punction, that immediately from that hour he renounced all such engagements, and gave himself up wholly to the divine service. In consequence of the prescript of Honorius III. there were no professors of law in the University of Paris. In the Complutensian, Ximenes the founder took care, by a severe enactment, that there should be no place for such professors in after times. The same prohibition was maintained in Heidelberg, Prague, and other ancient academies of Germany.

Without taking any side in this question, one may observe that, in all countries where the modern philosophy prevails, the importance with which this profession is invested, is certainly not a little remarkable. At the same time it would be unjust to overlook the noble character which judicial learning and manners assumed in the ages of faith. History records of Anthony Roselli, that learned and eloquent lawyer of Arezzo, that he was never induced to defend a cause which even appeared to him unjust. In the chronicles of the middle age, lawyers sometimes appear invested with almost a saintly character. They are even assisted by visions. William Lydyngton being employed by the monks of Crowland to support some cause of theirs which was pending, saw in a vision by night, as he lay restless and concerned in reflecting upon the case, a certain reverend hero, clad in the garb of an anchorite, who desired him to take the refreshment of sleep, and added, that he would succeed in course of time. He concluded that it was St. Guthlake who had appeared to him, the patron of that abbey, who having been a great soldier, renounced the world and lived as a hermit in the fens.* It is impossible to regard, without awe and reverence, the solemn figure of Gothardus, rector of the law students, as he is represented on his tomb in the cloisters of the University of Pavia. Ranulphus, Bishop of Durham, in the days of the Conqueror, wrote a book entitled De Legibus Angliæ, which constitutes him the father of English lawyers. The clergy read in their office a sentence from St. Basil, that "fasting makes wise legislators.†" We have seen, that in the time of Charlemagne it was imposed upon those who administered the law. When the Catholic archbishops and bishops, and mitred abbots, sat in parliament, men like Chancellor Morton, who had studied the canon law and the law of God, who were spiritually wise, and when the nobles who assisted them,‚—some of whom, perhaps, could only set their cross for their signature, legislated for England in conformity to their principles, there were acts of parliament passed and laws enacted, which have stood, and will for ever stand to all posterity, as models of legislative wisdom. The men of our age imagine that it would be well to change them: they attempt it, fall into pitiable mistakes, involve things in confusion, and become justly objects of public derision for their pains.

Such is the general idea of the learning of the ages of faith which will result from a reference to their works. In the next chapter, the constitution and man

* Hist. Croylandensis in Rer. Anglic. Scriptor. Tom. I. 502.

Homil. I. de Jejun.

ners of schools, and the history of the rise of Universities, will still further devellop it, and can hardly fail to prove interesting and instructive.

CHAPTER VI.

HE institution of schools supported by public authority, in places secur

ed and set apart for instruction, was unknown to the ancient Greeks; and with the Romans, military glory for many ages excluded all study of the liberal arts, so that it was not till the end of the first century of the Christian era that public schools began to be maintained in Rome at the expense of the state. The school of Alexandria, in Egypt, was indeed of great antiquity. From the time of the Ptolemies it had been a seat of learning, boasting of that renowned museum founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, which contained an ambulacrum, a place for disputation, and a house in which the sophists and grammarians were lodged. Among the primitive Christians, it had become very celebrated. St. Jerome says, that from the time of St. Mark the Evangelist it had possessed ecclesiastical doctors. There the mathematics were also studied by the Christians, in order to assist the Church in the computation of the festivals. The Pagans themselves were induced to attend the lectures in the Christian school at Rome, near the baths of Titus. It was to a school of this description that the stoic Pantenus was indebted for his knowledge of the Christian religion, and afterwards he was placed at the head of the very school that had instructed him. St. Clemens of Alexandria used to boast that he had been a disciple of St. Pantenus, which he deemed a greater honor than to be a master himself. In the school of Alexandria flourished Origen, Heraclas, Dionysius, John pilónovos, and other learned Christian doctors. This celebrated school was destroyed about the end of the fifth century by the invasion of the Mahom

etans.

