As their numbers continued to increase, people built churches and convents for them in all parts of the country. The master of the Priests' Hospital at Canterbury built them a chapel; Simon de Longeton, archdeacon of Canterbury helped them; so Henry de Sandwyg, and a certain noble lady, Inclusa de Baginton, who cherished them in all things, as a mother her sons.

Angnellus now set out upon an inspection of the different settlements, and, after pausing for a time at London, came on to Oxford, where, as things were promising and converts gradually coming in, he founded a community, over which he placed William Esseby as guardian of the house, which Ingeworth and Devonshire had hired. Adam of Ovonia joined the company, and then Alexander Hales, whom St. Francis, it is thought, admitted in the year 1219, as Hales passed through France on his way to England. Angnellus then conceived the idea of having a school of friars at Oxford, and built one near their house, which was taught by Doctor Robert Grostete, one of the most distinguished lecturers in the university.

And now Angnellus was instant in encouraging the brethren to attend the lectures, and make progress in the study of the Decretals and canon law; and as he found them very diligent, he thought he would honor them with his presence at one of their meetings, and see how they progressed; but when he arrived there, he was horrified, to hear that the subject under discussion by these young monks was whether there was a God!! Uteum esset Deus! Frightened out of his propriety, the good man exclaimed: "Alas! alas! simple brethren are penetrating the heavens, and the learned dispute whether there may be a God!" It was with great difficulty they calmed his agitation. He only submitted upon their promise that, if he sent to Rome for a copy of the Decretals, they would avoid such mighty questions, and keep to them.

The influence of the study of Aristotle was telling vitally upon the theology of the schools. At first his writings were studied through very imperfect translations made from the Arabic, with Arabic commentaries-then a mixture of Neo Platonism was infused, and the devotees of scholastic theology at Paris fell into such errors that the study of his works was prohibited by the synod of that place in the year 1209. Six years afterwards, this prohibition was renewed by the Papal Legate; but as men began to find that there was a great difference between the philosophy of Aristotle, filtered through Arabic commentators and Arabic translators, and Aristotle himself, a revival took place in favor of the Stagyrite, and Gregory IX., in 1231, modified the restriction.

A new era in scholasticism commenced; the two rival orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans, began to apply the Aristotelian method to theological questions; Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas taking the lead in the former order, in opposition to the teaching of Alexander Hales, the Franciscan, who learned at Paris. Bonaventura endeavored to amalgamate scholasticism with mysticism; but at length appeared John Duns Scotus, who lectured at Oxford, Paris, and Cologne, a Franciscan, and worthy opponent of the Dominican, Thomas Aquinas. We must not omit another distinguished member of the Oxford school who flourished at the same time, Roger Bacon, perhaps the most distinguished man of the age. He taught at Oxford. He, however, saw the prominent errors of the disputation of the times, and has left on record, in the preface to his Opus Majus, the following criticism, which is worthy of attention: "There never was such an appearance of wisdom, nor such activity in study in so many faculties, and so many regions, as during the last forty

years; for even the doctors are divided in every state, in every camp, and in every burgh, especially through the two studious orders (Dominicans and Fran. ciscans), when neither, perhaps, was there ever so much ignorance and error. The mob of students languishes and stupefies itself over things badly translated; it loses time and study; appearances only hold them, and they do not care what they know so much as what they seem to know before the insensate multitude." Again, he says: "If I had power over the books of Aristotle, I would have them all burnt, because it is only a loss of time to study in them, a cause of error and multiplication of ignorance beyond what I am able to explain." We must give Roger Bacon the credit of speaking more particularly of the wretched translations in use, though his view of Aristotelian philosophy was strangely confirmed centuries afterward by his still greater namesake, Lord Bacon, who said, after many years devotion to Aristotelianism, that it was "a philosophy only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man." Thus were ranged under two scholastic standards the two great orders of mendicant friars, the Dominicans and the Franciscans; the former called Thomists, and the latter Scotists.

