CHAPTER IV. THE "NATIONS" (OF NORTHERNMEN AND 39. Limits of time within which the NATIONS appear at the Universities. The system of Nations, which we explained to be party-associations of the students, according to their different places of birth, sprung up in the English, as well as in the Continental Universities, as an order of things congenial to the wants of the age. We may suppose the Nations to have existed in Oxford soon after the beginning of the twelfth century; in Cambridge, after the beginning of the thirteenth.* No regular history of them is possible; for we meet with only incidental allusions to their contests, and to their bloody skirmishes. We know * See Note (18) at the end, for evidence that the date assigned by Meiners is erroneous. nothing of their constitution, rights, and laws, except that they were, in fact, if not in legal form, expressly recognized as communities, at least by and in the University, up to the end of the fourteenth century. At the beginning of the seventeenth they were becoming gradually obsolete. An occasional authority was vested by them in some of their more eminent members to provide for order and to treat for peace; as is mentioned in 1252, 1267, and 1274. Their only permanent authorities were the Two Proctors; but although the functions of these two officers are well ascertained, it is not certain in what relation they stood toward the Two Nations, except that they were elected by them for two years. When the nations kept holiday,* all sorts of disorders would break out, calling for severe discipline and new legislation but little besides is known of them. Nor is it safe to appeal to the University of Paris, and supply by analogy all that we wish to know concerning Oxford; for even the Faculties, based as they were on the same studies and the same state of knowledge, had developed themselves very differently at those two Universities. How much more easily may this have happened in regard to the nations, which were composed of materials originally different at Oxford and at Paris. Throughout the fourteenth century and especially in the first half of it, the nations are mentioned, by * See Note (19) at the end. the names of Northernmen and Southernmen, as continually taking a part in riotous exploits. Even in the fifteenth century, we hear of crimes committed by Irish and Welsh vagabonds, called Chamberdekins,* who pretended to be scholars; but nothing further is stated distinctly of the nations till 1506 and in 1587, we hear of them for the last time. The vast decrease of numbers, and the importance of the Colleges, had long since brokenup the system: in fact, so great a fusion of the North and South of England had taken place, that no materials existed for the distinction of two nations at the University. Yet in 1540 the Proctors are still discriminated by the names of the nations; nor does the new method of electing them by the Colleges appear till 1626. We may believe that in the time of transition there had long been irregularities and uncertainty: at least, that the Nations, from inward feebleness, ceased to elect, before the right of electing was formally lodged in other hands. It may indeed seem doubtful, whether the conflicts of Northernmen and Southernmen, mentioned in 1587 after a full century of inaction, were not a new phenomenon under an ancient name. At any rate this geographical distinction of students disappeared in the Universities with the sixteenth century. * [Cameris degentes, i. e. living in private lodgings.] § 40. The four NATIONS at Paris, and their The University of Paris had far more of a European than of a French character, as to the elementary bodies which composed it. It comprised four Nations, viz. French, English, Normans, and Picards; the French containing as Provinces (or subdivisions) Frenchmen, Provençals, Gascons, Spaniards, Italians, and Greeks. Under the English Nation were ranked the British and Irish, Germans and Scandinavians. The third Nation had no subdivision. The fourth comprised Picardy, Brabant, and Flanders. Races so opposed, socially and politically, could not cohere in any durable organization, with one another, and with the common population around them. It would have been impossible to admit the University of Paris into any close political and social relation with the nation at large. Nor indeed was the case very different in the other Continental Universities.But although foreigners often came to the English Universities for the advantage of study, they were never recognized as integrant parts of the scholastic organization. Its two nations were wholly native, except that the Southernmen generally included the Irish and Welsh, while under the Northernmen were comprehended the Scotch.* * See Note (20) at the end. § 41. Contrast of genius between Northern and Southern England. In a philosophical survey, one may be allowed to remark on the analogy borne by these two nations to the grand European contrast of Germanic to Romanic races. Not to dwell on the physical geography of the British Isles minutely, nor to embarrass ourselves at present by the-still not insignificant-out-lying masses of the Celtic population; we may remark that the tribes north of the Mersey and Humber were mainly Germanic, while in the southern portion of Britain the Normans and the Romanizing Anglo-Saxons predominated. The contrast of the two elements continues almost to this day; indeed thirty years ago, the Scotch and English were as strange to each other's feelings, as Germans to Dutch.* Yet a fusion of the two began at a very early period, in consequence of the wars with Scotland, and afterwards with France; so that a new or English nationality developed itself. But southern Scotland still stood aloof, and maintained a far purer Germanic character; (for it is now well known not to be Celtic ;) moreover the mass of the English people, in contrast to the nobles, must be regarded * Without giving due weight to such considerations no sound history can exist. Yet it is going into the opposite extreme G to explain the history of modern France by the mixture of the conquerors and conquered in the French population. |