"They affirmed that the English were drunkards and had tails; the sons of France proud, effeminate and carefully adorned like women. They said that the Germans were furious and obscene at their feasts; the Normans vain and boastful; the Poitevins traitors and always adventurers. The Burgundians they considered vulgar and stupid. The Bretons were reputed to be fickle and changeable, and were often reproached for the death of Arthur. The Lombards were called avaricious, vicious and cowardly; the Romans, seditious, turbulent and slanderous; the Sicilians, tyrannical and cruel; the inhabitants of Brabant, men of blood, incendiaries, brigands and ravishers; the Flemish, fickle, prodigal, gluttonous, yielding as butter, and slothful. After such insults from words they often came to blows." (Pa. Trans. and Repts. from Sources, vol. II, no. 3, pp. 19-20.)
[17] In an American university the term college or school has largely replaced the term faculty; in Europe the term faculty is still used. Thus we say College of Liberal Arts, or School of Law, instead of Faculty of Arts, etc.
[18] For example, one of our modern state universities is organized into the following faculties, schools, and colleges:
(1) college of liberal arts; (2) school of medicine; (3) school of law; (4) school of fine arts; (5) school of pure science; (6) college of engineering; (7) college of agriculture; (8) school of history, economics, and social sciences; (9) school of business administration; (10) college of education; (11) school of household arts; (12) school of pharmacy; (13) school of veterinary medicine; (14) school of library science; (15) school of forestry; (16) school of sanitary engineering; (17) the graduate school; and (18) the university-extension division.
[19] "He was called 'The Philosopher'; and so fully were scholars convinced that it had pleased God to permit Aristotle to say the last word upon each and every branch of knowledge that they humbly accepted him, along with the Bible, the church fathers, and the canon and Roman law, as one of the unquestioned authorities which together formed a complete guide for humanity in conduct and in every branch of science." (Robinson, J. H., History of Western Europe, p. 272.)
[20] This tendency increased with time, due both to the development of secondary schools which could give part of the preparation, and to the increasing number of students who came to the university for cultural or professional ends and without intending to pass the tests for the mastership and the license to teach. Finally the arts course was reduced to three or four years (the usual college course), and the master's degree to one, and for the latter even residence was waived during the middle of the nineteenth century. The A.M. degree has recently been rehabilitated and now usually signifies a year of hard study in English and American universities, though a few eastern American institutions still play with it or even grant it as an honorary degree. In Germany the arts course disappeared, being given to the secondary schools entirely in the late eighteenth century, and the universities now confer only the degree of doctor.
[21] For a list of the books used in the faculty of medicine at Montpellier, in 1340, see Rashdall, H., Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, vol. II, pt. I, p. 123; pt. II, p. 780.
[22] After the latter part of the thirteenth century the book-writing and selling trade was organized as a guild industry, and the copying of texts for sale became common. Then arose the practice of erasing as much of the writing from old books as could be done, and writing the new book crosswise of the page. In this way the expense for parchment was reduced, and in the process many valueless and a few valuable books were destroyed. Still, the cost for books during the days of parchment must have been high. Walsh estimates that "an ordinary folio volume probably cost from 400 to 500 francs in our [1914] values, that is, between $80 and $100."
[23] In Germany the old mediaeval expression has been retained, and the announcements of instruction there still state that the professor will "read" on such and such subjects, instead of "offer courses," as we say in the United States.
[24] Norton, in his Readings in the History of Education; Mediaeval Universities, pp. 59-75, gives an extract from a text (Gratian) and "gloss" by various writers, on the question—"Shall Priests be Acquainted with Profane Literature, or No?" which see for a good example of mediaeval university instruction and the manner in which a small amount of knowledge was spun out by means of a gloss.