In the year 1400, England maintained and included sixty convents; and at the time of the dissolution, the Franciscans alone of the mendicant orders had ninety convents in England, besides vicarships, residences, and nunneries.

To a generation of men who had heard no preaching, or, if any, nothing they could understand, the enthusiastic discourses of these men were like refreshing showers on a parched soil; for in the thirteenth century the sermon had fallen into such disuse, that an obscure and insignificant preacher created a great sen sation in Paris, although his preaching was rude and simple. Both doctors and disciples ran after him, one dragging the other, and saying. "Come and hear Fulco, the presbyter, he is another Paul." The Franciscans diligently cultivated that talent, and from the general favor in which they were held by nearly all classes of the community, especially by the common people, we may conclude that the style they adopted was essentially a popular and engaging style, in direct contradistinction to the scholastic discourses delivered at rare intervals from the pulpits of the churches. Then, a Franciscan mingled amongst the poor; he, too, was poor, one of the poorest, and the poor saw their condition elevated to an apostolic sanctity; his raiment was coarse like theirs; his food also as coarse, for it was their food shared often with him at their own tables; they sat at his feet and listened to him, not in trembling servitude, as at the feet of one whom they had been taught to regard with superstitious awe, but as at the feet of a dear brother, one of themselves, who had hungered with them and sorrowed with them.

Then, the Franciscan preached everywhere—at the street corner, in the fields, on the hill-side; his portable altar was set up, the sacrament administered to the people, and the gospel preached as in the old apostolic times, by the river. side, in the high roads and by-ways, under the bare heavens. No wonder that they won the hearts of the degraded populations of the countries in which they settled, that the poor ran to them and flocked round them, and that the good and great were soon drawn over to their side; it was the revival of apostolic simplicity, and as the excited crowds were swayed under their fervent eloquence, and tearful eyes were turned up to their gaze, it was like the miracle in the wilderness, the rock had been smitten, and the waters gushed forth.

THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

INTRODUCTION.

We begin our account of the University of Oxford with a few paragraphs in which Sir William Hamilton, in an article in the Edinburgh Review (1830) republished with additions, in a separate form, and now issued in his collected Essays and Discussions, has sharply defined the distinction between the University proper and the Colleges, and opened a controversy which is not yet ended, and which has already modified, by parliamentary statute, and the action of the University Commissioners, and the Heads of Houses, the relations of the University and the Colleges. To the historical discussion of the relation of the Colleges to the University by Sir William Hamilton, we shall add portions of a chapter from Dr. Newman's Rise of Universities, which exhibits the advantages of the College system in respect to the domestic life of the student.

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE COLLEGES.

Oxford and Cambridge, as establishments for education, consist of two parts of the University proper, and of the Colleges. The former, original and essential, is founded, controlled, and privileged by public authority, for the advantage of the nation. The latter, accessory and contingent, are created, regulated, and endowed by private munificence, for the interest of certain favored individuals. Time was, when the Colleges did not exist, and the University was there; and were the Colleges again abolished, the University would remain entire. The former, founded solely for education, exists only as it accomplishes the end of its institution; the latter, founded principally for aliment and habitation, would still exist, were all education abandoned within their walls. The University, as a national establishment, is necessarily open to the lieges in general; the Colleges, as private institutions, might universally do, as some have actually done-close their gates upon all, except their foundation members.

The Universities and Colleges are thus neither identical, nor vicarious of each other. If the University ceases to perform its functions, it ceases to exist; and the privileges accorded by the nation to the system of public education legally organized in the University, can not, without the consent of the nation-far less without the consent of the academical legislature-be lawfully transferred to the system of private education precariously organized in the Colleges, and over which neither the State nor the University have any control. They have, however, been unlawfully usurped.