The school of Cæsarea-Palestina was also celebrated among the Christians. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, St. Basil the Great, and St. Gregory Nazianzen, who studied and taught there, rendered it illustrious: but of its duration we have no certain evidence. St. Basil, departing from Cæsarea to Constantinople, the school of the second Rome, soon became renowned, and here it is supposed was founded by Constantine a seat of letters, furnishing the first instance of a public academy en

dowed and instituted by authority. That of Rome was equally celebrated as was also that of Berytus, which three cities had the exclusive privilege of having lectures upon the Roman law. The college of Bangor in Britain was established by monks before the time of Constantine. Shortly after the death of Justinian, Berytus was overthrown by an earthquake, and a fire destroyed what had been saved from that ruin. The school of Constantinople lasted till the beginning of the eighth century, when it was extinguished by Leo the Isaurian. The school of Carthage also was spoken of by St. Augustin as the rival of that of Rome. That of Milan is celebrated for its library, and from St. Augustin having gone to it to teach rhetoric. In the fourth century a number of schools were founded in Gaul by the edict of Valens and Gratian. That in the town of Cleves was eminent, which it appears had existed in the third century, where an Athenian had taught. Marseilles retained its academy, which was so grandly described by Strabo and Cicero. The schools of Bourdeaux, Tholouse, Narbonne, and Treves, are expressly mentioned from the epoch of the fourth century; but the professors were only grammarians, both Greek and Latin, and rhetoricians, for no philosophers or professors of law were yet in Gaul.

Of ecclesiastical schools, the earliest that are mentioned are those of Rome, Alexandria, and Nisibe. Such schools were either public or conventual. In the beginning of the sixth century, Cassiodorus, who from a Roman senator had become a monk, lamented the deficiency of these, compared with the secular schools,* and ascribed it to the wars, which raged in Italy. Edessa was soon after celebrated for its ecclesiastical school. The conventual schools were episcopal and monastic. Of these the first instance is that of Hippo, founded by St. Augustin for the education of young clerics, as a seminary to supply priests to the Church. Muratori describes the desolation of Italy, in consequence of the ravages of the barbarous Goths and Longebards, who nearly destroyed all learning, excepting at Rome and Pavia. As a remedy for this evil, the parochial schools by the clergy became general throughout Italy in the fifth century, which institutions thence passed into Gall. Thus a council in Narbonese Gall, in 443, decreed as follows: "It pleases us that all priests, constituted over parishes, according to the custom which is so beneficially established in Italy, should have junior readers unmarried in their houses, whom they shall spiritually nourish, instructing them in the psalms and divine lessons, and in the law of God, that they may provide worthy successors for themselves, and receive from the Lord an eternal recompense." In Spain first arose the schools of cathedral churches. This was in the beginning of the sixth century. Children offered by their parents were here to be instructed under the eye of the bishop.‡ and to dwell under one roof.§ Yet the first Christian schools were always adjoining the cathedral, where was also the hospital for the sick and

*Præfat. ad lib. divinæ et humanæ lection. Concil. Toletano. II. Can. I.

+1 Can. Concil. Vasionensis, II.
§ Id. IV.

for pilgrims, and there science and mercy met together. justice and peace kissed each other.

The first schools of Paris were opposite Notre Dame, and adjoining the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois. In the time of King Robert, the Palatine schools, so called from their being near the palace of Thermes, were on the ascent of the hill of St. Geneviève. The schools of Rheims, under Hincmar, in the ninth century, were celebrated. Young men flocked there from all parts. These schools produced great bishops, abbots, and chancellors of France. His successor Foulques excited emulation by his example, for he did not disdain to study with the youngest clerks.* In the year 970, the famous monk of Aurillac in Auvergne, Gerbert, was placed at the head of these schools, and king Robert, son of Hugues Capet, was sent to study under him by his mother Adelaide. Under Guy de Chatillon the youth of the city were also instructed, by the masters of the cathedral school, in the holy scriptures and in the ecclesiastical computation. At Lyons I saw, adjoining the cathedral, a very ancient building, called the manécanterie. It was the cathedral school, erected by Leydrade the archbishop in the eighth century. The name is derived from mane cantare, to sing matins, for it was here that boys were instructed in the chant. In the eleventh century we find St. Maiolus, a young ecclesiastical student, repairing to Lyons as to the most eminent school, the mother and nurse of philosophy, as St. Odilo calls it.† It was king Ina who founded the English school at Rome. We read in the Saxon chronicle, that in the year 816 the school of the English nation at Rome, was destroyed by fire. Alfred was a great benefactor to it. The title of one of the great hospitals at Rome is derived from its proximity to this school of the Saxons. In the time of St. Bernard it was usual for some, even of monastic students, to be sent to Rome. St. Peter, the venerable abbot of Cluni in the twelfth century, sent some of his disciples to Pope Lucius, to whom he wrote in these remarkable terms : According to the will and command of your eminence, we direct from the bosom of Cluny's cloister these beloved brethren and sons to the common father, yea to our and their especial father; we commend them to apostolic piety. For the cause of God and by virtue of obedience they leave their native soil, repair to a foreign land, and seek not to fly from death itself, which the Roman air is accustomed to inflict so quickly upon our countrymen; so that like lambs they go to the sacrifice."

