9. These schools were connected with the convents belonging to the order of St. Benedict, and served as the chief glimmering lights during the darkest period between ancient and modern civilization, in Europe. They flourished in Ireland, England, France, and Germany, from the sixth to the eleventh century. The teachers of these seminaries were called scholastici, and from them the scholastic philosophy derived its origin and name.
10. In the year 789, Charlemagne, king of the Franks, issued a decree for the improvement of the schools of his empire, and for increasing their number. Not only every bishop's see and every convent, but every parish, was to have its school; the two former for the education of clergymen and public officers, and the latter for the lower classes of people. This monarch instituted an academy of learned men, to whom he himself resorted for instruction, and whom he employed to educate his children, and a select number of the sons of the nobility and distinguished persons.
11. The encouragement which these schools had received from government was soon discontinued after the death of this monarch, and his school establishment declined like that of Alfred the Great, which was commenced in the ninth century, on a scale of equal liberality. The designs of the English monarch were frustrated by the invasions of the Danes.
12. In the mean time, the Jewish rabbis had schools in Syria and in Northern Africa, as well as in Europe, which contributed to the preservation of ancient learning. Arabian schools were also established, in the ninth century, by the followers of Mohammed, in their Eastern and African caliphates, and in their Moorish dominions in Spain. Through these institutions, the mathematical and medical sciences were again revived in Europe.
13. The cathedral and conventual schools continued, for a long time, the principal institutions for education in Europe; and from them proceeded many eminent men. By degrees the light of science began to shine more brightly; teachers of eminence appeared in different places, who collected around them a great number of scholars; and a new kind of schools arose, the heads of which assumed the name of rectores.
14. In Paris, several of these teachers gave instructions in various branches, but chiefly in rhetoric, philosophy, and theology. The schools thus collected under different masters, were, in 1206, united under one rector; and, on this account, the whole mass of teachers and scholars was denominated universitas. Universities, in other parts of Europe, arose in a similar manner, and some of them, about the same time. Those of Oxford and Cambridge, according to some writers, were established about the year 1200; and the two first of these institutions in Germany were founded at Prague and Vienna, the former in 1348, and the latter in 1365.
15. The division of the students into four nations was an essential feature in the early universities. It arose from the circumstance that the pupils coming from different countries, spoke different languages. Those whose language was the same or similar, would naturally associate together, and attend the instructions of the same teachers. This division into nations is supposed to have grown up at Paris, previous to the formal union of the several schools under one rector.
16. The first teachers, from whose exertions the universities originated, commenced their public instructions without permission from established authority. Subsequently, the state and university were careful to prevent all persons from giving lectures, who were not well qualified for the employment. Examinations were therefore instituted to determine the capabilities of students. Those who were found competent, received a formal permission to teach, accompanied with certain symbols in the spirit of the age.
17. The first academical degree was that of baccalaureus, the second, licentiatus; and the third magister. The last of these entitled the student to all the privileges of his former teachers, and constituted him one of the facultas artium—the faculty of the seven liberal arts, since called the philosophic faculty. The other faculties were those of theology, law, and medicine. The first of these was instituted at Paris in 1259, and the two last, in 1260. The faculties elected deans from among their number, who, with the procuratores, or heads of the four nations of students, represented the university. These representatives possessed the power of conferring degrees in the different departments of literature and science.
18. Among the public institutions of the early universities were the colleges, (collegia,) buildings in which students, especially those who were poor, might live together, under superintendents, without paying for their lodging. In some cases, they received their board, and frequently other allowances, gratis. These institutions were commenced at Paris; but here, as well as in other places, they did not continue the asylums of the necessitous only. In France and England, the buildings of universities are composed chiefly of these colleges, in which the students reside, and in which the business of instruction is mainly carried on.