Through the suspension of the University, and the usurpation of its functions and privileges by the Collegial bodies, there has arisen the second of two systems, diametrically opposite to each other.-The one, in which the University was paramount, is ancient and statutory; the other, in which the Colleges have the ascendant, is recent and illegal.-In the former, all was subservient to public utility, and the interests of science; in the latter, all is sacrificed to private monopoly, and to the convenience of the teacher.-The former amplified the means of education in accommodation to the mighty end which a University proposes; the latter limits the end which the University attempts to the capacity of the

petty instruments which the intrusive system employs.-The one afforded education in all the Faculties; the other professes to furnish only elementary tuition in the lowest. In the authorized system, the cycle of instruction was distributed among a body of teachers, all professedly chosen from merit, and each concentrating his ability on a single object; in the unauthorized, every branch, necessary to be learned, is monopolized by an individual, privileged to teach all, though probably ill qualified to teach any.-The old system daily collected into large classes, under the same professor, the whole youth of the University of equal standing, and thus rendered possible a keen and constant and unremitted competition; the new, which elevates the colleges and halls into so many little universities, and in these houses distributes the students, without regard to ability or standing, among some fifty tutors, frustrates all emulation among the members of its small and ill-assorted classes.-In the superseded system, the Degrees in all the Faculties were solemn testimonials that the graduate had accomplished a regular course of study in the public schools of the University, and approved his competence by exercise and examination; and on these degrees, only as such testimonials, and solely for the public good, were there bestowed by the civil legislature, great and exclusive privileges in the church, in the courts of law, and in the practice of medicine. In the superseding system, Degrees in all the Faculties, except the lowest department of the lowest, certify neither a course of academical study, nor anv ascertained proficiency in the graduate; and these now nominal distinctions retain their privileges to the public detriment, and for the benefit only of those by whom they have been deprived of their significance. Such is the general contrast of the two systems, which we now exhibit in detail. Though Colleges be unessential accessories to a University, yet common cir cumstances occasioned, throughout all the older Universities, the foundation of conventual establishments for the habitation, support, and subsidiary discipline of the student; and the date of the earliest Colleges is not long posterior to the date of the most ancient Universities. Establishments of this nature are thus not peculiar to England; and like the greater number of her institutions, they were borrowed by Oxford from the mother University of Paris-but with peculiar and important modifications. A sketch of the Collegial system as variously organized, and as variously affecting the academical constitution in foreign Universities, will afford a clearer conception of the distinctive character of that system in those of England, and of the paramount and unexampled influence it has exerted in determining their corruption.

ORIGIN OF COLLEGES WITHIN THE UNIVERSITIES.

The causes which originally promoted the establishment of Colleges, were very different from those which subsequently occasioned their increase, and are to be found in the circumstances under which the earliest Universities sprang up. The great concourse of the studious, counted by tens of thousands, and from every country of Europe, to the illustrious teachers of Law, Medicine, and 1hilosophy, who in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries delivered their prelections in Bologna, Salerno, and Paris, necessarily occasioned, in these cities, a scarcity of lodgings, and an exorbitant demand for rent. Various means were adopted to alleviate this inconvenience, but with inadequate effect; and the hardships to which the poorer students were frequently exposed, moved compassionate individuals to provide houses, in which a certain number of indigent scholars might be accommodated with free lodging during the progress of their studies. The manners, also, of the cities in which the early Universities arose, were, for obvious reasons more than usually corrupt; and even attendance on the public teachers forced the student into dangerous and degrading associations. Piety thus concurred with benevolence, in supplying houses in which poor scholars might be harbored without cost, and youth, removed from perilous temptation, be placed under the control of an overseer; and an example was afforded for imitation in the Hospitia which the religious orders established in the University towns for those of their members who were now attracted, as teachers and learners, to these places of literary resort. Free board was soon added to free lodging; and

"Tunc autem," says the Cardinal de Vitry, who wrote in the first half of the thirteenth century, in speaking of the state of Paris-" tunc autem amplius in Clero quam in alio populo dissoluta (Lutetia sc.), tamquam capra scabiosa et ovis morbida, pernicioso exemplo multos hospites suos undique ad eam affluentes corrumpebat, habitatores suos devorans et in profun

a small bursary or stipend generally completed the endowment. With moral superintendence was conjoined literary discipline, but still in subservience to the public exercises and lectures; opportunity was thus obtained of constant dispu tation to which the greatest importance was wisely attributed, through all the scholastic ages; while books, which only affluent individuals could then afford to purchase, were supplied for the general use of the indigent community.

