterwards raised into an academic dignity; and when it was thus become pre-requisite to the degree of Master or Doctor, the latter naturally assumed the character of a second and higher degree.

We cannot here enter into the details of a fluctuating system; nor into the etymology of technical terms, into the primitive meaning of ceremonies, nor into the history of fees, presents, and treats, which the candidates were to give per fas aut nefas.* The changing sense of terms involves harassing difficulties, which cannot be investigated in this work. But we have reason to believe that up to the end of the twelfth century the title of Bachelor denoted merely a scholastic step; after the middle of the thirteenth, exclusively an academic dignity. In the interim, there was irregularity and it must be kept in mind, that the elevation of the Teachers into a corporate ruling body, preceded the developement of the academic dignities.

* Bulæus is ample on the subject. Meiners thinks that much may be said upon all the points.

15. Separation of the Faculties.

We proceed to an important subject; the formation of the Faculties. Not to enter into minutiæ concerning the form which they assumed, their substantial nature resulted directly out of the materials of knowledge then existing. The new philosophy had grown insensibly out of the old, especially out of the dialectics of the Trivium. The Quadrivium also was retained, but fell into a lower place; its four sciences becoming mere preparatory studies to the Facultas Artium.* It is remarkable, that these positive branches of the old studies, though neglected in comparison with the speculative ones, coalesced with them in common opposition to the practical studies of Jurisprudence and Medicine. These last were not admitted, as in the circle of artes liberales. Their principal roots were long fixed beyond the scholastic pale, except in the Italian Universities: and though they afterwards were as it were grafted into the main stem, they still remained subordinate. The sciences auxiliary to medicine had indeed no small connexion both with the studies of the Quadrivium and with the prevailing dialectics; yet a separation of Law and Medicine from Arts, was unavoidable; and these formed two new Faculties. It was otherwise with Theology. As a science, it had unfolded

* Also called Facultas Philosophica, from the preponderating tendency. [On the Trivium and Quadrivium, see the Note in p. 4.]

itself entirely out of the old studies, and could not be severed from them; and had not the coming-in of Canonical Law evolved new materials, Theology might perhaps not even have constituted a separate Faculty. In other places the Jurists sought to keep possession of Canonical Law; but in Paris, they were weak and the Theologians, by seizing upon it, first separated themselves from the students in Arts. This separation was promoted by the zeal of the mendicant orders for the rights of the Pope, against those of the Empire; but the origin of it lies much farther back.*

Etymology suggests that the word Faculty primitively meant ability to teach in one branch; and then was applied to the authorized teachers of it collectively. Such bodies of Teachers did arise, in separate branches, by the same process as in the general stem; namely by their co-operation to examine those who were candidates for the Licentia. With the progress of learning, separate schools for each branch had become necessary, and separate examinations by the special Teachers. We have however no documentary history of these changes. We must suppose that at first, a Teacher of Medicine or Law obtained, from the Chancellor direct, a licence to open a school: certainly no Teacher of Arts could have claimed to examine him. But when scholars had sprung from the first schools, and a body of Teachers arose; the right of * See Note (1) at the end.

D

examination in their own branch would naturally fall to them and such a body is as fitly called a Facultas, as Teachers in Arts a Universitas Literaria.

The farther corporate developement of the Faculties need not occupy us. (In Oxford and Cambridge it never went so far as in Paris.) Nor can we here investigate the relation of the Faculties to one another and to the nations.

16. On the preeminence of ARTS in the University.

So surpassing was the preeminence of Arts, embracing, as it did, all the old sciences and the new philosophy; that it is even questionable whether the Term Facultas is strictly applicable to the Masters of Arts, who are properly the Universitas. The studies of Law and Medicine grew up by the side of Arts, but never gained strength to compete with the last nor has the principle ever been attacked, that the University has its foundation in Arts. Yet this apparent preeminence concealed a real inferiority. The Students in Arts always maintained (more or less successfully) that their studies were an indispensable preparation for the Faculties. What else was this, but to assign to the Arts a lower position, as being merely preliminary? The great superiority in age and in other external circumstances, on the part of students and graduates

in the Faculties, led to the same result; for some of the graduates in Arts were mere boys. But the final settling of these matters varied with place, and with the relation between the Faculties and the Nations. In Paris, the sympathy of studies and of age between the Masters of Arts and the Nations, developed a democratic spirit in the former, in opposition to which the Faculties came forward as a natural aristocracy of the elder men. Their precedence was at first but honorary; the formal rights being vested in the Arts, from which were elected the Proctors of the Nations and the Rector. But when, with these officers, the Deans of the higher Faculties were united in administration, and the Doctors* also of the Faculties gave their votes in the Assembly of the Masters of Arts; a new Universitas in fact arose, out of the old Universitas and the Faculties conjoined. For a while, the old University did not rank as a Faculty of Arts coordinate to the other Faculties: for the Students in Arts represented the nations; and voting by Corporations in the Assembly, they had practically four votest instead of one. after the fourteenth century, the occasion for the national state was lessened, and the system gave way. The scientific state assumed the ascendant, and the other Faculties did all they could to elevate

But

* This word was once identical with Magister, Teacher; being applicable to every branch alike.

[There were four Nations in the University of Paris.]