became of minor importance: nor indeed was a Catholic Theology produced, until it came by a reaction against the Reformation. Thus, as the decidedly predominating character of this epoch, a meagre miserable formal dead system was the intellectual food administered at the Universities. An idea of the sort of instruction necessary for obtaining a degree in philosophy in the fifteenth century, may be gathered from the following Questions," which were proposed to candidates in the time of Henry V.:— 66 "Whether the cardinal virtues of Prudence, comparing future contingencies with present facts, regulates the acting of intellect, whereto rational desire is made harmonious? Whether a free rational energy, empress of impulses, lofty governess of morals, is crowned with the laurelled dignity of deliberate choice, as despotic mistress ?”* § 82. The Growth of the Native English Intellect. Dull and scanty intellectual attainments could not attract to the Universities the mind of a nation which was opening to widely different and more * Utrum futura contingentia Comparans ad præsentia Prudentia cardinalis Praxin regat intellectus, Cui concors est effectus Appetitus rationalis. Utrum potentiarum imperatrix Vis libera rationalis Ut domina principalis. worthy occupation. From the middle of the fourteenth century, and especially under Edward III., the cultivation of the native tongue went on, and the foundation of a national literature was laid, which soon drove out the French elements introduced at the Conquest. Let me point out but one eminent spirit, the poet Chaucer; a poet, to whom few of any time whatever come near, in manifold variety and versatility of talent and language; and more especially, in the mixture of frank simplicity with deep knowledge of the world. This is truly as a vein of silver in the cultivation of an individual or of a people. In other nations of Europe, on the Northern side of the Alps, a rude national literature sprung up, independently of, though simultaneously with, the scholastic philosophy: but they drooped and died together. Only in England do we see the cultivation of the national tongue rise in vigor, when the academic learning began to decay. The people seemed to rejoice that the life-blood of French letters was drying up, and the noblest spirits turned from the now mouldering Universities towards this new and youthful impulse. We may well believe that the Northern (or Saxon) element, when vanquished at the seats of learning by its Southern rival, put forth its strength in a new field, and fought for a nobler prize, the heart of the nation. The University became the more severed from public sympathy, the more the people awoke to the feeling that they were true-born Englishmen. M § 83. Rise of a National Spirit. Meanwhile also the Scottish wars had heightened the national consciousness of power, and yet more the wars under Edward III. and the Black Prince, and those under Henry IV. and Henry V.; heroes, who for a century together led the English armies to conquest. Native commercial companies likewise were formed, as early as the fourteenth century; and the Island-people, surely, though slowly, was assuming its natural possession,-the commerce of the world, and mastery by sea. Nor were the fearful convulsions of civil war which followed, so injurious, as might be supposed, to the national developement. Their chief effect was to ruin or extirpate the old nobility. whose blood flowed in torrents in the field of battle or on the scaffold, and whose estates were lost by confiscation or usury. In fact this proved rather advantageous to the ascendancy of the Saxon element. 84. The Universities dwindle into mere ecclesiastical schools. Henceforward, the laity cared little for the Universities, which thus became a mere clerical population. The diminution of numbers was so great, that (Wood informs us) out of two hundred schools which had once been filled, only twenty were in use in the year 1450: and in an academic detail of grievances, dated 1438, we read: "Out of so many thousand students, which are reported to have been here at a former time, not one thousand now remains to us." In a certain sense, we may say that the Universities relapsed into their primitive condition, as mere schools for Ecclesiastics; and the consequences of this must be farther detailed. § 85. Their doubtful position, half clerical, half lay. The Universities were never regarded as strictly ecclesiastical corporations. Amphibious indeed they were; for they were taxed with the clerical orders: but their orators appeared only on extraordinary occasions in the ecclesiastical councils, and then merely as representatives of the learning of the age. The Reformation made no change in this; as is clear from the fact, that their deputies sit in the House of Commons. But though they are thus non-clerical, their abandonment by the laity threw them back into dependence on the Church, and made their contact with it more frequent, and of greater importance. The ecclesiastical element became inordinately predominant within them, and of course stamped their whole being. Yet so far from thinking of replacing themselves under the guardianship of their Ordinaries, they sought to free themselves from the Archbishop of Canterbury, from the Convocation and even from the Papal Legates; and to place themselves in direct contact with the Pope himself. Nor was the endeavour unreasonable, when so many and diverse ecclesiastical corporations took part in the academic studies especially the Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustinians. The contests of the Universities with their Ordinaries, and their Archdeacons; with the Archbishops and with the Monastic orders, occupy no small place in their history at this period: but I must reserve an account of these matters for another place. On the whole however, the struggle wrought out a result altogether satisfactory to the Universities. § 86. State of the University Finances. At this period the Universities were undoubtedly poor. As early as the end of the thirteenth century they attained some small property in land and houses, beside money, books and other valuables; chiefly by presents and legacies. This source of income kept increasing after the middle of the fourteenth century: but on the other hand, those revenues kept decreasing, which were drawn from students and from all other matriculated persons, as well as from those who in any way came into the Chancellor's Court.* It is impossible to give * See Note (33) at the end. |