In the sixth century also arose the schools of the new family of the Benedictines, which spread themselves over the whole western church. Of these the school of the monastery in the island of Lerins became first most celebrated. This was founded by St. Honoratus, and it produced Maximus, Faustus, Hilary, Cæsarius, Vincent, Eucherius, Salvius, and many others. The school of

* Anquetil, Hist. de Rheims, I. 152.'

1 S. Petri ven. Epist. Lib. IV, 24.

Bibliothec. Cluniac. 282.

Seville in Spain was also renowned for having produced the great St. Isidore. Of this school Mariana says, "that as if from a citadel of wisdom many came forth illustrious both for probity of manners, and for learning."* Isidore gave this precept for all similar schools in Spain : "Cura nutriendorum parvulorum pertinebit ad virum, quem elegerit pater, sanctum sapientemque atque ætate gravem, informantem parvulos non solum studiis, litterarum sed etiam documentis magisterioque virtutum." Until the time to Charlemagne letters found an asylum in England, and especially in Ireland in the monasteries. Henry of Auxerre, in the life of St. Germain, which he dedicated to Charles the Bald, says, that the AngloSaxons used to resort unto the monks of Ireland, for the sake of learning, and that they received from them the manner of forming their letters; and Bede is a witness that in the year 664 " many of the noble and middle classes of England left their country and passed into Ireland, for the sake of divine reading, or of a more continent life, and some within the monasteries, others going about from cell to cell, delighted in receiving instruction from masters, all whom the Irish liberally received, giving them daily food without price, as also books and instructors gratuitously." Then returning home, they enriched their own country with learning.

Renowned schools and colleges were in the abbeys of Louth, of St. Ibar in the island of Beg Eri, on the coast of Wexford, in the fifth century, in the abbey of Clonard in Eastmeath, and of Rathene, in those of Lismore, Ross, and Bangor, of St. Mary at Clonfert, and in that of St. Ninnidius in the island of Dam-Inis in the Lake of Erne, and in the abbey of the isle of Immay on the coast of Galway.‡

At this time Theodorus, a Roman monk, sent by Pope Vitalianus came to Canterbury, where he was made archbishop, having for companion the abbot Adrian. These were both learned in the Greek and Latin. When Alcuin presided in the school of York, a crowd of scholars resorted thither from France and even from the farthest parts of Germany. St. Liudger was sent from Saxony to York to study under him, and remained there three years and six months. Tanner admits that the English monasteries, till the moment of their destruction, were schools of learning and education, and that all the neighbors who desired it might have their children taught grammar and Church music without any expense to them.§ In the abbey of Jumièges, where our Edward the Confessor was educated, there were many schools for the monks and for seculars, in which rich and poor were alike received, and the poor could send their children, because they were nourished at the expense of the monastery. In the monastery of St. Benedict on the Loire, there were at one time five thousand scholars. Two descriptions of colleges flourished within all the Benedictine monasteries, of which one was for lay youths.¶ The Scholasticus was the master of the school, who not only excelled in the science

* Lib. VI. Rer. Hispan. cap. 7.

Monast. Hibernic. 410.

Hist. de Jumièges par Deshayes.

Hist. Anglie. Lib. III. cap. 27.

§ Notitia Monastica, Pref.

Mabillon de Studiis Monast. I. cap. 11.