THE COLLEGE IN PARIS.

But as Paris was the University in which collegial establishments were first founded, so Paris was the University in which they soonest obtained the last and most important extension of their purposes. Regents were occasionally taken from the public schools, and placed as regular lecturers within the Colleges. Sometimes nominated, always controlled, and only degraded by their Faculty, these lecturers were recognized as among its regular teachers; and the same privileges accorded to the attendance on their College courses, as to those delivered by other graduates in the common schools of the University. Different Colleges thus afforded the means of academical education in certain departments of a faculty-in a whole faculty-or in several faculties; and so far they constituted particular incorporations of teachers and learners, apart from, and, in some degree, independent of, the general body of the University. They formed, in fact, so many petty Universities, or so many fragments of a University. Into the Colleges, thus furnished with professors, there were soon admitted to board and education pensioners, or scholars, not on the foundation; and nothing more was wanting to supersede the lecturer in the public schools, than to throw open these domestic classes to the members of the other Colleges, and to the martinets or scholars of the University not belonging to Colleges at all. In the course of the fifteenth century this was done; and the University and Colleges were thus intimately united. The College Regents, selected for talent, and recommended to favor by their nomination, soon diverted the students from the unguaranteed courses of the lecturers in the University schools. The prime faculties of Theology and Arts became at last exclusively collegial. With the exception of two courses in the great College of Navarre, the lectures, disputations, and acts of the Theological Faculty were confined to the college of the Sorbonne, and the Sorbonne thus became convertible with the Theological Faculty of Paris. During the latter half of the fifteenth century, the "famous Colleges," or those "of com plete exercise" (cc. magna, celebria, famosa, fumata, de plein exercise), in the Faculty of Arts, amounted to eighteen-a number which, before the middle of the seventeenth, had been reduced to ten. About eighty others (cc. parva, non celebria), of which above a half still subsisted in the eighteenth century, taught either only the subordinate branches of the faculty (grammar and rhetoric), and this only to those on the foundation, or merely afforded habitation and stipend to their bursars, now admitted to education in all the larger colleges, with the illustrious exception of Navarre. The Rue de la Fouarre (ricus stramineus); which contained the schools belonging to the different Nations of the Faculty, and to which the lectures in philosophy had been once exclusively confined, became less and less frequented; until at last the public chair of Ethics, long perpetuated by an endowment, alone remained; and "The Street" would have been wholly abandoned by the university, had not the acts of Determination, the forms of Inceptorship, and the Examinations of some of the Nations, still connected the Faculty of Arts with this venerable site. The colleges of full exercise in this faculty, continued to combine the objects of a classical school and university; for, besides the art of grammar taught in six or seven consecutive classes of humanity or ancient literature, they supplied courses of rhetoric, logic, metaphysics physics, mathematics, and morals: the several subjects, taught by different profes' A free competition was thus maintained between the Colleges; the princidum demergens, simplicem fornicationem nullum peccatum reputabat. Meretrices publicæ, ubique per vicos et plateas civitatis, passim ad lupanaria sua clericos transeuntes quasi per violentiam pertrahebant. Quod si forte ingredi recusarent, confestim eos Sodomitas, post ipsos conclamentes, dicebant. In una autem ut eadem domo, scholæ erant superius, prostibula inferius. In parte superiori magistri legebant, in inferiori meretrices officia turpitudinis exercebant. Ex una parte, meretrices inter se et cum Cenonibus [lenonibus] litigabant; ex alia parte, disputantes et contentiose agentes clerici proclamabant.”—Jacobi de Vitriaco Hist. Occident. cap. vii.)-It thus appears, that the Schools of the Faculty of Arts were not as yet established in the Rue de la Fouarre. At this date in Paris, as originally also in Oxford, the lectures and disputations were conducted by the masters in their private habitations.

sors.