The fame of Abelard led to an increase of masters and students at Paris and so paved the way for the establishment of the university there, later in the twelfth century. Paris soon became such a center of learning, particularly in theology and philosophy, that a medieval writer referred to it as "the mill where the world's corn is ground, and the hearth where its bread is baked." The university of Paris, in the time of its greatest prosperity, had over five thousand students. It furnished the model for the English university of Oxford, as well as for the learned institutions of Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.
UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA
The institutions of learning in southern Europe were modeled, more or less, upon the university of Bologna. At this Italian city, in the middle of the twelfth century, a celebrated teacher named Irnerius gathered about him thousands of pupils for the study of the Justinian code. [19] The university developed out of his law school. Bologna was the center from which the Roman system of jurisprudence made its way into France, Germany, and other Continental countries. From Bologna, also, came the monk Gratian, who drew up the accepted text-book of canon law, as followed in all Church courts. [20] What Roman law was to the Empire canon law was to the Papacy.
UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION
The word "university" [21] meant at first simply a union or association. In the Middle Ages all artisans were organized in guilds, [22] and when masters and pupils associated themselves for teaching and study they naturally copied the guild form. This was the more necessary since the student body included so many foreigners, who found protection against annoyances only as members of a guild.
DEGREES
Like a craft guild a university consisted of masters (the professors), who had the right to teach, and students, both elementary and advanced, who corresponded to apprentices and journeymen. After several years of study a student who had passed part of his examination became a "bachelor of arts" and might teach certain elementary subjects to those beneath him. Upon the completion of the full course—usually six years in length—the bachelor took his final examinations and, if he passed them, received the coveted degree of "master of arts." But as is the case to-day, many who attended the universities never took a degree at all.
THE TEACHERS
A university of the Middle Ages did not need an expensive collection of libraries, laboratories, and museums. Its only necessary equipment consisted in lecture rooms for the professors. Not even benches or chairs were required. Students often sat on the straw-strewn floors. The high price of manuscripts compelled professors to give all instruction by lectures. This method of teaching has been retained in modern universities, since even the printed book is a poor substitute for a scholar's inspiring words.