[509] The rector at Paris was head of the faculty of arts.
[510] Equivalent to bedel. All mediæval universities had their bedels, who bore the mace of authority before the rectors on public occasions, made announcements of lectures, book sales, etc., and exercised many of the functions of the modern bedel of European universities.
[511] John Addington Symonds, Wine, Women and Song: Mediæval Latin Students' Songs (London, 1884), pp. 1-3.
[512] Symonds, Wine, Women, and Song, pp. 5-20 passim.
[513] This is the only indication of the name of the place where the suppliant student was supposed to be making his petition.
[514] St. Martin was the founder of the monastery at Tours [see [p. 48]].
[515] "Honest folk are jeeringly bidden to beware of the quadrivium [see p. [339]], which is apt to form a fourfold rogue instead of a scholar in four branches of knowledge."—Symonds, Wine, Women, and Song, p. 57.
[516] That is, as a sacrifice.
[517] The father's name was Pietro Bernardone. As a cloth-merchant he was probably accustomed to make frequent journeys to northern France, particularly Champagne, which was the principal seat of commercial exchange between northern and southern Europe.
[518] Aspiring to become a knight and to win distinction on the field of battle, Francis had gone to Spoleto with the intention of joining an expedition about to set out for Apulia. While there he was stricken with fever and compelled to abandon his purpose. Returning to Assisi, he redoubled his works of charity and sought to keep aloof from the people of the town. His old companions, however, flocked around him, expecting still to profit by his prodigality, and for a time, being himself uncertain as to the course he would take, he acceded to their desires.